Welcome and Devotional

[00:00:00] Let's bow our heads for prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we come to you this evening. Lord, we invite your presence in this gathering. We invite your presence in the gatherings to come the next several days. We pray in filling of your power, anointing of your spirit, especially on those who have a part, those who speak. We just pray that you would give them power from on high. Open our hearts, Lord, to your truth. Again, we want to give you all the glory and all the praise for everything that happens. [00:00:32] In Jesus' name, Amen. Your singing sounds wonderful. I could sing for another hour, I believe. It's beautiful. On behalf of Fairhaven and Woodlawn congregations, we'd like to welcome you to the 2010 ministers' meetings. This is a mixed blessing. It's a joy for us to host you. And it's a joy to see some of my friends here. But it is also sad because I was privileged to be here the last several days and several times I did hear the MIC board talk about the loss that they are experiencing. [00:01:04] Brother Willis Bontrager is not here. There are probably others who attended last year's meeting who are not here as well. Also we received word yesterday that a young man by the name of Titus Glick Philip Glick's son, which would be Eli Glick's grandson, and also David Yoder, senior at Rosewood, would also be his grandson, drowned in an accident, and I believe in El Salvador. And obviously, it still fresh in our minds, the tragic accident in Kentucky. [00:01:37] I'd again just like to bow our heads for ten seconds or so, and you breathe a prayer for these people, and I will just close. Father in heaven, our hearts go out this evening to those who are experiencing loss. We know that you bring healing to the hurting heart and you bring comfort in time of pain. And so Lord, we just pray that you would meet the needs of each one of these families. [00:02:11] We commit them to you in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like for you to turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3 Our theme comes from 2 Timothy 3, verse 15 In the King James it says like this Study to show thyself approved unto God A workman that needeth not to be ashamed Rightly dividing the word of truth I think as pastors we all have a desire to rightly divide the word of truth Obviously we are human [00:02:42] But it is our goal to do that I'd like to read this in the New King James Version. The New King James says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I took the liberty of looking this up in my college dictionary. Diligent, the first definition of that is constant in effort to accomplish something. Diligence is similar. It says constant and earnest effort. As I thought about being a diligent workman [00:03:14] and some of the things that might hinder us from being diligent as we would like if I were to ask you to fill out a paper and hand it in as we go out the door or maybe into the center aisle and we collect those and I would ask you, what is the number one threat to your success as an ordained pastor? What would you consider the number one threat to your success as an ordained pastor? Are you to meet your calling? Is it the left-wing opposition in your church? [00:03:47] Is it fatigue? We all get tired, don't we? That's something all pastors can identify with. We get fatigued. Is it maybe personal sin or apostasy? Or do we battle the secular teachings that are creeping into our churches? We know that there are many secular writers, or even Christian writers, so-called Christian writers, that print the untruth or partial truth. This can be a challenge. [00:04:22] Or do we have a lot of individualism in our churches? People that aren't body conscious. What is your number one threat? Obviously, you would probably have differences as far as to what you would write down There's quite a bit of diversity here and difference of experience. As the Fairhaven and Woodlawn pastors sat together the last months, putting together the program, [00:04:57] it's our desire that you would go from here refreshed and energized. To feel the calling as a pastor, to be diligent, to be a diligent workman, So that when we are presented to God, we don't have to be ashamed. That we'd be an approved workman. I think all of us want to be an approved workman. Obviously, we could have chose different topics that would have also met those needs. But as we look at the heart of the Father, and if we try to understand the heart of the Father, [00:05:32] and sometimes we forget that it's God who called us. sometimes we think the load is too heavy and we can't handle it and we forget that we're actually doing God's work I'm not doing Wilbur's work and Paul Leroy is not doing Paul Leroy's work he's doing God's work and we sometimes forget that the pastor's home the essence of salvation the vibrant brotherhood the way of peace which will include things that we struggle with [00:06:02] separation of church and state How do we feel about peace? How do we really feel? What are we teaching? The servant leader. That's really what we need to be. We know that. The Great Commission. And then the final message is the diligent workman. I'd like for you to take out your Christian hymnary again. I'd just like to read one verse of page 16. together in unison. Not all of you can see a book, I'm sure, but where you can, page 16, verse 2. Read with me. [00:06:47] Let each one consider the price we have cost. Let each one be burdened with souls that are lost and seek that infilling of power from above that fills us for service and fills us with love. Again, it's our desire that you go home refreshed and energized.