What If?

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. (Colossians 1: 16, 17)

I am reworking on this to help us appreciate the fact that the church in our generation is limping because we have for the most part lost our fundamentals. I therefore want each of us to reflect on what needs to be done for us to recapture the spark that led the very small church of the apostles to turn the world upside down when in our generation it is the world turning the church upside down. As recorded in Acts two years was enough to saturate the whole of Asia with the Gospel.

I want us to ask ourselves this small but weighty question; What if?

What if Christ becomes the centre and focus of our life and ministry?

What if self gets ejected from concern when ministry is being considered or pursued? What if comfort and self-fulfillment is never an issue when we are responding to God’s call?

What if God’s will is the guiding principle in our prayer instead of our comfort?

What if we were more concerned with the people we are sharing the Gospel with instead of those who will pity us and give us the numbers to share in our reports and monies?

What if we loved our persecutors instead of judging them?

What if we celebrated persecution when it arrives instead of ‘binding’ it?

What if like John we willfully prayed and became excited when Christ increases as we decrease in ministry prominence?

What if support is never an issue when considering ministry involvement?

What if death becomes gain from our perspective?

What if Christ is the actual centre of our Christian lives?

I want us to learn from the world today as we look at the 1:59 challenge where the world was assisting a person break the two minute marathon barrier.

How many people were involved? How much money was involved? How many people and teams were promoting their visibility? How many were in the background?

For starters, there were over 40 pace setters. These are people whose job was to ensure that our guy maintains the right speed over the distance. Yet have you heard them boasting about the pivotal nature of their involvement? They were also there to shield him from wind resistance. In other words, they were there to get tired to make sure he doesn’t. Incidentally, they are also star runners who could give him a run for his money given the chance. But their work was to ensure that he wins against ‘nature’ as it was thought impossible to make that time.

There were weather experts whose purpose was to make sure the most perfect weather was there for this feat. They have been studying to ensure that the optimal weather conditions (temperature, humidity, wind) for the race against nature. They did not advertise themselves.

Of course we know everything he has been eating must have gone through expert scientific analysis to ensure that he gets only the best nutritional benefit and minimal wastage. Even the water he was taking on the route was specifically designed for the feat.

His clothes, to the undergarment, were designed for this feat, again by experts so that they remove every hindrance from his performance. His shoes were also specifically designed for this race. I was reading that that pair would cost a fortune if one was to buy it.

The location of the challenge was chosen very carefully to ensure that only the location most enabling for that feat was chosen.

And do you remember he was flown by private jet with his whole team so that he does not get ‘tired’ using passenger jets?

What I am pointing at is that there were literally thousands of people and teams that had been meeting and strategizing for years to prepare for this event.

Yet do you realize that there is only one name that you are hearing? Nobody is boasting about the money and effort they have poured in this. The challenge is enough reward. Interesting enough all of these people and teams are business driven who know that the success of this venture will mean something major for them. In fact, even the visibility is enough advertisement for them.

The rallying point is the performer, one person uniting the world.

Suppose the church operated like that? Suppose Christ was our rallying point in ministry? Suppose He was the only One we focused on when we run church activities? Suppose He was the One we focused our missions on?

… for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. (Luke 16:8b)

The businesses involved in this challenge know that they will benefit most when their project succeeds and so are not overly concerned with profits and visibility at this point. They have poured immense amounts of their wealth for this as they are looking to the future of their businesses.

Simply saying, they postponed their pursuit (apparently) to tackle another pursuit that looks completely outside their frame of business. But we need to realize that they did it because they had a bigger target. It is more of what we call delayed pleasure.

What about the incentives? The rewards he was promised to achieve the feat are phenomenal. From cars to tonnes of cash, they were falling over each other to pledge. I believe there are some who pledged knowing he could not do the impossible and will now be at pains to reconcile their unbelief with their pocketbooks.

But I want us to look at the mostly invisible systems and persons that have contributed to that feat.

