"A Ministry Minded Convention"

I want to give praise and honor to a loving and compassionate God, to Jesus my redeemer and Savior to the Holy who is my helper and comforter. Let me go on record as I have afore time that God is good. 

To the officers of this great Iowa State Convention; To the President of our Congress Pastor James Wright and his staff, to the President of our Women’s Department Sis. Vera Couch, to the Ministers, Deacons and Laymen Department Deacon Herold,  Minister’s wives, deaconess, mother board President Sis. Regenia Lowery, Sis. Retha Phillip our Youth Director. And to the establish protacall.

I am forever greatful to this Convention for giving me the opportunity to serve as your president. This first year has been a very interesting one to say the least. In October during the Bible Institute hosted by the Central District I was installed as your president and we set out with an aggressive agenda.  It was our goal within the first six months to have in place a convention website and I am please to announce the site is completed but like anything else its only as good as the information receive and I am sad to announce only a few have submitted the information requested. But I have faith that this website will be a blessing to our convention.  We wanted to insure that we would have open communication and to date we have had conference call with the moderators, one on one meeting with others department heads. I have travel from Sioux City in the west to Centerville and Burlington to the east sharing how the vision God has given me for this convention.   There was so much more I wanted to accomplish this year but as you know sickness set in and I had a triple bypass heart surgery which caused me to make some adjustments.  I stand here before you today declaring that God truly is a healer. 

This morning in our business session I proposed some changes in the way the convention do business.  It is my prayer that we would embrace these changes and continue to make our convention a stronger voice in the states we serve in winning the loss for Christ.        

Ephesians 2:8-2:10

Believing God and belonging to God sets you up for some incredible/astounding blessings. In a real sense, if you desire to live a life that has purpose/intention/reason and point—I want to share with you that that goal is NOT achievable nor attainable apart from a real, genuine, relationship with Almighty God. God is the Creator of life and therefore it is only God who can give meaning to life.

Belief in God and belonging to God gives one the opportunity to reject a life of thoughtlessness, aimlessness and pointlessness and to accept and appropriate an existential experience that is filled with blessings and joy.

And yet I must sadly and regrettably report that while all of these joys are a present possibility—there are tragically many who name the name of Christ who are living beneath their God-appointed opportunity and God-given privilege. That many may attend worship and participate regularly in religious activities and even engage in routines of religious ritual and duty yet they are living beneath their tremendous threshold of power afforded to them by virtue of their relationship with Christ. They live beneath this amazing benefit not because they lack material means/education/social status—because there are multitudes of people who have material means/social status and position—but still live beneath their right and privilege in Christ because they are living lives without purpose, point, reason and intention. They are unaware of the cause for which they have been created/the purpose for which they have been produced/the future for which they have been founded and fashioned.

We spend many wasteful hours debating on who is qualified to preach weather I am called Bishop, Doctor, Reverend, Minister or Brother/Sister.  When our jails are full of young men and women from our community due to drugs, gangs and an over abundance of hopelessness; School failure rate are higher in our community;  The teenage pregnancy rate is higher in our community, AIDS epidemic is higher in our community. So instead of arguing over who should carry the message, all of us should be about ministry.   We argue about whether gambling is a sin- when we have more of our people in the Casino on Wednesday nights than at prayer meetings.  Many of our members are suffering, homes are being foreclosed upon and many children are going without food and clothes.
We spent countless hours contesting over the issue of drinking and whether or not it is a sin.   Who should drink? Deacons have a little wine;  While many in our communities are suffering from domestic violence from a drunken and drug crazed spouse.  

And that is why at the very clause of this message it is important to your understanding that in order to live an amazing life and have an amazing ministry environment—it has much to do with you knowing your purpose in life. For far to many of us life is just a series of days that turn into weeks; weeks that turn into months; months that turn into years.

Life is just a passé process of:
setting goals and trying to meet them;
establishing appointments and trying to keep them;
going to a job and trying to do it;
getting a check and trying to manage it;
making bills and trying to pay them;
while logging days and trying to enjoy them.

And while all of these are certainly commendable aspirations—it is still possible to do all of that and yet not grasp or understand your purpose in life.

