DO YOUR BEST

Bruce Hills tells the story in his book, Inside Out – A Biblical and Practical Guide To Self-Leadership, of a story he read in Gordon MacDonald’s book, Ordering Your Private World (1993, 103), who had borrowed it from a book he read by Polmar and Allen’s in their biography of Admiral Hyman Rickover, “the head of the United States Nuclear Navy from 1949-1982” (2017, 13). He writes, “By all accounts, Admiral Rickover (1900-1986) was a controversial man. He personally interviewed and selected every prospective officer to serve on a US nuclear vessel. Interviewees would often leave the Admiral’s office ‘shaking in fear, anger, or total intimidation.'” Bruce goes on to describe the time that a future US President was interviewed by Rickover after applying for an officer’s position on a nuclear submarine.

To do so, he too had to be interviewed by Rickover, whom he’d never met before. Carter wrote:

…we sat in a large room by ourselves for more than two hours, and he let me choose any subjects I wished to discuss. Very carefully, I chose those about which I knew most at the time – current events, seamanship, music, literature, naval tactics, electronics, gunnery – and he began to ask me a series of questions of increasing difficulty. In each instance, he soon proved that I knew relatively little about the subject I had chosen.

 He always looked right into my eyes, and he never smiled. I was saturated with cold sweat.

 Finally, he asked a question and I thought I could redeem myself. He asked, “How did you stand in your class at the naval Academy?” Since I had completed my sophomore year at Georgia Tech before entering Annapolis as a plebe, I had done very well, and I swelled my chest with pride and answered, “Sir, I stood fifty-ninth in a class of 820!” I sat back to await the congratulations – which never came. Instead, the question: “Did you do your best?” I started to say, “Yes, sir,” but I remembered who this was and recalled several of the many times at the Academy when I could have learned more about our allies, our enemies, weapons, strategy, and so forth. I was just human. I finally gulped and said, “No, sir,  I didn’t always do my best.”

 He looked at me for a long time, and then turned his chair around to end the interview. He asked one final question, which I have never been able to forget – or to answer. He said, “Why not?” I sat there for a while, shaken, and then slowly left the room.

President Jimmy Carter in the background with his former Naval Commanding Officer, Admiral Hyman Rickover

DID YOU DO YOUR BEST?

Bruce Hills, having retold this story of Jimmy Carter being interviewed by Admiral Rickover, writes, “That same question, ‘Why not’, shook me to the core.” But as Jimmy Carter discovered, when we look back, we can then see how we might have done better. But that’s the key to it: looking back. But life doesn’t afford us the luxury of hindsight in advance! 

Last month, I was privileged to be the guest speaker at Catalyst in Ipswich, Queensland. One of the things I really enjoyed about being at this wonderful church was their multiple services. I have rarely ever preached any message twice. Whenever I am invited to a church, even if I am asked to speak on a particular topic, I always prayerfully consider what should be said and how it should be presented for that church. With this in mind, it has been said that every preacher always has three sermons: the one they prepare; the one they preach; and, the one they wish they’d preached! This brings me back to my time at Catalyst, a 900 member church, which has two multiple services on a Sunday morning. I preached my heart out in their 8:30AM service. I then had 30 minutes before the next service started at 10:30AM. In the break in between the services I had time to self-evaluate the message I’d just given. I saw several ways I could have done better and made some of the points clearer. At the 10:30AM service I preached my heart out again – but this time had the advantage of learning from my inadequacies in the first service. (I wish life was more like this!) I later overheard the pastor of Catalyst, Pastor Carl, tell someone, “Andrew did well in the first service, but he did better in the second service!” 

But if Admiral Rickover had looked me in eye and asked, “Did you do your best?” I would honestly say, “Yes sir!” This is despite my confession that I knew I could do better if I had another go, because even in evaluating my efforts in delivering the message the first time, I really did do my best. I think this principle applies to life generally. Most of us do do our best most of the time – especially when it comes to the important things in life like being a friend, an employee, a team-mate, a wife, a husband, a politician, a sales executive, a medical doctor, or a parent. But life’s episodes don’t come with multiple services where we get to have another go. 

