Advice to Graduates and Other Folk
Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
l. THE MAN – PAUL
-He was a legend in his field but I had never thought of him as a role model or as a leadership executive.
-Yet, as I read through the highlights of his life, I understood that he lived at the heart of a startup venture that faced overwhelming odds from the outset. He took a very ambitious goal and walked out of the private sector and invested in the international arena. The folly of this was that he had not capital and no employees.
-When one observed the whole situation, there were earmarks of failure all over the whole venture. He faced tremendous opposition to his plans, both from within and without his organization.
-There were dangerous barriers in many of his target markets and foremost among this, his opposition was intent on killing him. . . . . . literally. Yet somehow, his plan succeeded.
-This leader was not one that I heard speak at some workshop nor watched a video. I read his story in an unexpected place–the pages of the Bible.
-Right at two-thousand years ago, this man from Tarsus, helped launch an enterprise that changed the history of the world. In a time before faxes, cell phones, e-mail, the Internet, and even mass printing technology. But in the course of around seventeen years, he dazzled a disinterested market that shaped the lives of thousands who lived during his time and millions who have since been born.
-Because of his commitment to a mission in life, he took every opportunity to share his vision, invest in up and coming young leaders, and endured when most others would have tossed the towel in frustration.
-From his life, I hope to share with you a few principles that will help in the days and years to come. Success is not an accident. It is something that is carefully sought after and embraced and more often than not is like the starting of a small fire in the winter wilderness. It will have to be carefully sheltered and coaxed along until finally the fire gains a foothold in the cold, wet wood and begins to roar with purpose.
ll. PRINCIPLES FOR LIFE
A. The First Principle – Grow In The Desert – Galatians 1:17
Galatians 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
-After Paul was delivered from his blindness on the way toward Damascus, the Lord determined to send him to the regions of Arabia. This marks only one destination, the desert.
-The desert often becomes the spiritual boot camp for a man’s soul. It is in the desert that a work in the Spirit will occur, if we allow it to. Desert seasons often are slow and unproductive. It could be that the desert season is weeks, months, or even years.
The immensity of the desert overwhelms both the power and the weakness of men. Ivan Illich
-In the desert, we realize that everything does not revolve around us. In fact, we are finally forced to admit that the responsibility of changing the world does not belong to us. Paul would not avoid his desert, he would face it head on and emerge a better man.
-Deserts are:
• Dry
• Dusty
• Brittle
• Barren
• Dangerous
-But the Arabian desert became the place where Paul would find preparation, consecration, and healing. For three long years, Paul was hidden away in this desert. But you must learn to grow in your desert. I have lived long enough to learn this one thing: Exceptional work is preceded by extended waiting.
-A desert can strip away our pride and self-centeredness. It can help us to develop thick skin and a tender heart. You must learn to grow in the desert places of life.
-The Bible is full of men who experienced a desert:
• It was in the desert of dejection of Elijah that God spoke best to him.
• It was in the wearying desert of lonely faith that God came again to Abraham.
• It was in the desert of failure that Peter found God.
• It was in the desert of the dangerous that Jacob had his wrestling match with God.
• It was in the desert of loneliness that Moses would get the Law from God.
• It was in the desert of barrenness that Hannah prevailed.
• It was in the desert of fear mixed with weak faith that Esther approached Ahaserus.
• It was in desert of spiritual warfare that Daniel received his great vision from God.
• It was in the desert of rejection that Jeremiah found a renewed burden for the people.
• It was in the desert zones of a pit and a prison that Joseph felt God continuing to forecast his dreams.
• It was in the desert of lonely prayer at Gethsemane that the Lord labored, just a stone’s cast away from the disciples but it may as well have been a million miles that separated them.
-God uses strange schoolhouses in the desert to teach His servants.
• David’s pasture in Bethlehem was really a desert.
• Hosea’s house was a desert without Gomer.
• Abraham’s sacrifice became a lonely desert vigil.
• Rizpah on her rock was a desert place.
• Bethlehem’s stable. . . . .a desert place.
• John’s Isle of Patmos. . . . . a desert place.
• Epaphroditus’ obscurity was a desert.
-Never despise the desert places that inspires closeness with God. There are times in the lonely hours of service that God calls me aside. It may arise from an insistent whisper, but that beckoning is persistent until it reaches me. Come aside for a while. Come aside to prayer. Come aside to think. Come aside for communion. Come aside for instruction. Come aside to the desert.
-The method of God’s introduction of His greatest servants in the world are so vast. In some cases, God’s servants rise gradually and majestically, like the rising of the sun, from the glimmer of a promising child-hood to the meridian of full power. In other cases, they flash like lightning on the dark hinges of the night. Sometimes God charges a man with a message and launches that man suddenly and irresistibly. Men such as Elijah and John the Baptist.
