Learning Excellence Through Pressure - Pt.2

[Music] I've been teaching on excellence from the second week of the year and last week I couldn't complete what I was working on so I am doing part two of my message learning excellence through pressure learning excellence through pressure most of the time pressure is viewed very negatively we don't want to be apart to be under pressure there is a place for managing pressure and stress on our lives so we don't get overstressed but I'm focusing on the positive benefits of being under pressure because many times people are so much against pressure when you talk to them they will say things that don't give me pressure no stress please please no stress don't pressure me but there is a way that pressure is an important requirement for our success in life and that is what I am focusing on so I'm going to review some of the things I said last week and then go on to some things for this week so Philippians chapter 3 is what I uncaught my message on last week Philippians 3 verse 12 to verse 14 the Apostle Paul is telling us what I consider his Drive in life what drives him it's basically his personal philosophy on why he was able to do what he accomplished he says not that I have already attained or I'm already perfected but I press on that I may lay hold that for which Christ Jesus also has laid hold of me brethren I do not count myself to have apprehended by one thing I do forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things that I I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus twice in this passage the Apostle Paul uses the word press in verse 12 he says I press on in verse 14 he says I press toward the idea of the word press is where we get the concept of pressure pressure comes from pressing in both instances where Paul uses the word press in the Bible if you check from the lemma of the Greek that is the root word that he is using it is from the Greek word do Co and do Co means to press pursue or persecute as a matter of fact it is translated more as persecute in the New Testament than even pursuit or press persecute do Co it means to suffer hardship under intense pressure so when Paul says I press on he is not simply meaning I am moving on or I go on in what he's saying is I put myself under intense pressure to move on if he doesn't do that he wouldn't move on in other words moving on requires intense pressure it inquires requires a lot of effort to move on and we said that pressure moves us out of inertia inertia is in a state where nothing is happening nothing is moving all things are still unstable and we quoted the physical laws that indicate that we need pressure and I quoted from Newton's first law of motion which simply says that an object in a state of inertia or in a state of nothing will remain at rest or if it is moving it will remain at a constant velocity or speed unless pressure or force is applied if you want your life to move on you need pressure something should force you out some things you push you out and I pray that God will do that nicely for you that you allow something to come and drive you from a state of standing in the same place or just moving at a slow consistent pace we need pressure to move on and we need pressure to help us see what is in us to strengthen us to sharpen us and to stretch us for today I'm going to start by using God's instruction for how the tabernacle was to be lighted as a metaphor for dealing with the concept of pressure in achieving results in our lives please turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus chapter 27 Exodus chapter 27 this is the instruction God gave Israel on how to light up the tabernacle now for those of you who may not be very familiar when the people of Israel were in the wilderness they lived in a tent and that tent are all God's dwelling place was in a tent and that tent was called the tabernacle and the tabernacle had to be lighted and God gave instruction on how to light up the tabernacle although the instruction is not about human beings I'm going to take that and use it and apply it to our lives Exodus chapter 27 verse 20 you shall command children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed grapes of pressed olive sorry for the light to cause the lamb to burn continually you shall command the children of Israel that they bring the pure oil of praised olives for the light to cause the lamp to burn continually now normally I preach from the New King James Version of the Bible but if you look at the old King James Version of the Bible this is how it is rendered and thou shalt command the children of Israel excuse me thou shall command the children of Israel now they bring the pure oil olive beating for the land for the light to cause a lamp to burn continuously you will see that in the King James Version the word pres is rendered as beating pres is beating now I'm going to take this instruction that God gave Israel on how to produce oil for the light to apply to your life to see how God also wants to produce light out of your life there are four main ideas I want to point out based on the passage we have read and I read the passage again and you shall come at the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed or beaten olives for the light to cause the lamp to burn continuously there are four ideas I want you to take note of the first one is there olive the olive the raw fruit of the olive this is where God starts from he wants to produce light but he started with the olive fruit and I want you to think of yourself as that olive fruit you are that tiny or live fruit and olive fruit is a very tiny probably the length probably an inch and inches how many centimetres it 3-3 have I'm almost four centimeters almost therefore because I think in inches and translated centimeters most of you are centimeters people you are modern people but you know British