Life is a sequence of unchangeable events in which we are usually doing our best with what we have and what we know.   

DOING YOUR BEST IS NOT A COMPETITION

For some people the word “best” implies being better than anyone else. But the only best we can be expected to do, is the best that we can do! This kind of best is our best effort, our best attitude, and our best focus. The apostle Paul warns against thinking in terms of a competitive best being equated to our best. 

Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
Second Corinthians 10:12

Of course, there are times when a challenge from someone we respect is able to bring out our best. I remember being in a church planting directors meeting with David Cartledge who asked about our church in Legana. I shared with him what we had done, and what we still hoped to achieve for the Lord. His parting words to me were, “Andrew, if anyone can do it, you can!” I don’t know if he said that to every young pastor, but his words to me that day filled my motivation tank for at least the next year. I tried harder. I wasn’t trying to compete with anyone else, I was simply trying harder to give my best to the Lord and His church.

WHAT DO YOU DO IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE YOUR BEST?

  In André Agassi’s book, Open, he describes his demise from world number 4 to world number 140. He has put on weight. He didn’t train much. And his recent marriage to Brooke Shields was on the rocks. His brother suggested that he get a coach to help him turn things around. He took the advice and engaged Brad Gilbert (1994-2002) who began to help him rebuild his game. He also went back to Gil Reyes, his fitness trainer who helped him to rebuild his body. Gilbert told Agassi that he wasn’t worthy to continue playing the pro-tour; instead, Gilbert told him, he had to go back to basics and begin playing club tournaments. Agassi had the humility to accept Gilbert’s humiliating rebuke and did indeed go back to play club tournaments. To his shock, the first club tournament he played saw him losing in the first round! It was then that he realised just how much trouble he was in. He continued to work hard and entered in more tournaments. After he eventually won one of these club tournaments, his brother was driving him back to the motel in the heat of a Californian summer’s day when André told him, “Pull the car over!” His brother asked why. “Because I didn’t give my best!” André told him. “But you won! And we’re still miles away from our motel – and besides, it’s blistering hot out there!” his brother replied. “I did win, but I only did the minimum I needed to do – and from now on, I’m only going to give my best! I’m running the rest of the way back to our motel.” Indeed he did. After the age of 29, when it was usual for most professional tennis players to have retired, André Agassi went on to win another 4 Grand Slam titles (largely due to his next coach, Darren Cahill). 

What do you do when you haven’t given your best?

1. Acknowledge it. 
2. Recognise how you could have done better. 
3. Do better next time.

In life there are times when we know we have not only not done our best, but we have, in fact, done our worst. When this involves hurting or harming others – especially God – we have a serious problem. I think of the young girl who rebels against her Christian upbringing and gets involved with the wrong crowd. In time she learns to drown her guilt with alcohol, pills and needles. But despite her numbness there is still that feint divine beckoning to come home that she feels is the right thing to do. The good news is, for anyone who has wandered, that God’s Word gives the hope that if we: 1) acknowledge what we have done has been wrong; 2) recognise that actions have hurt those we love, or at least the One who loves us more – God; and, 3) ask for forgiveness, then God promises to forgive us and wipe our slates clean. 

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
First John 1:8-9

There is tremendous power in an authentic apology. It can begin to heal a fractured friendship, a strained marriage, an injured daughter, or an offended father.

GOD’S HELP TO DO OUR BEST

Paul charges his protégés, Titus and Timothy, several times to do their best. His words to Timothy resound in my heart two thousand years or so later and I would covet your prayers to help me to do my best to be your pastor.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Second Timothy 2:15

The future will reveal that we could have done better – but none of us live in the future; we live in the now, and we do the best we can with what we have and what we know. For me, as a friend, husband, parent, pastor, the good news is that as I strive to do my best, I am not yet who I will one day be, and God’s Word tells me that it is God who works in the heart and life of those who strive to do their best for Him.

