Review:
Is My Ministry About Me or About Jesus?
- Do I make People the priority? (Acts 9:32)
- Do I want people to See Jesus' greatness... or Think I am great? (Acts 9:33-35)
- Do I manage Interruptions and Overtime well? (Acts 9:36-42)
- Is Prayer my "go-to"? (Acts 9:40)
Review: John 21
Review: Mark 5:40
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Open up your Bibles with me please to the book of Acts.
00:03-00:04
We're going to be in Acts 9.
00:05-00:06
Verse 32.
00:07-00:20
Before we begin today, I want to show you these are actual complaints /reasons for leaving churches that people had given pastors.
00:20-00:21
I'm going to give you a little list.
00:22-00:23
I found this interesting.
00:23-00:25
Now, this is a real list.
00:25-01:07
These are real complaints church members to pastors, real reasons given for leaving churches. Now, some of these were actually told to me, personally. Some of these came from pastor friends who told me through conversation, you know, what's some of the goofiest things you've heard about the reasons people have left church or complaints that they've had. And some of these I found online uh... from other pastors i'm not gonna tell you which is which though so uh... let's look at the first one uh... actual complaint from a church member to a pastor we need a small group for cat lovers all in favor?
01:10-01:19
two of you that's going to be a really small group how about a small group for dog lovers? how many people would go for that?
01:20-01:26
alike everybody better okay next one is um...
01:27-02:13
these are real we are leaving the church because we don't like the communion juice here's another complaint you shouldn't make people leave the youth group after they graduate actually said to a pastor like why are we making them leave? they're only twenty-five why can't they be in youth group with the teenagers creepy this one cracked me up our leaders are fighting about how to divide up the bulletin board this guy came to me he's like we're having this major problem in our church and all the leaders are fighting and I'm afraid we're going to have a church split I'm like what's going on he goes we have this bulletin board in our lobby and they're fighting about how to divide it up you guys are fighting about this?
02:14-02:16
I'm telling you, man, it's rough.
02:18-02:31
If that ever happens in this church, I promise you, I will rip that bulletin board down off the wall and you will watch me stomp on it into a million pieces if we're going to fight about a stupid bulletin board.
02:31-02:33
But that was killing the church.
02:34-02:37
I developed cancer because you don't preach from the King James Version.
02:40-02:42
That was actually said to a pastor once.
02:44-02:47
I developed cancer because you don't preach from the King James Version.
02:50-02:51
How about this one?
02:51-02:54
The toilet paper is on the wrong way in the ladies' restroom.
02:55-02:55
It's rolled under.
02:57-03:02
And every red-blooded American knows you roll it over the top, not underneath.
03:03-03:03
Amen?
03:04-03:06
Alright, yeah, show some love.
03:06-03:07
Show some love.
03:09-03:12
But that was a serious complaint somebody had about a church.
03:14-03:18
We are leaving the church because you have a red cross on the building.
03:19-03:20
That's the color of the devil.
03:22-03:24
I don't even know what to say about that.
03:24-03:26
But that was a real reason people left church.
03:26-03:28
And then I think this is the last one.
03:28-03:32
I'm leaving the church because nobody asked me to play golf.
03:34-03:35
Oh people.
03:38-03:45
We have our complaints about the church and some are grievous enough to make us want to actually leave the church.
03:47-03:54
But somewhere along the line, we forgot what the Great Commission was about.
03:55-03:58
Is the Great Commission about small groups for cats?
04:01-04:05
Is the Great Commission about which way the toilet paper sits on the roll?
04:06-04:06
No!
04:07-04:12
Is the Great Commission about What color are the crosses on the outside of the church building?
04:13-04:14
No, of course not.
04:15-04:28
Somewhere along the line, we get so messed up about these silly things and we forgot that the Great Commission is about people.
04:29-04:30
The Great Commission is about people.
04:31-04:34
Acts 1:8 - we've been studying this all year.
04:34-04:39
Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you You will be My witnesses.
04:39-04:41
In Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.
04:42-04:43
Witnesses to who?
04:43-04:44
Witnesses to people.
