Inland Empire: Riverside
Imitator or Innovator - Audio
(audience laughing) Good morning and Happy New Year. All right, you gotta open up your minds and your hearts and imagine the guide is coming down to you and he's got a question. But he says in 2012, I will grant you one wish. It can be as expansive as you want it to be. It could be as simple or straightforward as you want it to be. You know what goals and dreams have you come into this year with? You know, right now your mind is thinking, what would I pick? I can only ask for one thing. What do I want? What do I want more than anything? You know, for me, there's times, first thing I think of is I want my oldest son back in the kingdom of God. If you've had trouble with a certain part of your ministry, maybe you think, I want this section on track. Turn over to 2nd Kings chapter two. Elijah was in the unique position where he got the opportunity to answer this exact question. Elijah was about to be taken away from him. He was going to be going up to heaven and it's chariot and a fire. And in verse nine of chapter two, this is when they crossed Elijah said to Elijah, tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you? Of all the goals you have for your ministry, your life, your family, like what is it? Tell me, you only get one. What's the one thing you want? Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit. Elijah had the opportunity to pick anything he wanted and the thing he chose. He said, I want twice who you are. That's what I want. How would you have answered that question? What was most on your heart as you think about 2012? Was it the same answer Elijah gave? Got a question for you this morning. Why do you do what you do as a minister? I don't mean so much your motivation. I mean more the practical implementation of ministry. Why do you do what you do? They don't want us prepping this lesson. I said down and I made just a quick list of why I do what I do. I learned how to love the lost religious people from Ron Quinn, study the Bible and baptizing me in 1988. I learned from Ashley Hawkenberry, the campus minister, how to ask the right questions in a Bible study, not to get agreement, but to draw the heart out. I learned from Mark Manstein, how to have a four-month ministry calendar and stick to it and don't be changing the plan on two days' notice. I learned from Dave Eastman how to prepare a sermon. How to use humor, how to change your voice, how to speed up, how to use silence, how to use humor. I learned from Steve Sandin how to study the Bible for personal impact. I learned from Marty Fuqua. When you preach to the campus, be direct. They don't need fancy. They need direct. (audience laughing) I learned family devotionals are a time to inspire your kids about God and it's not this week's sermon of what mom and dad think the kids aren't doing right. I learned from Bruce, how to be faithful when your kid falls away and I'm still trying to keep learning. I learned from Jay Sugarman how to give people the benefit of the doubt on all occasions. And I learned from Ron Quinn that when you're working with your teenage kids, the goal is not to win the argument, but to influence their heart and their life. Why do you do what you do? And maybe the more important question is why do the people you lead think you do? What you do? This morning we're gonna talk about the concept of imitation and the lesson title is are you an imitator or an innovator? The imitation used to be talked about all the time. Yes, some of us have a bad sour taste in our mouth about imitation and I wanna tell you a story about one of my old basketball coaches. When he was in college, he was on a Pan American team and so all these college basketball players got to tour around South America. Well, no one on their team spoke Spanish or Portuguese and their coach was a strict Catholic. And so every Sunday morning it didn't matter what city they were in, it didn't matter what time their game was, the coach brought the entire basketball team in uniform to mass. Of course, nobody on the team spoke the language. And he said on one particular Sunday, it was jam packed, they don't know if there was a special service going on but it was packed and the only seats available was the entire second row was open. In the front row, there was one guy. And so not being Catholic, they didn't know what to do and so when the guy in front stood up, they stood up when the guy in front kneeled, they knelt. About two thirds of the way through the service, the guy in front stood up so they all stood up and the audience erupted in laughter. They turned around to find out that they were the only one standing. Somebody who spoke English in the row behind them said, the priest just announced the birth of a new baby boy and asked the father to stand up. (audience laughing) You know, so much, that's how we feel about imitation. You know, I'm just a brainless robot and