Influencers Weekly Devotional

USTAINING ENTHUSIASM by

Pete McKenzie – Influencers West

(Acts 20:24) "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospelof the grace of God."

The challenge is not to get men fired up for Christ, but to keep men fired up for Christ. A man of God's challenge is to maintain a strong enthusiasm and excitement about what God has given him in his salvation in Christ. This is crucial because nothing can sustain and drive us in life and ministry like a deep love for Jesus rooted in the power of the gospel. Men can get excited for a moment after an inspiring service, message, or retreat, but how can he sustain his excitement over the long haul? The answer has eluded Christian men to the point that we have many professing Christians but few godly men. We have many Christian men who aspire to be men of God but do not attain it, and many who start out well but precious few who end well. The times we live in today require God’s men to be the consistent, durable, dependable, reliable ones. Much depends on it. We must not fail at this endeavor. There is no lack of a call to "discipleship" today. Small groups are in vogue in the Church. When we talk about men's ministry, most of the talk is about discipleship. So then, where are all the strong Christian men? When Christianity is profiled today, the description is sad if not disastrous. Christianity is growing yearly around the world at a rate of 165,000 a day coming to Christ, while we haven't seen a net growth in Christianity in America in the last twenty five years. If discipleship is the answer, why is the church so weak and impotent, lacking spiritual power, strength, and vigor? Recent polls reveal that the younger generation has decided that the institutional church is irrelevant. It's said that we American Christians believe right but behave wrong, and that we are eager to serve God but are not interested in getting to know Him. Why is the Church looking for better methods while God is looking for better men? One author said that men in America have been marginalized, meaning that they have been relegated to a position of unimportance and dishonor. If discipleship is the answer, why isn't it working in our churches and personal lives? Why is there so much Bible study that makes so little difference in how people live? Why are 70% of our marriages ending in divorce in our county? Why are our pastors leaving the ministry at a rate of 1700 a month nationally? Why are pastors described today as insecure, inadequate, isolated and lonely, if our discipleship is working? It's said that if the Church doesn't transform the culture, the culture will transform the Church. General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, made a profoundly prophetic and insightful comment on this issue when he said, "I consider that the chief dangers that will confront the twentieth century will be: religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without regeneration, morality without God, and heaven without hell." How's that for a hundred year old prediction of the condition of Christians today? General Booth saw these disasters coming. We are experiencing them every day. Actually, when you think about it, our American version of discipleship today may actually be hazardous to our spiritual growth and well being. The goal of discipleship has always been to know God and to reflect His glory in and through our lives to make others hungry to know Him as we do. We caIl it evangelism and it's the goal of discipleship. It seems that in our day though, discipleship or growing to maturity in Christ, has become an end in itself. If true, that makes it about us rather than about the gospel of redeeming men to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Oswald Chambers taught that we break down in our Christian walk because our desire is for our own whiteness and not for God. I often tell people that if they don't want to hear about Jesus and His gospel, they better stay away from the Apostle Paul. The gospel is all he talked about. Paul never got over the fact that by God's grace and mercy he was forgiven for all his sins. He was so changed in his heart and had become so radically different, that he knew his whole life had to be about knowing Jesus, and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death. Every waking hour found Paul living because of the gospel. He soaked in the gospel. He found his identity in the gospel. He said that for him to live was Christ and more than anything, he looked forward to being with Him in heaven. Paul was sustained by the constant realization of though he was "chief of sinners" and didn't deserve it, he was given grace, freedom, forgiveness and salvation in Christ. This motivated and sustained him in his life and ministry. It made him rejoice when others were complaining. He was so grateful that he laid aside his worldly wealth, reputation, fame and respect, and called it garbage compared to knowing Christ Jesus his Lord. He rejoiced in his salvation and stayed excited because he couldn't stop praising God that he was saved and forgiven. He constantly shared his testimony with others as the most important, exciting, amazing thing that gave his life purpose and meaning. Was he a unique aberration, or should we be like this as well? Because of this, Paul was constantly surrounded by new believers who were also excited about their forgiveness and new life in Christ. There is nothing that could ever be more exciting to a man who is broken and desperate, loaded down by sin, with many flaws and failures, than to be saved, forgiven, and given heaven when he knows he deserves hell. How could we have forgotten this in the church? If we want to stop our personal and cultural moral slide into the abyss, then a return to the gospel in our personal lives and ministry is imperative. Nothing keeps the fires in our hearts burning like being around new believers who are excited about their faith. Without them, we just sit, sour, and soak in the pew, arguing with each other, having nothing to offer the broken, desperate, lost world all around us. We may or may not be able to save America and return it to what it once was, but we can still save some desperate Americans. That's what Jesus came for. He didn't come to save or deliver Israel from the Romans. He didn't come to take sides, He came to take over and to save Israel from their sins and restore them to their relationship with the God who chose them and loves them. If we are going to get back to what the true mission of the Church that Jesus gave His disciples, to go and make disciples, things have got to change. We've got to get back to Christ and His gospel as the focus, motivation and purpose for our lives and ministry. We have to get in touch with our own salvation and discover again the first love we had when we were first forgiven. We're spending most of our time ministering to each other in the church while the world is falling apart right outside the door. It starts with the prayer the Psalmist prayed in Psalms 139:23,24. "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." Because we have forgotten our first love, the church has been distracted by good things that aren't the main thing and it has stunted our preaching and sharing of the gospel. A recent poll found that a large percentage of professing believers felt no compulsion to share their faith. Not only is evangelism waning at a broad level in the church, discipleship is happening, but it's a sterile, impotent effort that is not producing the kind of salt and light the world needs today. As already stated, it's a discipleship that centers on us rather than on Jesus and Him crucified. I'm not sure if we need a revival or another Great Awakening, but whatever we need, the footsteps are coming down the hall, and we need it now! (Please read Jan. 31 in the devotional book, "My Utmost For His Highest", by Oswald Chambers) Download file