Correcting Ministry Mistakes By David Wood

Some of us have been living our lives measuring not with God's tape measure, but with the world's. And if you measure your life with what the world says is important, what the world says makes you measure up, you're gonna find in the end that you come up way short. Paul encourages us to measure our spiritual ministry by God's approval, not comparison. And that's why I've been walking around with the tape measure all morning. For those of you who are wondering, alright, we need to measure our spiritual ministry by God's approval, not comparison. [00:18:52] (39 seconds)  #MeasureByGod

What type of weapons did Jesus employ? What type of weapons did Jesus put to use? One of the weapons that Jesus used is that of humility. Think about it. Jesus humiliated, naked, whipped, crucified on a humiliating cross. That was his method of achieving victory over your sin and over mine. Jesus used the weapon of prayer. Going away to quiet places to talk with the father and to get on the same page with the father, to say, if there's another way for this forgiveness to be extended to these these people, this humankind that we have created, yet not my will, but your will be done. [00:09:10] (52 seconds)  #HumilityIsPower

You may have some plumbing to rework in your ministry. Like I said before, for me, it was really tough to to have to cut out that huge section of piping and just take it out and be like, alright, this is all garbage. It's all done. This stuff that I thought was getting me where I needed to go, I'm gonna leave it behind. So I'm gonna do it according to the code for each one of us as we serve the people around us and as we serve our God. Let's do it according to God's measurement. Let's do it according to God's code that he might receive that glory, and so that we can be amazed as he empowers us to do real, powerful kingdom work for his name. [00:25:17] (48 seconds)  #RevampYourMinistry

What about those times when temptation came Jesus' way? And Satan, Lucifer himself, is tempting Jesus with thing after thing. What did Jesus use to fight that spiritual warfare? He used scripture. Jesus quoting the word of God. The word of God that will never pass away. God's perfect eternal standard of truth. Jesus quoted that to Satan and was able to be victorious in that time using that that weapon. [00:10:03] (32 seconds)  #ScriptureIsWeapon

So I wanna ask you that question. The power and the authority that God has given to you and each one of us have been entrusted with an area of power and authority. Whether, like I said, in the workplace, at home, within ministry roles at the church, are you using what God has entrusted to you to build others up? Whatever size hammer of authority God has entrusted to you, are you using that for the sake of others being blessed? [00:16:28] (35 seconds)  #UseAuthorityToBless

Those people in, in Corinth, they were measuring Paul. They were measuring themselves based on worldly metrics. Things like how many Instagram followers does that pastor have? How big is the church? How new is the church? How many people are listening to his sermons? How many people know about them? There's all sorts of different ways how ornately can that person pray. And each one of us, at times, I'm sure, have been tempted to measure ourselves based on somebody else. [00:19:30] (36 seconds)  #NotMeasuredByFollowers

Those people in Corinth, those people that maybe they had a large following, those people that had really great skills in the area of public speaking, those people in Corinth were judging Paul by outward appearance and they said, wow. When you show up, you're not the loudest voice in the room. You're not the guy who preaches the longest sermons. You are speaking with meekness. But Paul had to remind them, the purpose of authority is not to build out your own resume. The purpose of the authority that you have, whether it's in your home or your workplace or your neighborhood or that's a group of people that you're a part of, that community group, the purpose of authority in there is to be a blessing, not to increase your own standing. [00:14:30] (54 seconds)  #LeadershipIsServanthood

In the school world, what do we say? It doesn't matter what grade you'd give yourself over the last semester, it matters what the professor says about your work. The grade that we should be looking to is not how good do we feel about how we're doing, but instead, what is God's true accurate assessment of how we have been serving him? My hope is that each one of us in this place would look and say, how is it that I am ministering? Are there areas of correction that are needed in my life? And the Holy Spirit may even now be bringing to your attention something that needs a change. [00:22:56] (47 seconds)  #SeekGodsAssessment