THE WINNING FORMULA
ACTION: Display of picture of the Enthroned Jesus
’Jesus is the winner man, the winner man, the winner man…I am on the winning side, on the winning side, on the winning side’… so resonates a melodious praise number (usually sung by the youth), in the Church portals, every now & then.
Normally we His ministers have a call of serving Him in the following areas’ of the spiritual realm (yes there are Socio-spiritual works which are also pleasing unto the Lord but in this message mostly I intend to focus on the Spiritual realm )
a) reaching the unreached (Matthew 28:18-20),
b) strengthening His flock (John 21:15) with the greenest of the green grass -His Word-
c) even while being constantly on the look-out to search & save the back-slidden lot (James 5:19-20),
Whilst going about our God-honoring tasks, have we ever considered by applying what ‘formula’ can we bring a ‘ winning success’ to our Ministry?
Permit me to digress a little, in these the days of Corporate clichés’ where the aim is quite often in finding ‘the winning formula’ (other things remaining constant a team of a competent manager with well-motivated sub-ordinates complementing each other is said to be a winning formula), as it would automatically lend itself to success, is it not also worthwhile to ponder on the ‘winning formula’ Christ adopted in his earthly mission with the results which is all there to see.
First & foremost, He lived a life pleasing unto God, was filled with His Spirit (Luke 4:1), formed a team of His own & led them by the power of His example before passing on the baton to them. His disciples were always there with Him & for Him…till they deserted Him temporarily at the time of crucifixion in fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 13:7– only to re-unite with Him & re-align themselves in line with His vision for this world so much so that they eventually became men who would turn this world topsy-turvy (Acts 17:6) or should we say, this world, which was upside down till then, right side up.
It is pertinent to recall here that no special privileges were conferred upon the Son of God, when he donned the robe of flesh. From birth till baptism, it had been a life of complete submission to His Father’s will, even if it meant suffering (Heb 2:17-18) & eating bread by the sweat of his brow in poverty & obscurity.
SUBJECTION
ACTION: Picture of Jesus baptism with the words of Heavenly commendation as found in Matt 3:16
Subjection to God’s will would lead to a spirit-filled ministry, as naturally as an exposure to sun would produce the heating effect in any metal. Spirit-filled ministry in turn would impact the people for good, just as the ministry of Jesus’ did bringing thousands of sheep
a) outside (Samaritans for instance… John 4:39-42) &
b) within God’s pen fold - but had strayed astray-
to repentance (e.g.…Zacchaeus the Tax Collector in Luke 19:9-10),
even while having a re-invigorating effect on those who already trusted God (the family of Bethany sisters’ & Lazarus for instance).
In these days when the mantra ‘PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH’ is doled out as the recipe for sure success, look at how Jesus’ approach to His Father’s mission stood in STARK CONTRAST to this. We need to see at both the Messianic prophecy (Malachi 2:6 b) & its recorded fulfillment in Acts 1:1, at how Jesus went about his God-given tasks.
Let’s carefully look at both these verses. If the first one says
‘He WALKED WITH ME, in peace & uprightness & turned many from their lives of sin’, the second one virtually sums it up more succinctly thus…‘In my former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do & teach’.
Look even at the sequencing of the words in both the verses. In what order, they have been framed. He walked ‘first’ …in uprightness & then only turned many from sin. Similarly Doctor Luke, ever the stickler to details…puts the word ‘DO’ before the word ‘TEACH’.
Simply put, Jesus did not merely practice what he preached, rather HE PREACHED WHAT HE PRACTICED. Amazing isn’t it? The most significant part of the winning formula of our Lord! Every word he spoke in the revolutionary Sermon on the Mount, He had practiced it before speaking.No wonder, there was so much of conviction & authority in His WORDS that people stood dazed by their power. (Matt 7:29/ Luke4: 32).
In essence, the first component of the winning formula of our Lord was a life of complete obedience to His Father, right from the beginning (Luke 2:51-52) for when do we hear the Heavenly commendation - ‘THIS IS MY SON, WHOM I LOVE; WITH HIM I AM WELL PLEASED’- coming His way soon after his baptism in river Jordan (Matthew 3:17). Is it not ‘BEFORE’ he had performed a single miracle or preached a single sermon?
Jesus’ subjection would lead him all the way to the excruciating Cross and then…THE CROWN (Philippians 2:5-11).
PROVISION
ACTION: Display of picture of Grapevine with the words of John 15:5 forming the caption
Any effort by us to be preachers & teachers without first clinging to His presence by constant obedience (John 15:5) is doomed to fail. ‘UNLEARNING’ is yet another Corporate buzzword, whereby we are instructed to put to shelf all that we held dear to our hearts hitherto, as they have now become redundant. So if abundant provision of the Spirit meaning ample power is lacking in our ministry, wouldn’t it be worthwhile to do a reality check, as to whether ‘We are really feeling Christ’s presence & power more & more within us’ (2 Cor 13:5) or we still clinging to that obsolete formula of trying to ‘Practice what you preach’ in hope, it will bring fruit in our ministry. Unlearning here would require, we dump that outdated formula. Forget practicing your sermon to capture public attention for who would first of all listen to a person who is not anointed of the Lord, in whose sermons, power is conspicuous by its absence, which would be the case, when he has never practiced the virtue he is trying to extol in his sermon. A Pastor cannot speak with conviction about tithing for instance till, he is faithfully giving a tithe of the tithes’ he is receiving for some God-honoring work... and BEING BLESSED FOR IT.
