A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Each one of us has something that we're good at; something we enjoy doing; some God–given gift or ability that we just excel at.  But all too often, it's been buried under years of neglect.  And so many, many people live their lives, without ever living out their dreams.  But what if God never meant for that to happen?
Over the past week we've been chatting about rekindling the flame, the passion in our hearts for being about the business of God. The business that God's left us here on earth for, His business, God's business. Many, many Christians love Jesus and they want to follow Him but they've lost their way. Not so much because they don't love the Lord but because the way they spend their lives and their resources and their time isn't what God had intended.
What we believe and what we do are meant to be linked. That's why faith without works is dead. What does that mean? It means that if we believe in something with all our hearts and yet we fail to live it out eventually what we believe will start to die and that's what's happening for many people who've set out on this journey of loving Jesus and following Him. Their faith has begun to die because they've lost focus on what they are meant to be doing.
Interesting how that strikes home, interesting how we sometimes focus on our faith and we forget about living it out and then wonder why our faith is dying. Why we feel like a rudderless ship on the ocean being tossed this way and that way.
Now, can I say that's something that many people go through and so those who don't believe in Jesus look at us and what they end up seeing is a hypocrite, what they see is someone who's living out a disconnect between what they profess to be true and how they live. So this week we're continuing on our journey of rekindling this flame.
And if you were able to join me last week on the program you'll recall that what we've been doing is opening up the second letter that the wise old Apostle Paul wrote back in the 1st century to his young protégé Timothy. It seems that young Tim was having the same problem. Timothy was pastoring a Church and as anyone who's ever tried to do that will tell you, that quite simply is not an easy job. It would be much easier without the people of course but I guess that wouldn't be the point. And there are two verses in particular that really leapt out for me in what Paul was saying to Timothy. The first was 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6 where Paul says
For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.
And then down to verse 14:
Guard the good treasure that has been entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
It comes back to this concept, that each one of us has been given a special gift or ability by God that's been handcrafted into our DNA by God Himself and He's done that with a purpose. In Timothy's case that gift was preaching and teaching so I relate really well to what Paul's saying to Timothy in this letter and clearly Timothy was finding the going tough as we'll see over the course of this week.
He was facing quite a bit of stiff opposition from all sorts of different people and when things are tough it's so easy to lose focus isn't it? It's so easy to forget that God's given us this special gift that God means for us to exercise and to use this gift that Gods plans and purposes for this world and for the people around us and indeed for you and me are intricately linked to the exercising of that special gift or ability that God has given us.
Is that really true you might ask? Do I really have a gift and is it really important in the scheme of things for me to use them? My answer to that is absolutely you do and absolutely it is.
Today we're going to journey off somewhere else to another of Paul's letters, indeed his letters to the Roman Church and I want to share with you a passage that you may find familiar because while I was reading it the other day something leapt off the page for me and into my heart, something that I'd never seen before despite the fact that I've written a whole book that revolves around this passage. Have a listen to it, it's Romans chapter 12 beginning at verse 4:
For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function. So we who are many are one in the body of Christ and individually we are members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in ministering, the teacher in teaching, the exalter in exaltation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate in cheerfulness. Let love be genuine and hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with mutual affection, out do one another in showing honour, do not lag in zeal but be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Now what this is all about here is explaining how we as men, women and children who love Jesus should live together in fellowship and a community of faith. That's how God changes us, that's how God transforms us, in a community. Here He uses the analogy of the body of Christ but how does that community function?
Well, quite simply Paul's saying, "Guys, we're all different. One of you has been put here by God to speak His will into the community of faith, that's what prophecy is all about. Another's been put here to minister, to serve. Another to teach. Another to exalt or encourage. Another to give. Another to lead. Another to show compassion."
You look at this list of seven gifts and it's pretty comprehensive, it's the way things are meant to be but that's not so much the angle I want to come at this particular passage today. As I said I've written a whole book about this to help people locate their particular motivational gifting or as we might say today, their personality type. It's called incidentally, that book, "My Personality GPS" and GPS being a locating device.