• I was at a funeral very recently where the one who had passed on was given a great homegoing celebration and how it was commented, one by one, how she took people in and everybody knew her as one who would take them in, lift them up, raise them up, dust them off and build them up. Some of those people to which she took into her own home because celebrities/some became successful in their fields/some just became good parents and leaders in the community and their church/others didn’t really become much of anything noteworthy at all. But if I had the opportunity to bring her back for a brief period of time—I guarantee you that she would not have traded in her eulogy and the people she touched for a BMW/Mercedes Benz/Rolex/24’s/House in River Oaks/Fresh Clothes/Shopping Spree… For the best eulogy you could ever give yourself when you pass on is moving in your purpose while you yet live.

Belief in God and belonging to God should change your life to the extend that it changes your family and your environment/others around—and to the extent that it changes your church. Because God wants every single one of us to know our God-given purpose. God wants our:
- Moments to be meaningful
- Our days to be dynamic
- Our weeks to be wonderful works of amazing grace
God wants and desires for us to live such incredible and amazing lives in an amazing ministry that people will be won by our witness, persuaded by our presence in their hemisphere and blown away by our blessings. And I am a witness that God is able to do such a work in your life and in your church and in our convention that not only will it amaze OTHERS—it will amaze YOU!!! And have YOU saying “I am living an amazing life and I am a part of an AMAZING convention ministry!” I can’t believe I get to enjoy this blessing  in my life. I can’t believe I get to:
- Enjoy this kind of blessing
- Walk in this kind of miracle
- Live in this kind of favor
- Experience this level of anointing

No love like this/peace like this/joy like this/confidence like this. I can’t believe I am a part of an amazing convetion ministry where I get to worship like this/live like this/rise like this/ride like this/pray like this/praise like this/enjoy my life like this!!!

People will want to know why you get to be and do who you are and all YOU will be able to say—I don’t know and can hardly believe it myself—I was just listening to a vision one Sunday morning and hearing a dream by God from a little preacher—and then I just started walking by faith and not by sights—and then I just started walking and talking and believing like it was so—and then I just started calling those things that were not as though they already were—and, literally, before I knew it—I started seeing an Amazing God who gave the Amazing/Impossible promise—just began to manifest just in the knick of time.
- I can’t explain it —all I can say “If it had not been for the Lord”…..

Get this: When you begin to gain clarity and certainty in your purpose and God places you in the right spot and you begin to walk by faith in the purpose and the place standing on the promise—

- it’s amazing how the Lord provides
- it’s incredible how God will make a way out of no way

Is there anybody in here who can testify in the building today: I know I don’t deserve it—but yet I’m blessed and I’m favored.

• God has opened some doors for me.
• God has been good to me.
• I can’t even believe it myself—that I’m looking and doing this good.

And that is why I tell people all the time that when you are greatly blessed and highly favored of God—you don’t have to go around talking about it. Because when you walk in the room people already know.

I KNOW YOU KNOW!

I don’t have to say nothing—I can just sit here and pose.
I don’t have to tell you what I got in the bank—I can just lean back and do the Roc-away.

I can just vogue, style and profile. I know that you can tell just by looking at me that I’ve been blessed. And the truth of the matter, preacher, is that I can’t even believe it myself and not even others around me can handle it. Because not everybody around you will be able to handle you’re being blessed.

Some people will not like you because God gives you: the house/the car/job/promotion/good credit. But let’s not be so superficial—some people won’t be able to handle God giving you the joy/healing/peace of mind/fruit of the Spirit/unified family/blessed church/blessed church family/blessed pastor/gift of giving to others and the God. Because they are so many people in this world who are such a trip—so miserable about their pathetic little lives—and the fact that they have so much more than you but they are doing worse than you. But here’s the shouting material: IT IS NO SECRET WHAT GOD CAN DO…….

You ain’t got to be MAD at me but you can be GLAD with me and watch God lift you up and fill your cup TOO. In Ephesians 2:1-9 Paul reminds us that salvation comes by Grace THROUGH faith in Jesus Christ. That is to say—that none of us can claim CREDIT for our salvation.
- We haven’t been that good
- We haven’t walked that right
- We haven’t behaved that meticulously and fresh and clean
Salvation is a gift from God and an expression of the incredible grace of God. It is received through our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing we could ever do could earn our salvation. Our works are not enough to merit our salvation.