04:45-04:49
Jesus said I'm going to give you power so that you can witness to people.
04:50-04:51
It's about the people.
04:52-04:53
God at work.
04:54-04:57
It's about changing people.
04:58-05:01
And He uses people like us to do it.
05:03-05:07
And somehow we can get involved in ministry or we can get involved in a church because of the mission.
05:08-05:15
We can see a video like this fantastic video with Pam Campbell or some of these other videos that we show talking about how God's working in people's lives.
05:15-05:22
"Oh, I want to be a part of a church like that because God's at work and God is alive and God is moving." That's what I love about this church.
05:26-05:31
As time passes, we can begin to focus on some other things, right?
05:32-05:34
Like what flavor the communion juice is.
05:35-05:37
Why hasn't anybody asked me to play golf?
05:38-05:38
Or whatever.
05:41-05:43
Time passes and we begin to focus on ourselves.
05:46-05:50
We start to ask, well, am I getting my share of glory or credit or whatever?
05:52-05:53
Am I happy?
05:53-05:55
Is everything in this church to my liking?
05:58-06:05
And we can go - listen - we can go from being mission -oriented preference oriented.
06:07-06:15
We can start out mission oriented, and if we're not careful, we're complaining about which way the toilet paper sits.
06:16-06:18
We become preference oriented.
06:21-06:25
Acts 9:32 - the scene actually shifts back to Peter.
06:25-06:29
We're going to rewind three years from where we were last week.
06:29-06:31
Remember, we saw three years pass very quickly.
06:33-06:41
We see Peter in a Jesus-centered, Holy Spirit-powered ministry just like Jesus promised in 1:8.
06:41-06:48
Today we're going to look at Peter's Christ-centered ministry and we're going to evaluate how we are doing with this question.
06:48-06:50
Here's a question we're evaluating.
06:50-06:56
I've been working so hard this week in evaluating this for me, and I want to encourage you to evaluate this for yourself.
06:59-07:02
Is my ministry about me or about Jesus?
07:03-07:06
Is my ministry about me or is it about Jesus?
07:08-07:11
First of all, number one, we'll pick up here, do I make people the priority?
07:12-07:14
Do I make people the priority?
07:14-07:15
Look at verse 32.
07:16-07:30
It says, "Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda." Peter was about 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem.
07:31-07:36
Remember, the church was scattered because of Stephen's death.
07:38-07:41
We're going to pause here and I want to remind you that Peter was the head guy.
07:42-07:43
Do you remember Pentecost?
07:44-07:45
Peter was there.
07:46-07:47
He was the one that was preaching.
07:50-07:52
Peter saw thousands of people saved.
07:53-07:55
Peter was the one that took on the Sanhedrin.
07:58-08:09
But I want you to see just from this verse here, and we're going to see this throughout this passage, a very important thing in ministry, in any type of ministry you're in, Peter made time for people.
08:12-08:14
Peter never gave an excuse to avoid it.
08:15-08:20
Because if anybody in the history of the church, Peter could have said I'm too important, right?
08:20-08:20
I'm too important.
08:21-08:23
I could have gone traveling around ministering to people.
08:24-08:24
Do you know who I am?
08:25-08:26
Remember Pentecost? That was me.
08:27-08:28
I was preaching at Pentecost.
08:28-08:30
I could have just stayed home.
08:31-08:32
I'd send other people.
08:32-08:34
I have people that go and do that stuff for me.
08:35-08:40
Because I'm much too important to be just out among just regular Joes.
08:41-08:41
Don't you know who I am?
08:42-08:43
I'm not just Peter.
08:43-08:45
I'm like the Apostle Peter.
08:46-08:51
And he could have played that card.
08:54-08:54
He knew the truth.
08:56-09:08
The truth that every minister, everybody in ministry, whether it's small group ministry or facilities or hospitality or whatever you're doing, you are never too big for the ministry that you're involved in.
09:09-09:11
You are never too big for the ministry you're involved in.
09:13-09:34
If you think, well, people in the lobby and handing out balloons, that's a little beneath someone like me, then you don't get it. You're not too big for that ministry. Like, well, being in a small group, that's kind of beneath me. You don't get it. You're never too big for your ministry.
