In ministry, it's easy to chase every new idea. Trust me, I've done it. But not every idea is a calling. Today we're talking about how to stay focused on what God has actually called you to do. Coming up right now from the Clear V Today Show.
You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Delantis. Welcome to the final episode of the week.
We are so glad that you've stuck with us. We've had a lot of great conversations here in the studio. We've got one more for you today before the weekend with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah, who's a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr.
Shah, another week. It's good to be here. Good to see you. Good to be here. Good to see you.
Absolutely. I'm very excited about the topic today because we're going to sort of continue what we talked about, the reliability of scripture. But this time, I think we're going in a different direction. Like you said, the importance of sticking to it. Amen.
Amen. You know, a lot of times, and we can talk about this in a little bit, but a lot of times we have these conversations and a lot of them are... to dig deep into the Bible, dig deep into the word and discover the truth. But all of it is wrapped up in we want churches and ministries to run better. And when you know the Bible, when you have a gift for like digging deep into the scripture or you're being helped in that gift by radio shows like this one, you're able to run your ministries more efficiently.
You're able to run them better and the church functions better when you know God's word more. 100%. Absolutely. And our goal today is to help you stay focused on what God has actually called you to do, to parse out amongst the distractions, amongst the things that, you know, pop up and vie for your attention. How do you stay focused on what God has actually called you to do?
Before we do that, I just want to give you a quick update. And reminder, we are looking for potential sponsors for the show. We do have several sponsors already, and we're grateful for them. But if you'd like to advertise your business on the Clearview Today Show and partner with us in getting the gospel out on the airwaves, send us an email at contact at clearviewtodayshow.com, or you can write in or call into the show at 252-582-5028. We would love to count you as part of our Clear View Today Show sponsorship and have you on our team as we reach the nations with the gospel.
That's right, Dr. Shah, have you ever noticed either when a ministry gets tough or when things start running well, how easy it is to jump into a new idea? A new project, the moment that things start to really flow, or maybe you start to realize, like, hey, this isn't exactly what I thought, instead of Staying focused, making it work, we want to jump into a new idea. And we fail to realize that the greatest ministry typically happens where God has planted us. You know what I mean?
Right. Yeah.
Well, often it happens. because of discouragement. Because as a pastor you don't see the church growing, or as a Sunday school teacher, you you see uh your class uh less full than it was Maybe a month ago or last year. And so you feel like I need to do something else. I need to start something.
I need to create some excitement. Other than just getting up there and preaching the Bible, or getting up there and just teaching a Sunday school lesson, I need to do something. And that is one of the biggest mistakes people make, pastors make, Sunday school teachers make. uh is to think that somehow I need to leave The primary occupation. Remember, the apostles said that when all the skirmish began over the the the Distribution of the food in the early church, and they were fussing at the apostles about the Greek widows or the Hellenist background widows were not getting their needs met and they were being left out.
And so they came to the apostles and complained.
Now, they could have very easily said, okay, let's have a think tank. Let's have a big committee meeting, a big brain trust. We're going to sit together and we're going to come up with a lot of ideas that would help make sure that no one feels left out and no one's needs go unmet. And how can we just, you know, just cover them up with just love and grace and feel like they're all welcome? But instead, what did they do?
They said, Pick out from among you seven men. of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit. All that stuff. And then when they did They said, We're going to go back to what we're called to do, which is the word of God in prayer. That's right.
The ministry of the word and prayer. That was their primary responsibility. How easy it would have been for them to say, Yeah, you know, let's have a time where everybody can voice their complaints. Let's listen to them and let's tally them and let's see what kind of complaints we're getting and how we can meet their needs and how we can branch out, maybe start some new ministries. Yeah, yeah, you think you think I'm gonna be a good listener, that's gonna make me a good leader.
Yeah, just let everybody get their stuff out. And I'm gonna listen, I'm gonna really take it in. But in the process, in the process, they've diverted from what they were actually called to do. Yeah, my dad preached a message years ago that I heard. I mean, when I say years ago, I'm talking about over 25 years ago about how this happened in the early church.
And they recognized immediately that Satan had come in. Satan is a distractor. He's not going to come in and tell you, hey, deny God, shake your fist at God. He will just tell you, um, Yeah, what you're doing is great, but this is better. This is better.
And just with that little bit of that, he will get you to deviate from what God has called you to do. Yeah.
Why do you think we're s all usually so ready to jump on it? I mean, again, discouragement. You know, you feel like, man, if I do this, then it will sort of get get the excitement happening again. People will start coming again and my church will be full or my Sunday school class will be full. And it's not.
