DEVOTED TO CHRIST, Week 5
To Serve as a Disciple
If you would like to extend this over a week, you can easily do one of the points each day of your devotion. Here is a printable version.
25 Day Church Challenge
Devotional: Serving the Body of Christ
Day 1
Spend time today looking at these verses:
Spiritual gifts: (2 Timothy 1:11) - Heart: (Romans 15:20, Galatians 2:8, Acts 20:24)
Abilities: (Acts18:2-4) - Personality: (Galatians 1:13-14) - Experiences: (Acts 8:1, Acts 9:1-20, 2 Cor. 11:23-27, Acts 22:3)
What thoughts do you have on what may be your SHAPE? ______________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Often times we make finding out our ministry more difficult than it needs to be. Let me ask you a series of questions based on the acronym shape:
Spiritual gift: Do you know your spiritual gift? __________________________________________________
Heart: What does your heart hurt for or what are you passionate about? ______________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Abilities: What are you good at? _________________________________________________________________
Personality: Are you detail oriented, a people person, outgoing, or shy. _______________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Experiences: What are some good and bad experiences that have shaped you. _____________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________
When you start to write them out, you will start to see how God has shaped you and what for. If you could do anything for God and money wasn’t a concern, what would it be? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Day 2
Ephesians 4:11-12 - God has given...pastors and teachers 12 to prepare God’s people for works of ministry so the Body of Christ may be built up.
The Bible says…
The pastors are administers. The people are the ministers.
Your ministry is determined by your SHAPE. What God made you to be determines what He
intends for you to do.
The two huge benefits to knowing how God has shaped you are: fruitfulness and fulfillment.
What is ministry?
Definition: (Greek “diakonos”); to serve
We minister/serve in three directions:
-To the Lord. -- We do it through worship. When we worship, we are actually ministering to God. We're using what God has given us to serve Him.
-To other believers. — Hebrews 6:10 - God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
-To unbelievers. — Matthew 5:13 - You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
Question: In what ways do you find yourself ministering/serving in each of the three areas? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Day 3
Matthew 20:28 - Jesus: “Your attitude must be like My Own, for I did not come to be served, but to serve...” (LB)
Learning to serve like Jesus means: being available.
Matthew 20:30, 32 - Two blind men... shouted, “Lord, have mercy on us!” ...32 Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want Me to do for you?” He asked.
Three Barriers:
1st Barrier: Self-centeredness
Philippians 2:4 - Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (MSG)
2nd Barrier: Perfectionism
Ecclesiates11:4 - If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done. (NLT)
3rd Barrier: Materialism
Luke 16:13 - “No servant can serve two masters... You cannot serve both God and money."
Question: How would you rate your availability? _______________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are there barriers that you need to ask God to remove? _______________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Spend time in prayer for a heart that is available.
Day 4
Matthew 20:28 - Jesus said, “Your attitude must [circle "must"] be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve.” Jesus said it's not an option. A non-ministering Christ follower is not obeying God. He expect us to be like Jesus Christ.
In Colossians 4:17 Paul says to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry you've received from the Lord and fulfill it.” Circle “fulfill.” The secret of a fulfilled life is to find the ministry for which God made you and get right in the middle. You're going to find fulfillment there more than any other area of your life, because it's what God made you to be. He said, you lose your life to find it. I'm commanded to minister.
We are commanded to minister/serve. A great place to start looking for opportunities to serve would be the “Serve” card.
Prayer: Pray that God would open your heart and be available.
Day 5
1 Corinthians 12:27 - All of you together are the one body of Christ and each of you is a separate and necessary [circle “separate” and “necessary”] part of it.
When you don't fulfill the ministry God has given you, others get cheated. We're all a necessary part.
What if your liver said to your body, "I don't want to serve this year. I need some time off." Have you ever heard your liver say, "I just want to be fed"? You say, "I'm sorry, dear liver, but because you're part of the body of me, you've got to preform your function." Because, if the liver doesn't do it's part, the whole body gets cheated.
The body of Christ needs you in a ministry.
