Learning Our Limits – Part 3: Know Your Limits (continued…)

Those of us in ministry know how draining it is to give and give and never get to the end of the line of those wanting help. But Jesus wasn’t worn out at this time. What He said was (v. 38), “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

Many of Christ’s followers today get caught up meeting needs that aren’t closely related to the primary job God has called them to do. I know people like that. Sometimes their hyperactive schedules keep them so on the run that they can’t take time to be alone with their Heavenly Father. They don’t get the chance to talk with Him, much less to hear Him whisper to their hearts. Maybe you’re that way.

In the early chapters of Acts, we read that the apostles faced this problem. But they had enough sense to correct it. Acts 6 tells about a situation where it seems there were more needs than the apostles had time to meet. The non-Hebrew widows complained that they were being overlooked in the daily food distribution. In effect what the Twelve said was, “Our priorities don’t allow us the time to look after this problem.” But let me cite their words right from Scripture, beginning with verse 2: “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention [take note] to prayer and the ministry of the Word.”

That’s exactly what the church did. Those chosen were presented to the apostles, “who prayed and laid their hands on them.” The result was that (v. 6) “the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly” (v. 7).

Do you see how the apostles knew their limits? There was a genuine need, it’s true, but the pressure of authentic needs didn’t mean the apostles personally had to meet them. That’s a lesson they had learned from their Lord. Pitiful people had come from everywhere to be healed by Jesus, but that didn’t mean He was obligated to do so. He could, yes, but to double check whether that’s what His Father wanted, He got up early in the morning to spend time with Him.

The disciples applied the same principle in this Acts 6 passage: “We’ll turn the food distribution over to seven other capable men so we can give our attention to talking with the Lord [prayer] and to the ministry of the Lord.”

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Learning Our Limits – Part 2: Know Your Limits

In a troubled world of too many needs, it’s wise for Christians to know their ministry limits. Being able to help one individual doesn’t mean I can help his three friends. Resolving one person’s problems doesn’t necessarily make me qualified to help everyone who comes to me. Doing a good job serving on a committee doesn’t mean I will do well if I’m assigned to two or three more. Just because I played on the church basketball team in my thirties, that doesn’t mean my game is still good when I’m in my forties. After ten minutes I could end up flat on my back gasping for air. All of us need to learn our limits.

Even Jesus had to draw the line as to what He could and couldn’t do. There’s an interesting event recorded in Mark 1. It was early in our Lord’s ministry and the crowd’s response was outstanding. Verses 32-34 read: “That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons.”

The disciples knew from past experience that when the fish were biting, that was not the time to look for another spot. So they may have been baffled by what followed.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for Him, and when they found Him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for You!’” (vv. 35-37) That seemed to be true. The ranks of those wanting Jesus to touch them with His healing hands had certainly swollen. So the “merry men” in Christ’s band said in essence, “Get back to where You just ministered, Jesus. You can’t imagine how many people are there, and You’re keeping them waiting.”

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Learning Our Limits – Part 1

The time of the Crusaders certainly qualifies as an era of great change throughout Europe. The term crusade comes from the Latin word crux, meaning cross. Sanctioned by ecclesiastical inspiration, the purpose of the Crusades was to recapture the Holy Land from the Moslems. Generally speaking, the Crusades were not successful.

Do you remember the stories of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest? They take place in England during the twelfth century when good King Richard was out of the country leading a crusade.

I recall having just turned forty and seeing a Sean Connery film called Robin and Marian. In this story, it was Robin Hood, not King Richard, who returned from the Crusades and found conditions back in England deplorable. He decided that he’d repeat the routine of his earlier years and organize a new merry band of outlaws. The film plot was interesting to me because I was just beginning a new venture myself. God was leading me into a ministry in broadcasting as I entered the decade of my forties. So I felt like cheering when Robin Hood rose to the challenge and conquered the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. But it bothered me that in the story Robin’s victory cost him his life. He wasn’t a survivor.

One of the unusual features of this film is the way it shows how everything was harder for Robin Hood now that he was older. For example, climbing the wall of a castle left him so exhausted that when he finally got to the top he just stretched out on his back, pooped. The fights went faster because at this age he didn’t last as long as he used to. In one escape scene, Robin Hood and a companion leapt from a wall onto a passing hay wagon. The timing was perfect, except that now these two weighed more than they used to, and when they landed in the wagon the wheels collapsed.

It’s a funny idea for a story to show someone going back and trying to relive an earlier and more physically fit stage of life. In the real world, every so often a sports star will try to make a comeback—usually unsuccessfully. There aren’t many boxers like George Foreman who are well over forty and willing to take the punishment in the ring that he does. After his first retirement, Foreman tried pastoring a church for a while. I can’t believe that experience was so difficult it drove a middle-aged man back to prizefighting, but maybe so!

