Peter Witkowski Discipleship

Significance: How Do We Find It?

man-with-feet-out“The most interesting man in the world,” is a tagline that resonated with hearts all across America. Most every kid, teenager, or adult craves the ability to mesmerizes a room with a calm recounting of their latest exotic story. Sure we may not all want to grab a beer. The beer commercial even acknowledges as much. But the message of the Dos Equis goes beyond your beverage of choice. The add connects with the human longing to separate, differentiate, ourselves to such a point that our neighbors cannot help but remark, “Wow, that guy.”

How do we arrive at such a place, short of going to the moon? How do we find significance worth noting?

I remember lamenting my life as middle schooler because I had no amazing stories. I never car-surfed or got my football team to lift the car of fellow classmate over a locked gate. I struggled to get my parents to let me listen to classical rock n roll. The idea of being interesting to a world of kids who had unlimited access to cable T.V. and Super Nintendo’s seemed all but impossible.

How do escape our boring childhood, high school career, and adult, work life?

Do we have to be sexual immoral on the beach while our friends root us on? Do we need to drink, smoke, vape, and do whatever else is ‘in’ to garner our neighbors attention?

The answer is no because significance does not come from our peers, friends, or those around us.

We find significance when we delight in the law of the Lord. In Psalm one we read, “Blessed is the man who…delights in the law of the Lord and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Significance is not found in the wisdom of our peers, in the consensus of our Facebook group, or in the ideas of the university. Those who embrace the world seeking significance may indeed find wealth, lovers, and recognition. Those who risk all to impress their friends and to gain notoriety may very well gain that which they seek. But they will not find the blessing of God. They will not find true life.

We are not supposed to walk in the counsel of the wicked. We should not say divorce is ok because our Facebook friends agree that our spouse is a loser. We should not cheat on our taxes because we see that our friends got away with defrauding the government. We cannot find significance and life by chasing after the things of the world.

We are not to stand in the way of sinners. The way of the blessed and happy does not flow through the world. Joy is not found in the company of sinners. The friends who join with us to watch an X-rated movie, or who laugh with us as we drink ourselves silly drunk do not lead us to happiness and fulfilment.

Now some try to be innovative and mock those seeking significance. Instead of running with them, they mock everything. They mock those who try to live biblically for being too boring to try drugs. They mock the studious for not realizing that life is all vanity and worthless. They mock the foolish for not valuing education and discipline enough to earn the money needed to enjoy life’s finer pleasures. They take joy in mocking and in deriding the hopes and dreams of others. They take joy in separating themselves form others by their mocking.

All these attempts to find meaning are pointless.  All their names, records, and stories will fade. The Psalmist says “The wicked…are like the chaff that the wind drives away.” They are here today and gone. The Chaff is the dried husk left in the field after the crop has been harvested. It is worthless and quickly whisked away by the wind. Such is the life of the wicked, the worldly, and all those who embrace the counsel of the wicked, who stand in the way of sinners, and who sit in the seat of the scornful.

Albert Camus knew as much and despaired of life having any real many. Often the today’s most interesting man will be no more than an asterisk in forgotten history book that no one reads. Significance cannot be found in the human experiment.

The Psalmist agrees. True life which consists not of being known by our neighbor but in being connected to God via God’s Word. The man and the women who delight in the Word of God have true significance.

Only those who delight in the Word find God.

It is true that nature declares the glory of God. But nature does not save. Nature does not show us our sin. Nature does not present Christ are our savior. Nature does not offer us hope. Nature only reveals that there is a God who is far removed from us. We cannot reach God on our own through nature.

Thankfully we do not have to reach out to God because he has reached out to us. He has given us his Word. He knows our petty attempts for significance will fail. And he has given us his Word. His Word shows us who God is and what he requires of us. The Word shows that all who repent and believe will find life through Christ. The Word offers significance through the saving power of God. If you have not repented and believed the Word -that Christ came to die and rescue evil people like you and me from our sin- I encourage you to believe now. Repent now. Trust God’s Word. When you do you find abundant life. You find a joy that will never end.

Now, we will go through times of extreme heat. We may lose all position, notoriety, and even our home. But, we are happy; we have significance because we are attached to God. He sustains us through all. Those of us who find their significance in Christ will never wither under the weight of human opinion, sickeness, or disasters.