messed us up with in feet and inches so it is just about an inch of 4 centimeters it's an oval-shaped fruit greenish now he says this is what you're gonna use to bring oil to light my lamb I want you to think of yourself as that I'll live fruit the olive fruit that is thought of here is the unripe mature olive fruit because all the fruit starts as green and when it is ripe it becomes blackish what the Bible is talking about here is not the blackish that ripen all the fruit but the mature green olive fruit that is the fruit in its most mature state it hasn't gone to ripen yet but its mature and unripened that is where it starts from so God says take that fruit and then the second thing is that fresh the fruit or beat it that is how the fruit releases what is in it it is the process by which the olive fruit yields what is inside it beat it now beat it doesn't mean take a cane and whip it the the idea is very similar to how we produce we pound palm kennels when we want to make palm oil when we want to make palm oil we boil the palm kernels put them in a mortar and we pound them we beat the we press them and crush it so that we can get the oil out of what we are crushing it's similar to what God is saying here it says you take the other and you're going to beat it you're going to press it you go to pound it and when you pound it you're gonna get it to break up and release what is inside it it's a very important concept God takes the raw fruit and he counts it he presses it he beats it can you imagine if you were there olive fruit and and you are taking and you're going through this process where you are being pounded you're being pressurized you're being beaten you think somebody wants to destroy your life you think that this person wants to crush you wants to destroy you but God says that is what you do with the olive fruit if you keep it as it is it is of no use to me you're going to break it you're going to break it down because that is when I start the process of releasing what is inside it so there is an olive fruit and then there is the pressing the beating the pounding and then he says after you have done that then he says out of it will come pure oil pure oil represents the quality that is going to come out of the fruit and the reason why the Bible calls the pure oil is oil that does not have sediments or impurities in it and it doesn't have water in it and the reason why it doesn't have impurities and it is pure is because apart from pounding it goes through filtration now how does it go through filtration those days they didn't have the mechanisms we have now they do what most of us do you know that much of what we do in our society is very similar to what's happening in the Bible if you want to filter something in this case the olive fruit you've pounded it you pick it up you take the big seed out of it and then you get a fabric maybe organza or some other filtering fabric you put the raw pounded olive in it and squeeze it and as you squeeze it the oil comes out so there's two levels of pressure one is pounding you and the other is squeezing you and it is through the process of pounding and squeezing that the oil comes out and God says that is how I want you to treat the oil and I'm telling you that when God also wants to touch your life that is what he's going to do he's going to take your life as it is and put it under pressure and then after you've been under pressure and you've been struck and you've been beaten he's going to allow you to be squeezed and when you are squeezed he will cry oh my mother but God will not hear your prayer at that time because what he needs out of you cannot get come out of you until you are squeezed it's called pressure it's called pressure so so the olive fruit is beaten and then it is squeezed and as it is squeezed I'm sure it is asking what have I done what have I done no we don't hate you we love you so much we see oil in you and we're not going to allow you to jeopardize yourself so pressure will release the oil out of you and then the fourth thing that happens is the light the light is really the benefit that comes out of the fruit and and the light brightens the light beautifies the light prince illumination but you will not get light until you get oil and you don't get oil until you are beaten impressed the flame of this oil burns purely and does not produce soot no blacking smoke so that's why God says use this process there are other processes you can use by to not produce the light I'm talking about I want light that does not produce smoke because some times you can be producing light but and smoke at the same time so people get attracted to your light but when they get a treasure to your light the smoke gets into their eyes and they are repelled by the light so there are people with talent whose talents are repelling to people they have ability but people cannot use the ability because they are producing light and smoke but God says if you go through this process you produce light and there will be no smoke your light will be pure it will be beautiful it to be a blessing but for that to happen you are going to be pounded and it is not because he hates you it's because he loves you listen to me God loves you as you are and he will call you as you are and he will accept you as you are but he will never use you as you are [Applause] you have to admit the distinction when we come to God he loves us as we are he accepts us as you are if you are drunkard and you come to him he will accept you as you are you aren't drought you come to him he will accept you as you are you are lazy you'll come to him he will accept you as you are whatever you are when you accept him when you come to him he will accept you as you are but if he wants to use you he has to pressure you he has to pick some stuff out of you in order to use you God only uses people he has prepared not just people he