I'm doing what I'm told and then I stood up and everyone's laughing at me and now, ooh, I don't wanna go there anymore. You know, we used to talk about imitation all the time and a lot of leaders were raised up. A lot of Bible talk leaders were raised up. A lot of evangelists and women's ministry leaders were raised up. We don't talk about it much anymore. You know what, the businesses haven't stopped. If you get a job in the business industry, they do not hire you out of college and go, all right, here's why I hired you. I want you to just go figure it out on your own. Whatever way you come up with doing it, you're gonna get points for creativity and invent your own way. They put you through a strict training regimen and you've got a manager and he trains you and he says, here's exactly the way I want you to do this job. They're not interested in your opinions and what your degree was. They say imitate, do what I do. Just surgeons, they learn by imitation. And aren't you thankful that a surgeon isn't getting his, I don't know what you call it, surgeon fellowship, and they just go out there and say, hey, just invent a new way of doing this. Here's your first patient. No, you study under somebody else and you learn what they do. Professional athletes, they have coaches. The best athletes in the world are trained to imitate. That world still has this song straight. They haven't departed from it. What about you in your life and in your leadership? Yeah, every once in a while I speak to the sisters, sometimes formally, sometimes informally, but I ask the campus and the single ones, I go, you know, are you a good cook? You should be. I said it'll help you get married 'cause a guy wants to know what he's gonna be eating if he marries you. (audience laughing) But you know what I tell the ones that go, no, I'm a lousy cook and I go, you know what your problem is? You're a rebellious and don't follow directions. Because being a good cook is a matter of imitation. It is a matter of following a recipe. Now, there are levels of good cook. I mean, we're not talking about like iron chef where you just take a bunch of stuff and make this extravagant thing, but following a recipe is just imitation. If you're a good cook, you probably learned it from somebody else. Got a ministry question for you right now. Person who disciples you, God took them away. Could you step in and do their job exactly as good as they do it? If you imitate, you could. If God took you away, they have all kinds of men and women waiting in the wings that can step in and do your job. If they imitate, they can. Point number one, imitation is the heart of Jesus. Let's do a quick Bible study on the Lord. John chapter 12. (audience chattering) John chapter 12. Listen to what Jesus wanted to make sure his disciples heard, verse 49 and 50. He says, "For I did not speak in my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say. Jesus wanted him to know, "Hey, I'm not inventing these sermons. I didn't come up with it. It wasn't some great brain show that I had. You know what I'm telling you? What God told me to say and you know what? When I tell you, I'm saying it just the way He told me to say it. He gave all the credit. He goes, "I didn't do it on my own. I'm just imitating." Go a little further in chapter 14. Chapter 14, verse 28, to verse 31. You heard me say, "I'm going away and I'm coming back to you. If you love me, you'd be glad that I'm going to the Father for the Father is greater than I. I've told you now before it happens so that when it does happen, you will believe. I will not speak with you much longer for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me. But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me." Come now, let us leave. Man, it was a point of emphasis to the disciples. He said, "You need to know that what I do, I didn't come up with this. I'm doing what the Father told me to do." One more passage on this in John 15, verse 9 to 13, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey in my commands, you will remain in my love just as I've obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love." I've told you this and then my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. My command of this, "Love each other as I have loved you." Greater love has known in this that he laid down his life for his friends. He said, "You know what, even the way that I love you, you know where I learned it? I learned it from how the Father loved me." So all the love I show you is just your reflection of the love the Father showed me. Jesus wanted his disciples to know where he learned, why he did, why he said, all the things that he did. Individualism is so prized in our society, but it is not the heart of Jesus. It is the exact opposite of what he tried to communicate. You think of what we give awards for. It's novel thoughts, novel inventions. It's the new way of doing it. It's the new plan. You