Changing Our World, One Person at a Time
(Effecting change in the life of those we encounter)
Part Three
Opening
1. Before you can change the world for good, you must be changed
A. A godly home, is a powerful testimony of the one ministering
1. Nothing will kill a man’s effectiveness in the ministry than children who are unruly, out of order and rebellious
I well remember as a brand new Christian listening to a man of God preach on child-raising, then a brother leaned over to me & said, He has children of drugs.
2. We used to have a person in our midst who thought she excelled at Child rearing- But after looking at her children, what she told us concerning how to raise children, simple fell on deaf ears.
3. Whether right or wrong, our families are the windows into our personal life and practice of Christianity.
a. 1 Timothy 3:4- One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)
B. Honest with others…
1. Looking of one honest man
ONE of my all-time heroes is Diogenes the Cynic, who spent most of his life chilling in his barrel outside the city-state of Corinth.
He was the original Cynic because he believed that men and women lived a life dictated by rules and taboos and therefore no one was really truthful or honest.
He would go out under the cover of darkness, swinging his lantern into the face of those he came in contact with. He was looking for one honest person when asked what he was doing.
2. "Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" (John 1:47, KJV)
3. "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor:…" (Ephesians 4:25)
4. I lettered trucks for NuFlow and he told his men, now there is an honest man,
C . Practice the ministry of encouragement.
1. Proverbs 25:11- A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
2. Many are the times I have been lifted into the heaven lies by an honest note of encouragement.
3. Everybody needs affirmation of his or her intrinsic worth—a person created in God’s image and loved by him.
A journalist visited a women’s prison with the heavyweight fighter Muhammad Ali. "All the inmates lined up," "They were ooh-ing and aah-ing as he went along. There were some good-looking ones. But he kissed only the ugly ones." After they left the prison, Conrad asked the fighter to explain why he chose to kiss only those women.
"Because no one ever kisses ’em," responded Ali.
Ali never said, but as a black man growing up in the Forties & Fifties, he knew what it felt to be the ugly, the downtrodden, neglected.
4. 2 Timothy 1:16- The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:
Refreshed- 404- to cool again, to recover breath
According to tradition, he went to Spain in the footsteps of St. Paul and then suffered martyrdom on the Hellespont, under Emperor Domitian. He was tied to wild horses and torn to pieces.
5. Tell how a minister with Glenn Sensenig came to my rescue when Lester Gingerich mocked me.
D. Forgive the mistakes & failings of others.
1. "The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression." (Proverbs 19:11, KJV)
2. "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;" (Hebrews 12:15, KJV)
Bitterness - Satan’s choice of stronghold in a Christians life
3. Forgiveness is seeking the restoration of RELATIONSHIP where and when we can.
We are to be bridge builders in the kingdom. Building bridges to bridge the gap between our fellow human being.
CLOSING….
1. In order to change our world, we must first be changed…..
BUT HOW can we minister to them, if we first, have not been ministered to?
2. We are the lighthouse of God to the souls of men…..
A beacon of hope to those who hurt….
3 May they say about us when we are gone, they were faith to their generation… they changed their world…
