We have a tree in the back yard of the parsonage that needs to be taken down so I called Doyle to tell him that we need to get some bids on it. When he answered the phone I got completely serious and said “Doyle, I need you to call Steve Mcallister. I need to know how much insurance we have on the parsonage. That tree we need to take out fell over on the parsonage” Oh no he says. “Oh yeah. The largest branch went thru the roof, landed on the bathtub, and pushed it down thru the floor.” Oh you’re joking, he says. “Yeah I am”. It was really funny until Brandy told me “You’re going to get a call tonight that Doyle is in the hospital with heart failure.”
Our scripture today is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians. So many people don’t like the apostle Paul. Especially women when they read the scripture that says women should sit down and be quiet in church.
Instead of searching the scriptures and finding out what he is talking about and why he said that, many just dismiss Paul as a sexist pig who is the product of a patriarch system. We will get to that scripture another day. Actually…why did the Israelites wonder in the desert for 40 years? Because even then men would not ask for directions. :o)
Today though we are on Ephesians 3. Paul shows himself as the humble obedient follower of Jesus Christ who will do whatever it takes to spread the Good News and build the Kingdom of God. Paul understands what is important, and what his priority must be.
In verses 8-10 he says that his goal is to preach and write to the people about the riches and generosity of Christ. He must make known what God has been doing all this time. It’s that mystery thing we talked about a couple weeks ago. Remember the sugar cookies. Of course you do. I’ve been told that I cannot submit a recipe for the next church cookbook. That’s too bad.
Paul’s job is to preach Jesus Christ and to write letters of encouragement. If he were here today, he would pick up the phone and call us or send us email.
Then he encourages this congregation. He tells them “It’s because of churches like yours that the message is getting out. You are following Christ and his teachings.” The last thing Jesus said to do before he went up into heaven was to “GO OUT”. Go preach the good news. Tell them about your life in Christ.
There’s a great scene at the end of the film, “The Big Kahuna” where Danny DeVito’s character counsels a young co-worker about his overt mode of evangelism. He says, “It doesn't matter whether you're selling Jesus or Buddha or civil rights or 'How to Make Money in Real Estate With No Money Down.' That doesn't make you a human being; it makes you a marketing rep.
If you want to talk to somebody honestly, as a human being, ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are - just to find out, for no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it's not a conversation anymore; it's a pitch. And you're not a human being; you're a marketing rep.”
It pretty much sums it up huh. If you don’t agree, think of this. What do you do when a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon comes to your door? I know some of you will sit down with them and go thru scripture. But most of us will shut them out. Take the literature, shut the door, and throw it away.
Paul tells this church that they are doing so good, even the angels are talking about them. Don’t be discouraged by my hardships, he says. Don’t sulk or pity yourself when things are going bad.
REJOICE! God is with you. He will never leave you. You can come to God with freedom and confidence that he is there for you. Keep doing what you are doing. Make me proud. Make him proud.
Then Paul says what every good pastor says to his congregation. I’m praying for you. It’s been shown that prayer in the early church was not head bowed reverently, eyes closed, hands clasped together. No.
Prayer was standing up proud to be a Christian, arms open wide with eyes wide open. Anticipating the power of God to come down to invade your life. Boldly the Spirit comes and takes over as you concede more and more of your life.
That’s what prayer was and where the power comes from. But here Paul gets down on his knees.
I think it’s because it’s such a special prayer to him for others. He says “I’m praying that the Spirit of God will strengthen you.” This is not brute strength, but an inner strength.
In Isaiah 41 God says, “I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”. I was talking to a father the other day. He said they were talking in the car one day about God and how he could be there for everyone and his four year old said “yeah God has really big hands.” Profound truth from a young boy.
I told you the other day that I plan to transform the world. I can’t do it alone. But I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me. Think of this strength that Christ brings as “caffeine for the soul.”
The next part of Paul’s prayer for his congregation and for ours is that Christ would dwell in their hearts thru faith. Well what does that mean? We can look at John 14 starting at vs 23…Jesus says “whoever loves me will obey my teaching and we will go to the father and make a home with him in heaven.”
SO Paul says I pray that you will be so close to Christ that you will have no other desire than to do what he has commanded. When he died on the cross, our sins were forgiven because we are Christians. But this forgiveness does not give us a license to sin.
The response of this love you have now should be Lord God I want to lay my life down a living sacrifice which is holy and acceptable to you. There will be times that you fail, but he wants you to go and transform the world.
The third part of Paul’s prayer is (and I love this verse) that you are established in love…that’s the love of Christ…and you may have power…strength, transforming power.
Together with all the saints….did you hear that. There are no Lone Ranger Christians. We are here in all this together. We are here together to make a difference and go out as Christ told us to.
The church is like manure. If you pile it up behind the door, it stinks up the whole neighborhood, but if you spread it out, it enriches the entire world.
As we walk out those doors we will transform the world with the truth. So established in love, together with the saints, to grasp the wideness and vastness of God. My God is a big God.
I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said “God is bigger than any one religion”. The creator of that sticker is exactly right, but not the way he is thinking. All roads don’t lead to the same God, but kernels of the Truth can be found in those other religions.
In Acts 17, Paul is in Athens. He stood up and said You are very religious. I even found an inscription here “TO AN UNKNOWN GOD”. Now what you worship as unknown, I will make known to you.
My God is a big God.
The last part of Paul’s prayer is that you will be filled with God overflowing. Think of a sponge. You dip it in the water and it soaks up the water until it’s overflowing. Be filled with the fullness and the transforming power of God.
God can do anything, far more than you could ever imagine in your wildest dreams. He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.
So Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians and my prayer for you ………goes like this.
I pray that the Spirit of God will strengthen you and Christ will dwell in your hearts.
I pray that you can comprehend the wideness and vastness of God and see that he is a big God.
And I pray that you know the love of God. He will never leave you. He is always there.
People will fail you. You might come to church one day and see that everyone in this church is a broken vessel but they are being healed by the love of Jesus.
We all come from different stories, but the one thing that brings us together today is that we are all one church and there is one Lord, one Savior and that is Jesus Christ.
You can’t save anyone. You can’t convert anyone. You can show them the way to Christ and the Holy Spirit can convict and convert them.
If you’re here today and the path you are on has brought you to a place where you’re ready to give your life over to Christ, now is the time. Then this prayer we talked about today will be said for you also.
That power can be a part of you. I know it may sound weird, but you have to say “so long self” and hello Christ.
There is only room for one to be in control. If your ready to give control over to Christ and receive the power promised to all believers, come to the prayer rail during this last song. This is an open invitation. I’m ready to pray with you and God is waiting anxiously to take the next step with you.
Just a warning though. This is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of a new route on your sea of faith. If it’s your time, come forward as we sing this hymn………
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Saturday, July 29, 2006
July 23 sermon Mark 6 FEED ME
forgot to post last weeks sermon.....
The Pope, Billy Graham and Oral Roberts were in a plane crash together. Tragically, they all died and went to the Pearly Gates.
"Oh, this is terrible," exclaimed St. Peter, "I know you guys think we summoned you here, but this is just one of those coincidences that happen. St. Peter was fretting, "Since we weren't expecting you, your quarters just aren't ready. We can't take you in just yet and we can't send you back."
Then he got an idea. He picked up the phone, "Lucifer, this is Pete. Hey, I got these three guys up here. They're ours, but we weren't expecting them and we gotta fix the place up for 'em. I was hoping you could put them up for a while. It'll only be a couple of days. I'll owe you one."
Reluctantly, the Devil agreed. But ... two days later ...
"Pete, this is Lucifer. Hey you gotta come get these three clowns. This Pope guy is forgiving everybody, the Graham fellow is saving everybody, and Oral Roberts has raised enough money to buy air conditioning."
Isn’t it great to be able to sit back and take it all in?? Time to get some food. Physical food as well as spiritual food. Jesus had sent out the 12 disciples to preach repentance.
In vs 13 they drove out many demons and healed many people. They were on the top of the mountain. Can you imagine the scene when they got back? “Peter, you should have seen it. I called a demon out of this kid who was doing everything he could to hurt himself. He would run into walls, cut his arms and legs, and gorge himself on food or poisonous roots. It was terrible. But I called out the demon In The Name Of Jesus and the demon obeyed. It was amazing.”
“I know,” Peter says, “I walked into town on the third day away and all I had was my staff. The old lady I stayed with had a small bottle of oil and she was a nurse at the local hospital. I went with her to work and we went room to room with that bottle anointing each person there and praying for their healing. They got right up and walked along with me just as good as any healthy person.
I could hardly believe it.” There would be a lot of stories like this. It’s like when some people get back from their Emmaus Walk. Their eyes were opened to Jesus and it transformed them. Or I heard the commercial for Promise Keepers yesterday.
It was a couple kids talking about their dad that before PK he was never around and not interested in them, but after PK his life was transformed and his priorities have been changed. Now he is the one who cheers the loudest at the games and tries to help with homework every night.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Walk to Emmaus there are 3 more men’s and 3 more women’s walks this year. Just come ask. I can’t guarantee your journey with Jesus will be brought to its closest point ever, but I can show you many people here in this congregation and many others where their life was transformed on their Emmaus weekend.
Well all the disciples are together with Jesus and he finally gets them calmed down. “You guys look excited but exhausted. Let’s go across the lake and get some rest.” Do you ever want to do that?? Just get away from it all??
You leave church on Sunday. Monday rolls around. Some of you go to work, some to a ministry you’re working with. But Monday goes by, then Tuesday, then Wednesday and you wake up Thursday wondering where the week went.
You think back and have not prayed much during the week. It’s easy to justify. I do it to. “I was so busy Lord. Monday Brandy had a migraine and Julia was feeling sick like they did last week during Sunday School. I got to work and there was an unhappy surprise waiting for me.
I got home late and just went to bed. Tuesday was about the same. Wednesday I made it to work and narrowly missed being hit 3 times on Interstate 35. We prayed before choir practice. That preacher is really good, but he is stretching us. It’s the end of the week now. What am I supposed to do?”
Jesus knew what the disciples needed before they did. You need some rest. Your going to come off this mountain high you’re on and without rest, you will go down hard.
Why would they choose not to rest? What in us drives us to keep going???
I’m sure you have experienced that mountain high. You get back from a mission trip where you fed 116000 Ethiopians and you are on cloud nine. The gospel was spread.
The doctors healed. You fed many. Now you come back to your regular life and it won’t really compare. The disciples were talking over each other. What next? Who can we heal? What demon can we destroy? What does Jesus say???? Come with me. It’s time to rest.
But they get to the other side of the lake, and people are there waiting with more coming. Some need to be healed. Mostly they need to be led. Jesus sees them as sheep without a shepherd.
Sheep are stubborn creatures. Without a leader they are confused and disorganized. They don’t know what to do. It’s like the diet fads that come and go. Have your heard of any of these or been on any of these??
The backwards diet. Adkins diet. South Beach diet. Vegan diet. All chocolate all the time diet? Sounds good huh. How about this one? Exercise at least 45 minutes a day, cut back on your calorie intake, no fast food, cut out the soda. Interesting how that one always comes back in as working.
Jesus sat all the people down. Your fat, he said. You’ve been on this diet of high calorie laws and traditions that don’t get you to the goal you are seeking. Sit down and let me teach you.
But it was late. The disciples urged Jesus to say a benediction and let the people go home and eat. But Jesus had other plans. You feed them he says. There are 5000 people here and you want us to feed them with just a few loaves of bread and 2 fish??
The disciples had just gotten back from healing and preaching when Jesus was not with them. Now Jesus shows them something very important.
The disciples didn’t want to feed those people. They were getting tired. They wanted that rest now. They were ready to be fed, but Jesus is telling them to feed. He wraps up the bread and fish in some baskets and prays.
The disciples go and feed everyone until they are full. No one goes hungry. Did you notice something? Even though the disciples were ready to stop ministry for the night, it still went on. The power of God can work thru them, or it can work without them. The people wanted to be fed.
They were looking for physical nourishment and spiritual nourishment. They wanted to hear Jesus, but he knew they were not ready. Homeless shelters are the same way. What happens first??
Take food to the people. Then when they have eaten, they will be receptive to the gospel and you bring them spiritual nourishment.
But there is more. I talked to a guy the other day. He had just gotten married. They are both in their late 40s early 50s.
He said, “We are looking for a church, but right now we don’t want to get to work. Right now, we really just want to be spiritually fed on Sunday morning to last us the week.” I can’t fault him for that.
That’s how many people see Sunday worship. Get the good word, your spiritual gas tank is filled up, you’re ready to tackle the secular world for another week.
Is that a bad thing? We all have this spiritual lake. There are many rivers flowing into it. Here is a list of what the rivers may be…Sunday worship, Emmaus group, prayer group, bible study, singing in the choir, 5th Sunday.
Then you have rivers going out. Work, kids, spouse, ministries your involved in, pastor calls and asks you to be on another committee. You have all this water going in and also all this water going out. If you go dry, you go down hard.
When your lake gets low, you need to sit back and take it in. you need to recharge. You need extra prayers at the prayer time on Sunday night. So no, it’s not a bad thing.
It can’t last though, unless you’re on the fad Christian diet. I read a book the other day about one guy while he was in school would go from one church youth group to another. He would attend whichever one entertained him the most.
Adult Christians can be the same. It could be entertainment. It could be something else. But if all the rivers are flowing in and none are flowing out, the lake overflows it banks.
You see, those disciples that want to go farther on the journey to discover more of Jesus are not satisfied by constant passive intake of Christ. They will get filled up.
They can tell when their lake is getting low and need to be filled. They also want to be ready.
When Jesus says Feed My Sheep, they want to go. Fresh water in, fresh water out. If you need to be fed, we can do that. Get your hunger satisfied. Then go and open the flood gates and let the river flow. The rivers need to have a steady flow both
The Pope, Billy Graham and Oral Roberts were in a plane crash together. Tragically, they all died and went to the Pearly Gates.
"Oh, this is terrible," exclaimed St. Peter, "I know you guys think we summoned you here, but this is just one of those coincidences that happen. St. Peter was fretting, "Since we weren't expecting you, your quarters just aren't ready. We can't take you in just yet and we can't send you back."
Then he got an idea. He picked up the phone, "Lucifer, this is Pete. Hey, I got these three guys up here. They're ours, but we weren't expecting them and we gotta fix the place up for 'em. I was hoping you could put them up for a while. It'll only be a couple of days. I'll owe you one."
Reluctantly, the Devil agreed. But ... two days later ...
"Pete, this is Lucifer. Hey you gotta come get these three clowns. This Pope guy is forgiving everybody, the Graham fellow is saving everybody, and Oral Roberts has raised enough money to buy air conditioning."
Isn’t it great to be able to sit back and take it all in?? Time to get some food. Physical food as well as spiritual food. Jesus had sent out the 12 disciples to preach repentance.
In vs 13 they drove out many demons and healed many people. They were on the top of the mountain. Can you imagine the scene when they got back? “Peter, you should have seen it. I called a demon out of this kid who was doing everything he could to hurt himself. He would run into walls, cut his arms and legs, and gorge himself on food or poisonous roots. It was terrible. But I called out the demon In The Name Of Jesus and the demon obeyed. It was amazing.”
“I know,” Peter says, “I walked into town on the third day away and all I had was my staff. The old lady I stayed with had a small bottle of oil and she was a nurse at the local hospital. I went with her to work and we went room to room with that bottle anointing each person there and praying for their healing. They got right up and walked along with me just as good as any healthy person.
I could hardly believe it.” There would be a lot of stories like this. It’s like when some people get back from their Emmaus Walk. Their eyes were opened to Jesus and it transformed them. Or I heard the commercial for Promise Keepers yesterday.
It was a couple kids talking about their dad that before PK he was never around and not interested in them, but after PK his life was transformed and his priorities have been changed. Now he is the one who cheers the loudest at the games and tries to help with homework every night.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Walk to Emmaus there are 3 more men’s and 3 more women’s walks this year. Just come ask. I can’t guarantee your journey with Jesus will be brought to its closest point ever, but I can show you many people here in this congregation and many others where their life was transformed on their Emmaus weekend.
Well all the disciples are together with Jesus and he finally gets them calmed down. “You guys look excited but exhausted. Let’s go across the lake and get some rest.” Do you ever want to do that?? Just get away from it all??
You leave church on Sunday. Monday rolls around. Some of you go to work, some to a ministry you’re working with. But Monday goes by, then Tuesday, then Wednesday and you wake up Thursday wondering where the week went.
You think back and have not prayed much during the week. It’s easy to justify. I do it to. “I was so busy Lord. Monday Brandy had a migraine and Julia was feeling sick like they did last week during Sunday School. I got to work and there was an unhappy surprise waiting for me.
