Acts 1:1-9

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to hevean, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.  After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.  He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.  On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”  So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Acts 2:1-5, 16-18, 37-39

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. …this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.’  When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

What is the ‘Baptism of the Holy Spirit”?

1. It’s an END TIME gift

2. It’s an EMPOWERING gift

3. It’s an EXPERIENTIAL gift

How can I receive this gift?

1. Start following Jesus with a CLEAN SLATE.

2. Make receiving the Holy Spirit PRIORITY 1.

3. Say yes to God’s BIG PLANS for your life.

Dr. Clinton’s Phases of Leadership are:

1. Sovereign Foundations (loosely speaking, childhood)

2. Inner-Life Growth (20s)

3. Ministry Maturing (30s)

4. Life Maturing (40s)

5. Convergence (50s)

6.  Afterglow (late in life)

1 Samuel 3

The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli.  In those days the word of the LORD was rare;  there were not many visions.  One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.  The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD, where the ark of God was.  Then the LORD called Samuel.  Samuel answered, “Here I am.”   And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.”  So he went and lay down.  Again the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son, Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down. Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD:  The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.  A third time the LORD called “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”  Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy.  So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.  The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel, Samuel!”  Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” And the LORD said to Samuel: “See,, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.  At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family– from beginning to end.  For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he faled to restrain them.  Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.  Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the LORD.  He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.” Samuel answered, “Here I am.” “What was it he said to you?: Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me.  May God deal with yiu, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.”  So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him.  Then Eli said, “He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes.”  The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.  And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD.  The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.

1 Samuel 16:1

The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem.  I have Chosen one of his sons to be King.”

Ministry of Maturing (loosely speaking, in one’s 30s)

• Ministry becoms a major focus of life
• While there may be increasing frutfulness, the prmary aim is still increasing the leader’s capacity to lead
• The first major taks of this phase: expanding and honing ministry skill and spiritual gifts:
• Actual responsibility motivates us to develop gifts and skills
• Experimentation with spiritual gifts
• Greater responsibility comes with faithfully and effectively meeting ministry callenges
• The second major task of this phase: learning to work well with people.
• Submitting to authority
• Wearing authority well
• Navigating conflict with maturity.
•  Responding well to leadership backlash
• Temptation of this phase: hyper-sensitivity to productivity
• A danger of this phase: a tendency to plateau

Questions to consider:

• Are there ways in which ministry is a major focus of your life? How’s it going?
•  What have you learned about responding to and assuming authority?
• What have you learned about working through conflicts?

Matthew 4:3

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

John 10:27

My Sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

Psalm 32:8

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

John 16:5-7, 12-15

“But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and none of you has asked me where I am going.  Instead, you are very sad.  But it is actually best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Counselor won’t come.  If I do go away, he will come because I will send him to you…”Oh, there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.  He will not be presenting his own ideas; he will be telling you what he has heard.  He will tell you about the future.  He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me.  All that the Father has is mine; this is what I mean when I say that the Spirit will reveal to you whatever he receives from me.”

James 1:5-8

If you need wisdom – if you want to know what God wants you to do – ask him, and he will gladly tell you.  He will not resent your asking.  But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.  People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.  They can’t make up their minds.  They waver back and forth in everything they do.

Learning to Hear:

1. Get Something

2. Interpret It

3. Apply it.

John 5:17

Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.

John 5:19-20

Jesus gave them this answer, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.  Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.

STEP ONE: Talk with the person and God.

STEP TWO: Ask the Holy Spirit to come and then wait on him.

STEP THREE: Talk with the person and with God again.

