This message was delivered by Robert H. Schuller from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral. It was aired during the Hour of Power program on Hong Kong's ATV World Channel on 14 Feb 2010.
I first came out with this statement thirty-five years ago in one of my early sessions of our school, The Institute for Successful Church Leadership. The Institute was started out of my love and concern for the pastors and churches that were coming to me for help. Since its beginning, some 50,000 pastors have come and heard the principles for church growth. Among those who attended in those first years are today the pastors of the largest churches in America, including Bill Hybels and Rick Warren and they all heard this sentence: "The shoe must not tell the foot how big to grow."
When the pastors and church leaders came, each one was asked to fill out a questionnaire about their church. And I would respond with lessons I learned in building this ministry. Later I published these lessons in my book, "Your Church Has Real Possibilities." One of the questions in those early questionnaires was, "How many parking spaces do you have?" Many chuckled and others didn't think it was an important issue. Churches didn't bother with parking lots, they just parked their cars on the streets, but then city councils voted that churches must have adequate parking on church property and that caused real problems. So I asked "How many parking spaces will you need to accommodate the people coming in the next couple of years of your church needs. Be sure you don't let your parking spaces limit your church growth. That's like the shoe telling the foot how big to grow.
"The shoe must not tell the foot how big to grow." That's a universal principle! You probably aren't in the leadership of a church, but that principle applies to you and to me. We set up limits that keep God from doing the bigger things He wants to do in our life. We must not limit God!
I remember when I was going to write my very first book and suddenly remembered the one "F" I got in college. I don't think I dared to tell you before, but it was in writing. So I wasn't a writer. Then one day I tried to practice what I preached (it's this principle I'm giving you today). So I put a piece of paper into my typewriter (that's before there were computers). Looking at another slogan on my wall, "Beginning is half done" - "I'd rather attempt something great and fail, than attempt to do nothing and succeed." I typed out a title of a book. "Move Ahead with Possibility Thinking." And a publisher in a weak moment, I think, agreed to publish it.
I've been writing, because I'm practicing the sermon I'm preaching this morning. I'll give you one line: "There is SOMETHING in nothing." Even though we don't understand it, probably, or believe it necessarily ... something is in nothing. In the Garden of Eden - nothing - but something was in that nothing! It is usually an idea, an idea that is connected to a big dream. Or an idea connected to someone we probably have never met. Something is in nothing. There was something in nothing before Adam and Eve were created. The something was a Power, it was a Presence, it was an Intelligence, it was a Cosmic Energy. IT WAS GOD!
It is easy for us to believe that today. We are in a generation that can believe that very easily compared to a hundred or two hundred years ago. Today you can be in a room where there is nothing, but there are voices, music, even plays and movies in there. There is a lot in that nothingness, but you need an instrument like the TV set or computer to pick it up, and so it is with a something that is in nothing. You have an instrument that's built within you to pick up. You have the capacity. You have to learn how to turn it on and then set it to the right dial. The something in the nothing is a spirit. It is the Spirit of God. For Christians, it is the Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Presence of the Holy Spirit. It is there! But you need to have an instrument that will turn it on. That instrument is created in you! Everybody has that potential.
What is that instrument? It is called faith. How do you set the dial? You can't do better than by going to the instruction manual ... it is called the Holy Bible. From the Bible you will receive messages from the words that were written thousands of years ago which are more up to date today than ever. In my studies in psychology I have learned that each of us has been born with a power to exercise a thing called "faith." As far as we know, there is no other creature - foul, animal, fish or other living creature that has that instrument within. But you have to turn it on - and many people keep it turned off. They don't realize that they are limiting God.
Once a man said to me, "If what you say is true, why in the world didn't God give us all faith?" I replied, "God gave that instrument into every brain with the capacity for faith, but you have to turn the instrument on. If He gave it to you by nature, it wouldn't be faith anymore. It would be sensory science. And then it wouldn't have the awesome power of faith. I'm speaking about the kind of faith that has tremendous power to build bridges and connections.
Here is a Bible verse to motivate you:
"Enlarge the place of your tent, and stretch out the curtains of your habitation; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes." (Isaiah 54:2)
Don't limit God!
This means that when you get an idea, opinion or interpretation and you haven't shared it, now is the time to do something with it.
"ENLARGE the place of your tent." Enlarge it. THINK bigger! Think longer! Think deeper! Enlarge the place of your tent. Lengthen the cords, strengthen the stakes. We must do this in our church and as the founding pastor my days are moving on. I'm so grateful for all of you who remain strong and faithful. But I still have goals, so I'm preaching to myself today!
