SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 21 12
Exhortation to Maturity, Part II by Pancho Juarez
in my little Volkswagen and I started to cry. I said, “Lord, I do not even know what you
want me to do.” And I was sobbing.
And as I was passing through this area, I saw this place and it was empty—this was the
same day. And in those days I had an LA Cellular phone, the type that looked like a big
coffin. I looked at the building and I jumped the fence and I called the realtor. “Hey, I am
from Calvary Chapel Montebello and we meet at the high school and I am interested in
this building.” And he asked if I would like to make an appointment. And I asked if he
could come over right then. He said that he was with another client and I asked if the
client was giving him any money because I had a hundred and sixty thousand dollars in
my pocket—which I did not, it was a check. I said I had cash in the bank and the guy said
he would be right over and he hung up.
When he got to this building, he jumped the fence too because he did not have the key.
We were looking around and we looked at the building and I said, “Let’s put in an offer
for it.” We found out that the owner was the son of the original owner who had died. This
son is a Presbyterian pastor and he wanted to get rid of the building. The realtor said that
he could not believe it, the son wants to give it to Calvary Chapel! He knew we make
churches out of bowling alleys, garages, skating rinks, and everywhere. He said, “I know
that Calvary Chapel pastors are known for making churches out of warehouses, so go for
it!”
At five o’clock in the morning when I was in Japan, I got the call that said: “We are in!”
And I started yelling and the Japanese folks were looking at me. They would not
understand what I was going through, but I did not care. I said, “So sorry, so sorry, but
we got a church building!”
Now you see how the Lord opens doors and God gives us the discernment. It is not
because I am smart or because I went to East LA College. It is not because of those
reasons. God gives the simple man and simple woman the ability to have sagacity and the
ability or discretion or prudence, and His wisdom. It is God who gives it to us so we can
make the right decision, the right choices, at the right time, for the right reasons, and for
the right purposes. And it is God who will bless us. Amen?
Turn with me to the last verse in Jeremiah 17. The carnal Christian, as we see in verse 5,
is already cursed. The carnal Christian lives in a precarious or unstable lifestyle. Before I
read this, we need to understand that carnal Christians are unstable in doctrine. Hebrews
says, “They lack basic understanding and they are dull of hearing; they are unskilled in
the word of righteousness. They experience an arrested or stunted growth. They have a
life of inner discord and strife. They are destitute and derelict to fight spiritual warfare
and they have become undiscerning and blinded by Satan” (cf. Hebrews 5:13-14).
Now let me give you some additional background. Jeremiah the prophet was warning the
people of Israel that the Babylonians were coming. It was not a matter of “when or if,” it
was happening. They were coming. And in Jeremiah 17, God told Jeremiah, “Tell my
people to capitulate or give up. Do not fight the Babylonians. They are under My hand.