The second thing is, I believe we need to invest in personal growth and development. I think if you're gong to fulfil your assignment, you have to make a decision to invest in yourself. Now no one is going to do that for you. So for example, if you've got a musical gifting, you can have all the gifting you like, but if you don't invest in the training, you'll never fulfil your assignment. You'll never become great unless you get some training. So I look around - a lot of young people, when they start to walk with God, they get this kind of thing of God will take them here and take them there. Listen - discover what is inside you that could be a gift to the world, and then develop the gift. Invest in your development. Get some training, get some education, get some skills. Whatever you do, develop yourself, and so that spiritual development, growing in your personal life and also it's practical and natural development, in just your skills and abilities and various other things, even managing finance. It's not so hard is it? These are quite important - so invest in yourself.
So here's a question then. Who is it, that you've been doing good to? What opportunities have come up recently? Second question you could think of would be: what am I doing to invest in myself, and to grow my gifts, and grow my ability? What am I doing? Am I doing anything? Well then if you're not growing, you're just stagnating.
Third thing is, develop excellence in serving. Develop excellence in serving. Why do I say that? Because excellence in serving, that means very simply, do the little things well, and on time. Do the little things well, and on time. Do it with a great heart. Why? Colossians 3:23 says: whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, not unto men, knowing - here's why you do it that way - knowing that from the Lord we shall receive the reward of inheritance. So serving with excellence is a key part of gaining favour with men, that gives God room to promote you. Think about that.
So if I don't find people serving, or their serving is trivial or poor, they're not committed to grow, I know they can't become great. Greatness in the kingdom is about serving. It's about meeting needs of people, and doing it really well, and doing it with a great heart, doing it with a great attitude, and continually improving your serve. It's quite simple, and you know, in a church like this, there's heaps of ways that you can serve. Just serve the family of God. Every time we have a Sunday Service, there's people up there who do lights, there's people outside in the car park and - did a great job, they're out in the car park there, and they're the first people that people meet. There's people count money, there's people do all kinds of things. There's about 70 people involved on a Sunday morning, let alone acts of service anywhere else. I know there are so many people who are doing things behind the scenes all the week, so these are great ways of going isn't it?
Here's the fourth thing - set some practical goals. Make a plan. If you're going to grow and achieve something with your life, make a plan. Maybe it's just a plan about your work. Maybe it's a plan about your spiritual growth, a plan about your marriage, a plan about your family, but just make a plan. Put some things down that you commit yourself to do. That's quite simple, because the moment you do that, you're now articulating what I'm doing, and now this is where I'm going. Most people who succeed in life have a plan. They have something that maintains their focus in life. You say: how's that going to get my assignment? Because these are the things everyone has to do, to accomplish something great with their life, and it's on the journey that God guides you. He doesn't give it to you all - it's a scroll. It unravels as you go. I wish it was a book - you could just sort of go and have a peek in it - where am I up to? Sixty-six. Don't know what's up now? No, it doesn't work like that, it's a scroll, so it just unravels as you walk into it.