Spiritual Life of the Leader - Lesson 7

Dr. Stephen Martyn
Spiritual Life of a Leader
sf502-07
Reservoir vs. Canal
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:00] Let's look. I don't know if you know the name Bernard of Clairvaux or Bernard, depending. Depends on what part of the world you live in, on how you say it. The greatest sermon I've ever read in my life. One of the greatest sermons is Sermon 18 from Bernard's commentary on the song of Songs. Bernard was actually quite a controversial person then and now, But I love his writings, and I'm very, very thankful. Before his writings. So here, look at this. The person who is wise therefore will see his or her life is more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives. The reservoir retains the water till it is filled in, discharges the overflow without loss to itself, and a mark that without loss to itself. He or she knows that a curse is on the person who allows his or her own property to degenerate. And if you think my opinion worthless, then listen to one who's wiser. And I, the fool fool, Sid Solomon comes out with all his feelings at once, but the wise man subdues and restrains them. Now. So Bernard is writing nearly a thousand years ago. Yet what is about to ride here is just as wrecked. Revel revel it now is it ever was a thousand years ago. Today there are many in God's church who act like canals. The reservoirs are far too rare. So urgent is the charity of those through whom the streams of heavenly doctrine flow to us, that they want to pour it forth before they have been filled. They are more ready to speak than to listen, impatient to teach what they have not grasped and full of presumption to govern others while they know not how to govern themselves.

[00:02:10] Lord have mercy. So let's talk about this reservoir business and see yet another image that will help us to get a hold of this major construct of reception preceding donation or receiving love from our Lord prior to canonic self giving or kenosis. And that is this whole business of a reservoir that Bernard talked about. Now, let me share with a phenomenon with you that I've seen wherever I have gone, mountain climbing and mountaineering, mostly in the Rocky Mountain Range in the United States, in New Mexico and in Colorado. But I've also seen this phenomenon in the Himalayas, mountains in India, everywhere I've done any kind of mountain climbing. I've seen I've seen this image. So I'm going to draw a very, very poor facsimile of a high mountain like an artist. I am not. So you're going to have to you're going to have to bear with me. So these are natural. I'm talking about a natural high mountain. Like, you know, they're going to have weird kind of designs. And what you'll see in these in these natural lakes is you'll see maybe sometimes you might see three or four streams, actually little streams coming into them. The stream, of course, not being a river, but a fairly good size mount, a body of water. But you might also see literally dozens of little brooks, just little bitty fingers of water feeding into them all around the lake. But here's the one phenomenon that I've never seen an exception to, though I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions because my own view is so limited to these high mountain lakes. And this looks like some really sad amoeba. I apologize for my illustration. May have to do something with this, but these lakes always flow out.

[00:05:00] With a single stream. And here's the other here's the other thing that I've seen. The level of the water stays relatively normal throughout a year in these high mountain crater lakes. You might only see a three or four foot difference in water between the low water mark, at least in the Rocky Mountain range. In North America, the low water mark always comes at the end of September, beginning of October, and then the snow start coming back in and then those lakes will start rising up. But throughout the year in these natural crater lakes way up high, the water level stays relative pretty much the same. So the issue here is there's a primary outflow. In other words, this is vacation. Vocation simply means calling. You know, I'm hearing my calling from the Lord, and the primary vocation is how I seek to live that out in ministry, in whatever form a ministry. And let me also say here that we really need to reclaim the fact that being a Christian teacher, being a Christian mechanic, being a Christian doctor, physician, nurse, whatever this is, this is 100% ministry, absolute 100%. We want people to understand themselves as being full time ministers of the Gospel called to apply it in every area in which they may be called to serve others, but while primarily serving the Lord. So it's this water level, the water level, the depth, the depth of the water level. How is that steam constant? That's the issue. How is that staying constant in your life? Negatively when the water level starts going down, then it's called depletion. And. Depletion if left unchecked, quite literally. If it's left unchecked, it will result in a complete erosion of presence. Where anything alive stops growing in that soil.

