'Finding GOD in your iPod' - iLearn - by Cathleen Parks

"All Because Of You" - U2

I was born a child of grace
Nothing else about the place
Everything was ugly but your beautiful face
And it left me no illusion

I saw you in the curve of the moon
In the shadow cast across my room
You heard me in my tune
When I just heard confusion

All because of you
All because of you
All because of you
I am...I am

I like the sound of my own voice
I didn't give anyone else a choice
An intellectual tortoise
Racing with your bullet train

Some people get squashed crossing the tracks
Some people got high rises on their backs
I'm not broke but you can see the cracks
You can make me perfect again

All because of you
All because of you
All because of you
I am...I am

I'm alive
I'm being born
I just arrived, I'm at the door
Of the place I started out from
And I want back inside

All because of you
All because of you
All because of you
I am

I love the line in the U2 song we just heard that says, ‘You heard me in my tune, when I just heard confusion.’
I am so thankful that God ‘hears us in our tune’. He knows us so well. He looks at us and sees all of our potential. He sees what he created us to be.

LOOK AT VARIOUS SEEDS
For these seeds to be all that they hold the potential to be they have to do a lot. Now think about all that has to happen for a seed to become what it is created to be. They have to be dispersed. They have to open up, they have to take root, they have to have the right conditions for growth (the right amount of sunlight, water, soil - and seeds needs are very different) they have to be given the opportunity to grow and be given their needs during their growth.

Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23 (Message)
3-8"What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
 9"Are you listening to this? Really listening?"
The Meaning of the Harvest Story
 18-19"Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
 20-21"The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
 22"The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
 23"The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams."

Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23 (NIV)

3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear."
  
18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

The sower is anyone who spreads the Word of God

The seed is the Word of God

The soil is the heart of the person hearing the Word of God

Now as Jesus told this story he was speaking to those living in the region of Palestine and so the palestinian way of sowing and reaping a harvest would have been their mental backdrop to the picture Christ was creating through the parable. Explain the sower throwing the seed from the bag flung over his shoulder and the roads between and through the fields

The seed that falls on the road represents a hardened/calloused heart.
This is like the person who hears the word of God but because of a hardness, a critical spirit, a harsh judgmental way of viewing life - it never takes root in their heart and Satan comes and steals the Word, steals what was never able to penetrate the hardened heart.

The seed that falls on the gravel or stoney ground.
You picture this as soil w/lots of rocks, but it isn’t. In the land of Palestine much of the ground was just a bit of topsoil that was on top of rock. When seed fell on this ground it didn’t have enough earth for the roots to dig down deep enough so whenever there was any kind of problem, when the sun came out, when conditions were anything less than perfect then the seed just dried up. This is like the person who casually hears the word of God and lets it kind of get into his heart but really doesn’t think about it or ponder it too carefully. Churches all over our country are full of these individuals right now. They are in church because they keep up good appearances there or they maintain good business contacts over the weekend or it’s obligatory and they just feel like they ‘should’ go to church and so in they go and they hear the word of God and it may even catch their attention - for a minute -but they don’t take it seriously enough to let it really go deep into there spirit and it just withers away as the hours and days pass by.

The seed that falls in the weeds.
This one hits home with all of us because we’ve all experienced weeds in our lives. These seeds represent the word of God that falls on listening ears - not calloused hearers - not casual hearers, but those that want to know God in a greater way, those that desire a greater depth of relationship with Him, but our lives are so crowded with family life and business life and all the stuff that the thing that we really wanted - time w/the Word, time to hear it and time to apply it, and the Word - the very Word that is life to us and to our souls - it just gets choked out - becomes unfruitful in us.

Then there is the seed that falls on the good soil. In this soil the Bible tells us the seed, which represents Word, germinates. It takes its root and it bears fruit. Some of it 30 fold some 60 fold and some 100 fold. It is a heart that is ready to receive the Word of God. When the Word becomes imbedded in a persons heart it begins to multiply, to transform into what God designed it to be.

Now let me show you this...the difference between all of these seeds growing is not the seed, not the sower, but the soil. It’s not always the sower who does a bad job of sowing, it’s never the word of God (the seed) that doesn’t produce, the Bible says that in this particular story the problem is the one who hears, the soil, the listener.
I wonder where you find yourself in this parable? Are you a calloused heart? I mean are you here because you kind of have to be, either by design or by conscience and your going to hear everything but really that’s it - you really don’t want to go any further. Are you casual about it - you know, kind of yeah I hear yah, but a little time passes and well....it’s gone. Is your life crowded so that really you don’t have time at all for the Word of God? Or are you developing a caring, concerned heart to receive God’s truth? Do you say to yourself, ‘Boy I’d really like to move to the next step here - to advance in this journey that I’m on.’ Let me direct you to one more passage in scripture to look at
James 1:21-24
"In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like."

Who here can relate to that? You read something and someone can ask you about what you just read and you don’t have clue?

A guy by the name of Mortimer J. Adler wrote a book called ‘how to read a book’. And in it he said this:
The 1 time people read for all they are worth is when they are in love and they are reading a love letter. They read every word 3 ways. They read between the lines and the margins. The read the whole in terms of the parts and each part in terms of the whole. They grow sensitive to context and ambiguity, to insinuation and implication. They perceive the color of the words, the order of the phrases and the weight of the sentences. They may even take the punctuation into account. Then if never before or after, they read it carefully and in depth.
Now I’m telling you if we learn to read the Bible like that - we will be surprised what happens. When we ask questions. Why is that there? Why is this here? What does this mean? You don’t just read it. You read it and absorb it and you work with it. But don’t just read the words. Let the Word of God get into your heart as you focus your attention on it’s truth. If you don’t do that, then reading the Bible will be a meaningless ritual and that’s not what God intends for it to be. Look at the next verse there in
James 1:25
"But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God—the free life!—even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action."

'Finding GOD in your iPod' - iLove

This song, ‘Chain of Love’ is just 1 of Clay’s 5 # 1 hits.
Clay is from Beaumont, Tx. & gives much of the credit of his success to his wife, 2 daughters and his faith in God.
I don’t think there’s a better song to find God on your iPod than this one:
chorus-
You don't owe me a thing,
I've been there too
Someone once helped me out,
Just the way I'm helping you
If you really want to pay me back,
Here's what you do
Don't let the chain of love end with you

Summed up in a word - iLove
"Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
1 John 3:18
(instilling mess. into children and it’s for us all) - Here’s why?
Treat everybody as if they have a need
- b/c everybody does.

We want to be people who are known by love:
Some of you have heard me say that can happen thru
sacrifice and service
 "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
Ephesians 5:1-2
The good news is that God gave us a model. Jesus Christ. “I did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” MT 20:28 Jesus taught us to give your life away in order to find it. The greatest thrill in the world is to be used by God. To put love into action.
What does it take to love like Jesus?
Three characteristics to look at.

1. IT MEANS BEING AVAILABLE. MT 20:30-32
“Two blind men were sitting by the roadside. And they shouted, ‘Lord, have mercy on us!’ Jesus stopped and called to them. ‘What do you want me to do for you? He asked’.”

Notice the word “stopped”. Jesus was willing to be interrupted.
Most of Jesus’ ministry and miracles were interruptions. -
how willing are we to be interrupted?
Pro. 3:28 “Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now.”

Servant-hearted people are ready and responsive. They say “OK, let’s do it!” There are hurting people all around us and the wounded will not wait. God gives us His power when we are willing to serve. John Wesley’s said: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, by all the ways you can, in all the places you can, and at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”
What might make us unavailable?

a. Feeling of Self-importance. read - LK 10:30-37
The first attitude we see here is “keep your distance.” Do not get to close to people or you might have to help them. We live in a world where people do not want to be bothered. We have what is called a cocoon people. We drive through our neighborhood push the garage door opener. Climb out of our cars and go directly into our homes without having to talk with any one. Many can do their banking right from home or direct deposit. We talk to each other through e-mail. When we eat out we can go to drive up window and be alone. Many times when we use our phones we talk to an automated system or answering machine. All of these keep us at a distance and as the saying goes, “out of sight out of mind.” Another attitude is you can look but do not get involved. We see the need like the Levite and even know what has happened but fail to take action to help. We are like that if we are stuck in a traffic jam and get impatient but when we get to the scene of what has happened we drive by not giving any help. These two men felt too important to help one in need. The third man stopped and helped and his attitude was to treat this person as he would want to be treated.

b. Feeling of Idealism. “If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.” Eccl. 11:4 In America, we have a made an idol out of excellence. There are some Christians who say, “If you can’t do it first class, don’t even try.” Everything doesn’t have to be perfect for God to bless. If God only used perfect people would you be used? We all have weakness, faults, failures and limitations. God can use us all. He used a donkey that talked to keep a man from sure death. He used a big fish to turn a man around to speak His word.

c. Materialism is another barrier that keeps us from being available to serve. Jesus said, “You can’t serve two masters.” LK 16:13. “Am I going to be a kingdom-builder or am I going to be a wealth-builder?” It is a decision to only gain riches or to be blessed with What God entrusts to us. If God wants to give you wealth then it is your decision what to do with what He has given. Some are so busy taking care of things; they don’t have time to take care of their spiritual life or care for others.
How available are we to be of service for Christ?

2. IT MEANS BEING THANKFUL.
Jesus and Lazarus. “Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me.”
JN 11:41
Jesus had an attitude of thankfulness in everything that He did. He started with thankfulness, then he performed ministry. Jesus was thankful in the tough times. Jesus was thankful when He was criticized. Jesus was thankful when things were not easy in ministry. Ministry and miracles always happened with an attitude of thankfulness.
The apostle Paul was thankful. He said, “I thank Jesus Christ because He trusted me.”
(1 Tim. 1:12) Why should we serve God with thankfulness, with a sense of delight, not a sense of duty? Why should we serve with a sense of opportunity, not out of a sense of obligation? Because He’s given us life, through Jesus Christ. He saved us! If He never did anything else for us, it should make us thankful for the rest of our lives and we should love to serve Him. “It is He who saved us and chose us for His holy work, not because we deserved it, but because that was His plan.” 2 Tim. 1:9 What are some things that bring us to not being thankful?

a. Comparing and criticizing. “Who are you to criticize someone else’s servant?” Rom 14:4 We’re on the same team, all His servants. God’s opinion is what matters. We are to live for God’s approval, not people’s approval. He’s given us each different abilities, different tasks. When we compare what we have, it steals our joy and gratitude. When we are thankful for all God has done, there’s no longer any need to compare and criticize. I personally would pray that Christians would compete on who could serve the best and want to be first with the helping.

b. Wrong motivations.
“When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven”. MT 6:1
Self-promotion and servant hood don’t mix. A lot of our service can be self-serving. We serve to get others to like us. We serve to be admired. We serve to achieve our own goals, our own agenda. We serve to feel good about ourselves. (M)We think how noble we are. We serve to manipulate God. We bargain, “God, I’ll serve you if you take care of my need.” When we lose a sense of thankfulness and joy in our service, check our cause for doing what we are doing.

3. IT MEANS BEING FAITHFUL.
“The one thing required of servants is that they be faithful.” 1 CO 4:2
When we serve, we should never give up. Don’t quit in the middle of an assignment.
Jesus said this in JN 17:4,
“I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work that You gave me to do.”
Jesus was faithful. He didn’t give up. He didn’t give in. He was determined. We need to be able to say, when we get to heaven, that we completed the work God gave us to do. You may retire from your job, but you never retire from ministry. God wants us to serve all of our life. Any time you serve in Jesus’ name, no matter how small, it matters. “Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for Him is a waste of time or effort” 1 CO 15:58 There is a difference between significance and prominence. They are not the same thing. My nose is prominent. My heart is significant. The parts of your body that you don’t see are often more important than the parts you do see! And the same is true in the Body of Christ. In fact, things behind the scenes are more important. Several years ago two teenage boys tried to come into a church service. Only it was packed out and they couldn’t find any seats. So they turned around to leave because they couldn’t find a seat. But one usher said, “Come on, guys. I’ll find you a seat.” And that usher personally escorted them down to the center and set them in the middle and found them two seats. That night both of those boys accepted Christ and became Christians. One of them was Billy Graham who has now led millions and tens of millions of people to Christ. Do you think that usher is going to get any credit in heaven?
Small acts of ministry can be so significant. Real servants do every task with equal dedication because they know it all matters.
They are all important. God knows that you have something to give that will make a difference.
We have all been Shaped to serve.
What is your background, talents, skills, contacts, interests, or hobbies that God can use through you?
and meet the needs of others - b/c we are to:
Treat everybody as if they have a need
- b/c everybody does.

HB 6:10 “He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.”

How do we love like Jesus?
Be available, thankful, & faithful

How do we serve the needs of people?

1. See the needs of those around me.
Let the Holy Spirit guide you. (compass) - walk Spirit
1 CO. 10:24 “People should be concerned about others and not just about themselves.”

2. Understand people in their pain.
I always pray that I can have the heart of Christ - He saw their pain - When the good Samaritan saw the wounded man he had pity on him. This also means we take time to listen to people. - it’s being available - willing to be interrupted
2 CO. 1:4 “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

3. Seize the moment and meet the need.
This is the Jonathan factor that we learned in the series,‘Chasing Daylight’

Pro. 3:27-28 “Never walk away from someone who deserves help; your hand is God’s hand for that person. Don’t tell your neighbor, "Maybe some other time," or, "Try me tomorrow," when the money’s right there in your pocket.”
You know there's difference between a LEADER and a SERVANT -
Every leader serves, but not every servant leads.
Servants are willing whenever, sometimes only when they are obligated.
Leaders take iniative - leaders see the need and fill the need.

If we are to seize the moment we must be willing to take the risk.

4. Spend what it takes.
Gal. 6:10 “Whenever we have the opportunity, we have to do what is good for everyone, especially for the family of believers.”
There is always a cost to being kind and serving others.

This is one of those life scriptures I try to live by -
I want to 'Go after God', to seek Him and His ways - and I long to live
just as the Apostle Paul here in this verse by example for others -
this is Love in Action:

"Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you." Philippians 4:9

'Finding GOD in your iPod' - iConnect

Jordan Pruitt is the next up and coming disney created star. (in line w/ Hil. Loh. Alli & AJ , Miley Stew. aka H.M....) Jordan only 15yrs. old and her music was featured on the disney movie, ‘Read it and weep’. She is on the rise and very soon you will be bombarded w/ Jordan Pruitt.

This song is more prevalent than I think we really know. Look at these lyrics:
You don't know my name
You don't know anything about me
At your right to play nice
I wanna be in your game
That things that you say
You may think I never hear about them
But word travels fast
I'm telling you to your face
I'm standing here behind your back

Chorus-
You don't know how it feels to be outside the crowd
You don't know what it's like to be left out
And you don't know how it feels to be your own best friend
On the outside looking in

If you could read my mind
You might see more of me that meets the eye
And you've been all wrong
Not who you think I am
You never given me a chance

Chorus

Oh I'm tired of staying at home
I'm bored and all alone
I'm sick of wasting all my time

The yearning of the human spirit is to connect.
God has created us for community. Do you know of any other songs that has the theme of loneliness?
Of wanting & longing for companionship? Of wanting to be included and loved?
(think of some w/ neighbor) ‘I’m w/U’ Avril

In the Genesis story of creation Adam was not complete until there was Eve. The meaning is clear: no individual is
complete in himself, in herself - humanity is persons-in-relationship.
The ? is how do we complete ourselves then?
Think about all the clubs and org. we get involved in?
The Lions Club, The Elks Lodge, The Boosters, the Garden Club, the committee of fair housing, fraternities, social clubs,
book clubs, poker club, theater groups, and on and on,..on

God has created us to connect, created us for community.

