DON’T TRY TO BE A CHIEF IF GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO BE AN INDIAN

Today’s Bible readings are Ezra 4:24-6:22, 1 Corinthians 3:5-23, Psalm 29:1-11, & Proverbs 20:26-27

1 Corinthians 3:5-9

⁵ After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. ⁶ I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. ⁷ It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. ⁹ For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.

I want to talk to you today about the principal of serving with excellence in what God has called you to do. It seems to me that we tend to get envious, & even jealous, of other people & their abilities. We look at certain ministries & we think that they are more important that other ministries. Sometimes we will avoid a particular area of service because we think we that there is another area of ministry that we would like doing better.

It is like the person who says:

1.     I don’t want to serve in the nursery but I would love to stand on the platform & sing.

2.     I won’t serve in the bus ministry but if you need somebody to do something important you can call on me.

3.     I don’t like cleaning but I love to preach.

There are all kinds of thought like this that people develop. I want to be very clear—this all stems from PRIDE!

1.     It is pride that makes us puff up like this.

2.     It is pride that makes us miss wonderful blessings.

3.     It is pride that comes before destruction.

Paul dealt with this in his ministry. People got into wrong thinking about these things. He made it clear that it doesn’t matter what part of service you are involved in, IT IS ALL A TEAM EFFORT!!! Some people will be in the spot light while others do less spectacular things BUT they work together for the SAME Jesus & will share in the SAME reward!!!

The purpose for our effort is the SAME—to reach people for Jesus. What difference does it make if you are the one on the platform getting all the recognition or if you are the one driving the bus full of shouting kids? It takes both in order for the harvest to come!

As men, we pay more respect to those who have positions of prestige & power. It is not the case with God.

·        If you want to be great you will be a servant.

·        If you want to be first you must be last.

·        If you want to find your life you must lose your life.

We think that if we aren’t in the limelight we are not important to God’s plan. I believe that the opposite in more true. If you are not where God has called you to be you have lost out on purpose & blessing, even if the place where you are appears to be a place of prestige & power. In other words, if God called you to work with kids but you chose to be a CEO instead, YOU MISSED THE MARK & ARE MSSING YOUR GREATEST DAYS OF BLESSING & PROSPERITY!!! 

Everybody wants to be the chief. The problem with that is that God has not designed it to be that way. Most people are called to be indians. That is the way that it is supposed to be. It doesn’t mean that God is unfair. We must learn to trust in Him when it comes to this. God is perfect in all of His ways. Your purpose is the same as the chief’s; the function is what is different.

Don’t envy the position of others because you do not know the burden they bear in stewarding that position. Instead, be who God created you to be. If it is a chief then be the best chief you can be. If it is an indian, then stop trying to be the chief & be the best indian the world has ever seen. This is what makes the kingdom grow & blessing flow!!!

Pastor Richard Schlotter

 

VISION CHANGER

Today’s Bible readings are Ezra 3:1-4:23, 1 Corinthians 2:6-3:4, Psalm 28:1-9, & Proverbs 20:24-25

1 Corinthians 2:9

⁹ That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Are you perishing because of a lack of vision? I want to take a moment to encourage you today. You may be going through difficulties of many kinds but I assure you that God has great things in store for you! Even if you have been in a season of difficulty, know this, God has great things planned for your future.

I know you may be wondering how I can be so sure about that. The answer is simple; BECAUSE GOD LOVES YOU!

This verse makes it clear that your wildest dreams can’t even compare to what God really desires to do in your life. Think about that for a moment. Take your greatest dream of what life could be & multiply that times infinity. That is how awesome God’s plan is for your life. It is not an overstatement. It is fact.

There has never been a person who desires to do good things in your life more than God. He has the very best gifts in store for you. Here are a few of them:

1.      He desires to give you the gift of the Holy Spirit.

 Luke 11:11-13

¹¹ “You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? ¹² Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! ¹³ So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

Why does God desire for you to have this wonderful gift?

·       He wants His love shed abroad in your heart. (Rom. 5:5)

·       He wants you to have supernatural gifts. (1 Cor. 12:7-11)

·       He wants you to bear His fruit. (Gal. 5:22-23)

·       He wants you to have power. (Acts 1:8)

2.     He desires for you to have the gift of eternal life.

God wants to spend eternity with you. It is His will that you would accept the gift that He offers so that you can live with Him in heaven.

John 3:16-17

¹⁶ “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Think about that for a moment, you can live forever with God is a very real place called heaven. That is an incredible offer. It is an amazing gift. There are some who say they don’t believe in heaven or hell. I can assure you that everybody is going to spend eternity somewhere. Those who have repented & put their hope & trust in Jesus Christ will spend it in a heaven & everybody else will spend it in hell. There is no gray area for this one.

3.     The gift of Jesus.

God gave His own Son for you. Seems hard to believe but it is true. Jesus took our:

·       Pain

·       Sickness

·       Sin

·       Punishment

·       Death

·       Shame

·       Unrighteousness

In exchange He gave us His:

·       Strength

·       Healing

·       Forgiveness

·       Peace

·       Life

·       Acceptance

·       Righteousness

What an awesome exchange. When I think about these things it makes me want to shout! As awesome as this all is, there is even more that God wants to do with us & through us if we will surrender to His plan for our lives. There is no limit to where things could go if we let Him have His way in our lives.

