Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church

Narrator: You are now listening to an inspirational message from Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr. is the pastor. Please join the service in progress.

Dr. Michael W. Wesley Sr.: Let us give the Lord a handclap of praise. You are blessed and highly favored. I don't think that we really realize just how blessed and highly favored we really are. I want to tell you from an international standpoint, from traveling around the world, we are blessed. America is blessed. It’s not a perfect place, but above all of the places in the world, we are truly blessed and highly favored.

African American people are blessed and highly favored. We really are. I want to say to all of the ladies this week, it has been a glorious weekend of great activity. You are to be commended. Again, Reverend Barnes and all of her team, and all of the people, all of the ladies that worked so hard and all of the things that have been done, we are certainly grateful. I've been to a number of women's conferences, but I thought yesterday was way up there. It really was. Even I felt the ministry of the Spirit of God, and I just personally want to say thank you.

I also want to say more importantly, say thank you to Pastor James. I want you to join me in giving him a round of applause. This young man has stepped to the forefront of leadership and he has taken off. I mean, I had to look twice a couple of these Sundays. Who is that? Like a jet. He just put the thing in gear and just took right off. I'm just grateful. I believe the church is in great hands, and I look forward to all of the things that God will continue to do in the future, currently, coming up on his first church conference. I just think it's important just to take a moment to say to the young man, God bless you. Thank you so much for what you're doing, and know that we are with you.

I teach pastors, I teach preachers, and I tell preachers don't get up in somebody else's pulpit and don't have anything to say about the person that you are standing in their stead. It would be wrong for me, it would be wrong for anyone to go anywhere and not acknowledge the accomplishments and the well-being of what the young man is doing. So God bless you. Join me now in a moment of prayer and we're going to get right in this word for the morning.

Father, we thank you for loving us. Thank you for guiding us. Thank you for bringing us safely back to this place. Thank you, Lord, for your divine protection. Thank you for the week's journey, the highs and the lows. Thank you, Lord, for the privilege and opportunity that we have now to stand again in this place and to open together your word. Lord, we know that with you there is a word. Without you, there is no word. Speak, Lord, your servants are listening.

Transform our lives. Cause us to be different than we are now. Lord, I know that I'm following you, so you guide and direct me. Bless the words that are in my mouth and the meditations that are on my heart that they may be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Each Sunday this month, we have a different preaching assignment in different places, so I'm grateful for what the Lord has done.

For the morning, if you turn to the book of Acts, chapter nine. Acts, chapter nine. I want to pick up the last part of it. It actually starts in verse 32, but I want to pick up the reading at verse 36 and go through 43. Acts, chapter nine, verses 36 through 43. There, the word of God said, "Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did."

"And it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died, whom when they had washed, they had laid her in an upper chamber. And forasmuch as Lydda was near to Joppa and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought unto him, brought him into the upper chamber."

"And all the windows, widows stood by him weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed, and turning him to the body, said, 'Tabitha, arise.' And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. And when he called the saints and widows, presented her alive."

"And it was known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. And it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon, a tanner." This is the word of God for the people of God. I want to preach this morning from this thought: Marks of a Personal Effective Ministry. Marks of a personal effective ministry.

Most of us think of ministry in the public arena and domain, and I have had a number of years in public ministry. But what we want to see this morning is a live example that we can draw from, the lessons that can lead us to a deeper, more effective personal ministry. How many know God doesn't just call the church in the generic sense? God calls us individually. Every one of us has a unique call by God.

The question is, are we really effective in that call? Are we doing what we should be doing? I want to draw out some principles here from the scripture that can help lead you personally and me personally into a more effective personal ministry. You might not always have the privilege to be in public, in the pulpit, but it doesn't mean ministry is over. It doesn't mean God is through with you.

There takes us into a private realm where we don't often look at. We become critical and we become bitter because it seems as though someone else is in the place. It becomes difficult for many of us to fulfill what God wants us to fulfill because we're so busy looking at everybody else that we forget that he has something for you.

