A single discovery can change things forever.
Two Australians, doctors Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, won the Nobel Prize in medicine last Monday for a discovery that defied decades of medical belief and revolutionized the treatment of ulcers.
They showed that bacterial infection — not stress — causes ulcers in the stomach and intestine.
The long, classic teaching in medicine was that the stomach was sterile and so nothing was supposed to be able to grow there because of corrosive gastric juices. Everybody believed there were no bacteria in the stomach.
The idea of stress and other things like that, as the cause of ulcers, was just so locked into people’s minds that no one could really believe that it was bacteria.
But Marshall and Warren believed the bacteria came first, causing inflammation, then ulcers. So they began testing their hypothesis.
To make his case, Marshall even deliberately infected himself by swallowing a culture of H. pylori.
He said this...
"I developed a vomiting illness and had severe inflammation in the stomach for about two weeks," he told The Associated Press. "I didn't actually develop an ulcer, but I did prove that a healthy person could be infected by these bacteria, and that was an advance because the skeptics were saying that people with ulcers somehow had a weakened immune system and that the bacteria were infecting them after the event."
Dr. Warren, a retired pathologist, said it still took a decade for others to accept their findings.
But their 1982 discovery eventually transformed peptic ulcer disease from a chronic, frequently disabling condition to one that can be cured by a short regimen of antibiotics and other medicines.
One discovery can change everything forever.
Today, we’re going to talk about a discovery that’s more personal – a discovery that when every follower of Jesus first stumbles upon it.
How we deal with this discovery will free us or enslave us.
Last week, we looked at the most amazing concept the Bible teaches us: grace.
We talked about a new comedy on NBC called “My Name Is Earl”. It’s a show about a guy who’s had bad luck his whole life and discovers the idea of karma. He makes up a list of everything he’s ever done wrong and attempts to make things right. He hopes to fix his karma and tip the scales back so that good things begin to happen in his life.
In our society, karma is a very hip and easily digested concept.
We talked about the difference between karma and grace:
• Karma says we get what we deserve based on what we’ve done.
• Grace says we get what we don’t deserve based on what God’s done!
Like I told you last week, I’ll take grace over karma any day!
The ideas of grace is what makes Christianity different than any other religion.
Most other religions are basically based on what you can do to get to God/heaven, but Christianity is all about what God did to get to us!
Some people think grace just means God overlooks or ignores your sin – that he lets you get away with it. But last week we saw that that’s wrong! God NEVER overlooks sin!
The punishment still had to happen. The payment for sin still had to be made. It’s just that God paid the cost for our sin when he had Jesus died on the cross to make the punishment for our sins. He conquered death for us when Jesus rose again from the dead.
For the next 5 Sundays we'll be looking at the book of Galatians. It's a book that is all about grace and how to receive it. I'm calling this series “Extreme Faith Makeover”.
I’m calling it this because just like on the show Extreme Makeover where they take someone who’s body has been sagging and dragging and make them not just as good as they were before, but even better. (*Show before and after picture)
I want to help adjust our faith and understanding not only back to what it was, but get it to a place where its even better than it was before.
We can’t live in the freedom God has for us unless we understand and believe the right things! That’s the goal of this series: to give our faith an extreme makeover!
Today we’re going to look at the Galatians 2.
Hear the message below:
MP3 Stream
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Friday, October 14, 2005
Thursday, October 13, 2005
"Jesus Plus Nothing" - Galatians 1
This is the first message in our series "Extreme Faith Makeover"...
What we’re going to be talking about over the next 6 Sundays could be the most important thing that we’ve talked about all year.
I want to help you to be free. But, you see we have a problem in life.
The problem is that we do wrong things. The Bible calls it sin. Our bad choices – or sins - end up separating us from God and others.
This leads to two other problems:
1. Having to figure out how to make up for or fix the wrong things we’ve done
2. How to escape out of this endless cycle of making bad choices.
NBC has a new show out called, “My Name Is Earl”. It’s about one guy’s struggle with this problem I’ve been talking about.
(From NBC site)
Earl is a guy who has taken one too many wrong turns on the highway of life. But, a twist of fate turns his life around.
Earl wins a small lottery, and, after deciding to transform his good fortune into a life-changing event as he sets out to right all the wrongs from his past.
But, before Earl can begin his journey, he has some bad luck again. Seconds after winning the lottery, he is hit by a car and while unconscious; the winning lottery ticket blows away. Later in the hospital, Earl watches "Last Call with Carson Daly" where Carson says that his success is a direct result of doing good things for other people.
It’s at that moment Earl discovers karma- and in hope of a better life, he decides to set out to correct every bad thing he's ever done.
He makes up a list of all the people he’s ever done wrong and begins a journey to make things right. He starts with a grade school geek, named Kenny, who Earl used to pick on.
Earl says this, “The secret to life is fixing all the bad things that you’ve done.”
---
The whole idea of karma has some basis of truth to it, but it also has a lot to it that is wrong.
You do reap what you sow and we’ll talk about during our last week in this series. You can make a good choice and expect the direct result of that choice to be something good.
But one of the wrong parts of karma is expecting that if you pile up enough good deeds in your life that you will then attract good results in your life. That’s not true!
We see in the Bible that God offers us something better than karma. He offers us grace!
Grace is one of the most important concepts in God’s word. Grace is the word translated in the Bible to describe God’s undeserved favor towards us.
Someone once described grace this way…
"When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day's pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award.
"But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award--yet receives such a gift anyway--that is a good picture of God's unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God."
Romans 6:14 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The payment we earn from our sin is death.
When we sin the results end up destroying our life in small ways – killing off the chance for us to experience some of the good things that making the right choices would have given us.
The payment we get from sin is that it destroys the chance for us to be all that we could be.
Sin, little by little, ultimately gives us only death! Look at a person in prison or look at a drug addict and you can see how sin kills off the good experiences in life.
But, it’s subtly doing the same in us who look cleaner. It’s just harder to see!
The gift we receive through deciding to follow Jesus is life.
When we follow Jesus he begins to show us the right choices to make and he frees us to make them. This choice gives us the results that lead to real life both here and in eternity! It’s not what we earn. It’s a gift!
I’ll take grace over karma any day!
• Karma says we get what we deserve based on what we’ve done.
• Grace says we get what we don’t deserve based on what God’s done!
The idea of grace is what makes Christianity different than any other religion.
All other religions are basically based on what you can do to get to God/heaven, but Christianity is all about what God did to get to us!
There’s a great story that shows what grace is all about…
A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression. He was a colorful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.
One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself.
Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.
But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. "It's a real bad neighborhood, your Honor." the man told the mayor. "She's got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson."
LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said "I've got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions--ten dollars or ten days in jail."
But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket.
He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying: "Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant."
So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.
God did the same thing for us.
Some people think grace just means God overlooks or ignores your sin – that he lets you get away with it. That’s wrong! God NEVER overlooks sin!
The punishment still had to happen. The payment for sin still had to be made.
It’s just that God paid the cost for our sin (the fine) when he had Jesus die on the cross to take the punishment for our sins. He conquered death for us when Jesus rose again from the dead.
God deserves a standing ovation for what he's done! That is grace!
Here’s the crazy thing…
God wants us to be free, but most of us most of the time we live in slavery. Slavery to our own evil desires. Slavery to guilt. Slavery to living life by the rules.
The reason that we stay trapped when God wants us to be free is because: we believe the wrong things about grace, we don't fully understand it and we don’t know how to receive its full benefit.
For the next 6 Sundays we'll be looking at the book of Galatians. It's a book that is all about grace and how to receive it. I'm calling this series “Extreme Faith Makeover”.
Here's why…
On Extreme Makeover, they take someone who’s body has been sagging and dragging and make them not just as good as they were before, but even better.
What I want to do with this series is help adjust our faith and understanding back to what it should be and get it to a place where its even better than it was before.
We can’t live in the freedom God has for us unless we understand and believe the right things! That’s the goal of this series: to give our faith an extreme makeover!
Turn with me to Galatians chapter 1.
Hear the message below:
MP3 Stream
Download
What we’re going to be talking about over the next 6 Sundays could be the most important thing that we’ve talked about all year.
I want to help you to be free. But, you see we have a problem in life.
The problem is that we do wrong things. The Bible calls it sin. Our bad choices – or sins - end up separating us from God and others.
This leads to two other problems:
1. Having to figure out how to make up for or fix the wrong things we’ve done
2. How to escape out of this endless cycle of making bad choices.
NBC has a new show out called, “My Name Is Earl”. It’s about one guy’s struggle with this problem I’ve been talking about.
(From NBC site)
Earl is a guy who has taken one too many wrong turns on the highway of life. But, a twist of fate turns his life around.
Earl wins a small lottery, and, after deciding to transform his good fortune into a life-changing event as he sets out to right all the wrongs from his past.
But, before Earl can begin his journey, he has some bad luck again. Seconds after winning the lottery, he is hit by a car and while unconscious; the winning lottery ticket blows away. Later in the hospital, Earl watches "Last Call with Carson Daly" where Carson says that his success is a direct result of doing good things for other people.
It’s at that moment Earl discovers karma- and in hope of a better life, he decides to set out to correct every bad thing he's ever done.
He makes up a list of all the people he’s ever done wrong and begins a journey to make things right. He starts with a grade school geek, named Kenny, who Earl used to pick on.
Earl says this, “The secret to life is fixing all the bad things that you’ve done.”
---
The whole idea of karma has some basis of truth to it, but it also has a lot to it that is wrong.
You do reap what you sow and we’ll talk about during our last week in this series. You can make a good choice and expect the direct result of that choice to be something good.
But one of the wrong parts of karma is expecting that if you pile up enough good deeds in your life that you will then attract good results in your life. That’s not true!
We see in the Bible that God offers us something better than karma. He offers us grace!
Grace is one of the most important concepts in God’s word. Grace is the word translated in the Bible to describe God’s undeserved favor towards us.
Someone once described grace this way…
"When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day's pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award.
"But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award--yet receives such a gift anyway--that is a good picture of God's unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God."
Romans 6:14 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The payment we earn from our sin is death.
When we sin the results end up destroying our life in small ways – killing off the chance for us to experience some of the good things that making the right choices would have given us.
The payment we get from sin is that it destroys the chance for us to be all that we could be.
Sin, little by little, ultimately gives us only death! Look at a person in prison or look at a drug addict and you can see how sin kills off the good experiences in life.