Think of the many lives that have been turned around by the grace of God. Now if you would, imagine your life as one of the most radically changed of all. It can happen. Stop letting a lack of vision cause you to perish. It is time for the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to the vision of God!!!

Pastor Richard Schlotter

                       

WHAT SEEMS FOOLISH HAS THE POWER TO SAVE

Today’s Bible readings are Ezra 1:1-2:70, 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5, Psalm 27:7-14, & Proverbs 20:22-23

1 Corinthians 1:18-20

¹⁸ The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. ¹⁹ As the Scriptures say,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
    and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”

²⁰ So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.

I have been a preacher of the gospel for several years now. Yet, the more I preach the gospel the more amazing it becomes to me.

I am humbled by all that God has done for us through His Son, Jesus Christ. I am also amazed at how much we still struggle in our own effort to achieve what Christ has already achieved for us through His death, burial, & resurrection.

·        Christ has freed us, but still we struggle to be free.

·        Christ has healed us, yet when sickness attacks us we question if it is true.

·        Christ has broken the power of sin but we continue to yield to it.

·        Christ has redeemed s from the curse of the law, yet we still try to live by it.

·        Christ has become our righteousness but we still think we are wretched sinners.

·        Christ has saved us by grace through faith & we still try to earn salvation through works.

We wrestle with the simplicity of the gospel. I want to stress to you today that the gospel doesn’t make sense to the natural mind. It is only by the Spirit that we begin to see the great love of the Father that made all of this happen. Once we start to see God’s great love for us we also start to realize the extravagant gifts that He has given through His Son. It makes sense once we see His love. It was His radical love for us that moved Him to do all the radical things that seem so foolish to the natural man.

That love seems foolish to most. It seems foolish for somebody to do so much for people with issues like ours. But the gospel message is that HE DID IT ANYWAY!!! It wasn’t because of us—IT WAS ALL BECAUSE OF HIM!!!

1.     His love.

2.     His holiness.

3.     His Names sake.

4.     His glory.

5.     His honor.

6.     His will.

7.     His passion for us.

8.     His righteousness.

9.     His promise.

10.  His integrity.

Don’t’ let the simplicity of the gospel keep you from experiencing all the fullness of it. It is simple BUT YET IT IS FULL & COMPLETE! There is truly nothing missing or broken in it. Receive all that He has offered. It may seem too good to be true but it is TRUE! God is really that good. He really loves you that much.

I now that you don’t deserve it, neither do I, BUT HE DID IT ALL ANYWAY!!!! Stop fighting it & start receiving it. It may seem foolish but it has the power to save!

Pastor Richard Schlotter

A MOUNTAIN WORTH DYING ON

Today’s Bible readings are 2 Chronicles 35:1-36:23, 1 Corinthians 1:1-17, Psalm 27:1-6, Proverbs 20:20-21

1 Corinthians 1:10-12

¹⁰ I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. ¹¹ For some members of Chloe’s household have told me about your quarrels, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹² Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.”

In church, there are so many preferences that can cause divisions. Some people like the music loud, others don’t. Some people like it cool, others like it hot. Some like hymns some like choruses. Some people like traditional worship songs, while others like contemporary. Some want a super spiritual experience, others what it to be ordinary & predictable. Some people want things to be proper & dignified, while others want it to be off the hook.

None of these things are right or wrong. In fact, each one has its place. These are all what I call “issues of preference”. They really are just a matter of what a person prefers. Yet, we let these things become so central that they end up being a dividing force. This should NEVER be the case.

Paul is addressing this with the church in Corinth. They were having division over which person they got saved under. Some thought that being under Paul’s ministry was the best. Others thought that being under Apollos’s ministry was best. They allowed these TRIVIAL things to divide them.

It was probably much like things in church today:

1.      Factions

2.      Cliques

3.      One ministry against another

4.      People staying on their side of the church

5.      Relationships never being built

6.      Critical judging of others

7.      Outbursts of anger

These are all workings of the flesh. These are what happen when we allow divisions to occur in the body. It results in the enemy having access, which leads to us acting like devils instead of saints.

There is an alternative to this way of living. It is what Paul was trying to express to this church. He was reminding them that there is something much more glorious to be fight for than many of the petty things they were fighting for. Even though they felt very strongly about their preference issues, Paul was pointing out that there is something of greater worth.

What is the alternative to divisions? What is the more glorious thing to fight for? What is it that is of greater worth than having your preferences?  IT IS CALLED UNITY!!!!

1.     Unity is what makes great Holy Ghost power available.

2.     Unity is what sets us apart from the world.

3.     Unity is what keeps the enemy out.

4.     Unity is what helps us achieve our goals.

5.     Unity is what gives us vision.

6.     Unity is what empowers us to do the impossible.

7.     Unity is what enables us to accomplish more.

There is no doubt that we all have many differences in preferences. If we were to sit around focus on them it would do to us what it did to them—divide us. The thing that God wants us to do is put aside our preferences & start focusing on the things that we all have in common

           

1.     A deep love for Jesus.

2.     A burden to reach the lost.

3.     A desire to see the kingdom expand.

4.     A love for people.

5.     A hope of Jesus’ return.

6.     A promise of eternity.

At the end of the day what we have to remember is that each of our divined purposes revolves around the same theme—Reaching souls for Jesus. That is why we are here. If we allow preferences to divide us we are LESS EFFECTIVE in the work that we were created to do. Let’s not make that mistake. Let’s fight for unity!!!

Pastor Richard Schlotter