Why should I go to church?

Why should I go to church? Why is it important to be there every week? God gives you five reasons why:

Heb. 10:22-25 ²²let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Let us…

1. draw near to God… Can’t I do that alone? Yes, and you should. But all thru God’s Word He uses a shepherd, a leader, a pastor to direct his sheep. In Eph. We’re told He gave pastors as gifts to the church. If you miss church, you may just miss His word to you!
   

   The first group of believers met together in the temple daily to draw near to God. (Acts 2:42-46) ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer… ⁴⁴And all the believers met together constantly… ⁴⁶They worshiped together at the Temple each day.
   

2. hold unswervingly to the hope… Accountability. Alone, it’s easy to stray, swerve, get off course.
   
3. spur one another on… Church is not just about ME. It’s important for me to BE THERE FOR OTHERS! Ever hear the phrase “the more the merrier”? Just your presence is an encouragement to others, creating an environment that makes them feel less intimidated, more at ease, more interested, more curious, more inclined to participate! By the way, why do you think God gives spiritual gifts and ministry gifts to us? For the church – the body of Christ. To spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
   
4. not give up meeting together… When the music isn’t your cup of tea, don’t give up meeting together. When you feel like the message series doesn’t apply to where you are in your walk with Christ, don’t give up meeting together. When you would rather sleep in, go to the lake or amusement park, or just stay home, don’t give up meeting together. Remember, it’s not just about you.
   
5. encourage one another… when you feel like giving up is when you need to go the most! Did I say, it’s not just about you? If I am really a follower of Christ, then I should really buy into His mission – to make disciples. If I really buy into His mission, I should not miss the opportunity to encourage others in discipleship. Who knows, just maybe you’ll be encouraged too!
   

I sincerely hope to see you ALL in church this Sunday!

“You have brought trouble on me”

Gen. 34:30 Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me…”

How many parents have said (or at least thought) that! A lie that has to be exposed… something stolen that has to be returned… something damaged that has to be replaced… a pregnancy out of wedlock… or perhaps even a crime that requires a bailout! But the truth is, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Jacob, whose name means “deceiver”, had lived his life as a deceiver… always looking out for number one, looking for ways to get ahead with little regard for those he hurt along the way. That is, until the consequences of his choices caught up with him, and in a wrestling match with God, his name was changed from Jacob – deceiver to Israel – God rules! Yet, his children were influenced and shaped by the former man he was. And it appears Jacob did not do such a good job at letting God rule in his life following his conversion experience.

In chapter 35, God told Jacob, “Return to Bethel, where I appeared to you when you were running from your brother Esau. Make your home there and build an altar for me.”

Notice God calls him “Jacob” again. Jacob had allowed idols of foreign gods in his household (v.2). He’d slipped back into his old ways and it was showing up in his kids! So God told him to GO BACK to that place where he surrendered to God… that place where his life was transformed, and LIVE THERE! It was there that God appeared to him again and reminded him, “Your name is no longer Jacob; you will now be called Israel.” (v.10)

When we slip back into old ways, old habits, old patterns, it has an influence on those close to us. Perhaps the “trouble” we blame others for, is God getting our attention… calling us to GO BACK to that place of surrender to His rule in our lives and LIVE THERE!

BREAKIN’ THROUGH SOME WALLS

177 Decisions this week to follow Christ!  That’s what I’m talking about!  That’s why we’re here!  That’s our mission!

That makes me want to break some bricks!  For those of you who missed it, yes, with great power, force and speed I crushed through a wall of concrete in our last service this week!  Ok, it was just 4 bricks.  But in that wall of concrete (small as it may have been) I saw our church breaking through religious routine, meaningless ritual and tradition, apathy, fear, settling for less… all those things that keep us from fulfilling our purpose – our mission!

Breaking a stack of bricks was a first for me.  I thought, “What if I don’t succeed?  What if I make a fool of myself up here?  What if something other than the bricks breaks?” What are the “what if’s” holding you back from breaking through the fears in your life to share Jesus with your neighbor, your co-worker, your friend? What’s stopping you from stepping up in faith – in partnership with God, to use His power to bring the miraculous to others today?

A huge THANK YOU to all our volunteers that bought into the mission this week!  You broke through some walls of your own to strike a crushing blow to the enemy and great victory for the Kingdom!