But, it’s subtly doing the same in us who look cleaner. It’s just harder to see!
The gift we receive through deciding to follow Jesus is life.
When we follow Jesus he begins to show us the right choices to make and he frees us to make them. This choice gives us the results that lead to real life both here and in eternity! It’s not what we earn. It’s a gift!
I’ll take grace over karma any day!
• Karma says we get what we deserve based on what we’ve done.
• Grace says we get what we don’t deserve based on what God’s done!
The idea of grace is what makes Christianity different than any other religion.
All other religions are basically based on what you can do to get to God/heaven, but Christianity is all about what God did to get to us!
There’s a great story that shows what grace is all about…
A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression. He was a colorful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.
One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself.
Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.
But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. "It's a real bad neighborhood, your Honor." the man told the mayor. "She's got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson."
LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said "I've got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions--ten dollars or ten days in jail."
But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket.
He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying: "Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant."
So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.
God did the same thing for us.
Some people think grace just means God overlooks or ignores your sin – that he lets you get away with it. That’s wrong! God NEVER overlooks sin!
The punishment still had to happen. The payment for sin still had to be made.
It’s just that God paid the cost for our sin (the fine) when he had Jesus die on the cross to take the punishment for our sins. He conquered death for us when Jesus rose again from the dead.
God deserves a standing ovation for what he's done! That is grace!
Here’s the crazy thing…
God wants us to be free, but most of us most of the time we live in slavery. Slavery to our own evil desires. Slavery to guilt. Slavery to living life by the rules.
The reason that we stay trapped when God wants us to be free is because: we believe the wrong things about grace, we don't fully understand it and we don’t know how to receive its full benefit.
For the next 6 Sundays we'll be looking at the book of Galatians. It's a book that is all about grace and how to receive it. I'm calling this series “Extreme Faith Makeover”.
Here's why…
On Extreme Makeover, they take someone who’s body has been sagging and dragging and make them not just as good as they were before, but even better.
What I want to do with this series is help adjust our faith and understanding back to what it should be and get it to a place where its even better than it was before.
We can’t live in the freedom God has for us unless we understand and believe the right things! That’s the goal of this series: to give our faith an extreme makeover!
Turn with me to Galatians chapter 1.
Hear the message below:
MP3 Stream
Download
Friday, July 29, 2005
Powerful Gratitude
Glen Davis spoke last week and shared a great message on "The Impact of Gratitude".
Hear the message below:
Real Audio
MP3 Stream
Download
Hear the message below:
Real Audio
MP3 Stream
Download
Thursday, July 14, 2005
God’s Marketing Plan Pt. 2: Word Of Mouth
Last Week Review:
Last week, we began a series called “God’s Marketing Plan”.
We talked about choosing to live a life of influence.
I told you last week that God wants you to be a person of influence. That God wants us to influence our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, and one day the world!
I told you that that’s God’s dream for us! And it has been from the beginning.
We saw in Genesis 1:27 that it says, “So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.”
I showed you that one of the things this implies is…
That God’s plan from the beginning was that, in all the diversity of his creation, we would stand out as a constant reminder that he exists.
And I said that you can think of ourselves as God’s advertisements, because we are God’s main way to make himself known in this world.
When we looked at 2 Cor. 5:14-21 and saw that God has given us all “The Ministry Of Reconciliation”! God wants to make his appeal through you to the people you come in contact with on a regular basis. He wants to use you to reconcile people with himself!
And then, I read you a quote from Dale Carnegie where he said, “There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.”
I told you last Sunday that these 4 ways are the only way we can stand out as reminders of God in this world. That we can only reflect or reveal God by what we do, how we look, what we say and how we say it.
We then spent the rest of our time last Sunday looking at how we can reflect God by what we do. We looked at how as followers of Jesus, we should stand out by accident – without trying! I called it being “Accidental Witnesses”
We saw this in Matt 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden...” And it ends with this, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds (the things we do) and praise your Father in heaven.”
To be light means you reveal the truth or the right direction by what you do. To be a city on a hill you have to be willing to live in a way that lets you stand out. Because, if you’re going to be a witness you’re going to have to stand out. We have to stop trying to blend in.
I read you a quote from Seth Godin about his marketing book “Purple Cow” and at the end of the quote he summed it up with this…
“Today, the one sure way to fail is to be boring. Your one chance for success is to be remarkable.”
I told you that what Seth says here is true for business and it’s true for us as individuals!
God wants us to live such remarkable lives that the people around us are attracted to Jesus, because of us.
I hope you’ve been praying about and thinking about how you can live this way! *This is the foundation for you to be an influence on the people God brings in your life.
If you weren’t here last week, I want to encourage you to go to our website and listen to the message. Download it and burn it onto a CD, then you can listen to it in the car.
Today, I want to start looking at one of the 3 remaining ways that we can be advertisements for God in this world. We’re going to talk about how to reflect/reveal God by what we say.
Do you know what the most powerful form of advertising is?
Word of Mouth Advertising!
John Milton Fogg, a well-known network marketer said this, “The recommendation of a Friend is the single, most powerful Marketing 'force' in the world.”
Word-of-mouth advertising is powerful, but for some reason, God has such a hard time getting many Christians to ever mention him to anyone!
Today I want us to begin to learn how to get over this problem. To do that let’s start by looking at John 1:35-51...
Hear the message below:
Real Audio
MP3 Stream
Download
Last week, we began a series called “God’s Marketing Plan”.
We talked about choosing to live a life of influence.
I told you last week that God wants you to be a person of influence. That God wants us to influence our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, and one day the world!
I told you that that’s God’s dream for us! And it has been from the beginning.
We saw in Genesis 1:27 that it says, “So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.”
I showed you that one of the things this implies is…
That God’s plan from the beginning was that, in all the diversity of his creation, we would stand out as a constant reminder that he exists.
And I said that you can think of ourselves as God’s advertisements, because we are God’s main way to make himself known in this world.
When we looked at 2 Cor. 5:14-21 and saw that God has given us all “The Ministry Of Reconciliation”! God wants to make his appeal through you to the people you come in contact with on a regular basis. He wants to use you to reconcile people with himself!
And then, I read you a quote from Dale Carnegie where he said, “There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.”
I told you last Sunday that these 4 ways are the only way we can stand out as reminders of God in this world. That we can only reflect or reveal God by what we do, how we look, what we say and how we say it.
We then spent the rest of our time last Sunday looking at how we can reflect God by what we do. We looked at how as followers of Jesus, we should stand out by accident – without trying! I called it being “Accidental Witnesses”
We saw this in Matt 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden...” And it ends with this, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds (the things we do) and praise your Father in heaven.”
I read you a quote from Seth Godin about his marketing book “Purple Cow” and at the end of the quote he summed it up with this…
“Today, the one sure way to fail is to be boring. Your one chance for success is to be remarkable.”
I told you that what Seth says here is true for business and it’s true for us as individuals!
God wants us to live such remarkable lives that the people around us are attracted to Jesus, because of us.
I hope you’ve been praying about and thinking about how you can live this way! *This is the foundation for you to be an influence on the people God brings in your life.
If you weren’t here last week, I want to encourage you to go to our website and listen to the message. Download it and burn it onto a CD, then you can listen to it in the car.
Today, I want to start looking at one of the 3 remaining ways that we can be advertisements for God in this world. We’re going to talk about how to reflect/reveal God by what we say.
Do you know what the most powerful form of advertising is?
Word of Mouth Advertising!
John Milton Fogg, a well-known network marketer said this, “The recommendation of a Friend is the single, most powerful Marketing 'force' in the world.”
Word-of-mouth advertising is powerful, but for some reason, God has such a hard time getting many Christians to ever mention him to anyone!
Today I want us to begin to learn how to get over this problem. To do that let’s start by looking at John 1:35-51...
Hear the message below:
Real Audio
MP3 Stream
Download
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
“God’s Marketing Plan” Part One: Accidental Witnesses
In life, you can either influence, or be influenced.
Most of us have experienced being on either side, but when your life comes to an end which will describe your life as a whole?
This is the good news…
God wants you to be a person of influence. His whole plan is for us to affect the people around us until eventually our affect touches the whole world!
God wants us - this small group of friends who are gathered in this theater - to influence our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, and one day the world!
That’s God’s dream for us! And it has been from the beginning.
Have you ever thought about this?
God made us in his own image. Genesis 1:27 says this, “So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.”
Do you realize one of the things that this implies?
God’s plan from the beginning was that, in all the diversity of his creation, we would stand out as a constant reminder that he exists.
C.E. Orr in his book “How To Live A Holy Life” says it this way…
“In the vast created universe, what place does man occupy? He stands out as a creature that bears the stamp of the divine image, a creature that is endowed with eternity. The heavens shall pass away, but man shall be forever. He was made capable of holding communion with the Creator. He occupies the relationship with God as child with parent. Being made in the likeness of God, he steps out upon the stage of the mighty universe to play the highest and noblest part in the entire drama of createdexistences. The songs of the morning stars as they sing together, pouring their anthems into the ears of God, are not such sweet music as is the voice of praise and adoration from the holy soul of man. Man was created for the very highest purpose in the mind of God. He is chosen to represent the divine character.”
What an amazing part God’s chosen for us! And that was God’s plan from the beginning of creation and it still is now!
There’s a fictional story about Jesus and the Archangel Gabriel that shows how important this plan is to God…
After Jesus returned to heaven, he and the Archangel Gabriel were talking. Even in heaven Jesus bore the marks of the crucifixion.
Gabriel said, “Master, you must have suffered horribly! Do people know and appreciate how you love them and what you did for them?”
Jesus replied, “Oh no; not yet. Right now only a few people in Palestine know.”
Gabriel was perplexed: “Then what have you done to let everyone know about your love?”
Jesus answered, “I have asked Peter, Andrew, James, John and a few more friends to tell others about me. Those who are told will tell others about me, and yet others still others, until the last man and last woman in the farthest corner of the earth will have heard the story of how I gave my life for them because I love them so much.”
Gabriel frowned and looked rather skeptical. “Yes, but what if Peter and the others grow weary? What if the people who come after them forgot? Surely you have made other plans?”
Jesus said, “Gabriel, I haven’t made any other plans. I’m counting on them.”
The events in this story are not true, but the message of it is true!
We are God's main tool to make himself known in the world! Do you realize this?
