Ready For Anything

"If there ain't no oil under em, then their ain't no oil in em."

~Mater~ Cars 2







"All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it." 
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I Corinthians 12:27

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Ready Set Go Podcast
Episode 2: Ready For Anything

​Get Ready! I know you’ve heard that term many times. It could of been when someone was yelling it at you as a child to put your clothes on so we can go, or a coach getting you ready for a game, or one of my favorite preachers yelling it over and over again, or at a race to get the runners ready to start. No matter where you’ve heard it, it always means the same thing.

Welcome to the Ready Set Go Podcast where we want to empower you to live an abundant life through Faith in Christ. And it’s through the encouragement and strength you receive you can go and face the world with boldness as you serve and give to others. Because it’s through the grace Jesus is giving us we can be a light.

“Get Ready!” A phrase of preparing oneself! That’s where our Equip comes in. Getting Ready to be who God has created us to be! As we seek balance in our lives, a way to do that is to always look at our inward focus, upward focus, and our outward focus. I’ve learned in ministry that every church should have these as their guiding principles to help their vision of the organization as a whole. We as individuals should also have an inward, upward, outward focus and that’s why here at the EEA Network we have that too. Today I want to give you our inward focus, or our Equip Focus. That is our Ready!

In the climate of society today it is so easy to loose sight of our spirituality inwardly. There was this one line in Cars 2 that stood out to me. Mater, who is one of the characters, a rusty old Tow Truck says, “If there ain’t no oil in under em, then there ain’t no oil in em”. He was talking about British vehicles and how they always leak. So, you always know if the cars have oil in them by them always leaking oil out of them. Whatever is going in you, it will eventually come out of you. And it can be very easy to allow what we read in the news or see on TV affect the way we view others and react to others.

Just know this, and Paul talks about this is 1 Corinthians 12, that we are all different. We all have our own personality, our own will, likes, dislikes, opinions, and in these days its so easy to give those opinions out on our social media page because it can be something we can hide behind. He says this in 1 Corinthians 12:27, “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.” 

It all comes down to this question. Why did Jesus come? It’s the Why that always gets us. And the WHY is our Mission. Well known evangelist Robert Madu put this saying on his Instagram some time ago and I love it. He said “Grace without Truth is meaningless. Truth without Grace is just mean. Grace with Truth is medicine. Jesus is full of Grace and Truth”.

So let me ask you, have you taken your daily dose of medicine today? Jesus coming to us paints the picture of why we do what we do, and why loving others is our goal. It’s easy to love ourselves, but look around and we see how hard it can be to love others. Jesus set the example by what he did for us and answered the why. And that is what our mission here at the EEA Network is. To help you grow Inwardly, Upwardly, and Outwardly. Equip, Encounter, and Activate. Ready Set Go!

Growing up I was a part of a boys group at church called Royal Ranger. It was just like Boy Scouts and in this group we had a Ranger Motto and Code. Part of that Motto was this. "The Ranger Motto: Ready, ready for anything. Ready to Work, play, serve, worship, live, and obey God’s Word." 

As I look back on life I can see little hints of how this has rang true for me. When I was a teenager my Dad taught me to change the oil in the car. He would take me out on several occasions and show me step by step how to unscrew the bolt, where to put the drip pan, where the oil filter was to go to replace it, and where to put the new oil. On one particular day he told me we needed to change the oil and told me to gather everything we needed for the oil change. I got all the supplies together and headed outside to wait on my Dad to come out. He did not come out. I went back inside and asked what he was waiting for, and he told me,"You know how to do it, go for it." After an hour of trying to get the bolt off by myself, filling the drip pan and taking off the old filter trying not to get to much oil on me, and putting the oil in spilling some in the engine, I did my first oil change by myself. 

Fast forward in my 20's, and I was working my first ministry position as an intern while going to Bible College. The Director of the ministry would have me shadow another staff member that did everything for the ministry. He worked on all the trucks and buses, painted, did the programs, and a whole lot more. We changed timing belts, well, mainly he did. We pulled engines out of buses, again, he did. I was the helper just handing tools and helping in any way. One day he was busy so the Director took me outside to the oldest Dodge Van you can imagine. He opens the hood up and points to the carburetor and says, "It doesn't work anymore so take it out." He then proceeds to leave and I'm there with tools in my hand trying to fathom taking this object out underneath all this other parts of the engine. I'm embarrassed to say, but it took me 4 hours to finally get that thing out. I felt really accomplished though. 

Fast forward some more, and now I'm in my 30"s at a Mega Church as an Assistant Youth Pastor. I had the privilege of helping to plan one of the largest conferences in the World called "Mega Fest"  in Atlanta, Georgia. My responsibility was to organize and lead almost 200 volunteers for the Youth Experience that had over 15,000 youth. On one particular day, I was to facilitate one of the sessions for the Youth Experience. Coordinating with volunteers, I had to make sure the speaker was ready, the worship team was in place, and the schedule was going smoothly. I quickly learned to be Ready for Anything. Five minutes before the start the Youth Pastor, my boss comes and tells me the person who is going to take up the offering and introduce the speaker is not showing up. That person was Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child. I forgot the reason for her not arriving to the conference center, but she was the key to the whole session going smoothly. Everyone was waiting to hear her talk for ten minutes while she introduced the offering and speaker. My boss looked at me and said he couldn't do it because he had to be at the other session across the hall, and everyone else was tide up with other things. That's when it happened. He said those three words that will either make you or break you; "Make It Happen." After he said those words he proceeded to turn around and walk out. 

To make a long story even longer, I did the ten minutes of offering and introducing the speaker. Yes, they were expecting Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child, but got me instead. The "Ready For Anything" became so true at that moment. This will always be a great story to remind us of how God is always preparing us for greater things, and that everything that has happened to us can have purpose. 

It is our purpose here to Equip you to be Ready, Empower you through an Encounter with the God of the Universe to Set you up for greatness, and to Activate the Go that God has called us to. Three things I want you to remember the Inward Focus moves us too.    

Our Inward Focus moves us towards making the invisible Kingdom visible!

Our Inward Focus is to Make Disciples who Make Disciples! That’s why Equipping is so important. This is part of the call to Love one another!

Here at EEA , we want to make the invisible Kingdom visible through how we live and witness. So, do that today, witness by how you live. Peace!