Video Transcript: In a Nutshell

This is lecture 17 in the practical ministry skills. I call it in a nutshell. It's based  on chapter 11 of the book pastoring the nuts and bolts. But I have also included  some material that is not in the book there. Let's start with our key verse, joyful  is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom  is more profitable than silver, and her wages are better than gold. Proverbs  3:13-14. The proverbs are largely a series of short, pithy statements of wisdom,  and I hope that that's what these statements that I put in chapter 11 are also  short condensations, not long explanations. But if you see what it says,  hopefully it will spark you to remember what you've seen or heard other places  or learned other places, to bring that whole truth home to you, kind of putting the truth in a nutshell. And if that is a strange idiom for you to have something in a  nutshell. Means, of course, a nutshell is a very small thing, and it means to  summarize it in just a few words. So it's easy to remember. Somebody told me  one time I forget what they were telling me, but they said, now get this into your  head, and then you'll have it in a nutshell. Now, I'm not quite sure that was a  compliment, where they say my head is the size of a nutshell, but anyway, there  is something useful in having in a nutshell. Another way that some people say it  is put it on a bumper sticker, if it a statement that is small enough that you could  put it on a bumper sticker on your car the before I get into the statements that I  listed in the book that presumably you read earlier, And you're welcome for the  short reading this time, I'm going to talk a little bit about a personal vision, your  reason for ministry, in a nutshell, and Maybe a personal verse that kind of sums  up what God has for you. In a nutshell, God doesn't give everybody all of these  all the time. I went for much of my ministry without really recognizing that I had  one or the other of those. So it's not a necessity, but I kind of find it cool to have  it kind of centers me. It kind of keeps me focused. And also nowadays and we  didn't have internet and email and so on when I started, but now that we do, I  typically try to put my personal verse in the automatic signature on my email so  it kind of hands it off to other people, lets them know what I'm about, reminds me of what I'm about. For me, I've had three personal verses over the course of my  38 years of ministry. I started with this one. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be  careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way  prosperous, and then you will have success. Joshua 1:8, and that is from the  New American Standard Version, because that's the version I memorized it from back goodness sake, right, probably around 1980. That was my personal verse  that guided my ministry and my approach to ministry and my approach to life for  probably the first 20 years of my ministry. I'm not sure exactly when I switched  off to to the next one, but I think it's a good one, and I would commend it to you.  I'm not going to take time, because if I start into that, I'll preach a whole sermon  and won't have any time for anything else on that. But that was the guiding  principle of my life for the first part, Of my ministry somewhere in there of maybe

20 years later, maybe around 2000 maybe, maybe 1995 somewhere in that  vicinity, I moved to a different one, not that I got away from the meaning or  loving the first verse, but just that, I felt that my focus needed to shift a little bit to this. My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom,  but in demonstration of the Spirit and the power so that your faith would not rest  on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. I Corinthians 2:4-5. And again,  that's New American Standard. The apostle Paul is saying there that he wants  the people to know, and not just because he's telling them that, but from his life,  that Christianity is not just all about words. It's not just trying to persuade people  that something is true, something happens. There is power involved. There are  changes that are involved. And so he wants people's faith to rest, not on  arguments, not on human wisdom, but on the power of God, demonstration of  the Spirit and the power not just talking about the spirit. This was at a time in my  ministry when I was really becoming even more aware than I always had been  of the power of the Holy Spirit and the need for people to understand and be  open to and accept what God wanted to do in their lives through that power. So  that guided my ministry right up until just a couple of years ago, and I was  actually retired for some time and writing for some time and still using this one  about demonstration of spirit and power. And then it occurred to me that there  was another one that the Lord brought to my mind. It may have just been a year  ago, and this is what is guiding my ministry now at this stage of my life, and my  ministry II Timothy 2:2. Paul writing to his protege Timothy now teach these  truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. We talked a little bit about that when we talked about imitating Jesus in spirit and  passion, multiplication, I'm giving you these verses, and this how it worked  through in my life, not to say you need to claim these verses, not to say that you  even need to have verses, but just because I find it very helpful, if I can pin my  ministry on a particular verse at a particular time, just to keep me grounded and  centered, as I said, so don't rush it. Don't say, Okay, now I have a homework  assignment. I have to go out and find the verse. Wait till God shows you one.  Ask God to show you one, and I believe he will. God may show you a personal  vision again. Don't rush it. He may. He may not. Around the 1990 or so, the  church began to import certain ideas from successful businesses. And there's  there's pros and cons to that. I think it depends on how it's done, and I think in  general, it was done the right way. But one of those ideas was the idea of having a vision, something that you can help people see in their minds that you're  working toward. And that's as important, at least as important for a ministry as it  is for a business to have an idea of what you're working toward, because in  ministry, it's often so much less tangible. So some way of presenting the vision.  So I think I told you before I was praying and saying, Oh God, show me the  vision. Show me the vision. And expecting new program, big church, something  like that. And all I got was the walk sign, the person walking. And the Lord gave 

