Kingdom Mindset: It's Not all about You

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. Yo, what's up? So this is your host Tim Pratt Jr. and we're gonna get into part 3 of this Kingdom Mindset series that we've been in. Um, so this one right here, I This is episode 9. Of course, we're still in season 6. I know I kind of, you know, said that we're gonna, uh, go ad hoc, and I've been jumping around. A lot has been going on over this last month, uh, so that's why I'm definitely thinking about switching up the format, man, because like I said, just continue to get in more and more things. But, uh, I was just talking to my wife the other day, and I just watched something by truly one of my— one of my favorite communicators of the gospel Tim Ross, man, I just like, I promise you, I've met him once. When I say met, you know, my wife and I visited, got a chance to actually give him a hug. But man, he's just someone that has really just been very instrumental in my life. I see a lot of similarities, and I think that's why I'm just really drawn to him and the way he communicates the gospel. And, you know, just continue to follow him from afar as he follows Christ. So, but he talked about something which is, you know, kind of how we get caught up in this, what you call it? Oh man, I can't, imposter syndrome. And we never do anything and, you know, and we fall for these lies of just never moving forward. But the way he broke that down, man, it impacted me in such a way. So I'm gonna go back and study it again, listen to it and study it. And because it's really blessing me on even how to just move forward. And I'm so glad that I started this podcast. I mean, even when I first started preaching, man, if you could see my first sermon, I believe like I had over an hour. If it was in a manuscript, it was probably an hour, and I think I preached it in 7 minutes because I was so nervous. Uh, but it was my first time actually, you know, preaching. And so, uh, you just learn that you grow like anything in life, man. And you know, I'm one of those people that want to be so good out the gate where it's the furthest from the truth. Uh, so not gonna get into that entire, entire content for that episode, but I just wanted to share it. Uh, but in this one we're gonna talk about, like I say, part 3 of this Kingdom Mindset, uh, series. And we're going to take a break, man. We're going to get ready for— I still call it Christmas. I know a lot of people holiday break, but it's Christmas, New Year, you know, just this holiday season in general. But the title of this episode is, is It's Not All About You. It's not all about you. Kingdom mindset. To truly have a kingdom mindset, we have to truly keep that as one of the— I'm not gonna say the first thing, of course we know the first thing is Christ— but to truly have a kingdom mindset, we need to understand that it's not all about us. It's truly not even about us, period. But sometimes as leaders, especially, you know, pastoral teams and, um, just, you know, people that serve elders, and depending on how big the church, you know, right here in just the Conway Little Rock, you know, Central Arkansas area. Like, New Life is one of the most popular ministries in the state of Arkansas. But then you have like Second Baptist, you have so many other different ministries like St. Mark. You get into, you know, ministries in Pine Bluff, uh, you get into ministries in Stuttgart, you get into ministries like, you know, Willow Chapel, Lively Stone, uh, you even get into like Acts up here. I mean, you get into the First Pentecostal Church, whatever, whichever the one, the big one is in Little Rock. Um, you get into all of these ministries and they all have their local context, and some are bigger than others, some have bigger budgets than others, more members than others. But at the end of the day, truthfully, the primary person that it should be about is one man that walked this earth in flesh. Of course, he was fully God and fully man when he walked this earth, of course. But he's our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Uh, you know, it's all about God. I mean, it's all about Christ and Christ alone. And, you know, I do believe in the Trinity. I know it's not necessarily in the Bible, that, that term, but I believe, you know, Jesus is God and we are empowered by his— the Holy Spirit. And, you know, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And, uh, I don't try to even figure it out, explain it. I know there's been a lot of examples out there, but I believe that they all are one. So I do believe in a triune God, and I'm gonna leave it at that. You know, we can get into that debate, but I do believe in the triune God. So again, in the context of this, if we, if we know it's all about Christ and Christ alone, we have to understand that it is him. He is the foundation. He is the chief cornerstone. And matter of fact, that leads me to our foundational text, Matthew 16:8. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Now, I believe in the context of scripture, the foundation was not built on Peter. It was built on the confession of Peter. Peter— if the foundation is built on Peter, we all in trouble. Let's just be real. If the foundation is built on Peter if the church is built off of Peter's name, Peter's back, trust me, we all are in trouble and probably on our way to hell. Uh, I'm not trying to make light of it, but it's the truth. But nevertheless, you know, I truly believe Jesus is more so talking about the confession and, uh, basically, you know, he is the chief cornerstone. Like, Christ is Lord. And Peter, you know, on throughout the text, uh, even before then, you know, Peter would get these revelations. And I know it was like an up and down, and this message is not about Peter. But it was, you know, very, you know, Peter one minute, oh, you are the Lord, then the next minute it's like, you know, he's trying to rebuke Jesus, so on. But what was revealed to Peter nevertheless was