09:36-09:44
What made Peter, I was thinking a lot about this, what made Peter so, in this passage we're looking at today, just so invested in people's lives.
09:44-09:49
And I really think the answer takes us back to the beach in John chapter 21.
09:49-09:50
Do you remember that scene?
09:50-09:53
We're not going to turn there because that's like one of my most favorite passages in the whole Bible.
09:53-09:56
And if I turn there, we're going to be there for like three hours, right, Carrie?
09:56-09:58
And I see you nodding.
09:58-09:59
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
09:59-10:04
But it's one of the most beautiful scenes in the whole Bible where Peter just completely blew it.
10:05-10:09
And remember, he denied knowing Jesus, and then Jesus shows up on the beach post-resurrection.
10:12-10:20
And he says, "Do you love me?" "Peter," he says, "You know I love you." And what did Jesus say to Peter?
10:22-10:22
What did he say?
10:23-10:30
He said, "Feed my sheep." And then he said a second time, "Do you love me?" He's like, "Oh yeah, you know I do.
10:30-10:41
You know I love you." "Feed my sheep!" And a third time, "Peter, do you love me?" Same response.
10:42-10:50
"Feed my sheep." What Peter was learning on that beach was loving Jesus meant taking care of Jesus' people.
10:51-10:53
You want to show Jesus that you love Him.
10:54-10:56
You can't send Him a card or give Him a hug.
10:57-11:04
Jesus said the way that we prove, He told Peter, the way that you prove that you love Him is by ministering to His people.
11:06-11:09
Loving Jesus is about making people the priority.
11:09-11:16
In other words, serving people in the name of Jesus is working for God, and that's where you're going to see God at work.
11:20-11:25
Yesterday our church's small groups came together to raise the roof.
11:26-11:30
And it was our third quarter small group outreach.
11:30-11:32
Each small group is involved in outreach events.
11:33-11:36
And all the small groups came together to raise the roof.
11:36-11:46
And I have to tell you, standing here yesterday and seeing everything that was happening just makes me thrilled to be a part of a church like this one.
11:48-11:49
Just absolutely makes me thrilled.
11:49-11:59
There was so much joy in the midst of hard work and all done out of love, all done out of making people the priority.
12:01-12:15
One thing in particular that stood out to me was when Russ Howells prayed before lunch, One of the things Russ prayed, he said, "God, we are working for You." And I remember while he was praying just thinking, yeah, that's right.
12:16-12:18
We're not here for the family that we're serving.
12:19-12:19
That's part of it.
12:20-12:22
We're not here because that's what our small groups do.
12:22-12:23
Yeah, that's part of it.
12:24-12:27
We were there serving God.
12:28-12:29
We were working for God.
12:31-12:39
And listen, church, Some of you are still worn out from that.
12:39-12:42
And I don't want you to miss this.
12:44-12:45
You have to write this down.
12:46-12:53
You will burn yourself out if your focus is on serving people for people's sake.
12:54-13:02
You will burn yourself out if your focus is on serving people for people's sake.
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You will.
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You absolutely will.
13:11-13:25
If your idea is, well, I'm going to serve this person for this person, and this person is going to be so appreciative and respond in the way that I'm expecting them to respond, it is not always going to go that way.
13:28-13:30
You know how many stories I could tell you?
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I'm just going to tell you a couple of really quick abbreviated ones.
13:33-13:35
But in my old church, we had a lady that lived down the street.
13:36-13:37
She called our office constantly.
13:38-13:39
I need help moving.
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I need help moving.
13:40-13:41
She never went to our church.
13:41-13:42
She'd never been to our church.
13:43-13:45
But it was just we were the closest church.
13:45-13:45
I need help moving.
13:46-13:46
I need help moving.
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So finally, one day-- this was a long time ago.
13:49-13:50
I just had my little Jeep.
13:50-13:53
And I said, all right, I'm going to help you move.
13:54-13:58
Well, the lady lived like three floors up in an apartment that had no elevator.
