Practice Makes Perfect Try And Try Again It Takes 10,000 Hours To Master A Skill

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries, my name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for spending your time with us today. We really appreciate it. We are founded on our mission that social media is a place to reach more people, to bring the Gospel to more places and so that is what Social Media Ministries is. We are founded on the belief of the Bible and we preach from the Bible and so we want to use social media to spread that to as many people as possible.

The whole point of saying that is, if you could help us with that by using the share icons below on any of our sermons, any of our videos, to reach more people we would really really appreciate the assistance.

Today we have a good message for you. Now you have no doubt heard the saying practice makes perfect and that is what we are talking about today. Practice makes perfect. Malcolm Gladwell had a belief or a notion, an idea that in order for you to become good at something, in order to master a skill you had to do it for 10,000 hours.

So 10,000 hours working on something made you master this skill. Bill Gates has talked about it a lot. He had 10,000 hours of coding and he became a master of coding and it enabled him to create one of the greatest revolutionary companies of today, obviously Microsoft. 10,000, that is a lot of hours.

Let’s talk about 10,000 hours for a second here on this. For me to become a master of preaching sermons to you guys, to become excellent at it, to become good at it, I would need to preach for ten thousand hours. Now are we talking about preaching or just speaking, because public speaking for ten thousand hours could be achieved faster? Or is it preaching sermons for ten thousand hours? Well if I wanna be really good at preaching sermons, ten thousand hours of preaching sermons.

Let’s think about this. The average sermon on this channel, on Social Media Ministries, and even of other preachers and speakers today, is about 20 minutes long. If you do 20 minutes, that is three sermons for every hour, that would be 30,000 sermons before we would become a master of preaching sermons.

Now, in the same token, if it is a master of the Bible, it is 30,000 hours of reading and studying and meditating on the scripture. That is a lot of reading and studying and meditating on the scripture. 30,000 hours, if there are 24 hours in a day. Multiply that out, how many hours in a year? I am not that quick at math and I don’t have a calculator right here, but you could figure that out and think how many hours in a year and how many years ten thousand hours would be.

There are 168 hours in a week, multiply that by 100 weeks, that would be two years roughly. It would be 10,000 hours or a little under two years. That is a lot of time dedicated to something especially when you are only awake for two-thirds of that year. You would need to do three solid years of all your waking hours in order to hit 10,000 hours.

This isn’t achieved lightly. This time of mastering a skill, could take you anywhere from five to seven years before you master a skill. What does that mean? It means you need to be patient if you are working on something. Plan it for five to seven years.

This is a great entrepreneurial message. You are starting a business, five to seven years you gotta master it. You are practicing a new skill. You wanna learn a sport, you wanna learn to play an instrument, you are trying to learn a language. Five to seven years, ten thousand hours you need to get in order to master that skill, that language, that instrument, whatever it may be.

Ten thousand hours. That is a lot. What is the point of this? Ten thousand hours? Well as Christians we are called to go out into the world and preach the Gospel and grow the Kingdom of God, the body of Christ. That means practice makes perfect.

You want to be good at preaching, and about winning others to Christ, or bringing other people to Christ? You got to practice. How much do you have to practice? 10,000 hours. Have you done 10,000 hours of sharing Jesus? Probably not. I don’t even think I have. That is a lot. That is a lot of talking about Jesus with other people, 10,000 hours.

Mark 16:15, ‘He said to them, go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.’ That is your command, your commandment. Obviously, you have other callings, other purposes, but that is our highest purpose and then you have a calling on your life and a life’s purpose. We have talked about how you have a purpose. That is in another video, another sermon. If you haven’t watched that you can check it out in a card up here, otherwise navigate to our YouTube channel and you can find that.

This is the command, the command to lead others to Christ is mentioned several times throughout the Bible and that is what you need to be practicing. Practice makes perfect. Don’t worry. You might not feel like you are very good at leading other people to Christ. You are not really good at talking about the Bible. You are not really good about talking about Jesus, or about what you believe. Practice makes perfect.

You might not be really really good at it until you hit ten thousand hours, five years, but still practice. Do it, don’t be afraid. The Lord will teach you what to say. We are going to come to that later. The command to lead others to Christ, like I said, is mentioned all throughout the Bible. The most popular or most known passage is the great commission, that is Matthew 28:19-20. We are going to read that. It is also the verse that we kind of stand by here at Social Media Ministries. We want to do this, we want to preach it everywhere.

Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20, the great commission, it says, ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’

There is a lot right here in this verse. Right before this, it says, ‘All authority under heaven and earth has been given to me.’ This is Jesus talking, so he has all authority. He is telling us to go and make disciples of all nations, all nations, don’t leave anyone out. That is why we are on social media. We want to reach the whole world. We can do that through social media. If you help us by sharing the content we can reach them.

