Transcription
[Music] One of the most life-changing texts I've ever seen in the Bible is found in Acts 13:36. And what does it say? It says, "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep and was buried."
I mean, just think about that. Think about such a summary to someone's life where he says he served this generation and died. That is a summary of his life. He served this generation. I wonder what they're going to be saying about you, um, at the end of your life. Are you living for yourself? Who are you serving? Who are you helping? Whose life is better because you are here? Who is having a better passage in life because you're here? I want you to think about that deeply. Imagine other people saying this about you. "He served his generation." "She served our generation." What a thought. What is your contribution? Not just your consumption. What is your contribution? Who will miss you when you're gone? Who will miss you? What legacy contribution are you going to leave behind? This is something to think about.
Another text. This is by Jesus. Matthew chapter 20:26, he says, "Whoever desires to be great amongst you, let him be your servant." Let him be your servant. Like David, who served this generation. Listen, in a generation that values what we call "balling," oh, I like the way he rolls. You need to understand that in the grand scheme of things, what matters is your service. Your service. That's what's going to matter. And think about it. In the next 50 years, people won't be as thrilled about what car you drove. They will not be. "Yeah, he was a rich man." Well, he's gone now. I mean, sorry to say, I'm I'm talking about people who are maybe in their 60s who would definitely be gone. So let me say, in in 100 years, all right, in 100 years, no matter what car you are driving now, it will be an old model. In 100 years, it'll be an old model. Start defining your life by service. Start measuring success by service. Imagine if we measured success not by what we had, but by what we give. Just imagine. Just imagine. Imagine if you consider yourself a billionaire not because you had 1 billion, but you have given 1 billion, not just in money, but in value. Just imagine what a life that would be.
And I want you to think about this biologically and spiritually. I want to be a biological contributor. Like, I want my immediate family to feel my presence, to feel my presence. You know, there's usually that family member who is always trying to draw everyone together. That can be you. That can be you. And just by taking that decision, God might be preparing you for better positions of leadership. Let me tell you something. You learn diplomacy in family. You learn diplomacy in families. Those cousins, those relatives, maybe even your own blood brother who can be so difficult to deal with. What if God gives you the wisdom? What if you begin to do better? Listen, as I'm talking to you, I'm talking to myself. You do better in reaching out to those people. That is how you develop a ministry. Learning how to love difficult people. Like someone put it, "How to hug a porcupine." Imagine you have to hug a porcupine with all the spikes. How do you hug? How do you love difficult people? Go and learn. Go and learn how to serve.
The same thing applies spiritually. No half measures. Stop coming to church incognito. Get involved. Find something to do. Join a service unit. Let me tell you something. Like I've been saying, there is no discipleship without a discipline. Meaning, uh, you must find something to do. Discipleship finds its utmost expression in purpose. That's what it's about. Start helping your church grow. Deploy your gifts, your your ideas for God. Think about it this way. God gave you gifts, and you've used those gifts for yourself, maybe in your career, uh, in your hobby, whatever it is. Have you used those gifts for God? Have you used, you know, sometimes your church calls for volunteers, it doesn't even occur to you that you can be a blessing. Medical outreaches, you are a medical doctor, or you studied nursing, you're not involved. They want to, um, procure a property, you, you are a lawyer, you know one or two things about it, you don't help. Use your gifts for God. There is no such thing about a Christian in the word of God who is not giving to service. No such Christian. You're either giving to service or you're an impostor.
So how can you get more involved? Number one, your ideas. Number two, your resources. You know, something happened years ago. And those of you who know me know that by the grace of God, many times even my jokes, there's a way the Holy Ghost hijacks it, you know, for a greater good. I'm telling you, we're looking for a a new venue. This was 2014. We had a church at Altar at the time before the Lord asked us to leave it behind. Um, and we were spending a lot. Just imagine, we were spending about 80,000 per service at the time. Um, and I was tired of it. So I said, you know what? If you know a venue we can use, or you own a venue we can use, I mean, please let me know, you know, and all of that. And we laughed about it. I said it in church. It turned out someone in that small church, I'm talking about this church of 150 members at the time, had a property opposite the venue we were using, just opposite. And he said, "You know what? It never even occurred to me that you could use this property. Please use it for church. I would love you to do that." Think about that. Think about that.
Let me tell you something. In my experience, I've discovered that I, I, I pastor many powerful people who don't even, you know, I don't know why it just doesn't occur to them to step forward and be counted, to to be part of the number and to be part of, you know, what we are doing. And whilst we have a responsibility to keep creating opportunities for people to deploy their gifts and all of that, I want it to be something intuitive for every believer. This is a discipleship class, and so this is something every believer should know. Step forward, be counted. Constantly begin to think, "How can my gifts be a blessing to the house of God?" Why am I telling you this? Because this is how to grow. "He that is faithful in little is faithful in much." This is this is the law of spiritual promotion. You find something small to do. If you haven't faced a lion and a bear, nobody's going to let you face Goliath. These are spiritual laws. Get involved.
And the third thing I want to talk about is community. Community. Let me tell you something. Maybe you're thinking, "Well, I don't really have any groundbreaking idea that can benefit the church, or I don't really have resources like that that can help the church." Or can I tell you something? Just be there for people. Just, just be there for people. You know, you can be such a person that gives people hope, gives people encouragement, just your presence, just your smile, just your warmth. At least don't be the reason people want to leave church. Don't be the reason. Learn to apologize when necessary. Learn to say thank you. Learn to to appreciate people. It's important.
And then the last thing I want to talk about is spiritual support. Learn to support others spiritually. Let me tell you something. In every church, you have the pastor, but there must also be strong horizontal relationships. Strong horizontal relationships to the degree. Listen, there's a text that a lot of people misconstrue. I believe they misconstrue it because Jesus said, "The harvest truly is plenteous. The laborers are few. Pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into the harvest." I know what you think. You read every time you read it, you think he's saying, "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to get more harvest." That's not what he said. He's saying, even amongst the people who have come and are interested in the kingdom, the people who you can already call a harvest metaphorically, they still need work. Jesus was saying this because he saw a multitude coming to him like sheep having no shepherd. It means by laborers, he wasn't even talking about himself or the immediate disciples who later were referred to as apostles. He's talking about like, second-level layer of leadership. I mean, just imagine, I'm pastoring a mega-church. I cannot be there for everyone as much as I want to. I can't pray for everyone personally. But you can. You can. You can just by getting serious spiritually, you can affect the whole church positively. Think about that.
So when God said, "Pray that God will send more laborers," he wasn't talking about more church planters. He was talking about more people in the church who will just be a strong support, iron sharpening iron, a man sharpening the countenance of his friend. We're not talking about pastors to members. We're talking about members to members, but people who are on fire because of you. You can be a brother and encourage people in an in a remarkable way. I'm telling you this that there are, there will be brothers and sisters in heaven who have as great a reward as pastors. It's not about the title. It's not about who is behind the lens. It is about who is doing the work. This is very simple but important. And if you don't learn these new simple keys, these simple keys, be not necessarily new. Um, you, you won't really say that you have grown or you have grown in discipleship because, like I keep saying, no discipleship without a discipline.
I hope this helped you. God bless you. This is 100 Days of Discipleship. If this blessed you, share with as many people as possible. Don't forget to like the video so that the YouTube algorithm will show more people and leave a comment also. God bless you. See you next time. [Music]