Mark 8:31-35

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter.  “Get behind me, Satan!” he said.  “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”  Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For who ever wants to save his lfe will lose it, but whever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.  So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

2 Corinthians 4:16-17

Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Lfe Maturing (loosely speaking, in one’s 40s)

• In this phase, we experience a mellowing and maturing of our character, and make our way into using our gifts in an ever-more satisfying way.
• This phase begins with a period of reflection on lessons learned.
• This period of reflection is usually because we’re too wrapped up in ministry to take the time to reflect.
• Common Causes of this period of reflection:
• Isolation
• Conflict
• Life Crises
• Relationship with God becomes more important than success
• Ironically, as we begin to care less about the results of our ministry, our effectiveness, satisfation, and attractiveness grow.
• Our lives become an object of imtiation
• Temptation in this phase: giving up or flaming out.

Genesis 39

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt.  Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites wh had taken him there.  The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.  When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.  Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.  From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph.  The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.  So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care;  with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything exept the food he ate.  Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he refused.  “Whith me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.  No one is greater in this house than I am.  My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife.  How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”  And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.  One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.  She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!”  But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.  When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants.  “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us!  He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.  When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.  She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.  Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me.  But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”  When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.  Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.  But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.  So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.  The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Some general thoughts on Leadership:

1. Leadership might be described as doing what you’re meant to do and doing it with other people.

2. Dr. Clinton’s Phases of Leadership are:

a. Sovereign Foundations (loosely speaking, childhood)

b. Inner-Life growth (20s)

c. Ministry Maturing (30s)

d Life Maturing (40s)

e. Convergence (50s)

f. Afterglow (late in life)

3. The key task in each phase is to pay attention to significant events and respond well.

4.  The key question along the way: What can I learn from this?

5. The key principle along the way: the little-big principle” (Luke 16:10)

Sovereign Foundations

1. The significance of things that happen in this phase is only clear in retrospect.

2. The key task for this phase is responding positively to life

Inner-Life Growth:

1. It begins with a sense of calling

2. God’s  goal here?   Making you the kind of person who can handle leadership.

3. There are three crucial character tests.

a.  Will you follow your conscience?

b. Will you follow God’s leading?

c.  Can you hear God’s voice?

4. Lessons not learned are repeated.

5.  A temptation in this phase is restlessness.

1 Kings 13:1-6

At the Lord’s command, a man of God from Judah went to Bethel, arriving there just as Jeroboam was approaching the altar to burn incense.  Then at the Lord’s command, he shouted, “O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: A child named Josiah will be born into the dynasty of David.  On you he will sacrifice the priests from the pagan shrines who come here to burn incense, and human bones will be buned on you.”  That same day the man of God gave a sign to prove his message.  He said, “The Lord has promised to give this sign: This altar will split apart, and its ashes will be poured out on the ground.”  When King Jeroboam heard the man of God speaking against the altar at Bethel, he pointed at him and shouted, “Sieze that man!” But instantly the king’s hand became paralyzed in that position, and he couldn’t pull it back.  At the same time a wide crack appeared in the altar, and the ashes poured out, just as the man of God had predicted in his message from the Lord.  The king cried out to the man of God, “Please ask the Lord your God to restore my hand again!”  So the man of God prayed to the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and he could move it again.

2 Kings 22:1-13

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years…  He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of his ancestor David.  He did not turn away from doing what was right.  In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshullam, the sourt secretary, to the Temple of the Lord.  He told him, “Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money the gatekeepers have collected from the people at the Lord’s Temple.  Entrust this money to the men assigned to supervise the Temple’s restoration.  Then they can use it to pay workers to repair the Temple of the Lord.  They will need to hire carpenters, builders, and masons.  Also have them buy the timber and the finished stone needed to repair the Temple…”  Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the court secretary “I have found the Book of the Law in the Lord’s Temple!”  Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan, and he read it.  Shaphan went to the king and reported, “Your officials have turned over the money collected at the Temple of the Lord to the workers and supervisors at the Temple.”  Shaphan also told theking, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” So Shaphan read it to the king.  When the king heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair.  Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaah the king’s personal adviser: “Go to the temple and speak to the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah.  Inquire about the words wrtten in this scroll that has been found.  For the Lord’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll.  We have not been doing everything it says we must do.”

