Your Best Friend Is Your Cheerleader, Your Mentor Is Your Coach

Sermon outline

There are two ways to get wisdom, mistakes or mentors, and recognising the uncommon mentor God has placed in your life will spare you a thousand heartaches and lift you higher.

1. Believe his prophets and you shall prosper

   Picking up the scripture one of the speakers had read, he says gifts are not the point, since you can only wear one pair of shoes and drive one car. His and Pastor Zubeda's prosperity really began when they started to acknowledge a man of God standing in his office and to sow personally into his life; before that they tithed and still lived from paycheque to paycheque. Like Paul, he desires fruit that abounds to the giver's account.

   Illustration: One of his biggest arguments with God was that if he left his job for the church, God could never pay him what he was earning outside. God proved him wrong again and again, year after year.

   “God is bigger than our paycheck. God is bigger than your profession.”

   • 2 Chronicles 20:20
   • Philippians 4:17
   • Matthew 6:33

2. A mentor, a protégé, and your most important mentor

   A mentor is a wise and trusted counsellor or teacher, an influential senior sponsor or supporter of your life who coaches you and breathes life into you. A protégé is a person who receives special protection and promotion from someone more established in a field. Mentors enter and exit your life, but the Holy Spirit is the most dominant and important mentor you will ever have, and he will never leave you, whatever you feel under pressure.

   Illustration: Remember the teacher you admired at school, the way they dressed, spoke and presented, and how you said in your heart, one day I am going to be like that.

   “The Holy Spirit of God is your most dominant and important mentor of all mentors you'll ever have.”

   • Proverbs 4:10-14
   • John 14:15-16

3. Two ways to get wisdom: mistakes or mentors

   Wisdom determines the success of your life, and there are only two ways to get it: the hard knocks of life, or instruction from someone who has walked the field before you. With a mentor you do not have to go through the pain they went through; you only have to listen. Stay consistent, and sooner or later the light comes on.

   Illustration: It is like taking somebody's great recipe, cooking it and making it your own. He adds that, coming from Hinduism, he equated humility and piety with lack, so as a young Christian he resisted preachers who spoke about prosperity, not realising God was using them to mentor him for his future.

   “Mentors are the difference between poverty and prosperity, decrease and increase, loss and gain, pain and pleasure, deterioration and restoration.”

4. 1. An uncommon mentor is a master key to the success of a student or protégé

   You do not come to church simply because that is your pastor, but because you receive instruction and wisdom from someone who is schooling you in life and has your back. Growth may take months and it sometimes comes through pain and discomfort, because God is teaching you to fly.

   “You need pleasure to inspire you. You need pain to grow you.”

5. 2. Wisdom is the principal thing, and it is passed on

   Joshua was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him, and so Israel obeyed him. Many in the church have had hands laid on them over the years, and the spirit of wisdom has already come on them. He tells them to capitalise on it and grow with it.

   “The spirit of wisdom has already come on you. Capitalize on it.”

   • Proverbs 4:7
   • Deuteronomy 34:9

6. 3. An uncommon mentor guarantees your promotion

   If you keep focused you will keep going higher. He says God has put it in his heart to trust him for at least 20 multi-millionaires in the church; how it happens is God's business and theirs. Prize wisdom and she will make you great.

   “You're never going to go down in life if you will just keep focused.”

   • Proverbs 4:8-9

7. 4. An uncommon mentor will determine your wealth

   You come to church to get wisdom, and wisdom will make you wealthy. Poverty is a spirit, and Jesus took the curse of poverty so that you may be rich; what you have now is only a temporary station. Do not criticise a pastor for what he drives or wears, and do not walk around calculating what others have. Remember where you started, give God the credit, and rejoice when he blesses someone else, because he will do the same for you.

   Illustration: Rewind and ask: how did I start, where did I come from, what car did I have? And look at me now.

   “If God's anointing can heal you, then God's anointing can heal your finances.”

   • 2 Corinthians 8:9
   • Proverbs 8:18

8. 5. An uncommon mentor can paralyse your enemies against you

   A mentor has already broken barriers in his own life, so when you come for prayer all you have to do is receive him. He warns the church not to become familiar with their pastor, however friendly he is. He is not speaking of academic or financial standing, where they may surpass him, but of rank with God, which they should covet for themselves.

   “The ranking with God is something you must covet.”

   • Luke 21:15

9. 6. An uncommon mentor can cause influential people to listen to you

   When words of grace are spoken over you, someone out in the world who was not even looking at you will suddenly be drawn to do something good for you. It happens because of your association, as Israel obeyed Joshua because Moses had laid hands on him.

   “You think, how on earth did this happen? Because of my association.”

   • Deuteronomy 34:9

10. 7. An uncommon mentor will require your pursuit

    You must make the demand, not the mentor. Mentors do not run after the people they mentor; that is how the economics of God work. Stay hungry, keep pressing, keep your heart right. He adds that he loves rich and poor alike and is not after anyone's money, because God sustains him as he sustained Elijah through a raven and a widow.

    Illustration: Elijah simply walked past Elisha, and Elisha gave up his profession and his father's house to follow him. He also retells a story he heard from Benny Hinn of a Hindu man with cancer who could not get into the stadium, walked around it crying out to God, and was healed.

    “The proof of desire is pursuit.”

    • Mark 5:25-34
    • 1 Kings 19:19-21
    • 1 Kings 17:4-16

11. 8. An uncommon mentor is more interested in your success than your affection

    His focus is not on celebrating you but on correcting you. It is easy to celebrate someone all the time, but a mentor sometimes needs to correct.

    “His focus is not in the celebration of you but on the correction of you.”

12. 9. An uncommon mentor is not necessarily your best friend

    A mentor may not always seem friendly, because he wants to push you to the next level. Your best friend is comfortable with your past, ignores your weakness and sees what you do right; your mentor looks at your future, removes your weakness and sees what you do wrong. With correction come love, focus, elevation and wisdom.

    “Your best friend loves you the way you are. Your mentor loves you too much to leave you the way you are.”

13. 10. An uncommon mentor sees things you cannot see

    He sees the weakness in you before you feel the pain of it, and an enemy before you discern him. He has already experienced the pain of the problem you are about to create for yourself, and you can prevent it just by listening. He wishes leaders would say, we may not see what you see, but go ahead, we have your back.

    “A visionary always sees far beyond.”

14. 11. An uncommon mentor will become an enemy to the enemies of his protégé

    When you accept a mentor and connect with the man of God, God takes care of your enemies because of that association. A mentor will fight any philosophy, pitfall or prejudice that would rob the protégé of complete success, so invest everything to spend time with the mentor God has chosen to sow into your life.

    Illustration: He walks around greeting people, and when they rush past he pulls back and lets them go.

    “What you don't recognize, you'll never attract.”

    • Psalm 27

15. 12. Recognition of an uncommon mentor will prevent a thousand heartaches

    God loves you too much to leave you where you are, and the way he takes you forward is through a mentor who sees things well before you do and is interested in your success.

    “God loves you too much to leave you where you are.”