me the vision through that. Of teaching every member in the body to recognize  and to hear from God and to do what God is telling them for themselves.  Number one, without waiting for it to come down through the head, consciously,  I demonstrated to you about the you know, moving the taking the drink. And if I  have to consciously think of every thought of that. But secondly, because look  here, the right hand is moving forwards, the left hand is moving backwards. Is  one of them? Wrong? No, when you walk your right, one hand moves forward,  the other hand moves backwards. When you walk, one foot stays on the ground, the other foot comes up off the ground and moves is one of them? Wrong? No,  the head, not consciously, not directly, but by their connection to the head. Each  of them is doing what the head is telling them to do. They're doing different  things. They're doing sometimes seemingly opposite things, and yet all of it is  necessary to happen at the same time, in coordination for the body to walk. If  the body's going to get any place, one foot has to stay, foot put while another  foot moves. One hand moves forward while the other hand moves back. It's just  the natural way things go a tree. I served one church where the the church had  a logo of a tree, and I illustrated the same thing by showing the people, if this  branch is over here, this branch on the on the east side of the tree is growing.  It's going to be moving east the branch on the west side of the tree is growing.  It's going to be moving west. Those two branches are moving opposite  directions from each other. One's going east, one's going west. Does that mean  that one's wrong? One's right? No, it means the trees growing. The tree, all the  branches are moving out away from each other, out away from the trunk.  They're all reaching out to new things, new directions, and that's good. That's  how it grows. So the trees moved east and west. They moved opposite from  each other, and that's how it grows. I moved on from that, though, and continued on. And didn't say, You shouldn't say, moved on from that, but reached a place  where I had pretty much gotten that down into my mind, and that had become  an integral part of my ministry. And I began to think more about, what is it that I  really want? What is my vision of my ministry? What does God want me to do,  and I, I came up with this to see that God gets out of his creation all that he  created it for. God had something in mind for his creation when he created it, but he gave us free will, and we talked about the reason for that, because love is  only love if it's if it's free will and and, of course, again, I'm not getting into the  Calvinist Armenian argument about predestination and free will. God's ultimate  will always works out, but he gives us a lot of freedom. I believe in how it works  out, but, and so as a result, sometimes, by free will, things don't work out the  way God wanted for an individual. They refuse Him, they reject Him, and they  refuse salvation and wind up not going to heaven when God wanted them to go  to heaven. God's God doesn't desire that any should perish, but all should be  saved. And so anyway, again, I'm not trying to get into that argument. My point is God had something in mind when He created me, and he had something in 