loves but people he has prepared and sometimes people are gonna tell you it doesn't matter God loves you I see yes we know God loves you as who you are but he will use you as you are he wouldn't let greatness come out out of you as you are for greatness that come out of you something must crush you something must pressurize you something must break down that which is stopping your oil from flowing and that which is required God will make available to you you do this is something you don't pray for God will answer that prayer he will bring you pressure and he will pound you and he will take you through processes so that the oil will flow out of you it is a light that comes out of this pure oil that God says is the only light I will accept in my tabernacle there can be other lights in the days of the Bible they they hadn't know we were not producing light from carbon fuel that is petroleum crude oil they hadn't been invented light came either from animal fat or from plant fat like this one and there were other processes of producing oil from the olive plant but it will not produce this kind of pure oil and this is the only one that God says I accept it must be pounded it must be pressed it must be beating so that the best will come out of it so that light will be in my tabernacle if you want to be light to your world you want to be a light to your generation you won't go to use you to light up the world I will tell you without any equivocation that God would take you as you are but he will break you to the point where he can use you for his glory now taking the light that comes from this olive fruit I want to transition to another light that God says he wants us to produce 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 from verse 6 to 10 it forms one of our foundational text for this year you find it on the screen when we have our artwork up there the verse 7 but I'm reading the context of it 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 from verse 6 for it is the God who commanded light out to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us we are hard pressed on every side yet not crushed we are perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body now the if you look at the passage it starts by talking about how God commanded light out of darkness most of you are familiar with that verse God said let there be light and there was light it says in the beginning God said let there be light out of darkness and there was light then he moves to say that the same God who has commanded light out of darkness has given as the light of his glory through Jesus Christ so the same God who commanded let there be light has given us light through Jesus Christ and then it goes on to say that this light of God is a treasure in us then it tells us that we are a team vessels carrying this treasure of God within us that this treasure produces excellent power and this power is not our own but of God then he tells us the challenges we face because of the treasure we are carrying this passage immediately has an immediate use which is the Christian life and the life of Christ in us which is the treasure of God in us which is the direct immediate reference but this verse also speak to our natural life that just as God has treasure of Christ in us he also has gifts in us he has abilities in us he has treasure in us and and this treasure is in earthen vessels that's quite an amazing thought because nobody takes treasure and puts it in a thin vessels when you want you have treasure you want to put it in a treasure box something that is valuable but the Bible says that God's treasure is in things that are not valuable that's an amazing thought we have this treasure in earthen vessels it's like somebody who has a bunch of diamonds and he wants them if you have a bunch of diamonds you go and look for some metal safe to put them in but he says that God takes this bunch of diamonds and put them in maybe tattered cloth so you see there is treasure but the holder of the treasure doesn't seem valuable and that is how most of the time God uses us he has great treasure but the treasure is in us it's like treasure sitting in somebody you don't expect to have treasure can you imagine you're just walking by the street of Accra just by the roadside you see a blind man singing and begging for money now in our society a blind man by the roadside singing and begging for money is not considered the most the most accomplished of people in on the social ladder that would be probably at the bottom he's blind he's poor he's begging he's sitting by the roadside can you imagine that that is the earthen vessel and then this man begins to sing and as he sings you begin to hear notes and you begin to hear tones and you begin to hear quality of music coming out of him and you wonder where did this treasure come from and you wanna I mean he's singing at notes that people who have gone to music look I know sing that is treasure in an earthen vessel in fact there was one particular person exactly like that in our country maybe about 30 years ago this guy was a blind man I knew him he was living in Lima those days when I was living in Lima and we all knew him his he sang he sang and and nobody cared you just dropped money for him and one music producer discovered him and he became a word hit record an album which became which hit the world scene he is treasure but the vessel is no good so that is how God uses us each one of us there is treasure in us but that treasure the vessel in the treasure holding the treasure has problem so when people look at you they don't see the treasure they see the earthen vessel now what God wants to do is he has to deal with the ethnic vessel so that the treasure can come out that is what he does to the olive it is treasure but but nobody can see the oil until he pressurizes the olive fruit for the oil to come out and in