I got home late and just went to bed. Tuesday was about the same. Wednesday I made it to work and narrowly missed being hit 3 times on Interstate 35. We prayed before choir practice. That preacher is really good, but he is stretching us. It’s the end of the week now. What am I supposed to do?”
Jesus knew what the disciples needed before they did. You need some rest. Your going to come off this mountain high you’re on and without rest, you will go down hard.
Why would they choose not to rest? What in us drives us to keep going???
I’m sure you have experienced that mountain high. You get back from a mission trip where you fed 116000 Ethiopians and you are on cloud nine. The gospel was spread.
The doctors healed. You fed many. Now you come back to your regular life and it won’t really compare. The disciples were talking over each other. What next? Who can we heal? What demon can we destroy? What does Jesus say???? Come with me. It’s time to rest.
But they get to the other side of the lake, and people are there waiting with more coming. Some need to be healed. Mostly they need to be led. Jesus sees them as sheep without a shepherd.
Sheep are stubborn creatures. Without a leader they are confused and disorganized. They don’t know what to do. It’s like the diet fads that come and go. Have your heard of any of these or been on any of these??
The backwards diet. Adkins diet. South Beach diet. Vegan diet. All chocolate all the time diet? Sounds good huh. How about this one? Exercise at least 45 minutes a day, cut back on your calorie intake, no fast food, cut out the soda. Interesting how that one always comes back in as working.
Jesus sat all the people down. Your fat, he said. You’ve been on this diet of high calorie laws and traditions that don’t get you to the goal you are seeking. Sit down and let me teach you.
But it was late. The disciples urged Jesus to say a benediction and let the people go home and eat. But Jesus had other plans. You feed them he says. There are 5000 people here and you want us to feed them with just a few loaves of bread and 2 fish??
The disciples had just gotten back from healing and preaching when Jesus was not with them. Now Jesus shows them something very important.
The disciples didn’t want to feed those people. They were getting tired. They wanted that rest now. They were ready to be fed, but Jesus is telling them to feed. He wraps up the bread and fish in some baskets and prays.
The disciples go and feed everyone until they are full. No one goes hungry. Did you notice something? Even though the disciples were ready to stop ministry for the night, it still went on. The power of God can work thru them, or it can work without them. The people wanted to be fed.
They were looking for physical nourishment and spiritual nourishment. They wanted to hear Jesus, but he knew they were not ready. Homeless shelters are the same way. What happens first??
Take food to the people. Then when they have eaten, they will be receptive to the gospel and you bring them spiritual nourishment.
But there is more. I talked to a guy the other day. He had just gotten married. They are both in their late 40s early 50s.
He said, “We are looking for a church, but right now we don’t want to get to work. Right now, we really just want to be spiritually fed on Sunday morning to last us the week.” I can’t fault him for that.
That’s how many people see Sunday worship. Get the good word, your spiritual gas tank is filled up, you’re ready to tackle the secular world for another week.
Is that a bad thing? We all have this spiritual lake. There are many rivers flowing into it. Here is a list of what the rivers may be…Sunday worship, Emmaus group, prayer group, bible study, singing in the choir, 5th Sunday.
Then you have rivers going out. Work, kids, spouse, ministries your involved in, pastor calls and asks you to be on another committee. You have all this water going in and also all this water going out. If you go dry, you go down hard.
When your lake gets low, you need to sit back and take it in. you need to recharge. You need extra prayers at the prayer time on Sunday night. So no, it’s not a bad thing.
It can’t last though, unless you’re on the fad Christian diet. I read a book the other day about one guy while he was in school would go from one church youth group to another. He would attend whichever one entertained him the most.
Adult Christians can be the same. It could be entertainment. It could be something else. But if all the rivers are flowing in and none are flowing out, the lake overflows it banks.
You see, those disciples that want to go farther on the journey to discover more of Jesus are not satisfied by constant passive intake of Christ. They will get filled up.
They can tell when their lake is getting low and need to be filled. They also want to be ready.
When Jesus says Feed My Sheep, they want to go. Fresh water in, fresh water out. If you need to be fed, we can do that. Get your hunger satisfied. Then go and open the flood gates and let the river flow. The rivers need to have a steady flow both
Friday, July 28, 2006
Tough Love
does tough love work? Is it real? We are about to find out. It sucks, but unfortunately it has to happen.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Get to know me
How do you get to know other people? How do they get to know you? The Methodist church moves pastors around every 3-6 years. There are good and bad consequences to this. Our church is right now a student pastor appointment. Basically, they are not big enough to pay for a full time pastor. Completely seriously one person told me yesterday they thought pastors should be making six figures. Well I don't think most should make that. More would always be better :o).
Some congregation members will open right up and become friends right away. That's nice. It doesn't seem like I'm on an island. There are others that have not opened up. It's only been a month so I can't be critical. I like me and totally trust me, but they don't know yet. Plus when you have poured out your heart to one pastor and then they leave, I think you might start to second guess about barring your soul to another that will be gone in a few years. I can't fault them for that. I can only do my 3 Ps of ministry....prayer, preaching, pastoral nurturing.
My goal is to see this church grow to support a full time pastor and I am here for 8 years. Stability for the church, stability for my family. What does that growth look like?? I'm working on that.
Summer is coming to an end and ministry will start back up. Men's ministry is coming together, Youth is slow - but coming. Building committee will be interesting. Only those supportive of building a FLC are being picked. I just have to keep the focus on the goal....Building disciples for Jesus Christ. Everything we do must be for that goal. Nothing else matters. Someone would say, "Pastor Sean, how is having a team of men adopt a single mom or widow to do all the "honey do's" accomplish that goal??" Men don't like church much. Traditional church is kind of boring and some contemporary church is a little to lovey dovey. But being able to do true ministry and help someone in need will get a man fired up. Christianity is not about sitting in the pews Sunday after Sunday. Christianity is taking care of the poor, widow, incarcerated, etc. Hands and Feet of Christ.
I know God thru Christ Jesus. I want to know how your soul is. Not so I have an illustration for my sermon, but so we can relate-communicate-know each other. I'm never too busy to talk or listen. Condemnation is not in grace. Get to know me.
Some congregation members will open right up and become friends right away. That's nice. It doesn't seem like I'm on an island. There are others that have not opened up. It's only been a month so I can't be critical. I like me and totally trust me, but they don't know yet. Plus when you have poured out your heart to one pastor and then they leave, I think you might start to second guess about barring your soul to another that will be gone in a few years. I can't fault them for that. I can only do my 3 Ps of ministry....prayer, preaching, pastoral nurturing.
My goal is to see this church grow to support a full time pastor and I am here for 8 years. Stability for the church, stability for my family. What does that growth look like?? I'm working on that.
Summer is coming to an end and ministry will start back up. Men's ministry is coming together, Youth is slow - but coming. Building committee will be interesting. Only those supportive of building a FLC are being picked. I just have to keep the focus on the goal....Building disciples for Jesus Christ. Everything we do must be for that goal. Nothing else matters. Someone would say, "Pastor Sean, how is having a team of men adopt a single mom or widow to do all the "honey do's" accomplish that goal??" Men don't like church much. Traditional church is kind of boring and some contemporary church is a little to lovey dovey. But being able to do true ministry and help someone in need will get a man fired up. Christianity is not about sitting in the pews Sunday after Sunday. Christianity is taking care of the poor, widow, incarcerated, etc. Hands and Feet of Christ.
I know God thru Christ Jesus. I want to know how your soul is. Not so I have an illustration for my sermon, but so we can relate-communicate-know each other. I'm never too busy to talk or listen. Condemnation is not in grace. Get to know me.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Support
Picture of "hollywood". One of the kids in the church we need to pray for.
It's nice to know when you have support. I do have support here at the church. It's unfortunate that there are some that don't support me for whatever reason. Maybe they will find a way to communicate with me about the problem. changing pastors is always a problem. The best i can do is pray and love and visit. That's what I will do.
Praying more is where I fall down and unfortunately that's probably the most important. I need to make a specific time to pray. Maybe in the mornings after getting ready I can go over to the sanctuary and sit down with God. I don't have to be over there, but it helps to get away from it all.
The girl we met at Paul's house asked if our church was abandoned. She thought that it was because of how it looked and no one was ever there. Not sure how long ago that was and if she had the right church. She was blonde thru and thru (but the sweetest girl ever and I loved the conversations).
This church has done a lot to get better looking. Now we need to bring them in. Hopefully the new ministries we are building will do that. Velma says her class is doing great in conversation. We will start a new youth program soon and our men's ministry will be started next month.
Keep praying for the church and me. I need all God's guidance and wisdom he will give.
Blessings....Pastor Sean
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
July 15 Ephesians 1: 3-14 Predestined, free will, grace
The old pastor of a congregation up north had his last teeth pulled and got dentures. Well the first week back in the pulpit he preached for 10 minutes. The second week he preached for 20 minutes and the third week he preached for an hour and 15 minutes. On congregation leader took him aside and asked what had happened. “Well” the preacher said “the first week, the dentures hurt my gums so bad I could hardly talk for 10 minutes. The second week was not much better and they still hurt a lot limiting me to 20 minutes. The third week I accidentally put my wife’s dentures in and I couldn’t stop talking.
Well, I have good news and I need your help. Oh great. Here it comes. The preacher is going to start another project for us.
I was asked the other day by Mike, “what happens with all these plans when you go to school in the fall?” I just looked at him and smiled. “Isn’t it great being a leader, Mike?” So here it is. My project, my plan, what I want to do.
I want to transform the world!!
Well. What do you think? Why aren’t you running up to the alter rail now? … I know we can do it!! I have no doubts about it. Oh it might take a couple weeks or maybe a few months to do, but we can do it.
I HAVE A BIG GOD. A really smart woman once said “Big Hopes, But Why Hope With Little Dreams”. Isn’t that insightful?? We are talking about building a Family Life Center of some sort in the future.
Why? For more classrooms. Yes that’s a start. But what else. A new Praise and Worship service. That’s great.
What else? Church and community dinner where we can feed 250-350 people. Hurricane victim’s campout. Retreat center, Walk to Emmaus weekend, artist venue.
I HAVE A BIG GOD. What can we do? The bible says Philippians 4:13 “We can do ANYTHING thru Christ.”
In our Ephesians scripture, the trinity works in perfect harmony and agreement. They perform distinct roles, but work together.
We are going to be talking about subjects that have been discussed for thousands of years. Predestination, free will, and grace. When it comes to salvation, John Calvin would say that you are predestined to either be saved or not. God decides and he will choose whom he wants to choose. Every one of us deserves death and hell and there is nothing WE can do to go to heaven.
Others would say God knows which people will choose Christ as savior and saves those people. Then others would say that God put this world into motion and does not interfere so if you chose God you chose God and if you don’t you don’t. So what is the correct answer, and where does grace fit into all this??
So what is grace?? Christians throw around that word a lot. What does it mean though? By grace we mean the undeserved, unmerited and loving action of God towards us.
Starting in verse 5, our scripture says “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has given us thru Jesus.”
So when referring to Salvation (another big word we will talk about), grace is all the good stuff God has done for us. But what about this unmerited and undeserved stuff??
Well here is an example……Meagann, can I use you as an example?? OK thanks. Now I don’t know if Meagann has done this, but let’s say she started using curse words around mom and dad. You know what words I’m talking about so I won’t say them here.
Mom gets upset and tells her to stop. Meagann says “Why? It’s just a few words and not that big of deal.” What do you think people? It’s just a few words, right?
Now mom goes into the house and makes some chocolate chip cookies. Oh she is the best chocolate chip cookie maker and the girls love them. Meagann runs into the kitchen and asks for a cookie. “Of course you can have one,” mom says,
“I made them just the way you like them and then added some dog poop to the batter before cooking them.” What?? Did you just say you added dog turds to the cookies? “Oh yeah, but just a little. Nothing major.”
Well heck. That just ruined the cookies didn’t it?
That’s what sin is to God and its grace that fixes it. You see, God is that perfect hot gooey chocolate chip cookie.
To fold us into part of God’s world, you have to take all the junk out of us. We don’t deserve it because we are selfish and greedy.
Jesus said “have you ever looked at another person with lust, well you committed adultery.
Have you ever been angry with another person, well you committed murder.
Have you every lied, stolen something, broken a promise? If you have done just one (and I have done many myself) then you are not worthy of being in the kingdom of God.
That’s where Grace comes in.
Even though you have done all these things you have done in your past, God still wants you. Isn’t that great. Men scratch, burp, and stare, but God still wants to lead them. Women change their hair color 5 times a year, buy more shoes and purses than anyone ever would need, and have an emotional range longer than the interstate highway, but God still loves them. Even though all this is true about both sexes, God still wants you.
You and I don’t deserve it, but by his grace and the cleansing blood of Jesus’ death we are made spiritually perfect. Then and only then can we be folded into the batter which is the Kingdom of God.
In verse 9, Paul says “God has made known to us the mystery (remember that word) of his will which he planned thru Christ to be put into effect.”
Mystery.
Now John Grisham is a great author and sometimes it does take to the end of the book to find out ‘who done it’. Ocean’s Eleven with Julia Roberts was a great movie, and at the end you say “How did they get the money out of vault” but the movie goes back and shows you.
Another mystery…(pause)… is what is this mystery that Paul is talking about. He mentions Christ. It has something to do with Jesus.
If we jump over to Colossians 1 we see starting at vs. 25 that “To the apostles, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles (that’s us), the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you.”
The mystery is “Christ in you”. What does that mean? Salvation (There’s that word again) comes thru Christ. Salvation is getting folded into the Kingdom of God.
We jump to Chapter 2 of Colossians and it says “you have received Christ as your savior. Continue to follow his leadership. Be strengthened in all that you do. See to it that no one tries to deceive you by telling you that you can only get salvation by traditions or doing other things. Christ is the only way to heaven and God.”
Works will get you to heaven. Oh…did you catch that. Works will get you to heaven. But pastor, you say, doesn’t the bible say faith alone? Yes. And here it is.
YOUR works will not get you to heaven. They won’t even get you close. However, the works of Jesus WILL get you heaven. That is the mystery Paul is talking about. Nothing you can do will get you salvation, but everything Jesus did, guarantees you salvation.
Now to verse 11 of our Ephesians text. In him we were chosen in order that we, who were the first to know Christ, might bring praise to his Glory. Paul is talking about the disciples.
The 12 were chosen by Christ personally. They were the first to start transforming the world. And in this, they brought praises to Jesus and God to their glory.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the truth and mystery, and you made the decision to let Christ be your leader. Having believed, you were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. You were tattooed by God. God has written on your forehead.
Bill Fuller was talking to a guy outside the church one day when the guy’s wife walked up. She is glowing, they both said. You could see the radiance of God on her face.
She has been sealed. The seal is just a deposit, though. You won the lottery and you get yearly installments, but on the last day of the installment, you get a lump sum payment greater than anything expected.
This seal, the Holy Spirit, is just the installment. Wait until you see the final payout.
I plan on transforming the world. We can do it together. If you have been branded and tattooed by God and given the Holy Spirit, you can do this with me. WE HAVE A BIG GOD. With him we can do anything he wants us to.
If you don’t have the mark of Christ, if you have not decided to let Jesus be your coach, be your leader, be your life…then you can’t change the world. And when you see the transformation occurring, you will want to be a part of it, but you can’t.
The cookies have to be perfect.
If all this time you have been going along doing different projects, kind of skating thru life, but have not asked Jesus to be your life leader, you can do that now. It’s time to be transformed by Christ so you can transform the world.
While we are singing this last song, come down to the alter rail if you want to be transformed. We will pray together. Don’t worry about the music ending too soon or people looking at you. It’s not about them.
It’s about you and God. Let’s stand and sing together……
The old pastor of a congregation up north had his last teeth pulled and got dentures. Well the first week back in the pulpit he preached for 10 minutes. The second week he preached for 20 minutes and the third week he preached for an hour and 15 minutes. On congregation leader took him aside and asked what had happened. “Well” the preacher said “the first week, the dentures hurt my gums so bad I could hardly talk for 10 minutes. The second week was not much better and they still hurt a lot limiting me to 20 minutes. The third week I accidentally put my wife’s dentures in and I couldn’t stop talking.
Well, I have good news and I need your help. Oh great. Here it comes. The preacher is going to start another project for us.
I was asked the other day by Mike, “what happens with all these plans when you go to school in the fall?” I just looked at him and smiled. “Isn’t it great being a leader, Mike?” So here it is. My project, my plan, what I want to do.
I want to transform the world!!
Well. What do you think? Why aren’t you running up to the alter rail now? … I know we can do it!! I have no doubts about it. Oh it might take a couple weeks or maybe a few months to do, but we can do it.