We are God’s advertisements to the world!
Today, I want begin a two part series called “God’s Marketing Plan”. Over the next two Sundays, I want to look at God’s plan to make himself known and get his message out to the world.
Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Cor. 5:14-21.
Hear the message below:
Real Audio
MP3 Stream
Download
Most of us have experienced being on either side, but when your life comes to an end which will describe your life as a whole?
- Will you be a person who lived a life of influence?
- Will anyone’s life be different because they knew you?
This is the good news…
God wants you to be a person of influence. His whole plan is for us to affect the people around us until eventually our affect touches the whole world!
God wants us - this small group of friends who are gathered in this theater - to influence our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends, and one day the world!
That’s God’s dream for us! And it has been from the beginning.
Have you ever thought about this?
God made us in his own image. Genesis 1:27 says this, “So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.”
Do you realize one of the things that this implies?
God’s plan from the beginning was that, in all the diversity of his creation, we would stand out as a constant reminder that he exists.
C.E. Orr in his book “How To Live A Holy Life” says it this way…
“In the vast created universe, what place does man occupy? He stands out as a creature that bears the stamp of the divine image, a creature that is endowed with eternity. The heavens shall pass away, but man shall be forever. He was made capable of holding communion with the Creator. He occupies the relationship with God as child with parent. Being made in the likeness of God, he steps out upon the stage of the mighty universe to play the highest and noblest part in the entire drama of createdexistences. The songs of the morning stars as they sing together, pouring their anthems into the ears of God, are not such sweet music as is the voice of praise and adoration from the holy soul of man. Man was created for the very highest purpose in the mind of God. He is chosen to represent the divine character.”
What an amazing part God’s chosen for us! And that was God’s plan from the beginning of creation and it still is now!
There’s a fictional story about Jesus and the Archangel Gabriel that shows how important this plan is to God…
After Jesus returned to heaven, he and the Archangel Gabriel were talking. Even in heaven Jesus bore the marks of the crucifixion.
Gabriel said, “Master, you must have suffered horribly! Do people know and appreciate how you love them and what you did for them?”
Jesus replied, “Oh no; not yet. Right now only a few people in Palestine know.”
Gabriel was perplexed: “Then what have you done to let everyone know about your love?”
Jesus answered, “I have asked Peter, Andrew, James, John and a few more friends to tell others about me. Those who are told will tell others about me, and yet others still others, until the last man and last woman in the farthest corner of the earth will have heard the story of how I gave my life for them because I love them so much.”
Gabriel frowned and looked rather skeptical. “Yes, but what if Peter and the others grow weary? What if the people who come after them forgot? Surely you have made other plans?”
Jesus said, “Gabriel, I haven’t made any other plans. I’m counting on them.”
The events in this story are not true, but the message of it is true!
We are God's main tool to make himself known in the world! Do you realize this?
We are God’s advertisements to the world!
Today, I want begin a two part series called “God’s Marketing Plan”. Over the next two Sundays, I want to look at God’s plan to make himself known and get his message out to the world.
Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Cor. 5:14-21.
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Friday, July 01, 2005
“The Hidden Opportunities Of Life”
Max Lucado tells a story about a bird named Chippie in his book “In The Eye Of The Storm”…
Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming.
One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
The problems began when Chippie's owner decided to clean Chippie's cage… with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She'd barely said "hello" when "ssssopp!" Chippie got sucked in.
The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned.
Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.
Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.
A few days after the trauma, the reporter who'd initially written about the event contacted Chippie's owner to see how the bird was recovering. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn't sing much anymore -- he just sits and stares."
It's easy to laugh at Chippie, but all of us know what it's like to go through a trial and feel afterward like we don't sing much anymore -- we just sit there and stare. :)
But, trials and problems are a normal thing in this fallen world we live in. We shouldn’t be surprised by them. We should really expect them!
In John 16:33, Jesus said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
If we can’t stop trials from coming into our lives, what can we do?
The only thing we can do is learn to see them differently. And when we learn to see them differently, we’ll discover something amazing.
I want to look at a passage of scripture that tells us a surprising way to look at our trials and problems.
Turn with me in your Bibles to James 1:2-12.
Hear the message below:
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Chippie the parakeet never saw it coming.
One second he was peacefully perched in his cage. The next he was sucked in, washed up, and blown over.
The problems began when Chippie's owner decided to clean Chippie's cage… with a vacuum cleaner. She removed the attachment from the end of the hose and stuck it in the cage. The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up. She'd barely said "hello" when "ssssopp!" Chippie got sucked in.
The bird owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned.
Since the bird was covered with dust and soot, she grabbed him and raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under the running water. Then, realizing that Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the pet with hot air.
Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.
A few days after the trauma, the reporter who'd initially written about the event contacted Chippie's owner to see how the bird was recovering. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn't sing much anymore -- he just sits and stares."
It's easy to laugh at Chippie, but all of us know what it's like to go through a trial and feel afterward like we don't sing much anymore -- we just sit there and stare. :)
But, trials and problems are a normal thing in this fallen world we live in. We shouldn’t be surprised by them. We should really expect them!
In John 16:33, Jesus said, “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
If we can’t stop trials from coming into our lives, what can we do?
The only thing we can do is learn to see them differently. And when we learn to see them differently, we’ll discover something amazing.
I want to look at a passage of scripture that tells us a surprising way to look at our trials and problems.
Turn with me in your Bibles to James 1:2-12.
Hear the message below:
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Tuesday, June 21, 2005
“There’s More Than Meets The Eye”
A human eyeball weighs just an ounce.
But we rely on these two ounces of jelly in our skulls to know what reality in life is.
The main function of the eye is to convert light from the outside world into electrical nerve impulses, so our minds can take in the outside world.
Our eyes are one of the main organs that help us to perceive, understand and interact with the outside world.
If you really think about it the way our eyes work is almost miraculous.
But we rely on these two ounces of jelly in our skulls to know what reality in life is.
The main function of the eye is to convert light from the outside world into electrical nerve impulses, so our minds can take in the outside world.
Our eyes are one of the main organs that help us to perceive, understand and interact with the outside world.
If you really think about it the way our eyes work is almost miraculous.
Here is all that’s happening right now in order for you to see me...
- The light bounces off me and into your pupil.
- The light crosses your lens and the images of me gets focused.
- The image of me turns upside down and at shines on your retina. Your retina contains two types of photoreceptors called rod cells and cone cells. They help you to see colors and sharp details.
- Then, your optic nerve carries the picture of me you see and the message goes to the brain.
- The first thing your brain does after the message goes there is turns the picture of me right side up.
- The second thing your brain does is figure out what you’re seeing and what you should do.
All that is happening right now as you look at me! It’s crazy isn’t it!
Charles Darwin in his famous work on evolution called “Origin of Species” admitted that the eye is so complex that saying it could have been formed by natural selection is pretty absurd.
Our eyes help us in so many ways in life it’s hard to imagine living without them.
But have you ever thought how they limit us?
Let me show you how with an example from the animal kingdom…
“An African impala can jump 10 feet high and cover a distance of more than 30 feet. But do you want to know what’s strange? These amazing animals can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with just a 3-foot wall. You want to know why? These animals won’t jump if they can’t see where their feet will land.”
Impalas stay trapped because they refuse to go where they can’t see!
So many times in life we’re the same way! We won't go in a direction in life where we can't see.
Today, I want to talk about how following Jesus on the journey of life means we need to learn to see beyond our sight – see the invisible - the not yet.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews 11:1-2
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Monday, June 06, 2005
“A Better Way To Live Life"
I heard a story about a guy who was sitting in a hotel lounge listening to a life-or-death struggle going on just a few feet away.
He could hear a small fly burning out its short life’s energies in a futile attempt to fly through the glass of a window pane.
The whining sound of its wings told the story of the fly’s strategy: try harder.
But it wasn’t working.
The frenzied effort offered the fly no hope. It was impossible for the fly to try hard enough to succeed and break through the glass.
But, the little insect had staked its life on reaching its goal through effort and determination.
The fact is that this fly was doomed. It was going die there on the window sill.
This is the ironic part…
Across the room, 10 steps away, the door is open. Ten seconds of flying time and this little creature could reach the outside world that it seeks.
With only a fraction of the energy that was being wasted, it could be free of its self-imposed trap. The breakthrough possibility was there and it would be so easy!
So the question is…
- Why doesn’t the fly try another method? Something totally different?
- How did it get so locked into this idea?
- What logic is there in continuing until death, to try and see a breakthrough, with just doing more of the same?
We’re taught in our culture that if you want to succeed, then you need to work hard. You have to be disciplined. You have to go out there and do it on your own.
Some of us have tried to take these same ideas and apply them to our Christian walk.
We’ve tried living for God for years and when we’ve failed our only thought is… “I must not be trying hard enough. I just have to try harder.”
But can I tell you something?
These “try harder, do-it-on-your-own” methods might be true to some point in business or in school, but it’s NOT the way to succeed in following Jesus or becoming all God created you to be.
And you know what?
When we’re doing something the wrong way, then trying harder just doesn’t help.
I found some pictures online of some guys who are trying hard, but there methods aren’t so great.
Click here to see them.
These guys really need to try something else instead of just trying harder!
If these guys aren’t proof enough that trying harder isn’t always the best plan…
On a website called DumbCrimminals.com I found this story…
----
Police in Virginia Beach, Virginia charged a 19 year old man, with bank robbery after he made a series of dumb mistakes. After handing the teller a note of demands, hegrabbed the money and began to flee.
When he realized he forgotten the note, he ran back to the bank and grabbed the incriminating evidence.
Once he got the note he ran back to his getaway car and he discovered that he had left the keys at the bank. He ran on foot and somehow made his way home without being caught.
But there was another problem, he had to tell his roommate, whose car he had borrowed, that the car had been stolen.
His roommate was so upset he called the police and reported his car stolen. Less than 20 minutes later, an Officer spotted the car just a block from the bank.
The officer retrieved the keys that had been left at the scene of the crime and when the keys fit the car, the officers went to the address the car’s owner had given and arrested the robber.
Sometimes trying something else is better, than just try harder!
----
Many of us who have been trying to live for God are like that fly. We’re pushing against a wall using a method that will never move it.
What if there was a better way for us to live our life for God?
That’s what I want to talk to you about today. Turn to Matt 11:28-30.
