Get into Trouble!

Will you willingly give God your best bull this year?

I want you to think about getting into some trouble this week and more importantly this year!

What if we actively put ourselves into trouble for God, fully aware of our need for Him to rescue us?

What if we did that instead of calculating how much we could really handle and would we really be able to get ourselves out if in fact we did wind up in trouble?

This last week at our Greek Staff Conference with Intervarsity, we had some excellent training by Rich Lamb. One of the things he encouraged us with is the idea of “Leader as Patient”. Not patient as in waiting, but patient as in a sick person needing healing.

The passage that really stuck on me was Psalm 50:7-15

As Rich unpacked the passage, he helped us understand what God was saying here. In essence,

“I don’t need your sacrifices! Don’t think that it helps me that you sacrifice your best bulls and other animals!”

Rich was getting at this sense of obligation that many of us feel as leaders. We tend to work and sacrifice for God because we “have to” or “should” and this passage re-corrects that. God does not need our best stuff, he wants it, so he can rescue us as we are in need!

Give God Your Best Bull

But this is what really hit me:

9 I have no need of a bull from your stall  or of goats from your pens,

10 for every animal of the forest is mine,  and the cattle on a thousand hills.

When you have a best bull, you don’t want to kill it, or sell it, you want to reproduce it. Make more bulls.

But if God has all the bulls in the world and doesn’t need ours, why would there be sacrifices then? Because God wants us to give Him our best things, putting ourselves in deficit, so he can rescue and get all the glory. So at the end of the year when you make it, you and everyone else can see, “It was God!”

So the idea of sacrificing that bull was big deal and would inevitably set you back a bit. You can see why a sense of obligation could set in and “sacrifice” could become more ritualistic and obligatory instead of joyful.

“Ok God, I guess I can give you my best bull…that will be another 30K I am down this year…crap”

But what God is inviting the psalmist into is a “Dr. and Patient” relationship. If we give God our best and in a sense put ourselves into trouble, then he will deliver us (verse 15).

When we see ministry for our healing and we see God as the Dr. not just for others but ourselves, we can feel much more free about taking risks, sacrificing all, and letting it lose. God is not inviting us into partnership with him so we can “perform”. Quite the opposite actually… He is inviting us into relationship with Him so He can “perform”.

Our job is to get into trouble.

His job is to get us out.

Think about it. If the Israelites sacrificed their best grain in the spring, or their best bull to God, then they would be giving God their best and most reliable stuff and inevitably putting themselves into deficit for God in an act of worship.

They would be surrendering their “strength” and best “asset” to God in worship and on purpose be putting themselves into trouble so God could rescue them and get the glory.

The God of the Bible is one who invites us into trouble so he can get us out. Do you see him that way? Or is God one you need to perform for so you don’t get into trouble?

How It Hits Me

Here is how it hits me. Ministry is hard, and it requires a lot of sacrifice. Like, moving, raising lots of money, travel and fighting off spiritual evil in people’s lives. But ministry is not just a chore or a “should do” thing that God is asking me to “sacrifice” for and then, when I complete tasks, he gives me a standing ovation, “well done good and faithful servant.”

No! God is asking me into the ministry partnership with him because I need healing, I need more of him, and he is going to teach me so much more about how he loves to rescue me when I lay it all on the line. When I sacrifice the best things in my life (bulls) for him and his mission He will come through for others and me. Naturally God’s blessing will flow into and onto others as I live this way with Him.

The slight change in mentality for me is

“God I am excited to be in deficit this year and in life for you. I know you will rescue me and my people as I give everything up. What do you want me to do? I am ready?

Vs.

“Man God, I see the need, but that is a lot of sacrifice. I have to fundraise how much? Ok, I guess I can do it. I mean I am pretty good at this and it makes sense. I really like doing ministry and I know people need it. Ok, lets do this…I know I can do this if you empower me.”

The first embraces failure, deficit and realizes that God is calling me into trouble in life and for my family. But it also embraces His complete ability to rescue and provide. The second is an obligatory feeling that sees sacrifice as something God is calling me to do but not fully aware of how He is going to fill it back up. Therefore I better work hard and not fail…God is watching after all!

I want the first attitude and posture. How about you?

Today is a day of correction on the blog. For me and for you.

Are we working from a place of strength with a mentality of performance towards God? Believing that he is impressed by what we do?
Are we holding back things from God because if we were to sacrifice that job, car, savings, we would be in deficit and in total need of God to come through?
Have you ever thought about the fact that your job is to get into trouble and God’s job is to get you out?