5 Questions the Pastor Must Ask God and Themselves

Posted on December 2, 2017 by Biblical Guy

The Church exists by what Christ has done for us in and for His Glory!

5-questions-pastors

“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;  Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock. ” I Peter 5:1-3

The 5 questions that the pastor must seek to God and themselves is this:

  1. How can I grow and live out the truths of Scripture and God’s will in society?

  2. How can I lead the people God brings me with His Word and Fruit?

  3. How can I minister effectively to my neighbor in all of life’s situations?

  4. What is my role and what are the gifts in my life? How do I please God with them?

  5. How do I glorify Christ in all that I do?

If the minister of a church cannot or refuses to be introspective of honestly evaluating what they think their call is and compare it to what Christ has actually called them too, they can’t possibly minister or lead a church effectively! For what we do with our self-directive call is lead by our whims and pride. In the actual call of Christ, we lead as he has called and shown. So, to be an actual Christ honoring gathering and leading His people effectually, we must bow to His Lordship and not the ways of the self, our fallen nature or worse another’s false lead.

The baton has been passed—not the role of head equipper and minister of the Word and Sacraments, but the baton of the responsibility to care and to live out our faith effectively to one another. These are the questions we must all answer diligently with the Word of God, and then follow through with our will to conform. Christianity is no longer a spectator sport; we are not Monday night couch quarterbacks. We are the people of God, called to do His will.

When we start to function as a cohesive group, the local church will be amazing! Your people and even your neighborhood will be amazed at the impact we have and the incredible, increased effectiveness in the building of the Kingdom of God. God’s Word tells us that we have “diversity,” yet in it all, we also have “unity.” We are not to allow the diversity of people’s ideas and feelings to be our focus, but we need to embrace them, train it, and direct it to the call, the goal, and purpose our Lord has for us. We will have a healthy form of codependency in Christ and cooperate with the laity and leadership, filled with encouragement and love. If not? As a pastor and church growth consultant this is what I have seen too much of: Bitterness, strife, and the unhealthy codependency to fads and false flags of leadership that ruins lives instead of building them up will no longer consume the ministry.

We all have different gifts and abilities given to us by the Lord for His purpose and glory. “Doing ministry” means we have pastors and leaders who are growing in Christ, operating in the Faith and Fruit of the Spirit and making decisions based on what the Bible says and what is best for the church and neighborhood. Not, how to I build a legacy for myself, the pastor! Or follow meaningless trends. We are to exercise the gifts that we each have received to accomplish His purpose. And, until the Lord calls us home or comes back, we are to keep plugging and persevering in.

 

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Who is Greater in your Church?

Posted on March 25, 2017 by Biblical Guy

 John 13 15-17

 

“I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” John 13:15-17

 

 

Jesus clearly tells us what a leader is and how one should act and work.

Have you ever seen problems in a church because leaders’ even pastors make mistakes at the expense of their congregation because they did not undergo enough training beforehand?

How would you feel if Jesus stole your presumptions and false ideas, and replaced it with His Truth and the real intention that God has for you? Consider comfort and compliancy versus Ephesians 5:14 and the call to wake up.

How can we make sure that our ministry is not about what we want, but rather about following Christ as a showcase for others to see and follow? What can you do to make this happen?

The word “Servants” referred to slaves or hired workers. They were much like the butlers and maids we have today, except they were usually “owned” by another person. The point here is that even though there were different types of slaves and servants, Jesus is referring to where the authority lies, which is always with the master; the servant exercises his authority through the master’s authority as a representative and thus servants are subordinate to him. In context, this is a reminder to never forget who you are, a child bought and redeemed by Christ. Do not take yourself so seriously; instead, take Him seriously (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:28; Eph. 6:9; Phil. 2:7-8; Col. 3:11; 4:1).

 

Jesus clearly tells us what a leader is and how one should act and work. It is not about pride or power or control; it is about being a servant.

A pastor or a Christian leader must not be in leadership just to command or be in charge for any reason beside how do I teach and exhibit Christ and what is the best way for me to do this? Leadership must not be to satisfy one’s pride or desires, or for personal gain. Rather, we are to point others in His direction by our example. If pointing to Christ is not our goal or purpose, then we are in the wrong position. We must exit the church as fast as possible, drop to our knees, repent, and get right before God before reentering.

 

Leadership is all about Christ, not us or even our vision; it is purely and plainly how do I glorify and serve.

Just look how our LORD God, the Creator and Sustainer did. Jesus took a towel and washed His disciples’ feet. This can be an act we can simply use for a “Maundy Thursday” service (a “foot washing” reflection before Easter) and never give it much more thought. It is something where we may act more like Judas or Peter, missing its significance and refusing to apply it to our hearts, minds, and mission. If God, Creator of the universe, performed the lowest job in that culture-washing feet-then who am I to think I am better? Jesus is our example; we are never to think too highly of ourselves or buy into our own propaganda to perform tasks we are called and made for. 