Some observations from Josiah’s life…

l. Josiah knew what he wanted and was unyielding

2.  There was a prophetic calling on his life from a very young age.

3.  He got started young.

Malachi 4:5-6

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.  He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

How can we have fun with the kids God’s brought us?

1. Pray for our kids groups and the kids in them.

2. Notice the kids God brings across your path.

3. Dip your toe into working with kids.

Song of Songs 8:6-7

Love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyieldingas the grave.  It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.  Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.  If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

The surprising starting point to finding the romantic love you need:

God is romancing us everyday all the time

Isaiah 62:5

Like a young man taking a virgin as his bride, He who formed you will marry you.  As a groom is delighted with his bride, so your God will delight in you.

Song of Songs 2:3-4

He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.

Step one to finding the romantic love you need:

Praise God that you’re his favorite

Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Step two to finding the romantic love you need:

Wait for it.

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

Step three to finding the romantic love you need:

Start loving your spouse NOW.

Proverbs 31:10-12

A wife of noble character who can find?  She is worth far more than rubies.  Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.  She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

John 8:3-11

As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery.  They put her in front of the crowd.  “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  The law of Moses says to stone her.  What do you say?”  They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger.  They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”  Then he stooped down again and wrote n the dust.  When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman.  Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, “Where are your accusers?  Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”  “No, Lord,” she said.  And Jesus said, “Neither do I.  Go and sin no more.”

Some sex Advice from the Bible:

1. Take sharp measures to stay free from sexual sin.

1 Corinthians 6:13, 16-20

Our bodies were not made for sexual immorality.  They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies… And don’t you know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her?  For the scriptures say, “The two are united into one.”  But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.  Run away from sexual sin!  No other sin so clearly affect the body as this one does.  For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body.  Or don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?  You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price.  So you must honor God with your body.

Matthew 5:27-30

You have heard that the law of Moses says, ‘Do not commit adultery.’  But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  So if your eye even if it is your good eye causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your hand even your stronger hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Proverbs 6:25-28

Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.  For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread, but another man’s wife preys on your very life.  Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?  Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?

2. Whether you are single or married, consider it a gift to be enjoyed and thankful for.

1 Corinthians 7:1-4, 7

Now regarding the questions you asked in your letter.  Yes, it is good to live a celibate life.  But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife , and each woman her own husband.  The husband shall fulfill his wife’s sexual needs, and the wife should fulfill her husband’s needs.  The wife gives authority over her body to her husband, and the husband gives authority over his body to his wife… But I wish everyone were single, just as I am.  But God gives to some the gift of marriage, and to others the gift of singleness.

Romans 12:1-2, 12

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God.  Let them be a living and holy sacrifice– the kind he will accept.  When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?  Don’t copy the behavior and the customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.  Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will realy is….  Be glad for all God is planning for you.

1Corinthians 10:13

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience.  And God is faithful.  He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand.  When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

3.  Get forgiveness from God for anything you’re in conflict about from your sexual past (or present)

James 5:16

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The earnest prayer of a righteous person power and produces wonderful results.

1 John 1:9

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Sunday February 6, 2011

First in the series: What relational people know

Romans 12: 9-18

Don’t just pretend that you love others.  Really love them. …Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other. … Be glad for all God is planning for you.  Be patient in trouble, and always be prayerful.  When God’s children are in need, be the one to help them out.  And get into the habit of inviting guests home for dinner or, if they need lodging, for the night. …  When others are happy, be happy with them.  If they are sad, share their sorrow.  Live in harmony with each other.  Don’t try to act important, but enjoy the  company of ordinary people.  And don’t think you know it all!.. Do your part to live in peace with everyone, as much as possible.

Romans 15:7

So accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified.

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 1:22

Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News.  So to see it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts.

