Do you ever wonder if you are being effective at what you do? If you are being effective in your job, as a parent, in your marriage, or as a follower of Jesus?
I do.
I do a lot.
I do all the time.
I have to be honest: Many I times obsess over whether I am effective.
( My wife is reading this as she edits it and is laughing.)
I have written 100 blogs.
I have written 193 devotions.
I have preached over 1,200 sermons.
I have led over 2,000 Bible studies.
I have done countless counseling sessions.
I have shared my faith for 40 years.
Have any of these things made a difference? Have I been effective in what I have shared, preached, taught, or written?
I looked up the word effective. It means producing a definite or desired result; making a striking impression; equipped and ready for combat.
Now as I read those definitions I marked one off immediately. I don’t and never will make a striking impression.
I have served at five churches and in talking to the people who were involved in my going to those five different churches I was never their first choice. It was only after one or more of the other people they were considering said no did they look at me. I am not impressive.
I used to bemoan that fact.
UNTIL! I read Isaiah 53:2: “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”
Jesus was not impressive from a human perspective either. I was like Jesus in not being impressive from a human standard.
So I ask myself, have I always produced a definite or desired results?
Well, I have to admit that I am usually able to produce a definite result, but not always a desired result.
I have to be honest, I’ve failed many times at getting the result I desired.
Jesus also produced definite results. There was and is no real middle ground in relationship to Jesus. Jesus is either all or nothing. He didn’t leave us any middle ground.
Jesus claimed to be God.
In John 10:30 Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” The people’s reaction to that in John 10:31 was to pick up stones to stone Him. They didn’t take kindly to Jesus claiming to be equal to God.
Jesus says in Luke 19:10 that He came to seek and save the lost.
Jesus accomplished the desired result in Zacchaeus but not in the Rich Young Ruler.
Jesus accomplished the desired result in Nicodemus but not in the majority of the Pharisees.
Jesus accomplished the desired results in Peter but not in Judas.
Jesus didn’t always see the results He wanted in other people’s lives.
Again I realized that I have another thing in common with Jesus in the area of being effective.
I also realized that Jesus’ motivation for what He did was never the result.
Jesus’ motivation was the Kingdom Of God.
Jesus tells us in Matthew to seek first and above anything else the Kingdom of God and God’s righteous. He tells us that because that was what His motivation was and that is what is of ultimate importance.
If my motivation to preach, teach, counsel, or write is to get a certain reaction or result in your life, then I am totally controlled by how you respond. And I will feel like a failure a lot.
If my motivation is to please and honor God, then no matter how you respond if I obey God, He is pleased and I have been successful and effective. It really has nothing to do with you. Hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings.
Jesus makes two statements in John that show that is motivation was to obey and thus please the Father and the results of living with that as His motivation.
In John 4:34 Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
What fueled Jesus life and ministry was doing what the Father wanted.
The result is found in John 14:30-31 where Jesus says, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on Me, but I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”
Because Jesus’ life and ministry was driven by doing the will of the father, Satan had no claim on Him and the world could see how much He loved the Father.
Effective can also mean equipped and ready for combat.
We are told In Ephesians 6 to be alert and stand ready for battle by putting on the armor He has given us.
We are told in1 Peter 5:8 to be alert and watch for Satan as a roaring lion who is seeking to devour us.
It is interesting that Satan is referred to as a lion in 1 Peter 5:8 and Jesus is given the title Lion of Judah. Again Satan tries to imitate Jesus. But our Lion is the real one. And our Lion is bigger and stronger.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being effective.
Not looking impressive
Not getting the desired results every time
But being ready for battle
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about pleasing God being our motivation.
Not results directed
Not achievement directed
But the Kingdom of God directed
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about ordinary people being ordinary, but serving an extraordinary God.
Effectively Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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