We’re gonna have a great day Sunday!  Go ahead… invite someone… break through some walls!

A Messy Christmas

Feel like your life is a mess? Join the club!  We live in a messy world. We tend to mess up relationships, mess up our finances, and make a mess of our lives.  But the message of Christmas is “Good News of Great Joy”!  Jesus, Emmanuel – “God with us”, came to a messy world, born in a messy stable with messy animals, in a messy feeding trough, to get messy for us and transform our mess into God’s masterpiece.

Life is messy.  And even followers of Christ still mess up.  But the good news is God makes sense of the mess… forgives… transforms… makes good from bad, and uses even our messes to help others in their messes.  God uses messy people!

Weaved into the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter one (the beginning of the Christmas story), we find four messy women mentioned.  To my knowledge this is the only place in the Bible where women are included in a genealogy, much less, women with such messy backgrounds. And it’s the genealogy of the Son of God!

Tamar was raped by a relative, had two different husbands (both were total jerks), and slept with her father-in-law! Rahab was a prostitute, but found favor with God for protecting the spies that Joshua sent into Jericho.  Ruth, not even Jewish, was a Moabite who illegally married a Jewish man. And Bathsheba had an affair with King David, then he had her husband killed.

If God chose those four women to be mothers in the lineage of the Savior of the world, then just maybe He could use a messy person like me!  The good news of Christmas is not that life is no longer messy; but that God weaves even our mistakes, our disappointments, our regrets, our sin, into his plans. He makes masterpieces of our messes!  Thank God for a messy Christmas!

Missed Investment Opportunities

“Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr

Have you ever kicked yourself over missed investment opportunities? Decca Records, in 1962, rejected a group that came to be known as The Beatles. What a missed investment opportunity! They could have still been collecting royalties today with the release of the new Beatles Rock Band!

A recent headline in The Market Oracle, August 2, 2009, proclaimed, “The Great Missed Stock Market Investment Opportunity of 2009“. The first sentence in the article states, “When the books have been written on 2009, the prevailing story will undoubtedly be one of lost opportunity.”

I wonder how many investment opportunities we miss. I believe God gives us opportunities every day to invest in others in a way that will impact eternity. But we become so self-absorbed in our own lives, in self-interest, that we miss great investment opportunities that would reap eternal reward.

So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. (Eph. 5:15-17 NLT)

I understand from the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-30) that God has entrusted me with resources according to what He knows I can handle. And He expects me to Double My Impact by investing in the opportunities before me to make a lasting difference.

Don’t miss the investment opportunities you have today!

Slipping into My Ways…

Words cannot express how thankful I am for God’s presence and grace in each of my children. One of my most frequent prayers for them throughout the years is that they would catch the good things from my life and learn from my mistakes, rather than making the same mistakes themselves. Yet, I am fully aware of how dangerous every indiscretion is. Every wrong choice I make when doing things my way, becomes an open door of influence to a wayward path for my children.

2 Chron. 18… Jehoshaphat, slipping into that cage of assumptions, made an alliance with Ahab through marriage. Against the warning of the prophet, Micaiah, Jehoshaphat joined Ahab in going to war against Ramoth-gilead. In the losing battle (it is always a losing battle when we stoop to our ways… relying on our ability… our power) ³¹Jehoshaphat cried out and the Lord helped him. I’m so thankful for the grace of God that rescues me even in my stupid assumptions!

You would think we could learn our lessons the first time, but most of us are repeat offenders. Jehoshaphat, again, ^{2 Chron. 20:35}
made an alliance with Israel’s king Ahaziah, who was guilty of wrongdoing.

We’re told that, overall, throughout his life, Jehoshaphat did what was right in the Lord’s sight. (2 Chron. 20:32) Regardless of all the things we do right, it seems that our children (and those under our influence) will pick up on that one indiscretion… that point of weakness. In chapter 21, Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram became king, and ⁶
he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife. Jehoshaphat’s mistake of self-reliance… alliance with Ahab, became the open door to a path a sin and wrong doing for his son.

More is caught than what’s taught! We are being watched!