[00:07:58] There is no soil left. There's nothing to give. Depletion will give way to merely going through. The motions. Which sometimes we have to do at times, particularly in times of emergency, in times of danger. However, when the majority of life becomes merely going through the motions, then it's going to devolve where there's no water left. There's nothing there's nothing to give there. And then you're truly talking about a full blown crisis. Where you can't do it anymore, you literally can't do it. So it's it's it's somewhat common to hear leaders, particularly ministry leaders, who will say, just don't be surprised if you don't find me here next year or next month or whenever. That's a common thing to hear. So it's called depletion of presence. There's just it's an erosion. Depletion then leads to erosion. And that becomes a crisis. And you've got to have some kind of intervention or things end up in a very, very bad way. All right. So the question becomes then, what are going to be what what are you allowing and what does the Lord want to be? The streams of mercy. Well, I can't spell. There are flowing into your life. And can you articulate the streams of mercy? What does the Lord use to infuse your heart and your life and your family with his goodness? So let's let's talk about those, and we're going to cover some of those. But but let's let's get them in this. Get them in your mind right now. Just from our audience here at the House today, what would you say is the number one thing the Lord uses to infuse or to put his grace and his love in your life? What would you also spontaneously go in scripture? All right.

[00:11:10] So our pastor is saying the word is is the number one. That's what the Lord uses. And clearly, this has got to be a big stream. You know, it's got to be a big strain in our lives. Not the only stream. What else? I mean, just spontaneously, those at home listening. What would you say? Fruit when God's work is bearing fruit. So what we hear is when you see fruitfulness, that comes from faithful ministry. Really, that's to me, that's the Ministry of Encouragement and confirmation that God is at work in this thing. And so there's this sense of confirmation. From the fruit. That the Lord is growing in and through even our cooperative efforts with His spirit. So good. What else? I mean, what would you say? Well, spontaneously, what comes to mind? What? What recharges is going along with? Oh, yeah. So clearly, one of the big streams has got to be prayer. The communion with God where I listen, I share, I listen, I receive. So, yeah, go ahead. He says it can't be that. No, it's got to be the one I'm getting from God. Yeah. It's not the work. Yeah. So when I see this, when I see others grow in the Lord, even if it has nothing to do with me. Sure. Really? Yeah. To see the activity of God at play is what's being shared. Now, that's that. That that literally infuses us that, hey, this is real. This is unfolding. God's providential care, even in through world history, through our own lives. Yeah, absolutely. All right, So. Part of. I think what what all of us need to do is to say, okay, this, this, this, this, this, this really needs to be in place in my life for the goodness of God to flow at a steady level in in through my life.

[00:13:54] You see in what I'm saying, all of these infusing means of his grace need to be accentuated, need to need to be given priority. What what is it that I'm giving priority to in terms of the streams of mercy so that I can live in vocational fidelity, which will always work toward at some point will be rejoicing in the fruit that God himself grows and very, very grateful to be a part of the his ongoing kingdom and his ongoing life. So as you go around, you know, you want to you you want to to to get the classic means of grace, which we're going to talk about. But you also want to say, okay, you know, there is things that literally bring goodness into my life. It could be sewing. It could be cooking. I do know that one thing that brings goodness into my life is the cooking. Not that I do, but the cooking that my wife does. I'm very grateful for that. It could be working with your hands. It could be been out in nature. You know, you, you, the Lord has created you a unique person and has given you very distinct ways in which He fills you with his goodness. The point is, are you allowing that goodness to come about So. In one of John Wesley Sermons Sermon 16, he wrote on a major theological category for him called The Means of Grace. And what he's talking about are what are all of these streams that the Lord uses to bring His love and His grace into our lives? He says, by means of grace, I understand outward signs, words or actions ordained of God and appointed for this end to be the ordinary channels whereby God might convey to us both preventing, justifying and sanctifying grace.