I HAVE A BIG GOD. A really smart woman once said “Big Hopes, But Why Hope With Little Dreams”. Isn’t that insightful?? We are talking about building a Family Life Center of some sort in the future.
Why? For more classrooms. Yes that’s a start. But what else. A new Praise and Worship service. That’s great.
What else? Church and community dinner where we can feed 250-350 people. Hurricane victim’s campout. Retreat center, Walk to Emmaus weekend, artist venue.
I HAVE A BIG GOD. What can we do? The bible says Philippians 4:13 “We can do ANYTHING thru Christ.”
In our Ephesians scripture, the trinity works in perfect harmony and agreement. They perform distinct roles, but work together.
We are going to be talking about subjects that have been discussed for thousands of years. Predestination, free will, and grace. When it comes to salvation, John Calvin would say that you are predestined to either be saved or not. God decides and he will choose whom he wants to choose. Every one of us deserves death and hell and there is nothing WE can do to go to heaven.
Others would say God knows which people will choose Christ as savior and saves those people. Then others would say that God put this world into motion and does not interfere so if you chose God you chose God and if you don’t you don’t. So what is the correct answer, and where does grace fit into all this??
So what is grace?? Christians throw around that word a lot. What does it mean though? By grace we mean the undeserved, unmerited and loving action of God towards us.
Starting in verse 5, our scripture says “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-to the praise of His glorious grace, which he has given us thru Jesus.”
So when referring to Salvation (another big word we will talk about), grace is all the good stuff God has done for us. But what about this unmerited and undeserved stuff??
Well here is an example……Meagann, can I use you as an example?? OK thanks. Now I don’t know if Meagann has done this, but let’s say she started using curse words around mom and dad. You know what words I’m talking about so I won’t say them here.
Mom gets upset and tells her to stop. Meagann says “Why? It’s just a few words and not that big of deal.” What do you think people? It’s just a few words, right?
Now mom goes into the house and makes some chocolate chip cookies. Oh she is the best chocolate chip cookie maker and the girls love them. Meagann runs into the kitchen and asks for a cookie. “Of course you can have one,” mom says,
“I made them just the way you like them and then added some dog poop to the batter before cooking them.” What?? Did you just say you added dog turds to the cookies? “Oh yeah, but just a little. Nothing major.”
Well heck. That just ruined the cookies didn’t it?
That’s what sin is to God and its grace that fixes it. You see, God is that perfect hot gooey chocolate chip cookie.
To fold us into part of God’s world, you have to take all the junk out of us. We don’t deserve it because we are selfish and greedy.
Jesus said “have you ever looked at another person with lust, well you committed adultery.
Have you ever been angry with another person, well you committed murder.
Have you every lied, stolen something, broken a promise? If you have done just one (and I have done many myself) then you are not worthy of being in the kingdom of God.
That’s where Grace comes in.
Even though you have done all these things you have done in your past, God still wants you. Isn’t that great. Men scratch, burp, and stare, but God still wants to lead them. Women change their hair color 5 times a year, buy more shoes and purses than anyone ever would need, and have an emotional range longer than the interstate highway, but God still loves them. Even though all this is true about both sexes, God still wants you.
You and I don’t deserve it, but by his grace and the cleansing blood of Jesus’ death we are made spiritually perfect. Then and only then can we be folded into the batter which is the Kingdom of God.
In verse 9, Paul says “God has made known to us the mystery (remember that word) of his will which he planned thru Christ to be put into effect.”
Mystery.
Now John Grisham is a great author and sometimes it does take to the end of the book to find out ‘who done it’. Ocean’s Eleven with Julia Roberts was a great movie, and at the end you say “How did they get the money out of vault” but the movie goes back and shows you.
Another mystery…(pause)… is what is this mystery that Paul is talking about. He mentions Christ. It has something to do with Jesus.
If we jump over to Colossians 1 we see starting at vs. 25 that “To the apostles, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles (that’s us), the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you.”
The mystery is “Christ in you”. What does that mean? Salvation (There’s that word again) comes thru Christ. Salvation is getting folded into the Kingdom of God.
We jump to Chapter 2 of Colossians and it says “you have received Christ as your savior. Continue to follow his leadership. Be strengthened in all that you do. See to it that no one tries to deceive you by telling you that you can only get salvation by traditions or doing other things. Christ is the only way to heaven and God.”
Works will get you to heaven. Oh…did you catch that. Works will get you to heaven. But pastor, you say, doesn’t the bible say faith alone? Yes. And here it is.
YOUR works will not get you to heaven. They won’t even get you close. However, the works of Jesus WILL get you heaven. That is the mystery Paul is talking about. Nothing you can do will get you salvation, but everything Jesus did, guarantees you salvation.
Now to verse 11 of our Ephesians text. In him we were chosen in order that we, who were the first to know Christ, might bring praise to his Glory. Paul is talking about the disciples.
The 12 were chosen by Christ personally. They were the first to start transforming the world. And in this, they brought praises to Jesus and God to their glory.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the truth and mystery, and you made the decision to let Christ be your leader. Having believed, you were marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. You were tattooed by God. God has written on your forehead.
Bill Fuller was talking to a guy outside the church one day when the guy’s wife walked up. She is glowing, they both said. You could see the radiance of God on her face.
She has been sealed. The seal is just a deposit, though. You won the lottery and you get yearly installments, but on the last day of the installment, you get a lump sum payment greater than anything expected.
This seal, the Holy Spirit, is just the installment. Wait until you see the final payout.
I plan on transforming the world. We can do it together. If you have been branded and tattooed by God and given the Holy Spirit, you can do this with me. WE HAVE A BIG GOD. With him we can do anything he wants us to.
If you don’t have the mark of Christ, if you have not decided to let Jesus be your coach, be your leader, be your life…then you can’t change the world. And when you see the transformation occurring, you will want to be a part of it, but you can’t.
The cookies have to be perfect.
If all this time you have been going along doing different projects, kind of skating thru life, but have not asked Jesus to be your life leader, you can do that now. It’s time to be transformed by Christ so you can transform the world.
While we are singing this last song, come down to the alter rail if you want to be transformed. We will pray together. Don’t worry about the music ending too soon or people looking at you. It’s not about them.
It’s about you and God. Let’s stand and sing together……
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Interesting scripture this week
This week's scripture is Ephesians 1:3-14. I say interesting because it says first you are predestined and then near the end you made the decision. I can't wait to flesh this out. Predestination-the elect-SAVED! Are you saved. Have you surrendered your life to Christ? The most manly men don't like to surrender to anything, even if it's God. But in the surrender there is freedom that was unimaginable before. I've never really thought about it before, it was unfathomable (if that is a word) before Christ what I was free to do now that Christ is in my life. I'm not talking about sex, drugs, all night parties, etc. Freedom to dance, freedom to sing without condemnation, freedom to run. Assurance of my final destination.
Pray for Doyle Fitzgerald and his wife Cindy. Doyle is in the hospital in Dallas and will probably go to surgery. He has an incarcerated hernia. Pain yes. I'll probably go see him tonight or tomorrow.
Blessings,
Pastor Sean
Pray for Doyle Fitzgerald and his wife Cindy. Doyle is in the hospital in Dallas and will probably go to surgery. He has an incarcerated hernia. Pain yes. I'll probably go see him tonight or tomorrow.
Blessings,
Pastor Sean
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
changes
the sister of a good friend of ours died yesterday. They live in Austin. they were up here to hear me preach and pick up some stuff. It was a nice day. the same day her sister died. She has had cancer so it was not a total surprise, but not an easy thing to handle either. Jesus said the harvest is ready but the workers are few. It really puts an exclaimation point on the fact that life is short.
There is a commercial on the radio right now from one of the electric companies. It says there are three certainties in life. Death-taxes-saving money on electricity. it's cute. I think the third should be the afterlife. It's not as cute but more important. We all die once and then it's heaven or hell. We have a short time on earth to share the truth of Christianity with everyone we see. I think too often I take the road of "well I wear a cross so they know I'm a christian and I live a good life, so that should be good." Unfortunately that's not enough. I've been in churches in the past where I didn't want to invite other people to because there was nothing happening. That's not the case here. We are going to spread the word. We are going to make changes and additions. We are going to invite, we are going to pray, we are going to make a difference in this world.
I've always wanted to do something "big". I can't define big, but "bigger than me" would be the best try. Maybe "big" is suppose to be big in someone's life. maybe "big" is suppose to be big in the church-community, county, state. I'm not sure. it feels like it's coming together. Keep praying for my church and it's ministry. I want to make a difference for Christ.
-pastor sean
There is a commercial on the radio right now from one of the electric companies. It says there are three certainties in life. Death-taxes-saving money on electricity. it's cute. I think the third should be the afterlife. It's not as cute but more important. We all die once and then it's heaven or hell. We have a short time on earth to share the truth of Christianity with everyone we see. I think too often I take the road of "well I wear a cross so they know I'm a christian and I live a good life, so that should be good." Unfortunately that's not enough. I've been in churches in the past where I didn't want to invite other people to because there was nothing happening. That's not the case here. We are going to spread the word. We are going to make changes and additions. We are going to invite, we are going to pray, we are going to make a difference in this world.
I've always wanted to do something "big". I can't define big, but "bigger than me" would be the best try. Maybe "big" is suppose to be big in someone's life. maybe "big" is suppose to be big in the church-community, county, state. I'm not sure. it feels like it's coming together. Keep praying for my church and it's ministry. I want to make a difference for Christ.
-pastor sean
Friday, July 07, 2006
The Essentials of Christianity
this is one of my favorite pictures I took many years ago. I met with a man this week. He was a Christian years ago.
I'm hoping he will come back and talk some more. We talked for an hour and half. He needs more. He is searching which is good. But as he was leaving, I showed him my Ministry Triangle. In it are the essentials of Christianity. The attonement of Christ. Justification by faith alone. the trinity. Jesus is 100% God and 100% man (1+1=1). he could not believe that I believed all that. The "simpleness" of Christianity is not all right. We are too advanced of society to believe all that mythology. Basically that's what he believes. I asked him if he believed the resurrection. He said no. I think you have to believe in the ressurection to be a true Christian.
Without the ressurection, there is no salvation. Actually one more thing he told me was that when he dies he will just cease to exist. Heaven is here on earth. Pray for my ministry and the people I come in contact with. I believe the Holy Spirit led him to me after our introduction. I hope I poked enough holes in his wall of disbelief to keep him searching.
-Pastor Sean
More updates on broadband
Well....I went round and round with ATT yesterday. My neighbor across the creek has DSL and is getting 3MB download. unbelievable. We could run a line from his house and set up another DSL line, but I would lose control and don't want to do that. I get up one day and say "hey the internet is out" but Bob the neighbor is on a 3 month vacation and his pit bull will not let me in the yard to check out the DSL line. No thanks.
I talked to ATT for over 30 minutes. I got a DSL tech and we went over options and why there is no way to get it at the house or church. Then I went to a fiber tech. SBC started Project Lightspeed 2 years ago. It should have been completed by now. well it's not.
I have a fiber line running straight to my backyard. But I can't get fiber. Go figure. So I called ClearBlue back. One guy in my congregation used to work for Starband doing installs. He called a friend of his there, and they guy said that Clear Blue was the best one to go with. I don't mind having satellite internet. It's just that $300 upfront cost that's killing me. They are suppose to be here on Monday to install it. Pray that it all works. Brandy needs it to work. I need it to stay sane :o).
-Pastor Sean
I talked to ATT for over 30 minutes. I got a DSL tech and we went over options and why there is no way to get it at the house or church. Then I went to a fiber tech. SBC started Project Lightspeed 2 years ago. It should have been completed by now. well it's not.
I have a fiber line running straight to my backyard. But I can't get fiber. Go figure. So I called ClearBlue back. One guy in my congregation used to work for Starband doing installs. He called a friend of his there, and they guy said that Clear Blue was the best one to go with. I don't mind having satellite internet. It's just that $300 upfront cost that's killing me. They are suppose to be here on Monday to install it. Pray that it all works. Brandy needs it to work. I need it to stay sane :o).
-Pastor Sean
July 1 sermon Excel in Grace - 2 Corinthians 8:1-15
July 1 Sermon 2 Corinthians 8: 1-15
Politicians have a constant need to be diplomatic. Witness this candidate for the Senate who traveled to a small town community to address the single church there. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to ask which denomination so that when it was time for his speech, he began in this way:
"My brethren, all. I must tell you that my great Grandfather was Presbyterian." (absolute silence);
"But my Grandmother was an Episcopalian." (more silence);
"I must tell you that my other Grandfather was a Christian Scientist." (deep silence);
"While my other Grandmother was Methodist." (even more silence).
"But I must tell you that I had an aunt who was a Baptist through and through." (loud cheers!)"
"And I have always considered my aunt's path to be the right one!"
What do you think? Was Paul a manipulator?? I mean listen to how he writes this letter to the Corinthians. “We want you to know about the grace from the Macedonian churches. Out of their most severe trauma, they gave as much as they were able and even more.”
It’s like your parents telling you about school when they were kids. “We walked bare foot in the snow up hill…both ways.” Or “Eat your vegetables. Remember the starving kids in Ethiopia”. The guilt. The competition.
It would be like the Bishop coming to us and saying “hey, this little church in Bethany has given their full apportionments already and they have another check for 25% more on the way…and it’s only July. What are you doing?”
So Paul lays it on thick about the other church and all they have given to the ministry and all the money that is going back to Jerusalem. Then he focuses on the Corinthians.
“Just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and love for us….Just as you have done a great job in everything else you have been doing, now it’s time to pay up. Excel in this grace of giving. “
Have you seen some of those television evangelists? Some of them are false teachers. Some are ok. But I can hear them now.
“What?…your life isn’t going perfect just the way you planned it. Well brother you just don’t have enough faith. You need to step up and step out. You need to extend beyond what you think is your limit and let God show you what HE is capable of. If you give now everything you have in your savings account,
it will be pressed down and multiplied 10 fold, 100 fold, 1000 fold back to you. You only have to have more faith.”
Now I don’t like to preach on money. I’m not going to come to your house tomorrow and say
“now brother Mike, I was looking at the treasury report today and your giving has really slacked off since last year. Now you know I don’t like to have these talks even though I was here last quarter, but I need you to get it in gear.” No I’m not going to do that.
2 Corinthians 9:7 says “each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for cheerful is hilaros where we get the English word hilarious. So after you give money to the church, God does not want to see you moping or angry leaving the church because of what you gave. He wants you giving what is on your heart to give.
Right after we got married we started going to church on a regular basis. When it came time to for the offering plate to be passed, I would look in my wallet and see what cash I had. I would decide what I needed to do that day and the next, and then give based on that.
I have a friend in Nashville though who gives 10% regularly, no matter what. He says there have been many times when they are scraping the bottom of the barrel to give that 10%, but after they do something miraculous will happen like a check will arrive in the mail or they will find money in the pocket of a jacket.
I have another friend who used to buy food for a kitchen ministry at a Christian music coffee house some years ago. He would take the tip money from the tables to the store and buy what he needed and time after time he had exactly enough money to pay for everything needed. Then just to test God he would throw something extra in the basket and sure enough he would still have just enough to cover the cost.
An unbeliever would say that’s just shear coincidence. The believer would say that’s God providing when needed.
Those who say miracles don’t happen have not really thought it through. Carl Sagan says miracles can’t be real because they don’t happen enough. That’s really just arguing in a circle. Miracles by definition are things that don’t happen regularly in nature. Therefore if they happened more often, they would not be miracles.
Well what is Paul trying to say here. Yes he is telling them they need to give generously. That does make sense. You see, the Corinthian church had both poor and rich believers in it. That’s why he said starting in verse 13 that it’s “not our desire that others might be relieved while you are hurting, but that you give as you are able.”
He does not want you to give everything you have, but to give first fruits, that is give to God first. We took a class a couple years ago called Financial Peace University. It’s taught by Dave Ramsey who is a radio personality. It was a great class.
He said to give to God first, then pay yourself with savings, and then pay your bills. If you don’t give to God first, you won’t give to God what God deserves. That’s how I was when we started going to church. I looked in my wallet and give out of what was there in cash.
Paul told the Corinthians that “you have a willingness to give, now do it. Don’t just sit on the pews, get busy.” There was actually more to Paul’s letter than just money. I like what he says at the end of ch 9.
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. You will be rich in love. You will be rich in prayers. You will be rich in sharing. In that spiritual richness, your generosity will result in praises to God from those you bless.
I have a challenge for you the month of July. There are four things I want to see you do.
First is to pray every day. Well that’s easy enough pastor. Not for everyone. Sometimes you have to make a definite decision to do it and if you miss one day, it’s easy to miss the next and the next.