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13

Pastor Andrew 

THE GREATEST PREACHERS

Apparently, some time ago, one of the world’s most respected theological publishers, Banner of Truth Trust, announced a list of the world’s greatest preachers of all time. These were the preachers whose preaching shaped their world, and ours, for generations to come. Not surprisingly, Jesus of Nazareth topped the list. (I’m rather pleased to inform you that F.W. Boreham was among the top 20 on that list.) It does cause one to ask though, What constitutes a preacher as ‘great’? As a preacher, I’d also be interested to know how one becomes a ‘great’ preacher.  

The point is, Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.
Romans 10:17 THE MESSAGE

WHAT MAKES GREAT PREACHERS GREAT PREACHERS

History is peppered with many great preachers. Men such as Ambrose (340 – 397) was an Italian preacher whose preaching changed the world. His preaching led Augustine (354 – 430) to Christ who went on to become one of the greatest preachers of his day. John Wycliffe (1330 – 1384) was an English preacher who shook the world. Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) was a German preacher whose preaching changed the Europe. Count Nicolaus Ludwig Von Zinzendorf’s (1700 – 1760) preaching changed the destiny of at least three continents. John Wesley (1703 – 1791) was an English preacher whose preaching is credited as saving England from the destruction that tore France apart. Billy Graham (1918 – 2018) preached to more people than any other preacher and witnessed more people coming to Christ than any other preacher. Each of these great preachers exhibited 5 essential qualities:

1. Great preachers are attractive – they attract people to listen to them.
2. Great preachers are easy to listen to – they are simple, eloquent and hold people’s attention.
3. Great preachers have something important to say – they need people to listen.
4. Great preachers move people to action – they create a movement for change.
5. Great preachers speak from their compassionate hearts as well as their sharpened minds – they will often memorise facts, Scriptures, and poetry to reinforce their message. 

for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; 
¶ as even some of your own poets have said, 
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Paul of Tarsus, Acts 17:28

WHAT THE GREATEST PREACHERS ALSO DO

Determining who should be considered among the greatest preachers is generally based on the level and scope of their influence and effectiveness. This is why the Apostle Paul is rightly considered to be the most influential preacher of all time (after Christ of course). His preaching clearly impressed people. The people of Lystra (Acts 14:12), for example, thought he was the god Hermes since he was such a good speaker. Was it his training that made him a great preacher? Was it his level of practice? Was it his dedication? Was it his great learning? There is something often overlooked about each of the truly great preachers that made them great, especially the Apostle Paul, : they prayed – but not how you might think. 

The universal trait of every great preacher is that they were unusually intense pray-ers. You would be forgiven for thinking that great preachers often prayed to be a great preacher. But the evidence suggests that this was never their prayer focus. Using Paul as our model, we can see from his epistles just how this great preacher prayed. Reading his epistles, one thing becomes very clear about how Paul saw the connection between prayer and preaching: he saw them as a partnership, a dual partnership. This dual partnership was firstly between prayer and preaching, and secondly, his support community and him. Note these two Scriptural examples.

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—
Colossians 4:3

¶ Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you,
Second Thessalonians 3:1

LOOKING FOR PRAYERFUL PARTNERS

If you have ever heard a great preacher, you can be certain that there is a team of people praying constantly for them and the effectiveness of their message. When the Apostle Paul sought prayer from those he turned to, he didn’t seek it so much for himself, rather, he sought it for its effectiveness of the preached Word when it was preached to those without Christ (note the two examples above). Down through the ages whenever God raised up a preacher, He also raised up their support team who would pray for the effectiveness of their preaching. Perhaps the most recent and clearest example of this would be the one they called,The Prince of Preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He became a preacher at the age of 16. By the age of 19 he was pastoring a small Baptist church near the Thames in London. His friends and family back home in the countryside where he came from were praying constantly for the young preacher with the strange country twang to ears of Londoners. By the time he was 26, his church had grown far bigger than their building could hold. A public building was leased while the church constructed its new facilities in Elephant and Castle (inner London). Over 30,000 people gathered in that building to hear the young preacher and thousands of them made a commitment to Christ over the coming years. When Spurgeon opened ‘Metropolitan Tabernacle’, it could hold 6,000 people and they could hold up to five services a Sunday to fit the crowds in. This tabernacle was built with a furnace room downstairs and whenever Spurgeon preached there was always hundreds of people down there praying for the effectiveness of his message! 