By focusing on Christ we escape our sorrows, the daily grind, and the hopeless cycle of the media. And not only do we escape, we flourish. We will grow in our understanding of God’s character. We will grow in our obedience. We will grow and will prosper.

This does not mean that every Christian who starts a business will become a billionaire. This does not mean every school project will be easy or that everyone will love us. No, this means that our relationship with the Lord will not wain. This means that no matter what we lose in this world, we will have Christ as revealed in the Word. He will sustain us and help us flourish.

Significance cannot be found in the human experiment because history is not the final judge. God is. Value and significance cannot be found in hanging off buildings nor in criticizing those who do.  Significance is found in being with God at the end of universe. The wicked, those who walk with the wicked, stand with sinners, and sit with scoffers will find only judgement. Only the righteous, those who abide with Christ will be known by God.

To find significance, we do not have to launch ourselves to Mars. We need to plug into the Word of God. We need focus our lives on the Word of God. We need to repent of all the days we spent courting the favor of the world in an effort to sustain our insatiable ego. And then, we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must abandon the illusion that there is a most interesting man in this world and that we can be him or her. Then we must embrace the reality that there is a God who is far greater and far better than we could ever imagine. When we do, we will find the significance that we crave.

Are you ready to pursue the one true God?

Peter Witkowski Evangelism, Parenting

Do I Need To Win My Child To Christ?

paul-bence-221565Are we responsible for the salvation of our toddler who just jammed an entire waffle into her mouth and the teenager who just texted us that she might have hit a pole when backing up? Will God find fault with us if we fail to usher our children into the kingdom of God before trade in their pig tails for a college I.D. card?

Some pastors would say, “Yes.” Paul proclaimed, “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them to Christ” (I Corinthians 9:19). As the following verses make clear Paul did anything and everything he could to win people to Christ. He suffered all kinds of hardships; he argued the gospel from all kinds or perspectives. He worked hard to win many to Christ. “I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some, ” he reported (I Corinthians 9:22b).

Paul appears to be implying that parents must work hard to win their children to the Lord. We parents seem to be responsible for making sure little Johnny walks the aisle and for making sure little Sarah gets baptized. We must talk, persuade, and influence our kids until they are willing to accept the Christian life. We must win them for the Lord while the day is young.

While such thinking is pervasive in SBC circles and in evangelicalism in general, such thinking is not ultimately biblical thinking. Flip back to 1 Corinthians 1:1-2:1. Paul tackles the Corinthians’ boastful thinking by reminding them that God does all the work. God saves sinners as the apostles preached (1 Corinthians 1:21). God chose those whom would believe (I Corinthians 1:27,28, 31). Paul clearly did not believe that his sermons, his evangelism strategies, and his programs caused people to repent and believe.

He wrote in I Corinthians 2:1-2 these words:

And I, when I came you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and hum crucified.

Paul saved no one.

We will save no one. Even if we get junior to repeat a prayer after us, we have saved not saved Junior. We are not responsible for winning our children to Christ. We do not have to play the right music, leverage the right amount of guilt, or seize the perfect moment when our kid is both still and awake. Nor do we have to hold our kid hostage in a spiritual timeout, suspending our family movie night until our girl repents and believes.

We can save no one with our passion, sincerity, and skill.  Only God brings dead souls to life through his Word (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Can you or I by our earnest talking break the power of Satan over a man’s life? No. Can you or I give life to the spiritually dead? No. Can we hope to convince sinners of the truth of the gospel by patient explanation? No. Can we hope to move men to obey the gospel by any words of entreaty that we may utter? No. Our approach to evangelism is not realistic till we have faced this shattering face and let it make it’s proper impact on us. – J.I. Packer

We do not have to worry about saving our children. We are not called to win them or anyone else to Christ. We are called to proclaim the gospel. As Mark Dever cautions us, “Evangelism must not be confused with the fruit of evangelism.”

We can rest assured that our job is only to teach our kids about the gospel. We can be like Paul and share the gospel with the son who thinks he can work his way to heaven by obeying his parents’ rules. We can evangelize our daughter who believes she can find joy apart from obedience to Christ through self-fulfillment via sex. We can point our son to Christ as he grieves his latest break up; we can point our daughter to Christ as she mourns her rejection from her top college of choice. We can at all times and in all circumstances point our children to Christ.

To be a soul winner is to be a parent who sacrifices all for the chance to share Christ with their children.

