Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
February 5, 2006 - W0606

This weekend wraps up New Hope’s DCAT conference:  Doing Church as a Team.  People from around the world have joined the people at New Hope Honolulu to catch a little of what’s going on here in Hawaii, what’s going on here at our church.  When anyone asks, “What’s so special about your church?  What gives your church its life?” my answer is always the same, “It’s the people.”

New Hope, and any other church for that matter, is not the building and is not the institution, it is the people who make up the church.  Therefore, a church is only as alive as its members are alive, and only as involved as its members are involved.  For that reason, we encourage everyone who attends New Hope to get involved in some way or another.

It’s Super Bowl weekend and we can use that as an analogy for coming to church. Think of coming to church like going to a football game.  When we go to a game, we can either get out on the field or sit in the stands and be a spectator.  And I believe that God is calling us all onto the field because it’s on the field where victories are won!

The Bible says, “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them! (John 13:17)”

This passage points out that blessings come not just through knowing but through doing!  God wants to bless us.  In fact, it is His good pleasure to bless us.  God wants us to be fruitful so that’s why He wants us to get in the game and press on to victory.

“Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about Christ, let us press on to maturity…” (Heb. 6:1)

In addition to just encouraging us to press on, this passage also points out the fact that maturity does not just come; it must be sought out and pressed into.  If all you do is let time pass, without any regard of or effort towards the things of God, you won’t mature, you’ll just get old.  The difference between old and mature is like the difference between efficiency and effectiveness; just because you’re efficient does not mean you’re effective. 

Do you recall the movie Karate Kid where Daniel wanted to learn karate with Mr. Miyagi and Mr. Miyagi told Daniel to “sand the floor” and “paint the fence”? In that movie, after a few days of doing Mr. Miyagi’s household chores (as Daniel viewed it), Daniel blew up in frustration at Mr. Miyagi’s disregard for what he thought he was there for (to learn karate). But it’s revealed to the contrary that while Daniel thought he was doing unrelated chores, in fact he was learning the basics of karate.  Daniel thought that what he was being asked to do was unrelated to what he wanted but in fact, what he was being asked to do was part and parcel of what he wanted.

Serving in a ministry is often a very similar experience; while we’re serving on the clean-up crew or scrubbing toilets, God may be scrubbing and cleaning out our hearts. And through this process of servicing, we are actually practicing behaviors and characters that will help us to mature.

1.     PRACTICE IS HOW GOD DESIGNED US TO MATURE.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you…and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Heb. 5:12)

God has designed us in such a way that it is through practice by which we mature.  Furthermore, if we do not practice, we may actually lose ground.  Note in the scripture above it says, “…you have need again for someone to teach you…”  This suggests that not only do we not make progress and mature, we may actually regress.

So how do you keep from losing ground?  How do we get solid food?  Well, Hebrews 5 goes on to say,

“For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.  But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” (Heb. 5:13-14)

The Bible tells us that it is through practice that we gain maturity and the sensitivity to discern good from evil.  When we practice by serving, God uses that time to grow us.  At first, you may be wondering how serving as a greeter, a parking attendant, or in Children’s Ark supervising infants will grow someone but when we serve at the Lord’s beckoning, He is able to work on our hearts.  So in serving, what we gain is not necessarily the skills and maturity to park cars better or greet people more nicely, but through the situations and experiences we encounter, our hearts change.  We become more patient, more humble and more caring than we once were.  It is these types of character qualities that we gain and build through our time of serving, and the qualities we gain are God’s way of maturing us for what He has in store for us.  It is the maturity of heart that God wants you to gain because He knows that’s what you will need in to address the issues in your marriage, business, or family.

And as the old adage says…

2.     PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)

The perfection talked about here is a perfection of the heart (not in what you’re doing as a service).  Remember, while serving, God is working on our hearts and as Matt. 5:48 suggests, our goal is to be like our heavenly Father.

The Lord has designed a lot of our life skills to be developed in the shadows, not in the [lime] light.  Let me share a personal story with you.  When I was a Youth Pastor, Jesus spoke to me and told me to start up bible study with a certain group of youth.  The first weekend, I picked up 7 kids for the bible study.  The second weekend, I picked up only 3 kids.  Needless to say, by the third weekend, I didn’t have kid to pick up!  It was just me and Jesus.  I was so mad!   I wanted to tell those kids, “You better bring your friends otherwise this isn’t worth my time!” but God spoke to me and said, “Didn’t I ask you to do this? Then do it, no matter how many (or few) kids attend.”  My reaction to the situation was all about me:  what I needed and wanted to make me feel important.  But it shouldn’t be about us…it’s about God.

