Sunday in the Rear-view Mirror:

Character: Faithfulness
Here's the commercials you all missed for the sermon this morning.
In my next blog, I'll be asking for some feedback from the service this morning, curious to hear what your thoughts and comments are.




Read Joshua 9-10.

We're challenged to be Faithful- Keep our word no matter what!

Too Busy Not to Pray

I borrowed it from Martin Luther, but it's a great quote and a great core value for LifeHouse:

"Pray like everything depends on God and work like everything depends on you."

This is critical. It means I have to work my butt off AND completely rely on God.

If you're entrepreneurial or task-oriented or just ADHD, it's easy to get the working-hard thing down. Go non-stop until the job is done, then recheck it to make sure you crossed the "t"s and dotted the "i"s. But this praying-like-everything-depends-on-God thing is tough. That means, we live realizing that we're too busy NOT to pray. So, when I get stuck or feeling overwhelmed or discouraged, I stop and pray. And it's best to start the day off right- in prayer.

I'm writing this 'cause it's on my mind, as in, I just lived this. I can get busy, start the morning off with my workout, breakfast, then dive right in to work. Sitting a working on my sermon, I started to feel lost and couldn't gather my thoughts... Then, I felt that tug. That reminder in your gut. The one that helps you stay focused on the big stuff in life. So, I stopped and prayed. Wow! God's great. He picks us up, puts us back on our feet and keeps us headed in the right directions.

Sometimes I Don't Know What to Say

Okay, well that happens often. And many times it's very appropriate to not know what to say. Often because there aren't the right words (read the book of Job if you don't believe me). However, sometimes it's because, even though I've prepared, God intervenes. These are "God-moments."

I had two moments in the service where they were "God-moments". Let me explain. I believe that everything we do on Sundays are God moments, and we prepare in an attitude of prayer and believe that God leads us to preach, chose songs, and format the service as he directs. However, there are still times when he takes over.

First, Jon played "Be Near" and we felt that it was the right time to just pause and allow us all to be reminded that God is near. Hope you were encouraged or are now while reading this.

Second, when I was concluding my message, I had this personally WOW-moment. I write out all my messages very thoroughly, then present them as best I can without notes. Yep, I do my best to memorize my messages now! Anyway... I was struck by the connection between the story of David and Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9 and what God has done for us. I didn't notice it while I was preparing, but when I was wrapping up the message, I was amazed by the parallels. Here's what I mean:

• David invited Meph... into his throne room, even though he should have killed him; God invites/ welcomes us into his throne room, even though we deserve death and banishment (see Romans 5:8).
• David invited Meph to his table to a permanent seat to eat and fellowship. We are invited to God's table for eternity and will share together at the "Marriage feast of the Lamb".
  
• David's invitation to Meph was more than just a provision to eat at his table, it brought status and rights. When we accept Jesus as Savior, we are brought into right-standing with God and welcomed at his table as a righteous person.
• Meph was given the full inheritance of his grandfather (made very wealthy). When we begin a relationship with Jesus, we become co-heirs of heaven, with all the rights and privileges that brings.

WOW! Maybe it doesn't amaze you as much. But that's pretty cool stuff. I never saw it before, but glad I caught it yesterday.

Weekend in the Read-view Mirror

Busy but fun!

Hope you enjoyed Sunday morning as much as I did. If you missed it, then you'll be saying, "This always happens when I'm out-of-town or miss LifeHouse". 'Cause it was a great service.

Here's the highlights from my message:

• Big Idea: Kindness is Lifting Others Up!
• There's is a tension between looking out for ourselves and looking out for and helping others.
• Read 2 Samuel 8-9. David was kind to Mephibosheth (wow, say that 10x fast), but it clearly wasn't in his best interest.
  
• He chose to be kind (lift up) rather than look out for his own interests.
• How do we do that TODAY? Lift others by being PLEASANT and PRACTICAL.
• If we did this, we would show God's love to those around us everyday, and we would be creating the world we wish for and believe should exist.
• So, in a nutshell, kindness says, "Good morning" and makes the coffee.

Hope we live this out Monday through Saturday, otherwise it's knowledge without action, which seems empty and meaningless. So, let's live it!

Here's a quick one:

Church should be FUN!

I remember going to church and falling asleep or wishing I could. And even my parents fell asleep on occasion. And then they tried to convince us that it was really compelling. Not busting on my parents, and thank God for my heritage.

Just saying that I want LifeHouse to be a place of laughter, excitement, passion, energy, and joy! I want you and everyone else out there to know that God is no bore. Look around a creation- there are some absolutely freaky weird and really cool and hysterical things out in creation. Don't believe me. Check out all the variety of animals. Go people-watching.

Doing the Right Things No Matter What!

Let me begin by reviewing a sermon I recently delivered called “Don’t drop the ball”. The big idea: the best way to balance life is to determine and live our priorities. You may have seen it before, but I used an illustration with a clear, empty pretzel container. First, I filled it with several fist-sized rocks. Then, I asked if it was full. No! Then, I dropped a few pounds of gravel into it, and asked,

“Full yet?” No! Then came the sand. Still not full! Then and finally the water. And the point you asked?

“You can always fit more into your life!!!” some said.

“Not quite… although that would fit our driven, never slow-down American mindset. PUT the BIG ROCKS in FIRST!” That’s the point. If we don’t put the big rocks in first, life will fill up with urgent, busy, weighty things, but less important things.

God has entrusted us with “big rocks”: children, spouses, friends, our church. The balancing act of life is to put the “big rocks” in first. It’s not trying to figure out how we can juggle all the balls or fit everything into the jar, but making sure that we put the most important things in first. What are those “big rocks” that we put into our life to balance first? And how do we do that?

READ Luke 10. Luke 10 is a chapter on priorities. The chapter begins with, “After these things…” so I looked back at the end of chapter 9, which has three different stories about excuses people gave for not following Jesus, and He makes the point clear, “What’s most important in your life?” Where will you focus your energy, your time, your money, and your talents?

That’s right where Jesus picks up in Luke 10. At the beginning of the chapter, He challenges his followers to make their lives count. Then he uses an anecdote to ask whether we should look out for others or ourselves. Finally, the chapter concludes with a simple little incident that summarizes the whole point. It’s the Mary and Martha story.

And the application: we must choose, resource, and protect our priorities!

And why am I sharing this with you?

Not only do we need to live this, but we need to encourage others to apply this truth.

The tendency seems to be that people will live by and resource priorities as long as it’s convenient or immediately in front of them. But the moment life comes at them, the gravel starts getting poured in OR there’s not enough room for all the sand they just bought,

“Pull out a ROCK to make room!” What gets chucked- values and priorities. And I think I have the instinct to apologize for teaching and encouraging people to have biblical priorities and to do the right things. It’s actually hard for me to challenge people to pray instead of work, follow God’ morals rather than do what they want, or even tithe rather than panic and hoard.

What I do know, however, and it helps me teach and model the right things, is that God blesses and honors those who keep biblical priorities and do the right thing. He doesn’t bless the opposite. So, I’m actually causing people to live outside of the blessings of God if I don’t challenge them to get things in order and live by biblical truths. This means SPEAKING THE TRUTH (yea, some of you like that part) IN LOVE (oh, that’s there too?).

As a pastor, my purpose in teaching, challenging, and guiding is to see people thrive in the favor of God and fulfill their life purpose.

Not a sermon, just a thought!