One way or the other, the survival skill I want to explore in this chapter is learning our limits. It’s a natural follow-up to guarding self-respect. The foundation for being able to set appropriate limits is proper self-esteem. If we don’t know who we are, we may let others cross boundaries that should not be trespassed.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

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Guarding Self-Respect – Part 14: Readings – 5

Prague, Czechoslovakia
November 26, 1989

“I was ordained a priest,” [Maly] said. “But because I signed Charter 77, I had to clean toilets: that’s why I’m asking you now for one minute of silence for all the oppressed.”

A hush suddenly fell on the boisterous crowd. There was a long silence, and the cold air was so still that those who shut their eyes could hardly believe they were standing in a field filled with half a million people.

After the moment of silence, Vaclav Benda, the political activist imprisoned with Havel, took the stage to read out a list of names of political prisoners just released on orders of the new government. Among the names on the list, Jan Carnogursky, a leading Slovak Catholic and human rights activist, and Father Stefan Javorsky, a sixty-four-year-old Slovak priest. The crowd let out a cheer for every name Benda read. After the last name on the list, they took out their keys and shook them in that CHINK CHINK CHINK CHINK peal that had come to symbolize their clamor for freedom.

The parade of speakers continued, and the protestors responded with the same enthusiasm. As folk singer Jaroslaw Chudka performed, they sang along lustily, swaying, their hands held high in the victory sign. He had just returned to his homeland from a twenty year exile. The crowd knew every word of his songs, despite the regime’s ban on his music. The authorities’ attempt to enforce “forgetting” had obviously failed.

The crowd was exuberant. They laughed, then cried, for joy. But then a serious note.

Havel led two people forward and Maly introduced them as high-ranking members of the security police responsible for the brutality against the student demonstration the week before. The crowd started jeering.

“They have come to apologize,” Maly shouted over the loudspeaker. The crowd fell silent. He could almost sense their desire for revenge.

A tall, good-looking man wearing a fatigue-colored parka stepped forward and looked at the stony faces.

“My name is Ludwig Pine,” he told the crowd. “I’m a lieutenant in the Prague police department. We see that it’s a tragedy that we were enlisted to stop the democratic changes now taking place. Most of us joined the public security with the understanding that we would use our power to fight against the criminal element, not to oppress regular working citizens.”

The statement elicited cheers from the crowd.

“We share some of the blame for what happened during the last days,” he said. “After the unpleasant events on November 17, there’s a groWing animosity of citizens toward the police. We want to tell you that none of our members had the legal right to use force to suppress the people. But this order didn’t come from the police. This was a decision made by the higher-ups in the government.”

He was interrupted by jeers. “What lies!” the crowd shouted together.

Maly put up his hands to hush the crowd. The young officer continued facing them, standing stiff and formal. He raised his voice to be heard over the angry chants. “We want to give you our support for the new democratic changes in our country. I want to express our profound apology that our leaders set us against the people of our own country. Last week, the striking students offered their hands to us in friendship. We want to reach out and accept their outstretched hands now.”

It was an emotional moment. A few in the audience wiped away tears with their sleeves. One of the other junior officers standing to the side joined his colleague at the podium. He was wearing the red-banded green cap of the security police.

“I just want to add that I hope I never see the day when the people of this country stand against one another.”

When the two finished speaking, Maly took the microphone. His face was solemn. The crowd was still.

“We have to be proud of these members of the security police who came forward to apologize,” he said. “They could be risking jail for their actions, and we have to protect them. Thank you for your understanding. Whenever there’s political change, there’s always the danger of the powerless seeking retribution against the powerful. Now, I’m not asking you to forget what those in power have done. But I am asking you to show forgiveness. Forgiveness is more than a word. There’s power in forgiveness. There’s hope in forgiveness. Now, will you accept their apology?”

There was an ominous silence. Then, a chant commenced, faint at first, but growing louder and louder, until the voice of half a million became one voice.

“We forgive you! We forgive you!”

Maly stood there, tears in his eyes. When the chanting subsided, he said, “I would like to end this special moment with a prayer. Those of you who know the words, I invite you to say them aloud with me. Those of you who don’t know the words, pray with me in your hearts.”

He began reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Some in the audience prayed along, others fumbled for the words, until Letna field rang with the sound of a prayer that no one had dared to utter in public in more than forty years.

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Revolution by Candlelight, Bud Bultman, Multnomah, pages 211-213.

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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy