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Real conversations about following Jesus when life doesn't slow down — from a pastor who's still figuring it out too.
What shapes someone into a person that God can use powerfully? Paul gives us one of the clearest answers, four habits that shaped his life and ministry. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. Let's get into it. So what are some of the habits that Paul did in his life and ministry that we can use as an example in ours?
Greg:Well, you go back and you start at the very beginning when Paul with his conversion, he immediately told people about Jesus for starters. But he wasn't seeking a platform. Everything he did at the beginning, when you kinda follow his story, he starts preaching the gospel, but he's doing it in a this is what happened to me kind of thing. Mhmm. And this is the message that I've got for you because it can change your life too.
Greg:He did that for three years, before he went to to even seek out the apostles and and to have a conversation with them. He's out there just doing ministry, just serving people. So he wasn't seeking a platform early on. He he wasn't needing to get any sort of recognition, any sort of attention from leaders and all that kind of stuff. He just was out there learning to follow Jesus and telling his story.
Greg:That's what he did for those first couple of years. That that's a little different than what we see nowadays, though.
Kristi:Yeah. That that is.
Greg:Celebrity culture, you know. You I love it when you see a celebrity come to Jesus. It's always a cool thing to see, and it does kinda move the needle on faith, at least for some some people. But how many times do we see a a person with any sort of notoriety come to Jesus and they immediately, seek a bigger platform? But we even see that happen with people who aren't celebrities.
Greg:I mean, how many people have we seen who they they get saved? And we we've seen it in our church. We we've seen people who are very new Christians, and the first thing they do is start a YouTube channel. Mhmm. Trying to teach other people, not just sharing their story, trying to get a platform to be seen and to be heard.
Greg:It's always got good motives when it starts. Don't take me wrong. But what happens? Their heads start to kinda get filled with it's all about them. And the whole point of the story, the whole point of the gospel begins to get lost.
Greg:Paul didn't do that. Paul just told his story. And we don't have any indication that Paul was at that time, he wasn't planting churches. He wasn't seeking to be a leader. He was he was just out.
Greg:This is what God did to me.
Kristi:And it just came to mind. He knew the the Torah. He knew all the scriptures. But the the Jesus part, was brand new to him. Yeah.
Kristi:So it it wasn't like he knew that, like he knew the prophecies about him. He was just connecting all the dots at that point, learning that.
Greg:Yeah. So I guess if we look at it in in today's context, you know, what shapes your faith? Maybe you just became a Christian. Maybe you've been a Christian a long time and just never really done anything with it. Don't jump in seeking a a platform all at once.
Greg:Move slow, but tell your story.
Kristi:Like, you don't know how to swim. You don't jump into the deep end. You start down at the baby pool and
Greg:Exactly.
Kristi:And wait out.
Greg:Yeah. That that doesn't mean you just sit back and watch though. Paul didn't sit back and watch.
Kristi:He got in the water.
Greg:He got in the water. He told his story. And then as he grew in his understanding of the gospel, then he went and saw leadership and became a leader of the early church.
Kristi:Alright. Alright. So that's the first one of the first habits we can look at what he did Yeah. That we can follow. We can
Greg:learn a lot from that.
Kristi:Oh, yeah.
Greg:And we just take a breath. Yeah. Share your story and then learn what you're talking about.
Kristi:Because your your testimony alone, even if you don't know much about scripture yet, your testimony alone, it's like, was this and now Yeah. I'm this. That's Yeah. Pretty powerful.
Greg:Yeah. You know, another thing we see that shaped Paul's faith early on was his ministry. It was all about people. Mhmm. It wasn't about any sort of platform for him, and that played out in how he prayed for people.
Greg:Mhmm. He was very intentional about his prayer. He he wasn't just praying general prayers, wasn't just even praying general praises. He was seeking God, Lord, would you whatever for these people, this church, very specific in what he prayed for by name. Right.
