{"id":4037,"date":"2019-05-10T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T05:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jfbelievers.com\/?p=4037"},"modified":"2019-05-10T00:01:41","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T05:01:41","slug":"pulling-your-weight-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/10\/pulling-your-weight-2\/","title":{"rendered":"PULLING YOUR WEIGHT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In November of 1988, a baby boy was born in Reykjavik,\nIceland, and hardly anyone knew about it. His parents named him \u2018Hafpor\u2019.\nThirty years later, he stands at 6\u20199\u201d, and weighs 440 pounds. Hafpor Julius\nBjornsson is currently designated the world\u2019s strongest man. If you\u2019re\nunfamiliar with what that means, let me spell it out for you: I drive a Chevy\nColorado with a 3-ton towing capacity, while Hafpor has a fifteen-<\/em>ton towing capacity. I can pull a trailer<\/em> with my truck<\/em>. Hafpor\ncan pull airplanes<\/em> with a rope<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all babies, Hafpor started out little; and like\nmost babies, he grew. He grew in both physical dimension and<\/em> social distinction. Not only is he the strongest man in the\nworld, he\u2019s also an actor. Starring in several roles on TV & film,\nincluding a part in the 4th<\/sup> season of HBO\u2019s hit series \u201cGame of Thrones<\/em>\u201d, people everywhere have\nnow seen his face. Hafpor has become hard to hide in more ways than one. That\nobscure little boy from Iceland just isn\u2019t the same as he used to be. Hafpor\ngrew up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becoming\na Body that Fascinates.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not his size<\/em>\nthat makes Hafpor so impressive, it\u2019s his strength<\/em>.\nThere are a lot of men in this world that stand taller<\/em> than he does, and many more who are heavier<\/em> than he is, but no one on the entire planet is stronger<\/em>. And that\u2019s why we\u2019re so\nfascinated with his body. No one seems to envy fat<\/em>; that\u2019s just size without strength. And few people would want\nto be taller<\/em> than everyone else,\nbecause (aside from a career in the NBA) the advantages would be so outweighed\nby the disadvantages. But strength<\/em>?\nWho wouldn\u2019t want to be a little stronger? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strength is what God is looking for in our churches\nmore than anything, and what we ought to be striving for above everything.\nMaturity, stability, spiritual durability. The Body of Christ should be\nfascinating the world, and it doesn\u2019t need to be big to do it. It only needs to\nbe strong. The Lord God is known for doing great things through small groups of\npeople with little to offer but spiritual resilience. Think of Noah\u2019s family,\nand what they accomplished. Remember Gideon\u2019s men, and what they did. Consider\nEsther and her uncle. Look at the Apostles. The amount of weight they were able\nto pull is remarkable. Maybe that could be us. What would it take?      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two\nWays to Gain Weight.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Donuts or\ndumbbells<\/em>. Both are equally capable of helping a\nperson grow larger, but you don\u2019t need to be a genius to know which one is the\nhealthier route. Why then, in the church, would we expect God to make something\nimpressive out of this ministry through our mere \u2018snacking\u2019? Snacking is when\nsomeone goes easy on themselves in the crucial areas of spiritual life like\ntrue humility, self-denial, and genuine repentance, by keeping it hidden\nbeneath a thick blanket of church service & participation. There\u2019s no real strength\nthere, just a bunch of fluff. It\u2019s like bulking up on a heavy diet of junk food\nby about 40 pounds and then thinking you can beat Hafpor at next year\u2019s Strongman\nCompetition. That simply will not happen. The church needs a better strategy\nthan that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major difference between you and Hafpor is not so\nmuch your size<\/em>, but your situation<\/em>. Hafpor works alone. When he\npulls an airplane, he does it by himself<\/em>,\nbut you and I pull as a team<\/em>. We are inherently\ndependent upon one another, and if we hope to be strong at all, we need to be\nstrong together<\/em>. Anyone who refuses\nto pull their own weight is weakening the whole team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to understand the significant effect your private\nlife has on the rest of the people in this church family. What you do when you\u2019re\nalone is partly responsible for the health you see in each other when we\u2019re\ntogether. We can either pray for each other faithfully, or we can sin against\neach other clandestinely. Either practice will have an equally tangible, but\nvery opposite effect, on the people you interact with at church. Your private\nlife is either contributing to our health<\/em>,\nor our demise<\/em>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t\nBe Like Achan.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It only takes a single individual to hold back an\nentire team. Achan\u2019s folly reminds us of that (Joshua 7). He secretly took what\nwas not his to take, and worse, he refused to confess it. Because of his\nprivate sin and the necessary deceit he used to keep it hidden, the army of\nIsrael suffered public defeat. Thirty six men died because of him, the whole nation\nlost heart because of him, and God\u2019s people were stopped dead in their tracks\nbecause of him. On account of one man\u2019s compromise, corporate zeal was replaced\nwith widespread cowardice, and the hope they once had was sufficiently stamped\nout. The entire community sustained loss, all because of Achan. Everybody was\npulling their weight except him. What a haunting testimony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be\nLike Hafpor.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s senseless to believe you can be part of a strong church if you aren\u2019t strong yourself. If you\u2019re not pulling your weight, you\u2019re forcing everyone else to do it for you, and sapping the strength that we\u2019re supposed to have. Do you want<\/em> to belong to a strong church? Are you willing to make the personal sacrifice for that to happen? We\u2019ve got no less potential than any other group of believers, in any part of the world, at any time in history. If God can preserve the entire human race with 8 people in a boat, or save a whole nation through a young woman & her uncle, or reach this world with the gospel through 12 blue-collar men, then think of what He might do through us… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Hafpor can pull a plane, there\u2019s no reason why we\nshouldn\u2019t be moving mountains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can God do great things through our church? Yes, He\ncan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does God want<\/em>\nto do great things through our church? Of course He does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will<\/em>\nHe do great things through our church? Not sure. Are you willing to pull your\nweight? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In November of 1988, a baby boy was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, and hardly anyone knew about it. His parents named him \u2018Hafpor\u2019. Thirty years later, he stands at 6\u20199\u201d, and weighs 440 pounds. Hafpor Julius Bjornsson is currently designated the world\u2019s strongest man. If you\u2019re unfamiliar with what that means, let me spell it … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pastors-notes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jfbduluth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}