PASTORS’ PEN (from our 06/30/13 bulletin) I greet you in the Name of Jesus, bothers and sisters. Last week’s sermon called on us to consider our passion and commitment to serving God. We looked at 2 Kings 2:1-14. This passage offered us a backdrop for looking at some lessons to be learned from the life of Elisha. These lessons were intended to enable us to keep the fire of passion for God burning in our lives and in our ministries. It should be clear to all of us desiring to be followers of Christ that God has called us to be engaged passionately in service to others. Three times Elijah tried to send Elisha away. But Elisha refused to be dismissed. He refused to be distracted. Three times Elisha’s reply was, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you”. God had called Elisha to a mission and he planned on fulfilling it passionately. It is very easy to become distracted when trying to fulfill the mission that God has given us to do. Every one of us is a missionary and every missionary has a mission. This mission gives us intentionality and purpose. The person with a mission has no moments to waste. You must ask yourself the question, “What is it that God is calling me to be passionate about?” Receiving your answer from the Holy Spirit will lead you ask yourself what are the things in your life are causing you to be distracted from the mission that God has given you. What is it that causes us to get tired of ministry? What is it that enables Christ-followers to disengage from important ministries that are so needed in the Kingdom of God? I have found that people can often distract us from being passionate about our calling. Listen, the very people we are trying to help can often drain us of our spiritual passion. There are five kinds of people that affect our spiritual passion: · The Resourceful People: They Ignite our Passion. · The Important People: They Share our Passion. · The Trainable People: They Catch our Passion. · The Nice People: They Enjoy our Passion. These four groups have a positive influence on our passion. The fifth group is: · The Draining People: They Sap our Passion. You know who they are. These kinds of people will always be with us and believe it are not, they are needed because they teach us patience and what our limits are. Listen my friends: if there is only one thing we should learn about the mission aspects of the life of Jesus, it should be the “principle of spiritual renewal”. Jesus showed us that we must get away from others and spend time alone with our Heavenly Father. As we engage in ministry, we must spend time with God for strength and renewal. Sometimes, we get so busy doing God-stuff that we forget to take time to keep up our passion for the Living God that we are serving. Therefore, we must spend time with God and we must spend time doing what God has called us uniquely to do. Dedicate yourselves to serving God as only you can and you will never ever regret it. Jesus gave His all for us; we can give our time, talent and treasure to Him. Somebody ought to say AMEN! …….Senior Pastor Bob Owens His Gospel Ministries, Inc. © 2013; All Rights Reserved
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 06:20:56 +0000