Friday, April 27, 2012

Rock Solid

“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7:24-27

 I’m more and more convinced that our lives need to be built upon God’s unchanging word. Doesn’t it seem like the world around us is always moving, it’s always shifting and always changing? When our kids were very young I taught them the multiplication table. I did it because I wanted them to learn that there are very few things in this world that you can always count on. Please excuse the pun, get it—count on? You see math isn’t open to new views, opposing theories or the winds of change. It’s always the same—two times two always equals four, eight times eight always equals sixty-four, you can bank on it. Did you know that you can bank on God, and His word even more, because He never ever changes. Storms will come and go, but God will never ever change.

 In the above text Jesus describes two types of people. He calls one of them wise, and the other foolish. The wise man builds his life upon God and His word, the rock. The foolish chooses to build his life upon the circumstances of life, the sand. When the storms came only one house stood the test. One house weathered the storm, while the other was crushed by the very same conditions. You see the same storm come to both the wise and the foolish, but success or failure depends on what we build our lives upon. Chances are you may be facing a storm or two right now. Storms happen to the best of us. So I just want to remind you that you can weather every storm if you’ll keep your eyes on the One who never changes.

Remember the promise in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus IS the same yesterday, today and forever.” Listen God loves you, He’s got your back, He’s there to help. So don’t give up, don’t quit, don’t run, don’t throw in the towel. You can make it, you can stand on His promises. His word will never fail. Your house will stand in Jesus’ Name.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Your Most Valuable Possession


"Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days." Ephesians 5:6 The Message Bible

Did you know that your most valuable possession is your time? God is reminding us here in today’s text that we should, on purpose, make the most of our time by doing good. So what’s good, and what’s not so good? That’s the million-dollar question, because each of us has been given the exact amount of time each day. We are each given the same 24 hours each day to either spend it, kill it, waste it, or invest it. So what exactly are you doing with your time?

It seems like we can focus our use of time in one of two primary ways. We can spent our time in temporary things, which usually keeps our focus on ourselves—or we can invest our time in doing eternal things which helps to keep our focus on God and others. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that everything we do has an eternal significance. For instance, I’m not sure driving motorcycles has any great eternal value, but it sure gives me temporary pleasure. But again, riding motorcycles is just a small portion of my life.

This past Wednesday night we took over 100 of our church leaders out for a nice dinner to cast some vision about the future of our church. We challenged this group of high-capacity leaders to consider investing a little more of their time in fulfilling some very specific leadership positions in our ministry. We didn’t ask them to leave their jobs, but simply invest a little more time each week into things that make an eternal difference.

Why are we talking about this today? Well, it’s because I want to ask you this simple question—what are you investing your most valuable possession in? What could God do through you if you were willing to refocus and repurpose a little more of your time each week to do things of eternal value? What kind of good could come through it? Jesus was quite aware of the limited amount of time that He had on this earth, but He focused on eternal things that resulted in much good in the lives of others.

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38 NKJV

So today, how about making this issue a matter of prayer. Let’s ask the Lord to help us see ways that we can invest a little bit more of our time in doing things of eternal value that bring a little more good to the world around us.

Let's do it!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Sons & Daughters


“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God. That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.” Acts 2:17

This week my wife Beth has been writing a series of devotionals titled, “Are You A Spiritual Teenager?”. She’s been drawing a great parallel between our natural and spiritual teenage years. Reading her devotionals got me thinking of our own kids. So, today I am writing them an open letter:

Dear Meghan, Annie, Luke & Eric:

You didn’t get to vote on the type of home you grew up in because I’m guessing that you would of have passed on growing up under the microscope of being a “Pastor’s Kid”. It’s really not fair for any kid to be placed under that kind of pressure, but God choose you because He knew you could handle it. He knew that you would be up for the task and He knew that you would flourish as a PK.

I know that Mom and I probably don’t thank you enough for what we, and the Lord, put you through all these years, but we are very grateful for your willingness to go with the flow of a life in ministry. Most PK’s grow up with just one of their parents in ministry but you were blessed with a double-dip. But, you learned to navigate it the best you could.

So here are a few things that we’d like to thank you for:

- Thank you for the dozens of times when you had to fall asleep in a booth at Applebee’s because we were talking to our visiting ministry friends after a long service. Those times of refreshing with our ministry peers were so important for Mom and I, so thanks for not making a fuss about it.

- Thank you for being willing to attend hundreds and hundreds of more services that anyone else at the church. You been in more services than even our staff members. And again, you’ve never complained, never gripped, even though we’re pretty sure that you did play sick a few times.

- Thank you for being engaged every time your Mom or I ministered. Even though we were your parents you choose to allow us to be your pastors, and that was huge and such a great example for your friends to see. Thanks too for letting us use you as sermon illustrations. I know we usually asked you for permission before doing it, but sometimes stories just slipped out.

- Thank you for thinking that your church was cool and never fighting us about serving in God’s house. You were always willing to serve wherever we needed help. Is that just because you didn’t want to hear the message for a fourth time?

- Thank you for all the times you allowed us to focus on the care of our church family even though it seemed like maybe we took our eyes off of you. Just so you know, you never left our hearts, no matter what we were dealing with. You were always always always Number One with us and you always will be.

- Thank you for standing with us through fund raising campaigns, building projects, and through all the changes and seasons of church life. When others bailed on us, you were there. When other criticized us, you stood up and stood there with us. Through thick and thin, you always had our backs. You’ll never know how much that meant to us.

- Finally thank you for being followers of Jesus Christ. He means everything to your Mom and I and we are so grateful for the very unique and personal relationships that you have with Him. Thank you for being so passionate about following His plan for your lives. While we’ve done our best to stay out of the way, you each have learned to develop a love and passion for God and His house that humbles us. Thank you for being sold out to Jesus and for giving Him your lives.

We love you, and we’re proud of you!

Our church like many others across the country are in a shift as we navigate passing of the batons of leadership to this next generation. Here is a great article by Dr. Warren Bird from the Leadership Network that highlights what’s happening at our church. Hope you enjoy it: http://leadnet.org/resources/advance/3240

What's So Good About Good Friday?


"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Have you ever wondered, what’s so good about Good Friday? As you know Christians around the world use this term Good Friday to remind them of the day that Jesus was crucified. It’s a very special day because without the crucifixion there would be no resurrection, and without the resurrection there would be no Christianity. You see without this day there would be no third day.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very foundation of our faith. To a Christian, the most significant day in history is the day that Jesus rose from the dead, having conquered death, hell and the grave. But without His death there could be no resurrection from the dead, which is why Good Friday is so important. Jesus talked quite a bit about his death and his resurrection throughout the gospels. Here are just three examples from Matthew’s Gospel:

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised the third day. Matthew 16:21

Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and the third day He will be raised up.” And they were exceedingly sorrowful. Matthew 17:22-23

Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day HE will rise again. Matthew 20:17-19


Did you notice that each time Jesus referred to His death He also, in the same breath, referred to His resurrection from the dead? Why is that? Well it’s simple; He knew His mission was not to be a martyr, but our Messiah, the One who would lead us back into our relationship with God as our LIVING Savior!

It reminds me of an old Bill Gaither song-

God sent His son, they called him Jesus;
He came to love, heal and forgive,
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there is to prove my Savior lives!

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living, just because He lives!

That my friends is the Gospel message—Jesus died but now He is alive! But He didn’t die alone. He took our sins, our sorrows, our pains to the cross and then to the grave and they all died with Him. And because all those things died with Him we can now live with Him—forgiven and free to live the life that God always intended for us.

That’s what makes Good Friday so good.

In Him-

Jeff