13:59-14:02
And where she was moving was to the other side of town.
14:02-14:04
and it was three floors up.
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I remember when I went into this lady's apartment, her husband was sitting there.
14:09-14:12
He had some kind of an injury or something and wasn't able to help.
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She must have had 300 boxes sitting.
14:18-14:27
And like 200 of them, on the outside, I kid you not, most of her boxes and Sharpie on the outside said underwear.
14:31-14:32
I'm not making that up.
14:32-14:34
every box, underwear, underwear, underwear.
14:35-14:37
And I'm just like, well, you didn't ask.
14:38-14:39
I didn't really know her.
14:39-14:40
But even if I knew her, I probably wouldn't have asked.
14:41-14:43
It was just a little weird.
14:43-14:43
Underwear, underwear.
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But here's the funny thing.
14:46-14:48
Is each box weighed like 75 pounds.
14:49-14:53
I'm like, your underwear is made out of the same stuff they make bowling balls out of.
14:55-14:56
That can't be comfortable.
14:58-15:02
So I'm taking these boxes down into the Jeep, taking the boxes down into the Jeep.
15:02-15:06
Then we drive over to the other place, up three flights of steps into this new place.
15:07-15:17
And after like two or three hours of this, I'll never forget, I was like a third of the way up the steps with yet another box of underwear.
15:17-15:17
Yes.
15:20-15:23
And this whole time I'm thinking, this is evangelism opportunity.
15:23-15:24
I'm going to invite this woman to church.
15:24-15:27
And surely, how can she say no?
15:28-15:30
Because the pastor's carrying your underwear.
15:30-16:00
and well-liked i said so i do have a church of she said oh yeah i got a church in worthington and like well why isn't anybody from that church here helping and she said straight-faced and serious as anything she said all I could never ask my pastor to help.
16:01-16:03
He's way too busy.
16:04-16:07
And besides, he has a bad back.
16:12-16:13
And I felt like one of those old cartoons.
16:13-16:20
Remember the old cartoons when the character's head would turn into a lollipop and it would say "sucker" right on it?
16:21-16:23
That's how I felt.
16:24-16:52
and well tell your pastor from worthington to get over here and carry your heavy britches up the steps we had another guy just very quickly we had another guy he asked if i could help him move he was in a he was moving from one senior housing place to another and uh... he says can you help me move i said yeah we picked a day like july seventh or something like that july seventh i'm gonna be there at ten a.m.
16:52-16:53
We're going to get you moved, pal.
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He goes, you sure?
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I'm like, yeah, no problem.
16:56-17:00
So that was a month from that phone conversation.
17:00-17:03
He called me every day, three times a day.
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He called-- remember, Aaron?
17:05-17:06
He called our house.
17:07-17:08
And this was a conversation.
17:08-17:11
Yeah, Pastor Jeff, I just wanted to see if you were still going to help me move.
17:12-17:14
I guess I'm still going to help you move.
17:14-17:15
I promised I'd be there.
17:16-17:17
I'm going to be there.
17:18-17:37
And every day at the office at home, "Pastor Jeff, are you still going to help me move?" At one point I said, "Do you trust me?" He's like, "Well, yeah, I trust you." And I'm like, "Well, if I told you I'd be there, I'll be there." Again, I'm thinking, you know, here's a poor guy without a church, and maybe this will be a means to share the gospel with him, et cetera.
17:38-17:47
And I've showed up, helped him move, got him all moved into his new place after a month of, you know, phone calls and changing my phone number and everything else in the midst of all this.
17:48-17:57
But as soon as we got him moved, I called it up with him like a day or two later.
17:57-18:00
I said, hey, I'd love for you to come down to our church.
18:00-18:02
We've got a lot of exciting things going on.
18:02-18:03
I'd love for you to be a part of it.
18:03-18:06
He goes, nah, I decided I'm going to the Lutheran church.
18:08-18:11
I'm like, well, then call the Lutherans to move your stuff.
18:15-18:17
Pastor Jeff has a pretty snarky attitude.
18:17-18:18
Look, I'm just being honest with you.
18:21-18:31
It's not always like, "All the moving boxes was done unto the Lord." Sometimes it's just like, "I just busted my hump for you people, and you don't even care!
18:32-18:45
Really? That's how you're going to treat me?" And in those moments, in those moments, I forget that I'm doing this for God.
18:47-18:48
I'm doing it for them.
18:48-18:49
I'm doing it for God.
18:49-18:53
If your mindset's always, "I'm doing it for them," you're going to burn yourself out.
18:55-18:59
When you do it for the Lord, it doesn't matter how the people act.
19:00-19:04
Whether they're appreciative or not, you love God and you love people by serving Him.
19:07-19:14
Number two, do I want people to see Jesus' greatness or do I want people to think I am great?
19:15-19:18
Do I want people to see Jesus' greatness and people who think that I am great.
19:19-19:20
Just pick up in the text.
19:20-19:21
Verse 33.
19:22-19:26
In the case of Peter's traveling here and there, he came down to the saints and lived at Lydda.
19:27-19:31
There at Lydda, he found a man named Aeneas.
19:32-19:35
Bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed.
19:37-19:41
And Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you.
19:41-19:44
Rise and make your bed." And immediately he rose.
19:45-19:55
"All the residents of Lydia and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord." Let's talk about this Aeneas.
19:55-20:00
I read so many commentaries and preachers and scholars, and there's all this debate whether he's saved or not saved.
20:01-20:09
The Bible doesn't tell us whether he was, so I don't think we need to know or God would have told us.
20:09-20:14
The point is, what the Bible does tell us that we need to know bedridden for eight years.
20:18-20:23
Peter went down, and then the power of Christ healed him.
20:26-20:32
If you think about life from Peter's perspective, you remember he started out - what was Peter doing when Jesus found him?
20:32-20:32
Do you remember?
20:33-20:35
He was just a fisherman, right?
20:35-20:56
So one day here's dirty old Peter He went from that to being the leader of an exploding church movement.
20:58-21:03
And you would think that Peter might start to think that he was pretty spectacular.
21:05-21:13
You know, it might have gone from, "Wow, I can't believe Jesus picked me." You know, "I'm going to be a pastor." Jesus must have picked me for a reason.
21:13-21:16
Jesus must have saw some awesomeness in me.
21:17-21:18
But we don't see that in Peter.
21:19-21:35
Because you see in verse 34, Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you." Peter didn't say, "I command the spirits," or "I rebuke the devil." Notice how Peter kept the emphasis where it needed to be.
21:36-21:40
"Jesus Christ heals you." Jesus Christ heals you.
21:44-21:52
And I've got to confess, there are times that I want people to think that I'm awesome.
21:54-21:55
And I don't mean consciously.
21:56-22:00
I don't sit at my desk all week like, man, how can I get people to think I'm awesome?
22:00-22:01
I don't mean that at all.
22:01-22:20
I just mean that there's a part of my flesh, just this little remaining part of my flesh, This old man who sometimes just kind of rears up and says, "People should think that you're pretty awesome." You're sitting here right now going, "Pastor Jeff, that's terrible.
22:21-22:22
That's a terrible thought, Pastor Jeff.
22:22-22:29
How ungodly of you." Let me ask you, do you want people to think that you do your job well?
22:30-22:31
Can you understand what I'm saying?
22:32-22:35
I want people to think that I do a good job.
22:35-22:38
Just like you, whatever you do, don't you want people to think you do a good job?
22:39-22:41
Yeah, she does a great job.
22:41-22:41
She does a great job.
22:42-22:44
I'm just saying I have a little bit of that in me sometimes.
22:45-22:46
Okay?
22:47-22:55
I'm constantly reminded by God's Word, by God's Spirit, that I'm not great.
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Jesus is great.
22:59-23:09
And even if I was great, hypothetically speaking of course, Even if I was great, it's not going to mean anything to you.
23:11-23:16
Jesus Christ's greatness means everything to you.
23:18-23:28
Jesus Christ's greatness brought Him to this earth to suffer and die on behalf of people that really didn't care about Him.
23:29-23:32
People that all like sheep have gone astray, to our own way.
23:33-23:40
Jesus Christ's greatness brought Him to suffer and die on our behalf so that we might be restored.
23:40-23:43
Our relationship with God would be restored.
23:44-23:45
So eternal life could be restored.
23:48-23:49
That's the greatness of Jesus Christ.
23:50-23:54
So it profits people nothing if they leave thinking I'm something.
23:55-24:01
But it profits people everything if they leave thinking Jesus Christ is awesome.
24:04-24:06
So do you want to know how you score in this area?
24:08-24:11
How do you feel if you don't get credit for something that you do?
24:12-24:13
How do you feel about that?
24:13-24:18
If somebody else gets credit for something that you do, how do you feel about that?
24:20-24:23
I remember happening in wrestling days.
24:23-24:25
I remember the first big wrestling show.
24:25-24:52
came out to see me and put on the performance. I was beat up backstage after the show, you know, getting cleaned up, getting dressed, you know, after this big show when I go out. There were a line of people in front of my brother wanting his autograph. They thought he was me. I'm just like, "What are you doing?
24:53-24:56
They shouldn't want your autograph, they should want my autograph.
24:56-25:09
I was the one that just got my tail kicked for 15 minutes by guys a lot bigger than me, and they're lined up, "Can I have your autograph?" And of course, Darren's just like, "Here you go, would you like a picture too?
25:09-25:20
Only $20." "What are you doing, man?" And I thought that would go away becoming a pastor, but that kind of stuff still happens.
25:20-25:21
It still happens.
25:21-25:34
that somebody will come up, I'll be talking to somebody, and they'll be like, "Oh, I heard this preacher say one time, I heard this preacher say..." And then they'll say something that I said in a sermon, and while they're telling me this, I'm like, "It was me! It was me!
25:34-25:37
I said that! I said that!" But you don't actually say that.
25:37-25:45
You're like, "Oh, that preacher must have been pretty wise, pretty insightful." But you don't go, "That was me that said that!" That's happened to me so many times.
25:46-26:00
Like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, I was listening to so-and-so on the radio, and he said this." I'm like, "No, no, that's actually - I said that." And, um, well, do you want to see what happens when you point people to Jesus and not to yourself?
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Look at verse 35.
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It says, "And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord." They turned to the Lord, not Peter.
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They wanted to know Jesus, not Peter.
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And if our ministry is going to have any eternal effect or impact, we have to be willing to be invisible.
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We must decrease - we must not worry about what people think of us.
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Our focus should be what people think of Jesus.
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Thirdly, is it about me my ministry about Jesus. Thirdly, do I manage interruptions and overtime well?
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Look at verse 36.
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Do I manage interruptions and overtime well? Now there wasn't Joppa, a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means Dorcas. Despite what It wasn't like Dorcas was this nasty name they called her, like "hey dork" or anything like that.
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It just means "gizelle." Alright?
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Where was I at? Verse 36.
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"She was full of good works and acts of charity." See, this woman wasn't some big mover and shaker.
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She wasn't some big leader in the church.
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She was a woman of good works.
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What she actually did, we're going to see here in a second, she actually made clothes for widows.
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Those were some of the good works and charity.
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She actually made clothes for the widows.
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And that's a labor of love.
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Ask anyone who's made a quilt for someone.
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Anybody here ever made a quilt for someone?
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All right, a couple of you have?
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Let me ask you this.
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How many of you have received a quilt from someone, or something knitted or crocheted or whatever?
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That's a labor of love.
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Do you know how long that takes?
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How long does it take to make that thing?
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They're like, I started this when you were born back in 1975, and here's your napkin, or whatever.
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It takes forever.
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And I don't have the attention span for that.
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I would get like half of a row and be like, forget it.
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I'm just going to go to Target and buy them one.
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But that is a labor of love to stick with something that long with your hands.
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And that's the reason I'm telling you this, is that's the kind of woman this was.
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She was so concerned for the widows in the church.
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She's like, I'm going to make them clothes.
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And that was who she was.
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So you can tell how loved.
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Because in those days, she became ill and died.
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When they washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
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"When Slita was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, 'Please come to us without delay.'" See, it says they laid her in an upper room.
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That's not normal.
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Normally when somebody dies, you bury them.
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But you see, they knew Peter was nearby.
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And they're like, well, you know what?
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Let's put her in the upper room, Peter and maybe, by God's grace, he can heal.
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He can do something.
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He has an active faith.
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Verse 39, it says, "So Peter and Rosemount went with them, and when he arrived, they took him to the upper room.
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All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made, "Habitha made while she was with them." It's kind of a sad scene. Can you see it?
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Can you see it in your head?
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See all these elderly women?
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She made this for me.
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Isn't that beautiful?
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She made this for me.
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Peter put them all outside.
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Why did he do that?
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I think he did that because he saw Jesus do that.
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I remember back in Mark 5, 40 I think, about the heal someone, but everybody else outside.
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I think it's just that we're not making this a show.
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This isn't Benny Hinn.
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We're not David Copperfield or anything.
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This is serious ministry, right?
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Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed.
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And turning to the body, he said, "Tabitha, arise!" And she opened her eyes, And when she saw Peter, she sat up.
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And he gave her his hand and raised her up.
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Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her a lock." And that's all well and great, right?
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That's a great story for the saints and for the widows.
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I was thinking about this this week.
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This is really great for everyone except for one person, which would be...
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Habitha!
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I mean, could you imagine, like you're in Heaven?
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No more sickness, no more tears, no more sorrow.
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I'm with Grandma.
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Like this place is perfect.
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I'm in the presence of my Lord.
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And the light of His presence shines everywhere.
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And then you're back to Earth.
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Man!
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But we don't see her upset about it.
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We just have to wonder about these things.
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He presents her alive.
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And it says, "And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord." Again, that's the result.
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When the ministry's about Jesus, they didn't turn to Peter.
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Very easily could have, right?
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Peter just raised this woman from the dead!
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"Peter is awesome! Let's worship Peter!" But it doesn't say that.
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It says they turned to the Lord.
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They believed in the Lord.
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He and Peter stayed in Joppa for many days with Simon and Tanner.
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The question we're looking at in just a second here - do I manage interruptions in overtime well?
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Because life and ministry are a lot like Okay, so Peter's got his thing going up in Lydda and people are coming to Christ and there's this healing and all this is happening and then two people come from Joppa.
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"Please come to us without delay.
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Drop everything. I have an emergency." I don't know how many times we've gotten a phone call of people threatening suicide When the phone rings after midnight as a pastor, your heart just sinks because it's usually not good.
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Right, Matt? It's usually not good.
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A good friend fell off a horse and broke her neck.
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She's at AGH.
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Someone says in the hospital because they're having this severe health issue.
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Peter managed the interruption well, didn't he?
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You have to keep in mind when you read people's minds, this this was in a day without cars and trains and buses it wasn't Joppa was 10 miles away okay so it wasn't like 20 -minute car ride it was 10-mile journey to Joppa and Peter very easily like we said earlier he could have played the I'm too important card here Peter could have played the I'm too busy card and he would have been justified Peter could have said look Look guys, look.
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Jesus healed this guy, right?
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And all these people came to Christ.
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I've got to disciple them.
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I've got to get them plugged into church.
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I've got to get them plugged into small groups.
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I've got to tell them more about what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
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I can't just drop everything.
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All these people just came to Christ.
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Actually, the Bible says all the people and share it.
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I can't just drop this.
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God wouldn't want me to do that, would he?
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But he did.
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Let me ask you, how do you do with divine interruptions?
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How do you do when serving Jesus requires going an extra mile?
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You get frustrated, you get annoyed.
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Do you trust in God's sovereignty?
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So often we default to, and I can be guilty of this, I'm too busy.
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The truth is we're all too busy.
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Every one of us here.
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We're too busy.
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Yes, we should disciple people to serve Christ as Peter was doing.
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Yes, we all need breaks from time to time.
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But if you're serving Christ, church, if you're serving Christ, get ready for interruptions and overtime.