The text here this morning is in the life of the Apostle Peter. Peter was a bad boy. Peter was tough in his unregenerated days. When Jesus first met Peter, Peter was a bad boy. He would fight. Peter would cuss. Peter was brash. He was bold. He was just big. He was just raw. But I want you to note that Jesus got ahold of him. He had an encounter with Jesus. He spent three years in the apostolic college and was being molded and developed for personal ministry.

Even though in the first 12 chapters here of the book of Acts of the Apostles, which mostly focus on the ministry of Peter, you see Peter in public spaces. He was the inaugural preacher on the day of Pentecost when God opened the church. Peter was the primary preacher. Peter became the leader of the apostolic band. It was always Peter. But the same brashness that he had in his unsaved condition, now God has turned it around and is using that same energy and power for personal ministry.

So Peter is everywhere. He just couldn't sit still. You remember when Jesus was raised from the dead? He told the disciples, "Go into Galilee and wait." Peter went to Galilee and he just couldn't handle being just still. After a few days, he said, "Look, I'm going fishing. I can't sit here and wait." Seven other disciples went fishing with him because that was his nature. God doesn't take away your natural personality. God leaves you in your own personality with your gifts, talents, and abilities, but he will redirect you.

So much of Peter's ministry now on the other side of Pentecost is public. He's all over the place. He's in Samaria. He's just everywhere, preaching the gospel. But here, what he does for us this morning is not tell us what we need to do to become effective in ministry. He shows us by example. It's one thing to hear people talk. It's another thing to see the example of what it is that God wants us to do.

What I draw out of this are six principles that I think could lead each of us to more effectiveness in our ministries. The first of these principles, Peter doesn't say it, we usually look to Paul. Paul is the one who gives us instruction on how and what happens in ministry, but Peter is demonstrating in example what we ought to do. The first of these principles is to be involved with people personally.

It's easy to come to church and find your seat in the corner, sit in the balcony, sit in that back seat, and sit wherever we sit and have nothing whatsoever to do with people. That might be safe, but it's not God. It might be comfortable because I don't have to deal with them, but that's not what God intends. Look at Peter. Peter goes down. Not only is he busy going from place to place, but he goes down about 25, maybe 30 miles to the south of Jerusalem down to the area that's called Jaffa, which is now today's Joppa.

There are two incidents that Peter becomes personally involved with individuals. All of the time he's been preaching the crowds. He's been hanging out in the public. He's been in the streets. He's been in the synagogue. He's been before the Sanhedrin. Peter was the man in front of everybody. But I want you to see his example now of personal ministry. Personal ministry requires you to get involved with individuals.

Even from the ministry of Jesus, even though Jesus ministered to thousands and great multitudes, two of his greatest sermons were to individuals. He met Nicodemus at night and he met the woman at the well at noon, and those were individual, personal encounters. So when Peter goes down to Joppa, there's a man there who's been sick for eight years, some type of paralysis.

But Peter by this time was so well known that people were dragging people out where he was in the public, and people would be healed just being in his shadow. But Peter is not so big being Peter that he can't get personal. I don't care who you are. I don't care how big your ego is. God expects you to deal with people sometimes one-on-one. So he deals with this man and he heals this man of his paralysis, which is one incident.

He's there, but then about 10 miles north of where he is, there's a woman whose name is Tabitha. Tabitha becomes sick and ultimately, she dies. We see not only Peter's involvement individually, but secondly, we see Peter's availability. You can't do nothing unless you are available. Peter could have made all kind of excuses. "Don't you know how busy I am? Don't you know my itinerary? Don't you know I got to go over here, I got to go over there, I got to be in all of these big meetings, and how am I going to take time to go and visit a little girl who just is sick?"

We can make excuses. Sometimes you hear about people and you know about people that you should respond to, but we hide behind the busyness of our daily schedules so we don't get involved. But you've got to be available. Your two greatest abilities are your availability and your dependability. The question is, are you available for God? God uses the busiest people in the most personable ways because he knows he can count on them.