I did it my way

Shortly before his death, Elvis Presley almost prophetically recorded the song, “I did it My Way”.  Paul Anka, who wrote the lyrics to the song for Frank Sinatra, said, “I read a lot of periodicals, and I noticed everything was ‘my this’ and ‘my that’. We were in the ‘me generation’ and Frank became the guy for me to use to say that.”

I’ve found “my way” to be pretty pathetic.  My way usually makes a mess of things.  My way is weak, limited, under-qualified, disqualified, and helpless.  My way is living in a cage of assumption.

In 2 Chronicles 17, we read the story of a man who decided to do it God’s way.  Jehoshaphat sought God and the Lord was with him (v.3).  His mind rejoiced in the Lord’s ways (v.6).  Jehoshaphat sent his officials throughout the towns of Judah to teach the people from God’s Word… to teach the Lord’s Ways to those whom God had placed under his influence and authority.  Jehoshaphat was aware of his inability… his weakness… his helplessness… his insufficiency when it came to his own ways.  He rejoiced in the Lord’s ways, and taught the Lord’s ways to his people. He was dependent on God, and that’s what God loves… FAITH… breaking out of the cage of our own assumptions (our ways) to totally depend on our God.

Jehoshaphat demonstrates this in chapter 20 when the Moabites, Ammonites and Meunites… ²a vast multitude… joined forces to fight against him.  He was afraid (when we are brought face to face with our own lack of ability, our own weakness and helplessness, it is frightening.), ³so he resolved to seek the Lord!  In his prayer (vv.6-12) he acknowledges and reminds himself and his people how BIG GOD IS… the God of the heavens who rules over all the kingdoms of the earth… all power and might is in His hands, and no one can stand against Him.  Then he acknowledges his own helplessness: ¹²For we are powerless… we do not know what to do. But we look to you.

God loves this kind of faith.  That’s the kind of relationship he wants us to have.  It’s that kind of faith and total trust and dependence on God that he credited to Abraham as righteousness (to be in right relationship).   God’s reply: ¹⁵Do not be afraid, or discouraged… for the battle is not yours, but God’s. ¹⁷You do not have to fight this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.

Lord, let my mind be free from the cage of my ways, to rejoice in the Lord’s ways!

Breaking out of the Cage of Assumption

2 Chron. 12:1… When Rehoboam (king of Judah) had established his sovereignty and royal power, he abandoned the law of the Lord – he and all Israel with him. From the beginning of creation, pride, and a desire for self-rule has been man’s greatest downfall. It’s what caused Lucifer’s fall, and he’s been using it ever since to steal, kill and destroy. When we become self-sufficient we stop depending on God and find ourselves caged by the assumption that we can handle everything on our own, in our own power. The sad thing is, when we abandon the Lord it has an impact on others who follow us (he and all Israel with him).

In contrast, Abijah succeeding his father, Rehoboam, as king of Judah (2 Chron. 13), breaks out of the cage of assumption and self-rule to declare, “But as for us, the Lord is our God. We have not abandoned Him.” By faith, he added God to the equation of his life, and God gave him victory over an army twice the size of his when Israel had set up an ambush all around him.

Abijah was succeeded by his son, Asa, who also did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord his God. (2 Chron. 14:2) (When you break out of the cage of assumption it has an impact on your children!) When his army of 580,000 faced an army of 1 million, he cried out to the Lord his God: “Lord, there is no one besides You to help the mighty and those without strength. (Out of the cage of assumption, he recognized his weakness and God’s greatness!) Help us, Lord our God, for we depend on You…” God gave him victory! With God, nothing is impossible!

Unfortunately, in his later years, Asa stopped seeking the Lord and began relying on his own power and ability to work things out. In chapter 16, when Israel went to war against Judah, he sought help and alliance with Aram’s king, instead of seeking God. So often in scripture and in life we see those who start out strong in the Wild Goose Chase, only to slip back into that cage of assumption and self-reliance in their later years.

Although Asa was reminded of the great victory over the million man army when he depended on God, he continued down the declining prideful path of self-reliance. Asa developed a disease in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his disease he didn’t seek the Lord but the physicians. (v.12)

It is so easy to slip back into that cage. We stop praying, stop seeking, stop chasing – pursuing, and before we realize it, we stop depending on God. What have you been trying to work out on your own this week? We have a God who desperately wants to show Himself strong in our lives. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are completely His. (2 Chron. 16:9) Let’s break out of the cage of assumption to a new dependence and faith in our great God!