But will you please notice with me what Paul says that each of the people with these different gifts should do and we all have at least one of them in our make up. The prophet should do what? Prophecy according to his or her faith. The minister or server should do what? Minister. The teacher should? Teach. The leader should? Lead diligently. The giver should? Give generously. The one with compassion should show? Compassion with cheerfulness.
In other words God is saying here through Paul, "Would you please live out the gift that I've given you?" Do what God made you to do, do you see that? It's right there in the text. God is commanding us to be, to live out who He made us to be. Why is it that so many people are unhappy? Well it's this, it's because they're trying to be someone else, they're trying to do things that they were never meant to do. And it's by living out this one particular gift that we've been given that we end up showing genuine love and notice with me how Paul finishes off this particular passage.
Do not lag in zeal but be ardent in spirit and serve the Lord.
Be zealous, be ardent in using your particular gift to serve God. Why are so many of us finding it hard to live out our faith? Why have so many of us lost our passion? Why has the flame gone out in so many a Christ followers' heart? Because we've stopped living out the gift that God gave us. It's something we all struggle with; Timothy was struggling with it which is why Paul writes to him to remind him to rekindle the gift of God that is within him through the laying on of Paul's hands.
And friend today I believe God is reminding me and God is reminding you, I don't know what your circumstances are but I will bet a penny to a pound that there are so many things in your circumstances that are screaming at you that it's not the right time to use your gift, that you've lost it, that you should do something else, that the comfortable job you're in is what you should be doing.
Friend it is time to get back on focus, it is time to get back on purpose because Gods plan is to bring a lost and hurting world back to Him and that plan involves you using your special particular gift to be part of that. It includes your gifts and your abilities. Gods plan is to work through the person that He has made you to be, to share His mighty love with the people in your life. That my friend is the plan.

We each have a special gift or ability that God's given us – unique to us.  And so often we have a dream for using it … but somehow it doesn't ever quite happen.  Somehow this special gift or ability, just ends up being ever so ordinary … without much of an impact in this world.  Ever wondered why that is?
You know, on the one hand the world's always shouting at us that we're special, that we deserve the best, that we should pamper ourselves and aspire to achieving this or that. By and large it's the advertising industry hype reaching into our desire for significance. You realise though that what they're really doing is playing on our insecurities in order to get us to part with our hard earned cash because quite obviously whatever it is that they're selling will help us to feel secure. Of course it never works that way, it never does that. So they try and sell us the next thing and the next thing, that's how the whole cycle works.
The result of this inexorable cycle is that most of us don't think we're anything special at all. Most of us have so much of the world's dirt sprayed all over us that any specialness we might have had ends up being obscured, hidden as it were under layers of muck. And yet in each one of us there is something special, very special, not because you or I happen to be super clever or anything like that. Paul tells us that he knows that in his flesh in his human nature he's rotten to the core and that there's nothing good to be found there.
We're special because you and I are made in the image of God and He's given each one of us a special gift or ability to use for His glory, if only we could find it amidst all the muck. So today we're going to have a look at what God has to say about all that.
If you've been with me this last week you'll know that the thing we're exploring on the program is the special gifting that God has given to each one of us because He has a purpose for our lives and you won't be surprised if I tell you that who He made each one of us to be is a perfect match, an absolutely perfect match for what He's planning for us to do.
Someone who's call in life is to work with kids is going to have a special mix of compassion and a teacher and an encourager in their make up. And because that's how they've been wired they're going to absolutely love working with children every day. Whereas that would send me absolutely bonkers. And someone who does what I'm doing is going to love telling stories and have a way of putting words together and holding people's attention so that they can do what they do and I'm sure that would drive the person who loves working with children absolutely bonkers too.
Now this is not just me saying this, it's in God's Word. God has brought us into His Kingdom through Jesus Christ not just to bless us but to let our gifts and our abilities be a blessing to other people. Have a listen, Ephesians chapter 2 beginning at verse 1:
You were dead through the trespasses of sins in which you once lived following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh following the desires of the flesh and the senses and we were by nature children of wrath like everyone else.