I want you to listen to an invitation Jesus gave over 2000 years ago.
Hear the message below:
Monday, May 16, 2005
How Jesus Taught Us To Handle Stress
Worry... Stress... Whatever you want to call it - It’s everywhere!
And in our fast-paced, jam-packed society it seems to be hitting more and more people of all ages.
The way we deal with stress is as different for each of us as the things that cause us to worry or have stress.
Some people drink to deal with it. 72% of high schoolers in a recent anonymous poll said they drink alcohol – mainly at parties - to relax and deal with stress.
Some people exercise. This is one of the best ways to deal with it, because experts agree that exercise is one of the best remedies for stress.
Some people’s response to stress is to run from it.
Earlier this month, a woman named Jennifer Wilbanks made national headlines, because she went missing days before her wedding.
And in our fast-paced, jam-packed society it seems to be hitting more and more people of all ages.
The way we deal with stress is as different for each of us as the things that cause us to worry or have stress.
Some people drink to deal with it. 72% of high schoolers in a recent anonymous poll said they drink alcohol – mainly at parties - to relax and deal with stress.
Some people exercise. This is one of the best ways to deal with it, because experts agree that exercise is one of the best remedies for stress.
Some people’s response to stress is to run from it.
Earlier this month, a woman named Jennifer Wilbanks made national headlines, because she went missing days before her wedding.
Her fiancé called police and they began a Manhunt looking for her. She later called the police and said she was kidnapped, but had been released because of all the news coverage. Finally when they went to meet with her she admitted that she got cold feet and couldn’t handle the stress of her upcoming 600 person wedding, so she ran.
Some of the ways we deal with worry and stress are healthy and some are unhealthy. In fact, some of the ways people deal with their stress just add more stress to their lives!
I want to take an honest look at worry and stress today. We’re going to look at "How Jesus Taught Us To Handle Stress." We'll look at:
- Where it comes from
- How to avoid it
- What it does to us
- What’s the right way to handle it
Turn with me in your Bibles to Matt 6:19-34.
As you turn there let me remind you of something.
The subheadings, chapters and verse numbers in our Bibles were all added later to help people to use the Bible more easily.
We’re about to look at a well-known passage in the Bible. But, instead of starting at verse 25 - where a lot of people start teaching on this and where the subheading in some translations are - we’re going to start with verse 19.
Why?
I’ll show you. Look at verse 25. What’s it start with? “Therefore” or “So.”
That means it’s referring to the verses before it. If you look at the verses before it you will finally realize this whole discussion starts in verse 19 and that’s where we’re going to start!
One more thing before we see what Jesus says…
Many of the reasons WHY we worry, or experience stress from come from our own bad choices!
There are many days where we waste our time on things we don’t need to do and then we end up worrying or getting stressed out, because we don’t have time to do what we need to do.
There are many days where we waste our money on things we don’t need and then we end up worrying or being stressed out, because we don’t have money for what we need.
There are many times where we neglect or waste the relationships we have until one day we lose them.
I’m not trying to make us feel bad today.
I just want us to be honest with ourselves. I know that a lot of the stress that I deal with is from my own bad choices!
The truth is this…
*If we’re going to be able to keep from being worried and stressed, then we have to learn how to make better choices.
How To Prevent Worry And Stress
In this first section of verses we’re about to read, Jesus shows us what causes stress and how to make our lives more worry-resistant or stress-resistant.
Let’s look at just the first two verses: Matt. 6:19-20…
Hear the message below:
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Discovering Your Potential
(This was spoken on April 3, 2005. )
Potential. It’s something that’s really hard to see.
You can guess about it, but you’re not always right. Would you guess that these people would be a success?
(Show Microsoft 1978 picture. )
And, you know what? The hardest place to see potential is in yourself. It’s hard to see your own potential.
Today, I want to take a look at our potential as a group of friends trying to be the church and also look at our potential as individuals.
You might be thinking…
How are we going to see our potential today if it’s so hard to see it in ourselves?
Here’s the trick.
The best place to look for your potential is not in you. The best place to see your potential is in God.
That’s because your ultimate potential comes from him, not from yourself!
2 Cor. 1:20 says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ.”
I want to start by looking at a person who found his potential, not in himself, but in God.
Hear the message below:
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Potential. It’s something that’s really hard to see.
You can guess about it, but you’re not always right. Would you guess that these people would be a success?
(Show Microsoft 1978 picture. )
And, you know what? The hardest place to see potential is in yourself. It’s hard to see your own potential.
Today, I want to take a look at our potential as a group of friends trying to be the church and also look at our potential as individuals.
You might be thinking…
How are we going to see our potential today if it’s so hard to see it in ourselves?
Here’s the trick.
The best place to look for your potential is not in you. The best place to see your potential is in God.
That’s because your ultimate potential comes from him, not from yourself!
2 Cor. 1:20 says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ.”
I want to start by looking at a person who found his potential, not in himself, but in God.
Hear the message below:
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Tuesday, March 29, 2005
The Solution To Our Three Greatest Problems
(This was spoken on March 27, 2005. )
As you just saw on the video many people don’t realize the importance of Easter.
They think it just has to do with Easter bunnies, eggs and candy. I loved all those things when I was a kid and don’t have anything against them now.
But today the significance of what we celebrate today is so much more than that.
Easter is the day that we remember and celebrate the culmination of the greatest events in history.
It’s the final thing that God did to solve our 3 Greatest problems.
I’ve been watching my two sons Will and Jack recently and I’ve realized how so many times they don’t realize what they really need, how to fulfill their needs in the best way or even which are the most important needs.
When they’re hungry they know they have a need, but they don’t realize that eating only sweets or candy will make them sick.
A couple months ago Jack ran outside and he was only in his underwear. I guess he thought being outside was a more important need than being dressed!
They know they need to be safe, but they don’t really know when they’re in danger.
The other day Jack somehow got into his medicine and took some of it. I had to remind him Jack you don’t ever take this unless Mommy gives it to you! OK? And I moved into a new spot that’s even higher out of his reach.
Most of us adults are the same. A lot of times we don’t know what we really need or how to fulfill those needs, or which ones are our most important needs.
We have so many needs calling out to us in our minds, that most of the time the most important ones get drowned out my the others.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow theorized that we are motivated to satisfy 4 categories of needs. He called this a hierarchy of needs. He said you don’t focus on the need of one level until the needs below it are satisfied.
Example:
If you haven’t eaten in 24 hours, then your main motivation would be physiological. Once your physiological needs are met you’ve quieted those needs enough to focus on the next level where you’re still unfulfilled. You’ll want to do whatever you can to feel safe and secure. Once you feel these needs are basically met you then seek affection and a sense of belonging. As each step is fulfilled it doesn’t motivate you anymore.
Here are the needs Maslow listed from the first (lowest) needs to our last (highest): (Remember: The first need needs to be fulfilled - at least temporarily - before we pay attention to the next.)
Physiological Needs
Food, Water, Air, Rest, etc.
Safety Needs
Safety, Stability, Protection, freedom from fear and anxiety
Belonging Needs
Affectionate relationships, friends, a sweetheart, kids, and belonging
Esteem Needs
External: respect, fame, glory self-respect
Self – Actualization
Higher meaning in life - Philosophy & Religion
*The danger for us is that we could live our whole lives not realizing our real needs – never focusing on our most important needs. We live a really unsatisfying life.
In Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Illych” Ivan Illych says, "What if my whole life has been wrong?"
If we don’t come to realize what our greatest needs are, then the same that happened to Ivan Illych can happen to us.
I want you to imagine something with me…
You’re standing in the middle of a village.
As you look around you begin to notice how poor and run down a place it is. The houses and buildings are shacks made from random things.
You look closer at the people and they are dirty and dressed in rags. They all seem to be covered with scabs and to really be malnourished and sick. You watch them as they buy and trade different pieces of garbage that they’re treating like treasures.
The thought that’s running through your mind is how sad a place this is.
All of a sudden you hear a familiar voice behind you. You swing around to see who it is and you’re shocked by what you see.
There standing in a crowd behind you dressed in rags, dirty and covered with scabs is someone you recognize. It’s you!
You’re standing there clutching to a piece of garbage talking a group of friends in your same condition that you also recognize from work.
You’re standing there confused when all of a sudden your view of the whole scene changes. Your view scene begins rise above the crowd slowly and you see that this isn’t just a village your seeing but it’s a city, as your view raises higher and higher you realize it’s not just a city it’s a whole state, it’s the whole country it’s the whole world.
Your staring and realizing that the whole planet is in this condition when suddenly your view of the scene begins to lower again.
As you get closer and closer you notice that everything seems back to normal again. You’re finally back standing in that village again, but you now see that it’s just your neighborhood and everything is normal again.
At that moment you wake up and instantly sit up in your bed. It suddenly hits you and your realize what you’ve just seen.
You just saw the spiritual reality of the world.
You get up and try to go through your normal day, but everywhere you go and everyone you see reminds you of that poor, sad village you saw.
Today, I want to show you three of the greatest problems that we have. These are three of our biggest problems, because they each have a severe affect on us and there’s nothing we or person else can do to solve them.
After we look at these problems I want to show you how Easter is God’s solution to these three problems.
Hear the message below:
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As you just saw on the video many people don’t realize the importance of Easter.
They think it just has to do with Easter bunnies, eggs and candy. I loved all those things when I was a kid and don’t have anything against them now.
But today the significance of what we celebrate today is so much more than that.
Easter is the day that we remember and celebrate the culmination of the greatest events in history.
It’s the final thing that God did to solve our 3 Greatest problems.
I’ve been watching my two sons Will and Jack recently and I’ve realized how so many times they don’t realize what they really need, how to fulfill their needs in the best way or even which are the most important needs.
When they’re hungry they know they have a need, but they don’t realize that eating only sweets or candy will make them sick.
A couple months ago Jack ran outside and he was only in his underwear. I guess he thought being outside was a more important need than being dressed!
They know they need to be safe, but they don’t really know when they’re in danger.
The other day Jack somehow got into his medicine and took some of it. I had to remind him Jack you don’t ever take this unless Mommy gives it to you! OK? And I moved into a new spot that’s even higher out of his reach.
Most of us adults are the same. A lot of times we don’t know what we really need or how to fulfill those needs, or which ones are our most important needs.
