Takeaways from Monday below and I hope to see the guys who couldn't make it join us in two weeks!
- What do you do when you've gotten your own way and it's all wrong. It's the most disillusioning, insecure feeling in the world, yet you can't put your finger on what's wrong. But graciously, God does not abandon His people.
- Paul says, "Look around, Corinthians. You won't find many impressive people here." Why? So that no one can boast before God. That's a principle we tend to forget, because many of us are still a lot like the Greeks. When we look for people to admire, when we choose our role models, our heroes, we are often swayed or impressed by things that are cause for boasting. We want the beautiful people, the brilliant people, the "successful" people. We want the best and the brightest. We are terribly enamored of the surface. The superficial impresses us much more than we'd like to admit. We even elect a president because he looks good on television! But God says, "That's not the way I make my choices. I choose the nobodies and turn them into somebodies." And that, in a nutshell, is the story of the life of David.
- THREE PRIORITIES FOR GOD-APPOINTED SERVANT LEADERS :
When God scans the earth for potential leaders, He is not on a search for angels in the flesh. He is certainly not looking for perfect people, since there are none. He is searching for men and women like you and me, mere people made up of flesh. But He is also looking for certain qualities in those people, the same qualities He found in David.
The first quality God saw in David was spirituality.
The second quality God saw in David was humility. Why? Because the Lord saw in David a heart that was completely his.
The third quality David had was integrity. Integrity is what you are when nobody's looking.
Today, we live in a world that says, in many ways, "If you just make a good impression, that's all that matters." But you will never be a man or woman of God if that's your philosophy. Never. You cannot fake it with the Almighty. He is not impressed with externals. He always focuses on the inward qualities . . . those things that take time and discipline to cultivate.
- GODS METHOD OF TRAINING HIS SERVANTS
First, God trained David in solitude. He needed to learn life's major lessons all alone before he could be trusted with responsibilities and rewards before the public. Second, David grew up in obscurity. That's another way God trains His best personnel-in obscurity. Men and women of God, servant-leaders in the making, are first unknown, unseen, unappreciated, and unapplauded. In the relentless demands of obscurity, character is built. Strange as it may seem, those who first accept the silence of obscurity are best qualified to handle the applause of popularity. The third training ground, monotony. That's being faithful in the menial, insignificant, routine, regular, unexciting, uneventful, daily tasks of life. Life without a break . . . without the wine and roses. Just dull, plain L-I-F-E. That brings us to the fourth training ground: reality. He had learned it all alone before God. What kind of man is this David? He's a man of reality. He's a man who remained responsible when nobody was looking.
A COUPLE OF LASTING LESSONS
First, it's in the little things and in the lonely places that we prove ourselves capable of the big things. If you want to be a person with a large vision, you must cultivate the habit of doing the little things well. That's when God puts iron in your bones! The way you fill out those detailed reports, the way you take care of those daily assignments, the way you complete the tasks of home or dormitory or work or school is just a reflection of whether you personally are learning to "king it."
Second, when God develops our inner qualities, He's never in a hurry. Alan Redpath, the late pastor of Moody Memorial Church, put it this way: "The conversion of a soul is the miracle of a moment, the manufacture of a saint is the task of a lifetime." When God develops character, He works on it throughout a lifetime. He's never in a hurry. It is in the schoolroom of solitude and obscurity that we learn to become men and women of God. It is from the schoolmasters of monotony and reality that we learn to "king it." That's how we become-like David-men and women after God's own heart.
Peace and God Bless,
Chris
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