don't remember when my kids were young. I went to grad school in physical chemistry and I remember once when the kids get old enough to start really trying to figure things out and they go, "Dad, okay, you studied chemistry, but what was the thing that you learned?" Like you wrote a paper, mom said you wrote a paper, like, "What was the title of it?" And I remember we were sitting at the kitchen table and I said, "You really want to know the title?" And they go, "Yeah." Said, "Charge transfer photo dissociation of H.C.L.H.B.R.H.I. on a silver 111 surface." (audience laughing) Yeah. I kid you not, the kids paused for like five seconds and both of them burst out laughing and said, "Damn, who cares about that?" (audience laughing) (audience laughing) You know what, there was a moment in my life where I cared about it and I took a lot of pride. Then I was one of the world's foremost experts on this subject. The professor I worked for won the Nobel Prize. I mean, I'm connected, it's awesome. We're doing cranking research and man, I wrote this paper. (audience laughing) And Michael and Luke laughed at me and said, "Who cares about that anyway?" You know, the fact of the matter is, it's so true. There's a saying in grad school that the farther you go, the more you know about less and less and so you know everything about nothing. (audience laughing) You know what, some of us have taken that same approach in our ministries and we have taken it upon ourselves and become experts in an area. We want to be innovators in an area. And you know what our people are doing? They're shaking their heads going. Who cares about that anyway? Yeah, I believe too many of us have focused on being an innovator and have let go of the heart of Jesus of being an imitator. Imitation is the heart of Jesus. All you think, how do your people view you? What do you want to be known for? Second point, imitation is expected. Go to 1st Corinthians 4. Yup, 1st Corinthians 4. I love this passage because the point that is illustrated is just fantastic and look at what Paul says. 1st Corinthians 4 starting in verse 14. He says, "I'm not writing this to shame you, "but to warn you as my dear children. "Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, "you do not have many fathers. "For in Christ Jesus, I became your father "through the gospel. "Therefore I urge you to imitate me "and what's shocking is the next thing he says. "Therefore, I'm gonna send you Timothy, "my son who my love, who's faithful in the Lord. "He'll remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, "which agrees with what I teach everywhere "in every church. "He's saying, man, I'm your dad in Christ. "You're my kids, I love you. "You need to imitate me and what you think "he's gonna say is, so I'm gonna come to you "so you can watch me. "What he says is basically, I'm busy, "but I'm gonna send you Timothy "because he is so much like me that I can send him "and if you imitate him, you'll be imitating me. "If the person who disciples you was too busy, "would they send you in their place confident "that who you are and what you say "would be a carbon copy of how they minister. "Do you expect imitation? "Yeah, we love the benefits of imitation. "My wife learned how to be a wife "from Connie Mancini and Kathy Eastman. "She didn't invent lifehood. (audience laughs) "She imitated two great wives "and I was the benefit, I loved all that training. "You know, I remember when Bruce started focusing "with the region leaders on baptisms and growth "and then once started focusing on it with the staff, "the harvest list and we're talking about it all the time "and I was like, you know, when he was sharing, "you know, this is what Bruce is talking us about." I was like, you know, this is awesome 'cause you know, Bruce is talking to Ron and he's talking to us and said, "Then we leave more focused on it. "We talk to our people and I go, "this is the way ministry ought to be." So, do you expect it of yourself? Do you expect it of those you lead? When's the last time somebody came up to you in fellowship and said, you know what, when you did this, when you said this, the way you handled this situation, it reminded me of this person and it was a person who had trained you. I'm not talking about coup incidental reminding. I'm talking about stuff that had been ingrained. You know, are you fired up? If somebody says that, or do you resent it? Hey, I'm a old person. Come on, give me some credit. I'll be in the ministry for two decades. Give me some credit. What was Jesus' goal? Go to John 14. John 14, look at what Jesus' goal was in starting in verse five. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. So how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes, the Father accepts you me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, don't you know me, Philip? Even after I've been among you such a long time, anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show us the Father? Don't you believe that I'm in the Father and the Father's in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it's the Father living in me doing his work. Believe me when I say that I'm in the Father and the Father's in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles himself. I tell the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I've been doing. He will do even greater things in these because I'm going to Father. Jesus got upset because disciples weren't getting the point. They were missing the imitation. Jesus kept going after it again and again and again and they're like, oh, hey, that's cool. Hey, show us the Father. You mean show us the Father. I've been showing you the Father the whole time I'm with you. You're not paying attention. You're missing the lessons. (mumbling) Yeah, the disciples kept saying, man, Jesus, you're just so awesome and he kept stopping him going, no, God is awesome. I'm just imitating. Do we want to give the credit or take the credit? Jesus wanted God to have all the credit. In 1 Corinthians 11, verse one, Paul says, follow my example as I follow the example of Christ. Do you expect imitation of those you leave? We're not talking about in theory. When's the last time you had appointed eye-to-eye man-to-man woman-to-woman conversation where you said these words, you did not do it the way I told you to do it. You don't want it. There's the theory of what we expect and then there's the real living. You know, sometimes we don't expect our people to follow our example 'cause deep down, we know we're not doing a good job. Wow, then you better just quit right now. I'm just kidding. No, you need to repent right now. And be imitatable! If there's an area where you have to lunch on, if you've got some glaring weakness in your life, your marriage, your finances, whatever it may be, just repent, don't make it difficult. You know what you can model is how to repent. It's one of the most important things we can teach our people is how to repent. If we're going to be a good leader, if we're going to train people for the ministry, if we're going to multiply, we cannot hesitate to call people to imitate our example. Three core needs for imitation. Number one, a good example to follow. Kind of what we're talking about there. Verse Timothy 4 says, "Set an example for the believers." I've heard Marty Fuqua say so many times, as the minister, you don't have to be the best in every area, but you better not be the worst. Because if you've got any glaring weaknesses, they're not going to want to follow you. You've got to have a good, imitatable life. Point number two of three core needs for imitation. You need to be a good example of an imitator. It needs to be observable. They need to hear about it all the time. Imitation doesn't work through osmosis. They don't observe what you're thinking. Give credit at every opportunity. Say, I learned this from this person. I've been trained in this area. I was taught to do this from this brother. Use every opportunity to give credit for where you learned and where you were trained. In the third name, you've got to have courage to call people to imitate you. It can be a scary talk. It can feel wrong at times. Like, oh, you know, is God in control if I'm telling him to imitate me? Yeah, it's a Bible principle, but it takes courage. And if we get afraid to call people to imitate, we break the chain, the plan and the heart of Jesus to mold people into his image and to raise up leadership. You have the courage. Finally, I want to close with four blocks, road blocks, to imitation. Number one, biggest one, pride. Or you can just write down, my way is better. I remember as a young minister sitting in a staff meeting thinking, "God puts me in charge. I will not be leading this way." I don't really like the style. I kind of find it offensive. And my way is better. Now, let me tell you what my way was. I was going to be the great encourager. I, you know, conflict avoider, so this whole rebuking thing was totally unnecessary and made people feel uncomfortable. And I was going to be the most loving, the nicest, most encouraging leader the king of God had ever seen. And it was cranking right along. You know, every like thing people go, "You are like my favorite person and you're so nice and you're so encouraging." But the same pattern kept reappearing again and again and again. No one would repent of sin. So I would be extra encouraging. That's it. I'm not encouraging enough. And it wasn't until I got convicted of my pride that things changed. Now, I remember the talk said, "Your pride is ruining your ministry." Jesus rebuked, Moses rebuked. We're supposed to use the word of God for it to correct and rebuke. And you're not leading like Jesus if you're not willing to do it. And I remember when I repented, I did Bible studies on Moses and I watched how he led and all those different