But God who is rich in mercy out of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through trespasses made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift from God, not the result of works so that no one may boast for we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
So God has done this amazing act of grace by saving us from death that's certainly coming from our sin, it's a glorious act of mercy and anyone who's received that mercy, man we should be dancing in the streets. It wasn't through our works but as a free gift from God so that none of us may boast. In fact what He did was to create us in Christ Jesus and we are what He made us to be and He created us with a purpose for good works, the works that He has already prepared beforehand for us to do.
So who we are, and what He's made us to do, fit like a hand in a glove. But then having been saved, as we saw yesterday, we seem to want to fall straight back into our own ways. It's like we've been let out of the mud, washed, clean and then we want to race straight back and roll around in the mud again. We're pretty good at that actually.
And as Paul sets out to teach Timothy, when we do that, well we're hampering God's plan for our lives. Have a listen to this sobering instruction from the old Apostle Paul to his young protégé Timothy, it comes in the second letter of Paul to Timothy, chapter 2 beginning at verse 20. He says:
In a large house there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay. Some for special use, some for ordinary. All who cleanse themselves with the things I have mentioned will become special utensils, dedicated and useful to the owner of the house, ready for every good work.
Shun youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with stupid and senseless controversies, you know that they breed quarrels and the Lords servants must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone. An apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness.
God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth and that they may escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do his will.
You know the picture Paul paints here for me, it's the picture of being a special vessel. Clean and pure in Gods hands. Made of gold or of silver. Being used to pour Gods Spirit and Gods love and Gods mercy and Gods grace into the lives of other people. I can't go past that, to be a utensil like that in the hands of God is just the most awesome thing but some, some are clean so they're special utensils, others are not and they're just there for ordinary every day use.
And then again Paul goes on to list what appears to be an excerpt from the B list of sins, youthful passions, stupid and senseless controversies. It's not murder or adultery or theft but smaller ones but sin is sin and all sin acts like a snare from the devil and so renders us unfit for use as a special vessel.
God's looking for men and women who are mature in Christ. Those who pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace from a pure heart. Those who are kind, correcting people with gentleness. That's the sort of person Gods looking for, to be a special utensil in His mighty powerful hands because if we're dirty on the inside, well He can't use a dirty vessel to pour His love and mercy and power and grace and joy and peace out on someone else, can He? It's obvious.
So here's the sobering thing that God wants to say to you and to me today, we may all well have a dream, we may be aware of the gift that God has placed in us, we may have a great hold on the purpose that He has for our lives but persistent sin is going to hamper that plan. It's going to hold us back from being the special vessels set apart for a very special purpose that God has for us.
And friend only God Himself can get us clean, through our faith in Jesus as He forgives us and as He wipes us clean and through the Holy Spirit whom He would place in each believer to grow us and to mature us and to cleanse us and to get us fit for the special purpose that God has for each one of our lives. This is why some people have an apparent gift that makes little or no impact in the world because they're not yet cleansed.
Some people today are missing out on living their dream because they haven't cleansed themselves through faith in Jesus and through cold, hard, brutal repentance, turning away from their sin towards God and that my friend, that is really sad.

It never ceases to amaze me how we manage to rework God's Word to suit ourselves – to make it say what we want it to say. People argue about all sorts of things that if we were honest are plainly obvious. There is one way, one truth – plain and simple and it's like a firm foundation beneath our feet.
This week on the program we're talking about staying focused on the God-given purpose that we have in life. But not in some legalistic sense, not this idea that God has a plan and therefore I have to conform to His plan whether I like it or not. Actually God gives us a choice to walk away from His plan and many people do.
I did for much of my earlier years but there's this thing that I keep coming back to again and again, that God's made you in a certain way and me in a whole different way and He's given us each the days that He's set aside for us. And you and I are going to have different gifts and different dreams and different purposes and different days. And real fulfilment and real joy and real life only happen when we're living out who God made us to be and when we're living out what He made us to do.
That's what I love about God. It's not that He's full of a whole bunch of do's and don'ts, it's not that He puts us in a straight jacket, it's that He has this awesome plan to make us this complex, intricate, wonderful, beautiful creature created in His own image and yet absolutely unique and then to plan a life for us that fits hand in glove with who He's made us to be.