Enlarge the Church
I know that I'm not too old to help build this church. Let's not limit God -together we must enlarge the place where our tent (church) stands, lengthen the cords, stretch to reach farther. Reach beyond our own inner circles. Try to make some new acquaintances. Get into some new circles. "Enlarge the cords."
"Strengthen Your Stakes"
Then we need to strengthen the stakes. Become acquainted with other members in our church. Set your goals by what you as a Christian should be doing. First, there are people you know that I don't know. There are people you know who are hurting, and others who are depressed and I don't know them. There are people who seem ready to commit suicide and I don't know them, but perhaps you know about them. Shall I go on and on? So I'm going to pause and point my finger at you! Enlarge the place where your tent stands. Don't limit God. Don't let your success limit God. "Oh, I've got what I need, I've got enough, etc." or "I've got a faith! I know I'm going to heaven, so that's enough." That is not enough! The odds are we all set our own boundaries. "I've done enough. I'm going to relax. I'm retiring." Those thoughts have gone through my mind more than once in the last year or two.
God calls us today to enlarge our faith. Lengthen the cords and strengthen the stakes.
Where are you at today? Do you have a faith in God? Great. Faith in Jesus Christ? Maybe? Well, stop there. Jesus Christ brings qualities to life and above all, eternal salvation. If you have not accepted Christ is it because you have established limits, boundaries, fences on the ideas that God keeps sending to you?
There was a missionary I heard many years ago when I was in college. So long ago I don't remember his name. He was a very famous preacher. And he shared his own witness. He said, "I became an atheist in high school, then more solid in my beliefs as an atheist in the university. My professors were all the brightest people in the world and most of them didn't believe in God as far as I could tell. So as a hardened atheist, I decided I was going to spread atheism so I could enlighten the world to bring more intelligence to the people I lived with. But I became depressed, almost suicidal." "And," he said, "that's where I was when one Sunday morning I was out for a walk and I walked by this big church and I heard music coming from there. So curiously, I stepped inside and stood at the back. I really don't remember much about the sermon or the music, but at the end, the minister said 'I want you to become a believer. It's just a decision. Don't debate it. Don't argue it. You'll never win the argument. Nobody will. It's all in the realm of faith.'
And then he said, "The minister closed with prayer, I didn't bother to close my eyes. I didn't believe in such a thing as prayer. I looked around, everybody was praying. Then I saw the white hair of my professor, the head of my physic department. He was famous as being the most intellectual, the most brilliant, and the most talented professor of the university. He goes to church? There must be something to this or he wouldn't go to church. And after the prayer, I stared at him as he raised his head and I saw a radiance coming out of his face. A radiance I never saw in the classroom. I had never seen it before and it came out of that prayer thing. And I said there must be a God. Something happened to my professor the last minute or two while he was praying. Believers aren't crazy after all because he is a believer. It is then that I made a decision to become a believer.
The shoe must not tell the foot how big to grow. Your doubts must not tell your faith how much to be enlarged. Whatever your sickness is, don't let your doubts tell you how long you are going to live, or tell you that you cannot find healing. Leadership is the force that sets your goals. You make the decision.
My friend from Rotary, Ben Tee, ran a bootery in Garden Grove. He had the rare skill to custom build shoes. When he died many years ago, several people told what he had done for them. One story was about a poor family who came to live here shortly before Christmas. The near-penniless father came to Ben Tee's store one day with his crippled son, and asked if Ben could make a special pair of shoes for the boy: "Like the other boys wore." Ben said he could, but this was the busiest time of the year. Finally, he promised to have them ready by Christmas.
But on December 24, when the father came for the new shoes, Ben hadn't even started to work on them. When the father returned at 6:00 PM, Ben still hadn't begun. He had so much work to do; he simply couldn't get to this special job. But then Ben began and he worked through the night, and at three in the morning, Christmas day, Ben phoned the father to come to the store right away. The shoes were finished. Now Ben normally charged $50 or more for a specially made pair of shoes, but to this poor father he said, "O, for work like that I ought to get about $10." And he added cheerfully, "Merry Christmas."
Now that's Ben Tee! Don't let anything limit you from thinking more generously, thinking more kindly, more Christ-like. You set your goals, you make your decisions. You are the only one who can do that. And you are the only one who can say no, when the idea comes into your mind.
Never let problems, pain, hardship or your limitations tell you how big to think. The shoe must never tell the foot how big to grow!
© Copyright Hour of Power 2010. This message was delivered by Robert H. Schuller from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral and aired on the Hour of Power January 10, 2010.
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