interactions. And I studied out Jesus and all the way he led. I even read a bunch of books on Patton and Napoleon. I go, "No, I know they weren't righteous, but they were good leaders." Because I was like, "I need some of this. I'm a conflict avoider, so I need some of that." And you know what? Not only did people like me, they started respecting me and they repented of sin. And you know what I found myself doing? Going, "Wow." The example has been right in front of me, leading my ministry the whole time I was sitting there, you know, in my heart shaking my head going, "Ah, my way's better." My pride was a massive roadblock. It's an imitation. Second roadblock. Faithlessness. Saying what way? Do you or don't you believe that God has arranged the parts of the body exactly as he wants them to be? You know, we have no problem believing that. Unless we're in a situation we don't like. When's the last time you ever wondered if God did the arranging, when it didn't affect you in a way that you perceive negatively? You're like, "Oh, yeah, God's in control." And then something happens, you're like, "Oh, man. You know, who made this decision? What were they thinking?" You know, I've learned in all my years of Christianity is that in every discipling situation I've been, God has many things for me to learn. I've also seen myself to be initially negative and critical towards things that I perceived as weaknesses only months and years later to figure out that what I thought they were weak in was a strength and I was absolutely out to lunch. And if I just trust in God with my life situation, then I'm freed up to imitate in all places where God puts me. Third, laziness. Hebrew 612 says, "We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate. Imitation is hard work. It must be purposeful. It never just happens." You've got to think about it. You've got to pray about it. You've got to have a plan of how you're going to do it. I remember certain counseling appointments where when you're a conflict divider and you know somebody needs a rebuke, you're just not sure how to do it. And I remember, you know, calling Dave Eastman, go, bro. Okay, here's the situation. Here's what's happened and I'm about to sit down with them. Okay, now tell me exactly what you'd say it and just say it exactly the way that I need to say it. And then I would go in that appointment and I would do my very best to imitate exactly what he said. You know what, there's times it felt so weird. At times it felt fake. You know what, when you feel fake, that can actually be a really encouraging thing because what it tells you is you're not being yourself. So if you're trying to change, feeling different is good. Because if you don't feel different, there's a good reason for that. You're not any different. You know, if you're sitting at a staff meeting, it's going out of the way afterwards to say, "Hey, bro, you made this decision in this situation. If I was leading, I was thinking this." Now tell me why you made this decision and that you would think differently than this. I just want to put my heart and my brain out there because I understand the thought process behind. Lots of great conversation because that way you take that extra energy to fully understand why they're doing what they're doing and why they're thinking because, you know, God willing, all of us is going to raise up to do the jobs, you know, of that many people of the person who's discipling you. But if we're lazy and we just want to wing it, we're not going to imitate anything. Finally, point number four, and listen carefully on this one because the wording can be confusing, but you'll get it. The fourth roadblock to imitation is your people's imitation of your lack of imitation. You need to hear that one again? Your people's imitation of your lack of imitation. You know what, in the least imitating ministry, there is one thing that they will imitate. You don't have to preach on the subject, you don't have to address it, you don't have to have a Bible series on it, and I promise you, they will imitate it. If you don't imitate personally, they will run to the bank without one. And sometimes we're sitting there going, "I don't know what's going on with my people, they don't have my heart, they don't do it the way I do it, they don't seem to even want to do it the way I do it." They're acting like they think they have a better way. Sometimes we need to just say, "You guys are doing an awesome job imitating. I just haven't imitated." What's the example that you have in front of your people? Maybe they're doing exactly what you've taught them to do. Imitation starts with us. Paul had confidence to say, "Follow my example." As I followed the example of Christ, how many of us can just stand in front of a pulpit and go, "I am so much like Christ, just do what I do." You're like, "But don't fellowship my wife." I preached last night at midweek and were talking