If you wonder what to pray for, I can give you some quick examples.
Pray for me.
Pray for the church to reach lost souls. That’s what we are here for.
There is a list in your bulletin. Pray by name for those people. In fact, I’ll be here tonight for prayer time. We can pray together.
Take a walk down your street and pray for each house.
Psalm 32 says Let everyone who is Godly pray.
Ephesians says to pray on all occasions.
James says to pray for each other.
Jesus said to Go into the closet and pray. Why the closet?? Well in the dark closet, there are no distractions. Any other place will have distractions.
So pray every day.
The second thing I want you to do is fast one day a week. Woe that got some attention. Food is sacred I know. You will hear some people say that in fasting you can give up one thing you like and that’s fasting.
No…fasting is giving it up and focusing on God. When the hunger comes you focus on God, talk to God, meditation on scripture. Is it possible to fast for 40 days? Yes.
Am I going to do it? Not right now. Start small. Fast all morning one day. Next week fast all afternoon. Work up to fasting for one whole day.
Third, tithe. I’m sure you have read the bumper stickers that say “give to God what is right, not what is left.” There are lots like that. Like I said before, God likes a cheerful giver.
Pray for what God is leading you to give. Then pray some more on that amount and see if it’s right. He will give you that cheerful feeling when you’re on the money (no pun intended).
Last, bring one unsaved person to church each week. Well pastor you had me up until there. I don’t even know one unsaved person. I bet you do. I’ll make the first one easy for you and you can work up to it then. Bring one person to church that has not been for at least 5 months. You think, “Man I have not seen Rob and Becky in a while. I’m going to stop by their house. Invite them to supper. Tell them I will pick them up for church. Come listen to this crazy preacher kid we have.” I’ll tell them. I know your thinking of someone right now you can bring.
You have to pick them up. If you say I’ll meet you there, something will come up. Tell them you have a special lunch planned after. Butter them up.
So four things. This is your challenge.
Pray
Fast
Tithe
Bring
I won’t come over and ask you about them.
I know you have willingness and eagerness to follow Christ and be a deeper disciple.
Now it’s time to complete the work as Paul says.
Politicians have a constant need to be diplomatic. Witness this candidate for the Senate who traveled to a small town community to address the single church there. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to ask which denomination so that when it was time for his speech, he began in this way:
"My brethren, all. I must tell you that my great Grandfather was Presbyterian." (absolute silence);
"But my Grandmother was an Episcopalian." (more silence);
"I must tell you that my other Grandfather was a Christian Scientist." (deep silence);
"While my other Grandmother was Methodist." (even more silence).
"But I must tell you that I had an aunt who was a Baptist through and through." (loud cheers!)"
"And I have always considered my aunt's path to be the right one!"
What do you think? Was Paul a manipulator?? I mean listen to how he writes this letter to the Corinthians. “We want you to know about the grace from the Macedonian churches. Out of their most severe trauma, they gave as much as they were able and even more.”
It’s like your parents telling you about school when they were kids. “We walked bare foot in the snow up hill…both ways.” Or “Eat your vegetables. Remember the starving kids in Ethiopia”. The guilt. The competition.
It would be like the Bishop coming to us and saying “hey, this little church in Bethany has given their full apportionments already and they have another check for 25% more on the way…and it’s only July. What are you doing?”
So Paul lays it on thick about the other church and all they have given to the ministry and all the money that is going back to Jerusalem. Then he focuses on the Corinthians.
“Just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and love for us….Just as you have done a great job in everything else you have been doing, now it’s time to pay up. Excel in this grace of giving. “
Have you seen some of those television evangelists? Some of them are false teachers. Some are ok. But I can hear them now.
“What?…your life isn’t going perfect just the way you planned it. Well brother you just don’t have enough faith. You need to step up and step out. You need to extend beyond what you think is your limit and let God show you what HE is capable of. If you give now everything you have in your savings account,
it will be pressed down and multiplied 10 fold, 100 fold, 1000 fold back to you. You only have to have more faith.”
Now I don’t like to preach on money. I’m not going to come to your house tomorrow and say
“now brother Mike, I was looking at the treasury report today and your giving has really slacked off since last year. Now you know I don’t like to have these talks even though I was here last quarter, but I need you to get it in gear.” No I’m not going to do that.
2 Corinthians 9:7 says “each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for cheerful is hilaros where we get the English word hilarious. So after you give money to the church, God does not want to see you moping or angry leaving the church because of what you gave. He wants you giving what is on your heart to give.
Right after we got married we started going to church on a regular basis. When it came time to for the offering plate to be passed, I would look in my wallet and see what cash I had. I would decide what I needed to do that day and the next, and then give based on that.
I have a friend in Nashville though who gives 10% regularly, no matter what. He says there have been many times when they are scraping the bottom of the barrel to give that 10%, but after they do something miraculous will happen like a check will arrive in the mail or they will find money in the pocket of a jacket.
I have another friend who used to buy food for a kitchen ministry at a Christian music coffee house some years ago. He would take the tip money from the tables to the store and buy what he needed and time after time he had exactly enough money to pay for everything needed. Then just to test God he would throw something extra in the basket and sure enough he would still have just enough to cover the cost.
An unbeliever would say that’s just shear coincidence. The believer would say that’s God providing when needed.
Those who say miracles don’t happen have not really thought it through. Carl Sagan says miracles can’t be real because they don’t happen enough. That’s really just arguing in a circle. Miracles by definition are things that don’t happen regularly in nature. Therefore if they happened more often, they would not be miracles.
Well what is Paul trying to say here. Yes he is telling them they need to give generously. That does make sense. You see, the Corinthian church had both poor and rich believers in it. That’s why he said starting in verse 13 that it’s “not our desire that others might be relieved while you are hurting, but that you give as you are able.”
He does not want you to give everything you have, but to give first fruits, that is give to God first. We took a class a couple years ago called Financial Peace University. It’s taught by Dave Ramsey who is a radio personality. It was a great class.
He said to give to God first, then pay yourself with savings, and then pay your bills. If you don’t give to God first, you won’t give to God what God deserves. That’s how I was when we started going to church. I looked in my wallet and give out of what was there in cash.
Paul told the Corinthians that “you have a willingness to give, now do it. Don’t just sit on the pews, get busy.” There was actually more to Paul’s letter than just money. I like what he says at the end of ch 9.
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. You will be rich in love. You will be rich in prayers. You will be rich in sharing. In that spiritual richness, your generosity will result in praises to God from those you bless.
I have a challenge for you the month of July. There are four things I want to see you do.
First is to pray every day. Well that’s easy enough pastor. Not for everyone. Sometimes you have to make a definite decision to do it and if you miss one day, it’s easy to miss the next and the next.
If you wonder what to pray for, I can give you some quick examples.
Pray for me.
Pray for the church to reach lost souls. That’s what we are here for.
There is a list in your bulletin. Pray by name for those people. In fact, I’ll be here tonight for prayer time. We can pray together.
Take a walk down your street and pray for each house.
Psalm 32 says Let everyone who is Godly pray.
Ephesians says to pray on all occasions.
James says to pray for each other.
Jesus said to Go into the closet and pray. Why the closet?? Well in the dark closet, there are no distractions. Any other place will have distractions.
So pray every day.
The second thing I want you to do is fast one day a week. Woe that got some attention. Food is sacred I know. You will hear some people say that in fasting you can give up one thing you like and that’s fasting.
No…fasting is giving it up and focusing on God. When the hunger comes you focus on God, talk to God, meditation on scripture. Is it possible to fast for 40 days? Yes.
Am I going to do it? Not right now. Start small. Fast all morning one day. Next week fast all afternoon. Work up to fasting for one whole day.
Third, tithe. I’m sure you have read the bumper stickers that say “give to God what is right, not what is left.” There are lots like that. Like I said before, God likes a cheerful giver.
Pray for what God is leading you to give. Then pray some more on that amount and see if it’s right. He will give you that cheerful feeling when you’re on the money (no pun intended).
Last, bring one unsaved person to church each week. Well pastor you had me up until there. I don’t even know one unsaved person. I bet you do. I’ll make the first one easy for you and you can work up to it then. Bring one person to church that has not been for at least 5 months. You think, “Man I have not seen Rob and Becky in a while. I’m going to stop by their house. Invite them to supper. Tell them I will pick them up for church. Come listen to this crazy preacher kid we have.” I’ll tell them. I know your thinking of someone right now you can bring.
You have to pick them up. If you say I’ll meet you there, something will come up. Tell them you have a special lunch planned after. Butter them up.
So four things. This is your challenge.
Pray
Fast
Tithe
Bring
I won’t come over and ask you about them.
I know you have willingness and eagerness to follow Christ and be a deeper disciple.
Now it’s time to complete the work as Paul says.
Friday, June 30, 2006
broadband options and school
Well Open Range wireless is out of the question. He came up with a 10 foot pole and we couldn't touch the signal (there is a joke there, but not exactly sure how to tell it). Wild Blue will get a call Monday if hte other wireless company does not come thru tomorrow. Michael (@ O.R.)said this could be God working. I laughed. It's not the way I want to be humbled. I guess there is no way I want to be humbled huh. I want everything to just go smoothly :o)
I just got back from Perkins. I had pushed them pretty much out of the picture and planned on Brite, but I keep being led to them. I think that might be the place I end up going, but cost is going to be an issue. I have less in savings than I thought and I got started too late to get in on most grants/scholarships. Perkins is not as liberal as Brite and as for resources, Perkins can't be beat. B ut when this school year will be $2k-$3k more, that's killing me. Brandy said we could put the word out and see about churches and stuff giving. Not sure what that would look like. God does provide.
I went to HEB yesterday. Brandy gave me $20. My total was $22.51 and I had $3 in my wallet.
We need a weedeater. I went and saw Bryan @ Sears and decided on the "cheap" $50 electric one as opposed to the $100 gas one. That was a week ago. I went in today since we got paid and the electric one range up @$39 on sale.
There are others, and unbelievers (or those believers that don't really believe in miracles) would say that it's coincidence. I think it is God working.
On my way back from Perkins today I started thinking about God talking. God does not talked verbally to me. I'm not sure why. maybe I could not handle it. Probably the best way to explain it is he gives me an end game and will guide each action by opening and closing doors for me. I went to visit one of my congregation members yesterday. I told her that when I was in the SWT conference and started working on this ministry process, doors were closed everywhere and I hit way too many roadblocks....I even started wondering if this was what God wanted.
Then we moved to Hutto in the Central Tx conference and all the doors opened and the lights flashed and it all fell into place. Sometimes he is walking beside me....Sometimes he is carrying me....Jesus is always with me.
-Pastor Sean
I just got back from Perkins. I had pushed them pretty much out of the picture and planned on Brite, but I keep being led to them. I think that might be the place I end up going, but cost is going to be an issue. I have less in savings than I thought and I got started too late to get in on most grants/scholarships. Perkins is not as liberal as Brite and as for resources, Perkins can't be beat. B ut when this school year will be $2k-$3k more, that's killing me. Brandy said we could put the word out and see about churches and stuff giving. Not sure what that would look like. God does provide.
I went to HEB yesterday. Brandy gave me $20. My total was $22.51 and I had $3 in my wallet.
We need a weedeater. I went and saw Bryan @ Sears and decided on the "cheap" $50 electric one as opposed to the $100 gas one. That was a week ago. I went in today since we got paid and the electric one range up @$39 on sale.
There are others, and unbelievers (or those believers that don't really believe in miracles) would say that it's coincidence. I think it is God working.
On my way back from Perkins today I started thinking about God talking. God does not talked verbally to me. I'm not sure why. maybe I could not handle it. Probably the best way to explain it is he gives me an end game and will guide each action by opening and closing doors for me. I went to visit one of my congregation members yesterday. I told her that when I was in the SWT conference and started working on this ministry process, doors were closed everywhere and I hit way too many roadblocks....I even started wondering if this was what God wanted.
Then we moved to Hutto in the Central Tx conference and all the doors opened and the lights flashed and it all fell into place. Sometimes he is walking beside me....Sometimes he is carrying me....Jesus is always with me.
-Pastor Sean
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
dial up access
Man I am going crazy. Well I think Brandy is going even more crazy than I am. Since moving 2 weeks ago we still don't have broadband. we are a mile outside of Waxahachie and don't have access to cable, can't get DSL, I have trees all around my house and am having problems getting wireless. I have one more wireless company to try and then it's satellite. I've heard good and bad on satellite so not sure. One bad is the up front cost.
We were so spoiled living near Austin. I walked into the Waxahachie library the other day with my laptop and asked how to get on wireless. They looked at me like I was crazy (or from another planet). I can go to Whataburger and get wireless and i can go wireless @ the oilchange place, but not at the library. What's up with that.
I really love this church. they are searching for growth and ready for the changes. I told Brandy that those people who say don't change anything for the first year were wrong here. I'm looking at a contemporary service, youth group, strong men's ministry. I know i will have help with the first and last. the middle I'm worried about. Need some strong prayer on that.
I will write more soon. Need to do some visiting and work on the sermon. Here are the scriptures I'm looking at right now.
Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-2:24
Psalm 130 or 30
2 Corinthians 8: 7-15
mark 5: 21-43
We were so spoiled living near Austin. I walked into the Waxahachie library the other day with my laptop and asked how to get on wireless. They looked at me like I was crazy (or from another planet). I can go to Whataburger and get wireless and i can go wireless @ the oilchange place, but not at the library. What's up with that.
I really love this church. they are searching for growth and ready for the changes. I told Brandy that those people who say don't change anything for the first year were wrong here. I'm looking at a contemporary service, youth group, strong men's ministry. I know i will have help with the first and last. the middle I'm worried about. Need some strong prayer on that.
I will write more soon. Need to do some visiting and work on the sermon. Here are the scriptures I'm looking at right now.
Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-2:24
Psalm 130 or 30
2 Corinthians 8: 7-15
mark 5: 21-43
Sunday, June 25, 2006
June 25 sermon Mark 4:35-41
A pastor is walking down the street one day when he notices a very small boy trying to press a doorbell on a house across the street. However, the boy is very small and the doorbell is too high for him to reach.
After watching the boys efforts for some time, the pastor moves closer to the boy's position. He steps smartly across the street, walks up behind the little fellow and, placing his hand kindly on the child's shoulder leans over and gives the doorbell a solid ring.
Crouching down to the child's level, the pastor smiles benevolently and asks, "And now what, my little man?" To which the boy replies, "Now we run!"
When you are on top of the world, everyone wants to be near you. You have friends everywhere. Jesus is no exception to that rule. The disciples took him in the boat “as he was”. He was tired. He was exhausted. No more talking. Many boats followed.
Why would these boats follow along? I believe it’s because we have a desire to be part of something bigger than us. We get up in the morning, have breakfast, get dressed, go to work, come home, watch some TV, go to bed, start it all again the next day.
But someone comes along who talks with authority, who gives insight into our lives. He tells the everyday truth that many of us know, but the way he tells it.
It’s so compelling. You want to sit at his feet and listen all day. He can dig deep into these everyday occurances like planting and harvesting and giving. His stories are profound and interesting and you can’t get enough.
Do you have an aunt or uncle that is a great story teller?? I remember an Andy Griffith show one time where Opie and the other boys in his class didn’t like history. They thought it was boring. So they went to see Opie’s dad. It was lost in translation, but what the boys heard was that they didn’t need to take history.
Oh the controversy began. The teacher came and gave him a piece of her mind. Really bad communication. But instead of scolding the boys and forcing them back to class, Andy did something different.
He shaped and molded their thinking a bit. He told them the story of Paul Revere and all about the guns, and cannons, and horses. The fighting, sneaking around, mystery and intrigue.
The boys didn’t have to be told what to do. They wanted to learn more about history. They were compelled to search for more.
Well, Jesus was a great story teller. These people in the boat wanted to stay with him. They wanted to be a part of this thing and see where it went. So they follow along in their own boats.
But how fast do they disappear when the storm comes along. We don’t hear anything else about them.
At the end of our scripture reading, Jesus’s boat was the only one that came ashore. Fairweather friends.
It sounds….well it sounds kind of like the Dallas Cowboys doesn’t it.
Tom Landry is coach and they have tons of fans. When Tom is gone, many fans fall off. But oh Jimmy Johnson is there and winning and “The Boys” are America’s team, world champions.
But you don’t hear much about the Cowboys right now. The Mavs are a favorite.
A pastor is walking down the street one day when he notices a very small boy trying to press a doorbell on a house across the street. However, the boy is very small and the doorbell is too high for him to reach.
After watching the boys efforts for some time, the pastor moves closer to the boy's position. He steps smartly across the street, walks up behind the little fellow and, placing his hand kindly on the child's shoulder leans over and gives the doorbell a solid ring.
