How do you magnify your office?

Ways To Magnify Mine Office
1. By preaching the full counsel of God

2. By not bringing a reproach on the Body of Christ by allowing sin
to reign in my body

3. By being an example to the flock in humility

4. By warning of a hell to shun and a heaven to gain.

Wrong Ways
1. To stop preaching about sin and tickle peoples ears.

 

When we magnify something, we focus on it.
As Pastors, our focus should be, nay, must be on the calling God has on our lives...

We should focus on it to the point that it overshadows every aspect of our lives. Everything else around us is affected by the ministry God has called us into. When people look at us, they will know we are men of God. Why, because we are out in the public doing the work of God.

I think that is what Paul is talking about here... He realizes that he is called to the Gentiles and that the way to win them is to "make much of his ministry" Or just pour himself into what God has called him to do. And in turn will make the Jews jealous.

Here is the verse in the NIV...
Romans 11:12-14
(12) But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
(13) I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry
(14) in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.

 

Another way that does not bring honor to the office of the Pastor/Elder/Bishop:

Bringing the worldly morals into the church, i.e., dance, movies, Bingo, etc.

 

Hard to add to this, great post Tim.

Paul had a habit of fully applying himself to his belief's. For all we know, that may have been why God chose him. When he was a sinner, he was chief sinner. When he persicuted the Church, he must have stayed up nights dreaming of way to get a decree to go kill more Christians. Now he has seen the light (knocked him on his backside you might say) and he is again giving his full measure.

How do we, we must be availible. If we are availible God can use us and he will magnify us not for our name sake, but for His name sake.

 

better lighting???? :laugh:

I was on the phone this morning, and was asked what kind of pastor am i...i thought it was an interesting question. He was trying to be specific in terms of reaching certain segments of people or groups, but i couldn't be that specific.
I told him simply that i wanted to be faithful. If i'm faithful to my Lord and my calling, i would think that all of these things that have been mentioned would take place and would "magnify my office."

Sorry if i'm being too general, but for me...sometimes it's better to be simple. :thumbsup:

 

Maybe I shouldn't answer, I'm not the Senior Pastor of my church, just the Worship and Youth Pastor. However, I magnify my office by magnifying Him in whatever way I can. If that's through a song, fine. A teaching game, great. A movie clip, cool... within reason. All has to base around Scriptural truth and principle. When He is lifted up, He draws men... all I have to do is make sure I'm doing what He instructed.

 

Maybe another facet of this is to magnify the office by refusing to be involved in causes that are not really a part of the ministry.

By this I mean, not getting involved in political machinations. To be sure we preach about moral issues but not to, as a famous preacher once said, stoop to being a king (or a king maker)

 

Or maybe the worldy Internet. I love how men pick and choose what they perceive to be acceptable or not.

Anyways...

Is Paul speaking directly of his apostleship or generally of his ministry?

 

Or maybe the world will see what a Joy it is to be a Christian and want to have that unspeakable joy. But of course if we live a life of being critical, and hateful, and always negative, we will just drive others away.

We need to be maginifing God's ministry that he has given us. And this is a ministry that is not always putting other Christians down. I worry about some that always have a critical spirit against other Christians that don't agree with them. How can a child of God magnify their calling if they are always putting down other Christians?

As a matter of fact, if we magnify our ministry, put it into focus so much that it covers every aspect in our life, we will not keep our eyes on other's ministries to always find a fault. For our eyes will be on God, and what He is doing through us.

But, if we focus on how others are sinful, worldly Christians to the point that we are always critical, then we are not focusing on God, but on men.

I believe there is two ways to magnify your ministry:
1, put God first, focus on him, and He will lift you up, or
2, put other Christians down in order to make you look big...

Now which is the right way?

 

Absolutely...
I agree 100%.

I was talking about a pastor that was always critical of other churches or ministries just because they are not his. I know a couple like that, and I feel for him and his congregation, because it all boils down to the fact that he has no confidence in what Jesus can do through him.

And he is so afraid that he will lose some of his members to XXXXXX church that he is always critical of all churches around him.

 

If you are implying that I bring the worldly internet into my office, you are barking up the wrong tree.

If you are implying I visit worldly sites, you may want to rethink that too... unless you want to call the BB worldly.

 

God is always first. But God's Holy Word also tells us to reprove, rebuke, correct, instruct, exhort, etc.

 

Right, we rebuke out of love for that person, not to make ourselves appear holier than them... I agree with you.

 

When I was a boy I never understood Mom saying she only whooped me because she loved me. When God chastise out of Love, he does so with hopes we will be better, more loving people.

How do we rebuke out of love? What do we hope to acheive by rebuking another? What is the divine purpose of rebuke?