We have so many needs calling out to us in our minds, that most of the time the most important ones get drowned out my the others.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow theorized that we are motivated to satisfy 4 categories of needs. He called this a hierarchy of needs. He said you don’t focus on the need of one level until the needs below it are satisfied.
Example:
If you haven’t eaten in 24 hours, then your main motivation would be physiological. Once your physiological needs are met you’ve quieted those needs enough to focus on the next level where you’re still unfulfilled. You’ll want to do whatever you can to feel safe and secure. Once you feel these needs are basically met you then seek affection and a sense of belonging. As each step is fulfilled it doesn’t motivate you anymore.
Here are the needs Maslow listed from the first (lowest) needs to our last (highest): (Remember: The first need needs to be fulfilled - at least temporarily - before we pay attention to the next.)
Physiological Needs
Food, Water, Air, Rest, etc.
Safety Needs
Safety, Stability, Protection, freedom from fear and anxiety
Belonging Needs
Affectionate relationships, friends, a sweetheart, kids, and belonging
Esteem Needs
External: respect, fame, glory self-respect
Self – Actualization
Higher meaning in life - Philosophy & Religion
*The danger for us is that we could live our whole lives not realizing our real needs – never focusing on our most important needs. We live a really unsatisfying life.
In Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Illych” Ivan Illych says, "What if my whole life has been wrong?"
If we don’t come to realize what our greatest needs are, then the same that happened to Ivan Illych can happen to us.
I want you to imagine something with me…
You’re standing in the middle of a village.
As you look around you begin to notice how poor and run down a place it is. The houses and buildings are shacks made from random things.
You look closer at the people and they are dirty and dressed in rags. They all seem to be covered with scabs and to really be malnourished and sick. You watch them as they buy and trade different pieces of garbage that they’re treating like treasures.
The thought that’s running through your mind is how sad a place this is.
All of a sudden you hear a familiar voice behind you. You swing around to see who it is and you’re shocked by what you see.
There standing in a crowd behind you dressed in rags, dirty and covered with scabs is someone you recognize. It’s you!
You’re standing there clutching to a piece of garbage talking a group of friends in your same condition that you also recognize from work.
You’re standing there confused when all of a sudden your view of the whole scene changes. Your view scene begins rise above the crowd slowly and you see that this isn’t just a village your seeing but it’s a city, as your view raises higher and higher you realize it’s not just a city it’s a whole state, it’s the whole country it’s the whole world.
Your staring and realizing that the whole planet is in this condition when suddenly your view of the scene begins to lower again.
As you get closer and closer you notice that everything seems back to normal again. You’re finally back standing in that village again, but you now see that it’s just your neighborhood and everything is normal again.
At that moment you wake up and instantly sit up in your bed. It suddenly hits you and your realize what you’ve just seen.
You just saw the spiritual reality of the world.
You get up and try to go through your normal day, but everywhere you go and everyone you see reminds you of that poor, sad village you saw.
Today, I want to show you three of the greatest problems that we have. These are three of our biggest problems, because they each have a severe affect on us and there’s nothing we or person else can do to solve them.
After we look at these problems I want to show you how Easter is God’s solution to these three problems.
Hear the message below:
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Tuesday, March 22, 2005
The Missing Ingredient To Success In Life
(This was spoken on March 20 , 2005. )
Today, I want to talk to you about something that's missing in a lot of our lives.
This missing ingredient is the thing, that if we would add it to our lives it, it would have a powerful effect on us.
I want to talk to you today about a simple idea.
A simple idea that chould help you grow to the next level in your life. A simple idea that could help you to experience new things and see results like you never have before!
But first, I want to talk to you about a strange phenomenon that happens with caged canaries.
I know it sounds strange but you'll see how this fits in a minute.
If you have 100 canaries that have been raised from an egg and spend their whole lives in a cage, then what do you think will happen if you left the door to their cage open one day?
You're going to be surprised at what happens...
You'd think 100 canaries are going bust out the door? Right? Sorry try again... :)
Get this... 60% of the birds won't even notice! 60 out of 100 birds won't even notice that the door to freedom is right in front of them!
They're too caught up with their little busy canary lives, going from the perch to the food, to the water... Can you believe it? Well, ok. We still have the other 40 canaries right? They're going to head for the door right?
Nope! 20% of the birds will notice the door is open (good job guys -- that's better than the other 60!), but when they do notice it's open they have thoughts like this...
"Hey wait a minute! There's a hole where the cage is supposed to be!!! Something's wrong with our cage! Get back everyone!"
And 20 birds will fly as far away from the door as they can! 20 birds will run from their chance at freedom!
Things seem a little hopeless for our little friends here doesn't it? Well we've still got 20 more birds that can make us proud.
Let's see what happens...
What do the last 20 canaries do? The last 20 canaries notice the door is open and become curious. But only a FEW of them will be brave enough to take a step onto the ledge and peek out at what life behind the bars looks like.
And only an even smaller amount of the brave ones that peek out the door -- will be actually brave enough to take a leap out into freedom!
Why am I telling you a story about canaries?
We think, "Stupid birds!" But you know what? A lot of us are like these canaries.
The door to the cage we've been trapped in all our lives has been left open. We have a chance to live a better life - a better life than we could ever hope for. Jesus died to set us free, but we stay trapped in a lot of ways, instead of being free. Why? Because a lot of the time we never take action on the truth that we know! Many of us here HAVE taken action SOME action.
We’ve asked Jesus into our lives, we come to Sunday gatherings... But if we were honest with ourselves, how much of the truth that have read in the Bible, heard in Ben’s messages, have you really applied IN our lives?
A lot of us have heard read passages in the Bible containing powerful success secrets. We've heard life-changing truth straight from the "experts" themselves, but we a lot of the times we don't see much change in our life.
Again, why? It's because we haven't taken action and applied the truth in our lives!
*Action or application -- whatever you want to call it -- is the missing ingredient in many our lives! *
We don't need more knowledge. We need more ACTION. We need more APPLICATION.
If we had more action -- more application of the truth-- our lives could be changed powerfully forever!
You might not believe this, but a lot of you ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW to see massive results happen in your life. You just need to start doing what you know! :)
That’s what Jesus was talking about. Turn with me to Matt. 7:24-27
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Today, I want to talk to you about something that's missing in a lot of our lives.
This missing ingredient is the thing, that if we would add it to our lives it, it would have a powerful effect on us.
I want to talk to you today about a simple idea.
A simple idea that chould help you grow to the next level in your life. A simple idea that could help you to experience new things and see results like you never have before!
But first, I want to talk to you about a strange phenomenon that happens with caged canaries.
I know it sounds strange but you'll see how this fits in a minute.
If you have 100 canaries that have been raised from an egg and spend their whole lives in a cage, then what do you think will happen if you left the door to their cage open one day?
You're going to be surprised at what happens...
You'd think 100 canaries are going bust out the door? Right? Sorry try again... :)
Get this... 60% of the birds won't even notice! 60 out of 100 birds won't even notice that the door to freedom is right in front of them!
They're too caught up with their little busy canary lives, going from the perch to the food, to the water... Can you believe it? Well, ok. We still have the other 40 canaries right? They're going to head for the door right?
Nope! 20% of the birds will notice the door is open (good job guys -- that's better than the other 60!), but when they do notice it's open they have thoughts like this...
"Hey wait a minute! There's a hole where the cage is supposed to be!!! Something's wrong with our cage! Get back everyone!"
And 20 birds will fly as far away from the door as they can! 20 birds will run from their chance at freedom!
Things seem a little hopeless for our little friends here doesn't it? Well we've still got 20 more birds that can make us proud.
Let's see what happens...
What do the last 20 canaries do? The last 20 canaries notice the door is open and become curious. But only a FEW of them will be brave enough to take a step onto the ledge and peek out at what life behind the bars looks like.
And only an even smaller amount of the brave ones that peek out the door -- will be actually brave enough to take a leap out into freedom!
Why am I telling you a story about canaries?
We think, "Stupid birds!" But you know what? A lot of us are like these canaries.
The door to the cage we've been trapped in all our lives has been left open. We have a chance to live a better life - a better life than we could ever hope for. Jesus died to set us free, but we stay trapped in a lot of ways, instead of being free. Why? Because a lot of the time we never take action on the truth that we know! Many of us here HAVE taken action SOME action.
We’ve asked Jesus into our lives, we come to Sunday gatherings... But if we were honest with ourselves, how much of the truth that have read in the Bible, heard in Ben’s messages, have you really applied IN our lives?
A lot of us have heard read passages in the Bible containing powerful success secrets. We've heard life-changing truth straight from the "experts" themselves, but we a lot of the times we don't see much change in our life.
Again, why? It's because we haven't taken action and applied the truth in our lives!
*Action or application -- whatever you want to call it -- is the missing ingredient in many our lives! *
We don't need more knowledge. We need more ACTION. We need more APPLICATION.
If we had more action -- more application of the truth-- our lives could be changed powerfully forever!
You might not believe this, but a lot of you ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW to see massive results happen in your life. You just need to start doing what you know! :)
That’s what Jesus was talking about. Turn with me to Matt. 7:24-27
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Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Our Secret Weapon
(This was spoken on February 27, 2005 6th message. Note: There is no audio for this message. )
As a kid I thought James Bond was cool, because of his crazy secret weapons. Weapons like these:
-Blue X-Ray Glasses: (The World Is Not Enough, 1999) 007 picks up this pair of blue sunglasses when he’s in Q's lab. They’re both stylish and functional and their X-ray ability allows Bond to wander though a casino viewing concealed weapons.
-Rolex Plus: This wasn’t an ordinary Rolex. It turned into a spinning blade that could cut through rope, a magnet, and even created a shield around 007 that could deflect the path of a bullet.
-Bond's Skipole Gun: While escaping from his attackers, Bond turns around and fires his ski pole, which doubles as a flare gun.
-Ring Camera: At Zorin's estate, Bond uses this small camera to photograph different people.
-Branch Keychain: This key chain had lock-picks that could open 90 percent of the world's locks. Plus, it had stun gas and an explosive. All three of these features were eventually used.
Explosive Pen: The now-famous exploding pen that armed up after three clicks. Boris loved this pen; until it blew up.
----------
As Christians, God has given us certain things to help us make it and survive in this world. One of the things that He’s given us is like a secret weapon.
It’s like a secret weapon, because it doesn’t look like a weapon, it doesn’t seem to be that powerful, but it’s one of the most powerful forces that God has given us to use!
