Ministry; What Hurts The Most!

Ministry; What Hurts The Most!

This entry will be less informative and more personal. As a minister for over a decade now I have many memories, happy memories, sad memories, memories of elation, pain, joy, turmoil, hurt, gladness, betrayal, defeat, victory, salvations, laughter, celebration, anger, remorse, regret, grace, forgiveness, reconciliation, separation, I've felt the pain of lies, I've rejoiced in accomplishment and on and on I could go. 

I've been betrayed by men who were partners in leadership, lied about, talked about, and it HURT! But, I got over it. I can forgive, move on, love unconditionally. The pain lasted for season but it mended.

I've been let down by many, many, many people in ministry who said "preacher, I will do it." Every time someone says they will and they commit with their word and then they don't follow through IT HURTS! It creates loneliness and bitterness for a season but I move on. I forgive,  I forget, and I march on.

I've been disrespected, pushed aside, and treated as a door mat. I am just like every other man but when someone shows me the respect of referring to me as Pastor or preacher it lights a fire in me, it encourages me, it fuels me, it solidifies my purpose and when I'm not respected in that way I say it doesn't matter but my heart says something else. It HURTS. My nature is to bury it, tell myself I'm unworthy of the respect, then I forgive, I forget, and I move on.

I've been held to an unattainable standard and when I reveal the truth that I'm fallible and testify of God's grace in that, I've been ridiculed and I've told that I'm too open, that no one will respect a preacher that's so transparent and IT HURT! You guessed it, I forgave, I forgot, and I moved on.

My wife has been talked about, lied on, and overlooked for the former pastor's wife. I got angry, IT HURT but guess what we did.... We forgave, we forgot, and we moved on.

Ministry has it's share of sacrifices, pains, valleys, disappointments, hurts, and struggles but for me personally there is one thing that hurts the most. I know it's different across the spectrum for each person in ministry but for me the one thing that cuts so deep, creates the most fear, causes the deepest disappointment, is the heaviest burden, and steals and suffocates my sense of purpose in Christ is the feeling of being ineffective! You preach, you study, you serve, you give, you sacrifice, you lead, you teach, you disciple, you push, you encourage, you train, you give everything that you are and when you look around you feel so ineffective! If I'm completely transparent, this is exactly where I am right now. From scripture I find that the avenue to be the most effective is not behind the pulpit but by what people see in your life. Do you live what you preach? As an elder I am called to be an ensample, my children in the faith follow me as I follow Christ, is what the Apostle Paul said. I have tried to model many things to many people yet when you are lost in this feeling of inadequacy you tend to feel like Elijah when he hid in the cave after Mt. Carmel, you feel all alone in the fight, that no one else cares, and you just want to give in and lay it all down. Now, I know the scriptures, I know that's not the case, I know Isaiah preached his whole life with no "success" but he was still effective and successful because he was obedient to God and successfully fulfilled God's plan according to God's will but I'll be the first to say I don't like it! Lol. I know that the Gospel saves those who believe it and condemns those who resist it, it's accomplishing God's will but in my heart, in my soul, all I want is for the people around me to grow, to know God so intimately, to understand their purpose in Christ, to walk completely in the Spirit and when I feel as if what I am saying and living is falling on deaf ears IT HURTS, MORE THAN ANY OTHER MINISTRY HURT, IT HURTS THE MOST! It sucks the zeal, the drive, the passion, and the devotion right out from under you, it suffocates the fire of evangelism and discipleship! This past Sunday morning I preached on the importance of Church and Community to a good size crowd, I gave them the Word of God and I gave them my heart. I passionately laid the warning out for all to hear, just to come back to the night worship with just a hand full of people present. Talk about pain, talk about hurt, talk about loneliness, that's the place. You try to model a positive spirit yet the person is critical, you try to model maturity and humility yet the person remains arrogant and immature, you attempt to model leadership yet the person remains scared and insecure, you attempt to model confidence in Christ and the person remains unsettled, you attempt to model reliance on the scriptures not experience and the person continues to place the latter above the other, you try to model loyalty and commitment yet the person remains nominal, disconnected, uninvolved, and uncommitted. IT HURTS! This is my honest plea, if your Pastor and the vision of your church is leading you by biblical example then follow, follow well and watch your Pastor and his passion grow, watch people get saved, watch the church grow, what the world change! 

