#IPPC2018: Pastor Chris Shocks Pastors

The Pastor’s Conference of the ongoing International Pastors and Partners Conference (IPPC) 2018, touched a spiritual nerve yesterday evening with Pastor Chris sharing a message he said, he wanted to share for the past three years. The message is on the power and pursuit of purpose. He started by asking the congregation their understanding of purpose. He went ahead to define purpose as an intent, design, the reason for being, and a course or action. “Why do you do what you do. What motivates you? What’s your fire? What drives you? What’s your purpose? Purpose matters”, he added.

Purpose, according to Pastor Chris, must be specific. Design must be specific. He gave example with the Bible the Bible with 66 books, noting that it is so detailed without assumptions, written with so much clarity. Using that as basis, he asked the congregation what their driving force is. “Why are you a minister of the gospel? What are you into this thing and when will you stop?”, he quipped.

Pastor Chris stated that before answering the question, it will be nice to start with the negative reasons that drive people and cause them to do what they do. “Why do people do what they do, like move to a new city or enroll in some online courses? Why are you doing what you are doing”, he asked. Pastor Chris launched into a detailed expose of these negative forces which includes fear. According to him, oftentimes, people can’t even define what they are afraid of. “There are people who are more motivated by fear than by faith. Some move to live in certain places because of fear of danger. But until you locate the negative driving forces that make you do what you do, you would have any solution…”Pastor also explained the fear of rejection and read from Proverbs 29:25 – “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”

The second set of negative forces according to Pastor Chris is resentment, anger, jealousy, and other things that prompt people to action. “Some ministries are started on the foundation of anger and bitterness and fight. You have some people that will not attend some meetings because a Pastor they don’t like calls for that meeting… How are you able to pray and speak in tongues and lift your hand”.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”(Matthew 23:27-28 KJV.)

Driving the message further, Pastor stated that others are motivated by the memories of the past. They have never left their past and are held bondage to their past. They erroneously believe that maybe if the please God, they can overcome their past. Some even have nightmares and pictures of what happened in their pasts.

The fourth negative force Pastor Chris stated was the desire for approval. “Sometimes they want approval from pathologically ‘unpleasable’ people. Parents, spouses, relations, friends. There are bosses you cannot please. It’s a disease, pleasing the unpleasable. Because of that, you can’t do so much”. He backed this up with the book of John, “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?” (John 5:44 KJV.)

According to Pastor, if you want to please everybody, you will be a slave to the last person you talk to. Paul said follow me as I follow the Master so that we both can please the Master. That’s what you do.

The fifth negative force is worldliness. “Listen, this is Pastors conference, I’m talking to you. Fix your life before helping others also”. He warned that worldliness, canality, being carried away by the spirit of the world are some of the challenges many are facing today. “Some Christians’ discussions are so canal, with nothing spiritual. When they argue about football, they almost want to fight. They become so passionate about their football teams that they forget who they are”. That is worldliness, he said. “Can you imagine, even a pastor has a role model that’s not a Christian”, he wondered. He referenced the book of (1 John 2:15 KJV) that “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”.

Admonishing the delegates not to love the world, otherwise, the love of the father won’t be in them. The word of God is final. The Father loves the people, not the world and its systems.

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:15-16 KJV.

Buttressing the point further, Pastor Chris talked about the lust of the flesh, of the lust of the eyes, reminding the delegates that the reality shows are part of it. Your describing it as reality show and not acting does not make it not to be worldliness. “When you finish from it, you will start speaking in tongues. Your spiritually then descends to the pit”. The story of the gentleman that was so upset about the family tree which produce only nuts….

Pastor Chris closed the message by admonishing delegates not to be carried away until they forget the higher purpose they are supposed to live for. “If you do the will of the Father, you will be unshakable. The world becomes yours. What life do you want to live, how do you want to live it. The pursuit of purpose”.

#IPPC2018.