Welcome to part III of "Whatever It Takes." Today I will "nutshell" the next 4 points that talk about how to do "Whatever It Takes" to follow Christ with Character so that you can lead with confidence.
• Set Goals: Be disciplined and Be responsible
• Be a "Surround Sound Steward" in every part of your life
• Be Concrete In Your Convictions
• Be ready for the 2 minute drill
Set Goals: Be disciplined and Be responsible
Two of my favorite quotes about goal setting actually have to do with not setting goals: "If you don't aim for anything, then you will miss everything," and "You miss 100% of the shots you never take." These quotes place the emphasis of the importance of setting goals because we need to focus on what we want, but we need to understand what we miss out on as well.
As you follow Christ and claim that He is not only #1 in your life, but that He is your life, I want you to focus on 3 "pearls," specific areas of goal setting that will help you do "whatever it takes" to make your relationship with God all that it is meant to be.
#1 Discipline: setting goals and making promises that you keep to your self. Be disciplined to set goals of Prayer, Bible Study, Serving, going on Mission trips, tithing, etc. and keep these promises
#2 Responsibility: setting goals and making promises that you keep to others. When you make a promise to teach Sunday school or Disciple a small group, then be prepared, establish relationships, and be on time. You have not only made a promise to others, but you are filling a need that God wants for His Kingdom, so be responsible and do it with a great attitude
#3 Committment: this is what makes discipline and responsibility work. Committment is the feul and the life source that makes your discipline and your responsibility fruitful.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says, "For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
"Surround Sound Stewardship"
I love watching a great movie and nothing is better when you get to watch it with surround sound. The music, the voices, the sound effects all have such rich detail because you are hearing them from all angles. Your are surrounded with sound. The same goes for our stewardshipt. Don't just think of stewardship as giving the three T's: Time, Talent, and Tithe. Those are amazing and definitely the foundation of being a good steward, but you must have more of a "surround" mentality. In other words, be a "Surround Sound Steward" and give back in all areas and from all angles of your life. You and I need to be stewards not only of the 3 T's, but also our gifts, our thoughts, our belief, our faith...our creativity...we need to be good stewards of our attitude and our deciscions. Think about this: the only part of creation that God gave the gift of deciscion making to is to humans, all other creatures live off of instinct. So make decisions a sense of steward ship. Seek God's Counsel, listen for His Wisdom, and then "man-up" and make great deciscions! i.e. doing "Whatever It Takes!"
Concrete Convictions
...what message are we sending our children, our family, our co-workers when we don't do whatever it takes...if we tell our kids it's ok to miss Prayer time or church services, then we are communicating that Jesus Is not number one, and then later in life, they will always push Him aside and not give one thought of not making time to follow Him...
"So what?" you ask, "So what if I push Him aside, I have got work to do...I have a game to go to." Here is the point: small compromises turn into BIG compromises.
If you skip your talks and your Prayer with our Warrior Jesus in the morning, then you will give into the enemy in the afternoon. If you bail on God in your committment to Bible Study or going to Church, then when it comes to ethical deciscions it the business world, you will give into temptation like a kid in a candy store.
It's all about making the "pre-deciscion" of having convictions and standing on principles that will give you a frame work of living. This is why it is so important to do "Whatever It Takes" because there will be pressure packed moments that arise in your life, and like Joe Montana during the "2 minute drill" in a football game, you are going to need the foundation that will allow you to be ready for whatever comes your way.
2 minute drill:
The last two mintues of a football game can be one of the most pressured packed moments in all of sports, but the greates champions (Favre, Montana, Elway) were always prepared because they did whatever it took, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to prepare themselves to always be ready whenever, wherever, however to make the right plays and the right deciscions to take their teams from the jaws of defeat to the heights of victory. Will you be ready, will your children be ready when the 2 minute drills of life hit? Will you live a lifestyle of following Christ and living on Biblical Principles? Here's the deal: our true measure and our true character comes out when we are battle tested, and we will not be ready if we constantly put Jesus off...but think about how we will be able to doing anything through Christ who strenghthens us if we "workout" with Him on a 365, 24/7 basis!!!
We must understand that God created us physcially, but He also creates our relationships, our time, our opportunity....He is The Creator of all, yes He gives us free will and the Spiritual Gift of Decision making, but His Will is still determined by His Creativity...just think how God will Bless your life and the lives of those around us if we would just do "Whatever It Takes" in our relationship with Him. Christ is the foundation, the source, and the way. We will discuss the last principle of doing "Whatever It Takes" in the next post, which is to Follow The Ultimate Example...
To God Be The Glory! Amen!
