No excuses Discovering Personal Ministry Vision
No EXCUSES
Keeping personality under the control of the Spirit
Personality styles
Mistakes as one reflects on their personality
I am the best
I am the least
I can’t help myself
Each important
Each has strength
Each has weaknesses
Everyone must place himself under the control of the Spirit
The Lord has sovereignly established personalities and inner makeup. He has designed each individual with a unique personality. This personality is integrated throughout each person’s design, shaping all other aspects of his giftedness for ministry. Understanding one’s personality and how it shapes one’s ministry is important to the understanding of one’s God shaped design. When personality is brought under the control of the Spirit the strengths of each personality is unleashed and the weakness are restrained.
Designed to be used by God to minister to others. Sin has twisted this design to serve self. Understand ourselves and our tendencies. Be conscious of our sinful tendencies. Yield to the Spirit especially in these areas most likely to control our lives. Allow God to accomplish His plans for us.
I. A need to reign in our sinful flesh
Every Christian must walk in the Spirit to avoid walking in the flesh.
A. Sin influences us in our deeper person
(NKJV) Galatians 5 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
1. DISC circle – different types
2. Full of benefits
3. But all corrupted by sin
(NKJV) Psalm 51 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
B. Yielding to the Spirit overcomes the flesh
Gal 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
II. “D” personality: Tendency to misuse others to accomplish own desires.
A “D” personality must overcome his tendency to ignore the needs of others to accomplish his desires.
(NKJV) Philippians 2 3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
A. Problem - self focus:
1. Selfish ambition
2. Pride
3. Selfishness
B. Replace with other’s focus:
1. Humility
2. Intentionally Putting others first
3. Focus on needs of others
III. “I” personality: tendency to influence / be influenced improperly by others
An “I” personality must overcome his tendency to be overly influenced by people.
(NKJV) 1 Thessalonians 2 4 But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. 5 For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness— God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ.
A. Problem of people influence:
1. Men pleasing
2. Flattery / deceit
3. Seeking glory from men
B. Replace by living before an Audience of One:
1. God Pleasing
2. Living As being seen by God
3. Seeking glory from God
IV. “S” personality: tendency to underachieve for God
An “S” personality must overcome his tendency to maintain the status quo and not disrupt relationships.
A. Problem of passivity:
(NKJV) 2 Timothy 1 6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
(NKJV) 1 Timothy 4 12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. 15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.
1. Fear
2. Neglect one’s gifts
3. Spiritual stagnation
B. Replace with progress:
(NKJV) 2 Timothy 1 6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
(NKJV) 1 Timothy 4 12 Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. 14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. 15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. 16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.
1. Power / Love / Sound mind
2. Use one’s gifts
3. Aggressively grow
V. “C” personality: tendency to seek control
A “C” personality must overcome his tendency to release his need for control to God.
A. Problem of self determination:
1. Self made plans
(NKJV) Luke 12 16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this:
2. Self dependency
(NKJV) Luke 12 18 … I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
3. Self wisdom
(NKJV) 1 Corinthians 2 1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. …. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
B. Replace with depend on God’s control:
1. Seeking God’s plans
(NKJV) James 4 13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
2. Gaining God’s insight
1 Corinthians 2 1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. …. 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
3. Depending on God
4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.