Mm-hmm. Churches In Sunday school classes they go through seasons. Summertime people are traveling. Christmas time people are shopping.
Okay, so there are different things that are happening.
So take that into account.
Sometimes it is sickness.
Sometimes it is uh you know, weddings are taking place. Graduations happen.
So people are in and out, lots going on. Don't let that define. Your mission, your vision, your core values. That's true. That's a great point.
How can we as. pastors or ministry leaders or Sunday school teachers, how can we identify those when they pop up and maybe even proactively guard ourselves against that discouragement? Just follow the great leaders. Whether they were men or women. Right?
them and not just those who make a lot of noise, but those who are grounded, those who have stood the test of time and see what they emphasized above everything else. What you will find in Christian ministry, whether church or Sunday school or ministry, is they stood firm at the very place where the apostle stood front: word of God and prayer. They make sure that those things are not compromised.
Now, fellowship is important. Uh Spending time with God's people is important. Going off and having fellowships or conferences are all wonderful. but they can never substitute. A pastor getting up.
and preaching the word of God. It will never ever substitute that Sunday school teacher, not just on Saturday night, but throughout the week, taking time to dig into God's Word, taking that lesson and say, Oh, my lesson this time is from Ephesians chapter two or Um You know, Jeremiah chapter 1.
Okay, I'm going to dig in here. I'm going to study the context of this passage. I'm going to study the key words in this passage. I'm going to look at some commentaries that I have. I may even buy some commentaries.
I'm going to if you're going through a quarterly, okay, fine. Go through the quarterly and see what the suggestions are. Take the time to dig into God's word. Yeah.
Prep it, plan it. And then See what God is saying to you. And then think about the people in your congregation. In your Sunday school class, where they are. what's happening in their lives.
and then see how you can get up there. And Speak to them what God is saying. Typically, yeah, I think you're exactly right. I think typically what we do is when these things aren't happening, when we're discouraged or when we're going through these seasons that we don't like or we don't know how to handle, we want to start something new to bring that excitement back like we think it's going to kickstart what's missing over here. when really nothing is missing, we're just going through that season.
And and Maybe, maybe I might be wrong on this, but it typically seems to me that the thing that we're replacing the main thing with is always, always, always something lesser. You know what I mean? But like we were doing an album. a little while back. And that album came out.
It was great. But along the way, there were some production hurdles and things got frustrating. And I remember more than once. Musicians would come to me and be like, next time, do you want to just do like an acoustic thing? Do you want to just do like something here, like something simple and easy that we can get out?
No, we did end up doing an acoustic EP like two years after the fact, but it was that sense of this thing isn't. Going the way we thought? Can we just do something easy? Can we just do something simple? And it's almost always lesser.
And I don't know if that's the case where people are unhappy in their churches, they're unhappy in their ministries, and they're like, Can we just try something else?
Well, I think a lot of times people are looking for a quick fix, they're looking for success rapidly. Or I want to get back to, like you were saying, I want to get back to that feeling of like, man, this is, this is the exciting part. This is, this is the. Exciting part of ministry that God has called me to do. And I think we really shortchange ourselves when we don't walk through those seasons, like you said, Dr.
Shaw, of maybe a dip in attendance in Sunday school class, or maybe, you know, there's a fluctuation happening in your church. And there's something to be learned in that season. There's something to be learned about God's calling on you, about who you are in your walk with God. And if we're just hopping from project to project to project, we shortchange ourselves and we miss what we can learn in those seasons. How did you do it in the early days when, like, cause now it's easy to look back when the church was maybe 20, 25 people on a good day and be like, yep, that was what we had to go through to get to this point.
God had to take us to that season. But how do you do it when you're actually walking through it? Great, great question.
So when When I had been here, I would say A year and a half. Uh the church called me to be the pastor. Less than a year and a half. I would say about a year and maybe three months. Because the pastor at the time just had to go back home, take care of his family, whatever, whatever.
So they asked me to come to preach and I preached and they asked me to come as a pastor. Great. And so I had all kinds of ideas on how to make the church grow. And those ideas were not bad. They were great ideas.
Don't get me wrong, they were great ideas. And um I was definitely preaching. I was preaching hard. I was I think I began a series on I think the Gospel of Matthew, if I'm not wrong.
So, anyways, it was it was Great intentions, right? uh direction, everything was good. But of course the church didn't want to invest in any of those ideas that I had. They they had no desire to follow through on that.
Okay.
