Archive for November, 2014
A Month of Preaching That Will Call Your Church to be All God Wants You to Be
The most influential voice in the life of a church is the voice of the preacher when he preaches the Bible, God’s Word. This preacher is usually the pastor of the church.
Every pastor I know wants to call His church up to be all God wants the church to be. What we preach, how we preach, and when we preach all influence the outcome. Therefore, I am humbly requesting every pastor, every church, and every chapel of our Baptist entities, conventions, seminaries, and colleges to consider a month of preaching that may involve four or five messages that call the people of God to be all God wants them to be.
1 Month of Preaching on These Subjects
Between the months of January and May 2015, move into a one-month emphasis to preach and teach God’s Word on the following subjects:
- Personal Repentance
- Extraordinary Prayer
- Fasting
- Personal and Church Revival
- Spiritual Awakening
- Reaching the World for Christ
In our newly released 16-page e-book, Pleading With Southern Baptists, we presented an urgent call to five actions for every Southern Baptist Christian and church. Last week, I wrote about the first action, 3 Minutes at Sunset or Sunrise Can Turn Your Church Around. The second action is to give a month to preaching on these subjects.
At Cross Church, we are doing this series over five or six weeks, calling it, Pleading With Cross Church. We have used the word “pleading” in correlation with the e-book. Consider doing the same, really calling upon your church or ministry to read the 16-page e-book as well.
Pastors and preachers, you can go here to see various biblical messages on these subjects preached by some of America’s greatest preachers of the gospel. Use or quote from these inspiring sermons as God leads you. This collection is well worth the experience and we are adding to it continually.
Extend Passionate Calls to the People of God Individually and Collectively
As you ground your message in the Word of God, present it with a passionate call to the people of God. While we lift up these great biblical and spiritual principles, call God’s people to spiritual greatness individually and collectively.
This is an opportunity for thousands of churches and ministries to call their people to become what God wants them to be. As you proclaim the Word, present the wonderful message of the hope we have in the Lord. It is time to look to Him alone. He can turn any person, church, city, nation, and any convention of churches around.
When Will We Realize…
When will we realize that above all our perceived needs in life and church, there is no greater need personally and collectively in the church than a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We have seen what man can do; it is time for us to see what God can do!
This is why we need to preach on these great subjects like personal repentance, extraordinary prayer, fasting, personal and church revival, spiritual awakening, and reaching the world for Christ. They are all interconnected and imperative in both life and the church.
A Historical Precedent
When Jonathan Edwards wrote his “Humble Attempt”, he called the pastors and churches to action, resulting in a mighty moving of the Spirit. They believed more than anything that they needed to agree together and visibly unite in extraordinary prayer.
When they did, God moved. He moved so powerfully, we call it awakening! Multiple thousands came to Christ, culture was affected, and churches were changed.
We must begin to believe there is a connection between a great move of God and the fulfillment of the Great Commission. This is why we must repent, pray, and fast to experience revival that leads to awakening, which will become the catalyst to the acceleration of the gospel to the nations.
It is past time to see what God can do.
Enough of us, more of God.
This is why we must preach it!
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church President, Southern Baptist Convention
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is currently serving as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention is America’s largest Protestant denomination with more than 15.7 million members in over 46,000 churches nationwide.
To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd
contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.
Visit our website at http://ronniefloyd.com
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Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Sheltered in God’s Salvation
Have you ever been caught walking in a rainstorm without an umbrella? Do we not all begin looking for big trees, doorways, or awnings to stand under to avoid being drenched? I could have used that this past week as I attended our University of Arkansas Razorback football game on a cold and rainy afternoon.
Have you ever been in a tornado or hurricane when finding shelter was a top priority? Far more deadly than a rainstorm, the power in these weather events means we need real shelter: concrete, solid barriers, steel doors, safety.
We need something to overcome the elements of our physical world.
God is our shelter
Scripture portrays God Himself as a shelter to us. Psalm 27:1-2 states, “The Lord is my light and my salvation–whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life–of whom should I be afraid?” In another Psalm we read, “I call to You from the ends of the earth when my heart is without strength. Lead me to a rock that is high above me, for You have been a refuge for me, a strong tower in the face of the enemy.”1
In Bible Studies for Life, Philip Nation addresses the reality of God being our shelter: “The reason we can trust this light–this salvation, this stronghold–is because it comes to us not as a thing, but as a Person.”2 A personal shelter means personal interaction and personal response. God is not cold as stone or silent as steel; He knows our needs and covers us with Himself.
The Psalmist asks, “Whom shall I fear?” and “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The answer to these rhetorical questions is “no one.” God is greater and more powerful than any storm we shall ever face. It is He Himself who shelters us. Every storm of life is subject to His ultimate authority.
Satan cannot overpower our shelter
There is no upheaval Satan can cause that can overpower the shelter God provides, because “the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”3 No calamity of life can separate us from the God who is for us (Romans 8:31-39). No temptation is strong enough to wrestle us from the faithful power of God (1 Corinthians 10:13). No one is able to snatch us out of His hand (John 10:28-30).
God does not need to build a shelter for us; He is a shelter for us.
We deal with all kinds of adversaries
“We deal with adversaries…pretty similar to the ones [King] David faced. Financial problems, family stress, cultural craziness, and even wars around the world all plague us at one time or another. But just like David, we can gain confidence from our salvation, knowing that the enemies in our lives cannot overcome the victory God brings to us.”4
God is greater than all of our adversaries. Since He is for us, who can be against us?
Yours for the Great Commission,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church General Editor, Bible Studies for Life President, Southern Baptist Convention1– Psalm 61:2-3 (all scripture HSCB)
2– Bible Studies for Life, Storm Shelter, by Philip Nation
3– 1 John 4:4b
4– Bible Studies for Life, Storm Shelter, by Philip Nation
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.