Imperfection Before Man

So last time talked about the Church and the vacuous definition for exactly how to build it.  Well, that was because you are the Church, you are a part of the Church, you are the support for the Church, you are what is to hold the church up!  So, assuming you are a Christian, a real one, not the fake kind so prevalent these days all over the world ...

Using Timothy as our example, an imperfect person for the ministry in man's eyes, but perfect in God's.  1 Timothy 4:11-16

Forget your age, you can not be too old nor too young to be used by God - for anything He wants you to do!  My current pastor preached his first at age 13, conversely I have met many in their 90's still doing the same thing through the years.  So and age and positional requirements are of no meaning to God, you dedication to Him is however.

Something I learned very early in my Christian life, God grants authority, not man, not the church, not society, not culture.  So I have even found myself on the wrong side of everyone's opinion in doing as God asks!  God is to be the center and the source of our life.

Read your Bible!  Interestingly, we are told here to do this out loud and in public!  Why?  Probably because copies of Scripture were rare and by doing this out loud, other can listen and learn.  Also, Timothy was in a Gentile environment where the average man, much less the convert, did not grow up in Synagog and so would not know or understand was in those Scriptures!

You have gifts, given to you by the Holy Spirit, everybody has them - they vary person to person and from time to time.  Just because you are gifted in X today, you may not have it at a later date and now have Y instead!  The gifts are owned by the Holy Spirit, they are His, and He gets to give as He sees fit.  So get humble dudes!

These gifts are to be used by you to support the ministry of the Church and to reach the lost to bring them to salvation.  It is a witnessing tool, it is a ministry leadership tool, it is the power of the Church - when used correctly.  So do what you are called to do and use it!  And if you can't expect to lose what you do have!

You used to have a life, a life not focused on God, a life dedicated to your sin - even if you thought you were serving God.
Then you became a Christian, you are now supposed to be a follower of God.
How do you do that?  By constantly being on top of your sin life - in confession, in prayer, persist in your battle against the pull of your past, the world and Satan.
Realize that there is only one task for you, for the church corporate - witness to a world lost in sin - in your family, in your town, in your extended area, in your cultural group and rarely outside of this to the world at large.
Live the change in your life!  And realize that if you can not be effective where you are - guess where you are not going to be either ....  just sayin' ...

And the hard one, protect your witness.
Yes you may be called to a task with danger to your witness.  Your ability to thread that task will only be accomplished as long as you can do everything "right" and have strong backup.  I thought I had that, but what do you do when those whom are helping you give you really bad advice, you trusted their wisdom and then they turn that advice against you?  Yeah.  Happened to me, burned me, oh well, my hands and heart are still clean before God - but no one cares because gossip and lies are so much easier to believe than the truth.  So, what are you to do?  You can take the easy way out and not do anything the least bit controversial - or just know that you need to be better than me at picking your backup(s) and be prepared for disaster if Satan attacks.

Remember your entire life is one witnessing tool, someone(s) future state of salvation may depend upon your doing the unexceptable, in order to reach them for Jesus.