MBC 2005 Annual Meetings Keynote

These are my notes from Jerry’s keynote message. I’m posting them
mostly for my own use, but if you benefit from them, praise God!

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Keynote message from the 149th Annual Meeting of the Midwest
Baptist Conference

by Jerry Sheveland

The first seven chapters of the book of Acts tell the story of churches
on a mission.

We can often disconnect the ministry of the Holy Spirit with the mission
to which we have been called. We often associate the ministry of the
Spirit with the inner life.

He read from 2 Ti 2:20-21

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but
also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble.
If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for
noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any
good work. –
2
Timothy 2:20-21

Do you have a set of “good dishes”? They are set apart

for
guests, not for casual Saturday morning.

Being holy is being set apart just like those special dishes. We need
to tend to the process of being holy, being set apart, because being holy
is about being useful to the master for noble purposes.

The first use of Holy is on Day 7 of creation.

The second use of Holy is in
Exodus
3 where God calls the ground Holy Ground.

“On my 37th birthday, my son took me to play golf. I came to hole 7
and pulled out a scuffed up orange ball. I put it on the tee. Hole in
one. That ball didn’t go back in the bottom of the bag. It’s on a
trophy.”

There was a time when God reached down and picked up an ordinary
scuffed up person and said, “You are no longer to be in the bottom of the
bag.”

Paul tells Timothy that he needs to remain holy to be ready for God’s
purposes.

The Fire and Reign campaign is about letting the Holy Spirit say,
“Dear church, do you realize your noble calling in this
community?”

You belong in a glass case. Why would we ever want our people to live dog
bowl lives?

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Report from the efforts of the BGC.

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Focus on spiritual renewal

Getting ready for the next vision.

• working on a movement name to communicate the forward movement for
  the cause of Christ.