Good morning Jesus, you are all I need and all I desire to delight in today.
“just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we declare it, not to please people but God, who examines our hearts. For we never appeared with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed - God is our witness - nor to seek glory from people, either from you or from others,” (1Thessalonians 2:4-7)
I remember back to when I was about to give one of my first sermons. I gave my sermon to Bishop Stough, a great man and servant of God. After I finished, I asked him if the sermon meets his approval. Sitting behind his desk, he took off his glasses and lovingly said to me, “Gary, there are no popes in the body of Christ, you preach to the approval of God, not of any man.” It both freed and grounded my ministry under the “God who knows and examines my heart.” I do not work and serve for a church or denomination, I work and serve under God. If you serve or work seeking the approval of anyone or anything but God, you will either sell out or burn out. The main thing I do before I start or enter into anything in ministry is to examine my heart and ask myself the question, “What is my motive?” As one theologian said who I can’t recall now off the top of my head, "If you have the art of proclamation you will please men, if you have the unction of proclamation you will save men.”
As Paul states “we,” all of us have been approved and entrusted by God to share the Gospel of His saving grace through our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Not for our glory or that of any organization, but for the glory of His Church and His glory. The only way we obscure and hinder his glory is when we are silent in sharing His Gospel. When we worry about our “glory,” what other people may think or say about us if we bring up Jesus in a conversation. When we selfishly focus on our image and our qualifications, instead of The One who qualifies the unqualified and are afraid to say something “stupid.” So we say nothing.
My family, I pray this morning you spend time with God, then walk out your door free from seeking the approval of any person or anything other than God’s, and in freedom and joy share the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you have been cre ated, approved, and entrusted by God to share, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
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