Feb 29, 2012
Leap Day
Consuming Fire
(shifJV's message from last week)
Segment 1:
To me there are few things more wonderful in life than sitting in front of a roaring fire. Whether it’s in the fireplace in my home or out on a starry night while camping out, I really enjoy a fire. The warmth, the light, the dancing flames, it’s all part of an incredible experience.
Can you imagine life without fire? You may think for a moment, yes, but the reality is that it is one of the primary essentials for existence. Fire is necessary for life just like oxygen and water. If we did not have the perfect amount of warmth, half the world’s population would freeze to death. Without fire there would be no cooking (gasp), no gold or silver jewelry (double gasp), really, no hewn tools of any kind, no glass, no sunlight, no manufacturing. We’d never enjoy a s’more over a campfire or feel the warmth of the sunshine on a cool winter day.
Fire is essential for life.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12:29 that our God is a consuming fire. In the Old Testament, in the temple where God’s presence dwelt there was altar that had fire buring on it. God gave the Israelites these instructions; “Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out.”
We remember that when Jesus came He fulfilled the Old Testament and tore the veil from the Holy of Holies. Meaning that we no longer have to have a priest work on our behalf. And when Jesus went to heaven, He promised the helper, the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit we have the very presence of God in us. And it’s our job now, just like the priests in the Old Testament, to never allow the fire of God in our hearts to go out.
If you have ever tended a fire, you understand it’s tendency to go out. In order to keep it burning, you have to pay close attention to it. Add wood, push the coals together.
The same is true with us. We need to fuel our relationship with God with our bible reading and prayer and worship. Like pushing the hot coals together, we need to stay close to other Christians to stay passionate and on fire for God.
When you put a hot coal near something, what happens? It sets it on fire, right? The zeal, and the passion is contagious. God wants to use you to light the fire in others. I love what John Wesley (the founder of the Methodist church and a spirit-filled man; “God sets me on fire and men come and watch me burn.”
Just like the campfire, we need to regularly have encounters with God to keep our hearts on fire for Him.
Segment 2:
So we have a fire in our hearts. We need to keep it burning. One of the ways we do that is by throwing another log on the fire. Let me give you an example.
I have a little story for you. There was a lumberjack contest. Two lumberjacks, one from Alaska and one from Canada were participating in an all day championship competition. They both were to cut wood from 8am to 5pm. Whoever cut the most wood at the end of the day won the competition. The starting bell sounds, and they start sawing. An hour in the lumberjack from Alaska stops what he’s doing, and disappears for about ten minutes. The Canadian wonders if the Alaskan lumberjack has a nervous stomach. After ten minutes, the Alaskan returns to sawing. At 10am, the Alaskan leaves again for another ten minutes. This continues throughout the day. The Canadian is confident in his ability. By the end of the day, the Alaskan has taken 90 minutes worth of breaks. The Canadian is sure that he has won and is planning his victory speech when the bell rings to signal the end of the contest. The Canadian is just giddy as they are counting the pieces of wood, absolutely confident that he will be declared the new world champion lumberjack. He is astounded when they determine, that the Alaskan has in fact, won by a considerable amount. The Canadian is furious, demanding to know how that could be when the Alaskan was so lazy, taking a break every hour on the hour. The Alaskan replied, “I wasn’t resting on my break, I was sharpening the saw.”
This story serves to show us that we are always more effective when we’ve spent time preparing for the work before us. As Christians, we sharpen the saw by reading God’s word daily. It is crucial that you are familiar, and eventually fully knowledgeable of the Bible. You need to hide it in your heart so that you are prepared for whatever comes your way. Deuteronomy 11:18 “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds”
Reading God’s word has so many incredible benefits. One of them is that when we read the Bible, it produces humility. You get a sense of who you are in the grand scheme of things, and what you can do to honor God and serve Him within your world.
The Bible also clearly dictates right from wrong.
Deuteronomy 30:14 the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
As you spend time in the Word, you will get a clear sense of God’s leading in your life. You will know in your heart when you have sinned and fallen short, and you’ll feel the thrill of victory when succeed over temptation.