Today, I’m praying that God will raise up both great preachers and great pray-ers. In next week’s post, I’ll discuss how these great preachers prayed for those who responded to their preaching. For now, I pray that God may stir you to be either one who preaches or one who prays for those who preach and what is preached to bear fruit for Christ. Let’s pray.  

Your Pastor,

Andrew Corbett

Do Your Best

Do Your Best

It’s almost unbelievable who Christ entrusted with His mission to save the world! This motley bunch of original disciples were the most unlikely candidates for being the founding agents of global redemption. Yet they did it! And along the way, they stumbled, faltered, and probably let Christ down. But they did it! And this should give us, who stumble and falter, great hope, that Christ knows what He’s doing when He chose us! 

There are some churches around the world that are world’s best practice. Their music is world-class. Their ‘customer’ service is second to none. Their preachers are more inspirational than the best TED talkers. Their facilities are better than the best Westfield shopping centre. They hold international conferences which attract thousands of delegates. As far as churches go, these are the best. But they only comprise less than 1% of all churches around the world. For the rest of us in the 99% of churches around the world, we may not be among the best, but we are generally comprised of those who are doing their best. And it seems that Jesus is still entrusting His mission to people like us – people who stumble and falter.

At Legana we are blessed. We recently opened our new worship centre. Many people have told us that it is among the best in our State. It is a beautiful centre with plenty of room for growth. But it can cause us confuse being the best with doing our best. And this is one of the greatest dangers any church can face because it can lead to an overwhelming sense failure and even despair.

Paul’s Last Letter

The last letter the Apostle Paul wrote, that we know of, was his Second Epistle to Timothy. In it, he uses the expression “do your best” three times to his young protégé.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Second Timothy 2:15

Being the best requires making comparisons. Doing your best simply means working with your availability, abilities, training, experience, and use of available resources. Sometimes each of these qualifiers (time, talent, training, experience, and resources) are limited. In the 99% of local churches scattered around the world, there are usually 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. I wonder if this is because the 80% who sit back don’t feel good enough to be able to serve? Paul’s injunction to young Timothy was to do your best to present yourself to God as a pastor of God’s people whose primary task was teach the Word of God to his congregation. When we do our best, we have need to be ashamed. 

Shortly after I began pastoring Legana I was nearly overcome with a sense of inadequacy as a preacher. Each Sunday morning before I went to church I would go on a prayer walk and cry out to God for His help. I asked and asked and asked that He might use me more effectively to teach His Word. I begged Him to make me into the kind of preacher who cared deeply for those I ministered to. I pleaded with Him to mould me into a persuasive preacher to rescue those who were wrestling with doubts and to enable me to deliver the antidote to doubt – the truth – in the power of the Holy Spirit. I sought Him for the insight to be able to convince the hardest sceptics and cynics to turn to Christ based on the evidence for the God of the Bible (shortly after this praying I was to discover F.W. Boreham). I have continued to surrender to Him prayerfully asking that He would help me to grow as a pastor, a preacher and a teacher – and I would value your occasional prayer for this as well. I have tried to do my best.

“That’s all any of us can do – our best.”

We may never be the best at anything, but we can do our best in everything. This is why, must to the surprise of many, I’m relatively relaxed about how we are doing as a church. We have an extraordinary percentage of our church who serve and give support. I am deeply grateful for everyone who volunteers to help in the various things that need doing in our church. I am grateful for you who offer yourselves to the Lord and prayerfully ask God to help you to do your best in however you serve. I have noticed that many of our young people have been doing this and have volunteered to help out in various roles. What I am also noticing is that there must be people asking God to help them to do their best. Because, when I began to earnestly seek God those few years back to help me to do my best as a preacher I became hungrier to learn and to grow. My openness to instruction and training increased. And I am seeing a similar thing happen among many in our church.

