I find three basic requirements God makes of the body of Christ if it is to do His final work\u2014His eternal work.<\/p>\n
First, Christian believers and Christian congregations must be thoroughly consecrated to Christ\u2019s glory alone. This means absolutely turning their backs on the contemporary insistence on human glory and recognition. I have done everything I can to keep \u201cperformers\u201d out of my pulpit. I was not called to recognize \u201cperformers.\u201d I am confident our Lord never meant for the Christian church to provide a kind of religious stage where performers proudly take their bows, seeking personal recognition. That is not God\u2019s way to an eternal work. He has never indicated that proclamation of the gospel is to be dependent on human performances.<\/p>\n
Instead, it is important to note how much the Bible has to say about the common people\u2014the plain people. The Word of God speaks with such appreciation of the common people that I am inclined to believe they are especially dear to Him. Jesus was always surrounded by the common people. He had a few \u201cstars,\u201d but largely His helpers were from the common people\u2014the good people and, surely, not always the most brilliant.\u2026<\/p>\n
To please God, a person must be just an instrument for God to use.\u2026<\/p>\n
Many people preach and teach. Many take part in the music. Certain ones try to administer God\u2019s work. But if the power of God\u2019s Spirit does not have freedom to energize all they do, these workers might just as well stay home.<\/p>\n
Natural gifts are not enough in God\u2019s work.\u2026<\/p>\n
You can write it down as a fact: no matter what a man does, no matter how successful he seems to be in any field, if the Holy Spirit is not the chief energizer of his activity, it will all fall apart when he dies.<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 1:26\u201329; Ephesians 1:12\u201314; Colossians 1:18<\/p>\n
Tragedy in the Church: The Missing Gifts,<\/i> 2, 3, 4, 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I find three basic requirements God makes of the body of Christ if it is to do His final work\u2014His eternal work. First, Christian believers and Christian congregations must be thoroughly consecrated to Christ\u2019s glory alone. This means absolutely turning their backs on the contemporary insistence on human glory and recognition. I have done everything … Continue reading “CHURCH:
\nHOLY SPIRIT\u2019S WORK; SERVANTHOOD; CELEBRITIES”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9522","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=9522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}