Full-length Sermon Manuscripts with illustrations.
Someone said, “You were saved to serve”. Ask any Pastor and he will tell uninvolved Christians are the biggest frustration in ministry. There are many reasons why Christians are reluctant to give themselves in service to God. I cannot cover them all in this sermon. However, we will learn about the five root causes of the issue and the antidotes to them based on the encounter Moses had with God in the wilderness. We will be reading from Exodus chapters 03 and o4.
In the Oxford dictionary, the word “commission” has two definitions. One is “an instruction, command, or role given to a person or group.” It reminds us of the great commission recorded in the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 28 verses 19 – 20 (…Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you… – NET) The other is the “authority to perform a task or certain duties.” That reminds us of the power for witnessing which Christ promised us in the book of Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. (But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.– NET)
The believers in the early church belonged to three social groups. Slaves, former slaves, and people who were born free. Slaves in the Roman Empire were always not slaves. They were forced into slavery by the circumstances of life. By the time the New Testament Church was formed however the slave community of Rome consisted mostly of people that were born into slavery.
Like any human being, slaves also desired to be free. Therefore at times, they ran away from their masters, in search of everlasting freedom. According to Roman Law, however, a runaway slave was still a slave. Running away did not set him free. Not legally. In fact, he had to keep on running to avoid capture by his master and it was only a matter of time until he was captured. Under Roman law, a slave had to meet one out of three conditions in order to receive his freedom.
According to psychology, rational fear and irrational fear are the most basic forms of fear. We know, however, fear is always counterproductive, whether rational or irrational. For example, the author of 1 Samuel describes Goliath and his weapons in great detail not only to highlight God’s power over the enemies of his people but also to imply Saul’s men feared him for a valid reason. However, it was counterproductive, and God raised David to deal with Goliath.
The famous song “Nobody’s Perfect” by Miley Cyrus says “Everybody makes mistakes & everybody has those days.” She is right. None of us are perfect. All of us are prone to error and mistakes. The church in Corinth was not an exception. From our studies on the Corinthian Epistles so far, we know our friends in Corinth had some serious issues that needed resolving. One of the issues was divisions rooted deep in the lack of a biblically grounded understanding of the spiritual gifts. Paul addressed this issue in-depth in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 on which this sermon is based.
Research indicates that 80% of evangelicals in the US know they are called to evangelize, but 61% have admitted to not having a spiritual conversation with anyone for the past six months. Although church leaders often introduce fresh methods to solve the problem, actually our hesitation to evangelize rests on our unawareness of the supernatural power of the gospel.
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