I pray this helps someone, I've laid my heart on this screen today and I will forgive, I will forget, and by the Grace of God I will continue on in the fight! God bless!

What Is Worship?

What Is Worship?

Now that's a mouthful of a question. A question that evokes a myriad of definitions and responses. All across church history and biblical history this seems to be the age old question. If we dig in to the question though we will find that it is typically skewed. What people are really asking is, where do we worship, how do we worship, when do we worship, what do we wear to worship, does it have to include music, instruments, singing, preaching, charity, etc. At the inner most place in our heart we ALL know the essence of worship. Even before any person is regenerated and saved by grace we not only know what worship is but we do it, all the time, just not correctly. 

Remember that I said this was even a question in biblical history, even Jesus had to deal with this very question! Lets look at John 4. Jesus is on his way to Galilee from Judea and he has to go through Samaria to get there and as he rests at Jacob's well in Samaria a Samaritan women came to that well and Jesus engages her in conversation. See, the dispute at that time was "where" to worship.

John 4:19-24 NASB

¹⁹ The woman *said to Him, “^[d]Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus *said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. ²⁴ God is ^[e]spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Christ squashes all the external questions. God must be worshipped in Spirit and Truth! God is seeking for those who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth! What does that mean? How does that work out in our present reality?

I was listening to a sermon this morning and the Pastor was talking about how years ago he was watching a Michael Jackson concert on television and as the camera panned out to see the crowd what he saw was crazy. I remember seeing similar video of Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. What we saw among the crowd was a mass of thousands of people completely mesmerized, completely fixated, wholly engaged by them. Some were so lost in the moment that they seemed to be in a trance, completely fixated on the artist. With artists of such magnitude we saw women crying, people fainting, screaming, no inhibitions, no distractions, nothing else outside of that moment and the truth that someone they exalted was in their presence mattered! You know what they were doing? Worshipping Michael, worshipping Elvis! It wasn't real worship because only God is worthy to be praised but in our natural sense of the word they were guilty of worshipping an idol!! They worshipped a man who knew them not, would never do anything for them, would never know their name, struggles, pains, questions, and story. Yet we have the opportunity to worship Christ the Lord but choose dead, rehearsed, scheduled, dry "worship."

From the Hebrew and Greek words that we translate in English to worship they revolve around position(demeanor) and action. From to prostrate, to bow, to reverence, servitude, sacrifice, and slavish surrender. 

Jesus says to authentically, fully, and genuinely worship God we MUST do it In Spirit and In Truth! Let's dive into that.

How do we worship(bow, reverence, serve, act, emote) God in Spirit? First, for one to truly worship God they MUST be indwelt with the Holy Spirit thus they are born-again children of Almighty God. But that's not all. The deeper, more broad understanding of the Greek word here that is used in this quotation presses into the deepest part of a man, his soul! It's often defined as the vital principal by which the body is animated. The rational spirit, the power by which the human feels, thinks, decides. The disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul. The efficient source of our power, affection, emotion, and desire! When we worship God it must express the supernatural realm in the disposition, actions, posture, words, and relationships of the physical reality we are bound to! Our senses engulfed by the beauty, majesty, holiness, graciousness, and love of God! In worship we will be focused, sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His unction, blinded by the Grace of God, and we will be so moved that it WILL express itself in our actions, our service, our posture, our emotions, our sacrifice, our reverence, our everything! 