I'm talking about marks of an effective personal ministry. You can get busy and you can hide all you want and you can make all kind of excuses, but the day will come. You've got to understand that you're not going to be all strong all the time. Somebody's going to have to minister to you. You have to be careful about how you deal with people because what goes around comes around.

Word comes to Peter that this girl Tabitha is sick and she died. Here's the interesting thing when I look at this scripture text right here. I see something here because Tabitha was a Jew, and the Jewish people when they died, they buried them immediately because the Mishna required for them to be washed, their bodies to be washed. They didn't go to funeral homes. They didn't embalm. They washed the body. The female, if it was a female, the female washed the body. If it was a man, the men washed the body, and they buried the same day.

Look at what these people did. They don't bury Tabitha. They put her body in the upstairs room. They took her upstairs because they heard that Peter was down in Joppa and they send two men down to Joppa to tell Peter, "Don't you hesitate. You come on up here now immediately because this girl has died." Look how easy it would have been to say, "I'm too busy. I got other places that I need to go, other things that demand my attention."

But when you make yourself available to God, you just don't know what God has in mind. It may look like a little routine matter. It may look like some unimportant assignment. But you only know and get the value out of it when you become obedient to what God gives. Peter drops everything that he may have desired to do and he goes to Joppa to see about this girl, Jewish girl who has died. Lord have mercy. But that's what happens when you become personally involved and that's what happens when you become available to God.

I want you to see what happened. Peter goes into the house and all of the people start coming, all of the other widows. Tabitha, her name is interpreted Dorcas, had been a part of the women's ministry. Perhaps she had been the leader of the women's ministry. She had used what was inside of her to bless people outside. What had she done? She had not been a preacher. She had not been a Sunday School teacher. All she had been was a seamstress. But she used what she had. She did the best that she could with what she had been given.

She had been given the ability to sew and so people are coming around to Peter and they're bringing little coats and all things. God got a sense of humor. I mean, I could see the scene in a couple of ways. First, I want you to see the sympathetic hearts of the other women because they were concerned about the woman that has died and they are remembering her effectively by showing the things that she had done.

I started to preach on this thing from a different standpoint. I started to talk about women within and ladies without. If I had talked about women within and ladies without, there has to be something within before you can be all of that without. Tabitha had it going on within and because she had something within, the text says she was full of good works. Now the question today becomes, what are you full of?

You can be full of a lot of things. You can be full of faith. You can be full of joy. You can be full of peace. You can be full of power, or you can be full of something else. If you're full of something else, then there's not going to be anything that people going to have to say about you when you leave this earth. But they could say some things about her because within, she had been a godly woman who was concerned and caring about the well-being of others.

On the other hand of this, you can look at this with a sense of godly humor. With the godly humor, you can see how God must have been smiling to himself because all these widows were concerned about was their wardrobes. Now that Tabitha's gone, who going to make my clothes? Who going to hook me up? Who going to alter my suits? Who's going to give me that tailored look that shows my Coca-Cola?

But because Peter was available, he wasn't lost in all of those things. It could have been easy for him to say, "Well, next person pick up the sewing machine and thread and get going," but that wasn't what he was doing. His example of effective personal ministry shows us the need to be involved with other people. It shows us the need to be available to God. But thirdly, it shows us how to be a prayer warrior.

Look at what Peter does. He comes into the room and all of the parade of all of the beautiful things that Tabitha-Dorcas had done was on display. They are crying and they're wailing and all. They're talking about what a good girl she was. Peter put them all out. He put them all out. He reminded me of Jesus when he went down to Jairus' house and the funeral was going on. The dirges were being played. The flute players were there and they were all wailing about the 12-year-old girl was dead.

Jesus said the girl's not dead, and they laughed at him. So he had to put them all out. Sometimes you can't do your work in the presence of people because it's not about show. It's about accessing the power of God. You cannot be effective in ministry in your own stuff. Peter could have felt so egotistical about this time because of all of the healings that he had done and all of the people that he had raised and all of these things.

