Bsp. Floyd & First Lady Barbara Collins 50th Pastoral Anniversary Celebration
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You Are Valuable
You Are Valuable
Bishop - You Are Valuable in the Kingdom of God
I have known you since I was a young man and first felt the call into the ministry.
You are a person of love - no matter what.
We have sat together in State Finance Committee meetings for about 10 years. I heard him share his wisdom and he listened to me when I had something to say - even though I am sure that my wisdom paled in comparison. It didn’t matter. Bishop Collins wanted you to know you were heard.
You are a prayer warrior. I have felt that warm hand on my shoulder and heard the familiaar voice of Bishop “Papa” Collins praying over me when I needed it. To call him Papa - no disrespect - it’s an endearing term, an identifier. I identify him as a spiritual father in my life and I feel so many of you do as well.
For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
Paul identified that there are many instructors, but not many fathers.
Let me tell you the difference -
Teacher/Mentor can become jealous if the student outshines them.
A father wants his children to go farther, accomplish more, and succeed at a greater level than he ever did. That’s a father. That’s Bishop Collins & Fisrt Lady Collins - Papa Collins and Mother Collins.
You are an encourager. Saying - Everyone needs a cheerleader. If you know Bishop & First Lady Collins, you have one. They will cheer you on. They will believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself! And their encouragement will make you believe in yourself.
Bishop & First Lady
But what about you? What about your legacy? What about your value in the Kingdom of God?
Anyone ever heard of Alfred Nobel?
What comes to mind when you hear that name?
Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) is best known for the Nobel Peace Prize. Less well known is the fact that Alfred Nobel also invented dynamite. As well as a chemist, engineer and innovator, he was a weapons’ manufacturer.
In 1888, Alfred’s brother Ludvig died. A French newspaper erroneously published Alfred’s obituary. It condemned him for his invention of dynamite, stating: ‘The merchant of death is dead… Dr Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday.’
Alfred Nobel was devastated by the foretaste of how he would be remembered. His last will and testament set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the various Nobel prizes. He gave the equivalent of US $250 million to fund such prizes. Alfred Nobel had the rare opportunity to evaluate his life near its end and then live long enough to change that assessment.
His legacy today is that he promoted - and through his trust - continues to promote Peace, Medical Breakthoughs, and so on. All because he took a moment to reassess his life and decide their was a greater value he wanted for his legacy.
You are valuable!
You are valuable!
1) You are valuable because you were made by God.
1) You are valuable because you were made by God.
For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
2) You are valuable because you are loved by God.
2) You are valuable because you are loved by God.
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
Literally - “How amazing are your thoughts concerning me”
3) You are valuable because you have been bought by God.
3) You are valuable because you have been bought by God.
But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
Redeem - to pay the valued price, to act as a kinsman to restore that which was lost
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
Sparrow (Heb. tzippor , from a root signifying to "chirp" or "twitter," which appears to be a phonetic representation of the call-note of any passerine (sparrow-like) bird). This Hebrew word occurs upwards of forty times in the Old Testament. In all passages except two it is rendered by the Authorized Version indifferently "bird" or "fowl." and denotes any small bird, both of the sparrow-like species and such as the starling, chaffinch, greenfinch, linnet, goldfinch, corn-bunting, pipits, blackbird, song-thrush, etc. In (Psalms 84:3) and Psal 102:7 It is rendered "sparrow." The Greek stauthion (Authorized Version "sparrow") occurs twice in the New Testament, (Matthew 10:29; Luke 12:6,7) (The birds above mentioned are found in great numbers in Palestine and are of very little value, selling for the merest trifle and are thus strikingly used by our Saviour, (Matthew 10:20) as an illustration of our Father's care for his children.
In this verse, Jesus is making the point that God is aware of the struggles and deaths of his people, and will welcome them into eternity. The verse also compares the value of people to that of sparrows, saying that people are more valuable than many sparrows.
In Jesus' time, two sparrows were sold for a Roman penny, which was a small amount of money.
A farthing, which was made up of two pennies, was 1/64 of a denarius. A denarius was the average daily wage for a laborer.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
“This shall be the law of the leper for the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought to the priest.
And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall examine him; and indeed, if the leprosy is healed in the leper,
then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop.
And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water.
As for the living bird, he shall take it, the cedar wood and the scarlet and the hyssop, and dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.
And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the living bird loose in the open field.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
4) You are valuable because you have been chosen by God.
4) You are valuable because you have been chosen by God.
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
Many are called, but few are chosen.
Many are called. A few will do what is required to become the chosen. Jesus called 12 disciples, but there were three that were constantly chosen by him to do things and go places the other nine did not get to go. What characteristic set these disciples apart? They forsook all and followed him.
For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken;
and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”
So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.
We used to sing the song take this whole world, but give me Jesus. Our song is changed to give me Jesus in addition to this whole world or give me the best of this world along with Jesus. There’s nothing wrong with having things in this world. The difference is, what is your priority?
If it came down to you only having one thing left what would that thing be? If all of your life begin to be whittled away little by little what’s the one thing that you could not, and would not, do without? if Jesus is not in that spot, then we haven’t forsaken all. The testimony of Bishop Collins is not that he did not have other talents and abilities with which he could’ve used to make a living in this life. The testimony of Bishop Collins is that once he heard the call of God everything else in life became secondary to that calling Jesus went to the top spot in his life. Jesus was the one thing that he cleinged to more than anything else.
5) You are valuable because you have been entrusted by God.
5) You are valuable because you have been entrusted by God.
Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
6) You are valuable because heaven is cheering for you.
6) You are valuable because heaven is cheering for you.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
What kind of race do the participants in the race become spectators of the race before it’s over? Relay Race
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
course - the distance one can go in a day,
Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 450.
You can’t hand the baton off to someone you haven’t been running with. If you watch the race, there’s a moment when the one who’s gonna take the baton gets off the sideline and runs with the run on the track so that the exchange can be made at the appropriate time and in the appropriate place so as to not be disqualified.
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Somebody needs to lay their past failures down a grab them baton and start running!
Someone needs to forget about what happened yesterday and start running again.
Someone who has fallen needs to get up and dust themselves off and start running.
Someone needs ot say that the Gospel of Jesus is too important not to carry.
Someone needs to start running alongside Bishop and First Lady Collins so that an excahnge can take place.
