(Message by Pastor Joseph, founder and leader of New Life Fellowship, Mumbai on 20th September, 2009. Developed from what I note down and recall on Monday, so may not match by words, but MUST convey the spirit of the message. Happy Reading!)
It’s always a pleasure to be among God’s people. We once WERE all ordinary people, just like the rest of them outside; but, Jesus picked us up and put something within us, that made us extra-ordinary! We WERE all natural human-beings, with our struggles and failures, but Jesus accomplished for us on Calvary's cross a work so great, that putting our trust in Him, made us all super-natural! Are you excited about it all?
In the past few days, two things have happened in my life for which I’m thankful to God – One, I’ve completed 77 years of age and two, I’ve ministered 12 years in the ‘Brethren Assembly’ and came out and completed 40 years in the New Life Fellowship ministries in Mumbai. Anointed and separated for the work of God according to His own calling! I’m in touch with the pastor of the ‘Brethren Assembly’ and they recently gifted me with a piano – an antique piece, nearly 150 years old; there are still photos of Philip and others – small children at that time, kept there in the church at Fort. The point I’m trying to make is this: it does not matter ‘WHY’ you leave some church and go to another, but it does matter ‘HOW’ you leave one church… because we’re all in a relationship. Or is it to backbite, and blah…blah and turn up your nose and leave in a huff? That people put their hands together and say ‘Thank God they left’. We should be the people who are welcomed into a church with joined hands and people saying ‘Thank God you’ve come’.
If you believed in the Baptism of the Spirit and the manifestation of His gifts; (by the way, the Brethren church do not believe this) and are able to do something better, then WHY not glorify God with His gifts?
So here I am, 60 years in Mumbai, of which 52 years are in His service. And am I seeing a revival! How many of you realize this? That such a thing is happening, in Mumbai. Do you remember the birth of Jesus? It was written about the place of His birth many years before… yet, we see only a few making their way to Bethlehem! When Isaiah responded, “
Here am I! Send me” (Is. 6:8), God told him this message…’Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive’ (v9)…their hearts were dull. Now, if you tell me that ALL that was part of the OLD covenant, what does the NEW covenant say? ‘Eyes has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart…’ (1 Cor. 2:9). If you are willing…you will eat the good of the land.
Friends, we are practicing no religion here… Jesus did not come to establish a religion. But by God’s grace, we are experiencing revelation in Christ Jesus. How many of you understand this? There are more than 90000 believers, attending New Life Fellowship in Mumbai. And every week, new believers are being added to the fold. Soon, there’ll be one lakh believers, and then two and then a million! You have a great PART to play in God’s plan and purposes here. That is why I’ve titled my message ‘YOUR TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH’
. Are you surprised? This is what I would like to share… Just the calling is not enough… You may be called, appointed, assigned and anointed… but, to accomplish God’s plan-Your anointing is NOT enough! If this was true, that OUR talent and anointing was enough, we would all be so different here! Or, are you the one who believe (the stupid idea) 'w
hat will be, will be'? Aren' we all here to fulfil God's plan-the people who make things happen?
Turn with me to Matt. 25. Who you are and what you are will affect what you accomplish. Reading from verse 14, “
For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one, he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey”. You see, God knows our limitation, our capacity-our own ability. We were originally made in the likeness of God in Adam, when God blessed them, Adam and Eve, and delegated authority. After man’s fall, we are reconciled back through the work of Jesus Christ. When we put our trust in Him-when we are born of God, we inherit the (spiritual) genes-the DNA of God Himself (Gospel of John). Paul talks to the Colossians, that this is a ‘
mystery among the Gentiles’ – Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). And when we are in Christ, we become a new creature-a new creation. Old things are gone…the new ‘man’ has come. (2 Cor. 5:17-21). We are
reconciled with God Himself. This is the first result. The second is that we have a ‘
ministry of reconciliation’. We are ministers for His service to reconcile others to God! The third result is that we are ‘
ambassadors for Christ’ – This is our position, our identity-that we represent the kingdom of God on this planet earth. By declaring ourselves as ‘ambassadors’, we are not being arrogant or proud; this is a fact by the grace of God. And fourthly, we are the ‘
righteousness of God’. Because God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us!
Do you sense the import of this all?
Remember Jesus, while sending His disciples (John 20), breathing on them and saying "
Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23).
Do you realize that this is talking about US all? That you have the authority to forgive other peoples’ sins? In Matt 16, we find another episode; Jesus declaring “
…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”.
Do you now realize that you have those keys? That when you say “Yes”, the whole of heaven echoes “
YES” and when you say “No”, the heaven echoes “
NO”? When our human spirit is revived by the Holy Spirit, our words become ‘spirit’ and they are ‘life’. Whatever, I’ve spoken here, is to establish what your identity IS in Christ Jesus.
So we have the three servants in Matt. 25- One with five talents, one with two and the other with one talent. 1 Cor. 12 does talk of the various gifts of the Spirit, distributed ‘to each, individually as He wills’ (1 Cor. 12:11). And out of three servants (with talents), one hid and two invested! Friends, the important thing about talent is execution!