And yet you and I, we manage to find all kinds of ways to wander away from that plan and then to miss out on the joy and the fulfilment that lies in Gods plans and Gods purposes for our lives. You and I, we find all sorts of ways to pierce ourselves with the many pains of living life our own way. Sometimes we fall by the wayside and no doubt there are some today who relate to that but God's call is for us to rekindle the gift that He has placed in us and that's what we're all about on the program today.
And we're doing that through Paul's second letter to Timothy, his protégé, in the New Testament. A beautiful letter all about rekindling the gift and guarding the treasure that God has placed within us. Now one of the ways that the gift grows cold and the treasure wastes away is that we allow little foxes into our lives and those little foxes are the ones that spoil the vine.
Most of us have this idea that there are big sins and there are small sins. Sexual immorality, adultery, murder, theft, they're up there on our hierarchy as amongst the biggies but a bit of anger or some arguing or maybe this idea or that idea we get into our heads that doesn't quite fit in with God's Word, well hey, we all have that, they're just little sins and as long as we keep away from the big ones who cares about those little ones?
We may never have quite put it in those words but that's how most of us think, that's how most of us operate. Now let me say this, the Bible knows nothing of this human hierarchy of sin. To God sin is sin; it's about missing the mark. You can miss by a little way, you can miss by a long way. Missing is missing right? And so as the Apostle Paul counsels Timothy about rekindling his gift and staying focused on the purposes that God has set before him he actually takes some time to deal with sins, many of which appear to be more than the little ones. Let's have a listen, 2 Timothy chapter 2 beginning at verse 14:
Remind them of this and warn them before God that they are to avoid the wrangling over words which does no good but only ruins those who are listening. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed rightly explaining the word of truth. Avoid profane chatter for it will lead people into more and more impiety and their talk will spread like gangrene.
Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus who have swerved from the truth by claiming that the resurrection has already taken place. They are upsetting the faith of some but Gods firm foundation stands bearing this inscription, 'the Lord knows who are his' and 'let everyone who calls on the name of the Lord turn away from wickedness.
So here Paul is telling Timothy how to shepherd his flock and the big thing that he's on about is to warn them to stop wrangling over words, to avoid profane chatter. What's the big deal here? Can't people have an opinion? Can't there be healthy debate? Smack bang here in Paul's exhortation for Timothy to stay focused, to rekindle the gift that God has placed in him, to guard the treasure that Gods entrusted to him. Why would Paul seemingly go off in this strange tangent telling Timothy to tell his flock to be careful about what they say and who they listen to? Because it's the little foxes that spoil the vine. Or to use Paul's analogy here, this loose talk will spread like gangrene. Yuck …!
Okay, what loose talk? It's talk about the most important thing of all – truth. What's true and what's not. It seems that there were some people with some rather long and difficult to pronounce names wandering around spreading the lie that the resurrection of believers had already taken place which seems kind of silly since by definition the people spreading the rumours had missed out.
So what's Paul's point here to Timothy and why 2,000 years on are we talking about this when the main topic of our conversation over these weeks is staying focused on the plan that God has for our lives? Well, the answer is really simple. I have seen so many people led astray by others who throw red herrings into the conversation about the truth and then people go chasing after that and before you know it, instead of being focused on what Gods calling them to do they're off on a tangent miles away from where God wants them and needs them to be.
I know one man who spends his life being ultra critical of Church structures. In his view there shouldn't be any leaders, we're all equals and there shouldn't be a preacher, we should just sit around and chat together about the Word of God. So when, over coffee, I've asked him to tell me where in God's Word he comes up with that, he kind of fluffs around and gets back to his theme and hardly ever comes to Church or participates in any sense of community.
It's really sad because he's a very clever guy and in many respects a delightful human being with much to offer. What he should be doing is offering his gift, his ability, his unique contribution to the body of Christ instead he's off on some theory that ain't in the Bible and he's missing out.
