Dare Great Things For Christ

Christianity means that we belong to Christ as members of His body and that means that we extend his mission through our own body, our own space, and time.  What is the mission of Christ.  One of the reasons He says He came to this world was to seek and to save what is lost.  If we are to be faithful to our mission we need to do the same.

Serving others is a bit of a paradox.  To some it is an exaggerated title of glory, to others it is the worst of things – being demoted in the eyes of others.  What does it mean to serve as a Christian?  How did our Lord serve us?  If we understand how Christ served us we can find the dignity in serving others.

We all know that Christianity is a religion of peace.  We long for that peace and we long to bring that peace to the world.  What then could Our Lords have meant when he spoke in Matthew 10:25 of His mission to bring a sword?  What does that mean for you and I in our own Christian lives?  How is it that our leadership brings both peace and a sword?

We’re looking at the moments when our Lord reveals what His mission is.  By seeing His mission we better understand our own.  In John 18:33-38, our Lord speaks with Pontius Pilate about His mission.

Everybody wants to be authentic, but are we willing to pay the price?  What does authenticity really look like from leadership today?  Will people even respect it?  In the fourth of our series on the speeches of St. Paul in the Acts of The Apostles, we look at St. Paul’s speech in Jerusalem before the crowd that will eventually imprison him.  It is a speech in which he bears witness to the truth of his faith.

To know our mission as leaders we need to understand the mission of Christ.  To know Christ’s mission we have no better place to look that sacred scripture where He tells us why He came to this Earth.  In this first of our series I look at His proclamation that He came to cast a fire on this Earth.

The secret of every great leader lies in their heart.  St. Paul shows us what is in his heart during four great speeches that he gives throughout the Acts of The Apostles.  Let’s listen to the speech he gives in front of the Areopagus in Athens and hear more of the heart of this great leader.

There’s no better way to know about a leader than to listen them give their witness.  In Acts 26, St. Paul gives the witness of why he does what he does and why he does it the way he does.  Let’s listen in and hear the lessons that St. Paul can teach us about our own leadership.

When it comes to leadership, few Apostles could match the leadership of St. Paul.  Where do we see that leadership?  In his actions, obviously, in his choices, but nowhere more clearly than when he shows his heart in his speeches.  I’d like to begin this first of four treatments of the speeches of Paul in Acts of The Apostles – speeches that gives us a window into the heart of his leadership.

If I were to take a poll, most of my listeners would say they want inner peace.  Being aligned from the inside to the outside - from your motivations to your actions – it’s truly one of the great keys to success.  St. Paul shows us a very special way to find the inner peace and I would like to share that with you today.