Greg:It wasn't just general things. Very intentional about what he was doing. I think we get caught up in being pretty general in our prayers. Lord, bless our nation. Lord, bless our church.
Greg:Lord, bless my family. Bless what what do you want him to do? Right. Be specific. Be intentional.
Greg:And be all about other people.
Kristi:Right. I mean, when he was when he'd write the letters to the different groups of people, each one of those groups had different struggles. They didn't all struggle with the same thing. So he would pray, and he'd tell them in the letters, I'm praying for this for you. I'm praying for this for you.
Kristi:Because it it wasn't just a blanket statement over everybody.
Greg:Yeah. People people matter more than a prayer list. So just kind of put it into practice for myself what I typically do. Somebody asks me happens a lot. Sunday morning, somebody will come to me after church or even before church.
Greg:Hey. Can you add me to the prayer list and pray for me and whatever? And it unless, you know, I walk getting ready to walk up on the stage or whatever, I try in those moments to say, okay. Let's pray right now. Right.
Greg:Yes. I wanna add them to my prayer list, but I wanna make sure that that person's prayer gets raised up right then so that it doesn't slip my mind. We gotta be intentional about it. Make it a regular practice. Pray and pray throughout the whole day.
Greg:It's not just a, alright. I woke up this morning. I read my bible, two verses, and I said my thirty second prayer. I'm good for the day. Yeah.
Greg:Pray without ceasing. Right. That's how scripture
Kristi:does. Yeah. That's scripture.
Greg:So pray all day.
Kristi:Yeah. And it's you can you can pray and talk to God when you're not alone in a room. I mean, you can pray to him as you're going about your day.
Greg:Some of my best prayers, I think, depending on what's going on in front of me, sometimes it, you know, turns into road rage. But some of my best prayers are while I'm driving. You know? I can drive, and just it depends on traffic, all those kind of things. I get it.
Greg:But, you know, if I'm just on a normal drive, I can sit there and while I'm driving, just have a conversation with God about whatever's going on. And I do that all the time. That's a very regular part of my prayer life. So so I guess when we're looking at practices that shape Paul early on in his ministry, especially, number one, take your time. Tell your story, but don't seek a platform yet.
Greg:Right. Number two, be very intentional about your prayer. Number three, look at Paul's life, his whole ministry after he became a Jesus follower. He never stopped learning. Right.
Greg:We even see where was it in scriptures? Saint Timothy chapter four, he talks about it. I mean, this is almost to the end of Paul's life. Mhmm. Yeah.
Greg:He's still saying, bring me my books. I still wanna learn. I still need to study. Right. I mean, this is this man wrote the majority of the New Testament.
Greg:And still towards the end of his life, I'm still studying. I'm still learning. You never stop. The church word for that is being sanctified, and that just means you're growing in your understanding of who Jesus is and being, letting your life change to look more like Jesus. He never stopped.
Greg:He was always had his eyes on that. I need to learn more. I need to grow in this. But not just for his personal enrichment. He was learning so that he could share that with other people.
Kristi:Yeah. And and it's really interesting that he like you said, he was almost to the end of his life, and he was still doing that. I mean, we we could easily say, oh, I know enough. I just wanna go be with Jesus now. Yeah.
Kristi:But he kept on up until the end. That's that's pretty impressive.
Greg:Yeah. So how does that look for us? That means I don't care if you've been a Christian for fifty years. You still need to be teachable.
Kristi:Right.
Greg:You still need to be learning every single day because I learn stuff every time I open scripture. I'll preach a passage that I have been through. I don't know how many times. Mhmm. I learn something new every time I do.
Kristi:Right. Yeah. It's it's always changing. Well, it doesn't change. We change, and it we get a different message out of
Greg:it Absolutely.
Kristi:Every time. Yeah. And he wasn't above hard work. No matter I mean, he was pretty well respected. Yeah.