¶ Do your best to come to me soon.
Second Timothy 4:9 (Also see v.21)

The Best Is Sometimes Just Being There

Paul’s plea for Timothy to come to him (in prison) soon is heart-warming. Paul goes on in this epistle to reveal that he knew he was about to die soon. Indeed, he would. Toward the end of 64AD, shortly after the Apostle Peter was crucified by order of Caesar Nero, the Apostle Paul would be beheaded by order of the same tyrant who executed Peter. His plea to Timothy reminds us that while we can each do our best, sometimes we can be the difference in someone’s life. At this lonely time for Paul, he longed to see Timothy, his son in the faith (1Tim. 1:2). None of us should dismiss the encouragement we are by just being there. Paul longed for Timothy to just be there with him in this trying hour. Coming to worship on Sundays, even if you don’t serve as a volunteer, is being an encouragement to others. Do your best to come to worship on Sundays.

Give Christ Your Best Shot

The beautiful thing about Church is that it is comprised mostly of people who are not the best and we know it. But with the help of the Holy Spirit we are each learning to improve and to spur one another on to even greater effectiveness for Christ. So don’t worry if you’re not as good as someone else, or that many others are better than you at whatever, just keep giving Christ your best shot. And somehow, I suspect, that just as He established the church with faltering, frail, and stumbling servants, He will probably culminate His church’s closing efforts with similarly weak and faltering servants like you and me.

    

Pastor Andrew.

ALL I CAN DO

Have you ever beaten yourself up? You know, scolded yourself for being so far less than perfect? As a recovering auto-beater, I have a few tips for those who still practice self-beating. All of these tips are based on the words: do your best. The problem with this expression is that the perfectionist actually hears something unattainable which means they haven't heard it all!

Have you ever been afraid to start something or even trysomething because you thought you wouldn't be good enough? Chances are you a closet-perfectionist. Perfectionists need to understand: There is a world of difference between being the best and doing your best. We can't all be "the best". But we can do our best. And sure, we could always do better than what we've just done, but doing your best involves elements such as- at this time, with what you have, and according to what you know at the time. At a different time, you might do the same thing differently and perhaps better. But when you did it, you didn't have a different time at your disposal (those who sit exams know what I'm talking about). Similarly, when you did what you did, you did it with what you had at your disposal (remember your first car?). And, perhaps you know more now than you did at the time you did what you did. But most of life's actions were done by people who were exercising what they knew at the time rather than what they were going to know! (You might have to talk with a seasoned parent to understand what I'm talking about here.)

Doing your best doesn't necessarily mean that you're doing the very best you possibly could, because: you have to do your best with the time you have, the resources presently at your disposal, and using the knowledge you currently have. Sure, given more time, better equipment and greater training, you could undoubtedly do better. But doing yourbest means you do the best you can using your available time, energy, resources and know-how at your disposal.

The Bible uses the expression, do your best, in this light.

making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:16

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Second Timothy 2:15

Paul asked Timothy to do his best to come to him (2Tim. 4:9, 21) and asked Titus to do the same (Titus 3:12).

Do your best to speed Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing.
Titus 3:13

I have to constantly remind myself that even the Bible doesn't make unreasonable perfectionist demands of me. It asks me to give my best. I am asked to make the best of my time (Col. 4:5). I am asked to do my best in the service of preaching and teaching God's Word (2Tim. 2:15). I am to do my best in showing hospitality to others (Titus 3:13). And I am to do my best as a parent. I now get to the end of my days with To-Do lists unfinished, phone-calls not returned, emails unanswered, ocassions not appreciated as they deserve to be, projects half-done, and think: well, that's the best I could do today.