So I became discouraged. And I've began to contemplate leaving and Maybe going back full time I was already full time in the seminary, but kind of becoming a full time academic. Just kind of pouring my life into just. Becoming a professor, going somewhere, getting a PhD from like Europe or somewhere. You know, I'm already thinking about those kinds of things.
And um or going to into a city. Setting.
Okay.
I mean I come from a international background.
So I thought maybe some more multicultural type setting, I can go there where there will be more appeal for someone like me.
So it may it may be great.
So I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to move. I cannot be in this town where Um people like me are just like maybe 15, 20 p people, maybe 30 people, right? Maybe 30 people. Yeah.
So I called my dad and I told him, you know, we're thinking about moving. And I'm going to maybe dive in all in into the academic world. I'm getting ready to start the PhD program. I'm about to take my. PhD entrance exam.
I'm about to um Uh take the GRE exam, all this there's lots going on. And Maybe I'm just going to go full-time scholarship or maybe I will move somewhere else and then mm in a big city setting, start a church or get Into a church ministry where I can use my personality, my gifts, who I am. But no matter what I do, it's going to be something new, something other than what I'm doing here. Gotcha. That's what I was going to ask.
Was this a step away from ministry for this time for this season or a step away from this location? This location. Gotcha. Yeah.
And so my dad very characteristically Said, are you going to listen to me? When he would say that, it was usually because you're not going to like what I'm about, what I'm about to say. Yes, exactly. You're going to listen to me? I was like, oh.
Did your heart sink? Yeah, I was like, okay, here we go. There we go. Let me have it. He said, don't leave.
Don't leave. I was like, but dad, you don't understand. It's the half the people, I mean, it's like 20 people on a good Sunday. Half of them cannot hear me, and half of them cannot understand me. Because you're preaching too deep.
No, it's because it's because uh my accent, you know, was uh was thicker than it is today. Right, right. You know, it's twenty five, twenty-seven years later.
So I was like, half of them cannot hear because they're older. and the other half can understand me. As to what I'm saying, what am I doing here? The 100% of people that aren't listening. Maybe one or two may be listening to them, you know, to me.
He said Don't worry about that. You get up there and you preach them the Bible. He said, But there's only twenty people in a room that can hold five hundred. Mm-hmm. Is that you preach?
Like the place is filled. You preach as if you're preaching to five thousand people. Like five thousand. That's not what we have here. All right.
So in my mind, I sort of wrote it off as he doesn't understand, he doesn't know my situation. And I I'm just going to be cordial and end this conversation and go back to what I know I do. Do what I'm going to do. Yeah.
And so when I hung up you know, how you know after a while, even if you don't like What that person said to you, the person who cares about you, said to you at the moment. You don't like it at that point, but later on you think about it and you go, You know they're right. They're right. Yeah, that's a good feeling in some ways, and it's a real bad feeling in others. You gotta kinda swallow it and be like, Okay, yeah.
They're right. So even though in a moment you sort of resent them, or you feel like, eh. That's dumb. When you walk away, you'd know No, they're right. And if they didn't care about me, they wouldn't have said that.
That's right. And so, the resentment now you have to deal with. And I'm guilty of that, and we're all guilty of that. And so. I then Actually, I took it to heart.
And I said, Okay, I'm gonna. Dig into the word of God. I'm going to study it. I'm going to buy the best commentary I can afford at the time. And I was a seminary student, so I was able to have access to books like.
You know, crazy.
So I was like, okay. And I began to study and read and Plan the messages.
So if someone's listening and they go, you know, I feel that's me, but on a smaller scale, is it going to take 25 years to build this Sunday school class? Is it going to take 25 years to build this student ministry or this worship team? You know, is it going to take time or as much time as it seems to be taking? Yeah.
Because what we see are people Um on social media or on television. or in the news, we we see these big names doing big things.
Now Maybe they have something that I don't. And I need to just thank God and say, God, you called them to that task and you gave them success early in life. It is what it is.
Okay.
Or I can also see it as I don't see the whole picture. And that can be two parts. One is the whole picture in the sense of they're not as good as we are thinking they are.
Okay.
The whole picture is on the surface, it seems like, man, they got it made, but behind the scenes, it's a, it's hollow. Mm-hmm. Or On the surface, it seems like they got it made, but when you get closer, you go, man, it's full of a lot of suffering. And they've been at this for a long time. I was I I I I was Foolish to think This was just handed to them.
Right. Yeah.
And there are many ways to see this. Yeah, yeah. I didn't see the, I didn't see the hard work and the blood and the sweat and the sacrifice that it took to get them to this place.