Greg:I mean, he was in the early church. He was one of the primary leaders of the church, planting churches all through the area. And one of the reasons that we have so much now to learn about Jesus. I mean, he was a primary leader Mhmm. Yet he wasn't too good to go be a tentmaker.
Greg:Right. I mean, he was he didn't wanna be a burden to to the churches. Although he did I mean, he accepted funding from churches, gifts from churches. At the same time, he wasn't gonna let that stop him, you know, if a church couldn't help him out. He didn't want he wasn't gonna be a burden.
Greg:He's still gonna go out there. Nothing was beneath him. He was willing to go and to work, and we should approach it that way too. If you are in a church, nothing should be beneath you. If the toilet needs clean, go clean the toilet.
Greg:Go earn a fair and honest living. I mean, Paul Paul was clear. He he said, a worker for the gospel, someone who's preaching, pastors, teachers, all those things, they should be compensated and cared for by the church. Mhmm. But they should still be willing to to not just consider themselves on a platform.
Greg:Right. You know? Go do the things. You're never above ordinary work. Mhmm.
Greg:There is no work that's ordinary. You know? Scripture says, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Mhmm. Whether it's cleaning the toilet or preaching a sermon.
Kristi:Or mowing the yard.
Greg:Or mowing the yard. All those kind of things. Faithfulness sometimes just looks ordinary. Yeah. You know, caring for the needs of others, doing the small tasks, taking burden off of taking the burden off of others.
Greg:Mhmm. And maybe that just looks like I'm going to earn a living this way so that the church doesn't have to support me. Mhmm. And maybe you're not a pastor. Maybe you're not a teacher.
Greg:Maybe you're not dependent on, the church for any sort of funding. Maybe you are a lawyer. Maybe you're a doctor. Maybe you're a teacher. Maybe you just got some sort of career.
Greg:You're still not too good to to do ordinary work. Never put yourself above that. Kinda keeps you humble a little bit in the process of it too. We're all in it together. So Paul never sought a platform early on.
Greg:He waited till he was ready. Paul was very intentional about his prayer life. He never stopped learning, and he never considered himself too good to do some ordinary work. Those kind of things, they shaped Paul, especially early on in his ministry. And we need to learn from those things.
Kristi:Right. How how can we apply each one of those to our lives?
Greg:Well, we talked about that some as we we were going through it, but, you know, when it comes to to a platform, make sure you're ready, you know. Make sure you are equipped to go out and do it. Like I said, still share your story. Tell people about Jesus. You may not be ready to be a pastor yet.
Greg:You may not be ready to plant a church yet or teach a class yet or even lead a small group, whatever it may be. Right. Don't seek a platform early on even if it's, I've been a Christian six weeks, so I'm starting a YouTube channel. Mhmm. Make sure you're ready.
Greg:Make sure your prayer life is intentional. Pray by name specifically. Mhmm. Make sure you you are filling your life with ways to be enriched and to keep learning about Jesus. Biblical preaching, biblical teaching, podcasts, whatever it is, read read some good books, all those kind of things.
Greg:You're always learning and make sure you're always keeping yourself where where you're not afraid to go. Put put your hands and Work. Get a little dirty and dizzy.
Kristi:Work and serve. Yeah.
Greg:It all it all makes a difference and shapes you and your ministry.
Kristi:K.
Greg:So let's be like Paul. Let's go out there and live that way. But that that's really not the end of it. I mean, there's a whole another section to this discussion. You know, those are kind of some things that shaped Paul.
Greg:But Paul, he lived a very difficult life. Persecuted, arrested, who knows how many times, beaten within an inch of his life. And there were some practices that he did that helped him stay unshakable in his faith all the way to the end. So that's the rest of the conversation that we're gonna hit up as we continue this in the next section.
Kristi:Okay. What are some more things that Paul continued to do in his ministry that kept that unshakeable faith?
Greg:I think one of the most important things is he didn't do it by himself. We we try to go go and do it alone. Things can become a really big burden. We can get really discouraged, and it can draw us away from our faith. But look at Paul.