-But all of God’s greatest men have found that you must grow in your desert. Paul went immediately to the desert. This strikes us again that after conversion, there are immediate adjustments that we must make for our lives to have a stable relationship with God.
-It was there that Paul pondered the great problem of his life. For it was in the lonely hours when the hour of prayer came that he would intercede. Groans mingled with words. The depth of intercessory prayer will change the world. In the desert, Paul learned intercessory prayer.
-As you track the prayers that Paul would later pray, name after name would pour out of his soul for churches, for other disciples. . . . . For Barnabas, for the Philippians, for Timothy, for the Ephesians, for Titus, for the Galatians, and on and on.
-To be alone with God. To do exactly as the text in Galatians, not to confer with flesh and blood but to know God. In what way? . . . . In a relationship marked by the hand of God.
-Into the desert he went with the Law of Moses, the Psalms of David, and with the Prophets among his parchments. But out of that loneliness God would breathe into him the Roman letter, the Ephesians letter, the Colosse letter, among others as of yet unwritten but the seed of the inspiration had been planted.
-In the desert:
• The first Adam transferred into an understanding of the Second Adam.
• The covenant given to Abraham translates into not the seed of many, but the seed of one, the man Christ Jesus.
-The desert is ordained of God. It can be positive as long as the Spirit of God is left in control. The desert can give us a greater passion for God. It is when we try to control and confine and explain our deserts, our souls have a tendency to self-destruct.
-God was using the desert prepare him for greatness. It would be in the lonely prison cells that he would write the Prison Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon) and out of his loneliness and persecution came his richest letters. The letters that probe the heights of doctrine and are so full of faith and encouragement.
-Let me tell you a little about the desert:
• Abraham Lincoln – A simple rail-splitter, spent much of his time in the desert. He lost his first love before they could be married, and he then lost one election after another. Finally, he emerged as a leader of our nation. Yet, while there he endured more pain ov er the tragic death of his son Willie. Many attribute Lincoln’s great strength under pressure to his ability to experience loss and endure.
• Franklin Roosevelt – Historians vew Roosevelt’s bout with polio as the very thing that made him compassionate toward others in pain.
• Winston Churchill – Against the enormous pressure of the German bombings, he boldly declared, “My whole life has been in preparation for this.”
• Juan Trippe – The visionary creator of the Boeing 747 believed he could design a plane that would keep his company from bankruptcy.
-There are no ideal situations in life. It all matters how that you react to them. The more value that comes from your life, relates greatly to your ability to handle pressure and adversity.
A bar of steel worth $5, when made into ordinary horseshoes, is then worth $10. If this same $5 bar is manufactured into needles, the value rises to $350. And yet if it’s made into delicate springs for expensive watches, it is worth more than $250,000. The same bar of steel is made more valuable by being cut to its’ proper size, passed through one blast furnace after another, again and again, hammered and manipulated, beaten and pounded, finished and polished until it’s ready for those delicate tasks.
-You must learn to grow in the desert.
B. The Second Principle – Start – Acts 9:20
Acts 9:20 And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
-The second thing that we learn from Paul’s life is that he started. Notice in Acts 9:20, it says “straightway” or immediately he began to preach.
-There are plenty of people who have great ideas, but few who take their dream and turn it into reality. The willingness to begin makes the difference.
Johann von Goethe – Whatever you do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it.
-There is always time for analysis and a time for planning. There is a time to be patient and wait, but there also comes a time to just give it a shot. The Lord spoke about this in Matthew 11:12 when he said the that the kingdom suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. . . .
-An article in a physician’s office summed up the battle to follow though and start:
We hear it almost every day: sigh, sigh, sigh.
I just can’t get myself motivated to. . . . .[lose weight, test my blood sugar, etc.]. And we hear an equal number of sighs from diabetes educators who can’t get their patients to do the right things for their diabetes and health.
We have news for you. Motivation is not going to strike you like lightning. And motivation is not something that someone else–nurse, doctor, family member–can bestow or force on you. The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation and then guess what. After you start doing it the thing, that’s when motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it.
Motivation is like love and happiness. It’s a by-product. When your actively engaged in doing something, it sneaks up on you and zaps you when you least expect it.
As Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner says, “Your more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action.” So act! Whatever it is you should do, do it.
-An African parable captures the idea very well: Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning the lion wakes up. It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up you had better be running.
-You must start. You cannot wait for tomorrow, or next week, or next year. You have got to start now, tonight!!!! I cannot do it for you, you must do it for yourself. Forget the catcalls of the critics, forget the limitations that you perceive you have, forget the mistakes of the past and get rolling. Start, start, start, start, start, start. . . . . . . . .
