The Fear of the Lord and Health XII - Living Grace Fellowship

Wednesday 10/02/13

Topic: The Fear of the Lord & Healing

Series – And He Healed them all:

The Fear of the Lord and Health XII.mp3

Key Text:

Prov. 3:7-8

Matt. 25:14-46

The Fear of the Lord and Healing…

Remember, we are studying the fear of the Lord and what it looks like to live that out in order to enable you to walk it out. This is important for two reasons…

1. Because it honors God!
2. Because it WILL BE health to all you flesh and strength to all your bones. Prov. 3:7,8

Tonight we continued talking about the fear of the Lord as it is expressed through our stewardship.

We began with a brief review of the the parable of the talents and ended with our stewardship over our giftings.

This week we read about the stewardship represented in Jesus’ story of the talents from Luke instead of Matthew. Luke’s account offers a little more information which really helped us. Here is the key quote…

“Therefore He said: “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.'” ~ Luke 19:12-13

Here we discovered something new, stewardship is a kingdom issue!

From here we spent some time exploring how the way we represent the Lord in the earth, in the way we conduct our lives (do business) represent Him in His absence and either establishes or works against the kingdom He sent us out with delegated power to help establish.

It wasn’t to much of a leap to see how this parable of Jesus had direct implications to our situation as Christian.

Jesus came from a far land to establish a kingdom.
He established servants to whom He gave authority to do commerce and lay the groundwork for the kingdom.
He is going to return and reward us according to our works.

This was the place where we began to return to our discussion of the fear of the Lord as it is expressed through the gifts He has given us.

I suggested that, in keeping with nearly everything God has done, our giftings are things which come naturally for us. Fish swim, birds fly, babies crawl…etc. though these things are encouraged and helped along by the parents, the need to swim. fly and eventually walk come naturally. It is instinctive to each species. So it only follows that if we have been given an a gift from God, it would be something which we would not be taught to do so much as encouraged to do better. The doing of it would come naturally.

My wife Teri and I had been privileged to tutor at a local Christian grade/middle school for many years and during that time we both observed something in the kids. In nearly every class there was a naturally born leader. Each child had their own tendencies, but a few select ones always led. No one told them to led, they just did! In fact, no one told the other children to follow, they just did! Often times this leader/follower relationship looked odd externally. The one who led was rarely the tall, strong, powerful brute of the little, but one of the ordinary children or one who was smaller than the others. My point in this is that it did not follow a “typical” evolutionary/Hollywood pattern we’ve all be programmed to predict. It followed something different altogether. An unwritten rule, unwittingly and unknowingly agreed to my virtually everyone in the class. This became all the more interesting when these children would go to recess where more than one class was present on the playground at any given moment. It was as if you had placed all the children into a cream separator. They divided up naturally without any outside guidance or instruction, surrendering almost unrecognizably to a pre-established hierarchy.

My suggestion to our church was simply that our giftedness will separate us all by itself. It will establish you in your place if only you will follow your natural inclinations.

We ended on this note but will probably pick up from here next week.

To learn more about the Fear of the Lord and Health: Our Stewardship, please listen to the above recording.

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!