7-16-2022 West Palm Beach 7th Day BAPTIST Pastor Jasmine “Be In It To Win It” Galatians 6;1-10, Luke 14;28-29, I Corinthians 1;26-31
If you are entering a race or competition, you must enter with the determination that you are in it to win it. If you don’t have that thought then it makes no sense to enter because you are not going to win. Life’s races and battles are first won in the mind. Before you enter, you should know why you are entering the race and you should count the cost. Jesus told his disciples this in Luke 14;28-29. He asked them that if they were building a tower, wouldn’t they sit down and count the cost before they started building? This would be to make sure they had enough money to finish building the tower and not run out and be unable to finish it.
Many children choose careers that their parents want them to enter. If they do this then they are living out their parent’s dreams and not their own. The child is not in it to win it but to please their parents. Neither the parent or the child have counted the cost. This is why so many fail and have to change careers. Do you know how many students go off to college and in the third year discover that this is not what I want to do? Then they have to start over and it takes them twice the amount of time to get the degree. I recall when I was a college student in 1970, the students in my class wanted me to run for the student body president. I had no interest in this because I was a commuter student and didn’t think I was known enough to get the needed votes. They did pressure me to run and I did. But I did absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing to promote myself. My classmates made posters and made campaign speeches for me while I did nothing. I never even attended any of my campaign rallies. I lost by 11 votes and I felt bad because I had let them down. If I had only done half the work they had done, I could have won.
There are Three Principles of Service that will not let us down:
1) Hold Up Your End of The Bargain: In our Galatians text it says to let each man examine his own work. And then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. So if I had won I would be rejoicing but it would be in someone else’s work and not my own. The text says each man shall bear his own load. In verse 9 it says let us not grow weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we don’t lose heart, if we faint not. What this is saying is don’t sit back and let others do the work. Examine your own work. What are you doing to promote the gospel? What are you doing to bring others to Christ? How many people did you invite to church this week? Verse 5 says to bear your own load. Your load is to bring one person to Christ, one person to church or one person to a church function. Now if you bring one and the person you bring, brings another then we won’t have space and the church will keep on growing. Your accepting Christ means that you accepted the Great Commission to go into the world and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The next verse says that what a man sows, that is what he will reap. If you sow nothing, you will reap nothing. If you sow a little seed, you will reap a little. If you sow plenty, you will reap plenty. Now here is the catch. If your goal is to bring one person, you have to tell at least ten people. Statistics say you will only get a 1 to 2% response. Why do you think you get so much junk mail from people you don’t know? The sender is following the statistics because they know they can’t just send one letter asking for donations. They need to keep sending them over and over and over again.
2) Recognize The Value of Teamwork- I Corinthians 3;8-9: This scripture says that he who plants and he who waters are one. Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers, we are God’s field and God’s building; planting and watering. When we work, we work as one. If you plant and I am to water and if I don’t water then you won’t have a crop. If I water and you are to plant and you don’t plant then there is no crop. So we work together upholding our own end of the bargain. Verse 9 says we are God’s workers, God’s field, God’s building and we are laborers with God. Not with the Pastor or church leaders but we are laborers with God. God is the one that is going to reward us. The time for sitting in church and letting others do the work is over! Guess what, the reward time is near!
We need to look at what is our priority. In the book of Nehemiah there was opposition to the building process and for sixteen years the work stopped. The prophets said to the people that it was not right for them to be living in their nice paneled houses while the house of God was standing wasted and destroyed. Then the people set their mind to building the temple again. In the Bible almost every time God did a miracle, He had the people to do something first. At the parting of the Red Sea, God had Moses stretch out his rod and then the water parted. Jesus Christ put clay on the blind man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the pool. When the man washed, the miracle was performed and the man could see. Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups of fifty. Once they did this, Jesus broke the bread and the miracle of 5,000 men plus women and children being fed with five loaves of bread and two fish was performed.
3) Don’t Underestimate God – I Corinthians 1;26-31: God has chosen you and me not because we are wise or noble or mighty. God has chosen little insignificant people to make them mighty. No flesh should glory in God’s presence. So God put to shame those that were mighty and picked the little insignificant people instead. We need to be humble, thankful, grateful, thoughtful and be helpful. Don’t be lording ourselves above others and thinking people should show us homage. Glory belongs to God. He has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty. God can use you to bring people to Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, we are to follow these three principles of service and go in it to win it. We will win the race that is set before us. For the race or the battle is not ours but it is the Lord’s. Brothers and Sisters as I look at the work God has called me to do, I am in it to win it. Are you in it to win it? Lets us all say we are in it to win it. So we are going to hold up our end of the bargain, we will recognize the value of teamwork and we will not underestimate God.