I don’t care if you’ve been in church all of your life. Because Isaiah has already reminded us that in all of our righteousness we are still like filthy rags. And therefore, we work not to BECOME saved because we ARE saved.

It is on the tail end of that discussion that Paul pens these words that I want to deal with in my time left here today: FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP.

In the New Living Translation is says that we are his MASTERPIECE. That God has created us ANEW in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things that He planned for us to do a long time ago. Here Paul reminds the church at Ephesus and this Iowa State Convention that WE ARE SAVED FOR A REASON!

- There’s a purpose to our pilgrimage
- There’s a point to our praise
- There’s a reason for our service and rejoicing.

We have been saved for something so wonderful/awesome/miraculous—that God actually gives us the opportunity to work it and experience it together in His church and this convention.

- You just don’t know how sweet your life can be in God’s church that’s called amazing.
You just don’t know:
- how happy you can be
- how high you can rise
- how far you can go
- how resilient you are
- how courageous you can live
- how strong you can feel
Unless and until you believe in God and belong TO God and become apart of what He’s up to.

How is it, then, that those of us who believe in God and belong to God—become a part of and create, by the power of God, an Amazing State Convention ministry and an Amazing ministry minded district and church. It begins with a clear-cut understanding and keen awareness that a Ministry minded Convention, District and Church happens as a direct result of Amazing Lives!!!
• Amazing Lives produce an Amazing Ministry and an Amazing Church.

I. And it comes about vibrantly, vigorously, powerfully—when I recognize, individually, that I get to REPRESENT God.

The reason God leaves us on the planet after we get saved is so that we can represent God in the world. Ya’ll missed that.

• You are God’s representative.
That’s what Paul was pointing to when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:20 when he said: We are Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade people to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ Himself now.
• Become friends with God because He’s already a friend with you!
That’s who we are—we are God’s representatives.

Knowing WHO we are and WHO’S we are and WHAT we are enables us to live lives of purpose and power as an individual and as a convention.

How, then, do you view yourself/would you describe yourself? How do you define yourself? What adjectives come to mind when you think of who you are and do those words line up with your PURPOSE?

See, Paul, here in verse 10 gives us a dynamic descriptor to talk about who we are. He uses the word WORKMANSHIP. Another translation renders the word MASTERPIECE.

Workmanship (Poy-ay-mah) Where we attain our English word for poem and it denotes a fabric/product/creation/composition/framework. This word is used to describe the work of God the CREATOR. This work speaks to the power and wonder of what God has already done.
• The WORK is a reflection of the WORKER
• The CREATION is a reflection of the CREATOR
• The COMPOSITION is a reflection of the COMPOSER

We are told in Psalm 19:1 that the Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows forth His handiwork.

Psalm 92:5 – How wonderful and magnificent are your works, Oh Lord.
Psalm 104:24 concedes “What a wonderful, mighty world, Oh God. You made it with wisdom at your side. The whole earth overflows with your wonderful creation.”

Did you check out those descriptions? Just as those words describe the CREATED order; it should also describe you and I as the workmanship of God.

The Psalmist reflects upon this. In Psalm 8:3 he says “Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes you have ordained praise. When I consider the heaves, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you have ordained. What is man that you are mindful of him and the Son of man that you visit him? That you have made him a little lower than the angels and have crowned him with glory and honor.”

What is you point, preacher, and what does this have to do with having an amazing convention? You are the workmanship of God. That you are a product of the creative splendor and awesome geineous of Almighty God.
- The nobility of your intelligence and the expansiveness of your curiosity are a marvelous reflection of the glorious image of Almighty God.

When people LOOK at you and thid convention, they ought to gain a sense of the creative majesty and glory of Almighty God. You are a wonder to behold!
- Your hands/Your eyes/Your fingerprints/feet/heart/lungs/brain are all miraculous.

Just as we look and are at awe at the mountains and the ocean and are brought into a sense of the presence of God by beholding the works of God—every now and then somebody should be able to look at you and say “God is an awesome God!” Because you are the workmanship of God. And as God’s workmanship you have value—not because of anything YOU do—but simply because you are who you are!!!