You see, a teacher can have the talent for teaching, but unless she pays the price, works on her conviction and actually ‘teach’, there can be no promotion. This is the ‘execution’ part-a price to pay! If Philip here, starting at the lowest rung of grade 1 employee, while in his workplace, begins to go out of his cabin, maybe near the toilet, and grinds his ‘tombakku’ (tobacco) and chews, he would not become the AGM of his company, but still be chewing tobacco, after 22-25 years. See, the point is this; driven by your convictions, there is a time to understand, focus and execute what is expected of you and your talents! Dr. Pinto, a good friend of mine, started his school with just Rs. 100 in a hired garage, way back in 1976. He and his wife, had a conviction, that this is the
one thing they wanted to do – to teach, and they had love for the children! I too was a poor man, living on the streets, sharing the gospel to 6 or 8 people…about NEW LIFE in Jesus! I could see other grand churches, the priests with long robes and big crosses and I used to wonder, where is it all written in the Bible. See I have no complaints against them! Praise God for all the work they do! I can fully love them; but I may not fully 'agree' with them. But I am moved by
my convictions; that for every one, of the over 6 billion people on this planet earth, JESUS IS the answer! And I am gonna execute, what I’m convinced about!
I can also go on and give example after example, of how ordinary people, moved by their convictions, stood apart and soared to great heights. But God has called us into an extra-ordinary relationship. If you have no conviction, then you cannot take the responsibility. And without responsibility, there can be no execution! You can be a pauper or a prince-the choice is yours! We have the privilege of partnering with God, to execute His plan, with the talents He has given us. And finally to be carried by angels and to be welcomed ‘home’ by millions! There are
five things I would share, for a
successful execution! Whatever may be your business, your talent, your gifting-these FIVE things will ensure a PROPER ‘execution’!
Our beginning may be small; it does not matter how small! What matters is your conviction that God has put it in your heart. The first thing to do is give to the Lord His due-
ACKNOWLEDGE HIM in your gifting! The second is to
be CONVINCED of your product. Being convinced will give you confidence. There can be no successful businessman, who does not believe in his own ‘product’. If he shows, by his body language, his lack of confidence, how will he sell what he has? The third thing to do is to
SET UP THE ADMINISTRATION for success – the marketing, advertisement, promotions, distributions and the like! Fourthly,
secure the RESOURCES – the finance part!
I remember, in year 2000, when I wanted to bring out a DVD, and 100,000 copies of it, about sharing the gospel. And when I had an opportunity to talk about, it in a pastoral meeting, and the need for funds, I did my best to convince of the need - focussed on middle and higher income groups! As I did MY part of promotion, (because I was convinced of the product), God took care of the resources.
And the fifth aspect is
TIMING! Your product has to be timed well for release. You just cannot talk of ‘Remington’ typewriters now! We are now in a different age. If you miss these FIVE aspects, you increase your chance for failure.
There was a man who had a business that was seeing bad days! And he thought, there was no more hope for him to revive his product, and planned to commit suicide. As he was about to jump from a bridge, into the water, a rich man on his ‘Rolls-Royce’ came to a halt beside him. He stepped out of the car, seeing that the other person is well dressed and wondered why he would do such a thing as commit suicide! He gestured to him to stop and listened to the man pouring out his story. At the end of an hour or so, both of them felt enough was enough, and they both jumped into the river! :-)
The point is, there is no hope in this world! The Gospel is the hope of the nations. You and I are called to share this HOPE! That is why ‘YOUR TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH’! We need faith-trust in God to execute the work, with the talents God has given us! Of things hoped for…whether administration or resources… The Bible says that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’. If you hear from heaven, and you trust God, then it is time to execute! Can GOD TRUST YOU to do that? Yes? You see, trust is not a one-way ticket! You trusting God and asking for resources. Can God TRUST you with the resources to execute His plan?
And in the parable in Matt. 25, the master came! And He called His servants. Did you notice? The talents originally belonged to the Master – he gave it to them. Now when he saw the faithfulness of two servants, he gave them back their talents, and gave them MORE… He made them rulers! Now the servant who had received one talent also came. Probably, he well understood that ‘YOUR TALENT IS NOT ENOUGH’. So he had just buried it-and returned the same talent to the master saying, ‘
…have what is yours’ (v25). But do you want to know what the Master called him – ‘
wicked and lazy (unprofitable) servant’ (v26). You may think that it’s not fair, he had just one talent. But this is the conclusion “
For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away” (v29).
These are the latter days, to speedily execute what God has planned for each one of you! The world is in need. And God says, that they shall come to the Desire of All Nations. And He will fill this temple with glory. “
The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, says the Lord of hosts. The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, says the LORD of hosts.” (Haggai 2: 8, 9). And in the Hebrew language, “peace” also means “prosperity”.
People sometimes say, ‘Oh! Pastor Joseph is interested only in numbers’. I ask them, ‘Why
shouldn’t I be interested in numbers?’ Look at the verse in front of you, (the promise of this year for God’s increase and filling), it says, ‘…and I will increase your numbers…’ (Lev. 26:9_NIV). For those who are not satisfied with this reply, I can also add that there is a full book in the Bible that is named ‘Numbers’. There is a cross for us to carry; there is a price to pay. But driven by our passion and our conviction, as we execute His plans, there can be NO STOPPING! There is NO LIMIT except OUR own! There is a great PART to play for each one of us!
Shall we close our eyes in prayer!
“
Lord I pray, that this message will be NOT just information, but an IMPARTATION to each one here; that each one will the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, knowing the hope of Your calling, knowing the riches and glory of Your inheritance in the saints, the exceeding greatness of Your power and love, to Your glory and the extension of Your kingdom. Amen.”
Neither are we to be indifferent, since a child “left to himself will bring shame” (Proverbs 29:15). I would like to share with you all five principles of raising up children.