Crouching down to the child's level, the pastor smiles benevolently and asks, "And now what, my little man?" To which the boy replies, "Now we run!"
When you are on top of the world, everyone wants to be near you. You have friends everywhere. Jesus is no exception to that rule. The disciples took him in the boat “as he was”. He was tired. He was exhausted. No more talking. Many boats followed.
Why would these boats follow along? I believe it’s because we have a desire to be part of something bigger than us. We get up in the morning, have breakfast, get dressed, go to work, come home, watch some TV, go to bed, start it all again the next day.
But someone comes along who talks with authority, who gives insight into our lives. He tells the everyday truth that many of us know, but the way he tells it.
It’s so compelling. You want to sit at his feet and listen all day. He can dig deep into these everyday occurances like planting and harvesting and giving. His stories are profound and interesting and you can’t get enough.
Do you have an aunt or uncle that is a great story teller?? I remember an Andy Griffith show one time where Opie and the other boys in his class didn’t like history. They thought it was boring. So they went to see Opie’s dad. It was lost in translation, but what the boys heard was that they didn’t need to take history.
Oh the controversy began. The teacher came and gave him a piece of her mind. Really bad communication. But instead of scolding the boys and forcing them back to class, Andy did something different.
He shaped and molded their thinking a bit. He told them the story of Paul Revere and all about the guns, and cannons, and horses. The fighting, sneaking around, mystery and intrigue.
The boys didn’t have to be told what to do. They wanted to learn more about history. They were compelled to search for more.
Well, Jesus was a great story teller. These people in the boat wanted to stay with him. They wanted to be a part of this thing and see where it went. So they follow along in their own boats.
But how fast do they disappear when the storm comes along. We don’t hear anything else about them.
At the end of our scripture reading, Jesus’s boat was the only one that came ashore. Fairweather friends.
It sounds….well it sounds kind of like the Dallas Cowboys doesn’t it.
Tom Landry is coach and they have tons of fans. When Tom is gone, many fans fall off. But oh Jimmy Johnson is there and winning and “The Boys” are America’s team, world champions.
But you don’t hear much about the Cowboys right now. The Mavs are a favorite.
Back to our storm. What kind of storm do you think this is?? Some of these men are trained fishermen. They have been on the sea all their lives. Yet this one is big enough to scare even them.
In October 2004 we left Austin for Orlando Florida. Headed to Disney World. Does anyone remember what happened in the fall of ’04?? We left Texas after hurricane Ivan made landfall.
In Alabama we had to take a detour becase an I10 bridge had collapsed. There was no communication in the area. One gas station had a hundred cars lined up to get gas, and another one opened just 20 miles away had 2 customers.
We stayed a week in Florida and then came back just before hurricane Jeanne came to land. People thought we were crazy even going. Stubborn kids I guess.
The wind starts up on the sea. The waves rise. The boat is rocking and water is coming in. The disciples do what they know to do. Batton down the hatches, right. Bring down the sail.
The waves get higher and crash over the boat. Peter yells to James to get the buckets and bail the water out. Judas is running around looking for a life preserver. I think if the movie “The Perfect Storm”.
Do you remember that wall of water the boat went up in that movie. Unbelievable. The disciple’s boat is really rocking now. And Jesus is a great help. He mans the buckets. He ties down the sails.
NO. Jesus is asleep. WHAT!!! How can Jesus sleep at a time like this.
He was tired. He got in the boat with the disciples “just as he was”. Wiped out. He had been talking all day. It’s a long string of speaking engagements.
I went deep sea fishing one time. The water was really rough. On the way back in, after being out all day, I layed down and actually went to sleep, even with all the bouncing around.
When you are exhausted, you can sleep thru a hurricane. After the disciples had done everything they could think of to do, they go to wake up Jesus. “Don’t you care if we drown?” They said we as in Jesus also.
They still did not know who Jesus was totally and we will get to that in a minute. “Do you want to die? Can’t you do something? Grab a bucket.” Jesus got up, RAISED HIS HANDS, and said “be quiet wind, calm down waves.” What power and authority.
The sea became like smooth glass. Sometimes he calms the storms. When the disciples starting thinking about the episode later, they might have remembered Psalm 107 where it says
“Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.”
They were glad when it grew calm. Then he turned to the disciples.
“Why are you afraid? Do you not have faith?” That word “faith” in the Greek is “pistis”. It is associated with assurance, belief and faith. Do you not have assurance of eternal life that you would let go of this life.
I remember other words of Jesus where he said “those who hold on to their life will lose it, but those who lose there life for my sake will gain eternal life”. That is the faith Jesus is looking for.
Those who will lose themselves in Jesus. Give their all. Be on fire for Jesus. Those who are called Jesus Freaks.
We read in the next verse that the disciples were fearful. They were glad to be saved one minute, but then fearful of Jesus the next.
What kind of power does this man have that he can control the wind and sea? What kind of man are we following?
I’ll tell you what kind of man this was. This Jesus is God. He was 100% man and 100% God. You say “Pastor Sean, that does not add up.” 1+1=1. Amazing God we worship isn’t it. He wasn’t married. He didn’t have a love child like some books might say. And if you want to discuss it, I’m free anytime.
God – the one and only God – is not a Sunday God. He doesn’t want one day a week from you. He wants every day. Sunday-Mon-Tues-Wed-Thurs-Fri-Saturday. He looks at you and looks at your life.
He says…”Open your wallet. Do you have money. Give it to me.” Well ok, that’s no problem. “Nice pictures. You have a boat and nice truck.” Oh yeah. We go to the lake every chance we get. “Give them to me” he says. Now hold on a minute.
That’s my boat. I get to work with that truck. Are you married. Do you have kids?? Yes I have a great family you say indignantly. I want them too he says.
Tears well up in your eyes.
Your family is your life. You can’t do without them. You protest. You kick and scream "You can't have them. They are mine." God only looks back at you.
He stares deep into your soul. Where were you when I put the stars in the sky.
Did you tell the waves of the sea they can only go so far? I control the sea and wind. I created you. I formed you in your mother’s womb. I gave you breath. I want it all. Everything you have.
Down on your knees you go. Face in your hands. “Take it. It is yours. I am nothing and deserve nothing.” You throw it all on the alter. Now the amazing thing happens. God smiles. That broad heavenly smile.
He reaches down and takes you by the hand. He brings you back up to your feet. “My child. I love you more than the birds in the air. Here are MY keys. Use MY truck for my glory. Share your faith at work.
Take your family to church in it. Use that $20 in your wallet to buy some clothes for that single parent family down the road. I’m giving this to you. Make me proud.”
When you leave here today to go to Service, look at what you have as God’s. Look at each day as God. At the end of the day, look back and say “did I glorify God today.”
The one who has complete control and I can place my life in his hands, did I make him proud. Better yet say “Lord, did I make you proud”. I have a banner on my desk that says “Christ is life, the rest is details”.
Right above that another sentence that says “If you knew you could not fail, what would you do today”. Go and do it now. Do it for Christ.
In October 2004 we left Austin for Orlando Florida. Headed to Disney World. Does anyone remember what happened in the fall of ’04?? We left Texas after hurricane Ivan made landfall.
In Alabama we had to take a detour becase an I10 bridge had collapsed. There was no communication in the area. One gas station had a hundred cars lined up to get gas, and another one opened just 20 miles away had 2 customers.
We stayed a week in Florida and then came back just before hurricane Jeanne came to land. People thought we were crazy even going. Stubborn kids I guess.
The wind starts up on the sea. The waves rise. The boat is rocking and water is coming in. The disciples do what they know to do. Batton down the hatches, right. Bring down the sail.
The waves get higher and crash over the boat. Peter yells to James to get the buckets and bail the water out. Judas is running around looking for a life preserver. I think if the movie “The Perfect Storm”.
Do you remember that wall of water the boat went up in that movie. Unbelievable. The disciple’s boat is really rocking now. And Jesus is a great help. He mans the buckets. He ties down the sails.
NO. Jesus is asleep. WHAT!!! How can Jesus sleep at a time like this.
He was tired. He got in the boat with the disciples “just as he was”. Wiped out. He had been talking all day. It’s a long string of speaking engagements.
I went deep sea fishing one time. The water was really rough. On the way back in, after being out all day, I layed down and actually went to sleep, even with all the bouncing around.
When you are exhausted, you can sleep thru a hurricane. After the disciples had done everything they could think of to do, they go to wake up Jesus. “Don’t you care if we drown?” They said we as in Jesus also.
They still did not know who Jesus was totally and we will get to that in a minute. “Do you want to die? Can’t you do something? Grab a bucket.” Jesus got up, RAISED HIS HANDS, and said “be quiet wind, calm down waves.” What power and authority.
The sea became like smooth glass. Sometimes he calms the storms. When the disciples starting thinking about the episode later, they might have remembered Psalm 107 where it says
“Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.”
They were glad when it grew calm. Then he turned to the disciples.
“Why are you afraid? Do you not have faith?” That word “faith” in the Greek is “pistis”. It is associated with assurance, belief and faith. Do you not have assurance of eternal life that you would let go of this life.
I remember other words of Jesus where he said “those who hold on to their life will lose it, but those who lose there life for my sake will gain eternal life”. That is the faith Jesus is looking for.
Those who will lose themselves in Jesus. Give their all. Be on fire for Jesus. Those who are called Jesus Freaks.
We read in the next verse that the disciples were fearful. They were glad to be saved one minute, but then fearful of Jesus the next.
What kind of power does this man have that he can control the wind and sea? What kind of man are we following?
I’ll tell you what kind of man this was. This Jesus is God. He was 100% man and 100% God. You say “Pastor Sean, that does not add up.” 1+1=1. Amazing God we worship isn’t it. He wasn’t married. He didn’t have a love child like some books might say. And if you want to discuss it, I’m free anytime.
God – the one and only God – is not a Sunday God. He doesn’t want one day a week from you. He wants every day. Sunday-Mon-Tues-Wed-Thurs-Fri-Saturday. He looks at you and looks at your life.
He says…”Open your wallet. Do you have money. Give it to me.” Well ok, that’s no problem. “Nice pictures. You have a boat and nice truck.” Oh yeah. We go to the lake every chance we get. “Give them to me” he says. Now hold on a minute.
That’s my boat. I get to work with that truck. Are you married. Do you have kids?? Yes I have a great family you say indignantly. I want them too he says.
Tears well up in your eyes.
Your family is your life. You can’t do without them. You protest. You kick and scream "You can't have them. They are mine." God only looks back at you.
He stares deep into your soul. Where were you when I put the stars in the sky.
Did you tell the waves of the sea they can only go so far? I control the sea and wind. I created you. I formed you in your mother’s womb. I gave you breath. I want it all. Everything you have.
Down on your knees you go. Face in your hands. “Take it. It is yours. I am nothing and deserve nothing.” You throw it all on the alter. Now the amazing thing happens. God smiles. That broad heavenly smile.
He reaches down and takes you by the hand. He brings you back up to your feet. “My child. I love you more than the birds in the air. Here are MY keys. Use MY truck for my glory. Share your faith at work.
Take your family to church in it. Use that $20 in your wallet to buy some clothes for that single parent family down the road. I’m giving this to you. Make me proud.”
When you leave here today to go to Service, look at what you have as God’s. Look at each day as God. At the end of the day, look back and say “did I glorify God today.”
The one who has complete control and I can place my life in his hands, did I make him proud. Better yet say “Lord, did I make you proud”. I have a banner on my desk that says “Christ is life, the rest is details”.
Right above that another sentence that says “If you knew you could not fail, what would you do today”. Go and do it now. Do it for Christ.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
June 18 sermon - The Chosen 1Samuel 15:34-16:13
Well this is my 1st sermon at the new church. I've gotten good "reviews" so far. I pray hard about this. Lots of things need to happen. Lots of things to do. Pray pray pray. visit visit visit.
June 18 sermon
Struggling to make ends meet on a first-call salary, the pastor was livid when he confronted his wife with the receipt for a $250 dress she had bought. "How could you do this?!""I was outside the store looking at the dress in the window, and then I found myself trying it on," she explained. "It was like Satan was whispering in my ear, 'You look fabulous in that dress. Buy it!'" "Well," the pastor replied, "You know how I deal with that kind of temptation. I say, 'Get behind me, Satan!'" "I did," replied his wife, "but then he said, 'It looks fabulous from back here, too!'"
Saul was a failure. He had done the opposite of what God wanted him to do. He would quickly kill anyone who opposed him. No hesitation in making sure he was in control. The prophet Samuel understood this. God told him to get his oil ready and go.
It’s time to anoint the new king. Samuel grieved over Saul. It’s really not surprising. I think Samuel maybe thought of himself a failure when Saul failed. Maybe he did not talk to Saul enough, or get his message across.
Maybe he did not do enough pastoral counseling. More Pentecostal preaching and less singing of boring hymns. Whatever he was thinking, he prayed to the LORD that he would change his mind about Saul. But God had enough.
Samuel was also scared though like I said. “Saul will have me killed when he hears about this.” “No worries.” Says God, “I have a solution. Go down and lead worship with this tribe. Make sure that Jesse and his boys are there.” Well Samuel gets there and the elders are now the ones to be scared.
When a prophet like Samuel comes into a small town, it’s as if God himself were there. What kind of revelation is he going to bring. So they ask “are you coming in peace?” Of course Samuel says. I’ve come to lead worship.
Now you start to think…is God deceiving the elders by doing this? I mean come on; Samuel is there to anoint a king. Well no.
Samuel is there to lead worship. In the worship, God will reveal to them who the next king will be. God often has more in mind than he initially reveals. Revelation can come at any time, not just worship.
I was sitting down here at the alter rail Thursday night singing my heart out to the one who created me. As I was singing “I Can Only Imagine” the Spirit of God washed over me and I had this feeling…I’m not sure how to describe it.
Peace, assurance, comfort. Maybe all rolled into one. I know God delivered us to the right church.
Well with a great sigh of relief, the elders welcome Samuel into the community and they start worship. Samuel sees Jesse’s oldest son Eliab. Tall muscular boy. He would make any father proud. This must be him. The new king. “No” says God. “You look on the outside, but I see what is inside every man.” All of Jesse’s sons pass by but the LORD rejects them all.
Can you see Samuel throughout this whole process? Start with the tallest, best looking man and he is turned down. As the family procession goes by, and each are turned away, Samuel’s face gets sadder and droopier.
It’s kind of like a cell phone.
I tell you, we have Sprint and we are having a heck of a time getting signal. I’m in the master bedroom, and I have 2 bars, I’m in the living room and I have 1 bar, I’m in the garage touching the 3rd light socket and standing on one foot and I get 3 bars.
I even walked up the fire escape on the side of the church. At the bottom I get 1 bar (maybe), half way up I get 3 bars, and at the top I’m back at 1 bar. But at least with one bar I have signal.
All of Jesse’s boys go by, and Samuel is frustrated now. YELLING OUT “Is this it. Don’t you have any other kids? Anyone??”
Well there is the runt. He is tending the sheep now. Low kid on the totem pole. He can’t go to worship with the rest. Someone has to watch the sheep and he is assigned that chore.
“Go get him” Samuel said. I don’t think the look of Samuel would change when David shows up. Just a dirty kid. He stinks from the sheep. He is handsome, but come on, he is the runt.
But God, Oh God….He gets a big smile on his face, raises his hands and says “YES. This is the new king. This is the chosen one”.
Like when your child makes her first goal, hits his first home run, wins the gold medal, it’s a satisfying smile of God.
Mother Theresa went to the church one day. She said “I have 3 pennies. I plan to build an orphanage. I will help many children.” The church said “You can’t build an orphanage with 3 pennies!!”
And Mother Theresa just smiled and said “That’s right. But with God and 3 pennies I can do anything.”
Can churches be the same way of picking like Samuel was?
Picking pastors certainly has some of the same signs. I’ve looked at different posting for churches looking for pastors. “Looking for mature charismatic preacher who is tall and handsome, between 30 and 35 with 15 years of preaching experience (outside of school), a PhD in biblical studies,
speaks fluent Greek and Latin, has spent at least 8 years in a youth pastor position, and knows how to follow directions. Please send a picture with your resume”.
I’m thinking more of churches though. Most people have heard of Willow Creek church. Rick Warren is the pastor of that mega church. He wrote “the Purpose Driven Life”. Many have heard of Joel Olsteen and Lakewood church in Houston. They were getting so big, they bought the sports event center there. 35000 attendances on a Sunday.
What do you hear from the small churches. Or… what do small churches like Sardis United Methodist Church have in common with David? Maybe like David, it’s what you don’t read in the headlines that makes a church and how a church makes disciples of Jesus Christ.