Church leadership is not about a mission; rather, it is who the Mission is for and how He has called us to be within it. Our servant attitude is imperative!

 God desires to bestow upon us a significant favor and grace! The stipulation to this is we must be faithful to His Lordship! We do serve “the God who blesses us”-to be deeply happy and content because we are enjoying God and His special favor. There is a direct correlation between following Christ and receiving His blessedness and contentment, and following ourselves, pride, and evil to be self-destructive and miserable (Deut. 27:11-28:6; Jer. 1:11-12; Ezek. 36:24-27; Mic. 1:10-15; Matt. 5:3-11; John 3; 7:37-39; 1 Peter 1: 3-12).

 

Be blessed!

 

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Robbing God of our Opportunities?

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Biblical Guy

robbing-god

Some tough questions to make sure your church is aligned up to His true Truths and principles:

“Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue,…” Matthew 12: 9-21

What can you do to prevent robbing yourself of the opportunities God gives you?

Jesus went into their… church, what if it was your church?

To the Pharisees, Jesus robbed their bank and stole their possessions. To a point, He did, as He took away their presumptions and false ideas, and replaced them with the Truth and the true intention God had for them (Hos. 6:6; Micah 6:6-8). They did not want the Truth or what God had for them; they only wanted their postulations and their power to rule.

This brings us to, He went into our church…. Thus, the questions we have to ask ourselves are,

“Are we robbing God of the opportunities He tries to give us?”

“Do we mix them up with habits, pride and traditions?”

“Do we make grandstanding pretenses, showing off our faith while we have a heart full of soot?”

Do our passions line up with political agendas, or the precepts of His Word?”

Passion is paramount, but it has to be grounded in God’s Truth, not the ideas and desires of man. Seek initiative and inspirations from Christ, not from the traditions. Do not filter your faith and practice through the filter of traditions or habits. Rather, filter through the clarity of God’s Word!

As A leader in God’s House, what blocks Christ’s work in me from working and being exhibited in me?

We have been saved, not of any effort or reason on our part except by faith, so now what do we do with it? What do we do with it as a leader in God’s House? We are to take it to the streets in how we live to ourselves, others and even our enemies. Yet, most Christians, even us leaders, respond with a rear end firmly planted in a pulpit that goes nowhere in real effectual service or glory to Christ. Many of us hold on to a will that will not allow conviction or change in the routine or life. Thus, the church is just a club for comfort and not a “huddle” to strategize and put forward how to play the game of Christian life from receiving our orders from the Coach.

The questions we have to ask ourselves, are we ignoring our Lord? “Are we robbing God of the opportunities He tries to give us?”

“Do we mix them up with habits, pride and traditions?”  “Do we make grandstanding pretenses, showing off our faith while we have a heart full of soot?”  “Do our passions line up with political agendas, or the precepts of His Word?” Passion is paramount, but it has to be grounded in God’s Truth, not the ideas and desires of man. Seek initiative and inspirations from Christ, not from the traditions. Do not filter your faith and practice through the filter of traditions or habits. Rather, filter through the clarity of God’s Word!

Who is Jesus to you? What have you done with this knowledge? Do you see, feel, and know His Divine Fullness?

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Reverencing Christ

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Biblical Guy

awe-of-god

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…” Colossians 1:9-10

We must understand the importance of our reverence to Christ. We come before a holy God.

Jesus is not just a pal or friend or guide, He is our Savior and our Lord (2 Cor. 5:16; Rev. 2-3). A healthy church is all about who Christ is and what He has done. He is not just a Savior and/or best Friend; He gives us life, holds our lives, and will judge our lives. He is the One who overcame life and death for our benefit, and when we seek to run His church our way, we embarrass and dishonor Him and His Way. He has the keys in His hand, as the door to knowing Him and making Him known is only locked from our side. We have no need to fear our future when He is our Light, Guide, and Lord!

This understanding of Who Christ is will help us truly worship Him, and be people who are humble and be a church that, lives a life worthy, that He can use. 

One of the central themes of humbleness is if we do not do it, God will. God asks us to “humble yourselves” for the essential reason that if we do not, He will, and when that happens, it may just be too late. If we do not start to reform our churches to be as they were designed and destined to be, then it will be too late. The doors will close just as has already happened in most parts of Europe. The church once flourished there, but apathy and disease took over and now her pews sit empty in the midst of a confused and decadent culture. We cannot just visualize what a healthy church can and should look like; we must act on it to make it happen.

A healthy church is not just a question of believing in Christ, but being filled with the knowledge, of doing what He has called us to do with trust and obedience.