Handel was a musical prodigy. Though his father wanted him to study law, he gravitated toward music at an early age. By age seventeen, he held the post of church organist at the cathedral in Halle, his hometown. A year later, he became a violinist and harpsichordist at the kaiser’s opera house in Hamburg. By age twenty-one, he was a keyboard wizard. When he turned to composing, he gained immediate fame and soon was appointed Kapellmeister conductor to the elector of Hanover (later King George 1 of England). When he moved to England, his renown grew. By the time he was forty, he was world famous.
Despite Handel’s talent and fame, he faced considerable adversity. Competition with rival English composers were fierce. Audiences were fickle and sometimes didn’t turn out for the performances. He was frequently the victim of the changing political winds of the times. Several times he found himself penniless and on the verge of bankruptcy. The pain of rejection and failure was difficult to bear, especially following his previous success.
Then his problems were compounded by failing health. He suffered a seizure or stroke, which left his right arm limp and caused him to lose the use of four fingers on his right hand. Although he recovered, he remained despondent. In 1741, Handel decided that it was time to retire, even though he was only fifty-six. He was discouraged, miserable, and consumed with debt. He felt certain he would land in debtors’ prison. On April 8, he gave what he considered was his farewell concert. Disappointed and filled with self-pity, he gave up.
But in August of that year, something incredible happened. A wealthy friend named Charles Jennings visited Handel and give him a small book based on the life of Christ. The work intrigued Handel–enough to stir up a start in him. He began writing. And immediately the floodgates of inspiration opened up within him. His cycle of inactivity was broken. For twenty-one days he wrote almost non-stop. Then he spent another two days creating the orchestrations. In twenty-four days, he had completed the 260 page manuscript. He called the piece Messiah.
Today, Handel’s Messiah is considered a masterpiece and the culmination of the composer’s work. In fact, Sir Newman Flower, one of Handel’s biographers, said of the writing of Messiah, “Considering the immensity of the work, and the short time involved, it will remain, perhaps forever, the greatest feat in the whole history of music composition.” (Adapted from John Maxwell, How to Fail Forward)
-Somewhere you have to force yourself to start. Personal growth causes us to stretch ourselves. The Marines have invented some slogans that sum up what I am preaching about:
• What doesn’t kill you can make you better.
• Pain is just weakness leaving the body.
-The value of such growth may elude you at such times. . . . . But get started anyway. Keep forcing yourself to start.
C. The Third Principle – Release Resentments – Colossians 3:13
Colossians 3:13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Six years ago, I met a man (totally unattached to this church) that I doubt anyone here may know except for my wife. He told me a sorry story. He had been the CEO at a thriving business organization. In fact he had put twenty-three years of his life into this organization. He had literally spent himself in this endeavor until it had reached it’s potential. But in 1995, restructuring came along and in the course of time, this man found himself involved in a struggle for his job. It came about that another younger man was placed in the administrative capacities of this organization and he began a work of subterfuge, mental intimidation, and terrorism to this older man until finally he gave up and was forced out of his job.
This man that I met, when I met him was beginning to have some severe health problems only 2 years after his forced departure from his job. He had lost a significant income and his entire reputation had been literally torn apart because of the spin that had been put on the situation by his nemesis. On that day, he told me the whole sordid tale, the innuendo that he had been forced to overcome and the financial setbacks that were continuing to lyse away at his savings and retirement. I felt sorry for him and conveyed that to him. I found some common ground with this man and soon became acquainted with him and would periodically see him and we would talk. But I noticed something about him. Every time that we talk he would pour out his bitterness and anger over his plight in life. The last time that I saw him, his health is literally failing him and I will be surprised if he lives very much longer.
-Unresolved tensions in life will make their way to the surface and will affect our abilities to lead and to influence. Resentment is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “a sense of injury or anger arising from a sense of wrong.” It can stifle us and create harm in and through us.
-Lesson: RELEASE RESENTMENTS. They will spill over into your actions and will destroy any good that you may wish to accomplish. Furthermore, life is not fair. It never has been and never will be.
-Holding on to resentment causes stress, anxiety, uncontrollable feelings of anger. If these are unresolved, serious emotional and physical consequences will develop. Resentment doesn’t punish anyone but ourselves. We can’t hold resentments and find healing at the same time.
-Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. You say that Paul did not have to endure such things as this. But little do we realize that there were several men who were intent on destroying him. Two of them he names for us: Alexander the coppersmith and Hymenaeus. They did their best to destroy the effects of Paul.
-But Paul was unwilling to allow his resentment to sabotage his own desires because he closed out 2 Timothy 4 and told Timothy not to lay it to their charge (4:16).