You’ve heard of it before, but I bet you never realized how powerful a weapon it is.
Want to know what your secret weapon is? LOVE!
When we usually think of love we think of soft, mushy, gushy kind of feelings. That’s NOT the kind of love I’m talking about today.
The kind of love I’m talking about is a rare kind of love. It’s the kind of love that God has. It’s the kind of love that you can’t get from anywhere else, except from God!
This love is a powerful, not weak.
So when I say the word “love” today that’s what I’m talking about.
Some of you probably think I’m exaggerating when I say love is a powerful, but I’m not.
Love literally is the most powerful weapon that we have!
Think about this…
As a kid I thought James Bond was cool, because of his crazy secret weapons. Weapons like these:
-Blue X-Ray Glasses: (The World Is Not Enough, 1999) 007 picks up this pair of blue sunglasses when he’s in Q's lab. They’re both stylish and functional and their X-ray ability allows Bond to wander though a casino viewing concealed weapons.
-Rolex Plus: This wasn’t an ordinary Rolex. It turned into a spinning blade that could cut through rope, a magnet, and even created a shield around 007 that could deflect the path of a bullet.
-Bond's Skipole Gun: While escaping from his attackers, Bond turns around and fires his ski pole, which doubles as a flare gun.
-Ring Camera: At Zorin's estate, Bond uses this small camera to photograph different people.
-Branch Keychain: This key chain had lock-picks that could open 90 percent of the world's locks. Plus, it had stun gas and an explosive. All three of these features were eventually used.
Explosive Pen: The now-famous exploding pen that armed up after three clicks. Boris loved this pen; until it blew up.
----------
As Christians, God has given us certain things to help us make it and survive in this world. One of the things that He’s given us is like a secret weapon.
It’s like a secret weapon, because it doesn’t look like a weapon, it doesn’t seem to be that powerful, but it’s one of the most powerful forces that God has given us to use!
You’ve heard of it before, but I bet you never realized how powerful a weapon it is.
Want to know what your secret weapon is? LOVE!
When we usually think of love we think of soft, mushy, gushy kind of feelings. That’s NOT the kind of love I’m talking about today.
The kind of love I’m talking about is a rare kind of love. It’s the kind of love that God has. It’s the kind of love that you can’t get from anywhere else, except from God!
This love is a powerful, not weak.
So when I say the word “love” today that’s what I’m talking about.
Some of you probably think I’m exaggerating when I say love is a powerful, but I’m not.
Love literally is the most powerful weapon that we have!
Think about this…
- Anger can make a friend become an enemy, but only love can make an enemy become your friend!
- Jealously can separate, but only love can bring together or unite two people.
- Hatred can hurt, but love can heal/help someone.
- Bitterness wants to expose people’s sins, but love wants to cover them.
All of these other emotions are so inferior and powerless compared to love!
Love is so powerful it can actually…
Destroy anger and erase hate. Romans 12:20 says “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Example: It's hard to stay mad at your parents. Their loves diffuses your anger!
Dissolves fear. 1 John 4:18 says “Perfect love drives out fear.” Example: I remember being afraid at night until one of my parents came in the room.
Heals hurts. Example: When you're a little kid you can get hurt and think you're going to die, until Mom gives you attention. Suddenly, by a miralce :) you're better!
In an old video game we used to play when I was a kid, they had what was called a smart bomb. If you hit the smart bomb at any time it would destroy everything on the screen that was trying to get you.
Love is like our smart bomb. It can defeat anything, be used at any time and it always works. You can never use it too much!
1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 13
1 If I speak in the tongues F32 of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, F33 but have not love, I gain nothing...
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
Love is powerful. It is the greatest power we’ve been given.
Today, I want to show you some things to help you understand this kind of love I’m talking about, so that you can see how important it is and be able to use it more in your life.
Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 John 4:7-12
One of the biggest reasons that we don’t use love in our lives the way God wants us to is because we don’t really know what love is.
- In a movie we see two people meet each other for the first time, not even know each other’s names, and then have sex. We’re told that’s love. It’s not it’s lust.
- We see a woman on a talk show that’s been abused by her spouse, totally mistreated, but she won’t leave him. People in the audience will be “dump him!” but she will just say “I can’t because I love him!” That’s not love. That’s co-dependency!
- We see a guy who won’t leave his ex alone. He won’t get on with his life, because he says “I love her!” That’s not love, that obsession – fatal attraction!
For many of us, our own experience with so called love hasn’t helped much…
- We’ve had people tell us that they love us and then later reject us.
- We’ve had people tell us that they love us and then abandon us.
- We’ve had people tell us that they love us and then cheat on us.
No wonder we don’t know what real love is! All we see is fake, weak, wanna-be imitations!
I have a friend who, when she was young had her uncle and cousin pull a prank on her. They taught her to count to 10 wrong!
They rearranged the encyclopedia's in this order:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 8, 10
They told her this was the correct way. When she went to school and they taught her how to count she got into an argument with her teacher about it. She didn't believe her teacher!
Unless we know what the real thing is, it’s easy to be fooled! If we don’t know real love, then we’ll never be able to show it to others!
So, how can we know what this kind of love is like?
Look at V. 9
We don’t really know what life can be like until we ask Jesus into our lives. We live a different quality of life in Jesus, than we do without him.
Do you want to see real love? This is it! Look at V. 10
4 Different words to describe love in the ancient greek language:
Eros – We get our English word erotic from this word. It describes intense or passionate love, highly sensual and even intoxicating. It describes strong desires ranging from patriotism to sexual love.
Storgeo – This word describes natural love, family love, love which is native or inherent in people. This especially describes the kind of love between a parent and a child. It describes sympathy or closeness because of some kind of bond.
Phileo - This word describes love of personal affection, fondness for something, often the love of friends. This kind of love is based on the loveliness or attractiveness of a person or object. We love like this because we find qualities in a person that appeal to us, give us warm and personal fondness for a person. This is what we’re usually talking about when we talk about love.
Agape – This love comes from the person giving it. It is based on choosing to love someone. Example: God placed such a value on us so that even though we deserved rejection and punishment because of our sin against him, he chose to love us and send Jesus to die for us and save us. This love loves someone because they need it, not because they deserve it!
Think of this as Extreme love.
This is a love you can only understand from experience! You can only begin to understand it, when you realize what God has done for you!
So how are we going to possess and express this kind of love?
This kind of love can never start in our hearts. It can only come from God through us!
Look at verses 7-8
Winter Retreat Story
When I was a youth pastor we let this guy come with us on our Winter Retreat who we barely knew. All we knew was that he had threatened a teacher.
Somehow we decided it would be no problem to come with us. :)
When we got to our retreat place the students started a snowball fight. This new student got hit in the face with one that had been packed too hard and it really hurt him.
He got in the face of the student who threw it and they were about to fight. I had to get in the middle and stop it. I thought me and him were about to fight!
The new student got so mad that he got hit and that I wouldn't let him hit the other student that he said he was leaving - and started to walk home. Me and Ben (the other youth pastor) ended up talking to this guy on the side of the road for about half an hour.
We were trying to convince him to stay. Finally, I went in to the cabin and gathered the youth group.
I told them that we could just stay mad at this guy and hate him, which was easy. OR, we could ask God to help us to love him and CHOOSE to love him even though we didn't want to.
Somehow everyone agreed to try and love him! :)
We could never love this guy on our own. It wasn’t possible. We had to ask God to help us. And he did. As we made the choice to love him no matter what, God helped us to do it.
The change in him and in us was amazing! On Saturday night (the incident was on Friday), at the end of our altar time, this new student stood up and apologized to all of us!
The crazy thing is that we ended up really loving him, once we decided to let God help us.
I actually do love the guy still now. I care about him. He still calls me every once in awhile and I actually like hearing from him and talking to him.
And it was all because we chose extreme love, love that loves someone because they NEED it, not because they deserve it.
You know why should love people like this?
We owe it to God and other people to love them -- especially when they don’t deserve it -- because God loved us this way.
Look at verse 11
The word translated “ought” here means “owe” to be indebted to someone.
Matt. 5:43-47
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor F27 and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies F28 and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"
Buzz Lightyear
My son, Will, loves this toy. (Push button to make him talk.) He plays with him all the time, he talks about him all the time and he wants to watch he movie everyday, over and over. Will even sleeps with this thing like it was a stuffed animal. He’s got 3 of them!
Do I love this toy? No. But I love Will. Because of that, I’ve wiped chocolate from Buzz'sface, I’ve made him fly in the air, I’ve searched around the house for him, all because Will loves him. I show the toy love because of Will.
On Friday, Will was handing me all 3 of his Buzz Lightyears and I jokingly threw them on the ground and said “No Buzz!” You know what happened?
Will started balling not just tears of sadness, but anger and pain. I actually hurt his feelings when I hurt what he cared about. I ended up telling Will that I was sorry and showed him that I love Buzz by giving him a hug.
We should show love to others if for no reason except for the fact that God loves them. When we show them love God is happy. When we hurt them God is hurt.
Look at verses 19-21.
We owe it God. He’s loved us not cause we deserved it, but because we needed it.
Now all he asks is for us to love others in the same way.
Not with the fake, imitation love that we see all around us, but with the rare, powerful kind of love that he has shown us.
Verse 12
When we love like God does, then people will see God in us and be drawn to us and ultimately.
This concept of the power of love has actually been written about in some recent secular books: “The Radical Leap” by Steve Farber and “Love Is The Killer App” by Tim Sanders
Tim Sander Definition of love in business…
“.. a manager of people, an owner of a business, or a colleague should take to heart that when we get up and go to work, no matter what we do, we're supposed to grow other people without expectations. That's love in business.”
Tim Sanders describes a certain kind of person he calls a Lovecat. This is what he says…
"A lovecat is a person, to me, that is committed to growth; the only rational thing they do is grow people. And they do it by sharing really value-added knowledge. They do it by giving away their network, a person, a relationship where it makes sense. And they do it by learning how to sense and respond to people that need their compassion. And they commit themselves to that. It's a lifestyle.
"The lovecat reads books X amount of hours a week. A lovecat spends X amount of time organizing a personal network, and going through different rituals to try to connect people. And a lovecat's always got the radar on for an opportunity to show love. It's a lifestyle."
Tim says we should give away… "sensibly sharing your intangibles - your knowledge, your network, your compassion."