[00:16:30] Now, preventing grace is the grace, of course, that draws us to the Lord as the that's the magnetism of God's love, that He'll use the 10,000 different ways in order to draw us to himself and prevent us from going so far askew that we that we just don't ever come back. And of course, just define and sanctifying. We've already covered those. Now look at these means of grace that he included. So instituted means these are things that Jesus himself gave us. These are his examples. Private and public prayer. It's both private and public where he's praying one on one with the Lord and he's praying with a group of people. And if you go into Wesley's chapel in London today, where as an older gentleman, John Wesley lived, the flat that he lived in is still there. It's restored. And you'll see a small, little tiny room that was added on this five story flat all the way up, just one room all the way up. And literally, you can stand it there in that room. And it's not much bigger than this, the span of my arms. But all that was in that room was a little. NAYLOR Where Wesley knelt down to pray. He got up for an each morning, and then he had his word in there where he'd read the word. And so what the early Methodists called that room was was this they called it the power house of Methodism. And they attributed that room to the revival that swept England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in the 1700s. So clearly, the Lord wants us to be in a posture where we are listening to Him and praying to him. Wesley It's been an hour a day. 4 to 5 doing that, then searching the scriptures, reading, hearing, meditating.

[00:18:53] That's a big stream coming in. It's got to be right up there with prayer where I am allowing this word to be infused into my life. I'm loving it. I'm not trying to be a master of it. I'm trying to let it be a master of me. And certainly we want to do everything we can to enhance our study and our knowledge of of this word with the ultimate means of allowing it to tame us and to transform our own lives, then. Oh. Wesley Of course it another major stream. So we've got the word. We've got prayer is the Lord's Supper. And he was quite insistent that this take place on a regular basis. But I mean, did not our Lord Jesus institute this himself on the night before he died? You know, so this is part of what we have been given and this. Then he added, fasting. Jesus said, Look, when he goes away, they're going too fast. What Wesley did was too fast in the historic model of the church, and that was too fast on Friday's so you'd fast From Thursday evening after eating a normal meal on Thursday evening, you you'd fast to what time on Friday afternoon. Anybody remember what time on Friday afternoon. Well till 3:00 now. Three y 3:00. That's when Jesus died at 3:00. It also happened to be English high tea time as well. So we'll we'll get that sorted out in heaven. But way of fasting now by Christian Conference. This is where I will meet together with others where I'm not doing this solo leadership in ministry. Solo leadership usually ends up in a ditch, literally usually throws us in a ditch. Christian conferencing is following the example of Christ. He taught the masses.

[00:21:28] But what did he do? He trained. He disciple the few, and he put those few in a community and they did life together. And that's what we're called to do. Then, of course, works of mercy, not just doing no harm, but doing good to the bodies and souls. It's always a joint body and soul, never just focusing in on one doing good, especially first to the household of faith, to the Christians. So we are called to invest our lives in some way with those who need the gospel and be very intentional about that. That's of. So that's a means of grace. The balance means a grace is as we go around, you know, you won't have all of these primary ones fasting. And of course, for those who are diabetic or those who have medical issues, there was a good, solid medical ways that people even who are diabetic can can fast sue you. You can let go of some things without endangering your own person. You want to be careful about all that. I was teaching on all of these in Pittsburgh, and I had a I had a federal mine inspector in my class who had never fasted in his life. So this federal mine inspector says, well, Jesus says, there's something I need to do. I got to do it. He goes into without ever fasting in life, goes into a five day fast, finds himself down in the bowels of an abandoned coal mine in western Pennsylvania, collapses and, you know, causing any kind of spark. He's down there. Testing for methane in any kind of spark can be deadly. And I realized right then, you know, any time we teach on fasting, we really need to qualify and help people and know what we're talking about.