Prayer: “God open my eyes to the fact I’m part of your body on earth and if the world is going to see you (Christ) it will be through what I do in your name.”
Devotional: Serving the Body of Christ
Day 1
Spend time today looking at these verses:
Spiritual gifts: (2 Timothy 1:11) - Heart: (Romans 15:20, Galatians 2:8, Acts 20:24)
Abilities: (Acts18:2-4) - Personality: (Galatians 1:13-14) - Experiences: (Acts 8:1, Acts 9:1-20, 2 Cor. 11:23-27, Acts 22:3)
What thoughts do you have on what may be your SHAPE? ______________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ephesians 2:10 - For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Often times we make finding out our ministry more difficult than it needs to be. Let me ask you a series of questions based on the acronym shape:
Spiritual gift: Do you know your spiritual gift? __________________________________________________
Heart: What does your heart hurt for or what are you passionate about? ______________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Abilities: What are you good at? _________________________________________________________________
Personality: Are you detail oriented, a people person, outgoing, or shy. _______________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Experiences: What are some good and bad experiences that have shaped you. _____________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________
When you start to write them out, you will start to see how God has shaped you and what for. If you could do anything for God and money wasn’t a concern, what would it be? __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Day 2
Ephesians 4:11-12 - God has given...pastors and teachers 12 to prepare God’s people for works of ministry so the Body of Christ may be built up.
The Bible says…
The pastors are administers. The people are the ministers.
Your ministry is determined by your SHAPE. What God made you to be determines what He
intends for you to do.
The two huge benefits to knowing how God has shaped you are: fruitfulness and fulfillment.
What is ministry?
Definition: (Greek “diakonos”); to serve
We minister/serve in three directions:
-To the Lord. -- We do it through worship. When we worship, we are actually ministering to God. We're using what God has given us to serve Him.
-To other believers. — Hebrews 6:10 - God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
-To unbelievers. — Matthew 5:13 - You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
Question: In what ways do you find yourself ministering/serving in each of the three areas? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Day 3
Matthew 20:28 - Jesus: “Your attitude must be like My Own, for I did not come to be served, but to serve...” (LB)
Learning to serve like Jesus means: being available.
Matthew 20:30, 32 - Two blind men... shouted, “Lord, have mercy on us!” ...32 Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want Me to do for you?” He asked.
Three Barriers:
1st Barrier: Self-centeredness
Philippians 2:4 - Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. (MSG)
2nd Barrier: Perfectionism
Ecclesiates11:4 - If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done. (NLT)
3rd Barrier: Materialism
Luke 16:13 - “No servant can serve two masters... You cannot serve both God and money."
Question: How would you rate your availability? _______________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are there barriers that you need to ask God to remove? _______________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Spend time in prayer for a heart that is available.
Day 4
Matthew 20:28 - Jesus said, “Your attitude must [circle "must"] be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve.” Jesus said it's not an option. A non-ministering Christ follower is not obeying God. He expect us to be like Jesus Christ.
In Colossians 4:17 Paul says to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry you've received from the Lord and fulfill it.” Circle “fulfill.” The secret of a fulfilled life is to find the ministry for which God made you and get right in the middle. You're going to find fulfillment there more than any other area of your life, because it's what God made you to be. He said, you lose your life to find it. I'm commanded to minister.
We are commanded to minister/serve. A great place to start looking for opportunities to serve would be the “Serve” card.
Prayer: Pray that God would open your heart and be available.
Day 5
1 Corinthians 12:27 - All of you together are the one body of Christ and each of you is a separate and necessary [circle “separate” and “necessary”] part of it.
When you don't fulfill the ministry God has given you, others get cheated. We're all a necessary part.
What if your liver said to your body, "I don't want to serve this year. I need some time off." Have you ever heard your liver say, "I just want to be fed"? You say, "I'm sorry, dear liver, but because you're part of the body of me, you've got to preform your function." Because, if the liver doesn't do it's part, the whole body gets cheated.
The body of Christ needs you in a ministry.
Prayer: “God open my eyes to the fact I’m part of your body on earth and if the world is going to see you (Christ) it will be through what I do in your name.”
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