To further substantiate my point permit me to use a freak example. On the topic of Intercessory prayer on the international ‘Prayer day’, lets imagine for a moment that on assigning the speaking responsibility in a church function we have a to make a choice between 2 prospective speakers, who have never spoken in a church before (other factors like grip over the language etc remaining constant). On one hand, lets assume we have a devout member, the one who has fasted & prayed, many a time for others & experienced the power of God in answered prayers & on the other we have a nominal church member who is a high ranking government officer with the obvious potential to dole out a handsome financial contribution (to the church when needed) but with no prayer life. The question, I would like to ask now is not whom, we should plump for as that would lead to an incidental topic (are we God pleasers’ or people pleasers?), which I hopefully would be dwelling upon shortly but rather WHO WOULD SPEAK WITH CONVICTION which would produce edification in the audience? The answer is obvious, isn’t it? One exception here please...if one is called to be a "single" like Apostle Paul, you still DO have the right of speaking and writing about God-honoring marriage (1 Cor 7). Joys of marriage...oh that is a different subject altogether...!!!
SUBMISSION AND EXEMPLIFICATION
ACTION: Display of a picture of Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet...
Then again, if you are a leader remember the true quality of your leadership would lie in serving others’ first (your team members to start with), as our good Lord exemplified by washing His disciples’ feet (John 13:3-14). An act which besides immediately diffusing a leadership crisis in the upper-room 2 thousand years ago (Luke 22:24-30) - even as the disciples were jostling each other figuratively for the best seat both in the upper room & in the coming Kingdom - has stood like a silent shining lamp in the darkness for many a Christian leader, trying to toe His Master’s style of ministry.
Here let me burrow from the foreword of the Book titled “They call me coach” on legendary Basketball coach John Wooden and apply it to the Master who was practicing it long before anyone...
Jesus would not ask his men to do anything, which he himself would not DO before (thanks Bill Walton!)
AFFLIATION AND TRANSITION
ACTION: Display of pictures of
a) Jesus walking with his disciples
b) Handing over of the Olympics "relay" torch
PEOPLE! Yes, fallible people with a propensity to develop feet of clay. Yes, they were yet another significant component of our Lord’s ‘winning formula’ both for His fellowship, as well as to carry on the torch of Gospel, as it were, in His physical absence. Even as his powerful sermons challenged & changed the crowds, He drew a lot of comfort from the physical companionship of his disciples whom he was training intensely for more exacting tasks, ahead. Even in those defining moments of that agonizing night in the Garden of Gethsamane, he longed for flesh & blood companionship of His disciples (Matt 26:37). As His ambassadors in this I-pod, I-Phone, I-Pad age, are we fallaciously adopting ‘I will go it alone’ policy? Remember, even with an in-dwelling Holy Spirit we have been designed for companionship, be it in life or in ministry.
Handing over of the Ministry at the right time to ones’, whom we disciple over a period of time has to be a seamless transition. Like Moses passed on the “baton” to Joshua, we need to pass on our “baton” of work to those we have discipled once our term in this world is over. For instance Paul always had young Timothy by his side, whom he had groomed & to whom he entrusted the care of the Church at Ephesus as his life was nearing the end. A husband & wife missionaries Aquilla & Priscilla had each other’s company…so did many God servants closer to times like Mother Teresa who had her wonderful team of sisters (whom she had trained) to support her & to whom she entrusted her life mission of caring for the uncared once she left this earthly scene.
Christ’s disciples too walking in the ways of their Master after being filled by the Spirit (Acts 2) ushered in a spiritual revolution, which is still dynamically impacting people for good…besides bringing meaning & purpose to their lives. A brief excerpt from the Biography* of D.Livingstone that immortal missionary to Africa captures the essence of his ministry…on how he had modeled it on His master.
‘They (people to whom he ministered) had decided to go to Kolobeng, too, for they felt that they could not live without their white friend, who healed their diseases, taught them to read, and told them of a wonderful Saviour’.
* by Eugene Myers Harrison ‘The Biography of the Pathfinder’
In a nutshell, he did things pleasing unto God first like healing the diseases of the people in his mission field to start with BEFORE sharing the Gospel with them (people of the Dark Continent) with the results which history approves of…even today.
To sum-up Jesus, his dedicated disciples’ & their ilk shall always be ‘a winner man’. Reason? They not only show the way, they not only aim to lead the way but most importantly they GO THAT WAY ...FIRST. The point is…are we using this time-tested ‘winning formula’ ourselves in our ministries.
(Suresh Manoharan)
ps...This message replete with pics can also be accessed at the following URL...
http://www.jandsmministries.com/message_may1-07.asp