"He came to my desk with a quivering lip,
The lesson was done.
'Have you a new sheet for me, dear teacher?
I've spoiled this one.'
I took his sheet, all soiled and blotted,
And gave him a new one all unspotted,
And to his tired heart I cried.
'Do better now, my child.' 

I went to the throne with a troubled heart,
The day was done.
'Have a new day for me, dear Master?
I've spoiled this one.'
He took my day, all soiled and blotted,
And gave a new one all unspotted.
And to my tired heart He cried,
'Do better now, my child.'" 

Anon., "Do Better Now My Child"

Changing the way we think of "doing our best" should literally take the pressure off. We are no longer burdened by the expectations of others. We do what we do because we do it as unto the Lord. We then get to the end of our day with the knowledge that we practically could not have done any better, and we can sleep knowing, "That's all I can do."

Ps. Andrew

Created In The Image of God

Human life is unique. The Bible reveals to us that after God created all non-human life, He then especially created humans. But even more importantly, God declared that He created mankind in His image. In Latin this is referred to as imago dei - the image of God. Only mankind bears the imago dei. We know that this does not merely mean our physical traits since God is Spirit and not confined to a physical body. So what does the "image of God in man" mean?

We know that mankind is uniquely endowed with -

• An immortal (not eternal, since it is created) soul that defines our life (James 2:26)



• Self-consciousness, we can ponder our own existence



• Moral sensitivity with the ability to be altruistic and heroic



• Aesthetic appreciation that admires and is captivated by beauty



• Spiritual hunger that manifests in transcendent (beyond this dimension) worship



• Curiosity about the past and the future



• A need for intimate relationship especially with God

This is what makes us different from animals and very special in the eyes of God. It's also why in Genesis 9:6 that God condemns the unjustified taking of another human's life.

The imago dei of humans is not mitigated by a person's size, gender, race, skin colour, location, intellectual prowess, or ability to perform a task. Therefore, from conception (the smallest possible size of a human) even in a mother's womb (location does not determine whether a human is a human) or in a hospice care bed attached to feeding tubes, human beings are of unique worth. God has made no greater statement about this than when He sent His Son to die in our place so that human beings could be reconciled to their Creator.

Biblical Illiteracy Is Not Just About Big Words

I have a son who thinks he is the world's best speller. It's actually become a family joke just how bad his spelling is though. In his 5th year of Elementary School, he couldn't see the irony of how he had labelled his Spelling Workbook - "Speeling". Even now, at pre-tertiary level, Tiger (my son) still can't spell. I have to read and re-read what he has written in order to figure out what the correct spelling should be and this discover what he is actually trying to say.

Every good English teacher will tell his students, "Don't use a big word when a small word will do." Similarly, they will teach their students to write concisely - don't use a lot of words when you can say the same thing with just a few.* But sometimes it is a big word that is both simple and concise. This is especially so if the big word is unequivocal (it can only mean one thing). Scripture very carefully uses such big words. Let's look at four of these and then we'll conclude with Christianity's biggest word...[more]

God's Sovereignty

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. (Revelation 17:14)

This verse (written around late 63AD) forms part of the context for the events about to occur with the ending of the Old Covenant
elements (the Temple, the Priesthood, and the Sacrificial system of Law). The events leading up to the close of the Old Covenant are referred to in the New Testament as "the last days" (eg. Hebrews 1:2) or "the end of the ages" (eg. 1Cor. 10:11; Hebrews 9:26). Revelation 17:14 describes the Conquering Christ who overcomes all opposition to Him, His Cause, and His people.

When someone has the ability to achieve their predetermined will and plan with exact precision by integrating all of the variables circumstances, free-will agents, and even disobedience, we refer to this phenomenon as "sovereignty".

This verse in Revelation is a clear statement of Christ's sovereignty. He is "Lord of lords and King of kings". He will always achieve His predetermined will and plan. And this applies no more powerfully in His plan of salvation. For those He saves are - "called", "chosen" and enabled by Him to be "faithful".

Thank God for His sovereign grace!