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

Wednesday 10/16/13

Topic: The Fear of the Lord & Healing

Series – And He Healed them all:

The Fear of the Lord and Health XIV.mp3

Key Text:

Prov. 3:7-8

1 Peter 4:1-7

Heb. 5:7-9

The Fear of the Lord and Healing…

Tonight we went further into our teaching about being good stewards over the grace gift(-s) we all have received. Most of this message was encouragement to believe in the goodness of God in His giving of the gifts to begin with. In the giving, God does not place unrealistic expectations nor heavy burdens upon us, but instead empowers us IN the gifting and gives us GREAT JOY in the use of our gifts. The only things we must keep on our radar are:

Honoring God – desiring to represent Him well and glorify Him in the administration of our gifts.
Love God – pursuing His desires above all else. As Jesus said to His disciples, “I have bread to eat that you know not of, that is to do the will of the One Who sent Me.” Jesus took great personal delight in pleasing the Father and so can we if we will simply allow our hearts to fall in love with Him.
Love our brothers with passionate and unending love. Realizing that in so doing we are fulfilling one of the closest and dearest desires of God’s heart. Allowing ourselves to take delight in honor our brothers and sisters above ourselves and reveling in the fact that God looks to and empowers us to be His hands and feet to love His children well.
Don’t force your gifts, just allow them to happen. You will find that it is as natural to you as it is for a fish to swim or a bird to fly.

Then we looked over 1 Peter and saw the list of grace gifts which are mentioned. This is NOT a comprehensive list any more than are the one in 1Cor. 12 or Romans 12.

In this passage Peter encourages diligence, seriousness, deferment to God’s ability within, honoring with sincerely love our siblings in Christ and above all honoring and glorifying Christ.

We ended by looking at two specific things Peter mentioned leading up to his encouragement for us to be faithful stewards over the grace-gifts we have been given.

First we saw how we need to be sincere and watchful in our prayers and how Godly fear is directly connected to this by looking at Hebrews 5:7-9.

Let’s read that,

“(Jesus) Who in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation;” ~ Heb. 5:7-9

This is one of the things we have greatly lost in the modern church. In the past we so revered God as to make Him entirely unapproachable, so we needed to become more aware of how welcome we are before His throne due to the finished work of Christ. however, we have inadvertently swung to the full and opposite extreme so that now we treat God more like a buddy than the Sovereign God He is, which is equally inappropriate. God is both Father and friend, Highly exalted and humble, to be feared and yet to be familiar enough to call home. All of these are to be held in perfect tension NOT by our own minds or reasoning but by the inward promptings of the Precious Holy Spirit Who ALWAYS leads us into all truth. Here, in the verses above we see Christ in His humanity, Who was heard by God NOT because He was God incarnate, but because of His godly fear! Let us NEVER for get that truth!

Now you’d think that Godly fear in prayer was probably at the top of the list of important things for the Christian wouldn’t you? I agree, yet, Peter goes on to say…

“Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be clear-headed and disciplined for prayer. Above all, keep your love for one another at full strength, since love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining.” ~ 1Peter 4:7-9

Notice that even above our prayer life is our love walk! Peter, led by the Holy Spirit encourages us to have fervent love for our brothers and sisters in Christ and extend every hospitality to each other for Christ’s sake and the kingdom. One of the most effective ways to love your fellow Christian well is to be a faithful steward of your grace gift and minister to your brothers and sisters with it – it is the command of God.

We covered this MUCH more clearly and thoroughly in the audio. 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!