In an interview, Steve Farber said this…
“business and leadership is really all about love.”
In his book he uses the acronym L.E.A.P. It stands for Love, Energy, Audacity and Proof.
He explains it through one of his characters like this…
“The Extreme Leader consciously and intentionally cultivates love in order to generate energy and inspire courageous audacity. And he or she must provide proof that it’s all been worthwhile; proof through the alignment between word and action; proof through standing up for what’s right; proof through measurable, tangible signs of progress; and proof through the experience of phenomenal success as well as glorious failure.”
He encourages people to fall in love again with what they do for a living, fall in love with the people they work with and fall in love with their customers.
Remember V. 7-8
“Whoever does not love, doesn’t know God, because He is love.”
We have to start loving the people that God brings along our path. We can do it. He’s shown us how and given us the ability if we let Him love others through us!
My challenge to you this week is this: Use Extreme love! Use it in 3 ways…
1. Pick 2 people that you know and choose to show them love this week in word and in action. Think about what they really need and give it to them. Share your knowledge, your encouragement and your friends with them. Don’t tell them that you’ve chosen them just do it. See what happens in them and in you.
2. Show love in words and in action to whoever crosses your path. Whenever you see anyone this week look for what’s loveable in them and help them feel your love towards them.
3. Pick one person you have a hard problem even liking. Choose to show them love in the way you talk and act towards them this week. Again, look for loveable things in them.
If you do even one of these things this week, I can almost guarantee this will happen:
You will feel different and so will the people you’re loving. You’ll feel better and so will they!
If you make this into a habit – a way of living, by continually saying “yes” to this way of living, then you will become more likeable than ever before, you’re become more influential, and you’ll be happier.
The best thing is that you’ll be more like your Father in heaven and you’ll be making the lives of the people around you better!
Start using you secret weapon and you will change yourself and change your world!
-----End of message----
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Tuesday, February 22, 2005
The Power Of Yes and No
There is a power that God has given us that will determine what kind of life we have.
This power will determine your relationship with God and your relationship with others. It will decide what things you have in life and what things you experience in life – whether good or bad.
What is this power? It’s the power of Yes and No.
When God created us he created us with the ability to choose. We have free choice. He gave us free choice, because he wanted real love and real love doesn’t exist where there’s no freedom.
We have free choice in the smallest decisions like what to eat or wear and we have it in the largest decisions like whether we will choose Jesus or reject Him.
*What we say “Yes” to and “No” to will give us the life that we have now and in eternity.
That makes it sound easy. Just say “Yes” to the good things and “No” to the bad things. Right?
Here’s our problem….
It’s easier to say “Yes” to the things that are bad for us, than it is to say “Yes” to the things that are good for us.
EXAMPLE:
It’s easy to say yes to eating junk food and it’s hard to say yes to eating healthier food. No one ever says, “Man! I just ended up eating way to much healthy food today. I gotta start eating some snacks!
But our problem is deeper than that...
It’s harder to say “No” to the things that we SHOULD say “No” to, than for us to say “No” to the things that we shouldn’t say “No” to.
EXAMPLE:
It’s harder to say No to temptation, than it is to say No to reading our Bible. No one says, “Man I’ve just been finding too much time to spend with God. I really have to find some time to just relax and watch TV or listen to music.
Because these two facts are true, this is what ends up happening…
We end up saying “Yes” to what we should say “No” to and “No” to what we should say “Yes” to!
Turn with me in your Bibles to Matt. 7:13-14
Jesus talks about the gate that is wide and the road that is broad. It says they lead to destruction. This is the easy way that many choose. It’s the popular way to go.
Then he says there is another gate that is small and the road that is narrow, but it leads to life and this is the way that only a few find -- a few choose. This is the hard way – the unpopular way.
The thing that I recently realized is that these gates and roads aren’t traveled on by “footsteps”, but by “mindsteps” – choices.
The choices we make put us on either of these roads in life.
The things that are easy to say “yes” to and easy to say “no” to are many times the things that will put us on the broad road headed through the wide gate towards destruction.
The things that are hard to say “yes” to and easy to hard “no” to are many times the things that will put us on the narrow road headed through the small gate towards life.
Ed Hillenbrand said this...
"It's not a matter of can or cannot, it's a matter of will or will not, everything is a choice, choose wisely."
H.E. Fosdeck said...
"He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end. "
And finally, Kahlil Gibran said it this way...
"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them."
Where are the steps you’re making, in your mind, leading you right now in your life? Which road are you on?
Here’s something else I thought about these two roads and the way we make choices in life…
People run from pain and they run towards pleasure. 99.9% of our choices are based on this fact.
We usually choose the things that we think will give us pleasure or protect us from pain. It’s like a natural survival mechanism.
But the problem is this…
This way of choosing is ultimately wrong! Why?
Many times the things that give us short term pleasure will ultimately lead to long term pain.
Many times the things that give us short term pain will ultimately lead to long term pleasure.
*That means that most of the time when we’re running towards pleasure and away from pain we’re running the wrong way!
Think about it…
This power will determine your relationship with God and your relationship with others. It will decide what things you have in life and what things you experience in life – whether good or bad.
What is this power? It’s the power of Yes and No.
When God created us he created us with the ability to choose. We have free choice. He gave us free choice, because he wanted real love and real love doesn’t exist where there’s no freedom.
We have free choice in the smallest decisions like what to eat or wear and we have it in the largest decisions like whether we will choose Jesus or reject Him.
*What we say “Yes” to and “No” to will give us the life that we have now and in eternity.
That makes it sound easy. Just say “Yes” to the good things and “No” to the bad things. Right?
Here’s our problem….
It’s easier to say “Yes” to the things that are bad for us, than it is to say “Yes” to the things that are good for us.
EXAMPLE:
It’s easy to say yes to eating junk food and it’s hard to say yes to eating healthier food. No one ever says, “Man! I just ended up eating way to much healthy food today. I gotta start eating some snacks!
But our problem is deeper than that...
It’s harder to say “No” to the things that we SHOULD say “No” to, than for us to say “No” to the things that we shouldn’t say “No” to.
EXAMPLE:
It’s harder to say No to temptation, than it is to say No to reading our Bible. No one says, “Man I’ve just been finding too much time to spend with God. I really have to find some time to just relax and watch TV or listen to music.
Because these two facts are true, this is what ends up happening…
We end up saying “Yes” to what we should say “No” to and “No” to what we should say “Yes” to!
Turn with me in your Bibles to Matt. 7:13-14
Jesus talks about the gate that is wide and the road that is broad. It says they lead to destruction. This is the easy way that many choose. It’s the popular way to go.
Then he says there is another gate that is small and the road that is narrow, but it leads to life and this is the way that only a few find -- a few choose. This is the hard way – the unpopular way.
The thing that I recently realized is that these gates and roads aren’t traveled on by “footsteps”, but by “mindsteps” – choices.
The choices we make put us on either of these roads in life.
The things that are easy to say “yes” to and easy to say “no” to are many times the things that will put us on the broad road headed through the wide gate towards destruction.
The things that are hard to say “yes” to and easy to hard “no” to are many times the things that will put us on the narrow road headed through the small gate towards life.
Ed Hillenbrand said this...
"It's not a matter of can or cannot, it's a matter of will or will not, everything is a choice, choose wisely."
H.E. Fosdeck said...
"He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end. "
And finally, Kahlil Gibran said it this way...
"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them."
Where are the steps you’re making, in your mind, leading you right now in your life? Which road are you on?
Here’s something else I thought about these two roads and the way we make choices in life…
People run from pain and they run towards pleasure. 99.9% of our choices are based on this fact.
We usually choose the things that we think will give us pleasure or protect us from pain. It’s like a natural survival mechanism.
But the problem is this…
This way of choosing is ultimately wrong! Why?
Many times the things that give us short term pleasure will ultimately lead to long term pain.
Many times the things that give us short term pain will ultimately lead to long term pleasure.
*That means that most of the time when we’re running towards pleasure and away from pain we’re running the wrong way!
Think about it…
- If you want to lose weight will your answer be found in temporary pain or temporary pleasure?
- Will weight loss come from eating everything you want when you desire it or from saying no to yourself and suffering a little?
- If you want to be muscular, like our governor Arnold, are you going to have to choose temporary pain or temporary pleasure?
- If you want to do well in school -- get straight A’s -- are you going to have to choose temporary pain or temporary pleasure?
You get the point. The lie out there, that we all want to be true, is that these things can come with no pain, no denial on our part! It’s just not true!
Jesus says the road that leads to life is found through gate that is small and on the road that is narrow.
It’s the hard way that’s why only a few choose or find it.
Jesus taught us this upside down way of thinking and living in Matt. 16:24-25
“24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
He says we must “deny ourselves”. That means say “No” temporarily to want we desire – to some pleasures.
He says “take up your cross” which means choosing temporary pain in exchange for eternal pleasure.
This is the secret he’s trying to teach us…
Lasting pleasure is many times hidden on the other side of temporary pain!
Do you know when a mother giraffe teaches her little giraffe babies to walk?
It is immediately after they are born. You really need to picture this…
These huge adult giraffes sometimes grow to 18 feet tall. Here she is, towering over this spindly little creature one-third her size trying its best to stand up on these skinny, wobbly legs and cannot.
Suddenly the mother backs up, comes running full speed and kicks the little giraffe and sends it flying.
The baby is sitting there dazed and confused.
Mom rares back again, lands another kick and once again junior goes flying. This can happen a number of times until this infant giraffe can get up before it's mother can knock it down!
Not exactly the kind of parent-child bonding we espouse. But, the result?
The baby giraffe learns to walk immediately.
Why does the mother do this? Because if this child does not walk, it will that day be lunch for a tiger, or dessert for a lion. The baby has to go through that pain in order to live.
Here's another story...
There’s a story of a scientist who was studying moths. And one day he was watching this one moth struggle to break out of its cocoon. After watching for awhile the scientist decided to help the poor moth.
He took some scissors and snipped the cocoon so the moth could slip out.
He thought he had just done a great thing for that moth until he looked closer and was shocked to see the moth. Where the moth’s wings were supposed to be were just curled up nubs.
The scientist then realized that by freeing this moth from temporary pain he cursed it to lasting pain. You see the pressure from the cocoon is what forces the fluid into a moth’s wings so they will expand to full size. By cutting the moth out of the cocoon stopped the process and now this moth would never fly.