-Paul felt the pain, the betrayal, the rejection, the abandonment, the mistreatment. He knew the custom of fair weather friends and yet he still put everything on the line for them. But he could release it. He forgave. He turned the wrongdoing of others over to God. He even went as far as to request their acquittal! May it not be held to their charge!!!!
-The best place to take your resentments to is to God. If you have read the book of Psalms, you will discover this is a valid form of prayer. Admit your hurts and wounds to God, then seek healing and maybe a clean up crew. Confess your anger and let it go.
-This principle is simple but it will never be easy. One of the most difficult things to do is to forgive when you feel wronged and in the right. Consciously let go of the need to get even. Set your adversary free and abandon a desire to retaliate. You must forgive, not because you feel like forgiving, but because you need it for your own sense of well-being.
-Deliberately choose to absolve and move on–even if the offender doesn’t deserve it.
-It’s not what happens to me; it’s what happens in me. . . . . . .
D. The Fourth Principle – Keep Your Eyes on the Prize – 1 Corinthians 9:24
1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
Philippians 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The story is told of a young man by the name of Monty, who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer, who would go from stable to stable, race track to race track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result the boy’s high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about when he wanted to be and do when he grew up.
That night he wrote a seven-page paper describing his goal of someday owning a horse ranch. He wrote about his dream in great detail and he even drew a diagram of a 200-acre ranch, showing the location of all the buildings, the stables and the track. Then he drew a detailed floor plan for a 4,000 square foot house that would sit on the 200-acre dream ranch.
He put a great deal of his heart into the project and the next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. On the front page was a large red F with a note that read, “See me after class.”
The boy with the dream went to see the teacher after class and asked, “Why did I receive an F?”
The teacher said, “This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You come from an intinerant family. You have no resources. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the original breeding stock and later you will have to pay large stud fees. There is no way that you could ever do that.” Then she handed the paper back to him. “If you will rewrite this paper with a more realistic goal, I will reconsider your grade.”
Monty went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father told him, “Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.”
After sitting and thinking for a week, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all. He stated, “You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.”
The boy with a dream became a man and his dream became reality. A few years ago, Monty told the story in the living room of his 4,000 square foot house in the middle of the 200 acre horse ranch. The paper that he wrote had been framed and hung over the mantle of the fireplace. He related that two summers ago that same schoolteacher brought 30 kids to camp out on the ranch. When the teacher was leaving, he told Monty, “In years past, I have been somewhat of a dream stealer. During those years, I took kids dreams. Fortunately, you did not give up on yours.” Don’t let anyone steal your dreams, no matter what. (As told by Pastor Anthony Mangun, Pastor, The Pentecostals of Alexandria)
-Now, I relate to you just a small part of my dreams. Somewhere in the next thirty-five years, this church:
Will continue to invest itself in the evangelism of our city, our state, and our world. We will do that by every means possible. Home Bible Studies, personal contacts, etc.
It will become a place that is known for changing the direction of people’s lives. It will be a church that will build people. Not buildings, not programs, but people. Build people and buildings and programs take care of themselves.
It will become a place that will baptize an average of 100 people per year.
It will become a place where that every member will become focused on evangelism. Every man must reach another soul.
It will become a place that the Word of God will remain forefront in everything that we do. Let others leave the doctrine, leave the traditions of the church, leave the burden of the Lord, but we cannot afford to do such a thing.
We will have young people every summer to invest their lives in a summer missions endeavor, either in North America or some part of the world.
We will continue to send our young men and young women to Bible colleges to further the calling of their ministries. Not only that but we will assist them with scholarships to our Bible colleges.
We will invest in daughter works that will be supported both financially and spiritually by this church.
We will impact our children in our Sunday School classes. There will be bus routes run by consistent and committed people to reach our city.
We will place just as much emphasis on a Wednesday night Bible Study as we do on Sunday Night evangelistic service. We must implant the Word in every member of this assembly.
We will have a continuous prayer chain so that the doors of the church will never be closed. Prayers will come from us that will change us, our city, our state, and our world.
We will continue to worship the Lord in liberty and freedom as never before.
-The greatest generation is in front of us. Spectators must become players. Those who sit in pews must become highly motivated volunteers. Attenders must become serving forces.
I am committed to the course.
I know my calling.
I will pursue that calling with all of my heart.
I will give myself to prayer and the ministry of the Word.
I will use everything that God has equipped me with.
I am never alone.
I am aware that no obstacle is too big for God.
I am aware that no heart is too hard for God.
I realize that there are still things that God will bring to life in my heart. They will be born both figuratively and literally after midnight.
-Some would perhaps think that this is too big to seek for. YOU KEEP YOUR F AND I’LL KEEP MY DREAM!!!!!!!
Philip Harrelson
barnabas14@yahoo.com