Secondly, we are commanded by Christ that we MUST worship God in Truth. How do we worship God in truth? The Spirit ALWAYS points to Christ who is the Word in flesh, the TRUTH! The only way we can be moved to such passion, reverence, fear, humility, excitement, devotion, actions, service, sacrifice, and joy it that we know the truth of God's Word! Many today cannot worship because they know not the truth! They have all the passion, excitement, and emotion but no truth, that's not true worship! The other side to understanding this prescription of worship in truth is authenticity. Real, true, right, not taught, bought, or fake. Not emulation, not obligation, not performance, to merely emotion but a true reaction in your soul to what you know is true about God as revealed in scripture!

Many try to worship with truth alone. Liturgy, rituals, songs, service, and programs with no Spirit! Conversely, every Sunday by the droves millions make there way to a place where they attempt to worship with vain oblations, emotions, entertainment, motivational speeches, and awesome bands yet truth isn't anywhere to be found! This is why it imperative to pray in the spirit, drown yourself in the truth of the scriptures and marry the two in meditation! You'll never truly worship otherwise!

It's the essence behind the expression!

It's a beautiful marriage between the heart and the mind, the soul and the spirit, the physical and the supernatural, passion and expression, the communion between God and man.

An expression of the truth of God by the Spirit of God in the physical world.

The direct expression of our ultimate purpose for living, to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Isaiah 6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Isaiah’s Vision

6 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The ^[a]whole earth is full of His glory.”

⁴ And the ^[b]foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the ^[c]temple was filling with smoke. ⁵ Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷ He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is ^[d]forgiven.”

Isaiah’s Commission

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Here, in the presence of God in the midst of Heavenly worship Isaiah is humbled, amazed, speechless, encouraged, fearful and reverent, repentant, forgiven, empowered, called, commissioned, and sent. Real worship motivates, encourages, humbles, creates reverence, changes our hearts, our demeanor, and our direction, demands us to listen, repent, and proclaim the majesty of God! 

We have the opportunity to truly worship!

Romans 12:1-2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Dedicated Service

12 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, ^[a]acceptable to God, which is your ^[b]spiritual service of worship. ² And do not be conformed to this ^[c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may ^[d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and ^[e]acceptable and perfect.

Here we have the command and the foundation to perform it. 

Hebrews 12:22-24 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of ^[a]angels, ²³ to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴ and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

Every time we truly worship God in Spirit and in truth we join the corridors of Heaven in a majestic symphony of praise, honor, glory, reverence, majesty, and exaltation of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! It's transcendent!

It will move us, excite us, humble us, cause us to fear in reverence, repent in humility, and sing praise in joy through salvation! Emotion and truth married in expression and action!

I'll leave you with William Temple's definition of worship....

"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His Beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin" 

“Absence!” - #2 “The Absence Of Scripture!”

“Absence!” - #2

“The Absence Of Scripture!”

Text: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (KJV)

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:

⁵ And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

⁶ And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

⁷ And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

⁸ And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

⁹ And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

** I want us to look at important aspects of the Christian life and what it looks like and means when these things are absent! **

** If there was one thing that I could point to that is lacking amongst self -professing Christians it would be Scripture! The retention of it, the reading of it, the knowledge of it, the understanding of it! **

** Yet we are commanded to read it, study it, love it, cherish it, search it, and teach it! **

** The Bible is filled with warnings to not forsake it, commands to live by it, and promises to be encouraged by it! Yet, we don’t follow! **

** If you quizzed your children on biblical knowledge then secular knowledge, which one will they know more of? Which one do you know more of? **

** Scripture is what we base EVERYTHING off of! Our Epistemology(How we know what we know) as born-again Christians MUST be the scriptures! Not experience, feelings, dreams, visions, teachings, etc.! These ALL must be filtered through the word as well as life in it’s entirety yet we’re lacking because we fail to cherish the Word! **

Hosea 4:6-7 (KJV)

⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

⁷ As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

The King of Israel broke down when the high priest found the book of the law!

2 Kings 22:8-13 (KJV)

⁸ And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.

⁹ And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord.

¹⁰ And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.

¹¹ And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.

¹² And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king's, saying,

¹³ Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.

