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Script: Yvette l Narrator: Josh l Mix: Yujie
Hello friends. Last week, we mentioned that the first step to deal with our sinful nature is to deny our self-life. And the second step, taking up our cross daily. But we have not completed the topic on Denying the Self-Life. Let’s continue with its sub section, follow Jesus Christ!
To follow Christ, we need to build our character. Life is a journey of devotion to Christ. We need to bring all our thoughts, ideas, decisions and responses under the authority of the Word and the leading of the Spirit. Our values and motivations are directed by Scripture. Our responses and decisions are shaped as we yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, we are to hold everything in life loosely, including our families, children, careers and possessions; we hold tightly only to the Word of God and our relationship with the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that we neglect our loved ones or become indifferent to our work, but we follow the Lord closely. He will direct and empower us to love and to lead, in an attitude of total dependency on Him.
Therefore, obeying the three commands in Luke 9: 23: ① deny oneself, ② take up our cross daily and ③ follow Jesus, can be defined as our own journey of brokenness. The broken leader is what the Lord is looking for.
Proverbs 3: 5-6 point out the same principle in different words, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths”.
We are told not to “lean on” our own understanding. That does not mean we don’t think, plan and organise. But it does mean that all of this should be done with the posture of 100% dependency on the Lord and commit all we do in prayer. As we do so and acknowledge His ways, we “follow Him”. What’s the outcome? God will always direct our paths.
Testimony: Terence joined a company and asked to handle several projects. He realised his task was heavier than those who joined about the same time. He felt a sense of injustice and consulted his senior, a fellow believer. Terence was told to carry out his duties and voice his concerns only to God.
Terence heeded this advice but remained troubled. In his prayer, he was reminded of Peter’s comparison of himself to John. “Lord, how about him?” (John 20: 21). Jesus replied, “What is that to you? Follow me” (John 20: 22). The realisation hit Terence like a bolt of lightning! He was being told not to compare himself with others but carry out his duties faithfully. Little did he know that the management was trying to stretch him to see how much he could do, and he was soon promoted. Terence had seen how following after Jesus applied to his working life. Instead of comparing his work with that of others, or speak out against the management, he simply trusted Jesus and found peace, strength and victory.
Christian faith is not a religion to be observed to rigidly. Christian faith is a relationship with God to be lived out daily. So, remember Luke 9: 23. Each day we must ① deny our self-lives, ② take up our crosses and ③ follow after Him anew.
THE JOURNEY OF BROKENNESS
But now, O Lord, You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand (Isaiah 64: 8)
The transformation of the self-life to the Christ- and Spirit-led life is known as the journey of brokenness. Let us take the stories of Moses and Jacob in the Old Testament.
At the age of 40, Moses seemed to have everything because he was the adopted son of the Pharaoh. He had a vision to free his own people, the Hebrews, from the bondage under the Egyptians. He believed God had called him to deliver them from slavery and he could do so with his own talents and abilities. But we see the outcome in Acts 7: 23-29. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness. The Lord dealt with all his self-confidence and stripped it down to nothing.
While his natural confidence had been stripped and removed, Moses had come to the end of himself where the Lord could use him. But his quick temper remained with him as we read in Numbers 20: 10-12. The Israelites’ grumbling drove Moses to strike a rock angrily and water could miraculously flow out. This caused him to lose his right to enter the Promised Land, and serves as a reminder to always bring our temperament under the control of the Holy Spirit.
Jacob was a schemer, supplanter and deceiver, and this began in his mother’s womb. As an adult, Jacob cheated his brother Esau of his primogeniture (Genesis 27: 1-20). But Jacob experienced a taste of his own medicine.
He worked for his uncle, Laban, with the promise that he would marry Laban’s younger daughter Rachel after seven years. But Laban contrived to marry his elder daughter Leah to Jacob instead, forcing him to work fourteen years to marry his true love. Jacob fell prey to an even greater schemer than himself.
There is a Jacob in all of us. We naturally have the tendency to manipulate others, using them in our plans, schemes and strategies. That is the nature or our fleshy self which we must surrender before God.
Testimony: Charles was a businessman who came back to God after many years. After he heard the message on Jacob and Laban shared by Pastor Foo, he revealed his story. He made fortune through wheeling, business dealings and scheming. This happened until he was outwitted by a treacherous partner and brought him to bankruptcy. Charles then realised his manipulative ways would not make him richer or more powerful instead, brought him closer to a fall.
In the end, God intervened to ‘break’ Jacob. An angel wrestled with him one night and his hip was put out of joint. He would walk with a limp for the rest of his life – but that night, his name was changed to Israel, and his destiny as the founder of the nation bearing his name was revealed to him (Genesis 32: 22-32). The lesser is always blessed by the greater. Indeed, Jacob, who became Israel, was promoted by God as he subsequently blessed the Pharaoh of Egypt (Genesis 47: 10).
There are three lessons we can learn in the journey of brokenness:
For this is what the high and exalted One says—
he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
and to revive the heart of the contrite. (Isaiah 57: 15, NIV)
The theme of coming to the end of ourselves and being restored by God is common in Scripture. Jacob was a plotter and ended up being tricked by Laban, a more deceitful man than he was.
Another biblical character, the apostle Peter, a natural influencer and leader, vowed to defend Jesus to his death. But he abandoned Him and fled with others when confronted by a slave girl about his relationship with Jesus.
Both of them were restored and used mightily by the Lord after they had come to an end of themselves. Jacob was renamed Israel (“Prince of God”) and chosen to found a nation for Him. After Pentecost, Peter’s first sermon saw 3,000 people turning to the Lord (Acts 2: 41) and he ended up leading the early church and being martyred in Rome.
Testimony: Stan joined his present company after a few years in the marketplace. His somehow impressed a consultant who was helping the company to re-organise some business processes. The senior consultant would seek his input and speak up for him at meetings. Because of this, Stan was promoted rapidly and got the pick of lucrative and important project.
Months later, Stan began to notice that the consultant expected him to respond to his messages immediately and be at his beck and call even in the wee hours of the night. If he did not respond, the consultant would berate him in front of others. He also became manipulative and would use Stan to obtain certain favours which were outside company regulations. Stan felt the stress and was in a constant state of anxiety. He prayed and sought help but nothing happened.
Stan struggled for almost two years. One day, after a meeting where the consultant had threatened to report him to the management for a breach of company ethics, Stan left the office in a state of extreme fear. He drove his car and made a wrong turn to the opposite side of the road with oncoming traffic. At that moment, he realised that his life was failing apart. That night, he cried out to God. That began the journey of brokenness for Stan as God began to deal with his need for approval of men, his insecurities and his mistrust of God.
Soon after, there was an organisational reshuffle and Stan was moved to work under another group. Although he had been suspended in career advancement, he felt much at peace and trusted God to guide him in his career. A few years later, God brought Stan to another role. Now, Stan is flourishing in his new career and calling.
To deny ourselves is to kill any notion that we can achieve God’s purposes by our own wisdom and abilities. Our natural gifts have a place in achieving God’s plans. But they must be humbly yielded to His Lordship by committing everything in prayer.
Friends, with Him, we can do all things as we work toward being conformed to the Lord’s image. Without Him, we cannot.
We shall continue with the last part on the Person of the Leader next week. Have a present week. Goodbye.
Excerpted from outstanding Leader by Pastor Daniel Foo; first published by Armour Publishing Singapore and the book can be purchased from