Who Does God Promote? Lessons from 2 Samuel

Humility is probably a lot like Margret Thatcher's description of being a lady,

"If you have to tell someone you are, you are not!"

"Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up," James 4:10. And the opposite is also true, "God resists the proud" (1 Peter 5:5) and "Pride comes before destruction," (Proverbs 16:18).

Love King David's example of God-centered humility in 2 Samuel 6. He dances and "humiliates" himself before God in celebration and worship. His wife Michal, scorns him by sarcastically saying,

“With what honor the king of Israel acted today! You took off your clothes in front of the servant girls of your officers like one who takes off his clothes without shame!” (2 Samuel 6:20, NCV).

But David wasn't worried about impressing his wife, or other ladies on the street, or his kingdom or constituency. David was worshipping to an audience of One, trying to impress only God,

“I did it in the presence of the LORD."

David understood that humility before God is our act of worship, and that humility before God doesn't mean thinking little of ourselves, but thinking more of others, and having a right understanding of who we really are in His sight.

David also profoundly stated,

"So I will celebrate in the presence of the LORD. Maybe I will lose even more honor, and maybe I will be brought down in my own opinion, but the girls you talk about will honor me!”


God exalts those who humble themselves before Him. Others will honor those who are not ashamed to be humiliated before God.

Who are you trying to impress? Whose attention are you trying to catch? With whom are you most afraid to loose honor?

Baptism in a theater

Privileged, favorite moments don't occur often but when they do, enjoy them. Revel in them! And that's just what we did at Lifehouse 2 weeks ago. We hosted our first raucous baptism gathering following our morning service. Here's what I loved about it:hundreds of people from Lifehouse were able to celebrate with the 10-12 that were baptized,

• it felt more like a family celebration than a religious ceremony,
• we screamed and cheered wildly for those who were making their public declaration of faith in Jesus,
• the theater was transformed into sacred ground, a place where so many have made decisions to follow and grow in their decision for Christ. Now, it has become a place where we can also celebrate those decisions through the next step of baptism,
• the water was warm (thanks Don for getting the gas-powered heater to warm up the water)
• I love firsts, so it was cool that it was our first baptism at the theater (and only a week after the previous cinema company moved out,
• I got baptized (well, not in a theological, sacrament sense, but in a chucked in the water like a play toy by Pastor Dave sense),

Here are some cool photos:

Congratulations to all who were baptized!

Some changes to our next baptism, coming soon:

• I'd like to invite the person who invited the baptism candidate to share their personal story of how they met, introduced Jesus to the new Jesus-follower,
• Invite the friend to baptized the candidate.

As the lead pastor, I want to give away to others this awesome moment, rather than holding on to it. Let's pass around the joy and victory.

Cardboard Testimonies: video footage from service at Lifehouse

Here's the video footage of an amazing service at Lifehouse that we wanted to share with you. It's broken into 8 parts so that we could get it onto Youtube.com, so enjoy, be challenged, share it, and invite God into YOUR story today!

Introduction and Part 1 of Sermon: Invite God into YOUR Story.


Part 2- Testimony 1- Hunter


Part 3- Testimony 2- Stephanie


Part 4- Testimony 3- Austin


Part 5- Cardboard Testimonies of many people at Lifehouse


Part 6- Part 2 of Sermon: Invite God into YOUR story


Part 7- Challenge to respond and invite God to set us free from chains that bind


Part 8- Response time


Hope you are inspired and challenged to invite God into YOUR story. I hope that by watching other brave individuals authentically share about their faith journey, you're willing to risk inviting God into your mess so that your life can become a message of hope through Jesus.

Our end-game

Why do we pray? worship? gather as the Church? do outreach? invite friends and share Jesus with our community?

Recently, in our weekly staff prayer meeting, we began with a time of singing and worship. Since I have a lot to pray about and request of God, I wanted to challenge our team to pray boldly and really seek God on behalf of Lifehouse East. However, as we were singing, this passage came to mind,

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13

I was reminded, "Prayer is not a means to an end. Prayer is the end (or the whole) of man. Worship isn't a means to an end. It's the end game." 

We're not trying to manipulate God through worship or convince him to do something through prayer. We do everything else as a church to bring more people into a place where they can experience an intimate and loving relationship with God through prayer and worship.

We're not praying to reach more people as the end game. We are reaching more people for God, so that all people will turn and worship God!

Worship and prayer- that's our end game!

A few of the things I'm thankful for!

The daily challenge for day 3 in THRIVE 09 was to write out 50 things that I am personally thankful for. Here are a few from my list.

When we take the time to notice God's wonders and the work of His hands, this brings God pleasure and makes Him smile.

1. God's forgiveness- can't believe He keeps forgiving me and giving me a fresh start (1 John 1:9).
   
2. His salvation- the cross is absurd to me, but it's also my hope and redemption (Romans 5:8)
   
3. Laura- 2nd best decision I ever made. Pretty sure I'm lower on her list, but I got the better end of the deal (Proverbs 31:10-12)
   
4. 3 healthy daughters- my girls are the joy of my life and my biggest fans (Psalm 127:3)
   
5. gluon- it's the stuff that holds quarks together (those are sub-atomic particles with the same charge, that should repel each other, but instead stick). I think God is the gluon (Colossians 1:16-17)
6. Steel-belted radial- that's the part of the tire that didn't pop while we drove about 150 miles toward NY on a tire missing most of its tread without blowing out.
7. Hugs- grateful for the love God fills my daughters with toward me. A hug can keep me going.
8. Eskimo kisses- my daughters are so innocent and pure, and Eskimo kisses are funny.
9. Laughter- I'm grateful that God has a sense of humor (Psalm 126:2).
10. Sunsets- amazed by God's majesty (Psalm 19:1).
    
11. A Paycheck- got one yesterday, and thankful that in difficult times I still have a career and people are still generous
12. Guttenburg- amazed how many books are available, especially the accessibility of the Bible (Isaiah 40:7-8).
13. Gravity- pretty happy that we haven't gotten thrown off the earth's surface, since we are moving at about 1,040 mph.
    
14. God's faithfulness-
15. New mornings, fresh starts-
16. REM-cycles- it's amazing that our bodies need to sleep, but can heal themselves while we do it (Psalm 127:2)
17. Dinner tonight- awed by the lavish provision of God everyday (Psalm 37:25).
18. My DELL- so say it creates work, but I remember life before the PC. So grateful for its invention.
19. Electricity- during the winter I have heat, and during the summer A/C. Thanks to the workers who keep the lights on.
20. My car- it's still running a year after "the Give Project". God has been faithful!

Must-Listen to Music

Just a heads up that Jon and Carrie (our worship pastor) just released a new CD, (here). Great stuff. Some of the music we sing on Sunday mornings is on their CD, so it's definitely not just any CD, but a worship CD. So, what does that mean for you:

• you can buy it, listen to it, and encourage others to check it out.
• we want to promote them as the promote God. If you know of other churches, cafes, or groups that would be interested in bringing them in to train other worship teams or play a worship set, contact them at jnc_lewis@yahoo.com.
  

Here are some links to check out:
Jon and Carrie's home page. On the air, so listen here. And you can purchase here.