Heb 12:1 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily
ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us..." (NKJ)
This past Wednesday evening, for those of you who were not here, I shared
concerning this passage from Hebrews 12 in relationship to the direction I
feel that God is taking us over the course of the remainder of this year
and beyond.
Just by way of bringing those of you who were not here up to speed, I will
be preaching in both the Sunday morning and Wednesday evening services for
the next few weeks. I believe that this is something that the Holy Ghost
has dropped in my spirit in order for myself, as the senior pastor, to
establish a practical framework for the vision that God has given this
church.
In the past six months, I have had to evaluate the direction and the
progress that we have made as a church and the progress that I have made
in my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon review, I have found
that both had become somewhat stagnant by way of moving in the prescribed
directives that God had lain down.
I want to preface the next thing that I am about to say with this: I am
not personally one that is given to ordering my life by personal words of
prophecy, or by dreams and visions. I believe as it says in 1 Peter 1:19
that we have been given a "more sure word of prophecy..." in which we need
to take heed to like a light shining out of darkness.
I believe that God has given us the prophetic giftings within the local
assembly to provide confirmation and not direction. But having said that,
in course of the past two years, I have received the same word no less
than (4) times- by (4) different men, who were in no way affiliated with
this church.
The first time that is was given, I thought to myself, "That's
nice....we'll see." The second time it was given I thought, "Boy, that
sounds familiar." The third time, I stopped and said, "I need to consider
this a little more." Then finally the third time that it was given, I
wept, because it began to make all the sense in the world to me.
The most amazing part of this whole story is that the word was not some
eloquent or lengthy discourse, but instead just (6) little words. "It is
bigger than you think."
Now to you, this may sound ridiculous. That is why I am going to explain
it in more detail this morning. Some people talk about want to be a
"bigger person" or as I heard someone say recently, "I want to be bigger
on the inside." This is not what I am talking about.
Let me explain it to you like this:
If you were the owner of a local lawnmower shop that also built go-carts
for children as a side line and I walked in one day and said, " I need
100,000 of those go-carts by years end- what would be your response?
First of all, you would probably be elated, because you would feel that
you were set for life. That you had the order of all orders. That you
would be known as the "go cart" king of the world. You would probably
surmise that, "You must have the greatest go carts and must be the best
builder of go carts- because why else would someone want 100,000 of your
go carts. You must be special. You must be different.
Then your thoughts would change and you would say, "You must be kidding!"
You would probably began saying to yourself:
? There is no humanly way possible that I could ever put together 100 go
carts in five months, let alone 100,000
? Where will I get the necessary parts?
? How can I keep up the other part of my business?
? I'll have to have a bigger building.
? I'll needs hundreds of more workers.
? There is just no way that I can do this, they called the wrong person.
What began as the most exciting thing that had ever happened, suddenly
became the most overwhelming burden that you had ever faced.
In comparison to the order:
? You felt inadequate to get the job done
? You felt overwhelmed by the prospects
? You felt intimidated by the scope
And it would be easy to tell the person, "Thanks, but no thanks. I am
doing just fine with my little mower shop. I am content with what I am
doing now. Why don't you ask someone else more qualified. You know, you
probably meant to call the mower shop across town anyway. They have a
bigger shop and a lot more employees. They are definitely more qualified
for a job like this."
? I want to do it
? I need to do it
? I just cant do it
But, let me change up that scenario somewhat. What if that same customer
went to someone like a Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of the Chrysler
Corporation, and instead of wanting 100,000 go-carts- they instead wanted
100,000 automobiles by the end of the year?
Do you think for a moment that Lee Iacocca would ever dare to say, "I am
sorry, I just can't do that. You may want to go across town to General
Motors or the Ford Motor Company. We just can't do it, but they can."
NO- he would probably say, "So you want all 100,00 vehicles by December
31st? How about we deliver them to you on December 15th? I was planning on
giving all of my employees an extra two weeks off at years end for working
so had!"
Q. Why would one person refuse the challenge while the other person
embraced it like a golden goose!
A. Because one was willing to think bigger than himself.
When these individuals came to me and said, "The Lord would have you to
know that it is bigger than you think." I was initially reluctant to
receive this word because I thought to myself, "Man, you just don't know
how big that I think!"
