Man of Caution

            Have you ever put up a fence in order to avoid making mistakes? There are going to be times when preachers need to put up barriers to avoid mistakes. Cautions will arise and damage the preacher if he does not build a fence around his life. There are three cautions the preacher must notice in his ministry.

            The first caution is the gold. Money can be a caution for the preacher if he stares caring about the green he is receiving rather than the souls he is adding to the church. Instead of pursuing for the gold, pursue godliness with contentment of the money in your wallet or bank account. Preachers must be men of caution when the root of all evil comes knocking at the door wanting to take them away from the faith (1 Tim. 6:10).

            The second caution is the girls. Preachers need to be on the lookout for women who might destroy their ministry. Delilah tricked Samson by using his strength against him (Judges 16:17; 20-21).  Women will use your strength against you if your strength is not in the Lord. Preachers must be men of caution when dealing with women who want to deceive them.

            The third caution is the glory. Most preachers have an ego of wanting to be widely known in the brotherhood. They want fame and glory to be the best gospel preacher. Preachers need to have an altar ego of giving glory to God. Humility is the key factor of receiving the glory he deserves (Proverbs 29:23). Preachers must be men of caution of receiving glory for the pleasure of their ministry.

            Preachers have targets on their backs. People are looking for ways to destroy the life and ministry of a preacher. I want you to create a list of what you struggle with on a regular basis. Once you examine your list, I want you to put up barriers around your struggles. Men of caution need to protect their ministry and life.

 

Man of Encouragement

            Do you know what Vitamin E does for your body? Vitamin E helps keep the immune system strong against viruses and bacteria. It also uses cells uses to interact with each other. Vitamin E should be an important aspect in the Christian life to encouraging one another. There are three body parts of encouragement we need to have if we want to become a man of encouragement.

            The first body part of encouragement is an encouraging heart. Barnabas heard there would be people coming from the persecution of Stephen into the church. Barnabas would use his heart to encourage the brethren in Antioch to remain true to the Lord (Acts 11:23). Men of encouragement need to use their heart to encourage those who have gone through difficult times.

            The second body part of encouragement is an encouraging mouth. The brethren wanted a word of exhortation. After the apostles were done preaching, they were begging to hear more and were encouraged to continue in the grace of God (Acts 13:42-43). Men of encouragement need to use their mouth to encourage one another from his word.  

            The third body part of encouragement is an encouraging backbone. Paul was having a hard time proving himself as a changed man. Barnabas had an encouraging backbone to prove to the apostles that Paul was a New Testament Christian (Acts 9:27-29). Men of encouragement need to use their backbone for others and for themselves to prove they are changed individuals for the sake of Christ.

            God uses vitamin E to encourage us when we need to be strong and when we need to interact with one another. Why can we not do it? I want you to pick one person for a month and tell them something encouraging every day. Men of encouragement must have an encouraging heart, mouth and backbone in order to have vitamin E in their Christian walk. 

         Man of Integrity

Have you ever done something you knew was not the right thing? Integrity is not only the way one thinks but the way one acts. In the movie Courageous, four men and their families are standing around ready to sign a resolution to be better leaders in their homes. Later in the movie, one man was caught stealing drugs from his own work environment. He was not a man of integrity publicly or privately when he signed that document. We as Christians must become a man of integrity in order for us to be true to ourselves and others around us. There are two observations of integrity that can be observed from the book of Daniel.   

        The first observation from the book of Daniel is a public integrity. Daniel 3 describes a situation between king Nebuchadnezzar and the three friends of bowing down and worshipping a golden image. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had a public integrity of proclaim who they were going to worship as their God. Their integrity was seen by two choices, dying or living of bowing down to the golden image. Our integrity will be proven through the choices we make in the public.

            The second observation from the book of Daniel is a private integrity. He was an excellent example of a man who had lived an honest life. The commissioners and satraps spied on him, talked to others about him, and watched him. They just had to find some kind of dirt on him so he would be lacking in integrity. However, there was nothing they could find on Daniel because he was living an honest life. Our private integrity will be proven through the honest lives we live.

            Paul tells us we must watch our life and sound doctrine closely (1 Tim 4:16). This means we need to pay attention to what we do in both our private and public life. The two cannot be coherent with each other.  I want you to write down everything you do every day, privately and publicly, and examine how integrity is being proven in your life. Let me just remind you, it is never too late to start doing the right thing.  We need to live it, commit to it, and start doing the right thing, not only for you but mainly for God.