I asked one member last week to tell me about this church. She said she could feel the presence of God here. The love was overflowing.
When we pulled in with all our stuff, we got the same feeling. Bill was there talking to Brandy waiting for us to arrive. Melanie, Doris, and Ann came over with some good food. Mike and Tammy showed up to help unload he truck. They didn’t do this because they had to or to impress the new pastor. They did it out of love.
Pastor Rod has told me some things about the church. I pulled him aside at Annual Conference and told him “That if everything you said is true, and I don’t doubt it one bit, this church is definitely a model church for others to see.”
I can be a great preacher, but my preaching will not make this church grow much. When Barna surveyed Christians and asked them why they go to a particular church, over 75% say it was because they were invited by someone they know.
Christians invite other people to church because something is “happening” in the church. You can feel the Spirit moving like I did the other night. There is excitement in what we as a congregation can do to impact Sardis, to impact the Waxahachie district, to impact the Central Texas Conference and beyond.
Jesus did not say that his commission was to go and make disciples of the choir. No. We are to go make disciples of Sardis, all of Central Texas, and beyond.
This here is worship time where we lift our voices up and sing to the one who created us and knows every hair on our head.
This is the time that we greet one another and thank God for what he has given us and what he has held back.
This is the time we petition God for his will to be done thru us and to reveal to us that will.
The SERVICE though, starts in 15 minutes. As soon as you stand up to walk away, then the service begins.
Just as David’s deficiencies were provided for by the Holy Spirit, so will any perceived deficiencies be provided for that we may have when our service begin.
There will be times when you don’t feel up to the challenge, or think you are not worthy or educated enough, old enough or young enough to do a task God is calling you to. Kind of like being a new father.
I’ll tell you right now, if God is calling you to it, He will make a way for it to happen. If one door closes, the window beside it will have flashing lights around it saying pick me pick me.
By reading God’s Word regularly, talking to God daily (some people call that prayer) he will guide you.
I want you to think this week. Where does God want you to go. It might be to the neighbor’s house. It might be to the homeless shelter to serve food.
It could be to the children’s home to read stories. It could be to the Appalachian Mountains to build houses. It could be to Calcutta to work in an orphanage.
But it could be to the nursery to care for the children. It could be upstairs to lead the youth in Sunday School. Don’t dismiss a thought because “I’ve never done that” or “I’m not trained to do that.” Go with the Spirit leading you. If it is of God, he will bless your ministry and HE will multiply it. I would like to see a time where church is completely integrated into all our lives. So when John tells Bob he is moving across town, Bob calls six guys to come over and help. When Mary mentions her porch is about to fall down, a group goes over and rebuilds it. When Bill says there are lots of people struggling in this area, a group gets together and starts a weekly dinner that is open to the public. These are not to bring people to church, but to bring the church to them. That’s the love Christ wants us to show. So like the song says “I can only imagine what it will be like”, it can be a glimpse of heaven right here.
June 18 sermon
Struggling to make ends meet on a first-call salary, the pastor was livid when he confronted his wife with the receipt for a $250 dress she had bought. "How could you do this?!""I was outside the store looking at the dress in the window, and then I found myself trying it on," she explained. "It was like Satan was whispering in my ear, 'You look fabulous in that dress. Buy it!'" "Well," the pastor replied, "You know how I deal with that kind of temptation. I say, 'Get behind me, Satan!'" "I did," replied his wife, "but then he said, 'It looks fabulous from back here, too!'"
Saul was a failure. He had done the opposite of what God wanted him to do. He would quickly kill anyone who opposed him. No hesitation in making sure he was in control. The prophet Samuel understood this. God told him to get his oil ready and go.
It’s time to anoint the new king. Samuel grieved over Saul. It’s really not surprising. I think Samuel maybe thought of himself a failure when Saul failed. Maybe he did not talk to Saul enough, or get his message across.
Maybe he did not do enough pastoral counseling. More Pentecostal preaching and less singing of boring hymns. Whatever he was thinking, he prayed to the LORD that he would change his mind about Saul. But God had enough.
Samuel was also scared though like I said. “Saul will have me killed when he hears about this.” “No worries.” Says God, “I have a solution. Go down and lead worship with this tribe. Make sure that Jesse and his boys are there.” Well Samuel gets there and the elders are now the ones to be scared.
When a prophet like Samuel comes into a small town, it’s as if God himself were there. What kind of revelation is he going to bring. So they ask “are you coming in peace?” Of course Samuel says. I’ve come to lead worship.
Now you start to think…is God deceiving the elders by doing this? I mean come on; Samuel is there to anoint a king. Well no.
Samuel is there to lead worship. In the worship, God will reveal to them who the next king will be. God often has more in mind than he initially reveals. Revelation can come at any time, not just worship.
I was sitting down here at the alter rail Thursday night singing my heart out to the one who created me. As I was singing “I Can Only Imagine” the Spirit of God washed over me and I had this feeling…I’m not sure how to describe it.
Peace, assurance, comfort. Maybe all rolled into one. I know God delivered us to the right church.
Well with a great sigh of relief, the elders welcome Samuel into the community and they start worship. Samuel sees Jesse’s oldest son Eliab. Tall muscular boy. He would make any father proud. This must be him. The new king. “No” says God. “You look on the outside, but I see what is inside every man.” All of Jesse’s sons pass by but the LORD rejects them all.
Can you see Samuel throughout this whole process? Start with the tallest, best looking man and he is turned down. As the family procession goes by, and each are turned away, Samuel’s face gets sadder and droopier.
It’s kind of like a cell phone.
I tell you, we have Sprint and we are having a heck of a time getting signal. I’m in the master bedroom, and I have 2 bars, I’m in the living room and I have 1 bar, I’m in the garage touching the 3rd light socket and standing on one foot and I get 3 bars.
I even walked up the fire escape on the side of the church. At the bottom I get 1 bar (maybe), half way up I get 3 bars, and at the top I’m back at 1 bar. But at least with one bar I have signal.
All of Jesse’s boys go by, and Samuel is frustrated now. YELLING OUT “Is this it. Don’t you have any other kids? Anyone??”
Well there is the runt. He is tending the sheep now. Low kid on the totem pole. He can’t go to worship with the rest. Someone has to watch the sheep and he is assigned that chore.
“Go get him” Samuel said. I don’t think the look of Samuel would change when David shows up. Just a dirty kid. He stinks from the sheep. He is handsome, but come on, he is the runt.
But God, Oh God….He gets a big smile on his face, raises his hands and says “YES. This is the new king. This is the chosen one”.
Like when your child makes her first goal, hits his first home run, wins the gold medal, it’s a satisfying smile of God.
Mother Theresa went to the church one day. She said “I have 3 pennies. I plan to build an orphanage. I will help many children.” The church said “You can’t build an orphanage with 3 pennies!!”
And Mother Theresa just smiled and said “That’s right. But with God and 3 pennies I can do anything.”
Can churches be the same way of picking like Samuel was?
Picking pastors certainly has some of the same signs. I’ve looked at different posting for churches looking for pastors. “Looking for mature charismatic preacher who is tall and handsome, between 30 and 35 with 15 years of preaching experience (outside of school), a PhD in biblical studies,
speaks fluent Greek and Latin, has spent at least 8 years in a youth pastor position, and knows how to follow directions. Please send a picture with your resume”.
I’m thinking more of churches though. Most people have heard of Willow Creek church. Rick Warren is the pastor of that mega church. He wrote “the Purpose Driven Life”. Many have heard of Joel Olsteen and Lakewood church in Houston. They were getting so big, they bought the sports event center there. 35000 attendances on a Sunday.
What do you hear from the small churches. Or… what do small churches like Sardis United Methodist Church have in common with David? Maybe like David, it’s what you don’t read in the headlines that makes a church and how a church makes disciples of Jesus Christ.
I asked one member last week to tell me about this church. She said she could feel the presence of God here. The love was overflowing.
When we pulled in with all our stuff, we got the same feeling. Bill was there talking to Brandy waiting for us to arrive. Melanie, Doris, and Ann came over with some good food. Mike and Tammy showed up to help unload he truck. They didn’t do this because they had to or to impress the new pastor. They did it out of love.
Pastor Rod has told me some things about the church. I pulled him aside at Annual Conference and told him “That if everything you said is true, and I don’t doubt it one bit, this church is definitely a model church for others to see.”
I can be a great preacher, but my preaching will not make this church grow much. When Barna surveyed Christians and asked them why they go to a particular church, over 75% say it was because they were invited by someone they know.
Christians invite other people to church because something is “happening” in the church. You can feel the Spirit moving like I did the other night. There is excitement in what we as a congregation can do to impact Sardis, to impact the Waxahachie district, to impact the Central Texas Conference and beyond.
Jesus did not say that his commission was to go and make disciples of the choir. No. We are to go make disciples of Sardis, all of Central Texas, and beyond.
This here is worship time where we lift our voices up and sing to the one who created us and knows every hair on our head.
This is the time that we greet one another and thank God for what he has given us and what he has held back.
This is the time we petition God for his will to be done thru us and to reveal to us that will.
The SERVICE though, starts in 15 minutes. As soon as you stand up to walk away, then the service begins.
Just as David’s deficiencies were provided for by the Holy Spirit, so will any perceived deficiencies be provided for that we may have when our service begin.
There will be times when you don’t feel up to the challenge, or think you are not worthy or educated enough, old enough or young enough to do a task God is calling you to. Kind of like being a new father.
I’ll tell you right now, if God is calling you to it, He will make a way for it to happen. If one door closes, the window beside it will have flashing lights around it saying pick me pick me.
By reading God’s Word regularly, talking to God daily (some people call that prayer) he will guide you.
I want you to think this week. Where does God want you to go. It might be to the neighbor’s house. It might be to the homeless shelter to serve food.
It could be to the children’s home to read stories. It could be to the Appalachian Mountains to build houses. It could be to Calcutta to work in an orphanage.
But it could be to the nursery to care for the children. It could be upstairs to lead the youth in Sunday School. Don’t dismiss a thought because “I’ve never done that” or “I’m not trained to do that.” Go with the Spirit leading you. If it is of God, he will bless your ministry and HE will multiply it. I would like to see a time where church is completely integrated into all our lives. So when John tells Bob he is moving across town, Bob calls six guys to come over and help. When Mary mentions her porch is about to fall down, a group goes over and rebuilds it. When Bill says there are lots of people struggling in this area, a group gets together and starts a weekly dinner that is open to the public. These are not to bring people to church, but to bring the church to them. That’s the love Christ wants us to show. So like the song says “I can only imagine what it will be like”, it can be a glimpse of heaven right here.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Life
June 11 sermon – Life Romans 8:12-17
Joke……In leu of a joke, Dilbert is hilarious...http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20060611.html
John was a 2nd year college student. He had some tattoos on his arms, a couple ear rings. His standard dress was cut off shorts, T-shirt, and sometimes flip flops, sometimes barefoot. He went to a liberal college in a northeastern town. Right across the street from the college was a huge traditional button down Methodist church. One Sunday he got an idea. “I want to check this out”. So he went to the church one Sunday morning. The service had already started. The church was packed. He started walking down the isle looking for a seat. Finally he got down to the very front and realizing there were no seats, gave up and plopped himself down on the floor right in front. Right after that, people started seeing an old man who was the patriarch of the church walking slowly down toward him, his cane keeping him balanced. As he walked, people started whispering. “Oh he’s going to get it” “He should have known coming to church dressed like that” “Here it comes”. When the old man gets down to the front, the church was so silent, you could hear a pin drop. The man dropped his cane down, squatted down, and sat beside the college kid. After a minute the pastor said “no matter what sermon you hear today, you won’t remember it. There is just one thing you will remember from today.
That’s life. That’s Christian life. Both of these men were led by the Spirit of God. The college boy was led to seek God. The patriarch was led to welcome the boy by sitting beside him.
There is more to being a Christian than having the right stuff, knowing the right doctrine, having your head in the right place. To be a Christian, you must open yourself up to the Holy Spirit.
You must invite the Spirit to invade you, possess you, take over your life. Are you willing to let the Spirit take over your life and you surrender all control over EVERY single part of it?
It’s not easy, and it’s not a pie in the sky picture where everything comes up roses and you never have any problems. Romans 8:28 says “All things work for good for those who are children of God”.
Many people think that means if you believe in God, everything will go good in your life. Then when something bad happens like terrible sickness, death of a loved one, September 11th, they lose faith. It’s different than that.
Those who are lead by the Spirit, say that no matter what goes on in my life, how good or how bad, I know God is there. My rock that I can tie to. My savior I can hold on it.
And God’s people are there and can be called on whenever needed because they are led by the Spirit. I’ll tell you how God’s people are there.
Our electricity was cut off on Friday….a week early. After yelling at Direct Energy for an hour, and waiting, it was not turned on that night. We drove to Llano for my family reunion, a day early.
Yesterday it was still not turned on. After going round and round with Direct energy again, I gave up. After some phone calls to the Rogers area, we showed up on Mary and Kin’s doorstep at 10:30 last night with an offer for a bed. I also got a call back from Margaret offering help. That is stepping up in Christian faith.
A man named Millard Fuller, called a friend of his many years ago and said, "I want you to be on a board."
"For what?"
He said, "We’re going to build houses for poor people."
The friend said, "That’s good."
He said, "Not only are we going to build houses for poor people, but they are going to be able to buy these houses with no down payment."
The friend said, "That’s terrific! That’s what usually keeps poor people from buying houses."
He said, "Beyond that, they are going to have long term mortgages and no interest on the mortgages."
"That’s wild!” said the friend “ I’m buying a house and most of what I pay in any given payment is for interest."
And he said, "That’s right. But the Hebrew Bible says that you should never charge interest to poor people so we’re not going to do that. One thing more, when these poor people buy these houses they are only going to have to pay for the cost of building materials."
"Millard, that’s wonderful except for one thing, who’s going to pay for the labor, who’s going to pay for the workers?"
He said, "No problem! I’m going to get church people to volunteer."
"Yeah Right!" was the response to that.
Twenty-five years later, Habitat for Humanity has completed 100,000 houses. Did you hear that? 100,000 families delivered from sub-standard living, with some degree of dignity, because this man was led by the spirit of God, led by Jesus to do something incredibly important with his life.
You know, when the hurricane blew through Homestead, Florida, some years ago, it blew down every home in Homestead except for the 18 houses that were built by Habitat for Humanity. When the press interviewed Millard, they asked, "How do you account for this? How come the houses built by Habitat stood when all the others were blown down?"
He smiled and said, "Well you have to understand that when Habitat builds a house, we build a house on the rock."
These reporters wrote it down. They didn’t get it. But, of course, it’s deeper than that. The real reasons the houses didn’t blow down is because the people who built them, these church volunteers, didn’t know what they were doing.
You see, a builder knows you put a piece of wood in place, you put a vise in place, you put five nails here and five nails there. That ought to hold the beam. But the Habitat builders don’t know what they are doing, so they put twenty nails here and twenty nails there.
If the foundation requires this much cement, they put in that much cement. Every house they build is over built. And so when the storms came, other houses might have blown down but their houses stood.
It’s an incredible story of the man who had a vision, a vision that was given to him by God. He will tell you that. He’ll tell you how that at a particular point in his life, he opened himself up and asked the Holy Spirit to invade him, possess him, take possession of him and lead him. For as it says in Romans 8:14, "As many as are lead by the spirit of God, they are the children of God."
Now you say, “I’m no Millard Fuller. I can’t do fantastic stuff like that”. I’ll tell you another story. John was a preacher in a small Texas town. He was trying to get a deacon to step up and be led by the Spirit.
Finally this deacon decided that the one thing he could do was take the youth group to the old folks home. Once a month they went and did church service. The deacon stood in the back of the room.
An old man in a wheel chair rolled over and grabbed the deacon’s hand and held it all thru the service. He did the same the next month and the next and the next and the next.
Then one month the old man did not show up. The deacon inquired about him at the nurses desk. “What happened to him”. He is near death” the nurse said “maybe you should go see him.
He is in the 3rd room, but he is unconscious.” The deacon went to the room, and the man was lying there with lots of tubes in him. Instinctively led by the Spirit, the deacon grabbed the man’s hand and started to pray. And when he said
“Amen” the old man squeezed his hand. The deacon started to cry. He tried to get out of the room, but as he was leaving, he bumped into this lady. She said “he has been waiting for you. He said he would not die until Jesus came and held his hand.
I tried to tell him that after death he can hold Jesus’ hand all day long. But he said No, once a month Jesus comes and holds my hand and I don’t want to leave until I get to hold his hand one more time”.