He has the power of the apostle. He people been healed just being in his shadow. He could have felt egotistical and could have walked in the room, clapped his hand, "Girl, get up from there." But that's not what he does because he understands that the power for ministry does not come from himself. This is what you need to hear me say this morning. I don't care how good you may look and how fine you may be, if there is going to be any power in the ministry, the personal ministry is going to come from the power of God.

So Peter kneels down beside the bed. Everybody else is out. They don't see where the power is coming from. But Peter understands where the power is. He knows that the power is in prayer. Anybody here know that there's power in prayer? That sometimes you can't pray when the house is full. You can't pray when everybody is watching. When you really want to get a prayer through, when you really want to talk to God, just a little talk with Jesus is what makes everything alright.

So he puts all the folks out and he kneels down beside the bed and he prays. And when he prays, then he touches the girl and said, "Tabitha, wake up," because he knew where the power came from. That's a word for you this morning because so many times we think that it's us. All these years I've stood in the pulpit, I understand that without God, there is no word. I mean, and that's what causes people to do all kinds of crazy stuff.

You got guys that want to hit splits in the pulpit and people who want to do flips and people who want to use bling and they want to sing and they want to do every kind of thing, but there's power in prayer. If you're going to reach people, if people's lives are going to be changed, you're going to have to be a prayer. Sometimes we wonder why God let us go through difficulties. Sometimes, "God, why you let me cry sometimes? Why you break my heart sometimes?" It looks like everybody else is getting away with it. They're doing whatever they want to do.

But you got me caught in this vice grip. That's because God wants you to understand that when you're weak, then he can make you strong. It's through the power of prayer that you have the ability to overcome. That's what brings the effectiveness into the ministry. It's not what we wear. You look good now, I don't mind telling you that. But that's not where your power is. Your power is in prayer. If you forget that, you're going to always come up on the short end.

Then there's a fourth thing that Peter does here. He immediately says to the girl, "Tabitha, get up." The girl opened her eyes. Now you got to know that this was not for Tabitha's benefit or Dorcas' benefit. If she had been a Christian, she was already in the realms of heaven. She was already in the place that she ultimately wanted to be. So this wouldn't be for her benefit. You know, if you already in the presence of God, why would you want to come back to Joppa?

But it wasn't for her that Peter was doing this particular miracle. The miracle is because God wanted to demonstrate fruitfulness. What happens when he is being obeyed? All of the miracles in the Bible were miracles that were designed to back up the truthfulness of who God is and to demonstrate that he can do anything but fail. Listen, that's good news. Not because he's going to give you a house, not because he's going to give you a car, not even because he's going to heal your body.

It's good news to know that there is nothing that God can't do. The good news is when we access the power of prayer, everything in my life can change. I don't have to be limited by nothing. When I learned to pray, listen, when I was a boy, there was a deacon in our church, Mr. Lockett, Eugene Lockett, later he became Reverend Lockett. He could hardly talk, but he said, "I found the answer when I learned to pray." When I learned to pray, it changes everything for me.

Greater fruitfulness comes. See, look, Peter was just sent to Joppa, he thought, for a little job to see this young Jewish girl. He didn't know that God had revival in mind. He ends up staying in Joppa three years and all kind of people are led ultimately to the Lord all because of his obedience. When you're willing to become involved, when you make yourself available to God, when you give God glory, when you access the power of prayer, then fruitfulness is going to be the outcome. That's what we ought to want is fruitfulness, to be productive.

Fruit can look two ways. Fruit can look good and there are a lot of people that look like they're bearing fruit, but when you get close, you find it's nothing but leaves. But fruitfulness, true fruitfulness comes as a result of people when they access the power of God. Then I want to give you one more thing and I'm going to have a seat because I got to run, but I don't mind. I'll let James come and close us out.