Why should pacemakers who probably may have done better surrender their ambition to support this star? It must be the realization that they were doing it for something bigger than personal ambition. They took their friend’s ambition and made it their own. And it goes for all the teams, from doctors to physiologists, to meteorologists to researchers to financiers.

What does this have to do with the church? I think everything. They have simply taken the Biblical model and used it to achieve the impossible. And we left that model to copy the world to achieve spiritual success.

Suppose we placed Christ where the Bible and creation places Him? Do we realize that the world could be completely evangelized, probably in a matter of months?

That is how the first church succeeded. Christ was the only star they revolved around. They died because they would not allow Caesar to occupy that position.

Not only that, Christ was not just someone they adored. They worshiped and willingly submitted to His lordship. By this I mean that His orders were obeyed and not debated. Read the book of Acts and that comes out very clearly.

Who among us is willing to give Christ that position that is rightfully His? Who will not go until he knows what Christ has ordered?

The reason we are limping, I will say again, is that as we continue in our walk of faith we become experts at surmising what He would want without needing to get His clarification. We make decisions using experience as our guide without seeking any clarification from the Boss, no, Lord.

You see, a boss is one we can choose to obey or move on to another one. There are no such options with a lord as he has bought or conquered and therefore owns us. There is no consultation or consensus with a lord. It is absolute obedience or death. And there is no recourse with a lord’s decision.

Calling Christ Lord is very easy. Allowing Him to be our Lord is a different thing altogether. Incidentally that will be the determinant about where we spend our eternity as Matthew 7: 21 – 23 clearly says.

Why do ministers, especially pastors and bishops have a problem with Christ being Lord of the giving of their flocks? Why must they teach unscriptural and bended interpretations to ensure that all giving ends up in their storehouse which according to scripture is really their pocket?

Why do ministers who are more endowed financially seek to lord it over other ministers who request partnership, many times swallowing and aborting their purpose for seeking partnership in the first place? Does it mean that the richer structures hear Christ better than those without those resources? Is that what the Bible teaches? Do we still remember Christ’s statement concerning the rich and the camel?

Why are we more conversant with breaking news than the scriptures which have the truly breaking news as they proceed from the mover and shaker of the universe? Why are we concerned with trending things instead of scriptural revelation?

Suppose we took Jesus seriously?

But as I close I think I need to make one thing clear. There is one statement the challenge has been making, No man is limited.

I believe this is a clear point for Babel revisited.

And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. (Genesis 11:6)

Man is limited. In fact man is a worm according to scripture. We can only soar when we are aligned to God’s revelation.

Man as an end is always disastrous as he seeks independence from God. And this challenge had all the hallmarks of that; from conquering the weather to human limitation.

But it is a lie as life will demonstrate in a short while. Only with God are all things possible.

But let us learn from this humanistic pursuit that unity of purpose (for our purposes unity under Christ) has a capacity of achieving much.

The Bible has enough examples of this. I will give a few then close with the ones most outstanding that I model my life in ministry after.

Joshua was content to be Moses’ aide for forty years; Until God commissioned him.

Elisha was a successful farmer before his call – to pour water on Elijah’s hands. And he was content with that until Elijah left the scene. That is when you realize that he was probably more powerful than Elijah.

Andrew was consistently bringing people to Jesus; from his brother Peter to the boy with the meager lunch. When the Greeks tell Philip they want to see Jesus (probably because of his Greek name), he goes to Andrew who then helps him bring them to Jesus.

Jonathan was the crown prince, which is another way to say he was the king in waiting.

When David comes around, he realizes that this young man carries greater anointing to rule than he had. He therefore hands the kingdom to him, even pledging to serve under him.

Barnabas was notable among the apostles. Yet he took the reject Saul and grew him to apostleship and willingly served under him. It is interesting that they parted ways when he decided to take on another reject, John Mark.

He disappears from the picture but his offspring thrive.

That is what I want to be known for.

In fact, that is the actual ministry of a pastor – to grow people to an extent that they explode to the nations. And they do not have to call you papa or any other stupid endowment. The fact that they are serving God is enough reward.