Monday, October 4

Double Edged Sword

I love my former senior pastor...he was a good preacher. Even after 30 years, his preaching was still relevant, full of truth, and able to cut to the core.

Since he's been gone, we've had several guest pastors come in along with our elders, to oversee the preaching rotation. In order to maintain some "normalcy" in the pulpit, our elders have decided that we are doing to do a series on Timothy. I have been so challenged by these sermons.

Week one: (I'm actually just now listening to this sermon since I was gone then.) This is on Acts 16, when Paul and Timothy first join. Timothy had the kind of characteristics and traits that Paul was looking for. He was a young man of character which was most likely seen in his day-to-day interactions with others.

Week two: This sermon was on I Timothy 1:1-11. The main thing I got out of this sermon was that the gospel message is going to offend. So often, I think I hold back from sharing anything about the Gospel because I don't want to offend others. However, that is going to happen to some people anyways. Better to share and offend than to always keep quiet and offend God by my disobedience.

Week three (yesterday): This sermon was on I Timothy 1:12-20. This was on my call to ministry...my call to service. It was one of those sermons where it felt like it was written and preached just for me. While I have a lot of uncertainty over my future and career and destination...the only thing I have been certain of all along is that God has called me into ministry. The main thought here was that in order for God to call me into service, I need to be called to Him first. Any ministry I will have will stem from my relationship with God. This means I need to feed and enrich my relationship with God first and foremost.

I realise these are all fairly common insights but I needed to be reminded of these lessons. God first, in all things. God first, over the risk of offending others. God first, as the sanctifier of my character. And God first, with ministry as an extension of that relationship.

Amen and Amen!

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