Obedience Marks the Spot
Hey Friends,
I recently went to Atlanta for a church planters conference called Velocity. It was great. It was the first time I had heard the very controversial pastor, Steven Furtick. I must say, he was anointed and preached a great message about the most important issue for success in the ministry: “Jesus told me to.”
Steven used the passage out of Mark 11:1-6 which is the story of Jesus telling his disciples to go and get the colt He would ride into Jerusalem. “What if they ask us why we are stealing the colt?” “Tell them I told you to.” At the end of the day, the secret to success is: JESUS TOLD ME TO!
That can be a cop out or it can be true. As leaders in the Kingdom of God I pray it is true of us all. Let me list some areas where this will manifest itself:
1. Big leaps of faith. If you are leading a church to take a leap of faith, then it needs to be in obedience to our Lord.
2. When you make a huge personal sacrifice as a leader. God has led Michele and I to give some big things and we did in obedience. Check out the book, The Blessed Life, by Robert Morris and you will see some of what I am talking about. “It is the things no one sees that produce the results everyone wants.” Steven Furtick
“We all want to hear about the blessings He gives instead of the price we pay.” Obeying Jesus will cost you. The calling costs. He gave it all.
3. Painful relational shifts that are required to obey Jesus. Not everyone will or wants to do what Jesus said. Not everyone wants to stay on the sacrifice train. Relational adjustments are hard.
“Provision will follow the vision when you’re in step with Jesus.” Steven Furtick
Has Jesus called you to do something? Do it and forget what everyone else says!
Got your back!
Pastor Chris
5 Comments
Repeatedly in serving, when God has asked our family to do something that “should” be too hard for our family to do, God has enabled us to do it. It has been an incremental encouragement from God to take progressively bigger steps following him.
Right now, there’s a big step in front of us. Day 1 of a new ministry: nobody shows up, but God has given us peace anyway. Perfect supplies, perfect location, and the best thing… peace. We’re learning.
Andy Kercher.
What is this new ministry that God has birthed with your family? Curious and pray for blessings and peace is always a blessing I will be praying for continuance. There is nothing like God’s PEACE.
Sabrina,
My wife & I are leading a small group for special needs students. It’s a small group of the Middle School Ministries at FPC, but it’s for middle school and high school students with special needs. My wife has felt a calling from God in the general area of “special needs” families for at least a year, but she wasn’t sure what God was calling her to exactly. She was persistent though. God opened up a door and here we are. My wife & I have gotten a lot of encouragement from God this weekend. We’re looking forward to week 2 of this new ministry.
Andy.
My first cousin is special needs and his parents started an entire orginization because there was nothing for them where I am from. It’s called Rainbow Omega, I think in Alabama. It is for adult mentally challenged so that they can live out their lives when their parents or families can no longer take care of them. They have jobs on the farm, in the green house etc. all supervised. They live as normal a life possible. It is an extremely motivational thing to see. God does take care of His children.
Sabrina,
Cool. Thanks for the info. I notice they have a website. I plan to look at it later.
Andy.