Friends we can pick holes in just about anything and Church – Church being full of a bunch of sinners on a journey – is about the easiest thing of all to poke holes in, let me tell you. But what happens is its like gangrene, it ends up robbing us of life. The good news of Jesus is pure and simple. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
That's the firm foundation here, the firm foundation is that God knows which of us belongs to Him and which of us doesn't. And when we belong to God because our faith is in Jesus Christ, we're not here to argue this or that or pick holes in this or that, you know what I'm saying? That takes us way, way off course. That's not how we rekindle the gift that God has put in us, that's not how we make an impact in people's lives for Christ, that's not how rivers of living water end up flowing out through our hearts into a parched dry land.
Let me encourage you, if you're off on some thing, if you have a bee in your bonnet about this thing or that thing, take your bonnet off, let the bee out. Get back to a firm foundation in Christ by reading His Word, by praying, by learning, by growing, by serving using your special gift and your special ability. God did not put us here to argue about what's truth or not. God's Word is clear, it is abundantly clear, it is crystal clear and God's truth in God's Word is His solid foundation, His solid rock beneath our feet. For some people today it is time to get your life back on track.

Here's a question for you – do you take your faith in Jesus seriously?  Well, what I mean is … if  … if following Jesus was like being a soldier and following Him into battle, would you go?  God's Word actually uses that picture and so we're going to take a look at what that actually means.
I don't know if you've been able to join me so far this week on the program but we've been chatting about, about getting back on purpose. You can always tell a politician who's struggling because that would be the politician who's been drawn off message. They become overly reactive to the opinion polls, chasing after people rather than leading from the front by being opinion makers.
And you can always tell a Christ follower who's struggling because that would be the Christ follower who's been drawn off purpose. They've become overly reactive to their circumstances, chasing after what the world says is the right thing rather than persevering through the tough times and doing what Gods called them to do.
I spent ten years as an officer in the Australian army and all levels of leadership from junior to senior ranks; one of the key principles of war is the selection and maintenance of the aim. In other words staying on purpose. In other words knowing which hill it is we're capturing and when the bullets start flying and the shells start going off around you, you stay focused on that one hill which is the reason that we're out here in the first place getting shot at.
It turns out that being a Christ follower, which is what a disciple is, is about exactly the same thing. And there are far too many who have been drawn off purpose and so have ceased following Jesus. Now that may seem a little harsh and direct so humour me and let me unpack that with you.
We've been looking this week at the Apostle Paul's second letter to his young protégé Timothy because it's a letter all about maintaining our sense of purpose and focus. Remembering what we're here for despite the bullets that are flying around and the shells that are going off around us, despite our circumstances, be they mundane or be they challenged or be they wonderful.
Whatever our circumstances are, the easiest thing to do is, especially let me say when the going gets tough, is to lose our sense of what God made us for – what our gift is. And so Paul, who himself is chained up in a prison, counsels Timothy through that. The two verses that really stick out are these. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 6:
For this reason I remind you Timothy to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands.
And verse 14:
Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
As I said, it's the easiest thing in the world to forget the gift that God placed in us. That one thing that you love doing, that one thing that you'll do better at than just about anyone else that you know and to have the treasure stolen from us. God didn't give the gift just to bless us, He entrusted His treasure into our care to be good stewards of it to use it.
As I shared with you the other day, not so long ago when I was travelling through a particularly rough patch in full time ministry someone suggested to me that perhaps I should go back to being an IT consultant again and earn lots of money again. But I could no sooner do that then flap my wings and fly to the moon because I have a real sense of the gift and the treasure and the purpose that God has given me in my life to be doing what I'm doing right now.
But it can be hard to hang on to that gift, that purpose, that treasure when stuff is flying through the air. So let's pick up what Paul has to say to Timothy about this very thing. 2 Timothy chapter 2 beginning at verse 1. He says:
You then my child be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. Share in the suffering like a good soldier of Christ, no one serving in the army gets entangled in every day affairs, the soldiers aim is to please the enlisting officer and in the case of an athlete no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have first share of the crops.
Think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in all things. Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David that is my gospel for which I suffer hardship even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God isn't chained therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
The saying is sure, if we have died with him we will also live with him, if we endure we will also reign with him, if we deny him he will also deny us, if we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.
See Paul starts off with a premise that suffering – again remember how over last week we talked about the fact that whenever suffering comes, our first instinct is to compare that against what the world says equals success and figure that we must be failing God, but Paul starts off with a premise that suffering is normal. When we're hurting we forget over and over and over again that God's Word promises that we will suffer, that we will face trials, that He will discipline us. Do you get it?