If you're going to be effectiveness in ministry, come on follow me now, follow me down, follow me, let's make sure you got your lesson. In order to be effective, you've got to be involved with people. Say it. Involved. Secondly, you've got to be God-exalting. You've got to be willing to make sure that he is the one that's exalted, right? Thirdly, you have to be what? Available. Must be thirdly available to God.

Then you must, number four, be prayerful because that gives you access to the power of God. Then fifthly, there must be fruitfulness, the result. How you know when your ministry is effective? Fruitfulness. If it doesn't ever bear fruit, I don't care what you say about it, it's still not what it needs to be. The result is going to be fruitfulness.

But look at the last principle that I want you to see in this text and it's the last verse in verse 46 down there. It said, "And Peter stayed with Simon, the tanner." Wow, what's that about, Pastor? You have to be able to overcome your prejudices. Where you get that from? Well, Simon is a tanner. A tanner deals in leather and hides, which means he deals with dead bodies.

Dead bodies to a Jew was detestable and was not something that he should have been involved in at all. But Peter stays with him for three years and he doesn't try to convert him into becoming a carpenter. He accepts him as being a tanner. I tend to preach fast because I got to run, but you got to learn how not to try to change everybody but learn how to accept people for who they are and minister to them according to what they have need of, not what satisfies you.

If God made the man a tanner, then that was his profession. You still teach Jesus. You don't have to hate on another woman because she don't look like you. You don't have to hate on another brother because he doesn't look like you, go to the same places you go to, part of the same organizations that you're a part of. You have to get over that stuff. If you're going to reach the world for Christ, you're going to have to get over who you are.

You're going to have to learn that out of one blood, God made all mankind. You got to understand that God knows whose people are. Jesus loves the little children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight because Jesus loves the children of the world. If you're going to minister effectively, you're going to have to get over looking down the road, "I can't stand her. I can't stand him." Get over it.

If God forgave them, you can forgive them. If God is not concerned with condemning them to hell, then you quit sending people to hell and learn how to put your arms around somebody and love them and pray for them and teach them the word of God so that they could have a seat next to you in the eternal kingdom of heaven. These are the marks of an effective personal ministry. Not because Peter told us that, but because he demonstrated that.

When I was a boy, there was a poem that said, "I'd rather see a sermon any day than to hear one." Examples are always exciting, but fine examples are demonstrated. So I just want you to know you've got to be who you say you are. If you're going to be a woman within, be within the Christ-like person you say you are and let the world see. That's why Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see the good that's in you and it'll bring glory and honor to your Father which is in heaven."

That's why he says when you pray, go to your Father in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in open. Peter doesn't have to go around pulling on his coat and telling people, "I'm the Apostle Peter." He just demonstrated it with his life. As a result of it, the whole world now knows that Peter was a changed man because when Jesus get ahold of your life, you can be a changed person no matter who you are, no matter where you come from. When the Lord get ahold of you, there'll always be people who want to tell you who you used to be, but you tell them who you are now.

The devil always want to tell you about your past, but let me tell you this and I'm gone. When the devil try to tell you about your past, you tell him about his future. You tell him that I know where it's all going to end. It all started in the garden, but it's going to end in the city. It all started one day, but it's going to end when Jesus comes back. I don't know about you, but I want to be in that number. I want to be with those when the saints of God go marching in.

I don't want to be with those that get left behind. I don't want to be with the unfruitful, unproductive group, but I want to be among those whose life and ministry has been effective through the work that God has been able to do in me, with me, and through me. Doors open. Doors of the church open. Somebody might be here this morning. Somebody may want to begin a journey with Jesus, and you can only begin your journey with Jesus as you invite him into your heart to become the Lord of your life. While she's singing, you can get up and you can walk this way. You can tell God you're coming home.

Hope you enjoyed the broadcast. You have been listening to a message from the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church where we are reaching the world for Christ. Located at 2135 Jefferson Avenue Southwest, Birmingham, Alabama, 35211. For a copy of this message, you can reach us at 205-925-9750 or 9751, or visit us on the web at www.greatershilo.org. For another uplifting message, we invite you to join us for our next broadcast.