Pastor, author and Christian leader, Lloyd Ogilvie, shared about a time in his life when he was working so hard for the Lord.\u00a0 He was preaching, teaching, serving, writing, and ministering in Jesus\u2019 name.\u00a0 But there was a big problem.\u00a0 In all his working for the Lord, he had lost his joy, his peace, his love, his passion, and his power.\u00a0 Ministry had become an empty chore.\u00a0 As he stopped to reflect on where he was spiritually, it dawned on him.\u00a0 He had missed the secret!\u00a0 He was living and serving without the secret.<\/p>\n
What is the secret?\u00a0 The Christian life is not working hard in your own strength to serve God. Lots of preachers do that and have forgotten this basic truth: the Christian life is \u201cCHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Paul says in Colossians 1:26-27 NLT:<\/p>\n
This message was kept secret for centuries and generations past, but now it has been revealed to God\u2019s people. For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you<\/strong>. This gives\u00a0<\/em>you assurance of sharing his glory. <\/em>Colossians 1:26<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>In Old Testament times, the Lord had a temple for His people.\u00a0 But since Jesus came and died and rose again, God now has a people for His temple.\u00a0 The great, eternal, almighty God now lives in His people!\u00a0 If you truly know Jesus as Savior and Lord and have surrendered your life to Him, your very heart is the Holy of Holies – WOW!!<\/p>\n WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS IN MINISTRY OF THIS SECRET?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. You have power!<\/strong> You are inhabited by the King of Glory!\u00a0 He who lives in you, wants to live through you.\u00a0 He wants to fill your life with His peace, joy, love and power.\u00a0 All that He is and can do is available to you because He now lives inside!\u00a0 Just yield yourself everyday to Him.\u00a0 Say with the songwriter, \u201cJesus, be Jesus in me.\u00a0 No longer me, but Thee.\u00a0 Resurrection power fill me this hour.\u00a0 Jesus, be Jesus in me!\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n 2. You have assurance!<\/strong> The Lord has promised us that He will never leave us or forsake us.\u00a0 When Jesus moves into a life, He moves in forever!\u00a0 When you sin and blow it big time, He does NOT move out of your life saying, \u201cI\u2019m done with you, you sinner!\u201d\u00a0 The Bible says, \u201cHe who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ\u201d (Phil. 1:6).\u00a0 There is great assurance knowing you are His forever.\u00a0 You have eternal life and can never lose it because He will NEVER desert one of His blood-bought children.<\/p>\n 3. You will share His glory!<\/strong> Without question, true Christians will have difficulties and persecutions.\u00a0 The world is not for Jesus.\u00a0 The world is against Jesus and nailed Him to a cross.\u00a0 If you truly follow Jesus and take a stand for Him at work, at school, in the community, you will experience ridicule, persecution, suffering, and maybe even bodily harm.\u00a0 But that\u2019s ok because Paul said, \u201cThe sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us\u201d (Rom. 8:18).<\/p>\n There is GREAT GLORY awaiting those who are faithful to the Lord regardless of the ridicule and persecution.\u00a0 Heaven is going to be a zillion times more wonderful and more glorious than we could ever even imagine (see 1 Cor. 2:9).\u00a0 So keep standing firm in your convictions that are deeply rooted in scripture as you remember the secret \u2013 Christ in you!\u00a0 It is worth it all to live life surrendered to King Jesus so you can experience His love, joy, and power this day and all the days to come.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pastor, author and Christian leader, Lloyd Ogilvie, shared about a time in his life when he was working so hard for the Lord.\u00a0 He was preaching, teaching, serving, writing, and ministering in Jesus\u2019 name.\u00a0 But there was a big problem.\u00a0 In all his working for the Lord, he had lost his joy, his peace, his … Continue reading “Has Ministry Lost Its Joy?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}