Another benefit of reading the Bible is that it empowers us to resist the devil. We’ve talked many times about how the devil is a devourer, a destroyer, a thief and a liar. Reading the Bible gives you strategies and power to overcome Him. It aligns your heart with Jesus, who has already promised us victory!
Temptation may come as a surprise, but sin is no accident. Satan is laying carefully placed traps for you. There is a way to find passage safely, but you will only find it in the Bible. It’s like a GPS. Let’s say that stands for that God’s Positioning Service. The thing is, you can have the GPS in your car but it’s no good to you if you never turn the thing on, or if you ignore it’s turn by turn directions.
Your Bible left sitting in your room is the same way. If it’s collecting dust on a shelf, one day soon you are going to find yourself somewhere you never intended to be. Just like every step in the directions to a destination is crucial for your GPS unit, so are the steps, ordered by the Lord in your Bible. The only difference is that your life destination is of far greater value than any place you might plug into your GPS.
Segment 3:
Remember our campfire example. When is a fire the hottest? When you first light it and it’s blazing and jumping with all the pretty colors?
No, it’s when the coals are stoked together. There is intensity when we burn together. There are other people in your world who know Jesus. Spend time with them. The Word tells us, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20
This is Jesus’ way of saying – the coals get hotter when you get together. Get to work. Remember our commissioning and get in there and get after it. Jesus told us that with the Holy Spirit’s empowering, we would do even greater things. Greater things than what? Healing cripples? Restoring sight? Casting out demons? Walking on water?
God has great things in store for His church. Common vision, unity and spirit-filled seeking will impact our world. And we know that affecting our world is our purpose.
Fire is contagious. A piece of burning log will set another log on fire. The truth is, on fire people set others on fire. We are to passionately engage in the work that Jesus calls us to. We know our mission, to “make disciples of all nations.” We have a clear directive.
The word tells us “The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentence.” That all would know the saving work of Jesus. That all would reach heaven.
Jesus cares about the eternity of your friends and family just as much as He cares about your eternity.
So how do we burn in a manner that sets the world on fire? James tells us “God opposes the proud but favors the humble. So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come close to God and God will come close to you.”
We talked earlier about how the Bible will humble you. It’s a good thing too, because this verse tells us that God opposes the prideful. Pride was the sin that first took Satan, and then Adam and Eve. God doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for pride.
Jesus was the perfect example of humility. We just need to follow His lead. Reading about Jesus in the Bible is the best way to follow Him. Remember, the Bible is our GPS. God’s going to use the Bible to move you step by step, turn by turn.
The next step in burning is resisting the devil. We can kick him to the curb. We can say no to temptation and sin. I understand that this is tough stuff, but again, let the Bible be your guide. Romans 8:37 tells us we are more than conquerors. Overcomers!
The final step in this verse tells us to come close to God. This verse promises us His reaction.. He will in turn, come close to us. What an awesome promise from an awesome God! Yep, the guy who hung the stars in the heavens and set the continents in place, He, wants to get close to you? It’s a pretty exciting concept.
So tonight, I’m inviting you guys to burn for Jesus. Decide that living lukewarm is not for you. Normal is not enough. Like John Wesley, you want to burn for God so that men might see. If this is your heart, remember these steps.
1) Set your heart aflame for God. Commit to relationship with Him here and now. If you already know Him, throw another log on the fire tonight. Allow Him to kindle what may have grown cold in your heart. Commit to reading your Bible, praying and worshipping Him.
2) Spend time with other believers building your faith. Remember that coals stacked together burn hotter.
3) Humble your heart. Consider Jesus your example. Use the Bible as your GPS.
4) Resist the devil and draw close to God.
If any one of these areas touched your life tonight, I want you to come forward. Altar experiences are the perfect opportunity to grow the fire in your heart.
Feb 16, 2012
Seize the Day
What is courage? ( maybe a cat with a pack of dogs, crossing a tiny rope bridge, rescuing a child from a burning building, standing up to do what is right when everyone else is doing what is wrong)
One of the most courageous people I have ever heard of is Corrie Ten Boom. She was a survivor in a Nazi concentration camp during the second world war. She was a beacon of peace and joy and light in a time that there was no peace or light or joy. She was a single woman who still lived with her father and worked in his watch shop. She helped Jewish people escape from the Nazi regime through an underground network. She was not Jewish herself, but could not stand aside and watch what was happening to these people. She smuggled dozens and dozens of people through her home to safety. She took a stand against evil in a world that where evil was in charge.