AMEN
If you are entering a race or competition, you must enter with the determination that you are in it to win it. If you don’t have that thought then it makes no sense to enter because you are not going to win. Life’s races and battles are first won in the mind. Before you enter, you should know why you are entering the race and you should count the cost. Jesus told his disciples this in Luke 14;28-29. He asked them that if they were building a tower, wouldn’t they sit down and count the cost before they started building? This would be to make sure they had enough money to finish building the tower and not run out and be unable to finish it.
Many children choose careers that their parents want them to enter. If they do this then they are living out their parent’s dreams and not their own. The child is not in it to win it but to please their parents. Neither the parent or the child have counted the cost. This is why so many fail and have to change careers. Do you know how many students go off to college and in the third year discover that this is not what I want to do? Then they have to start over and it takes them twice the amount of time to get the degree. I recall when I was a college student in 1970, the students in my class wanted me to run for the student body president. I had no interest in this because I was a commuter student and didn’t think I was known enough to get the needed votes. They did pressure me to run and I did. But I did absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing to promote myself. My classmates made posters and made campaign speeches for me while I did nothing. I never even attended any of my campaign rallies. I lost by 11 votes and I felt bad because I had let them down. If I had only done half the work they had done, I could have won.
There are Three Principles of Service that will not let us down:
1) Hold Up Your End of The Bargain: In our Galatians text it says to let each man examine his own work. And then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. So if I had won I would be rejoicing but it would be in someone else’s work and not my own. The text says each man shall bear his own load. In verse 9 it says let us not grow weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we don’t lose heart, if we faint not. What this is saying is don’t sit back and let others do the work. Examine your own work. What are you doing to promote the gospel? What are you doing to bring others to Christ? How many people did you invite to church this week? Verse 5 says to bear your own load. Your load is to bring one person to Christ, one person to church or one person to a church function. Now if you bring one and the person you bring, brings another then we won’t have space and the church will keep on growing. Your accepting Christ means that you accepted the Great Commission to go into the world and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The next verse says that what a man sows, that is what he will reap. If you sow nothing, you will reap nothing. If you sow a little seed, you will reap a little. If you sow plenty, you will reap plenty. Now here is the catch. If your goal is to bring one person, you have to tell at least ten people. Statistics say you will only get a 1 to 2% response. Why do you think you get so much junk mail from people you don’t know? The sender is following the statistics because they know they can’t just send one letter asking for donations. They need to keep sending them over and over and over again.
2) Recognize The Value of Teamwork- I Corinthians 3;8-9: This scripture says that he who plants and he who waters are one. Each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers, we are God’s field and God’s building; planting and watering. When we work, we work as one. If you plant and I am to water and if I don’t water then you won’t have a crop. If I water and you are to plant and you don’t plant then there is no crop. So we work together upholding our own end of the bargain. Verse 9 says we are God’s workers, God’s field, God’s building and we are laborers with God. Not with the Pastor or church leaders but we are laborers with God. God is the one that is going to reward us. The time for sitting in church and letting others do the work is over! Guess what, the reward time is near!
We need to look at what is our priority. In the book of Nehemiah there was opposition to the building process and for sixteen years the work stopped. The prophets said to the people that it was not right for them to be living in their nice paneled houses while the house of God was standing wasted and destroyed. Then the people set their mind to building the temple again. In the Bible almost every time God did a miracle, He had the people to do something first. At the parting of the Red Sea, God had Moses stretch out his rod and then the water parted. Jesus Christ put clay on the blind man’s eyes and told him to go wash in the pool. When the man washed, the miracle was performed and the man could see. Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups of fifty. Once they did this, Jesus broke the bread and the miracle of 5,000 men plus women and children being fed with five loaves of bread and two fish was performed.
3) Don’t Underestimate God – I Corinthians 1;26-31: God has chosen you and me not because we are wise or noble or mighty. God has chosen little insignificant people to make them mighty. No flesh should glory in God’s presence. So God put to shame those that were mighty and picked the little insignificant people instead. We need to be humble, thankful, grateful, thoughtful and be helpful. Don’t be lording ourselves above others and thinking people should show us homage. Glory belongs to God. He has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the mighty. God can use you to bring people to Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, we are to follow these three principles of service and go in it to win it. We will win the race that is set before us. For the race or the battle is not ours but it is the Lord’s. Brothers and Sisters as I look at the work God has called me to do, I am in it to win it. Are you in it to win it? Lets us all say we are in it to win it. So we are going to hold up our end of the bargain, we will recognize the value of teamwork and we will not underestimate God.
AMEN