your own life there's treasure sitting inside of you but if God doesn't allow pressure you would die with that treasure nobody would know you ever had that nobody you would know you ever had the ability so God is gonna take you as you are an investor with treasure and he's gonna apply pressure so that something about your earthen vessels will break and allow the treasure to come out of you are you following what I'm saying so so that's what he did to the olive and that's what he wants to do to us as Christians so Paul says we have this treasure in earthen vessels then he goes to talk about how God deals with the earthen vessels he says we are hard pressed on every side if you are carrying God's treasure one of the first things that God will do is to hard press you that word hard press means to be squeezed when you feel squeezed all around you you feel squeezed how do you get water or orange juice from an orange you squeeze it how do you get juice from mango you squeeze it how do you get juice from an apple you squeeze it how does God get value out of you he will squeeze you now the squeeze can come through other people or through yourself is better it comes through services most of us are kind to ourselves God is going to you now pressure and he says you're gonna be squeezed we are hard pressed on every side have you ever experienced that kind of squeezing where you think this guy is killing me this is going to kill me I would die but pauses although we are squeezed on every side we are not dying we are not cross in other words the pressure that he's bringing upon you sometimes you feel like you are dying but you wouldn't die have you ever been under pressure you think us with this I can't survive it I'm dead this is too much and then you wake up in the next morning 5:30 the beds are still sinking you still alive it didn't kill you we are hard pressed on every side yet not crushed God is going to put you under so much intense pressure that you would think you are dying and that is when a lot of people run out from pressure training they go to somebody who will Pat them on the back and say it doesn't matter don't worry here you are loved you are sceptered as you are may I suggest to you very strongly anybody anybody who suggests to you that the way you are is okay that you don't need anybody to change you or to put pressure on you doesn't love you they are speaking words of love to you but it's a word words of destruction they are making you take life easy but life is not easy my friends there's going to come intense pressure and that pressure is designed to bring oil out of you or treasure out of you and it will squeeze you until every last drop of oil comes out of you but Paul says when that pressure comes you will not be crushed we are hard pressed on every side yet not crushed then he says perplexed perplexed have you ever been under treasure pressure that now you are at a loss you don't know what to do you don't know where to tell when you are being squeezed you feel dry you feel empty it seems as if everything in you is drained and you are trying to find out where is help no help perplexed when you think I've given my best I've done all that I can do I don't know what to do it give up this is too hot you staying you stay that discretion it's like when your mouth pushing your muscles if you've done strength training you're pushing and you're training that's how babies are born that's how muscles are strengthened when you don't know what to do when you up a pledge you think you've done all you have pushed all I can push but the baby has not come out push it's called pressure and you need a trainer who puts you under that even my father didn't do that to me even my mother your father didn't like you I'm telling you he loved you but didn't like you even my father hasn't said that yeah yeah yeah that's why he's your father but now you need a coach you need a trainer you need somebody who can draw oil from you you need somebody who can pull treasure out of you and when you're crying he doesn't get sympathy with your tears because he believes in your potential more than your pain Paul says we are perplexed but not in despair in other words I don't know what to do but I still have hope I don't know where to turn but I still think it's going to be all right hard press being squeezed bean per place then the third thing he says persecuted persecuted means to be harshly pursued we are being hunted can you imagine few schoolies very dry and yet being pursued you feel you are alone in this world persecuted what should what life is taking too much from you it's like a a woman who wants to get a PhD you have three children you are working and you are married to a very very traditional Ghanaian this is what is called persecuted who wants his food hot and your children you know children have no sympathy and they don't know you have an assignment to give and your boss is putting pressure on you and your supervisor is putting pressure on you and everybody said are you crazy stop it because the top is only for a few people my friends the majority are the bottom the majority are at the bottom they will tell you why you killing yourself why are you doing this to yourself please stop it you feel life is harassing you but a couple of months later you get those three stripes on your attire on your gown and they will call you dr. so-and-so and that is so everybody will come and say everybody take a picture with you but when you were running you have been squeezed you were being pursued you are being persecuted your husband was not understanding your children had no understanding their supervisor had no understanding when nobody encouraged you Paul says persecuted but not forsaken although I know everything is against me I still if God is for me that God is with me that I'm going to go through this and I'm going to get out of it if you want