A healthy church is not about our comfort or what we can experience, but about being people of faith and maturity, bearing fruit, and being what we can be for His glory.

If you have spent any time at all observing churches, then you have seen what takes place. And, if you have spent any time in the Scriptures, then you know what Christ has called us to do. Many times, these two are in conflict. I have personally seen the results of what happens when we do, and when we do not follow our Lord, when we do not humble ourselves. So, the choice is up to us; we are given choices in life, options to follow. We can see for ourselves in the church that is worshipping the Lord, caring and loving one another, steeping itself in prayer, and reaching its neighborhood and world for Christ. Conversely, we can see the church that is full of strife and conflict.

The church that has given up its call to be in Christ and substituted it with their own inclinations and agenda results in people leaving the church, bitter and disillusioned. Too many Christians have traded their election of grace for advertisements of hostility, thus they have forgotten the main thing. As a result, the disillusioned world has confused the strife of Christians for the care of the Lord, thus seeing an uncaring God by seeing His uncaring people and leaders.

 

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Pointing the People to Christ

Posted on August 24, 2016 by Biblical Guy

pointing to Christ

 

“… That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” John 3:29-30 Continue reading →

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The Church that is Happening Now

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Biblical Guy

Whats Happening

This is what our research has gleaned of the church that is happening now:

  • We have a lack of Biblical imperative. We may say we are committed to God’s Word, but our spiritual formation, loose doctrine and behaviors show us a to be in breach (2 Tim. 3:16).
  • We have an empty faith, so concerned with what feels good and not what we need by God’s Word (1 Pet. 2:2)!
  • We have a too low view of God’s Sovereignty, we belittle to Him as a mere ‘friend’ and forget His Holiness and our need for repentance (Rom. 11:22-36).
  • We have too much pride and selfish motives and not enough Christ impacting our hearts and minds (John 3:30)!
  • We do not have our people discipled, so they are ignorant of Biblical precepts (Hosea 4:6)!
  • We do not trust in the power and purpose of Christ and His Truth, instead we cater to personalities, political correctness and trends (1 Tim. 4:6)!
  • We spend too much time with entertainment and not enough time of expository preaching (Rom. 10:16)!
  • We have a lack of the power of the Holy Spirit, or too much of it is faked (John 6:63)!
  • We do not teach, exemplify and motivate a radical transformation (Rom. 12)!
  • We are too worried to offend, thus, we end up trying to block the conviction of the Word and Holy Spirit (John 16:8)!
  • We do not have good unity or a Kingdom mentality, so we have apathy, gossip, discord and strife (Rom. 16:17-18)!
  • We have a lack of the Fruit of the Spirit of love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, …. (Gal. 5:19-23)!
  • We do not have much in the way of real consistent outreach and missions or work on social justice (Matt. 5:13-16)!
  • We have a lack of a realization that our time, talents and treasures are His, and view our monies only for our preferences (2 Cor. 9:7).
  • What happened to prayer (Matt. 21:13)?

We may need to rediscover what Christ calls us to when we lead and manage His Church. We may need to reconsider what we do and how we do it. Is it biblical? Is it what Christ calls success or what the world calls success? Maybe we just need to get beyond ourselves, past our perceived needs and desires and repent. To seek Christ first and foremost. Then, we may be able to really lead His people properly where we all need to go. Closer to Him. Closer to one another. Nonetheless, authentic heartfelt surrendering to Christ as Lord, real discipleship and action of faith needs to take place or what are we doing (Matt. 6:33; 13; Rev. 10:8-11)!

 

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3 Online Tools For Fighting Addiction

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Biblical Guy

Here are some good ideas for Recovery….

3 Online Tools For Fighting Addiction

Our resources are here:

http://www.discipleshiptools.org/pages.asp?pageid=65408

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Kingdom Effective

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Biblical Guy

 

bad church
In most ‘good’ evangelical churches, people are encouraged to accept Christ, make a profession of faith, or be baptized. Then, they are congratulated, put on the membership role, and then quickly forgotten. Sadly, these churches have become warehouses, holding Christians to numbers as a testimony and perceived success, and, as a whole, forsaken ‪discipleship for cheap, contemptible programs with no real teaching or meaning. These programs may seem great on the surface because they attract people, but they do not keep them. In doing shallow ‪programming with little teaching or discipleship has left its members to figure out these ‪‎spiritual ‪growth things on their own.

 

Therefore, the back door of the church is as big as the front door! Or the church is not really Kingdom effective!

All that you do in life as a leader of Christ’s church must be a reflection of a life surrendered to Christ. If you are so self-willed there can be no room for the living Christ, this may mean that others will use you, take advantage of you, get mad at you, ignore you, go around you, ridicule you, and persecute you!  But remember, what they do to you, they do to Him!  Make sure you are not the one persecuting the Lord!