- What temporary pleasure have you been saying “yes” to that is going to ultimately cause you lasting pain?
- What temporary pain do you need to run towards to prepare you to achieve that lasting happiness and pleasure God wants for you?
I’m not telling you that you can’t have any pleasure in life. Jesus said he came that we’d have life and have it to the full.
What I’m telling you is that the lasting pleasure you’re looking for is found in saying “yes” to things that might temporarily be hard and painful and no to the things that will really only satisfy for a moment.
There’s something that I’ve been learning about the power of Yes and No…
What I have today comes from the choices I made yesterday. What I will have tomorrow will come from the choices I make today.
I’ve been reading Genesis again recently.
When I got to the story of Noah this simple truth hit me: Noah had to build the Ark before the rain came! If he would have waited until the clouds started appearing or it started sprinkling, then it would have been too late!
He had to respond in the present and say “Yes” to God, so he would be prepared for what God had for him in the future. Faith requires response now to what is not yet.
The question I’m starting to ask myself is…
What can I do now to prepare for what I believe God wants to do? What can I say “Yes” to now to prepare for the future God has for me.
Habits
There’s something else about the power of “Yes” and “No” that I want to look at. It’s something that’s a relief and at the same time also warning.
Here it is…
It’s not, usually those things we say “Yes” or “No” to once that hurt or help us.
It’s the accumulation of “Yeses” or “Noes” that really matter.
THE FORMULA FOR FAILURE AND SUCCESS by Jim Rohn
(From the book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle by Jim Rohn)
Jim Rohn says this...
“Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.
"Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because he or she does not think that it matters.
"On their own, our daily acts do not seem that important. A minor oversight, a poor decision, or a wasted hour generally doesn't result in an instant and measurable impact. More often than not, we escape from any immediate consequences of our deeds…”
He goes on to say this…
“Those who eat too many of the wrong foods are contributing to a future health problem, but the joy of the moment overshadows the consequence of the future. It does not seem to matter.
"Those who smoke too much or drink too much go on making these poor choices year after year after year... because it doesn't seem to matter. But the pain and regret of these errors in judgment have only been delayed for a future time.
"Consequences are seldom instant; instead, they accumulate until the inevitable day of reckoning finally arrives and the price must be paid for our poor choices – choices that didn't seem to matter.
"Failure's most dangerous attribute is its subtlety. In the short term those little errors don't seem to make any difference. We do not seem to be failing. In fact, sometimes these accumulated errors in judgment occur throughout a period of great joy and prosperity in our lives.
"Since nothing terrible happens to us, since there are no instant consequences to capture our attention, we simply drift from one day to the next, repeating the errors, thinking the wrong thoughts, listening to the wrong voices and making the wrong choices.
"The sky did not fall in on us yesterday; therefore the act was probably harmless. Since it seemed to have no measurable consequence, it is probably safe to repeat."
Cause and Effect
Here’s our problem: We want to live life without cause and effect. We want to say “Yes” to whatever we really want and only have good results.
We want to eat anything we want to and not gain weight. We want to not work out and be in shape. We want to not study and get and still get an “A”. We want to have sex without any regrets.
But that’s not the way life works! There ARE consequences for actions.
This is the first thing we teach kids. We tell them, "If you do ____, then ____ is going to happen."
The Bible says, “You reap what you sow.”
One day on the way home from church my son Jack asked me, "How many roads are there until we get home?" (He meant how many turns were there.) I said, "I think three or four." Jack's response was, "But I want there to be TWO roads!" I said, "I'm sorry buddy, but there's going to be at least three." And he repeated, "But I want there to be TWO roads!"
Adults are the same way.
We’re not any different than Jack. We’re just taller! We say “yes” to something we shouldn’t and then something bad happens and we complain to God.
But we have to face the same reality that Jack has to face.
Jim Rohn goes on to say this about success…
“Now here is the great news. Just like the formula for failure, the formula for success is easy to follow: It's a few simple disciplines practiced every day..."
"… what if we did develop a new discipline to take just a few minutes every day to look a little further down the road? We would then be able to foresee the impending consequences of our current conduct. Armed with that valuable information, we would be able to take the necessary action to change our errors into new success-oriented disciplines.
"In other words, by disciplining ourselves to see the future in advance, we would be able to change our thinking, amend our errors and develop new habits to replace the old. "
Our yeses and noes overtime become habits. They become automatic responses.
Proverbs 5:21-23
"21 For a man's ways (habits) are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths (entrenchment, track). 22 The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. 23 He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly. "
The more I say “yes” to something the easier it becomes to say “Yes”. The more I say “No” to something the easier it becomes to say No.
The scary thing is this is true whether the thing we’re saying yes or no to is good or bad.
A Spanish proverb puts it this way...
"Habits are first cobwebs, then cables."
They start out being easy to break and as time goes on grow to almost being impossible to break!
They say that up to 90% of our normal behavior is based on habits. That means the way you dress, get ready, eat breakfast, brush your teeth, and a ton of other things are all based on habits.
I Corinthian 6:12 says...
"'Everything is permissible for me' - but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me' - but I will not be mastered by anything. We have so much freedom in Christ, but we need to make sure that we don’t use that freedom to enslave ourselves again. "
There's a story of how to break a habit…
An elderly teacher, with a pupil by his side, took a walk through a forest. Suddenly he stopped and pointed to four plants close at hand.
The first was just beginning to peep above the ground, the second had rooted itself pretty well into the earth, the third was a small shrub, while the fourth was a full-sized tree.
The tutor said to his young companion, "Pull up the first plant." The boy did so eagerly, using only his fingers.
"Now pull up the second." The youth obeyed but found the task more difficult.
"Do the same with the third," he urged. The boy had to use all his strength to uproot it.
"Now," said the instructor, "try your hand with the fourth." The pupil put his arms around the trunk of the tall tree and couldn't even shake its leaves.
"This, my son, is just what happens with our bad habits. When they are young, we can remove them readily; but when they are old, it's hard to uproot them, though we pray and struggle ever so sincerely."
--
Our yeses and noes can become habits that will either trap us or free us, so we need to be careful with what habits we’re feeding.
I know this might sound morbid, but I’ve been trying to ask myself this question…
What minor, small habit of mine will one day kill me?
Today is the day to begin breaking old habits that you’ve been saying yes to for years. It all starts with the first No.
Today is the day to start new habits that will change our life for the better. It all starts with that first yes.
The power of these two simple words “yes” and “no” to destroy our lives or bless our lives is incredible. It’s frightening!
And the scariest thing is that our yeses and noes will ultimately effect our eternity.
So what do we do?
I don’t know about you, but I know myself and I know that dumb enough, weak enough, and short sighted enough that I have the serious chance of destroying everything I have. If I don’t do something to guard my choices, then I'm in trouble.
There’s only two things we can do to help us say “Yes” to the right things and “no” to the right things.
Walk with Jesus – He will show me what to say “no” to and what to say “yes” to. Not only that, if I rely on him, then he will give me the strength to do it!
Walk with others – You need friends who will encourage you to make the right choices, help you make them, and get on you when you make the wrong ones!
The consequences of Yes and No are too large to trust our own wisdom and willpower. If we’re going to make it in life. Walking with God and others on this journey is not an option.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
The Power Of Together
(This message was spoken on Feb. 13th 2005)
If you’re like most people, you want to achieve something significant, something meaningful with your life.
You want your life to matter.
Well, I have the way for you to achieve that. It’s found in one word and the word is: Together.
This is a fact: God has created us so we can’t achieve anything significant, anything of meaning on your own.
It will only happen when you’re with someone together.
Harvey Mackay in his book “Dig Your Well Before Your Thirsty” says, “If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all truly successful people I’ve met over a lifetime, I’d say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts.”
He goes on to say...
"No matter how smart you are, no matter how talented, you can't do it alone."
Redwood trees are amazing creations.
They are the largest living things on earth and the tallest trees in the world. Some of them are 300 feet high and more than 2,500 years old.
You would think that trees that large would have a tremendous root system, reaching down hundreds of feet into the earth. But they don’t.
Redwoods actually have a very shallow root system. They're secret to being able to grow so tall and resist the winds and storms? The roots of these trees are intertwined.
They are tied in with each other; interlocked.
So when the storms come and the winds blow the redwoods still stand. Redwood trees are a physical example of "the power of together."
Many people miss out on what the church is supposed to be. And that’s my biggest fear for us! They settle for a service – a weekly event, but they never experience the real power of the church in their life.
The real power of the church is not as a place, a program or time, but it’s the church as a group of diverse friends united in love and purpose.
Today I want to show you one of the most powerful analogies that God gives us in his word for what he dreams for us to be.
When we start living out this analogy will help us to achieve things that have significance, things that are meaningful, to as we talked about last week have an influence on eternity!
Hear the message below:
Real Audio
MP3 Stream
Download
If you’re like most people, you want to achieve something significant, something meaningful with your life.
You want your life to matter.
Well, I have the way for you to achieve that. It’s found in one word and the word is: Together.
This is a fact: God has created us so we can’t achieve anything significant, anything of meaning on your own.
It will only happen when you’re with someone together.
Harvey Mackay in his book “Dig Your Well Before Your Thirsty” says, “If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all truly successful people I’ve met over a lifetime, I’d say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts.”
He goes on to say...
"No matter how smart you are, no matter how talented, you can't do it alone."
Redwood trees are amazing creations.
They are the largest living things on earth and the tallest trees in the world. Some of them are 300 feet high and more than 2,500 years old.
You would think that trees that large would have a tremendous root system, reaching down hundreds of feet into the earth. But they don’t.
Redwoods actually have a very shallow root system. They're secret to being able to grow so tall and resist the winds and storms? The roots of these trees are intertwined.
They are tied in with each other; interlocked.
So when the storms come and the winds blow the redwoods still stand. Redwood trees are a physical example of "the power of together."
Many people miss out on what the church is supposed to be. And that’s my biggest fear for us! They settle for a service – a weekly event, but they never experience the real power of the church in their life.
The real power of the church is not as a place, a program or time, but it’s the church as a group of diverse friends united in love and purpose.
Today I want to show you one of the most powerful analogies that God gives us in his word for what he dreams for us to be.
When we start living out this analogy will help us to achieve things that have significance, things that are meaningful, to as we talked about last week have an influence on eternity!
Hear the message below:
Real Audio
MP3 Stream
Download
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