To be led by the Spirit of God will allow you to do some amazing things like Millard Fuller. It will also allow you to do some things that will never make the headlines and never be on TV.
There is a good chance God does not want some big flashy show from you. There is a good chance that he wants you to open your house or open your hand and be Jesus for someone else. He does not want you to just believe in him, but he wants you to surrender to him, yield to him, and be transformed by him.
For Paul, the radical message of Jesus was that love offered belonging and forgiveness, and from the renewed restored relationship with God, goodness would flow, not because of fear of disobedience, but because love begets love. Love is the fruit of the Spirit.
If we don’t love, eventually the well of loving will dry up, and the fruit of the Spirit will disappear. Paul calls this living in the flesh.
By flesh he means the human values that come to dominate us – selfishness, greed, exploitation. He contrast these with the fruits of the Spirit – love, goodness, kindness.What matters most to Paul is the ongoing relationship with God. What thrilled Paul is the shared life of God he gave.
God…and shared God everywhere. That is where we must be too. Sharing God here there everywhere.
Joke……In leu of a joke, Dilbert is hilarious...http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20060611.html
John was a 2nd year college student. He had some tattoos on his arms, a couple ear rings. His standard dress was cut off shorts, T-shirt, and sometimes flip flops, sometimes barefoot. He went to a liberal college in a northeastern town. Right across the street from the college was a huge traditional button down Methodist church. One Sunday he got an idea. “I want to check this out”. So he went to the church one Sunday morning. The service had already started. The church was packed. He started walking down the isle looking for a seat. Finally he got down to the very front and realizing there were no seats, gave up and plopped himself down on the floor right in front. Right after that, people started seeing an old man who was the patriarch of the church walking slowly down toward him, his cane keeping him balanced. As he walked, people started whispering. “Oh he’s going to get it” “He should have known coming to church dressed like that” “Here it comes”. When the old man gets down to the front, the church was so silent, you could hear a pin drop. The man dropped his cane down, squatted down, and sat beside the college kid. After a minute the pastor said “no matter what sermon you hear today, you won’t remember it. There is just one thing you will remember from today.
That’s life. That’s Christian life. Both of these men were led by the Spirit of God. The college boy was led to seek God. The patriarch was led to welcome the boy by sitting beside him.
There is more to being a Christian than having the right stuff, knowing the right doctrine, having your head in the right place. To be a Christian, you must open yourself up to the Holy Spirit.
You must invite the Spirit to invade you, possess you, take over your life. Are you willing to let the Spirit take over your life and you surrender all control over EVERY single part of it?
It’s not easy, and it’s not a pie in the sky picture where everything comes up roses and you never have any problems. Romans 8:28 says “All things work for good for those who are children of God”.
Many people think that means if you believe in God, everything will go good in your life. Then when something bad happens like terrible sickness, death of a loved one, September 11th, they lose faith. It’s different than that.
Those who are lead by the Spirit, say that no matter what goes on in my life, how good or how bad, I know God is there. My rock that I can tie to. My savior I can hold on it.
And God’s people are there and can be called on whenever needed because they are led by the Spirit. I’ll tell you how God’s people are there.
Our electricity was cut off on Friday….a week early. After yelling at Direct Energy for an hour, and waiting, it was not turned on that night. We drove to Llano for my family reunion, a day early.
Yesterday it was still not turned on. After going round and round with Direct energy again, I gave up. After some phone calls to the Rogers area, we showed up on Mary and Kin’s doorstep at 10:30 last night with an offer for a bed. I also got a call back from Margaret offering help. That is stepping up in Christian faith.
A man named Millard Fuller, called a friend of his many years ago and said, "I want you to be on a board."
"For what?"
He said, "We’re going to build houses for poor people."
The friend said, "That’s good."
He said, "Not only are we going to build houses for poor people, but they are going to be able to buy these houses with no down payment."
The friend said, "That’s terrific! That’s what usually keeps poor people from buying houses."
He said, "Beyond that, they are going to have long term mortgages and no interest on the mortgages."
"That’s wild!” said the friend “ I’m buying a house and most of what I pay in any given payment is for interest."
And he said, "That’s right. But the Hebrew Bible says that you should never charge interest to poor people so we’re not going to do that. One thing more, when these poor people buy these houses they are only going to have to pay for the cost of building materials."
"Millard, that’s wonderful except for one thing, who’s going to pay for the labor, who’s going to pay for the workers?"
He said, "No problem! I’m going to get church people to volunteer."
"Yeah Right!" was the response to that.
Twenty-five years later, Habitat for Humanity has completed 100,000 houses. Did you hear that? 100,000 families delivered from sub-standard living, with some degree of dignity, because this man was led by the spirit of God, led by Jesus to do something incredibly important with his life.
You know, when the hurricane blew through Homestead, Florida, some years ago, it blew down every home in Homestead except for the 18 houses that were built by Habitat for Humanity. When the press interviewed Millard, they asked, "How do you account for this? How come the houses built by Habitat stood when all the others were blown down?"
He smiled and said, "Well you have to understand that when Habitat builds a house, we build a house on the rock."
These reporters wrote it down. They didn’t get it. But, of course, it’s deeper than that. The real reasons the houses didn’t blow down is because the people who built them, these church volunteers, didn’t know what they were doing.
You see, a builder knows you put a piece of wood in place, you put a vise in place, you put five nails here and five nails there. That ought to hold the beam. But the Habitat builders don’t know what they are doing, so they put twenty nails here and twenty nails there.
If the foundation requires this much cement, they put in that much cement. Every house they build is over built. And so when the storms came, other houses might have blown down but their houses stood.
It’s an incredible story of the man who had a vision, a vision that was given to him by God. He will tell you that. He’ll tell you how that at a particular point in his life, he opened himself up and asked the Holy Spirit to invade him, possess him, take possession of him and lead him. For as it says in Romans 8:14, "As many as are lead by the spirit of God, they are the children of God."
Now you say, “I’m no Millard Fuller. I can’t do fantastic stuff like that”. I’ll tell you another story. John was a preacher in a small Texas town. He was trying to get a deacon to step up and be led by the Spirit.
Finally this deacon decided that the one thing he could do was take the youth group to the old folks home. Once a month they went and did church service. The deacon stood in the back of the room.
An old man in a wheel chair rolled over and grabbed the deacon’s hand and held it all thru the service. He did the same the next month and the next and the next and the next.
Then one month the old man did not show up. The deacon inquired about him at the nurses desk. “What happened to him”. He is near death” the nurse said “maybe you should go see him.
He is in the 3rd room, but he is unconscious.” The deacon went to the room, and the man was lying there with lots of tubes in him. Instinctively led by the Spirit, the deacon grabbed the man’s hand and started to pray. And when he said
“Amen” the old man squeezed his hand. The deacon started to cry. He tried to get out of the room, but as he was leaving, he bumped into this lady. She said “he has been waiting for you. He said he would not die until Jesus came and held his hand.
I tried to tell him that after death he can hold Jesus’ hand all day long. But he said No, once a month Jesus comes and holds my hand and I don’t want to leave until I get to hold his hand one more time”.
To be led by the Spirit of God will allow you to do some amazing things like Millard Fuller. It will also allow you to do some things that will never make the headlines and never be on TV.
There is a good chance God does not want some big flashy show from you. There is a good chance that he wants you to open your house or open your hand and be Jesus for someone else. He does not want you to just believe in him, but he wants you to surrender to him, yield to him, and be transformed by him.
For Paul, the radical message of Jesus was that love offered belonging and forgiveness, and from the renewed restored relationship with God, goodness would flow, not because of fear of disobedience, but because love begets love. Love is the fruit of the Spirit.
If we don’t love, eventually the well of loving will dry up, and the fruit of the Spirit will disappear. Paul calls this living in the flesh.
By flesh he means the human values that come to dominate us – selfishness, greed, exploitation. He contrast these with the fruits of the Spirit – love, goodness, kindness.What matters most to Paul is the ongoing relationship with God. What thrilled Paul is the shared life of God he gave.
God…and shared God everywhere. That is where we must be too. Sharing God here there everywhere.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Nurture and Witness and Outreach all in one
Well it looks like it happened. We have been praying for Kris and Jimmy and their marriage. It's over now. Kris is going to live with us for a while. David will too. Amanada is going to live with her dad. As sad as it is to see, there is blessing in here.
Kris needs a girlfriend with her. Brandy does too. I think one of the loneliest positions in ministry is the pastor's wife. No other ladies will get close to the pastor's wife. Maybe it's fear of saying the wrong thing or that she will pass everything along to the pastor. For whatever reason, the PW does not have friends in the church. Plus she is looked upon to lead some sort of ministry.
Brandy needs Kris there. I guess with that, I need Kris there too. She is like a sister to me. I'll watch over her and David and make sure they are taken care of and if Amanda comes and lives with us also, that will be just fine. We (Brandy and I and the church) will Nurture them. We will Witness to them. and in doing this is we are Reaching Out. That is the Methodist call. Follow me NOW.... amazing how that works out.
What a weekend
My niece got married on Saturday night. Dad (who has been "out of the family" for a while now) has a relationship with Heather. It's good to see. But then Heather has dumped her mom and sister and gone off on her own. That's sad. Eventually the rift will heal. But it's not going to happen over night and it won't happen because of one wedding. It will happen though. Dad and I are good friends now. We forgot to take the wedding gift for Heather and Patrick. That's ok. I'm thinking of including a list of important things an old married couple has learned to pass on to the new married couple.
1. You don't have to be right every time, even if you are. A friend once said "is this the hill you want to die on". Sometimes just letting it go is the best thing overall.
2. Get away from each other once a month. One person needs to leave for the weekend...go to your mom's, to see a friend across state, to Uncle Sean's house. But get away from each other. The time away will refresh your marriage and you will see how much you missed them when you get back.
3. Money is the biggest thing you will fight over...whether you have any or not. Combine all your $$ in one acct (don't have separate accts). Don't have one person responsible for the bills every month. Do them together, or at least look at them together when the other is writing them out.
4. Move out of the town your parents live in. This is true unless BOTH of you have the best relationship with whatever parent lives in town. Mom and dad only want the best for their child, and they will ALWAYS pick their child over the spouse. You may have though that "Everybody Loves Raymond" was funny...it was very true.
5. Don't get in the family bickering. Whatever mom thinks of dad or dad things of uncle Joe, ignore it. Make your own relationships.
6. This also goes for in-laws bickering. What you tell your mom about your spouse and spouse's family is all she knows. If you tell her that "my wife's mom send a nasty email to us", but you don't tell her about the phone call the next day to apologize and make everything better, mom will always hate the other family. Plus there is always a contest about which family is better. It get's worse wen you have kids.
7. Live your own life. Your family comes first now. You do what's best for them. That can be anything including moving across the country or around the world.
8. Focus on God in your marriage. Like my auto-sig says "Pary clean, live righteous". It's hard to believe without really experiencing it, but when you look to God in your marriage, in making decisions, in just learning more about him, he will guide your life more than ever. It's a great thing. Sometimes it seems things are not going like they should, but if you stay focused on God, guidance you will have.
If you have others, post them.....
1. You don't have to be right every time, even if you are. A friend once said "is this the hill you want to die on". Sometimes just letting it go is the best thing overall.
2. Get away from each other once a month. One person needs to leave for the weekend...go to your mom's, to see a friend across state, to Uncle Sean's house. But get away from each other. The time away will refresh your marriage and you will see how much you missed them when you get back.
3. Money is the biggest thing you will fight over...whether you have any or not. Combine all your $$ in one acct (don't have separate accts). Don't have one person responsible for the bills every month. Do them together, or at least look at them together when the other is writing them out.
4. Move out of the town your parents live in. This is true unless BOTH of you have the best relationship with whatever parent lives in town. Mom and dad only want the best for their child, and they will ALWAYS pick their child over the spouse. You may have though that "Everybody Loves Raymond" was funny...it was very true.
5. Don't get in the family bickering. Whatever mom thinks of dad or dad things of uncle Joe, ignore it. Make your own relationships.
6. This also goes for in-laws bickering. What you tell your mom about your spouse and spouse's family is all she knows. If you tell her that "my wife's mom send a nasty email to us", but you don't tell her about the phone call the next day to apologize and make everything better, mom will always hate the other family. Plus there is always a contest about which family is better. It get's worse wen you have kids.
7. Live your own life. Your family comes first now. You do what's best for them. That can be anything including moving across the country or around the world.
8. Focus on God in your marriage. Like my auto-sig says "Pary clean, live righteous". It's hard to believe without really experiencing it, but when you look to God in your marriage, in making decisions, in just learning more about him, he will guide your life more than ever. It's a great thing. Sometimes it seems things are not going like they should, but if you stay focused on God, guidance you will have.
If you have others, post them.....
June 2 sermon - communication - Acts 2
An elderly pastor was searching his closet for his tie before church one Sunday morning. In the back of the closet, he found a small box containing 3 eggs and 100 $1 bills. He called his wife into the closet to ask her about the box and its contents. Embarrassed, she admitted having hidden the box for their entire 25 years of marriage. Disappointed and hurt, the pastor asked her, "WHY?"The wife replied that she hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings. He asked her how the box could have hurt his feelings. She said that every time during their marriage that he delivered a poor sermon, she had placed an egg in the box. The pastor felt that 3 poor sermons in 25 years was certainly nothing to feel bad about, so he asked her what the $100 was for.She replied, "Each time I got a dozen eggs, I sold them to the neighbors for $1.
Great communication huh. Maybe they needed to sit down and have a talk a little sooner. Have you noticed how bad communication can change everything.
Email is one of the worst, and before email it was the phone. No body language, no voice inflection in email. If you put a comma in the wrong place, watch out.
Well you have the disciples sitting in a room alone and a great rushing wind comes from heaven and fills the whole house. Tongues of fire fall on each of them. Then they start speaking in other languages.
The first thing we need to get out of the way is that they were speaking in different languages. They were not speaking gibberish, uttering incomprehensible words, shaking on the ground, barking like a dog, strutting around like a chicken, or doing anything out of their control.
The scripture tells us they spoke in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Did you read all the different people who were there. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia,
Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Egyptians, Romans, Cretens, Arabs……wow. All these different people, yet they were hearing the disciples praise God and proclaim the saving life and death of Jesus Christ in their own language.
I think that is how heaven will be like. When we get there, we will be a cornucopia of skin color and language. Yet we won’t have to learn a special heaven language. I think we will automatically speak in the language of the person we are speaking too. No interpreters. No funny looks.
Every note we send will auto correct itself when you send it and email will be exactly the same way. No more miscommunication.
Before I left Dell, (not looking back, running as fast I could), I sent an email out to all my long time customers. I wanted to tell them they would be getting a new account manager and also I wanted to spread the Word of God.
I put in my notes that I was going to be a pastor full time. I have a website online that I post my sermons and other thoughts and put that in the email too.
I got some of the usual responses back. “Good to hear your doing what you want” “Wish you well” “Thank God we finally get someone else”.
But I also got some other emails back. One of my customers told me of how he was a missionary in the UK for 2 years. Another told me of how his daughter is a missionary in Croatia. One of the responses I got back really hit the nail on the head.
He said “I wish there was a way for casual or even longtime business associates to identify one another as Christians. What an opportunity for fellowship that we miss by not making it clear to each other.” He is exactly right.
At one time I was putting scripture on the bottom of my emails at work. None of my customers complained, but HR saw it and got upset. To get around that I would put spiritual sayings that someone famous would say. I have had quotes from Lincoln, Churchill and others. Things you don’t hear about in history class in school.
Back in the early centuries, there was much persecution against the Christians. How would they be able to identify each other? I’m sure you have seen the fish symbol on the back of cars.
The fish outline is a logical symbol for Christians because of all the references in the bible. The most notable is “I will make you fishers of men” from Mark 1:17.
There is also Jonah and the great fish, the fishes and loaves that Jesus multiplied, and the fish Jesus ate after his resurrection.
The Greek word for fish is “ICHTHUS”. This is an acrostic for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. Each of the letters represents one word in the saying.
Back to the persecution. The Christians didn’t wear crosses like the one I wear around my neck. They didn’t have the fish symbol branded on the rear of their donkey. But they did use the symbol for a password. If two strangers met and were unsure if the other was a Christian, one would draw half the fish in the sand.
If the other man was a Christian, he would complete the other half, forming the outline of the fish.
There is great symbolism in this passage from Acts. Remember in Genesis 11 the people all got together and started building a tower. They wanted to be up in heaven with the Gods.
But there communication was changed and all had different languages. The Spirit comes in Acts and lifts that curse. There were 120 men in the room when the Spirit came. The numerical symbolism is 10 people from each of the 12 tribes of Judah.