None of us are perfect (or ever will be) but we need to strive for it and keep practicing.  The idea to striving for perfection can be overwhelming but my advice to you is...

• START SMALL BUT START NOW.

So often, our overzealousness to commit ourselves in a big way ends up defeating us before we even start.  For example, we may resolve that we will begin doing daily devotions as soon as we can carve out an hour of time each day to dedicate to it.  This becomes self-defeating because we are never able to carve out that much time each day.  Instead, I want to encourage you to start out small but start now.  Spend five minutes each day reading the Bible.  Then as time permits, increase your time a little each day.  Before you know it, you’ll be spending 30-45 minutes each day on daily devotions…then an hour!

God is a proponent of taking action as well.  Listen to what He tells Moses and the people of Egypt, “…the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to Me?  Tell the people to get moving!’” (Ex. 14:15 NLT)

God has equipped us with so much and yet so often, we are unwilling to step outside of our comfort zone to do His good work. We should realize that we’re like Indiana Jones in the movie where he encounters a gigantic, ugly knife-wielding enemy…who is easily defeated because Indiana has a gun.  When the Devil comes up against us (whether it’s personal insecurity or a physical challenge), remember that you’re equipped with a gun – our heavenly Father, the alpha and omega, through whom all things are possible.

Once we accept His challenge to “get moving”…

3.     PRACTICING AND APPLYING MATURES US INTO WHAT HE HAS FORMED US TO BECOME.

“Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12).

We should understand that we will not fully realize our potential and become what God has intended us to become without practice.  And that God cannot continue to poor Himself into us until we start to release what He has given us to others.  We’re like sponges running under a tap faucet…God will fill us when we are first washed over by Him however, like a sponge, until we are squeezed out and give away what we already have, He cannot fill us more.  Like a sponge, our absorbency (ability to take on more of Him) is restored and renewed when we give away what we have already received.

“My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you…” (Gal. 4:19).  As this passage states, our goal is to become more and more like Jesus.  When God created us, He placed His design and purpose within us but we need to practice (and go through the steps) to make our outsides (our lives) match our insides (His design for us).

In just about every case, in order to truly be somebody or something, you have to do more than just imagine it, you must also practice it.  If someone imagined himself to be a wonderful tennis player or golfer, just imagining himself as one is not sufficient for him to actually become one. A lot of practice, as well as vision, is required to get you there.

By the same token, God planted His vision or plan for each of us in us when He created us; however, we need to start practicing what He wants us to be in order for us to ever become that. And at first, getting started will be a battle. You may need to fight yourself, fight old habits, and struggle with what you’re supposed to do but the bright side is…it’ll get easier and more fluid the more you do/practice it.  Sometimes you need to do something just because you know you need to do it (and not because you feel like it) and God will bless it. 

I recently heard of a few people in our church who purchased a little shop to make and sell Korean mandoo.  They plan to donate their profits to missions, to help extend God’s reach to others.  The gentleman who controls all the lights in this auditorium works in a supermarket.  The Levites gives so much of their time each weekend setting up and breaking down the tents and kiosks we have set up for our weekend services.  All of these people are practicing what God has placed in their hearts and one day, there will be someone in Heaven because of what these people did here on Earth.

The church is only as active and involved as we are.  Some of the small things done here on Earth will have big impacts in Heaven.  Serving and practicing what God has placed in our hearts will scrub our hearts:  motives, patience, etc.  Practice (serving) will help us to mature and help perfect us.  And as we practice and apply what God formed us to become, we will start to take on His image and become more and more like Him.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.      What is the difference between efficiency and effectiveness?  Describe one way you are efficient but not necessarily effective.  What would the result be if you were effective?

2.      What challenge are you facing in life?  What character trait do you need to strengthen to overcome that challenge?  What skill is God asking you to practice and through what activity/service?

3.      How can you practice the skill you need in a ministry, so that you can later apply that skill to other areas of your life?

4.      What, if anything, has stopped you from getting involved in a ministry?  What can you do to overcome the resistance?

5.      Where in your life can you apply Pastor Wayne’s advice of “start small but start now” (as it pertains to perfecting your heart)?  How can you start now? Pray about your goal and let God help you get there.