And how do we persecute our Lord in the church today? When we become in breach of his mandates, like to Disciple!

There are many Bible teachers and so called preachers who turn the gospel of Jesus Christ into some kind of “easy-believe-ism,” where repentance is not necessary. However, as you can see, the Bible has something different to say. I would go with God’s Word and not self-proclaimed prompters. John reminds us of the need to bear fruit in keeping with true repentance (Gal. 5)!  Are you showing true acceptance of Jesus as your Lord? You can know this by doing what He says (Luke 6:46; John 3:30).

Let our Lord be LORD, He is to be more; you are to be less. Be willing to learn about Him, to grow by His example in our obedience and be willing to go through times of waiting, confusion, discouragement and even suffering. And as leaders we pass this on!  See these as opportunities for personal growth, faith building and strengthening.

 

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Remember we do not deserve His love and grace, yet it is given to us anyway.

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Biblical Guy

Our own motive must be the restoration of God’s people from sin; we are not to do the work of the Holy Spirit, but we are to heed our call of being constructive and providing solutions, not more strife. Our call is to extol people, that is, to come alongside them with comfort and help. We are to help one another grow in relationships with God and with one another. And, with this motive in mind, we are to sheepdog people onto the right path when they veer off, as a loving parent does with a child.

When we have the knowledge and trust of God’s goodness, and His right of judgment, we will refuse to be hypocritical. We will use His goodness as a guide to see the sorrow for our “miss-actions” and have compassion toward others for theirs (Psalm 136). As God is generous with His grace, so we should be generous toward each other and be thankful. And, finally, as we see His goodness in a much deeper way, we are truly transformed, renewed, and we turn away from sin (Romans 12:1-3).

When we refuse to see Christ’s goodness, and keep judging, we model the ultimate contempt to our loving Lord!

http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?blogid=3844&view=post&articleid=31695&fldKeywords=&fldAuthor=&fldTopic=0

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Are we His sheep? Do we hear His Voice?

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Biblical Guy

masters voice

“…to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” Ephesians 1:10

If so, do we respond and follow? God calls us to Himself and to love Him and one another with the love of God. God calls us out of our self-love pride that mutes our effectiveness and purpose and changes us so we are effective and purposeful for Him. So, we need to ask ourselves how is my love life? How is our love for our Lord and the response of love we are to have for one another? We are the sheep of the Lord, and He has given us endless love and care. He gives His sheep endless life and abounding fellowship with Him. He gives us His perfection and His protection, gathering us in to the fold of His wings, as a hen calls her chicks. Giving us the confidence and support for us to stay away from the dangers of the world, protecting us from Satan’s grasp while we engage the world for Christ. Christ perseveres in us, modeling to us how to persevere in our walk with Him and our call to one another.

Our shepherd desires for us to be true and faithful because He is that way with us. This is our call to be true and faithful in our love, in our care, in our walk, and in our talk.

So, are we hearing the voice of God?

Are we practicing the centrality and supremacy of Christ? Are we? If not, where is the call? What do we need to do to build His kingdom church? As Christ bore witness to the Father, so we are called to bear the care for one another and bring it back to Him. We cannot be as the so-called “expert of the law” and debate whom our neighbor is, thus excusing us from our responsibility. Nor, can we ignore the sheep in our care, ignoring our Lord’s call. Yet, so many churches do.

Consider this: how we see others, whether it is a spouse, child, friend, boss, or stranger, will be the measure of how we see our Lord and how seriously we take our faith. What if we were measured by how we see others? What if this is how Christ sees us? Not a very pleasant prospect, is it? Fortunately, grace covers us¾His amazing and loving grace for which we could not venture to do anything to earn it, be acceptable, or receive anything eternal except damnation.

We are to forsake our pride, arrogance, and selfish nature and receive our Lord with joy and eagerness so we can help build His church as He has called us to do!

Remember, the doctrine of Scripture and the call of our Lord will cut “against the grain” of our pride and will. We are fallen, but He will lift us up, as our Lord is our shepherd, guiding us His way and showing us the way of the shepherd, the way of love and care.

Too many Christians only see the church as a consumer entity, which becomes “what I can get out of it.”  But, are we reciprocating that care or are we just catering to our clique and ourselves? We cannot expect others do be the “doers” while we sit comfortably in a pew. We cannot even expect a return on our investment (money given to the church) for personal gain of some sort. The consumer church will become the demise of the church before Satan even has a chance at it. We can utterly eliminate ourselves and achieve total annihilation without any external help from below. God calls us out of the “consumer” mentality and into His reality. Ask yourself if you only see the church as what it can do for you or what you can get out of it.

We do need to be in a church that will take care of us. It is our attitude and determination that will set us apart to either be fully used by Christ, or sit in a pew for our selfish gain and receive our judgment later. I know I do not want that to be me; do you?

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