Greg:Paul always went out, took took somebody with him, Barnabas, Timothy, Luke. He was never going by himself. He always had somebody who, number one, who he was teaching, but number two, they were doing ministry together and he was learning from them. He never went out and tried to do it on his own. You see in Acts, you see in all of Paul's letter, he always had other people around him helping him do the ministry.
Greg:So that it wasn't just a burden on him, so that he wasn't having to try to figure it out all by himself. And so he wasn't getting discouraged when things went the wrong way, Especially when he'd get arrested and would get flogged. He always had somebody there to support him.
Kristi:He had somebody to run back and tell somebody. He used to I mean, it's like a partnership, really. He was the the one that was in the spotlight when he continued in his ministry. But but it was a partnership, a friendship.
Greg:Man, we need Christian friendship.
Kristi:Right.
Greg:We need people who who we're doing this together with, who we can say, this part of, you know, happened today, this part of ministry, or this part of my life kinda sucks, and I need somebody to just be here to support me. Mhmm. Paul dealt with that a lot. You know? He was going through all kinds of things.
Greg:I mean, Paul kinda has this reputation of being this maverick going out, plant churches Mhmm. Gonna go out and change the world, but he didn't do it by himself. Right. It wasn't about Paul. Man, there's lots of sources that would tell us that Paul was actually kind of an introvert, so it's kind of a weird thing for him to even be doing.
Greg:Mhmm. He was just faithful in the calling and then went and said, I need help. He didn't try to do it by himself. He kinda. I mean, he was following what Jesus did with the disciples, you know, the 72.
Greg:He sent them out with how? Two by two. Mhmm. He didn't he never said, okay. You go do this.
Greg:You go do that. Right. He said, you too. You go. Two by two.
Greg:Paul did the exact same thing. We never need to do this by ourself.
Kristi:Yeah. He he was using the model that had been placed before him Yeah. And doing the same thing.
Greg:Yeah. And when you're isolated, it makes your faith weaker. You you start telling yourself some crazy things when when you're isolated and just trying to figure it out on your own and you don't have anybody else pouring into you. You've got to have good Christian friendships, whether you're in Christian ministry or whether you're you're working down at the gas station and just need a friend. You gotta have somebody who's helping you do this.
Greg:Right. Yeah. Don't try to do it by yourself.
Kristi:Yeah. It's lonely.
Greg:Yeah. We talk about that a lot. It is so important to be plugged in with Christian friends who are walking through this with you together. Right. Yeah.
Greg:Besides that, you know, Paul could never shake what the Lord did for him. He never got over the grace of God in his life. It was always such a prominent thing for him. You see that when you read in first Timothy and first Corinthians. He's talking about those kind of things.
Greg:And the longer Paul followed Jesus, he just got more amazed by it. Mhmm. Why do we kinda get numb to it?
Kristi:I don't know. I mean, I can't say that I I do. Mean, sometimes it is. General.
Greg:Yeah. You look at at Christians today and it's like, we're numb a lot of times. I say we in general to what God has really done for us. We we don't even think about it anymore. I mean, when we got saved, for those of us who were followers of Jesus, that moment was such a big deal.
Greg:And if you weren't set on fire at that moment for the Lord, I don't know what to tell you. But you're a few years down the road and that fire isn't quite there anymore for so many people.
Kristi:Right. I mean, I think that goes with lots of things in our life. Things kinda fizzle out and get routine. But this is bigger than anything else.
Greg:Yeah.
Kristi:So, yeah, I I think you just have to reflect and think about who you were.
Greg:Yeah. That's what Paul did. He he always kept it in the forefront. This is who I am. I was a sinner.
Greg:Jesus rescued me from that. And that kept him humble too. He could've got a big head. Yeah. Like I said, he is the writer of the majority of the New Testament in our Bible.