Years after her concentration camp experience, after losing her entire family to Nazi brutality, Corrie Ten Boom had an interaction with a guard who had treated her so cruelly. When face to face with her torturer, she battled emotionally with a decision to spew hatred or extend grace. In the end, she shook his hand. This is what she wrote about that experience.
"For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then."
To me, Corrie Ten Boom had to have courage smuggle people through her home. She had courage to survive the Nazi concentration camp. She had courage to continue to believe in a loving God when her world was filled with pain and sorrow and loss and hunger and cold. But in my opinion, reaching for that former prison guard’s hand was the decision that took the most courage.
Tonight we are talking about having courage. Courage to do the great things that God has called you to do, but also courage to do the small things, the personal things that cost a lot. Courage to surrender.
Jesus was a man of incredible courage. He came in a courageous time and in a courageous manner. Even being born to a poor girl, He was brave in knowing that Mary would tend to Him. Imagine, the King of Kings taking an infant form and depending his very life to a teenager.
Jesus’ courage didn’t stop there. He lived a brave life. He was moral, good. He never sinned. That takes courage, doesn’t it? I’d imagine He was called the Hebraic equivalent of a “brown noser” or “goody two shoes” many times. He never fought back. He never held hatred in His heart. The Word tells us that He was sinless. He lived a life of unparalleled moral and spiritual integrity. And yet, He was constantly criticized for this, documented from the time He was twelve, preaching in the temple, all the way up to His death on the cross.
How did Jesus succeed at this life of character? He lived focused on His cause. Do you remember what His cause was? I’ll give you a hint, we discussed it a few weeks back. It’s found in Matthew 28:19.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
A few weeks back we discussed these verses. They have name, right? The Great Commission. Remember that the Great Commission needs to be our highest priority in life – because it’s God’s highest priority.
To Jesus, sharing the love of God was so important that He was willing to lay down His life for the opportunity for you and I to restore relationship with our Creator. Jesus seized the day, He showed courage to love the unloved, to put the welfare and eternity of others in front of His own needs and desires.
Tonight, how important is the Great Commission to you? Are you willing to seize the day? Or do obstacles, like your own attitudes and hurts and feelings or the comments or criticism of others stand in your way. The reality is that as much you have a God-given priority to the Great Commission, when you received Jesus and that priority, you put a target on your back.
(video, in the trenches)
It’s important to realize that we have a spiritual enemy that is bent on keeping our friends and family in darkness. The enemy of your soul is fighting your commissioning with everything he has. The Word tells us:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
The enemy has come to rob, kill and destroy. We cannot forget that is his highest priority. You and are commissioned to fight to reach the lost with God’s love. In order to fight we must be bold, strong and courageous like Jesus. We must seize the day!
When God first spoke to my heart at camp about my calling I thought maybe He’d confused me with Rob. I mean, we were both in the tabernacle that night, we’re one flesh, He could have got His wires crossed, right?
Then I remembered God doesn’t make mistakes. It falls under that “infallible” quality of His. Incapable of mistakes. He really was calling me, Anna.
Since then I’ve had a very personal lesson in that God really doesn’t care so much about your ability as much as He cares about your availability.
Being available is key to seizing the day. Being available is the A in FAT that we always talk about. Remember, we want to be FAT Christians; Faithful, Available and Teachable?
Being available is more important to God than being able. God will make you able. You just have to make yourself available. One of the easiest, and simultaneously most difficult choices you can make in your walk with God is that of surrender. Surrender is simply saying “God, I’m available, use me.”
I say that surrender is easy because it’s kind of like putting a boat on auto-pilot – just push a button and let the computer take over. You are telling God, “hey, this is your boat, have at it!” Surrender is also incredibly difficult because like the boat on auto-pilot, you are constantly fighting the urge to take control of the ship again. Surrender is a daily, moment by moment decision. You need to remind yourself over and over again that God’s will and purpose for your life is greater than your will and purpose for your life.
Jesus set the example of surrender when He surrendered Himself to God, and then again when He gave Himself sacrificially for others. Jesus valued God’s will far above His own. We see this in John 4:34.