We have to be willing to skip our favorite T.V. show, mess up our vacation plans, and lose money on non-refundable tickets. We have to be willing to play with dump trucks and rub a sore knee, and do everything in between. We have to be willing to be all things to our children. J.I. Packer said,

The truth is that personal evangelism is very costly, just because it demands of us a really personal relationship with the other person.

Do we have personal relationships with our children? Are we sacrificing all to get to know our children so that we can love them, train them, and point them to the gospel? Or are we just the bank, the shuttle driver, and the tutor? Do we know the kids sleeping under our roof?

We should know our kids. But, we do not have to add ‘salvation’ to our list of parental responsibilities. To be a soul winner is to be a preacher of the gospel. We can do this.  Moreover, we must do this as our own obedience and the vitality of our faith is directly tied to us sharing Christ with our children (Deuteronomy 6, Ephesians 6).

Thankfully, many of our kids are open and receptive to hearing the gospel from our lips. Some eighty-six percent of Americans today claim that their family influenced their identity. How you respond to your kids’ angry bat toss, their perfect report card, and their completion of their driver exam will shape them for better or for worse.

What are will telling our kids? Are we sharing the gospel with them?

Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry

The One Thing Leaders Can Learn From Joshua

Joshua-leaderJoshua was quite the leader. Joshua is known for his amazing courage, for his ingenuity in conquering Jericho, and for his famous farewell charge. While these are all important moments in Joshua life that helped define him as a leader, they were not ‘the’ defining moment of his leadership career. The defining moment, that brief period during which people final saw him as, “the guy,” happened in Joshua chapter 4.

The author of the sacred Scripture reports,

And when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the Lord and the priests passed over before the people. The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the people of Israel, as Moses had told them. About 40,000 ready for War passed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho. On that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life. (Joshua 4:11-14).

The moment at which signified that the torch had passed from Moses happened as the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River. The forty years of wandering in the wilderness was at an end. Moses had died. The era of promise and new leadership had begun.

But the people of Israel still faced a massive problem. Before they could claim their promise land and start capturing cities, they needed to cross the Jordan River. According to text, the Israelites hit the Jordan sometime during the months of March and April, flood season. Joshua 3:15 says “now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest.” The Jordan River which could reach lows of four feet was probably running around thirteen deep.

Thankfully, God had a plan. He told Joshua to line up all the people as Moses had done. Once in order, the priests carried the ark of the covenant into the Jordan River. As the priests walked into the river, the waters would stop, allowing the people of Israel to walk on dry land (Joshua 3). Once all the people were on dry land and a man from each tribe has taken a stone from the dry river bed, the priest would walk out of the river and the flow of water would resume (Joshua 3-4).

Joshua relayed the message to the people. They listened to Joshua, obeyed the Lord, and the miraculous happened.  Joshua 4:14-17 reads,

 So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), 16 the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.

Joshua is the guy!

Ironically Joshua’s defining leadership moment in the eyes of his supporters had nothing to do with him. He did not walk into the water first. He did not slam a stick into the ground, he did not offer great sacrifices, he did nothing heroic. He simply relayed the Word of God to the people of God.

Joshua was a great leader because he obeyed God. If we hope to be great leaders with must do the same. Great, godly leaders are not the ones who perform heroic feats. Great leaders are not the men who can payoff a million dollar church loan in a month, great leaders are not women who grow their children’s ministry from 5 kids to 500 kids, and great leaders are not the person who can create the next great program. Great leaders are those who obey God.

And great leader desire to obey God because they know that God gives the increase. Notice that Joshua grows in the estimation of his people because “the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel. (Joshua 4:14).God choose Joshua. God told Joshua how to lead. And God made Joshua great.

Friends (and my own dear heart) do not miss this. Greatness is bestowed by God on some of his children.  We cannot win people over by getting a picture published in the newspaper. We cannot gain greatness by creating a massive social media platform. We cannot work our way to greatness by starting new program after new program.

The ability to create a great ministry legacy does not reside with us. God gives the increase. God exalts us. God grows our ministry from 5-5000. God does it. Not us.

To be great godly, leaders we need to simply obey God and share his word with others. God told Joshua

This Book of the Law shall not depart form your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you maybe careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and the you will have good success.  – Joshua 1-8.

Paul said it this way in I Timothy 4:16

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Great leaders are humble men and women who seek to obey God and to tell others to obey God. Good leadership is never anything less and definitely is nothing more.

Brothers and Sisters are you leading like Joshua?