Greg:He could've got a big head. That's a very important, not just an important Christian figure, an important historical figure because even if you're not a follower of Jesus, the church has made such an impact on the world. Much of it stemmed from the work Paul was doing, planting those churches all throughout the region. He coulda got a big head, but he never lost sight of what it was all about. He always remembered God's grace and was always you read his letters.
Greg:Paul was just full of gratitude for who Jesus was and what he did for him. We've gotta learn to be that way. Be gratitude. Be be
Kristi:Have gratitude.
Greg:Have gratitude. Be grateful. Be grateful. That's how
Kristi:you say it. There we go.
Greg:Yeah. I was gonna say be gratitude tootiful, but that's not how you say it. Tootiful? My mind was drawn up like that. Be grateful for what he's done for you.
Greg:And then on top of that, maybe this is is the key to all of it. I mean, all all those those first two are important, but everything he did, he always pushed forward with the end in mind. He knew that he was not made for this world, but he was just passing through. Mhmm. And he was here for one purpose, and that was to point people towards the only thing that mattered, and that was Jesus.
Greg:He never forgot what the finish line was.
Kristi:Well, we we here today, and we we get so caught up in the world's stressors and all of that. And you've heard me say this, and I wished I lived it more, but, I always will say, is this stress or this decision or whatever you're dealing with gonna matter to you during your last breaths?
Greg:Yeah.
Kristi:Are you gonna be thinking about this? And the answer's always no. Yeah. You're not. And he was pushing toward the end that things didn't matter except the Lord.
Greg:Yeah. And he knew that every day mattered. Every day. You put that in today's context. This kind of speaks to to to me, kinda pierces me a little bit when I say it this way.
Greg:But, you know, we can sit and binge watch a show on Netflix. And that can take eight hours for for a show, seven, eight hours to get through the whole thing, that's eight hours that you did not spend on the kingdom. That doesn't mean we never have entertainment. But how many of us do that every day or every week? And you can look at what the kingdom work is and what you're actually accomplishing and it's not very much for the gospel.
Greg:Yeah. It's because we don't live with the end in mind. We live with today in mind. Right. And that's all that matters.
Kristi:And then we complain because we don't have enough time to do, you know, go go to a outreach day at church. We don't have time. We've got to do this, this, this.
Greg:We got time for everything else.
Kristi:Yeah. It's we've our priorities are just screwed up.
Greg:Yeah.
Kristi:And he was finishing well. He
Greg:Yeah. He wanted to finish run the race well, but finish the race strong as what he wanted to do. Right. And that's how we need to to live our life. We need to live in a way where we're not just trying to get through today.
Greg:We're trying to make a difference today. Every single day. We've got to learn how to make a difference. We can't do it by ourselves. We gotta surround ourselves with other people, other Christian friends.
Greg:We've always gotta keep God's grace just kinda over everything else. Never get bored with what Jesus did for you. And always keep that end in mind. That you're not made for this world, but what you're doing has an eternal impact every single day.
Kristi:Alright. When we realize what's that saying that we're just here for the dash, you know, in between the Yeah.
Greg:Just for that dash on your team's In between those two Yeah.
Kristi:So it's why waste our time on silliness?
Greg:Yeah. That's it.
Kristi:Well, we've got the Lord.
Greg:So let's be faithful. Let's look to Paul. Let's try to do the things that he use him as an example and do what he did. You know? Those aren't like commands.
Greg:Those aren't prescriptive things. You gotta go do these things, but they are descriptive of what a faithful life looked like. And because Paul did those things, he was able to remain unshakable even when he was imprisoned, even when he was beaten within inches of his life, shipwrecked. Even at the end of it, he was faithful to the Lord. So do those things.
Greg:It will help you walk through whatever you're struggling with in your life. So that's it for the God Made Podcast this week. I hope that God has spoken to you through this. If so, give us a like, give us a subscribe, share with a friend who really needs to hear this, and we'll see you next time for the next episode of the God Made Podcast.