The thought is that here is the true Israel ready to expand. God is taking a remnant of his people to spread the Word. Although there are many different languages being spoken, realize it is true Israel.
All the people listening are Jews. This is God and God’s people together. They were not speaking one language per se, but they were of one mind. They were of one mind so they were focused on one thing…Jesus. Theology seemed to be simpler then.
They were not worried if you had been dunked in the water at baptism, they were not worried if you looked the same or talked to same as everyone else in the group. They were focused on Jesus. Do you have a saving faith in the only one who can save.
Some people on the ground said “hey…they are drunk”. I want you to notice something. There were two sets of people down there listening. Those that were actively seeking God, and those that were…. acting.
Scripture tells us that if you seek God you will find him. Now the unbeliever will yell out loud “I want to see you God. Come to me.” God can’t be controlled. Neither can the Holy Spirit. Don’t believe everything you see on TV. Those who earnestly with all their heart pursue after the creator God, He will reveal himself to them.
So back to the people. Many were amazed and perplexed. What can this mean they said. These people were of one mind like the disciples. They wanted to know God. But the others there mocked the disciples. “They are just drunk”. These people didn’t want to meet God. They were like the Pharisees and only going thru the motions.
They were like the pew warmers or C&E worshippers who go to worship out of some duty. They are not looking to connect to the one knows every hair on their head.
Those who believed what the disciples were saying and who listened to Peter after that and believed were baptized. There were 3000 in total. Can you imagine. 3000 people came to know Christ that day.
But it wasn’t because of the preaching. It was because of the Holy Spirit and because they were seeking God and wanted to know the truth.
The Spirit worked thru the disciples to touch those 3000 men. The Spirit could have done the job alone. Tongues of fire could have come down on the people in the streets and THOSE men could have been converted instantly. But he chose to use the disciples.
And he does that today to us. God uses each of us every day to preach to others. Sometimes it’s verbally. Sometimes it’s not. Every day we are called to walk the walk of Jesus. Every day we are called to share the truth of Jesus. Shout it from the roof tops or whisper it at bed time.
An elderly pastor was searching his closet for his tie before church one Sunday morning. In the back of the closet, he found a small box containing 3 eggs and 100 $1 bills. He called his wife into the closet to ask her about the box and its contents. Embarrassed, she admitted having hidden the box for their entire 25 years of marriage. Disappointed and hurt, the pastor asked her, "WHY?"The wife replied that she hadn't wanted to hurt his feelings. He asked her how the box could have hurt his feelings. She said that every time during their marriage that he delivered a poor sermon, she had placed an egg in the box. The pastor felt that 3 poor sermons in 25 years was certainly nothing to feel bad about, so he asked her what the $100 was for.She replied, "Each time I got a dozen eggs, I sold them to the neighbors for $1.
Great communication huh. Maybe they needed to sit down and have a talk a little sooner. Have you noticed how bad communication can change everything.
Email is one of the worst, and before email it was the phone. No body language, no voice inflection in email. If you put a comma in the wrong place, watch out.
Well you have the disciples sitting in a room alone and a great rushing wind comes from heaven and fills the whole house. Tongues of fire fall on each of them. Then they start speaking in other languages.
The first thing we need to get out of the way is that they were speaking in different languages. They were not speaking gibberish, uttering incomprehensible words, shaking on the ground, barking like a dog, strutting around like a chicken, or doing anything out of their control.
The scripture tells us they spoke in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Did you read all the different people who were there. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia,
Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Egyptians, Romans, Cretens, Arabs……wow. All these different people, yet they were hearing the disciples praise God and proclaim the saving life and death of Jesus Christ in their own language.
I think that is how heaven will be like. When we get there, we will be a cornucopia of skin color and language. Yet we won’t have to learn a special heaven language. I think we will automatically speak in the language of the person we are speaking too. No interpreters. No funny looks.
Every note we send will auto correct itself when you send it and email will be exactly the same way. No more miscommunication.
Before I left Dell, (not looking back, running as fast I could), I sent an email out to all my long time customers. I wanted to tell them they would be getting a new account manager and also I wanted to spread the Word of God.
I put in my notes that I was going to be a pastor full time. I have a website online that I post my sermons and other thoughts and put that in the email too.
I got some of the usual responses back. “Good to hear your doing what you want” “Wish you well” “Thank God we finally get someone else”.
But I also got some other emails back. One of my customers told me of how he was a missionary in the UK for 2 years. Another told me of how his daughter is a missionary in Croatia. One of the responses I got back really hit the nail on the head.
He said “I wish there was a way for casual or even longtime business associates to identify one another as Christians. What an opportunity for fellowship that we miss by not making it clear to each other.” He is exactly right.
At one time I was putting scripture on the bottom of my emails at work. None of my customers complained, but HR saw it and got upset. To get around that I would put spiritual sayings that someone famous would say. I have had quotes from Lincoln, Churchill and others. Things you don’t hear about in history class in school.
Back in the early centuries, there was much persecution against the Christians. How would they be able to identify each other? I’m sure you have seen the fish symbol on the back of cars.
The fish outline is a logical symbol for Christians because of all the references in the bible. The most notable is “I will make you fishers of men” from Mark 1:17.
There is also Jonah and the great fish, the fishes and loaves that Jesus multiplied, and the fish Jesus ate after his resurrection.
The Greek word for fish is “ICHTHUS”. This is an acrostic for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. Each of the letters represents one word in the saying.
Back to the persecution. The Christians didn’t wear crosses like the one I wear around my neck. They didn’t have the fish symbol branded on the rear of their donkey. But they did use the symbol for a password. If two strangers met and were unsure if the other was a Christian, one would draw half the fish in the sand.
If the other man was a Christian, he would complete the other half, forming the outline of the fish.
There is great symbolism in this passage from Acts. Remember in Genesis 11 the people all got together and started building a tower. They wanted to be up in heaven with the Gods.
But there communication was changed and all had different languages. The Spirit comes in Acts and lifts that curse. There were 120 men in the room when the Spirit came. The numerical symbolism is 10 people from each of the 12 tribes of Judah.
The thought is that here is the true Israel ready to expand. God is taking a remnant of his people to spread the Word. Although there are many different languages being spoken, realize it is true Israel.
All the people listening are Jews. This is God and God’s people together. They were not speaking one language per se, but they were of one mind. They were of one mind so they were focused on one thing…Jesus. Theology seemed to be simpler then.
They were not worried if you had been dunked in the water at baptism, they were not worried if you looked the same or talked to same as everyone else in the group. They were focused on Jesus. Do you have a saving faith in the only one who can save.
Some people on the ground said “hey…they are drunk”. I want you to notice something. There were two sets of people down there listening. Those that were actively seeking God, and those that were…. acting.
Scripture tells us that if you seek God you will find him. Now the unbeliever will yell out loud “I want to see you God. Come to me.” God can’t be controlled. Neither can the Holy Spirit. Don’t believe everything you see on TV. Those who earnestly with all their heart pursue after the creator God, He will reveal himself to them.
So back to the people. Many were amazed and perplexed. What can this mean they said. These people were of one mind like the disciples. They wanted to know God. But the others there mocked the disciples. “They are just drunk”. These people didn’t want to meet God. They were like the Pharisees and only going thru the motions.
They were like the pew warmers or C&E worshippers who go to worship out of some duty. They are not looking to connect to the one knows every hair on their head.
Those who believed what the disciples were saying and who listened to Peter after that and believed were baptized. There were 3000 in total. Can you imagine. 3000 people came to know Christ that day.
But it wasn’t because of the preaching. It was because of the Holy Spirit and because they were seeking God and wanted to know the truth.
The Spirit worked thru the disciples to touch those 3000 men. The Spirit could have done the job alone. Tongues of fire could have come down on the people in the streets and THOSE men could have been converted instantly. But he chose to use the disciples.
And he does that today to us. God uses each of us every day to preach to others. Sometimes it’s verbally. Sometimes it’s not. Every day we are called to walk the walk of Jesus. Every day we are called to share the truth of Jesus. Shout it from the roof tops or whisper it at bed time.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Picking Leaders
One day a policeman stopped a motorist who had just gone through a four way stop sign and was about to give him a ticket when the motorist said. "Officer you can't give me a ticket for that!' "Why not" said the officer. "Because although I did not stop I slowed right down and its almost the same." "But you did not stop" replied the officer, "and the sign says STOP." "But the way was clear and it was safe" replied the motorist. The officer then pulls out his batton and starts hitting the motorist. "What are you doing!" yells the motorist in surprise. "Do you want me to slow down or stop" says the officer.
The frenzy of American Idol is over. Oh what a time. All those people trying to get their 15 minutes of fame. So many can’t sing well. William Hung can’t sing at all and he got a record deal just because of his TV appearance. But a little over a hundred get to go to Hollywood and be on the TV show.
Over the weeks they narrow it down to 12 finalist. These are the best of the best. Down to six and finally down to the last two. The votes are in. 36 million votes are cast. Just one person is worthy enough to be the American Idol. Taylor Hicks wins. He is the 2006 American Idol. “I’m on top of the world” he says.
Matthias was promoted up the ranks something like that. There are about 125 men standing around. Peter prays and two are picked. Someone must replace Judas. Then one of the disciples pulls out a pair of dice and rolls. If they come up 4 then it’s Matthias and if the come up 5 it’s Justus. Isn’t that kind of how it sounds, huh. They threw lots. Matthias’ number comes up and he is the new disciple.
We don’t read anything else about Matthias. It’s believed he evangelized Ethiopia. He went from disciple to apostle. What does Matthias have that the other 100 didn’t have? What sets him apart? What’s the difference between disciple and apostle?
You read about the apostle Paul and how he wrote most of the New Testament. You also hear of John the apostle. He was the one that Jesus loved the most. We talked last week about the apostles James and Peter. They were pretty special guys.
OK. So what is the difference between a disciple and an apostle? Read what Peter said. “We must pick someone who has been with Jesus from the beginning.”
An apostle was someone who had direct contact with Jesus. That’s part of it. But more, an apostle was one who “is sent”. Disciples are students.
Let’s use the analogy of basketball since the NBA playoffs are on now. Disciples are the players and apostles are the coaches. The coaches have been in the other role. They have been thru the paces already.
Well how do we choose a leader in the church today?? I’m not talking pastor, but chair leader. I’ve been in churches where whoever will lift up their hand and say “OK, I’ll do it” is given the job. A while back at one church we were in, if you were not at the planning meeting, expect to be heading up a committee. But based on scripture, that’s not how it’s supposed to be. You start out as a disciple. What’s the mission statement of the United Methodist Church??
It’s to Go and Make Disciples. This is training time. This is boot camp. You’re getting information (lots of information), unbelievers are telling you your crazy, and you don’t have much response to them. And you wonder if you did the right thing.
But you grow. You step out and challenge yourself, challenge your faith….and it gets stronger.
One day you wake up and God is knocking on your door. “I want you to be a leader. I want you to teach. I want you to take a mission group to the homeless people in Temple, to the broken on the gulf coast, to the poor in the apalatian mountains.”
And you scream out at God. “WHAT! Are you crazy? I’ve seen how these people question the pastor behind his back. I’ve seen the arguing in the pews. I can’t even lead my dog and you want me to lead a ragtag group of disciples? I’m too old. I’m too young.”
On and On. And God says… “Yes, you’re no longer a disciple. You are an apostle. I’m giving you a different calling than you had before.
You were on milk and now you’re eating spiritual meat. You can do this because I will be doing this through you.
There is no platinum recording contract though. Oprah will definitely not be calling.
You might have other leaders in the church fighting you or pushing you away (giving you the cold shoulder) thinking you should have done something different or another way.
But you know you are on the right path when someone tells you “that’s the best sermon you’ve preached” or “thanks for giving me that gift. No one has ever been so kind. Your such a blessing.”
So where are you at?? Are you a disciple or apostle? Are you training or being trained?
Or are you a disciple who is trained, but is being called to step out?
You don’t have to be an apostle to get to heaven. We all have different gifts and callings. And we are called at different times to do different things. The harvest is ready. Now God is saying “I’m calling you disciples. I’m calling you apostles. I want more. I want all of you”. And you know what all means… All means all and that’s all all means. If he does call you to step up like he called Matthias, will you do it?
Someone did step up. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. We are having communion today. I know usually we have it on the first Sunday of the month. However, I thought it was only appropriate. You see, Jesus Christ died for our freedom. His blood was shed so we would be out of the enemies hands. Thousands of men and women in the armed forces died for our freedom. Their blood was shed so we would be out of the enemies hands. Communion is a times to remember one death and come to Christ in a deeper way. I pray that you will come to Christ and remember the other deaths also.
The frenzy of American Idol is over. Oh what a time. All those people trying to get their 15 minutes of fame. So many can’t sing well. William Hung can’t sing at all and he got a record deal just because of his TV appearance. But a little over a hundred get to go to Hollywood and be on the TV show.
Over the weeks they narrow it down to 12 finalist. These are the best of the best. Down to six and finally down to the last two. The votes are in. 36 million votes are cast. Just one person is worthy enough to be the American Idol. Taylor Hicks wins. He is the 2006 American Idol. “I’m on top of the world” he says.
Matthias was promoted up the ranks something like that. There are about 125 men standing around. Peter prays and two are picked. Someone must replace Judas. Then one of the disciples pulls out a pair of dice and rolls. If they come up 4 then it’s Matthias and if the come up 5 it’s Justus. Isn’t that kind of how it sounds, huh. They threw lots. Matthias’ number comes up and he is the new disciple.
We don’t read anything else about Matthias. It’s believed he evangelized Ethiopia. He went from disciple to apostle. What does Matthias have that the other 100 didn’t have? What sets him apart? What’s the difference between disciple and apostle?
You read about the apostle Paul and how he wrote most of the New Testament. You also hear of John the apostle. He was the one that Jesus loved the most. We talked last week about the apostles James and Peter. They were pretty special guys.
OK. So what is the difference between a disciple and an apostle? Read what Peter said. “We must pick someone who has been with Jesus from the beginning.”
An apostle was someone who had direct contact with Jesus. That’s part of it. But more, an apostle was one who “is sent”. Disciples are students.
Let’s use the analogy of basketball since the NBA playoffs are on now. Disciples are the players and apostles are the coaches. The coaches have been in the other role. They have been thru the paces already.
Well how do we choose a leader in the church today?? I’m not talking pastor, but chair leader. I’ve been in churches where whoever will lift up their hand and say “OK, I’ll do it” is given the job. A while back at one church we were in, if you were not at the planning meeting, expect to be heading up a committee. But based on scripture, that’s not how it’s supposed to be. You start out as a disciple. What’s the mission statement of the United Methodist Church??
It’s to Go and Make Disciples. This is training time. This is boot camp. You’re getting information (lots of information), unbelievers are telling you your crazy, and you don’t have much response to them. And you wonder if you did the right thing.
But you grow. You step out and challenge yourself, challenge your faith….and it gets stronger.
One day you wake up and God is knocking on your door. “I want you to be a leader. I want you to teach. I want you to take a mission group to the homeless people in Temple, to the broken on the gulf coast, to the poor in the apalatian mountains.”
And you scream out at God. “WHAT! Are you crazy? I’ve seen how these people question the pastor behind his back. I’ve seen the arguing in the pews. I can’t even lead my dog and you want me to lead a ragtag group of disciples? I’m too old. I’m too young.”
On and On. And God says… “Yes, you’re no longer a disciple. You are an apostle. I’m giving you a different calling than you had before.
You were on milk and now you’re eating spiritual meat. You can do this because I will be doing this through you.
There is no platinum recording contract though. Oprah will definitely not be calling.
You might have other leaders in the church fighting you or pushing you away (giving you the cold shoulder) thinking you should have done something different or another way.
But you know you are on the right path when someone tells you “that’s the best sermon you’ve preached” or “thanks for giving me that gift. No one has ever been so kind. Your such a blessing.”
So where are you at?? Are you a disciple or apostle? Are you training or being trained?
Or are you a disciple who is trained, but is being called to step out?
You don’t have to be an apostle to get to heaven. We all have different gifts and callings. And we are called at different times to do different things. The harvest is ready. Now God is saying “I’m calling you disciples. I’m calling you apostles. I want more. I want all of you”. And you know what all means… All means all and that’s all all means. If he does call you to step up like he called Matthias, will you do it?
Someone did step up. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. We are having communion today. I know usually we have it on the first Sunday of the month. However, I thought it was only appropriate. You see, Jesus Christ died for our freedom. His blood was shed so we would be out of the enemies hands. Thousands of men and women in the armed forces died for our freedom. Their blood was shed so we would be out of the enemies hands. Communion is a times to remember one death and come to Christ in a deeper way. I pray that you will come to Christ and remember the other deaths also.
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