[00:23:39] There's some good resources on that. All right. So Christian community and living life with others. And this is intentional. This in casual, this is not haphazard. You see in Christian movements, in renewal movements, this is this is always part of of renewal movements that you just name it from Keswick to all the way back to the the renewal movement that Patrick himself started, Celtic Christianity. But we always talk about Saint Patrick. But the truth is Patrick went with a group of people and the Celtic renewal movement that went really until the Vikings wiped them out in the 1800s. That was a community group always. They did evangelization in community and then the works of mercy. You know, we are seeking to minister to the poor. The poor will remain a target audience. We also want to remember that I know in my own ministry I have served people who were bizarrely wealthy. They had more wealth than any one human being ever needed to have in multiple lifetimes, much less one lifetime. But in the midst of that wealth, they were some of the most impoverished people I've ever been around in my life. So where we want to be a little bit broader in our poor than just economically poor. Although we do not, if we're going to follow Christ, not want to forget that now there's all sorts of other means of grace. My heavens, jogging, walking, playing with the dogs, being with children, all sorts of means of grace. I had to put grandparents in doting over a new baby because Diane and I have had the joy of having little grandbabies. These are things that bring life into us. Now, here's the question. Here's the crucial question. How are the streams flowing into your life? And what's this level of this like? Now I want to give you one other illustration, and it's an illustration that many of you will have heard, perhaps heard in a science class or heard in a leadership class.

[00:26:47] It's the illustration called The Big Rocks. Now, let me let me tell you how this how this came to me. So a science teacher. Bought her high school class together course in the lab, and she had several huge glass beakers up on her desk. One beaker was big. His glass beakers had just a few big rocks in it. Filled all the way to the top. Just a few big rocks. Another glass beaker had had gravel. Smaller rocks and gravel. Another glass beaker had sand. And then another glass beaker was filled mostly with water, nearly to the top with water. I've actually done this class before in the seminary where I teach. And though the lady looked at her students and said, How many of you think we can get all of these beakers into one container? Not one of them said anything. None of them believe she could do it. So the lady slowly took the gravel, the smaller rocks, slowly put them in on top of the bigger rocks, shook him up. They all kind of filtered down and lo and behold, she was able get to gravel in with the big rocks. Then she said, Do ya think there's any way in the world I can get both the sand and the water in the same beaker? The kid said, No way you can do that. Takes the sand, puts a little sand and puts a little water in and puts a little sand in. Puts a little water. And before you know it, all of it is in that beaker. And then she looked at her kids and she said, This kid's own soda. Remember this? This is going to make or break your life in large measure. None of this would have happened if I hadn't put the big rocks in first.

[00:29:14] Now, here's the deal with the ministry for our Lord. Any time you go into any type of ministry for Christ, it doesn't matter whether you're in the church or whether you're in what we call secular things, although in Christ we don't do this secular or ecclesial kind of difference that all things are sacred to our Lord and all things are good for those who are in Christ. But you're going to be pulled by a thousand different little demands, lots of little gravels, lots of sand, you know, lots of little demands. And many of it is going to come up internally in your own life. In other words, you're going to feel like this is what I need to do. This is what's expected of me. This is what the people expect. This is what it means to be a good and you feel in whatever place the Lord has placed you. This is what this means. Now, here's the key. Here's the key. Nobody will make it long if you focus on the little rocks and the little details. You miss it? You missed the boat completely. When the big rocks come first, you can handle the heavy demands of ministry. But when you allow the heavy demands of ministry, all the side things to lead you and you leave out the big rocks, then guess what? Depletion starts going, and you might can live in a depleted state for decades. But sooner or later, erosion of presence where you can no longer be present to the people you're called to serve are no longer hear from the Lord. Erosion of presence leads to a full blown crisis. If I can get seminary students to do one thing, I kind of feel like I've been very successful.

