Any great move of God must begin among his people, Ken Hemphill
emphasized in his first major address as national strategist for Southern Baptists
Empowering Kingdom Growth initiative.
However, those people must embrace God in repentance and humble
obedience, he added. There is no other way.
Any great move of God must begin among his people, Ken Hemphill
emphasized in his first major address as national strategist for Southern Baptists
Empowering Kingdom Growth initiative.
However, those people must embrace God in repentance and humble
obedience, he added. There is no other way.
“What God is looking for is a people that will manifest
his name through radical obedience to his Word and a lifestyle that reflects
his character,” Hemphill said.
That is the focus of the Empowering Kingdom Growth idea, he
noted.
“If you were thinking this Empowering Kingdom Growth is
about some program that will give new juice to your Sunday School, youre
going to be disappointed,” Hemphill said. “This is about radical lifestyle
commitment to our fathers kingdom, for our fathers reward. And none
of us may receive much glory for this here on earth.
“Its about transformation of a people called Southern
Baptists so that their name is synonymous with his name, and the nation would
see his name manifested in his kingdom in such a way that the foreigners would
be drawn to him.”
Hemphill became the Empowering Kingdom Growth strategist this
spring after serving nine years as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary.
Empowering Kingdom Growth is a convention-wide initiative launched
in 2002 to call Southern Baptists to renew their passion for Jesus and the reign
of his kingdom.
Pointing to the prayer of David in 2 Samuel 7, Hemphill said
God throughout Scripture makes clear that his purpose in blessing the nation
of Israel was to bring glory to himself not to the nation of Israel.
In the same way, any move of God through Southern Baptists will require the
same realization, he said.
“God does not share his glory,” Hemphill said. “His
purpose is to work through a people. I believe in Southern Baptists, but the
truth of the matter is this is not about us. … Its not about anything
else except the glory of God and Gods name.”
That also is seen when Israel was dedicating the temple, the
whole focus of Solomons prayer in 1 Kings 8 was on lifting up Gods
name so that “foreigners” would hear about God and come to live among
the people of Israel.
“Here we have an incredible evangelistic outreach …
that is one we have never even dreamed of, and that is that God has embraced
people in such a way that they are drawn to this place,” Hemphill said.
In Ezekiel 36, Hemphill said, Gods name was disgraced
when the nation of Israel was scattered because of the disobedience of its people.
However, God brought them back and restored them – not for Israels
glory but, as the Lord said, “to show foreign nations that I am holy.”
True kingdom growth simply will not come through another so-called
“formula,” Hemphill stressed.
“Its not going to be another program. Its
going to have to be a radical transformation of Gods people so that his
name is made holy among us. …
“Folks, if we go into this hoping that Southern Baptists are going to
receive the glory, were going to miss it by a mile,” Hemphill stressed.
“The only person who needs to receive glory from anything we do –
whether preaching, witnessing or planting churches – is the one whose name
is above every name.” (BP)