So Paul, on the premise that suffering, if it's not the norm then at the very least it's not an unusual occurrence, uses three powerfully simple analogies about staying focused on our gifting and our purpose through the suffering.
The first he uses is a soldier. Now I've been a soldier so I really understand this:
Share in the suffering like a good soldier of Christ. No one serving in the army gets entangled in every day affairs. The soldiers aim is the please the enlisting officer.
So the soldier isn't meant to be chasing after a whole bunch of other things. The soldier is meant to be focused on the business of war, the soldier is meant to be focused on the business of winning the battle. That's the soldiers job, to do that well and to please his enlisting or his commanding officer.
The second picture that Paul uses is that of the athlete. No athlete wins the prize unless they train hard and unless they run the race according to the rules. You've got to be there, you've got to show up, you've got to run the race. And the farmer who does the work is the one who's entitled to his fair share of the reward.
Each of those three examples, the soldier, the athlete and the farmer are about maintaining the focus on the end game. Each case is the same. Stay focused on the end game through the suffering, through the battle, through the hardship, through the pain, through the training, through the ploughing and the planting in order to be who we were meant to be, to do what we were called to do and ultimately to reap the reward of having stayed the course and done the distance.
Do you see the heavenly perspective here, the eternal dimension? Paul's helping Timothy to step back and to see the bigger picture because when we're suffering our eyes are cast down and we focus on the immediate and then Paul goes on to speak of the power of that endurance, the powerful outcome in bringing people to God and in ultimately being accepted into the Kingdom of God with eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Time and time again I see people giving up because it's tough. I see people pulled off purpose because it's all gotten too hard. And the picture that the Lord's given me is that when I'm following Jesus down the dusty, sometimes very lonely road, when it gets hard and I see other people pulling off to the left or to the right and parking on the side of the road, even turning back, I should keep going. Following Jesus even if I'm completely on my own save for His presence alone.
For the saying is sure, if we have died with him we will also live with him, if we endure with him we will also reign with him, if we deny him he will also deny us, if we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.
Let me encourage you to take God's Word into your heart today. If it's all too hard, if every fibre of your being is screaming out at you to stop; to give up, to turn back, take heart from Paul's counsel for it is God's Word meant for you and for me. And let me encourage you to rekindle the gift He's given you.

The world is pretty clear in telling us what success looks like and since for most of us, our idea of success is more informed by our culture than God's Word – we're kind of immersed in it.  Living our lives for God though often means that in the world's eyes we look anything but successful – and some people are ashamed of that.
You know, it never ceases to amaze me how different Gods plan for success is from the world's plan for success. I mean you and I know the world's plan all too well. We have it shoved in our faces and dangled under our noses at least a hundred times a day. You're successful if you're beautiful, if you're wealthy, if you have power and position, if you have a big house and a shiny new car, that's when you're successful.
Just recently I visited the city of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, for only the second time in my life. And a good friend of mine, Ben, drove me around to show me the sights and one of the places he took me to was billionaire's row. A few streets with some of the most expensive houses in the country. Now they were lovely houses but they were absolutely massive, they were built to make a statement 'Look at me, look at what I can afford'.
And this image, this model of success is what we have dangled under our noses so many times each day that, well it's easy to start believing it. And that's where we can get our wires crossed. That's when we can start equating the blessing and the favour of God with what the world says makes you successful.
So then when things don't seem to be going well in our lives, when we're travelling through a trial or a temptation, sometimes even torment we can easily come to the conclusion that obviously God isn't pleased with us or we've failed God. Obviously something's wrong, I'm in the wrong place, I'm doing the wrong thing, I'm on the wrong path. Obviously, right?
And so instead of pursuing that one gift that God has placed within us, that one call on our lives to go and be what God made us to be and to do what God made us to do, it's so easy to be ashamed of that failure.
I remember when I decided to toss in my rather lucrative career as an international IT and management consultant to go into this full time ministry. One of my colleagues joked that I was pursuing a career of gentile poverty. It's so easy to be ashamed when we're trying to live our lives for God and things don't seem to be conforming to the worlds idea of what success is. And then what happens is we get pulled off course, we give up, we head off in another direction.
