Managing The Pressure To Measure Up

But success is relative and some of us have made.

It so impossible for ourselves to feel any measure of

success that we feel no strength because when you muzzle

the ox when it treads out the grain and never

allow yourself to feel any success until you arrive in

a place called there it is an unsustainable model of

ministry so success is relative.

It's relative to what you think success is.

Have you ever even asked your leader, what would success

look like in my role? Maybe you should have that

conversation on the way home. Maybe you should text them

right now. What would success look like in my role?

And then maybe they'll text you back, that's your job

to know that.

You don't know what it is. It's who?

Who? It's relative to how. How will you measure success?

I was reading something in the book of Revelation that

got my attention. It's toward the end in chapter 21.

John is given the heavenly vision, but he describes something,

and just the way it was described.

Got my attention.

He said in verse 17, the angel measured the wall

using human measurement. I was struck by that human measurement.

He measured the wall using human measurement, and it was

144 cubits thick. Then it says in verse 18, the

wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure

gold is pure as glass. I thought that must be

a contrast, because again, verse 17, it says he measured

the wall using human measurement. And then in verse 18,

it says the wall was made of jasper and the

city of pure gold is pure as glass. So verse

17 gives us the measurement of the dimensions of the

wall using human measurement. Verse 18 tells us what the

wall was made of. So verse 17 is the human measurement,

how thick it was. But verse 18 is the heavenly measurement,

what it was made of.

So the human.

Measurement is thickness and height and width and all these

things that we can see, but the heavenly measurement is

what it's made of. We will always get it wrong

when we measure with human measurements. Human measurement will always

get you in trouble in ministry.

I see that stick, LB, please. Thank you.

People always want to measure like this. People always want

to measure like this. Always want to measure with a stick. Now,

if you don't believe me, you should read the Old

Testament account of when Israel had to choose a king.

Do you remember that even Samuel the prophet was tempted

to measure like this? Because when he went to replace

King Saul, who God said, you know, I regret that

I have made him king. Saul was tall. And so

Samuel got in his mind to look for somebody who

looked like this. Because when he called Saul, people look

at this. But when God got ready to call David,

he said to Samuel, do not consider his height or

his appearance. That's the hardest thing in the world to do,

isn't it? It's the hardest thing in the world to

do when you sit down to work on something and

you know that nobody is going to see it. When

you know that nobody is even going to notice it.

When you know when you go into it that nobody

is even going to recognize it. Because human measurement will

always look at things from a surface level. will always say,

you know, I'm going to put my effort over here

where people will notice. I'm going to put my effort

over here. Humans always measure like this. But when God

got ready to call David, he said, don't consider any

of this. I don't measure like people. I don't look

at the outward appearance. I look at the heart. So

give me the other one. God doesn't measure with a stick.

God measures with a scale. And I'm going to do

something that's going to strike fear into some of your

hearts real quick. I don't do this very much, but

I love you.

I'm going to do it for you. When God gets

ready to measure a ministry.

He doesn't use a stick to do it. He doesn't

measure like we measure. God is not comparing you to

who you're comparing yourself to. God knows what he put

in you. God does not measure the works that people

can't see. God measures weight. The Hebrew word for glory

is kavod.

It means weight.

And some of us need to put this away for

a little while because we have been measuring the wrong

things at the wrong level and step on the scale

and say, God, am I living out my full potential?

Because only you know that, God. So Jesus said, be

very careful that you don't do it to be seen.

Here's why.

Because your reason will be connected to your reward, and

your reward will be connected to your reason. This is

so powerful, the way God showed it to me. Help me,

Holy Spirit. Verse 2. He says, Verse 2, so when

you give to the needy, do not announce it. When

you stay up all night working on something, do not

announce it.

When you meet a.

Need and when you stop by and when you sacrifice,

do not announce it. With the trumpets, hashtag, as the

hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to

be honored by others.

I tell you, they receive their reward in full.