‘All nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.’ Now this is more than simply sharing the Gospel with them, but that is the first step. Then we can baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit so they too can receive and then go share. Then it says, ‘Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’

Now that is what we are doing here, we are teaching, we want these shared all over. We want people to come to Jesus because of it and then we also want them to learn through it and we can only do that through more and more people sharing it.

Then, ‘As surely as I am with you, to the very end of the age.’ What does that part mean? Well, it means if you don’t feel very confident in sharing Jesus or in clicking a share button below this video, you can know He is with you. He is not going to let you fail. He is with you.

What does He want? He wants more people to come to Him. He wants to have everyone go to heaven. He is not going to leave you out alone. You can trust that He is with you in that moment. All you need to do is take that step, that leap of faith, and start sharing Jesus.

He spent His whole life teaching others and preaching the Gospel. Even when He was a little kid His parents went out, they left and they thought He was with the caravan. About three days later they are like, whoa whoa, where is Jesus? They are asking their relatives, they are asking their friends, they are asking everybody. Hey, have you seen Jesus? Have you seen Jesus? And the worse fear of a parent is that their kid is gone and they had no idea where He was. Their worst fear had come true.

Now back then compared to today, if it happened today, I mean we think the worst. Serial killers, pedophiles, someone got the kid and the kid is gone. Back then in that type of world, it was a little safer. They knew he couldn’t have gone far. What they did was they said, all right we have been journeying for three days, we got to go back.

So they took three more days. They went back. Six days later they find Him. Where did they find Him? In the temple and what did He tell them? You should have known I would be here attending to my father’s business. They didn’t understand what that meant. They are like, no this is your father right here, what is going on here? No, He had the higher purpose.

He spent His whole life sharing Himself. Sharing salvation with other people. Doing His Father’s business. Be like Jesus and do the same. Spread the word, share the Gospel. Yes, it is hard, it is not easy. There is nothing easy about it. Most people, say like a family gathering, you don’t talk about religion, you don’t talk about politics. Well, good thing, this isn’t religion, this is truth. We aren’t talking about a man-made religion here. We are talking about Jesus Christ, a man that came to save you. You can talk about that.

Don’t worry, it is hard, yes, but it can become easy. It starts simply, hey what do you believe? Let them start and then they may ask you. Okay yeah, I believe this, this, and this. What about you? If they don’t say, what about you, well then that is your cue to not go there. Be like Jesus and do the same.

You may feel like it is never the right time but bring it up anyway. Remember simply ask. You might be at the drive-thru, maybe you are waiting in line with someone for your coffee or for your McDonald’s or your Subway or wherever you are and you are striking up a conversation with this guy.

Hey, great day today, and then you guys start talking, and then after a couple minutes, what do you believe? If the person said I don’t want to talk about that. Okay, hey no problem man, I just thought I would ask. It is something that interests me about people and then maybe they would open up. If you have time then you could share with them, you just have to start.

Have faith that God will steer that conversation in the way it will go and if they ask you, that is your cue. That is what you can remember, it rhymes, write it down, if they ask you that is your cue. If they don’t ask you then don’t force it on them. That is why people say not to talk about it, because so many people out there are trying to shove it down their throats, that they just can’t handle it. Don’t be like that.

Jesus didn’t try to force this on anyone. He simply showed people and how did He win people over? He did it with love. He didn’t do it by firing Brimstone on the street corner with a megaphone shouting at people. He did it by healing their sick, praying for them, asking God to heal them, casting out demons, solving their worldly problems so that they would follow Him.

Now you can do that. Be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. He has all authority under heaven given to Him. He can give it to you just like He gave it to those disciples. He breathed on them the Holy Spirit then they went out all over casting out demons, prophesying, healing, people raising the dead even and people believed.

Why don’t we have that today? We don’t have faith. You want faith. Start. You want to have that start. Ask. You will receive. Start showing God that you are worthy to receive that power and it will happen. You will receive it.

Practice makes perfect. Get your ten thousand hours in. You no doubt will be filled with the Holy Spirit. All you have to do is start talking and God will do the rest. We do have the Holy Spirit within us, we just don’t have that awesome power. Well maybe not all of us, some of us do, we don’t have that awesome power yet.

Jesus breathed on the disciples, He gave it to them. We do have the Holy Spirit within us. It is just simply dormant or silent because we are not listening to it. You need to listen to it and culture that gift, bring it up, and allow yourself to be led by the Holy Spirit. Stop being in your own way. Stop trying to lead your life your way, but trust the Holy Spirit. Follow the Holy Spirit as it leads you closer and closer to Christ.

Luke 12:12 says, ‘For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.’ Get the context of that verse and it is about how preaching the Gospel might not always be easy. You may not know what to say but the Holy Spirit at that time, not beforehand, it is not like the Holy Spirit is going to talk to you and say, you are going to say this. You are going to say this. You are going to say this and you are going to meet this person at this time and this is what you are going to say to them. Then this is going to happen and bam, you just walk right in there and oh, that is the guy. Hey, how’s it going? Oh good. You are to follow Christ. Now let’s go on to the next one.

