KEVIN ELWORTH LIVE

Had the opportunity last night to preach at a little church in Jerez, Mexico. Awesome opportunity, I really enjoyed it. I preached on Mark 2 where Jesus healed the paralytic of his physical ailment as well as his more important heart ailment. The main point of the sermon was that we’ve got to be willing to do whatever it takes to get people to Jesus. That’s what these guys did. They were willing to tear the roof off of someone else’s house just to get their friend to Jesus! That’s what we’ve got to be willing to do- whatever it takes to get people to Christ.
Couple thoughts about it:

• There’s a world out there that need to see the love of Jesus more than just the words He said or the words we think they need to hear. They need to see what Jesus can do for them and that means we need to get a bit uncomfortable in our approach to reach people
• Jesus is not obligated to heal our ailments as soon as we ask. He’s much more concerned about our greatest need which is the condition of our heart. Check out Mark 2.5. They never asked Jesus to forgive his sins, in their minds it was obvious what they wanted but Jesus looked right past they guys legs and saw his heart.
  Jesus is not obligated to heal our defects!
• There are so many critics that sit around today and judge what churches are doing wrong instead of standing up saying, Hey we might not agree with everything, but God is obviously at work in this and we want to get involved however we can. You can see that in verse 6
• I’m torn up by the thought of being willing to do whatever it takes to get people to Jesus Christ. There’s not much time left in this world and everyday we come in contact with people who need to love, forgiveness and healing power to Jesus offers
• Had a good time with the kids of Casa Betania
• My wife started her own blog, it’s called Your Little Nest. You should check it out, she’s got some fabulous design advice
• My little boy turned 3 this week
• I started taking classes online at Liberty University this week and it’s stretching me a lot! Probably because it’s been 6 years since I was in school.
• I’m more excited than ever to see what God has in store for me and my family

When I was a kid I, like most kids, played baseball for a season. It was a lot of fun and I still remember a lot about it. I played for the Mustangs, I was an outfielder and I SUCKED at hitting the ball, but oddly enough only when we played games. In practice I could KILL the ball. My coach was nice about it, although I’m sure it frustrated him to no end knowing what I could do but wouldn’t in a game, but he was patient and never pushed me or scolded me. I’m thankful for that, but what I wish I did have was someone to tell me that it was okay to strike out trying. Don’t get me wrong, I struck out A LOT! But only because the pitcher knew I wasn’t going to swing. I got walked a lot too mostly from just luck. Most of this had to do with my personality type. When I was a kid I was the shyest person in our church. There was a guy in our church who was known as the candy man, and although I knew if I stuck out my hand he’d give me a piece of candy, I was terrified to stick out my hand. I still got a lot of candy, but only because the guy was nice enough to hand it to my dad and dad would give it to me. Strange to think that now I’ve spoken to churches and audiences that range from as small as 5 up to over 1000. That has to be all God!

Oddly enough there’s a very valid spiritual lesson here. If someone would have told me that it was okay to strike out trying and I did so the odds are eventually I would have accidently connected with the ball and gotten a base hit. That would have built my confidence and the thrill of the hit would have given me enough courage to swing the bat again the next time.
So many times we shy away from sharing the gospel with someone in a word or in an act because we’re afraid we might miss the ball and say or do something wrong. Do you really think that what Jesus cares about, that we say and do everything perfect? Something tells me that He doesn’t care if we get it perfect every time, because we’re not going to get it perfect ever. If we never swing the bat we’re never going to hit the ball and if we never say a word they are never going to hear anything.

What can you do today to take a risk and swing the bat. You might miss! But you might get a base hit too.

Final thought today. If you’re going to get through this crisis of belief no matter how great or how small it is, you’ve got to trust God completely with it. Another verse that God recently brought to my mind was Romans 8.28. If we allow Him to, God is going to receive all the glory through whatever your situation is. In thinking about this verse, I thought you know it says that all things will work together for good but what it doesn’t say is for whose good all things are working together for. I mean think about it, all things didn’t work together for the good of Peter when he was nailed upside down to a cross for failing to turn from his faith. But what it did work together for good was for the glory of God. He received immense glory through Peter’s faith and His kingdom was advanced. You know in the end it may very well work together for your good, you may come through your crisis and God will bless just like He did to Job when he walked through such an intense fire. The bible says that God blessed Job with twice what he had before. Either way you’ve got to make a decision, why are you in this? Is it really worth the fight? and If you start the fight will you be able to finish it?

2) You’ve got to walk by faith. I know this sounds cliche, but it’s reality. Someone once told me never undo in doubt what you did by faith. Going back to the calling part, if you are sure of your calling, when the doubts come you will having something to fall back on. Something the Lord brought to my mind recently was Psalm 119:105 which says Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. In thinking about that verse when you’re walking a night needing a lamp, a lamp would only light a few feet in front of you. If you follow the light it will keep you on the path, but you will not know when the next turn comes, where the edge falls off into a shear cliff or even when your just going to walk straight for a while through a meadow. If you’re going to get through this crisis of belief, you’ve got to determine that God’s got your back and that He’s going to build His kingdom, that might require you to endure some pain, but in the end He’s going to receive the glory from it.

Stick with it, walk by faith.

At every point in our lives God has graciously built in ways for us to renew our complete faith and trust in Him. For some the crisis of belief may come when the Spirit prompts them to be a witness, for others it may come in the from of believing God to provide when you know it’s right to give your tithe although you don’t have much more than that in your bank account. For those in full time ministry it may come in a much more intense form like stepping out of the boat in complete blind faith not being able to see more than one step in front of them. One thing is for sure though, these crisis of belief will come and when they do we have to be sure we are prepared to handle them effectively.

1) You’ve got to be sure of your calling. Everyone called into ministry will at some point be challenged on their belief system and will have to resort back to the calling God placed on their lives to do what they are doing. This doesn’t mean that they were never called, it could be that God is just trying to see if you are really in this or not. Was it an emotional thing or are you really serious about serving God. It will come out real quick if you’re calling is real or if it was emotional by the proofs that will come your way.

So how do you be sure of your calling? Well several ways you can deal with this question. Talk about when you were called. What were the circumstances surrounding it? Was there a particular verse in the Bible that God used to prompt this? Another thing you can do is ask God to remind you of your calling. You really need to be careful here that you don’t talk yourself into being called. This is something that can only come of God and if you’re not truly called to serve Him in such a capacity, that’s why Peter so wisely cautioned about this in 1Pet1:10. Rethink the whole thing. What I mean is why are you in this? Why are you fighting for what you are fighting for? A friend of mine told me the other day if the dream gets in the way of the ministry, kill the dream and if God wants it to happen He will revive it. Basically you need to allow God to bring you back to the basics, forget all the work, all the details, all the struggles. What’s the main thing? Why are you doing what you are doing?

One other thing about this calling bit. I remember the night I was ordained into ministry. It was a stressful night being questioned in front of our entire church about our stand on various doctrine. We made it through and had the privilege of having Dr David Gibbs Jr preaching the service, what a guy! I remember being told one day in your ministry you are going to have nothing to stand on more than your calling. I never thought that day would come but it has for us and it’s not easy, but I’m sure of my calling.

More tomorrow…