true. It was true that he is Lord, he is Savior, even to the point where Peter sometimes asks, where are we going to go? When Jesus asks these questions like, you are the— you are basically in so many words, you are the Lord, you are the Savior, you are God, like, where am I going to go? You are the eternal life, you know, like Peter knew this. This was revealed to him. And so, but what Jesus is doing— look at the emphasis— he said, I will build my, my church. The church was Jesus' idea. The church was Jesus' idea, not your favorite pastor, not the forefathers of whatever, you know, people call it or point to. It was Jesus' idea. This is a, this is a Jesus thing. This is a Jesus decision. It is a Jesus idea, for lack of better terms. So my church and the gates of Hades— some people say hell— should not prevail against it. Today in modern times, especially when you look at the context of media and everything that's going on, you see a lot of leaders, man, that are truthfully competitive versus completing each other. Now, not all. You have a lot of sister churches, you know, some might use the term brother churches. You have the model of campus ministry, and I'm not here to get into that, you know, whether you believe in that or not. Uh, you have— you start to have neighborhood churches. You know, COVID has really changed up a lot of things and the way people do things. Uh, you have podcasts like this, you know, people that subscribe and plug into. But I personally believe that you should be plugged into a local body. You want to be plugged into a local community, even if you watch online and you have your favorite online ministry. But you need to be plugged into a local body. And I just pray that you are part of a ministry that's truly teaching sound doctrine and you truly see people's lives being transformed. You, you see the power of God moving, uh, not treating it like a drive-through service, but like it's actually like a ministry that you are really seeing spiritual growth, uh, in the lives of people as well as your own, own life. And so What tends to happen, you know, today is that we get highly competitive and, you know, we get very hierarchical in the church, in the ministry. And I understand that there's order and, you know, you have to have appropriate things set in place and systems. I get that. It is truly, no matter how we look at it, there are some operational things within a lot of churches, especially, you know, these, these bigger mega churches. I mean, let's just be real, it is. I mean, these, these ministries are involved in a lot. But where I have a problem with is when a lot of pastors and leaders, like I say, get very competitive, and it's almost as if you would think God is divided against himself. And that's just unacceptable. It's, it's really unacceptable, and it's just a really bad message to send. You know, even Jesus himself said, you know, basically paraphrasing it, that, you know, people would know that basically you all are my disciples based on how you love one another. And so one thing we have to ask, you know, why is it that we competitive? Why is it that we attack other pastors and other ministries? Or we, uh, you know, in, in getting caught up in all of these different type of local churches that we just basically focus on, like, oh, that's a, that's, that's a very bad church, those people over there, I can't really get with that ministry. And I understand the whole context of false prophets and things like that, but in this proper context, like when you really look at it and you really boil it down, is it like just as a horrible local church, or is it that we're just competitive? Is it just that we're always used to saying like those people over there versus praying for those people, figuring out how we can help those people? Like, why do we even talk like that? You know, right now, and I'm not even trying to make this a race-bait, uh, podcast, but if it was a, uh, just say for instance like some white individuals, Caucasian individuals, and, uh, they were looking across the street and they were Black or, you know, whatever you— Black American, African American, whatever you want to subscribe to— and they said, man, those people over there, they really don't know what they're doing. Those people Probably in today's cancel culture and very high climate, that will come off very aggressive, very aggressive. It will come off, you know, with a very racial undertone in most cases. Now, some people might say they didn't mean nothing by it, they just saying those people, that's how they identified them. But if we be truthful, if a clip went out and that, that got out, it would get looked at in a very negative way. Very fine example. But we do that in the local church. We do, we do that in a lot of local churches today. And, you know, and I'm like, these— truthfully, I understand there's a difference from church folk, church people, and true believers. I get that. But nevertheless, man, like, it is the Holy Spirit. He is the one that's going to convict and bring forth the change. I just— I, I'm at a point in my life where, yes, I get it wrong, and I'm not gonna go ABC 123. If you've been plugged in with the podcast And you know, some of the interviews I've had on here, you already know what's up. But I have an advocate, I repent, and I just, you know, strive through the grace of God to continue to mature and get it right and move forward. But my heart posture, my intent, man, is to truly just please God and say, okay, listen, how can I help? In what capacity can I help, you know, just do the will of my Father and touch lives and whatever capacity that he allows me. But at the same time, knowing that I'm not called to change no one life, I'm just called to be the light and let my life be a reflection of Christ, uh, that people see the Christ-like in me. Uh, and it, and it's challenging, it's very challenging at times, but through the power of Holy Spirit, man, we, we overcome. It's already a finished work, but