UNCAGED to DO Something!

“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

I’m ashamed to share the number of times my wife (and others that are close to me) has had to lovingly bring to my attention the opportunities I missed, to give attention and care to those around me. I often get so focused on what I have to get done… on those day to day responsibilities… that I totally miss needs right in front of me. In fact, sometimes I even see those needs as interruptions instead of God-ordained opportunities for spiritual adventures in ministry.

Like the Priest and the Levite (the religious people) in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10), we often get so busy with our day to day responsibilities that we totally miss the opportunities God is placing right in front of us. We become numb to the needs of others… insensitive…. uncaring.

The Samaritan in the story was not caged by day to day responsibilities. He was alive and sensitive to opportunities around him… to needs God placed in his path. And he risked stepping into the adventure and DID something about the need. Jesus told his audience, “Go and do likewise.”

We often miss chasing the Wild Goose, experiencing the adventure-filled life God intended, by not acting on the opportunities God puts in our path. The world (and the church) is filled with people that see needs, some are touched by the needs, some offer advice or suggestions for meeting the needs, but it’s the few that DO something. Thomas Edison once said, “The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”

In Matthew 25 we’re told that on the Day of Judgment when all the nations will be gathered before God, He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The goats will be condemned for all the missed opportunities to DO something about the needs all around them. But the sheep will be rewarded for what they DID!

It occurs to me that when we stand before the throne of God we will not hear, “Well SEEN, my good and faithful servant.“… or “Well THOUGHT, my good and faithful servant.”… or “Well SAID, my good and faithful servant.” But, “Well DONE, my good and faithful servant.”

Uncaged

I’m so excited about “The Wild Goose Chase” the Holy Spirit is taking us on! What an adventure! Today we were inspired by Nehemiah to break out of the cage of day to day responsibilities that numb us to spiritual adventures all around us, and rob us of the abundant, adventure-filled life God is calling us to. Like Nehemiah, we must become sensitive to the voice and calling of the Holy Spirit who might conceive a God-ordained desire in our hearts at anytime, anywhere. And then, step out in faith (or should I say ADVENTURE) and act on it! This week I’ve met some Nehemiah’s in our church that shared with me how God conceived a desire in their hearts, and how they are stepping into the adventure and acting on it!

Steve Hunt (he plays the keyboard in our worship team), just got back from a vacation at the beach, where God birthed a new desire in his heart to share his faith with family and friends in a bolder way that he ever has. With tears in his eyes (that’s God-given passion) he shared with me how God filled his vacation with opportunities to act on his God-ordained desire!

In a simple conversation about our annex, God conceived a desire in Michael Hallman to set up an outreach center for the homeless. He asked for permission to start cleaning out the annex in preparation for ministry!

Several weeks ago God birthed a desire in Ryan Crist’s heart to make our church and school campus a safer place for families. (I guess you could say God was calling him to “rebuild our walls”!) He wasted no time in acting on this God-directive; researching, training, recruiting, assessing, planning and building a team!

God used an email last week to plant a desire in the hearts of two different families (Rich & Dusty Richardson and Barry & Susan Mathis) to adopt the landscaped entrances of our church and begin beautifying and maintaining the environments that welcome our guests!

Trina Brown shared with me after church today that she had been asked to teach our senior ladies Bible Class next Sunday… an opportunity to act on a God-given desire she had felt. I might add, an opportunity that, like Nehemiah, makes her feel “very much afraid”! There’s an element of fear in adventure!

Five of our families made a 2 ½ hour drive each way to act on a God-given desire to visit Tim and Deb Armstrong at Chapel Hill Hospital this week!

I’m sure there are many others that I am not aware of that are breaking out of the cage of responsibilities to act on God’s call. Imagine a church full of people uncaged, sensitive to God’s call and the spiritual adventures all around us, stepping out in faith with wild abandon! That’s a church God will use to change our world! Accomplishing things that can only be explained by God!

(This is a series based on the book, Wild Goose Chase, by Mark Batterson. Thank you, Mark, for chasing after the Wild Goose and taking us on the journey!)