A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (May 17, 2018)
But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: (Matthew 20:25-27)
Has it ever struck you that everything in the Kingdom of God is upside down from the ways of the world? If you want to live you have to die. If you want to prosper you have to give. If you want to be chief you have to be a servant. The first will be last and the last will be first. And those are just a few examples, but by no means all of them.
I was thinking back today when Christ the Rock Church was started in Memphis, TN back in the 1980s. We were a part of that church but we were on the road as evangelists most weekends so we never got involved in the management of the church. But, I recall the Pastor telling us a story years after the church was started on how he selected his staff.
He first chose people mainly on their outward appearances. They were good people. They attended church regularly. They tithed. Well, none of them worked out in the long run.
Here is where we need to get back to God’s heart. God does not look at outward appearances. He looks at a person’s heart:
But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)
So, our Pastor said he saw the error of his ways and he did not fill these open positions immediately. What he did was he just waited and watched. As he waited he saw people that were called to the youth start ministering to the youth (without a title). He saw people called to evangelism start to evangelize. In other words, the people that had a heart for certain areas of ministry just started ministering in those areas. They did not need a title. That is how our Pastor identified the right person for each position. Actually, their heart identified them. I thought that showed a lot of wisdom on the Pastor’s part and that church grew into a mighty church for the Lord.
If you look at some of the people Jesus ministered to you would have to agree that it sure wasn’t based on outward appearances. Paul was a persecutor of Christians. The woman at the well had been married and divorced five times and was presently living with a man out of wedlock. Mary Magdalene was demon possessed. But Jesus did not look at all that. He looked at their heart and saw a hunger and thirst for the truth and that was the people he spent His time with, not the religious and pious. We could learn a lot from that.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)