Affection is the humblest love.  It lives with humble, private things; soft slippers, old clothes, old jokes, the thump of a sleepy dog’s tail on the kitchen floor, the sound of a sewing machine… Affection, besides being a love itself, can enter into the other loves and color them all through and become the very medium in which from day to day they operate.  They would not perhaps wear very well with out it.  To make a friend is not the same as to become affectionate.  But when your friend has become an old friend, all those things about him which originally had nothing to do with friendship become familiar and dear with familiarity.  As for erotic love, I can imaging nothing more disagreeable than to experience it for more than a very short time without this homespun clothing of affection… (where) the mere ease and ordinariness of the relationship wraps us round.  No need to talk.  No need to make love.  No needs to accept perhaps to stir the fire…  Friends and lovers feel that they were “made for one another.” The especial glory of affection is that it can unite those who most emphatically, even comically, are not; people who, if they had not found themselves put down by fate in the same household or community would have had nothing to do with each other.  If affection grows out of this, their eyes begin to open.  Growing fond of “old so and so,” at first simply because he happens to be there, I presently begin to see that there is “something in him” after all. (CS Lewis Lewis, The Four Loves, pp 34-36)

How affection seems to operate:

1) Affection celebrates who people actually are.

2) Affection extends God’s profound acceptance.

3) Affection helps us move past our sins.

Ask yourself:

1) Do I seem to help people helps us move past our sins.

How can I experience this lasting affection?

1)  THINK: How can I honor this person?

2) Say hi and introduce yourself.

3) Find an inspiring, godly group and then don’t go anywhere

4) Invite people over.

5) make lots of small gestures (like remembering birthdays and praising people in public)

Sunday January 30, 2011

Last in the series: Don’t spend your life, invest your life!1

Genesis 1:11-12, 20-22, 24-26, 29

Then God said, “Let the land burst forth with every sort of grass and seed-bearing plant.  And let there be trees that grow seed-bearing fruit.  The seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And so it was.  The land was filled with seed-bearing plants and trees,  and their seeds produced plants and trees of like kind.  And God saw that it was good.  And God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.”  So God created great sea creatures and every sort of fish and every kind of bird.  and God saw that it was good.    Then God blessed them, saying, “Let the fish multiply and fill the oceans.  Let the birds increase and fill the earth.” …And God said, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of animal — livestock, small animals, and wildlife.”  And so it was.  God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to reproduce more of it’s own kind.  And God saw that it was good.  Then God said, “Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves.”  male and female he created them.  God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”

Mark 4:14-20

The farmer I talked about is the one who brings God’s message to others.  The seed that fell on the hard path represents those who hear the message, but then Satan comes at once and takes it away from them.  The rocky soil represents those who hear the message and recieve it with joy.  But like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep.  At first they get along fine, but the wilt as soon as they have problems or are persecuted because they believe the word.  The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the Good News, but all to quickly the message is crowded out by the cares of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for nice things, so no crop is produced.  But the good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s message and produce a huge harvest — thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted.”

The way you’ll know if you’re good soil:

If you reproduce this seed of God’s message in others.

Habakkuk 2:14

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Another way to phrase “multiply yourself”:

Find one or two people you can love and develop for Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:1-2

You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well.

The surprising insight is that multiplication:

Isn’t so much doing things, as it is investing in people.

Luke 10:1-3, 17-19, 21, 23-24

The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them on ahead in pairs to all the towns and villages he planned to visit.  These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few.  Pray to the lord who is in charge of the harvest, and ask him to send out more workers for his fields. When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully  reported to him, “Lord, evven the demons obey us when we use your name!” “Yes” he told them, “I saw Satan falling from heaven as a flash of lighning! And I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy.” Then Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and said, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike… Then when they were alone, he turned to the disciples and said. “How privileged you are to see what you have seen.  I tell you, many prophets and kings have longed to see and hear what you have seen and heard, but they could not.”

How can you get started?

1. Overcome your fears and self-doubts.

2. Take the initiative!

3. Share and encourage what you do know.

4. Ask God for help to choose people who will teach others.

5. Laugh, celebrate and share your triumphs.