Table of contents for Brave New Ministry

1. Brave New Ministry: Part 1 – Pharisees
2. Brave New Ministry: Part 2 – People
3. Brave New Ministry: Part 3 – Paternity
4. Brave New Ministry: Part 4 – Prayer
5. Brave New Ministry: Part 5 – Pain
6. Brave New Ministry: Part 6 – Persecution

Luke 6:17-23 ; Matthew 5:3-12

How beautiful of an experience it is in knowing that Christ is doing all these things … but for some reason, whenever we seem to do the most good there is someone who doesn’t like it. We’d like to believe that when we do all these things the world just lines up to thank us … but it doesn’t always happen that way.

Throughout my life I’ve heard the phrase, “You can never please all of the people all of the time.” I think for the longest of time Ive seen that as a realization of not being able to make everyone happy. But in this part of my life I’m beginning to see it as a realization that for every person who loves you someone may feel exactly the opposite.

The question is : how will we respond?

Table of contents for Brave New Ministry

1. Brave New Ministry: Part 1 – Pharisees
2. Brave New Ministry: Part 2 – People
3. Brave New Ministry: Part 3 – Paternity
4. Brave New Ministry: Part 4 – Prayer
5. Brave New Ministry: Part 5 – Pain
6. Brave New Ministry: Part 6 – Persecution

Exodus 3:1-10; Who here wants to get closer to God?

Last week we spoke of intercession and what it means to get in the middle of God and the people – more specifically about how when we intercede we are literally bridging the gap between man and God. We could argue however that there is a step that must be understood before we can really step into the intercession – it’s getting closer to God.

Look at Moses: He’d left an old life behind him. He’d murdered a man, and the people he tried to stand up for had sold him out. He had a price on his head in a foreign land. He’d lived a double identity. He ran away from it all and nearly lost his life in the process walking through a desert. But he made it to a well and saved a few girls from thieves. Then he’d met the local chief and priest who was so impressed that Moses was given one of his daughters to marry. So now he’s got the lush life and for nearly 40 years, he wakes up to a fresh new day, full of nature, freedom, and even love. He’s happy and complete. He’s living a new life and on one unsuspecting day wonders over to a bush on fire.

And that curiosity will re-shape his life.
That encounter will disrupt the peace in his life.
That experience of getting closer to God will subject him to bitterness, ridicule, threats for his life, physical struggle, suffering – basically pain for him and the pain of a nation of people.

I wonder if Moses could have avoided the whole Exodus story if he just had not went to the bush. But He did.

Table of contents for Brave New Ministry

1. Brave New Ministry: Part 1 – Pharisees
2. Brave New Ministry: Part 2 – People
3. Brave New Ministry: Part 3 – Paternity
4. Brave New Ministry: Part 4 – Prayer
5. Brave New Ministry: Part 5 – Pain
6. Brave New Ministry: Part 6 – Persecution

The Act of Intercession; John 8:1-11

Most often when we speak of this scripture we focus on the sinfulness of the woman. We speak of Jesus turning the situation back on the men about to stone her, but it’s because of the sinfulness of the woman. We’ll mention the fact that the man is not there, but once again it’s the sinfulness of the woman at present. And so we walk away feeling like the beauty of the situation is that Jesus prevents the woman from being stoned and saves her from death. Well, I’d like to add an even greater focus to this story: Jesus intercedes by putting Himself on the line for this woman.

Table of contents for Brave New Ministry

1. Brave New Ministry: Part 1 – Pharisees
2. Brave New Ministry: Part 2 – People
3. Brave New Ministry: Part 3 – Paternity
4. Brave New Ministry: Part 4 – Prayer
5. Brave New Ministry: Part 5 – Pain
6. Brave New Ministry: Part 6 – Persecution

Every man in here is a son, and a great many sons are fathers or will at some point in their lives be a father figure to another in their lives. In this message we focus on the charge of being a father or father figure in this world by looking at an all too familiar story of the lost (prodigal) son from Luke 15:11-32.

Table of contents for Brave New Ministry

1. Brave New Ministry: Part 1 – Pharisees
2. Brave New Ministry: Part 2 – People
3. Brave New Ministry: Part 3 – Paternity
4. Brave New Ministry: Part 4 – Prayer
5. Brave New Ministry: Part 5 – Pain
6. Brave New Ministry: Part 6 – Persecution

We continue in our discussion of “Brave New Ministry” by talking about people. It’s easy for us to forget that the people we serve are the lambs and sheep of the world Christ charged us to love. If we are to truly embrace the world in a brave new ministry we must not forget who they are and how we a charged to love them.

John 21:15-17 Do You Love Me?

15 After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon [uses the old name, not Peter which means rock], son of John, do you [LOVE, sacrificially, unconditionally, take a bullet] love me more than these [others around]?” “Yes, Master, you know I [feel, got your back] love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16 He then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you [LOVE, sacrificially, unconditionally, take a bullet] love me?” “Yes, Master, you know I [I've got feelings for you; got your back] love you.” Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”

17-19 Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you [have feelings for you; have my back] love me?” Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I [I've got feelings for you; got your back] love you.”

Table of contents for Brave New Ministry

1. Brave New Ministry: Part 1 – Pharisees
2. Brave New Ministry: Part 2 – People
3. Brave New Ministry: Part 3 – Paternity
4. Brave New Ministry: Part 4 – Prayer
5. Brave New Ministry: Part 5 – Pain
6. Brave New Ministry: Part 6 – Persecution

We begin a new series on how to bravely ministry to this changing world. There is threat of sickness, fear of war, difficult financial and economic ability, and so much more. Many of the ways in which we have traditionally taken for granted in the world of ministry may not be sustained in this world. Can we preach how the members must constantly give to the church and see God bless them over & over, if a person has lost their job, is in danger of losing their home, and their family life is in ruins? We must actively seek Christ and His guidance to relevantly minister to the hurting world around us.

There is a fine line between being a Christian and a Pharisee. In part 1, we look into the challenges we as Christians face and how we may unexpectedly walk that line between Pharisee and Christian.

Luke 18:9-14 The Story of the Tax Man and the Pharisee

9-12 He told his next story to some who were complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and looked down their noses at the common people: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax man. The Pharisee posed and prayed like this: ‘Oh, God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers, or, heaven forbid, like this tax man. I fast twice a week and tithe on all my income.’
13 “Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, ‘God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner.’”
14 Jesus commented, “This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”