It is not that easy, not for everyone. Anyway, ‘For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say and even how to say it.’ What do you need to do then? You need to get to that time the only way you can. Get to that time by starting the conversation.

You can’t just expect that, oh well God, if you want me to share you with this person in line, he will bring it up to me. They are not going to bring it up to you. Most people do not go around seeking something and bringing it up to a stranger in line. I mean if they do, then that is a great opportunity and you better not miss it, but most people you need to bring it up. You need to get to that time. How do you do that? You start the conversation. You need to have 10 seconds of courage.

There is a popular movie, it is a great movie that says 10 seconds of courage. That is what it does if you have 10 seconds of courage and everything else falls into place. You just have to have that 10 seconds and it really is only 10 seconds. How long does it take? Hey, what do you believe? Three seconds. You got seven more to keep going with your courage and then pretty soon they will start talking. They will open it up and then at that time God tells you what you are gonna say. Ten seconds of courage and start talking. The more you speak of God’s word the easier it will become.

Now you can’t simply start going up to people and talking not knowing what is in the Bible. You need to do the work. You need to meet God halfway. That is a very popular saying. Very popular mentality. If you want to be able to tell others about Jesus and about the Bible, how can you tell others about them if you don’t know yourself? How do you know yourself? You start reading. Read your Bible.

Get a plan, buy one of those chronological Bibles that has all the dates, and read it every single day. Buy a Bible-in-a-year program and read it every single day for a year. Read your Bible. Learn more about Jesus. Watching this is a great start. Go to church, learn, and then when you start bringing it up in conversation to get to that time you will know what to say because it is within you. It is within you. It is in your mind.

You may not know it consciously, but it is there because you have been reading it and God will bring it out for you. He will tell you at that time what you should say. The more you speak of it the easier it will become. After a few times of sharing the Gospel, it will definitely become like second nature.

Why is this? It is because you were made to be like Jesus. We were created in the image of God, in His image. Jesus looked just like us. We were created in the image of God. We were made to be like God. That is how we were made. That is who you were made to be, so start doing that.

Jesus was the best at sharing the Gospel, the best. You were made to be like Him so start being like Him. You can be just like that, if you practice you will be on your way to perfection. We can never achieve perfection, Jesus was perfect, we can practice and it makes perfect. We should really say practice makes almost perfect because we can never be perfect.

But you put in those 10,000 hours and you really try and you feed your mind with the Bible and with the scripture and meditate on it day and night and learn and study. Then go out and start talking and the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what to say, because it will serve it up from you, from inside. Things you didn’t even know you knew will start coming out. Why? Because you are letting the Holy Spirit speak for you.

Practice makes almost perfect. You can be like Jesus if you practice. You will be on your way to perfection. You will become very very good at leading others to Christ so don’t give up. Have that 10 seconds of courage and get out there and share.

Now whether that starts with simply clicking a button below and then waiting for someone to comment on your Facebook post or for someone to say, hey why are you sharing this guy’s sermons on your Facebook all the time? Then you can say because it is my calling. If you are embarrassed or ashamed of the Gospel then that is not good either.

Now I am not saying that to guilt you into sharing these sermons, I am saying it because you should never be ashamed to do what is right or to share the Bible or to share Jesus with other people. ‘For I am not ashamed of the Gospel.’ It is in 2 Timothy. You do not want to be ashamed of it. Jesus says in Matthew, ‘For whoever acknowledges me before man, him will I acknowledge before my father in heaven.’

You want God to acknowledge you. You want Jesus to acknowledge you before His Father in heaven so don’t be afraid to share Him here on earth. That is why you were made. You were made to be like Jesus. So start that conversation.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, please help each and every one of us to be more like you. Encourage us and inspire us. Give us that 10 seconds of courage to start the conversation and Lord give us the groundwork, the preparation. Inspire us and keep us disciplined enough to read the Bible, to study your word, to listen to sermons, to watch sermons, to share with other people.

Give us that inspiration to start the conversation. If it is something as simple as, wow the snowflakes look great today, imagine what God created or I saw this great message last week, let me tell you about it, or what do you believe, or any of that.

Just please inspire them to start the conversation and Lord I ask that once they start that conversation that the other person would give them the opportunity to share you and that they would come through and share you really really well. That you would speak through them.

That the Holy Spirit would come alive within them and that they would start to recognize it and then Lord help them get that ten thousand hours so that they can become closer to perfect and be more and more like you each and every day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thanks so much for tuning in today. This really was an important message and I hope that you found it important and also inspiring. That you would be inspired to get out there and start the conversation. God bless.