You know I remember a time not that long ago when here at Christianityworks we were doing things really tough financially and most of the staff hadn't been paid for a few months and someone said to me, "Berni, maybe it's God saying to you you're in the wrong place. Maybe you're meant to be going back to consulting and earning some serious money. Maybe you're doing the wrong thing in being in ministry."
This was the day after a young woman, Ami, who had come to my online blog at the point of suicide, had been pulled back from the brink because I was able to share the Word of God with her, because others who were visiting the blog encouraged her and prayed with her. And just the day before she'd been at the point of taking her own life. And then she posted these words on my blog:
Last night I had my first encounter with God. I could actually feel Him. Wow, seriously the best feeling ever. He kept me up practically all night and unlike last week where I was hiding my face in my pillow so my parents wouldn't hear me cry last night I was hiding my face in my pillow so that my laughter wouldn't wake them up. I kept bursting out in laughter and song and dance while lying in my bed. I'd been crying out to Him for so long to let me feel His love and His presence and He finally answered my prayer. I have never felt this good in my life, it is awesome. Thank you to all who prayed and for the words of encouragement and yay God.
So go and tell Ami we're in the wrong place here at Christianityworks doing the wrong thing. Do you see how easy it is to be misled, to be drawn away from God's greater purposes by mistaking a worldly idea of what success is for the real thing?
Now this is nothing new and the Apostle Paul was encouraging his protégé Timothy to rekindle the gift that God had placed within him. Paul takes the trouble to talk about this whole tension around success and how you and I can become ashamed. 2 Timothy chapter 1 beginning at verse 8. Paul says:
Do not be ashamed then Timothy of the testimony about our Lord or of me as his prisoner but join with me in suffering for the gospel relying on the power of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own grace and purpose. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our saviour Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher and for this reason I suffer as I do but I am not ashamed for I know the one in whom I've placed my trust and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.
See Paul suffered in order to bring the good news of Jesus to a lost and hurting world and before him, Jesus suffered. Jesus became an abject failure so that you and I might have eternal life. You and I, we're not here to be successful in the world's eyes, we're not here to get all the glory. The one place that I have discovered real fulfilment and real joy and real satisfaction and real life is in taking that one thing that God has given me, that gift and ability to be a story teller for Him and using it the way I am right now.
There's an alternative, a clear alternative to chasing after the world's brand of success. There is a true way, not a way that crosses the wire and equates worldly success with Godly success but a narrow road and oft times difficult road, a road full of trials and temptations that every Christ follower is called to take and that way is a way that Paul shared with Timothy as he was travelling through his own trials. 2 Timothy chapter 1 beginning at verse 13. Paul said:
Hold onto the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted in you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. You're aware that all who are in Asia have turned away from me including Phygelus and Hermogenes.
May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain? When he arrived in Rome he eagerly searched for me and found me, may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day and you know very well how much service he rendered me in Ephesus.
See everyone's deserted Paul in his trials and his afflictions except one man. Everyone's gone their different way and in the face of that what does Paul do? Does Paul take the easy road? Does Paul deny Christ? Does Paul chase after the mob? Does he base his actions on the opinion polls? No.
He writes to his dear friend Timothy and says, "Their opinions aren't worth anything. Stick to Gods Word, stick to the sound teaching of Jesus and guard this treasure, this gospel that's been entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you." Paul is not swayed by the worldly template of success, by the opinions of men. He knows he was called to be an apostle, he knows he was called to be one sent out to take the good news of Jesus to the world.
He knows that Timothy had been called to be a pastor and a teacher. One called to grow people in their faith in their relationship with God. And Paul's not ashamed of the chains, of being in prison. He's not thrown off course by some imposter called success. He counts as nothing what he left behind, his seat on the ruling Sanhedrin, the potential to grow a mega following as a leading Rabbi in the Pharisee sect and he presses on to follow his calling and to exercise his gifts.
And here's the thing, 2,000 years on we're still talking about him. 2,000 years on God is still ministering to us through the Apostle Paul.