mind when he created creation, and I want to see that as much as possible, at  least for me, I fulfill all the ideas and the plans and the good things he had for  me when He created me, and that I help other people and all of creation do that. That's just me that speaks to me, that helps motivate me. That's a putting in a  nutshell, something that motivates me. You may be motivated by something  completely different, maybe completely different verses, maybe completely  different ideas, visions, images, and so let me pass on quickly. One more with  me personally. In 2007 I went to a ministry conference, and one of the leaders  there gave me a personal prophetic word. In other words, he said to me, he  was, he felt like God wanted to say this to me. And I think I've said before  somebody says that to you, that doesn't mean you necessarily have to do it or  have to accept it. I prayed about this, and I accepted this, and I was very  blessed by it. And as a matter of fact, the same person gave me the same word  in almost identical wording the next day. And so he said, God has given you an  Ezekiel spirit. He told me that on two different days, God is giving you an Ezekiel spirit. I didn't know what that meant, so I went back and I studied the book of  Ezekiel, and I went through and I tried to ask God to show me what that meant.  And here's how I express it to myself that God has called me to go to my own  people whose language I speak, and regardless of their response, to continue  faithfully, to proclaim, by word and action, God's message of righteousness and  judgment, grace and restoration, prophesying the Holy Spirit to revive the dry  bones and form them into a dwelling place for the manifest presence of God and a source of the river of living water that brings healing to the nations. You say,  What? And I know, I know that probably doesn't mean much of anything to you,  but for me, it was a distillation of what I felt God was calling me to in my ministry  at that time. And I still feel it's true. I put it into a little more palatable words for  my author bio in the back of my books, it says, 2500 years ago, God called  Ezekiel, to teach God's ways and proclaim the Holy Spirit who revives dry bones and forms them into a dwelling for God and a source of living water that heals  nations. Bones are still dry. God still wants to dwell among his people, and  nations still need healing. So people still need to be taught God's ways and be  moved by God's Spirit. That's David's particular part of doing Christianity. Again,  that's a there's a lot there for me, personally, I get blessed by going through  every little phrase in that it touches something for me. It reinvigorates me, it gets me going again. It's not your vision. It's what God gave to me. But I illustrated, I  say this to you to illustrate that if God gives you something like that, and maybe  even you could ask him to give you something like that, to give you some  guidance and direction and touch points for your ministry. All right, we have  about 12 minutes to go through basic rules, 12 minutes, 30 rules and 12  minutes, not going to get there very far, but we'll see worship until the joy  comes. Joy. Joy is one of the basic things that is often misunderstood or  underrated undervalued. It's the second fruit of the kingdom of God. And if 

you're truly worshiping, truly putting yourself in the presence of God who loves  you, the God of joy and glory, your loving Heavenly Father, then you're going to  have joy. So worship until the joy comes, not just until you run out of time or  whatever. And it's mainly talking about personal worship, if your church service  can do it too, if your church service allows for that kind of freedom, worship until  the joy comes, surround yourself with prayer, not just your own prayers. Raise  up people, prayer warriors in your ministry, who will pray for you, certain people  you can confide certain specific prayer requests to, and they'll pray for you,  others that will just know the general kind of pressures and needs and will pray  for you. Surround yourself with prayer. Keep the main thing, the main thing.  Now, I forget who exactly said that. That's one of these things that came out  from the the business world and the church said, you know, that's true, just just  as true in church. It's just as true in ministry. Don't get distracted by the side  issues. Keep the main thing, the main thing. Figure out what is the main thing in  your ministry, and then make sure that stays the main thing. Read, believe and  do the Bible. Read the Bible. Yeah, believe the Bible. That's the second step. It's a conscious decision. You make a conscious decision whether to believe  something or somebody. Doctor says you need this operation. You make a  conscious decision whether to believe them or go get a second opinion.  Mechanic says your car, your scooter, needs this part. You make a conscious  decision to believe them or not, but then don't just read it and don't just believe  the Bible, but do the Bible do the things it says, step out in faith. Rule number  five, love the people. Sometimes it's hard, but love is not a feeling. Love is an  action. Love the people. Number six, keep a personal Sabbath. We've talked  about that. Number seven, put your family first. Number eight over  communicate. We'll talk about that quite a bit in one of the upcoming lectures.  But it's much better to for somebody to hear something twice than not to hear it  at all. Number nine tithe. Number 10, read not just the Bible. Read what you can get your hands on, anything that that will help build you up, anything that's not  going to tear you down. Don't read stuff that will lead you in wrong directions in  your fantasies, or anything else but read. Number 11, believe, make. Make the  choice to believe, to believe God, to believe the Bible, to believe His truths.  Number 12, do more gainers than drainers. We talked about how some things  drain you of energy, and other things fill you up, help you gain energy back. Do  more of those second ones. Do more gainers than drainers. Number 13  specifically relates to sending emails or posting on social media, but it in  general, the principle applies to any kind of communication or any kind of  decisions, never click Send after midnight. After you're tired, you just you brain  fog. That's when you're going to write something that you misstate or you're just  reacting and you're wrong. Let it sit overnight, revisit it in the morning. Make  sure is this exactly what I want to say, because, among other things, people are  going to misinterpret anything you say, if they possibly can. So before you send 

