Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
10/10/2022
How many chances does one get?
Our men’s group watched a really strong video about being a man. It started off with the father speaking directly to his son. “Sam, be a man!” I am guessing this conversation probably happened back in the 40s but the impact of that is still the same today. My Dad was a man of few words too. You had to know him to know the depth of what he was saying. He wasn’t particularly expressive but he loved God and had a character that looked like armor. When he spoke you listened!
But encouragement isn’t just about a father to a son. It’s about the motivation and faith we speak into those around us. Daily. And as needful as that is to our immediate family, God’s calling is much broader than that.
I want to encourage each of you to dive in and discover who it is that God wants you to be. I know some will say…by this time, I am who I am.
The truth is when we stop growing spiritually and giving our seed back to those around us, we are dying! You’ll never reach the peak of that mountain without getting involved with other like-minded people in your life.
A small group, a Bible study, and an accountability partner. People that are real! I want to encourage you to be vulnerable with them. To open up to them. And then get involved using your strengths and gifts for God’s work. I’m talking about giving yourself away. 1 John 3:16 – “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”.
We can’t do that if we’re an island…
when we stand alone with our long-standing 5 people in our inner circle.
As the prophetic voices in Old Testament Scriptures are silenced, the final message to Israel is from the prophet Malachi. He describes, in awesome solemnity, the coming Day of the Lord when the full force of God’s wrath will be poured out on a God-hating, sinful world that rejected the promised Messiah, and refused His gracious gift of salvation. We are the ones he called to go forth and preach the gospel. To give ourselves away for His name’s sake.
Whatever you have – God will use you! Your small group needs what you have to give. Your church will use whatever your willing to give of yourself!
Malachi 4-6 talks about God “turning the hearts of the fathers back to their sons and sons to their fathers”. But I think it goes much further than that.
I think not just turning a father’s heart back but a man’s heart…
a woman’s heart, back to their spouse – to their children –
to their neighbors – to their friends.
Having been in men’s ministry most of my adult life I know that most people do not have spiritual fathers… Or spiritual mothers. Those people that are mature in the Lord who want to share what God has given them to raise up the next generation of leaders.
I want to encourage each of you that wherever you go to church, whatever small groups that you’re involved in, there are fathers and mothers there! Mentors there – All looking for sons and daughters to help grow, until you can develop that servant’s heart towards your family, your spouse, your children, and to the world. I am certain that many of you are thinking I do a pretty good job there. But I know personally, how often I slip. How much better I can be in the expression of my love, understanding, and grace toward others.
There is NO arriving until Jesus meets us in the sky.
Jesus said I am lowly and humble of heart follow me. The covenant of Jesus is about his spirit changing you. Seeking not to be understood but to understand the higher things of God.
I would venture to say that most of you are reading because you want more of God in your life. Your humility fuels the drive to get closer to God. Let discipline and humility encourage you to step out into new things that God has for you. There is always a higher hill to climb in Christ!
If you want to change, you must give up something. Give up your comfort zone and pride, and join arms with some other people, who may be strangers to you now. But if you listen to God – they will become brothers and sisters – some may be mentors for life – they will give into you until you grow up in God and start giving back and become the man or woman of God that He has called you to be and be a servant to all. Much more than you could have ever accomplished on your own.
Matt 16: 24-26 “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it..” I give myself away means Revelation 12:11
“ And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them”.
Chris McClarney Speak to the Mountains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5zP14_8meo