So there are many different ways you see it. You know, either it is God has just blessed them and it is what it is, or what. Appears to be gold is not really, or what appears to be gold had a much greater cost. That's a great point. Which do you feel like best describes your experience?
I would say what appears to be gold had a much greater cost. Yeah.
I mean, for us. We get one shot at life. And we have chosen Nicole and I, when I say we, I'm talking about Nicole and I have chosen this place, this church to be that one shot.
Now you can jump from place to place, and some pastors do that, and God has called them to do that, and I'm not against that.
Some pastors, you know, they've pastored five churches in their ministry career, and that's fine. Because that's what God wanted them to do. But sometimes some pastors are jumping from place to place because. I'm not happy here, so I'm gonna move. They hurt my feelings, so I'm gonna move.
Then I follow me, so I'm gonna move. And if that's all you do. Then man. I don't know. Yeah.
Well, you're always. You need to consider some of the careers. Yeah, you're chasing something that you're not giving time to foster, or maybe God has not called you to find that instant gratification, that instant happiness in your church. But I also think, Dr. Shah, that you've set a great example for us here of what it's like to commit to something, but also to keep the main thing, the main thing.
You know what I'm saying? Like, I think so many churches lose themselves in side projects, or maybe just even people, like in life, even if you look outside the church, you lose yourself in these side projects. You lose yourself in these like little. Fleeting ambitions that you really want and you think are going to take your ministry or your job or your organization to the next level, and you forget what it is that God has actually called you to do.
Well, I think your ministry is a great example of that because the main thing has always been the main thing. You've kept focus throughout the years.
Now, even since I've been here, we've started several other ministries and several other initiatives and projects and things like that. But we've never deviated from what Clearview is intended to be, and you've never deviated from what God has called you to do, albeit while adding these other things. Like we weren't writing books 10 years ago and we are now. And we didn't have an apologetics conference 10 years ago and we do now. But the main thing is still the main thing.
So, all those other secondary and tertiary things can come alongside. But if your focus has remained unchanged, then God is still going to bless and God is still going to allow us to make the impact. Yeah.
And then so also for those quote-unquote, and I don't want to use that, but secondary, tertiary ministries, what is the main thing? You know what I'm saying? Like, for instance, like Dr. Shai, you're going to go off and maybe you'll do a conference here and there, but you're not going to say for, you would never say for any reason or under any circumstance, all right, I've got to be gone for seven or eight months to go do this thing, so I'm not going to preach for like a year. You know what I'm saying?
Like, it's just not, because that's not the main thing that God has called you to do. You can go off and you might miss a Sunday here and there, but I think since knowing you, you've missed. I've I've worked for you thirteen years, maybe Nine, ten Sundays, tops. Because that's the main thing. And the conferences, the scholarship, the writing, the tours, whatever I'm doing.
Is going to be supplement. It's going to be supplementary.
So I'll say with like worship team, like if it's like, if you're a worship team leader and it's like, okay, we want to do this album or we want to do this project or whatever, but it's going to take me away from worship leading for an extended period of time. It's like, is that the main thing that God has called you to do? That's why I'm grateful for here, where we get to do all of these cool projects alongside the main thing. And I guess I'm rambling, but the thing I'm trying to say is so many churches and ministry leaders forget what that main thing is. They want to go chase something new.
Yeah.
Right. To replace it. It is compensating, and you don't have to compensate for the word of God. The word of God is living and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You know, separating between bone and marrow and all of that.
It is powerful. Your job and my job is to preach the word in season, out of season. Your job and my job, as Paul tells young Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 1, if I may read this, he said, You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men. Who will be able to teach others also means teaching the word.
is primary. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I've told that to people who Got distracted. I said, no, you are a soldier. A soldier does not say, ah.
I'm not going into battle today. Yeah.
Yeah.
The soldier gets up. Whether you're tired or sick, or whatever. When you're commanding officer, when you're battalion chief, when you're. Squadron leader says It's time to march. You have to march.
Oh, you march, yeah. You better go. Yeah.
It goes on to say here in verse 4, 2 Timothy 2, verse 4: No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life. Don't get entangled. in the secondary and tertiary things, although they may have some benefits. But don't substitute them For the word of God. That he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
Also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
So you have the soldier, you have the athlete. And in verse 6, The hard working farmer must be first to partake of the crops.
So as a farmer You have to be hardworking, not just any form. Hardworking means you got to get up in the morning. Mm-hmm. Before the crack of dawn, and be out there doing what needs to be done. You have to be the last one in.
After sundown, to still finish up what needs to be done. That's a hardworking farmer. And what do you see in the fields?