about 2012 being a year of radical personal change. And I said, "Here's the one thing I'm going after." "Just being an angry man, being a grumpy guy." I said, "You know my wife told me over Christmas break, you're becoming a grumpy old man." Yeah, she said that. And I actually had a really grumpy response to her when she told me that. But now I'm repenting, but I thought it was kind of funny. Because Cheryl is standing next to me in the fellowship afterwards, and like three people came up and go, "Bro, I just can't ever imagine you being grumpy." And Cheryl's like, "Uh-huh." And they're like, "Oh, I don't believe it." And I'm like, "Yeah, it's true." We need to be great imitators. Got a little section. As we talk about what your response is going to be, I want to tell you a story about my niece and nephew. Brooke and Adam. Brooke is 11, and Adam is 9. And kids of my twin brother, he's a disciple in our ministry. And Mike shared the story with me. He said they're having a family devotional, and they're going through a number of the proverbs. And he was teaching the kids, and they looked at the proverb where it says, "He who answers before listening, that is his folly." And he said, "Bro, what do you think that passage means?" Then she said, "Well, if somebody's talking, and you interrupt them and speak, before they're finished, then that's wrong." It's like Brooke, that's excellent, good job. Hey Adam, what do you think that passage means? And he paused, and he goes, "Hey Dad, guess what?" "Folly rhymes with Wally." He said, "Well, that's true, but what does that have to do with the passage? Nothing!" And you know what, some of us right now are listening to this lesson, and you know what we're saying? "Hey, Folly rhymes with Wally." Now the point of the lesson on imitation is to imitate. It's not to leave with the theory of imitation in your brain. What decision will you make? What decision have you made? The future of a multiplying ministry depends upon that answer. You know what, you do have a choice. If you don't want to grow your ministry, and you want to just stay the same size, you know, add a baptism here or there every once in a while, if you just kind of want to maintain and eke out an existence, then you don't have to imitate. You can just keep doing what you're doing, because you've already achieved that. But if you want to grow personally, if you want to raise up leaders, if you want to multiply your ministry, we must grab hold of the heart of Jesus. You know, the heart of Jesus doesn't need an upgrade. Version 1.0 is still perfect. Let's not try and improve on it. You know, you hear this every once in a while. Well, if we just all focus on imitation, then, you know, we're just going to become a brainless robot, and we're all going to be alike. First of all, I'm an identical twin. So I share DNA with somebody else, and I can assure you, we are not brainless robots. We are very much different, even though we look so much alike, my wife's even kissed him twice on the lips. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You see, and that's one of the differences between Mike and I, is because people say, has Robin ever tried to kiss you? And I said, if she did, I'd say that's gross. Get away. Yes, and so that's the difference between Mike and I. He let her kiss him first and then said, "Hey, do you want a really big kiss next time?" She's like, "Oh, sorry." Let me assure you of this. If everyone devoted ourselves with every ounce of energy for every hour of the rest of our life, the last thing this group ever has to worry about is becoming a bunch of brainless robots. So let's not put that excuse out there on the table or entertain it in your heart. Let's just leave it alone. We're never too old to imitate. In fact, what's more impacting for our churches, the older we are, to see us still imitating. I can say in Santa Clarita, one of our biggest problems is the married group being willing to imitate and lead, because they all feel like I've been Christians for so long. I don't need that. I don't need training. And we're not raising up leaders the way we need to. It's a problem in our ministries. We can model that example. Imitation is needed. I want you to imagine. What if there were ten Marty Fuquets in your ministry? We'd have a lot of exciting sayings if we did. Ten of them. Well, if there were ten Chris Tangs, or ten Steve Landesberries, or ten Alberts, or ten whoever is your favorite minister in your ministry, you'd go, "Wow, what can we do if we had ten of them in my leadership group of my ministry?" Yeah, as we close out this lesson, let me tell you. We're asking the wrong question. If we imitate what we're saying is, what if we had ten Jesuses? What can we do? If we imitate, that's exactly where we will be. Let's have the heart of Jesus. Let's be an imitator, and not an innovator. Amen. (Applause)
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