something out, make sure that you try and figure out how they might  misunderstand it and correct that, if necessary. Number 14, remember who you  work for. It's not the person who pays you a salary. It's God. number 15, have  fun. Have fun. God loves you. Jesus came to give you an abundant life every  now and then. Have fun. You need that for your health. On the other hand,  number 16, don't get too comfortable. Don't get complacent number 17. Never  bind yourself with anything that causes you to sweat. We looked at that 18.  Reach out to the other ones. Yes, your ministry is these people, and these are  the ones that are really receptive, and this group within that are the ones that  you can reach. But what about those other ones? Don't forget those other ones.  Maybe everybody else is going after these because they're the big, hot  demographic group or whatever. But what about those other ones? God loves  those other ones. Remember, faith is spelled R i s k, in other words, faith  requires taking a chance. Faith involves risk. If there's no risk, there's no faith.  Number 20, keep your objectivity. Don't get sucked into somebody else's  viewpoint, if you can help it. And that's where it's helpful to have a variety of  different people you can confide in who can help you, saying you're losing your  objectivity. Number 21 accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. That's a  line from a song, but there's a lot of truth to it. Number 22 strengthen yourself in  the Lord we talked about that. 23 stretch yourself. Stretch for something new.  Try something new. Try something that you think may be just a little bit beyond  your ability stretch yourself. 24 exercise your faith. Faith is like a muscle. If you  exercise it, it'll grow. If you don't ever use it, it'll atrophy. It'll it'll dwindle away.  Exercise your faith, believe for slightly bigger things and bigger things, not huge  things all at once, but just like lifting weights and lifting a little more and lifting a  little more exercise your faith the same way number 25 go on to perfection. And  again, maybe I should not have used the word perfection there, although the  Bible says, Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. But the meaning  there is mature, having reached the goal, completing, achieving what God wants you to be, is basically from that that same verse, until you resemble God's Son,  measuring, reaching the measure, achieving the measure of the full stature of  Christ. So don't ever stop. Keep moving in that direction, pre-pray the day we  talked about that praying through the day number 27 don't limit God to your  theology. Don't limit God to your theology. It may be that there is something that  your theology doesn't have, quite right? It may be that somebody else's theology has a way of understanding a Bible verse or an attribute of God or something  that will open a new aspect that God can use in your life. Don't say God can't do that, because my theology says he doesn't do those things. If it's if the Bible  says he doesn't do those things, then you're on solid ground. But if it's just  somebody's idea of what they have come up with, then don't limit God to your  theology. Number 28 eyes forward. Keep your eyes where they ought to be.  Don't be distracted. Don't be looking backwards in regret. Don't be looking 

around in desire. Keep your eyes on where you're going. Keep your eyes  forward. Number 29 don't do good programs. Do life transforming encounters,  an awful lot of ministry, a lot of a lot of church's programs. We're going to have a Bible school program, Sunday school program, men's program, women's  program. And there's nothing wrong with those, in essence, except that just  doing a good program doesn't necessarily accomplish anything. What you want  the program to do, and therefore, how you ought to think about it, is life  transforming encounters with God. You want to lead your people into an  encounter with God that will change their life. That's what you're trying to do.  You're not just trying to put together good programs. And finally, number 30 in  this list, go with the flow of the spirit. Be led by the Spirit. Romans 8 says that's  how we know that people are children of God. It's because they are led by the  Spirit. So if you discern, and you develop the ability to discern what the Holy  Spirit is doing, and the Holy Spirit is flowing this way, and even if your program  and your plan says, Oh, we were supposed to do this, go with the flow of the  spirit, and I am going to go and turn off the this lecture, because we've reached  the end of our time, and I'll see you next time.