[00:31:29] What's the one thing? To not only articulate the few big rocks, but to know what it's going to look like to put it in place in their lives. Now I've been around the block enough now to know that that some primary big rocks are going to have to be in place. There's got to be these big rocks around my relationship. With the Lord. And there's got to be some big rocks around my relationship. With others. And here's an important word. I mean, these things have to be dispositional. Now, let me give you a quick story about disposition or what disposition means. When my son was younger, I would take him mountaineering in the in wilderness areas in southwest Colorado. And we would literally I would pull him out of school in the fall before the big snows hit and take him up in wilderness areas, just teaching him wilderness schools of how to survive, how to how to navigate, how to work, compass maps, all of that. And when we'd camp out after I had my son, our son, for a week, he came to me. He said, Dad, let's don't go home. Let's just live here. And I said, Son, in a couple of weeks there's going to it's going to start snowing and there's going to be probably 20 to 50 feet of snow where we are right now. There's no way we can live up here. We got to go home. He was very, very sad about that. Then he looked up at me, who was seven years old at the time. He looked up at me. Now, we'd been out for nearly eight days at this point. He said this, Dad. Guess what? I said, What, son? He said, I haven't changed my underwear all week.

[00:33:56] I said, Fine, son. Just don't tell your mother, all right? Then he looked up at me again. He said, Dad, guess what else? I said, What now, son? He said, I brush my teeth all week either. I said, Oh, jeez, whatever you do, don't tell your mother that. So he would do these things when we told him to. But they weren't dispositional, you know, They just weren't a part of who who he was at that point. Now, later, as as the boy started taking an interest in the beautiful female side of things. You know, he started brushing his teeth then and were dressed and he changed his underwear. And anyway, disposition is doing what you love and nobody's telling you that. And when you don't do it, you know there's something deeply missing from your life. This is priority disposition. A living is freedom and disposition. A living says these are the big rocks that the Lord wants me to implement on a daily basis. See, at that point, Ryan, our son could. Would I literally watch him? He would not brush his teeth during the week, and then he'd brush his teeth seven times on Saturday and count it. Good. Well, that's not how disposition works. Christian Disposition says, this is who I am. This is what it means to be a human being responding to the love of God. And this is what I know I have to have in place for my life to make sense. Literally, after five years of ministry, I wanted out after five years of serving as a pastor. I looked around, I said, You've got to be kidding. Nobody can do this. And plus, I had put my own self in in a ditch and I had no nobody to blame but myself.

[00:36:08] My church has served was fine. And so I said, All right, Lord, I will be gracious here. I'll give you one more chance. Yeah, we think, Oh, my Lord, What we what, what kind of presumption I saw on I'll serve one more church. But you know, you're going to have to do a better job in this next church. But when I went into that church, I knew I made that transition. I knew that I knew that. I knew that I had to get alone with God every day. And what I would do is literally I would walk to the church so that the farmers and ranchers would not see my car there because they'd be out earlier than I would, and they'd stop to visit. I would not only walk to the church, but I locked myself in the church and I went down into an inner room. The library was where they couldn't see the lights. I knew I had to do that to survive. If there was going to be any kind of long term ministry, I had to get it right there. I had to spend time with God. I had to be reading this word and I had to be reading classic Christian literature. I did that for two. Two years and it became a disposition. It became a way of living. And now, if those kinds of things are stripped away from me for very long, then you start to ache. You start to hurt because, you know, that's key, that's critical in this Christian life of ministry. We're always asking these key questions What are your primary means of grace? Is prayer is the word, is this whole business of relationship with others? How are those coming in on a daily basis? Those are the big rocks you get the big rocks in and the stream, the lake itself, the high natural lake stays relatively even.

[00:38:14] And God does things that you just never dreamed could or would happen. And as an old person, you get down on your knees and you say, Ah, Lord, there were some tough times here. But my heavens, what we've seen and what you've done is beyond our understanding, and you end in praise and Thanksgiving. That's how you want to end. Not not walking away, upset, angry, you know, ready to storm out, own everything you want. You ought to go on to your reward, bowing in gratitude over your staff, giving thanks to God. Hey, man. Hey, man. Thank you.