to be ordinary live your life as it is but if you want to be extraordinary you have to put in extra and life would demand extra from you so Paul is talking about the treasure in us and the reason all of this is happening it's not because anybody hates you is because there's treasure in you and the treasure must come out look at some of the great people who have accomplished things in this world take the spots where you take a person like Ronaldo iq ibly the best footballer arguably I'm not saying he is adorably because there are arguments against that look at his training shadow his friends are slipping his working I mean I saw a video of Kobe Bryant who just died may God have mercy on him and I look I read I saw his training shadow everybody his friends asked if he's going the extra mile he's working hard because I'm telling your excellence is not cheap you will be squeezed you will feel harassed you'll feel persecuted and then the fourth thing Paul says he says struck down stroke down means to be put down whilst you are doing all of this somebody's trying to put you down you'll hear things about you that will that are painful and heartbreaking people are gonna ask you why are you killing yourself is this your father's work don't you have anything better to do if you're a woman they'll tell you you will not have any man to marry you oh you can never achieve it they're trying to put you down struck in you down but you're still going because there's treasure in you and you want that treasure out hard pressed perplexed persecuted struck down it is the pressure kind of pressure that releases treasure out of it and get this from me the quality you produce in life is directly related to the pressure you submit yourself to the quality you will produce is proportionally related to pressure if you hate pressure you hate success you hate your soul some of you get under pressure you move under pressure here you move under pressure you move all the way this than the way he's treated me I don't like the way he's treating me I got this thing I got a bad luck and I work do you know that every discipline you acquire in training is for yourself it's not for your boss when you go to school and get a degree C for your teacher know when you somebody is pressurizing your every skill you develop is for you when you work somewhere and they put you under pressure everything you acquire every ability is for yourself so when you run away from training you are running away from yourself struck down but not destroyed now Paul later talks about two kinds of pressure and I would end with that second Corinthians chapter seven verse five for indeed when we came to Macedonia our bodies had no rest talked about pressure but we were troubled on every side outside were conflicts inside were fears so he's talking our outside pressure inside pressure so let me give it to you pressure from outside us this is where much of our journey for excellent stance from it starts first with what God has called us to be what we believe God wants from us if you believe God wants you to be the head another tail then there's going to be pressure to be the head another tail how many of you believe God has a plan for your life or a purpose for your life good and how many of you believe know that purpose you know that purpose okay some of you don't know if there's anything you need in life is to know what you are trying to achieve in life what your purpose is if you know you must be at level 100 you will have to work to be level 100 when you're starting from one so when you get to two you don't get satisfied you have to know that demands of God for your life what is the high calling of God for you if you know the high calling of God is your first level of pressure because all that we want to do in life is to please him who called us the second thing about pressure from outside is the demands of those who need us there could be those above us who need second results from us or outputs from us they need us to operate at a high level or capacity they raised the bar constantly it's pressure when you've written a report 20 times and it's still not accepted and you say oh this woman he hates my eyes just translated he hates my eyes that's gone in English he hates my eyes so I'll write I've written the report 20 times while human being ah what kind of report I do you want do you want my head to eat no he doesn't want your head to eat he wants oil to come out of you you are still raw olive fruit and the oil must come out you'll write that report 50 times until you get it right is the demand of those who are above you and the demands of those who are under you your children you don't care whether January is a difficult month you know care like children I like to I've told the story of my when my wife and I had our first daughter thank God pressure we had a baby before and we're buying SMA baby food and where to start with SMA gold we didn't know what SMA good you know why a good paper you just stop buying anything expensive SMA god I said may God not apologize that this thing is this is affecting us because this baby's eating and eating and eating energy and and so at a certain boundary lies our budget content under SMA cold so we did Norma SMA and we mixed it I said she put it to him up and put it enough he says you think my standards are level you've put me our Gold level now you want to bring me to bronze what kind of parent are you it's called pressure and you can't debate with a child can say listen sweetheart the world is hard we just celebrated Christmas and New Year we honor please understand me accommodate me we ever had promotion it's called pressure you would think twice you something in you will have to start thinking maybe I shouldn't have a poultry farm in addition maybe I should read snails maybe I should do something else because this baby is not giving up its core