we are carrying it out on this side of it. And so we don't want to bring that competitive nature, man. We want to help complete people help be the answer to people, help people mature, help people grow, uh, or get them connected. If we're not the answer, man, we should be so relational, and the body should just be so well put together, man, where everybody's just encouraged, and it's just like the next man or woman up in the body of Christ. And so let's just stop it. Like, kind of going back to like, because truly it's not all about us. It's not all about you. It's, it's not. It's all inclusive. But it's not all about you and your local church, man. It's about God. It's about Christ's church and what he died for, uh, so that, man, we may become one in him. Just this unity, this unified body in Christ that Paul beautifully wrote about. So, you know, stop and ask yourself, just ask yourself, you know, is it about my agenda? Is it about me pushing my agenda, or is it about God's? Is it about Christ? Is it about, you know, what the Holy Spirit desires to speak through me to push the kingdom agenda, God's agenda, the kingdom agenda? Or is it about mine? Is it about what I want? It's about growing my ministry, you know, it's about my local church, it's about me wanting to be a mega star, mega pastor, mega leaders, make a lot of money. And, you know, if some of those things are attached to it, like, you know, you have pastors out here, and I, I respect him. I, I've met him too, you know, just in the mall when my wife and I were— I took my wife to see Sarah Jakes Roberts, uh, a while back. Michael Todd, you know, he's probably truthfully one of the biggest names in ministry right now, uh, in more modern ministry. You know, you have a lot of others, but just using him, of course, I'm pretty sure people argue that it's a— it's way bigger than T.D. Jakes, Bishop T.D. Jakes, uh, and it's a lot of stuff attached there to their names, you know, um, just in all truthfulness. And I don't get into all of that, but what I am saying is that from a standpoint, sometimes that may come. But truthfully, a lot of pastors and leaders, uh, honestly probably will never be known to that magnitude. You know, that, that's an exception. And I know we, we try to go viral, uh, and that's one thing that I question, you know. Am I doing this because I'm trying to figure out ways to be known, or am I doing this because I believe God has called me to this space and I just want to add to it, uh, and just reach whatever souls that I'm, you know, that God has called me to reach? Or am I trying to be the next Tim Ross or the Michael Tides, you know, or Darius Daniels? Or am I just being Tim Pratt Jr. and like I say, just reaching the space and filling the space that God has called me? Uh, because every soul matter, every soul is not going to listen to them but some might listen to me and vice versa. A lot of people are not going to listen to me, but they'll listen to them and so many others. Uh, so we shouldn't see it as a competition, you know. Even when you look in the context of, you know, with Paul— and I'm going to butcher his name, but one of Paul's companions, uh, I know it is on the tip of my tongue, but I do not want to butcher it. Um, but Barnabas, yeah, I believe Barnabas. Uh, you know, they had a split. They had a split because in so many words they weren't seeing eye to eye. But nevertheless, the central message, the central focus was Jesus and Christ alone. Had some disagreements, but they moved forward on the ultimate, um, uh, the ultimate message, and that was just the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So like I say, once again, are we making it about us and Uh, just so many other things. Have we made it about us when we should be truly understanding that it's really not about us? So what's like a good point of reference? Well, just be more encouraging, man. Reach out to some of these local churches and say, you know, how can our local church help fellowship more with other local churches? Now be prayerful, you know, you don't want to get hooked up with the wrong church because you got a lot of like New Apostolic stuff and just, just really some crazy stuff going on in the name of Christ, and God is not in it. So you want to be careful. But at the same time, there— everybody knows that there's no such thing as a perfect, perfect local church. And if you find one, don't join it because you're going to be the one to mess it up. This is the truth. You're going to be the one to mess it up because it's all about you. You're perfect, and, uh, nobody can do anything right but you. You know, like, but like, like, we shouldn't look at it that way. So what I'm saying is like, we know that a lot of things, we know that there are problems, but at the end of the day, if, if this local— if you are part of a local church, yes, you should be excited. You should really be excited about discipleship and going out and making disciples. And yes, invite them. You know, this— you're looking at like, man, this church has really been a blessing to me and my family, so, uh, I, I feel like I'm being challenged here. And my desire is for people to come get connected. But if they don't get connected and you get to learn in them, you know, they— like, say, Mr. Chapman, your church is loud and like just very charismatic and it's just high energy. But, you know, this person or this family might be like, I want something a little bit softer, a little bit more like, you know, just teaching, teaching. I'm not saying, you know, loud people can't teach. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying in this context, they might say, man, I just want something a little bit more softer, you know, songs a little bit more, uh, softer, you know, and, um, just, just not as loud. Okay, there should be a ministry, truthfully, that you can point them to. You shouldn't feel offended if they say, yeah, great word, nothing, it's just not for me. And vice versa, you might, you might be a very, very sound church, uh, that believes in a lot of teaching, uh, and, and just going through the— soaring through the scriptures, uh, verse, line upon line. And they might be looking for more of a high-energy environment. Let's stop putting one against the other, you know. Everybody has a uniqueness about them. And, and we do, we do make it about us because it's like, oh, I'm not in that, I don't communicate the gospel that way. So what, man? If the, if, if the person is a truly believer of God, trust me, there are some things that that same person might see in your life But when we have a competitive mindset, that's what we focus on. Oh, they must just be a feel-good ministry church. Oh, they're loud and they're a hooper. Oh, they're just teaching sound, they can't hoop. Oh, uh, they hold too long. Oh, they let out too fast. Like, bro, it's just competitive. It's just competitive after competitive instead of like, man, their service— like, there, it's a lot of people starting to like rock with their ministry. Let me reach out to that pastor and just see some of the things that they're doing. And if they're not compromising on the gospel and they're, and they're preaching sound doctrine and people's lives are being changed, sometimes I ask the question, what else do we want? Like, those same people, if they were out in the world and it's like just getting killed or in clubs, it's like we still have something to say. Well, they can be in church. Okay, then they get in church and they find one that they like and challenging them And then it's like, well, why they gotta go to that church? Like, it's just people. People, we have to stop. We have to stop making it about us. Everybody is wired different. Everybody is wired different. So man, I just want to encourage you to just— let's make a slight transition. Let's just make a slight adjustment to say it's not all about us, it's about Christ and how he has wired people, how he has graced people to do it. So let's just be more complimentary and just basically look to how we can complete people, how we can complete other ministries through the work of God, through the power of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Let's stop with all the competitiveness. Let's stop with all the hierarchical stuff. Let's just, let's just stop. Let's just go out here and win people for Christ and keep a a kingdom mindset in the area of remembering that it's not all about us. It's not all about you. It's not all about your ministry. It's about the souls for Christ and basically getting the people in a position where they can be a part of a community that's going to truly equip them, truly equip them to go out and do the work of the ministry, you know, by their pastor, elders, and so on, and just praying and undergirding people and really challenging them, man, where people can truly be the light of Christ wherever they're deployed. You know, everybody's not going to be able to do worship service, everybody's not going to be a pastor by the context of the platform, but there's a lot of jobs out here, there's a lot of business that needs to be ran, there's a lot of entrepreneurs out here, there's a lot of people that, uh, will, um, you know, work on cars, doctors, teachers, nurses Um, you know, uh, restaurant managers. I'm just like, you know, uh, what, bus drivers, grocery store workers, you know, mall workers, uh, food work. Like, just, it's a lot. And, and everybody truly needs to be deployed because you never know, man. It's about every soul and who, who has— is giving, who has the availability to allow God to just truly work through them, man, just to touch that, that one soul at a time. Heaven rejoices over every soul. So whether you're reaching thousands of millions or you just reach— reaching one at a time, every soul matters to God. And when we have the kingdom mindset that it's not about us, I'm telling you, man, we will be more effective in the things of God. So that's my challenge to not just you but myself, to remember that, you know, the faithful ones that plug into this podcast, you know, it's sometimes it, it goes up, sometimes it ticks down. You know, like I say, we're around a pretty good number, uh, from a statistical standpoint. But I do this, man, even if it dwindled down from, you know, over 2,000, 3,000 to 10 people. And I've seen those 10 faithful people and they were writing me and encouraging me, and I'm gonna continue to do the will of Father. Because what if I stop and it's like, not saying that they're predicated on my voice, but I'm like, man, there's so many other people they can listen to. But God could have set it up in a way where it's like, no, I called you to reach them, I called you to help them mature. And I truly want to make sure that I'm doing it for a heart— a heart— from a heart posture to just truly please God versus just trying to run up some numbers and do this to try to grow a platform. So once again, man, I just want to encourage you as pastors, as leaders, as believers, if you're not a leader in the context of the local church or in your place of employment or business, whatever, listen, just remember it's not all about you. It's about Christ. It's about what Christ desires, and it's about Christ's desire. Truthfully, I truly in my heart that we all know everybody's not going to be saved. We know everybody's not going to heaven, uh, or, you know, going to die in Christ. But I truly believe that, that desire was because Jesus died for mankind. He died that everybody might have a chance to accept him as their Lord and Savior. And that person, or collectively speaking, we all will basically die to ourselves and not just allow him to be our Savior, but be Lord over our life and basically take up one mantle of a disciple and, uh, just go out and mature in the things of him and win others for Christ. So remember, it's not all about you. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go to www.timprattjr.com. Once again, thanks.