Sacrificial Availability

I want you to think of a close friend or a family member who at any time you'd drop what you were doing to help them out. Now most likely you'd take a phone call from them, run them gas on the highway if they ran out, pick them up from somewhere, loan them money, offer advice, be a shoulder to cry on, right? Why? Because you care, they are important to you, their needs are important to you and their future is important to you.

Now I want you to think about someone you know that you aren't exactly "close" to on the same level as the person we just talked about. Get someone on your mind...

Do they know Christ? If they are a believer, are they grounded? Do they have a good support system, could they benefit from you reaching out to them?

Over the years I've had people come in and out of my life, people that I believe God positioned in my life so that for a time or season I might have some positive influence on them (some more than others). This isn't a "oh wow Ryan you are so wise and almighty" comment, I think God allowed me to learn as much if not more from the experience than what I was able to impart to these individuals. One thing I've taken away from these experiences, which I was reminded of recently in my Sunday School class(we now call them Connect Groups), to truly reach someone and be there for them, we have to make ourselves "Sacrificially Available."

So you might ask, "What do you mean 'Sacrificially Available?'" Well I'm glad that you asked, I feel like it means to make yourself completely and totally available to a person in order to benefit them to the best of your ability. Often times we tell people to give us a call or shoot us a text if they need prayer or anything at all. Frequently we press ignore on our phones or don't call them back for days. This is not being available at all and certainly not on the sacrificial level. 

So why the sacrifice? To be a Christian means to be Christ-like. What did Christ do? Sacrificed himself so that we might have eternal life. Any chance we can sacrifice something to help someone else we are being like Christ. I feel like true "Sacrificial Availability" means that you put another person's needs and priorities above your own, this would be the common behavior in a marriage or between a parent and their children. This kind of activity obviously breeds love, success, maturity, discipline, the list goes on. Why not try this with someone in need? 

Pray that God opens your eyes to see a person in need, or ask that they literally be dropped in your lap. It can happen, and this is the kind of ministry where we can be really effective in sharing about Christ, what He's done for us, and what He can do for them. Think about Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch from the book of Acts, Phillip was minding his own business traveling from one town to another town and God brought him somebody....
29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” 30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth."
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. 36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him."
-Acts 8:29-38

Phillip, in this instance, made himself "Sacrificially Available" to this man, and because of it, he was able to lead this man to Christ and Baptize him as well. More often than not, our experiences won't be this simple or short lived, but the moral of the story stays the same. As ambassadors of Christ, we make ourselves available to deliver his message, but we don't just leave it at that. We must make an effort to continually encourage and build up those we witness to. Sometimes the continual contact and conversations will minister more to a person than all our efforts to "evangelize" them. Personal contact goes a LONG ways today.

So again, what is "Sacrificial Availability?" I say it means answering the phone when that person calls, it may mean stepping away from the dinner table, muting the TV show, waking up in the middle of the night, or going over to someones house to let them unload all of their emotions. It means going beyond what any normal person would, because guess what? We aren't normal people, we are believers in Jesus Christ, we are Christians, we are more than Conquers and we are empowered for ministry by the Holy Spirit and called by the Great Commission to go preach, teach, and reach.

Become "Sacrificially Available" to those people you are ministering to, or to that friend who needs your help, or that coworker or classmate that really doesn't have anybody. Go out of your way to care about someone else's needs and make their priorities your priorities. Their future ought to matter to you, they need to be important to you, you should care...

Be blessed!

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The Power of Words....

From an experience I had recently.

Things we say, especially those recorded on the Internet forever, can be very powerful for many many years in the future.

Our words have the power to do good and to bring harm, what are you saying when you communicate?

"The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."

-Proverbs 18:21

Fortunately in the instance I'm referencing, my words did some good. I gave a friend of mine a reference a few years back. She worked under me when we were in a University Television Program. She was awesome at anything she did, but she really excelled in graphic design. One of the lines in my reference was, "(she) is the kind of person you wish you could clone and make an entire team out of."

We are connected through LinkedIn among many other social media platforms, and I happened to see this tidbit listed on her profile. I was shocked to see that she was portraying it front and center on her profile, not because I didn't mean what I said, I did, but I figured there were just better things a person could use to promote their abilities than a quote from little old me. After a little messaging, she shared with me that this quote from me had been very beneficial to her professionally with interviews and promotions and much more. Here is a quote from one of her responses, 
"I have to say this quote has taken me places! ...not only has it given my employers a "better" idea of the kind of person I am, but it has given me a lot of confidence to think of myself in this way and know I can be a valuable team member. Sometimes the job market takes away your confidence! 

So, obviously, thank you. 

Who knew such little things could have such an effect in someone's life, huh?" 

Who knew indeed? It struck me, what if I said something bad about her, or anyone else, and what if those comments had been made in anger, haste, frustration. What if I had posted it on Facebook, text it to a friend, tweeted it, blogged it, etc? What would the affects of those words have been?

The things we say about people have the power to do good...and the power to do bad. What do you choose to do with your words? 

"Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, 2 to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone." -Titus 3:1-2

The King James Version is very clear...

"...To speak evil of no man (person)..."

I challenge you, take a 7 day period of time, and don't say one bad thing about any person. Its gonna be more difficult than you think, but guess what? 

That's what God wants from us 24/7-365

Be blessed!

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I hear those chains fallin'

Are you stuck? Do you have chains wrapped around aspects of your life? Are you without hope? There is an answer, His name is Jesus Christ.

Jesus can break the chains off your life, you can hear those chains fall and the metal clank on the ground, the sound of freedom. You can have true freedom in your life. Turn to Jesus, lean on Jesus, rely on Him, trust in Him. Call on the name of Jesus, there is power in His name. We don't call him because he needs us, but because we need Him.

Where are you in your life? Are you coming up short? Are you struggling at work, in school, in your family, in your finances, in your health? Are you struggling in some other way? There is one name that can fix all of that, his name can BREAK every chain in your life. You can have true freedom and joy. 

Here are a few scriptural examples...

"For God will break the chains that bind his people and the whip that scourges them, just as he did when he destroyed the army of Midian with Gideon's little band." - Isaiah 9:4

"On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter's side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly." And his chains fell off his hands." Acts 12:6,7


"...and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened." Acts 16:26

Listen to the song in the video below...if that doesn't get you pumped...nothing will.

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Joseph Series Week #4 - Trapped

Looking forward to Ignite tomorrow morning as we discussed how Joseph was "Trapped," and how we can apply his actions to our daily walk.

This week we will discuss how Joseph was stuck in a hopeless situation. In a few short years he had fallen from a fortunate son to a forgotten prisoner in a foreign land. This video illustration is an example of how we can respond when our lives aren’t what we expected.

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Joseph Series Week #3 - Tested

This week we are going to discuss how Joseph was tested. 

Decisions we make under pressure reveal who we really are. When Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him, Joseph had to make a split-second decision. This week demonstrates that as usual, the right choice was not the easy one.

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Joseph Series Week #2 - Promoted

We are going a little out of order from how Genesis tells the story and talking about Joseph's promotion from prisoner to prince this week! 

Difficult times do not equal failure. The hardships Joseph endured prepared and strengthened him. This week will reveal that once Joseph had matured into the right man for the job, God presented the opportunity for his leadership.

 

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