pressure pressure from without the demands of those who need us the demands and the schemes of those who want to destroy us this has to do to all the threats we face to our survival and safety at every point in time someone or something needs you out of the way the a success requires your failure and it's not personal because a lot of things in life are zero-sum a lot of things when we say something zero-sum it means that one is winner-take-all a lot of things when you go for interview and they are interviewing you is zero-sum if they take this one they will take me so if you are the one winning the interview you think the address is for their answers oh we love you so much go ahead and get a job or go home and eat algorri so kids just they're going to do everything to try to make you feel because your success is going to go to their disadvantage everyday in the morning a lion gets up to try to get an antelope and if you an antelope you get up you have to no lion is coming leopard is coming hyena is coming cheetah is coming Tiger is coming all these assorted enemies require you they require you to survive now you can sit as a mom you you you are gone so you're gonna make sure nobody is gonna eat you for that to happen there's pressure on you from sunup to sundown because somebody needs you to fail and it's not because he hates you yes because he needs to survive not when hit him back he needs to survive and he's going to do everything to destroy you most of the people who'd want to destroy the DOE if you know you that's what people something whatever I then I guess you are whatever I whatever I don't know what you have done you are succeeding you don't need to personally harm people but you are in the away you are in the away and you have to keep moving ahead so they don't destroy you don't set to be destroyed that's pressure power cause it pressure from outside everywhere he wants to go when he went to Ephesus and he said there's only God Jehovah the people who make idols for the god of Ephesus Diana he said this guy's following business because if these people believe there's only one God and Diana is not a God then all these crafts work we have done their businesses collapse I want to take a loan to studies business Paul's preaching is undermined my business his preach is not good for business so they had to maneuver to get Paul into jail for businesses of her that's what Paul is talking about he says pressure from the outside you want to succeed in life you want it you want to adhere you want to be the head another deer you want it very well [Applause] you want the testimony by December disease let's see what God you want a testimony this is how it happens pressure from Allah then Paul talks about pressure from within pressure from within what is it pressure from within I'm gonna give you three then I'm sure I'll shut down first pressure from within is the fear of failing in our mission tell me a person who is not afraid of failing I'll tell his a person who is going nowhere if you're going to succeed in life something in you must age you to move on and one of those is the fear of failure everybody who has a fear of failure acknowledges that yesterday's success can't survive today Paul himself had fear of failure he says in first Corinthians chapter 9 verse 27 he says but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection lest when I have preached to others i myself should be disqualified Paul says if I don't make it I'll be disqualified and because I don't want to fail and be disqualified I put my body under subjection I put myself under pressure why do you think I'm still preaching hard like this pressure because somebody just sat at his church he has two members he still gets in my church oh yeah yeah he's targeted you to go to his church so can you might not come here I'm tell you an answer stories ha ha ha ha ha ha ha because I've been doing this for 40 ha ha ha ha ha ha before I realized the church is empty ha ha ha ha ha ha there's a lion who has started his life he is hoping I become an antelope those of you who are a little older you're 60 or 70 you are 65 year 50 of oh I'm old I'm only the small boys dude are you crazy we small boys should do it get up and go hunting get up and start running get up and get a job done this is no time for any small boys this is time for you to put yourself under pressure because Paul says if I don't do that after all that I've done I will be disqualified the fear of failure it's good to have that fear it's a healthy fear I was telling somebody after all the earth preached for over 40 years I've never I'm never confident preaching there's never been a time I I finished with my salmon preparation and I say oh this one is going to be super never I have to pray Lord help me Lord I need you because the day I stopped fearing I stopped trusting God and I'm just going to go say oh I've done it so long and the first time you flop people who have liked you all this time this is how we saw it we've been seeing it for the last thing we see is going down the fear within fear of failure the second fear within is realization of our own limitations when we realize that there there are things we don't know how to do there are those who allow their limitations to freeze them that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about people who are overconfident and just feel oh I can do it oh I'm better oh I'm the best my wife would tell you in all my years she's know me there's never a time I've preached somewhere she asks how did it go and I'll say it was fantastic I've never said that oh how did it go my only answer is it was okay but people said all the prayer the meeting was good how did it go it was okay it was my it wasn't bad because I know my inadequacies it was fantastic the way it was I'm telling you it was fire you are finished you have no sense of inadequacy you think