But when one is from the East coast
And one is from the West coast
And one is from the Gulf coast
And one is from the North
I had to take inventory and remember what the Lord had spoken to me in the
beginning! From the north, south, east and west they would come! Then I
had to consider what was really being said to me-
"It is bigger than YOU think." Not, it is bigger than God could have you
to think. But rather, it exceeds the natural limitations of your own
ability to cognitively understand it or it surpasses the limited capacity
of finite man.
Then I remembered.
Seven years ago, the Lord spoke a word to me that I in turn shared with
the Body. In that word, I shared with them that within a sixth month time
period, that God would be sending a black man and a mexican man that would
serve as leaders in the work that he had called us to. It happened.
But I also shared with the congregation that He had spoken that, He would
bring people out of obscurity and of no reputation to do something that
would impact this city. Figuratively That he would commission a lawn-mower
shop to build 100,000 go-carts!
That He would look to as unlikely of a source as possible to do the
impossible. That He would choose something that looked so inadequate in
the natural to do something supernatural. Then it clicked!
It is bigger than I think! It is bigger than I think! It is bigger than I
think!
I have got to stop thinking about it and start doing it. I have got to
stop depending on my ability to see it in my own thinking and rationale
and began to think like Jesus! That we, as a church must abandon the "mom
and pop" mentality and start doing the will of God like an Iacocca!
Isa 55:1-13
1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no
money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and
without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not
satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will
delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make
an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of
the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not
know you will hasten to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of
Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor."
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him
turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he
will freely pardon.
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it
without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it
yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me
empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which
I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and
hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will
clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers
the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown, for an
everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." (NIV)
To do what God has called us to do and to be who God has called us to be-
we must began to think and see and believe bigger than ourselves!
It may be bigger than I think, but it is not bigger than God thinks.
But, I do believe that there are (5) questions that we must ask ourselves
in order to see the fulfillment of the calling that God has placed upon
our lives.
Heb 12:1 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily
ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us..." (NKJ)
If you were here this past Wednesday evening then you know that the word
translated here as weight more specifically means "an encumbrance that
impedes forward progress."
That God is calling us to eliminate or to get rid of those things that
would keep us from moving into the promises of God; that we might run with
endurance the race or the vision that He has set before us.
These (5) questions that I ask this morning, I believe, will help us to
eliminate these encumbrances.
These are not in any particular order in regards to importance. In fact, I
chose the first one as such because some people- for some unknown reason
are somehow sucked from the church short of dismissal and I think that
they should hear this question.
If you have a pencil/pen and paper, then write these questions down so
that yo can refer to them later as needed:
#1) Do I have the right attitude towards money?
If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could only have one book
with you- what would that book be? The Bible? How about a practical book
on boat building?
See, sometimes we get so spiritually minded that we are no earthly good
and on the flip side we can get so earthly minded that we are no
spiritually good. Neither of these is correct.
There are two extremes in the church today in relationship to money.
1. Materialism- that somehow godliness can be measured by the size of
one's bank account.
2. Poverty- that you are broke because you are righteous.
Neither of these extremes are correct.
Satan has a major plan at work in the church today. He wants soul-winning
churches to be broke and prosperity churches to have so much that they
lose sight of God's purpose.
The big error that has so subtly invaded the soul-winning church is that
God intends for us to be poor. The devil never wants evangelism and
prosperity to intersect.
Now I am about to say something that will probably cause some of you to
scowl and some of you to call for my head, but hear me out on this.
> many things in the prosperity teaching are right- it is the abuses, that
are wrong.
The error occurs when the wealth is utilized to serve as a gauge of
righteousness rather than a tool to spread the Gospel.
Wealthy Christians should gage their net worth, not by how much they have
earned, but instead by how much they have given to the cause of Christ.
When prosperity and evangelism intersect- the devil realizes that he is in
big trouble!
I believe that the day is coming when Christian millionaires began to see
that there is a need for their money to be utilized to reach our
inner-cities. That the "cancer" of prosperity teaching that says, "You
need to send the already wealthy your money, because that is where the
good soil of increase is." is finally exposed and removed from the body of
Christ.