So if your reason is to be seen, your reward

is to be seen. But if your reason is, I

want the glory of God to be revealed through the

gift he has given me.

Look at the person next to you and say, keep

it a secret. Keep it a secret. This is the

secret to success.

You need some secret things that you do, some secret

sacrifices that you make that you don't call attention to.

But when you give to the needy, don't let your

left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Verse 4. So that your giving may be in secret.

This is the secret of success. It's a secret. It's

the secret things. You hear me? It's the secret things.

It's the stuff that I put in my sermon that

nobody laughs at, that nobody remembers. It's the audio engineer

at our church who test it. 20 crash cymbals for

one song on our album, and it's the 14th song

that nobody is ever going to hear because people don't

make it that far in an album in the year 2018.

It's those cymbals, those secrets. That's a true story, by

the way.

Garrett Davis, who engineered our album, was texting me, few

days ago when it came out, and we were so excited.

Then we started thinking about how many things people would

not notice that we worked really hard on. I sent

Garrett a scripture from when they were building the house

of God, and it said that one individual carved 400

pomegranates into the top of the pillar. I was texting

him back and forth because he said, I tested 20

crash symbols.

He wasn't trying to get credit. It's just that he cared.

That's what it is.

When you really care, you want somebody to notice, and

you want to know it's.

Making a difference. You're not evil.

It's not like you're necessarily doing it for recognition, but

you do want to be rewarded.

You want to know it mattered the more you care.

I sent him a scripture.

About when this individual carved 400 pomegranates in the top

of the pillar of It's very obscure. I said, what

do you think that means? It's such an obscure verse.

I knew he wouldn't know.

That's what I was setting him up for.

I said, if you carved 400 pomegranates in the top

of a pillar, and the pillar was swept in the sky,

who would see it?

He said, back to me, everybody? I said, no, no, no.

Read it again. Sound engineer. I said, read it again.

Then he said, nobody. I said, I'm going to give

you one more try. If you carved 400 pomegranates on the.

Top of a pillar, stayed up all night working on something,

but then they didn't even use it, shot a video

and they didn't even show it, had an idea and

nobody even wanted to hear it, preached the best point

of your sermon and they sat there and looked at

you and you wondered, well, what am I going to

do now? Because that was the best thing that I

had and apparently the best thing that I had isn't working.

Sang song, nobody sang it. Produced the beat and nobody

moved to it. If you carved it at the top,

tested the cymbals and nobody heard it on the fourth.

song that nobody made it to because people skip around

the tracks and we shouldn't even put it on there

and the album should have been short.

But if you carved the four in pomegranates at the

top of the pillar, who's going to see it? He said, oh, right.

You did that one for God. Because who else is

going to see it?

And some of you stopped serving because nobody saw it.

Don't let that stop you. You're not carving for them.

You don't measure with this.

Do not consider the height or the appearance. Some of

your best sermons were the ones that made them mad.

Some of the best meetings you led were not the

ones that felt good. Some of the best things that

you did.

Went unnoticed and your reward is with the Lord. Only

he can weigh that, and only he knows what he

really put in you. Only he knows when you're showing

up and you really didn't.

Do all you could do, but you lowered your level

of performance just to meet the expectation of the people,

because why even try? So I break the spirit of

the measuring stick over your ministry and your life today.

I said I break the spirit.

Of always needing people to know I break the spirit

of you judging your performance based on other people's reaction.

A reaction is not a response.

You are not in this for immediate gratification. I break

the spirit of you withholding yourself. Because you want other

people to notice you or give you a bigger opportunity.

I break the spirit of the stick. You don't measure

yourself with human measurement.

You don't measure yourself with immediate applause.

You don't measure yourself like people measure. God said, I

look at the heart.

Now, if you know the spirit of the measuring stick

is broken, take about 10 seconds and thank God that

you don't need approval.

I'm already approved.

Come on, let's break it.

You've got to break this if God's going to use you.

You've got to break this if you're going to glorify him.

You can't lead people to know.

I don't need that. Hey, thank you for watching.

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