you are all in all you think you have it covered that is the beginning of your downfall Paul says Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament he says I I am so afraid I will be disqualified so I put pressure on myself the third pressure from within is the ambition to be the best for God ambition has sometimes a negative side I'm talking about positive ambition the Apostle Paul is a very ambitious man listen to him as he says in Romans chapter 15 verse 20 and so I've made it my aim to preach the gospel not where Christ was named less as you build on another man's foundation that's why he went beyond everybody he says if I go and I see Peters here I leave Peter alone and move to the next level I see I'm true this year I moved to where Andrew has never gone this is I'm always looking for new territory where nobody has ever touched it's got ambition and in the end he took the gospel more than everybody else it first Corinthians chapter 9 verse 16 he says for if I preach the gospel I have nothing to boast off for necessity is laid upon me yes war is me if I do not preach the gospel pressure is on me to preach and there's nothing to even brag about second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12 for we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise in other words they are foolish what is Paul saying he says I'm not in the business of determine who is better who did better who is that who is greater because that is foolishness i I just want to be the best for God in second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 15 and 16 is not boasting of things beyond measure that is in other men's livers but having hope that as your faith is increased we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you and not to boast in another man's fear of accomplishment Paul is saying I don't want my post in life to be on people oh my uncle did this do you know my brother have you heard about my brother yeah he's my brother oh it's my cousin he's my father's uncle's whatever oh these days some of you young people you oh look at me I took a selfie with him I took herself you and so what having his picture doesn't mean you have his achievement stop stop stop classifying your success in life by whom you took a picture with taking a picture with somebody is nothing and some of you take pictures with people there on Instagram the person just arrived with his private jet you have been using popular magical magic to get to where you are and and you took a picture with him a taking pictures with people and showing it as your sign of success check out who I'm with who cares Hey look at who I met yeah it's good to meet people and be proud of them but their success will never rub off on you Paul says I don't want to boast in another man's work I want to boast only in what I have achieved I don't go out and live bragging about who is my friend who is my neighbor whom I met who I had dinner with who I had lunch with and as some of you get a phone call hey oh yeah oh yes I house sometimes it's not even the person oh yes I yes and you saying yes sir to empty phone I'm sure what you're saying yes sir the other person is a girl and said but I'm not saying yes sir okay okay yes I'll come for the appointment yes okay so I'll see you put your hand on your head and say Lord deliver me Paul Paul had godly ambition I want to achieve something and I'm not going to do that by boasting and what other people have achieved I want to be able to say this is what I've done that's what I've done I appreciate what others have done but I want to be able to say this is my contribution and says because of that I put myself under pressure in fact when Paul was going to Jerusalem everybody told him not to go they said Paul is going to be hard you be in prison it's going to be difficult he says don't don't annoy me you think I came to life just to have pleasure I have an assignment and my assignment requires that I go to Rome and preach to Nero the Emperor and if he's going to take prison for me to preach to that man I'm going to go through prison to get to that man because God has shown me what my life is all about and because of that he put himself under pressure I pray that God will help you so that the treasure he has put within you will not die in you the oil and you will not dry up the favor he has put upon you will not just live inside of you even if you are old in age from today I release you from the limitations of your age and I declare to you that your best achievements are about to be had your best accomplishments are about to be held you are about to make impact all over the world if you are young I want to tell you there is no limitation of age on you your best days are ahead of you you will accomplish great things in your youth and all of you in between old and young age is not a limitation go out there and do something wonderful for God and if in the process you feel squeezed just see the oil coming out if in the process you feel you are being pounded see the treasure coming out of your earthen vessel if in the process you think this life is so hard I don't even know what I will survive look how God has made you survive up to now he didn't bring you this way to let you stop here your best days are ahead of you your greater works are ahead of you the favor of God is ahead of you you are about to be a world changer you are about to be a world changer you are about to be an impact maker the world is about to celebrate you now in Jesus name give the Lord praise everybody [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Christ Temple

Views: 48,133

Rating: 4.7529879 out of 5

Keywords: mensa otabil, otabil sermon, central gospel church, icgc, international central gospel church, greater works, central university

Id: Qzu8qH5Gm6Y

Length: 62min 57sec (3777 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 02 2020