** This is the correct response to God’s Holy Word! **

1)                   What It Creates -

a.)  Doubt

How can you believe what you do not know?

How can you trust what you don’t understand?

How can you trust a God that you don’t know who he really is?

b.) Heresy

Most heresy comes from the misquoting and misrepresenting of single verses of scripture!

Most Christians believe lies because they think they remember it in the Bible!

Lack of truth is the only environment that can breed lies and heresy!

c.)  Disobedience and Punishment

You can’t obey what you don’t know!

Ignorance isn’t an excuse!

Acts 17:30 (KJV)

³⁰ And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

d.) Ignorance

Many people speak of that which they do not know!

You do not know what you believe until you have to defend it and you cannot defend it without scripture!

Many people falsely claim to know Christ yet in reality they know a Christ that doesn’t exist because they don’t know the scriptures which proclaim and illuminate the real divine Christ!

e.)  Legalism and Liberalism

The lack of scripture will ALWAYS make you unbalanced and faulty to one side or the other!

Lacking the inspiration or the continuity and harmony of scripture leads in these directions and you can’t know that without the full text!

f.)   Guarantee for failure!

Without scripture you will ultimately fail in being a true Christian!

You can’t even be saved without it! Romans 10! You can’t believe without knowing, the preacher can’t preach without knowing THE SCRIPTURES!

g.)  Prime opportunity for Satan to deceive!

Satan’s version of what God “said” is very persuasive! Ask Adam!

Satan cannot defeat the man who has hid the Word of God in his heart!

** The Word of God is the foundation upon which all things consist for Christ is the Word and he is also the creator by which all things consist! The absence of scripture is the absence of everything good! **

Psalm 119:105 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁰⁵ Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

2 Timothy 3:16 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁶ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Romans 15:4 King James Version (KJV)

⁴ For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

2 Timothy 2:15 King James Version (KJV)

¹⁵ Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Isaiah 55:11 King James Version (KJV)

¹¹ So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Jeremiah 23:29 King James Version (KJV)

²⁹ Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Matthew 24:35 King James Version (KJV)

³⁵ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Hebrews 4:12 King James Version (KJV)

¹² For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Psalm 19:7-11 King James Version (KJV)

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

⁸ The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

⁹ The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

¹¹ Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

Matthew 22:29 King James Version (KJV)

²⁹ Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

** Can we see the worth, the necessity, the infinite need for the presence of scripture in our hearts, minds, and lives? **

2.) What It Proves -

a.)  Our allegiance to Christ!

If you love me keep my commandments! Where are the commandments?

We can’t love whom we don’t know! If Christ is the Word and we say we love Him then logically we MUST love and know the Word! Otherwise we’re lying to ourselves!

b.) Our lack of understanding its purpose, power, and preeminence in the life of one who says they are a follower of it!

It’s purpose is to unveil the Christ, to show the perfect imprint of God himself to the believer! It’s purpose is to justify and sanctify us, warn us, encourage us, reprove us, rebuke us, exhort us, unify us, SAVE US!

It’s power is infinite! Tearing down strongholds, divisions, doubts, fears, schisms, sins, and principalities of this world! It’s the only source of knowledge for the believer and knowledge is power!

It’s preeminent! First, foremost, foundational, complete, replete, sufficient, efficient, inerrant, infallible, inspired, and the perfect representation of God in His revelation unto man!

c.)  We aren’t really serious about knowing God and the depths of His grace!

Your commitment to reading, learning, studying, and memorizing scripture is a direct outworking of your commitment, love, and thankfulness unto God the Father and our Lord and savior Jesus Christ!

When you became serious about your spouse you learned them! You cherished them! You chased them! Yet, we profess but never possess!

His love letter to you sits on a shelf and never enters the heart of his beloved! What a travesty!

In Closing:

We know nothing without the revelation of our God through scripture!

Our zeal for the Word is directly related to our love and thankfulness towards Christ!

Without it, we die spiritually and eternally!

Matthew 4:4 King James Version (KJV)

⁴ But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.