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.”
Jesus valued God’s plan more than His own well-being. He committed to a life of total surrender.
What about you? Have you made yourself available to God? Or have you decided that your abilities are too inconsequential that God would have use for you?
(video: it starts with one)
Jesus’s single minded devotion and commitment to the will of the Father was the result of surrender in His will and life to the Father’s agenda. This was an answer to Jesus’ prayer in the garden the night before His crucifixion. He prayed “Not my will, but your will be done.”
Before we can seize the day and influence our family and friends, we have to yield our hearts completely to God’s will. We pray “Send me where the need is, send me where you want me to go.” Taking a stand against the devil starts with laying our will down to God.
The incredible thing is that when we lay down our will to God, we stand up with Christ. And we know that in Christ, the enemy is defeated. See, when we go with God, we go with His full authority. God has the final say and Satan will fall. He has no authority over us. We can speak life and truth to our friends and our family when we speak the gospel, the good news. When we go and tell.
Tonight I want to give you three practical steps to seize the day.
First up, you guys know this one, witness. Like a witness at a crime scene, you just share your side of the story. What did Jesus do in your life? The word of God assures us that there is power in our testimony!! Remember, God is looking for your availability here, not your ability.
Secondly, you can pray and intercede. Set aside some time each day to pray. You can get up early and spend time with God, or you can find a time that you aren’t using to it’s fullest. Like for me, I pray while I wake up in the morning in those first few moments where I am conscious, but not quite ready for my feet to hit the floor. I pray in the shower and while I do my hair (especially blowdrying). And I pray in the car on the way to work. This way I feel fully prepared to rely on God throughout the day, because I’ve already been talking to Him all morning!
James 5:16 says “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” That means prayers of people walking with God get it done!
Charles Spurgeon said “”Groaning which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.” Praying in the spirit is your lifeline to God. It’s like the red phone on the president’s desk. You have an immediate connection with the Creator when you use your prayer language.
Prayer changes things. “Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.” J. Sidlow Baxter said that.
I read an email from someone this week about a man who refused prayer. I just laughed, because refusing prayer is like refusing mail or refusing air. It just can’t be done. You can pray for anyone, no matter how much they hate God or you.
The last step in seizing the day is perhaps the most important one. It’s being willing to lay your life down. Spend time and energy lovingly serving the people around you. Your love will send a much louder message than even your testimony.
So these three things will empower you to seize the day; witness, pray and lay down your life. I’m going to give you an opportunity now to start from here. Take a few moments and spend some time in surrender here at the altar.
Feb 14, 2012
Garden For Two
Annual Valentine's Photo
Been taking this photo yearly for 7 years now. Can't believe how my kids have grown! We are so blessed. I have a few surprises for them this evening. :)
Feb 8, 2012
Run With the End In Mind
The goal of Christian life is to cross the finish line and win the crown of life. It is simply not enough to begin walking in the light of God, we must continue walking in the light until the end of our life or the Rapture.
Sadly, we see the salvation decision as a final faith destination for so many students. They’ve been invited to church, they hang out a shift a few weeks or months, and when they come to that crucial decision point, they decide to receive Jesus. Then there they sit, just saved enough to miss hell, but having entirely escaped the concept of lordship.
Preaching as hard as we may, it’s a difficult thing to inspire a student to live a Christian life long beyond their youth group experience. Pastor Rob and I have, at most, three hours a week with your student. In those three hours we pour as much Jesus into them as we possibly can. Our highest priority is to touch each student’s life with the love of Christ, and to inspire them to live sold out for Him.
We have three hours a week to impress this message on their hearts. How many hours a week do you have?
A life long Christian walk needs to be modeled daily. My prayer is that you have not set the decision to follow Christ as a destination, but rather the starting blocks on a lifelong journey with and for Him. Let your student see your faith grow. Allow them to catch you reading your Bible. Invite them to pray with you about their problems, and yours. Pause to give praise to God when a prayer is answered.
Above all, share with your student the importance of finishing strong. This is not a race we run merely to cross the finish line. No, we are running as if to capture the prize. Give God a hundred percent, and express your hope in your teenager to do the same.
“…and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
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