Well, at the start of the season Nothing but a Mm-hmm. And then what do you see? you may see a tiny little chute coming out of the ground. After that, what do you see?
Well, you see little plants growing, but then you see bugs and critters. And drought and all the this happening.
So it's easy to get discouraged. Yeah.
But what do you see in the end? What do you see during a harvest time?
Well, you see the crop.
So. It says right here: The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. That threefold picture of soldier, athlete, farmer. Yeah.
It's so, it's so complete. It's so, it's so inspiring. You know, as a soldier, we're listening to our commanding officer. We are focused. We're not distracted.
We're focused on the mission. As an athlete, we compete according to the rules set before us. We've been given a framework. This is the framework that we operate in. And then, as a farmer, we're dedicated.
We continue to work even when we encounter obstacles, even when we encounter pushback, even when we encounter difficulty, because we're looking ahead to that harvest. That's right. Someone's listening to this right now, Dr. Shah, and they're saying, Okay, I hear you. I have to stay focused.
God has called me to this task, and I have to see it through to the end because I want to be a good and faithful service. And that desire is genuine. But this idea. Isn't going away. This passion that I have, this idea that has struck me, it's not going away.
I can't push it aside. I really want to see it. Even if it's not me leading it, I want to see this thing through. I want to see this idea come to life. What do I do?
So you're talking about the idea as in some ministry instead of the word?
Some ministry? Yes. Yes. Some ministry. Instead of the word.
Some ministry, maybe not instead of the word, but it's like, I don't, maybe I don't have to leave what I'm doing, but I want to see this thing get off the ground. Right. Right. So, I mean, just. Number one, pray.
You have to pray. Because God gives you wisdom, God gives you discernment, God gives you self-control when you pray. I know when I pray. And I may have a thousand and one things on me, but somehow I'm able to discern what needs to be done first. I'm able to Kind of do a triage on my responsibilities.
And so. Pray. Secondly, I would say use wisdom. Ask God to help you know. which things matter, the word of God matters?
I will never compromise, other than like loving my wife and my family. I will never compromise getting into the word of God and digging. for hours. In preparation for my Sunday morning or Saturday night message. I don't compromise on that, yeah.
I will do whatever it takes. Uh To make sure, even if I have to stay up all Saturday night, I've done that before. just so I can prepare the word of God. Just so I can prepare the sermon, I will not compromise on that. And some weeks, you know, lots going on, I get busy, people pull me here and there.
And so it's like, oh my goodness, to get that sermon right, I need a good 12-15 hours. And I know there's some pastors out there and some. Big names out there who spend like 40 hours on a sermon. I don't know how they pulled that off. Yeah, that's crazy.
They must not do anything else. Yeah, maybe. Yeah.
So that's that's protected, that's walled off in a corner by yourself kind of. Yeah, that's that's literally like one of those like Rare, this is all I do all the time. And there are pastors, you know, they've reached that stage in their life where they can do that. There's a big enough staff and there are people who know what they're doing, so they don't have to like go do all these things. I am not there, right?
So I am involved in like this radio production. I'm involved in the community, I'm involved in church leadership management. I'm involved in so many things that are happening.
So I cannot really dedicate 40 hours non-stop to Completely focused on the Word of God. But I have. dedicated at least 12 to 15 hours every week for a sermon. And so I begin sometime in like maybe Tuesday. At least we can just think about that topic.
By Wednesday, I'm getting closer. By Thursday, I have to give the sermon title to Ryan.
So I'm going to be really focused that Wednesday night and Thursday morning. To get it right. Mm-hmm. And then Thursday night and Friday, I'm going to spend some time reading and making sure I'm reading the right things. I'm headed in the right direction.
And then Saturday, I'll just spend hours from like say eight o'clock in the morning or nine o'clock in the morning all the way. The preaching time, so nine to six would be how much? Um Like maybe a test non-stop riding. Three running screen. That's wild.
That's, I mean, that's what you have to do: keeping focus on the word of God. That's right. Keep focused on what God has called you to do and execute it well. That's right. So good.
Guys, make sure you join us next week, same time, same station. We're going to be digging into another great topic here on the Clearview Today show. Thanks again to our sponsors for making today's episode possible. And don't forget that you can support us by subscribing to the show on iTunes, Spotify, Pray.com, TBN Plus, coming soon. Right.
And you can always support us financially at Abhadansha.com forward slash give. John, anything you want to close with today? Nope. Just want to say have a great week and thank you for being with us here on the Clearview Today Show. And we'll see you on Monday.
We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clearview Today.