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And allow your schedule to yield to God's.
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You might just be interrupting your itinerary because He wants you to see God at work.
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And if you think about it, if Peter would have played the "I'm too busy" card, imagine that.
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If Peter's like, "You know what, I can't come to the job.
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I'm too busy.
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I'm too busy." If he hadn't, he would have missed a woman rising from the dead.
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How many times did that happen?
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A small handful in the whole Bible.
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He would have missed a woman rising from the dead.
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He would have missed all of these people in Joppa believing in Jesus Christ.
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He would have missed all that if he would have went, "Can't do it. Too busy.
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Send somebody else." And finally for today, we're going to jump back to verse 40 for a second.
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We would be remiss if we didn't point out this, asking ourselves this question looking at Peter's example, Ask yourself, is prayer my go-to?
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Look at verse 40.
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When Peter put everybody out, we're back in the upper room, Tabitha, she's laying there dead.
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Peter puts everyone out. What did he do?
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The Bible says he knelt down and prayed.
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I'd like to remind you again some of the things that Peter would have seen just in the last few years.
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Pentecost.
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Tongues of fire over people's heads.
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Speaking in tongues.
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lame beggar at the temple healed, Peter saw an angel stage a prison break for the apostles.
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Despite everything that God has done for Peter and through Peter, he still went straight to prayer.
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So before you attempt anything, whether it's ministering to someone who's down and out, whether it's preparing for worship, whether it's preparing for your day at work, or whatever, as prayer your first step.
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As prayer your go-to.
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As prayer your default mode, because apparently for Peter, despite everything that he's seen and done, prayer was still his default mode.
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Okay, we're going to pray.
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Because it's so easy for us, church, to think that we have the finances or the resources or the creativity to approach any problem.
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It's easy to think, "I did it before.
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I can just do it again." That's easy.
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I could say, "Well, I preached last week. I can preach this week. I don't need to pray.
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I don't need to pray over the text. I don't need to wrestle with God in prayer about what He's trying to teach us." Leading small groups, you can say, "Well, I didn't study for small groups last week. I didn't prepare myself. I didn't pray for people." And things went alright. I mean, it went alright.
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I don't have really time to pray this week, I'm just going to make it happen.
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We're losing the sense that prayer should be our default.
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Without prayer we can lose the truth that it is God and it is only God that is able to forgive.
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Don't tell people, "I'll pray for you." I want to encourage you again as we have before.
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When somebody comes to you with a burden and they sort of open up to you and say, "Here's what we're struggling with." Instead of saying, "I'll pray for you." What should you say?
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"Let's pray right now." Right on the spot.
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Say, "We're going to pray about this right now." Just stop. Boom.
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Let prayer be your go-to.
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It's about God, about His power to perform, not ours.
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Another reminder of our total dependency on Christ is the Lord's Table.
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This is not an opportunity to evaluate whether you like this church based on how the communion juice tastes.
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What this is instead is a reminder for us We have total dependency upon Jesus Christ.
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You know, the Bible says that every time we do this, we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
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Now what are we proclaiming about the Lord's death?
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When we take the Lord's Supper together, we're saying, "Jesus, it's You that heals.
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Jesus, it's You that raises the dead.
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Jesus, it's You that gives power.
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Jesus, it's You that transforms us.
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Jesus, it is you that continually changes us.
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So I'm going to ask you, church, as an act of fellowship, once we pass those elements out, if you just hold them, and then we'll receive the Lord's Supper together, and we're going to stand, and we're going to worship.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 9:32-43
What do Aeneas, Tabitha, and Simon have in common? What does this say about our approach to ministry?
Many Jews hated tanners because they worked with dead animals. Do you have any prejudices? How can you overcome them?
*How did you do on the questions evaluating your ministry? In what areas do you struggle?
Do I Make People the Priority? (Acts 9:32)
Do I Want People to See Jesus’ Greatness... or Think I Am Great? (Acts 9:33-35)
Do I Manage Interruptions and Overtime Well? (Acts 9:36-42)
Is Prayer My “Go-To”? (Acts 9:40)
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.