From Small group meeting to Disciple-Making

 

  • Commitment Part 1 5 Jan
  • Commitment Part 2 12Jan
  • Character 19 Jan
  • Calling 9 Feb
  • Charisma 16 Feb
  • Competency 23 Feb
  • Christ-Likeness 1 Mar

 

Competency 23rd Feb 2020

  • Competence is define as the ability to do something successfully or efficiently.
  • The two extremes:
  • God accepts me as I am so there is no need to improve (e.g. make a joyful noise, many of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen; men without qualification, etc.)
  • God deserves only our best and so only the best gets to serve Him.
  • Competent people in the Bible:
  • David was a great worship leader because he was competent musician.
  • Daniel was competent and was put in charge of the entire kingdom.
  • Joshua was a competent leader and it was greatly demonstrated when he ordered his men to march round Jericho in silence for seven days.
  • Joseph was a competent manager and was put in charge of managing the resources of Egypt as the second highest in rank.
  • Paul was competent in the Torah and other Old Testament books
  • What about incompetent people?
  • Some of us have watch the show X-Factor Audition, it is amazing to see some of the incompetent singers but yet, they do not know it.
  • It is interesting to note that most competent people often felt incompetent and the incompetent people think they are competent.
  • Incompetent people often do not know about their incompetence.
  • Based on a research by David A. Dunning of Cornell University, it reports that people who are incompetent are more confident of their abilities than competent people.
  • Quote: “Not only do incompetent people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.” Krueger writes in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
  • Aren’t you glad that we all never felt competent in the things we do except to trust in the Lord.
  • 2 Corinthians 3:5(NKJV) Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
  • Sufficiency (Lexicon :: Strong’s G2426 – hikanotēs): Ability or competency to do a thing.
  • To recognize our competency requires us to be competent enough to recognize it.
  • How can we increase our level of competence? This is where we want to studt the life of the Apostle Paul.

 

Roadmap – How can we increase our level of competence?

  1. Perfecting our strength.
  2. Pushing on forward.
  3. Pass it on.

 

  1. Perfecting our strength.
  • 2 Corinthians 12:9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
  • This verse is meant to be both reminding us that it is all about God Who gives us the ability or competency to achieve everything; yet it is also to inspire us that we need to keep growing in strength through the Holy Spirit. That is the power of Christ.
  • Saul was his name before it was changed to Paul.

 

  • How to perfect our strength?
  1. Keep growing:
  • Before Christ:
  • Whether it is his birth status, his profession, and his religious affiliation and his zeal, he is top amongst the top.
  • Philippians 3:4-6 4though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, ofthe tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
  • Acts 22:3 Trained under the school of Gamaliel, Jerusalem.
  • Acts 8:1-3; Phil 3:6 Persecutor of the church.
  • Acts 9:1-9 Conversion on the Road to Damascus.
  • Acts 9:17-20 17And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. 19So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. 20Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.
  • Immediately, implies after three years.
  • After conversion Paul he spent some days…How long is this “some days?
  • In Galatians 1:15-19 is three years.
  • Galatians 1:15-19 15But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days. 19But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.
  • Paul did not stop growing…
  • Acts 9:22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesusis the Christ.
  • Questions to ask ourselves: Is my faith growing more and more? Is my love increasing more and more? Am I growing in my love for God? Do I have a burden for souls? Etc.
  • Three rules in a Christian life – Take 15 minutes each day to listen to God; take 15 minutes each day to talk to God; take 15 minutes each day to talk to others about God.”
  1. Be accountable:
  • Accountability seems to be a remote thing this era and yet we know accountability is so crucial.
  • Why do we need to be accountable? One main reason is we are all part of the body of Christ.
  • Romans 12:3-6 3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.
  • Even Paul after his Missionary journey, would go back to Jerusalem and give a report.
  • Acts 14:26-27 26From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. 27Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
  • What we expect, we need to inspect.
  • Holding each other accountable is very crucial. If we want to grow, be accountable.

 

  1. Pushing on forward.
  • There is no such thing as maintain our faith. It is either we are growing or stagnating, worst backsliding.
  • Stagnation and backsliding is synonymous, both leads to incompetence.
  • Stagnation is not about doing nothing, it is doing the same thing, the same way, the same place, with the people all the time. It is time to move on to something new, and it starts here today – Now!
  • We will encounter challenges.
  • Philippians 3:12-1412Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:22-28 Consider Paul:

He worked harder than many others.

  • He served more prison sentences.
  • He had been beaten many times and uncountable.
  • He faced death very often.
  • He had been beaten, thirty-nine stripes by the Jews five times and beaten with rods three times.
  • He has been stoned once.
  • Shipwrecked three times.
  • Spent twenty-four hours in the open sea.
  • Paul’s life was in constant danger from bandits, from his own fellow Jews, false Christians, and from pagans.
  • Yet Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 4:8-11 We arehard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed — 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
  • Growing in competency requires perseverance.
  • The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Lao Tzu.

 

  1. Pass it on.
  • We will grow in competence as we transite from learning our strengths and gifts to sharing them and teaching others.
  • 1 Corinthians 4: 14-17 14I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
  • Today’s Success if not improved upon, will be become tomorrow’s failure. Success without a successor is failure – Lester Sumrall.
  • Encourage all of us to read and meditate on the Book of Proverbs one chapter a day.