• Your value, worth and significance are not a reflection or production of who you are what you do—but you do what you do because God has given you value in Jesus Christ.
• You value is based upon your being a masterpiece of God. The fact that God shaped you/laid His hands on you/molded you/and made you into something and somebody.

Ill.—I could paint a picture, put it in a frame and try to sell it to you. You may feel sorry for me and giving enough money to cover the cost of the paint and maybe the cost of the frame. But Picasso could take the same paint and take the same picture and put it in the same frame—and if He put it on the market—it would be worth infinitely more—not because of the paint/canvas/picture/frame—but because of WHO painted the picture.

And the same is true of us, our convention and our value in God.
Our value as an individual is based upon the fact that God created us.
Our value, worth and significance as a convention is based upon the fact that God dreamed us/made us/drew us/designed us.

God’s portfolio includes the roar of the ocean/brilliance of the sun/pull of gravity/sparkle of the stars/singing of the birds/fragrance of the rose. And likewise, OUR value is found in the fact that GOD MADE US!!!

Rembrandt and Van Gogh may draw flower-covered fields and mountains—but they are just RE-producing what God has already PRODUCED.

Michelangelo may sculpt a man—but it is a man that God has ALREADY designed.

You are a Designer’s original. There will never be another quite like you. There will never be another with your fingerprint/voiceprint/dental chart/DNA. There will never be another you with your personality. You need to know how original you are. People may try to imitate you but they can never be you. They can try to dress like you/talk like you/sing like you/swing like you/pray like you/preach like you—but when it’s all said and done they can’t be you. You are a masterpiece/work of art/magnus opus/incredible autographed original signed by Almighty God. You are a REAL piece of work!!!

And NOW I’m wondering if you believe that about your church? Lakewood/Brentwood/Crossroads/New Faith/Higher Dimension and many others are a masterpiece and a work of art—but nobody can provide what you can provide and do what God has called you to do.

- We are the workmanship of God placed here to reflect the creative genius of God. I can hardly fathom and understand it when I think about—that I get to represent God with the life that He’s so given me and through the fellowship He has hooked me up with in order that I may have an amazing life and be a part of an amazing convention. And I recognize that some people can’t rejoice here—that this is problematic for some of us—because when we look at our lives and we look at the church—our tendency and proclivity it to see MORE OF THE MESS AND LESS OF THE MIRACLE.
- But the Devil is a liar.
You’ve got value because you are a masterpiece.
You’ve got value because you’ve been made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (That means I’m not going to let anybody take me in and through hell when I’m supposed to be sitting in heavenly places)
- I’m not going to let you make my life miserable when I’m supposed to have joy
- I’m not going to let you keep me upset all of the time.
I’m a masterpiece of God and I reflect the glory and the grace of God. I’m not arrogant or conceded; it’s not even about me; it’s about the one Who made me. And if you don’t like it—take it up with the ONE who made me.

- And when you understand that you have value you and who God made you—then it breaks the spirit of Jealousy with your brother and your neighbor. Because nothing can be amazing when there is jealousy and competition in the fellowship and the church. But I can rejoice with you in what God gave you—because I know what He gave me that doesn’t have anything to do with what He gave you.

You ought to get in the mirror tomorrow morning and shout: MASTERPIECE.

IV. I’m seeing God’s Dream come to pass because I get to represent God/redeem my life/reclaim my value/I get to rejoice over my destiny!!!

In verse 10 Paul says “For which God prepared before hand”

You have got a destiny before you. And that’s why you can’t give up now—IN YOUR LIFE and IN YOUR CHURCH.

There are good things that God had planned for you before you ever got here.

There are exploits and adventures that God ordained for you before you ever arrived.

Jeremiah 29:11 declares “I know the plans that I have for you…..”

• The plan has already been made
• The design has already established
• The arrangement has already been accomplished
• good work has already been prepared for you to do
• exploits have been assigned
• The mighty deeds have already been designated
• The awesome wonders have already been arranged.

God is not making this thing up as we go along.

You are here for a reason!
You are here to do something good/useful/beneficial/fine/lovely/pleasant/critical/crucial.
You are here to do something meaningful/vital/important/remarkable/significant/awesome/excellenct/spectacular.

YOU ARE HERE FOR A REASON!!!