Understanding Success!

I was torn between reading Hunger Games (because everybody is) or The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler. I know what you're thinking, "Wow, those are two totally different books." Well, I read the first few chapters of Hunger Games and sat it down and never picked it back up. Everybody who has read that says they couldn't put it down; hmmmm...maybe I'm just weird. Anyway, Josh came home from a conference with The Explicit Gospel book and I decided to choose that one. I read the first chapter and you know that feeling of not being able to put it down? Well, that's where I was. Reading about the sovereignty of God was just too much to stop reading. So, as I continued I came across something that I and maybe even others need to hear. There is a section talking about how our churches are so consumed with being successful that they actually are not successful at all. He even went into us personally seeing certain things in our lives that we think make us successful. As he talked about the church, I begin to feel a huge change happen within me. I always thought if a church was big, growing, doing a lot of programs, and people loved coming there that it was a successful church. Those things are all great and may be a picture of success but what about the guy in the middle of nowhere that preaches to the same 9 people every Sunday and they reject it every Sunday? Is he successful? Is he doing what God has called him to do? Well, most of us today would say that he should just move on, retire, give it up. Well God's Word is filled with people he called to preach to a group that he would never see come to the Lord in his lifetime or see God's plan unfold (Jeremiah would be an utter failure, John the Baptist missed the ministry of Jesus, Moses never got to see the Promised Land) WOW. How discouraging is that? Matt even uses this to better explain it:

Now Hiring: Pastor. Must make hearts dull. Those seeking fruitful ministry need not apply.


HaHa, how funny is that? But that is exactly what God told Isaiah to do in Isaiah 6:10, " Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Then Isaiah asks in vs. 11,"How long, O Lord?" God goes on to say, "Until the cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stumps remains when it is felled." Basically God is saying," I want you to go to a people who will hear but not perceive. I am going to destroy all except those who really love me, trust me, and seek me." WHAT??? I mean Isaiah must have been like," So, I'm going somewhere that I will never see grow and flourish? Somewhere that I may never hear praise and thankfulness for what I am doing? Somewhere that I will never have men love me and want to follow my lead?" YES!!!! That is exactly right. But look at the last verse, " whose stump remains when it all falls". DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?? God is telling Isaiah that even though he will never see or have all those things in his day, there will come a day when everything he did for the glory of God will be passed to another generation. AHHH!!! If that does not make you want to dig deep into the trenches of what maybe God is calling you to then you need to read it again. Isaiah was being sent to people to proclaim faithfully, and they would reject continually. As Matt says, God is still at work in that! For me, a successful pastor is one who goes on and on in the obedience of God even if it is hard, even if it seems like the most unlikely thing to do, even if no one comes to the Lord on his watch. The Lord draws man's hearts, not a preacher or a really great sermon. I am blown away by the Lord dealing with me and my heart while reading this book. My heart must change so that I can perceive, not just see!!! If you are looking for a book to read, The Explicit Gospel will shake you up and call you to seek and dive into this thing called the gospel. One encouragement for you as I end: If you do not see fruit in what God has called you to do, take heart, HE IS STILL AT WORK IN THAT!!!! BE ENCOURAGED!!!!