Something I’ve never done b4, teach out of the Song of Songs - A book that is so descriptive in an intimate relationship between 2 lovers, a man and woman, the lover and his beloved. What some may not see is that this is a love song of God to all mankind. A message of salvation, that we are God’s beloved. A longing for us to move out of solitude into communion. Communion in an intimate relationship w/ Savior.
Ahh... but there’s more...
In this we see just how we are and have been created to connect.
Let’s look together, beginning in ch.1

Right off the bat in vs. 2 we have the words, “Kiss me”

This in the Hebrew is a direct, and passionate appeal to connect.
The appeal to connect

This person does not want a surface relationship, they do not want just an acquaintance, This is an appeal for their life to be connected to someone else.
Life to be meaningful must be joined together with others.
This is true for all of us. However,
we don’t always share that info do we? Sometimes we hide it, we don’t feel we want to burden others or we feel that we don’t want others to know of our loneliness (which is the exact opposite of what we need) So



look at the next line in v. 2
“your love is better than wine”

The meaning of wine, in this context, is that it lifts a person from isolation into shared fellowship.
For those who are lonely, those who are consumed in themselves, feeling inadequate, feelings of guilt or shame,...
wine or something of the like, can temporarily free them from such inwardness and liberate them to talk freely
(courage in a can)
It assists in communicating w/ others - you feel me?
Wine and the like is praised b/c it releases inhibitions and stimulates conversation. It banishes isolation & bridges the chasms that separate people. But, love is better than wine.

The longing to connect

B/c love does it better - love dissolves the separating wall & enables true communication of emotion, thought, and
purpose. (not only in intimate lover relation. - deep friendships, comrades, love like bro. or sis. - like family/ God’s)
There is an insurmountable # of people who tried wine or the like and have discovered it doesn’t work, as a matter of fact in the even short distance of the long run, it makes matters worse.
People are longing for something that works permanently.
That can only be found in a loving communion or
community.

v.3 “Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; 
       your name is like perfume poured out.”

The need to be known

Since we have been created for community there is this deep desire w/in each of us to be known. And there is no other sound more important, more delightful, than the sound of our own name.
Dale Carnegie -
“A person’s name is the sweetest sound they hear”

All of us make an appeal to connect, we all long to connect, each of us has the need to be known.
Each of us have the same desies:
We want to know and be known
We want to love and be loved

HOW? and WHY?

Let’s read Hebrews 10 - circle every ‘let us’

22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:22-25

1. Go after God v.22
"let us draw near to God"

2. Believe v.22, 23
"let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith...
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess"

The 1st and most important connection to make is that w/God (scrip.)- We have a loving God who longs for a personal connection w/ each and every one of us. Here in Heb. we see how to connect w/ others as well as God - we are to pursue God, to go after God, to draw near - that is a prioritizing - making God # 1 b4 all else.
We then live by faith that God is in control of everything in our lives and if we pursue Him 1st we believe everything else will fall into place.
“your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:32-33

3. Gather v.25
"Let us not give up meeting together"

We cannot make it on our own. God created us for community - Adam was not complete until Eve.
There are those who occasionally attend some sort of gathering w/ other believers, be it a church service or small group or some other outing - or attend an Easter or Christmas service thinking they’ve done their duty (“I’ve put in my time”)
But Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
We need each other- on a regular basis. couple reasons why

4. Urge v.24
"let us consider how we may spur one another on"

We need others in our lives who are going to spur us on, urge us to go farther - you know what this means? We need urgers in our lives to create and bring change. And are you ready for this, we all need to change.
Our lives in Christ is all about change. That’s what God is doing - we are transforming into the likeness of His Son,
Jesus Christ
Everyone of us needs people urging us, helping us to change. WHY? B/c alone we can never live out the full capacity God has for us - we need to be challenged
(I think that’s why Dr. Phil is so popular - all we’ve had are Talk show hosts who comfort and along comes Dr. Phil who says, “You ought stop doing that, that’s just stupid!” - we’re thinking, “yeah, that’s right”) - vid
Urging gets us where we need to go and it’s the uncomfortable confrontation that you get to live out, Proverbs 27:6 “Wounds from a friend can be trusted” Why?
If we are left to our own we will never rise to a higher level than what is comfortable.

5. Love v.24, 25
“let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds... let us encourage one another”

Sometimes life just rips out the capacity to believe in what you are capable of doing - sometimes we have waited for something to happen for long we don’t ever think it’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s attempts that failed, “I gave it my best shot, it didn’t happen”
So when times get tough we just lower our stand/expect.
We need others to put the ‘courage’ back in our lives.
We need others helping us to believe that we can do all and everything God has called us to do. It’s not that profound really - we need people in our lives to say to us, ‘Y U can’
Your mind may be lying to you, circumstances may be telling you otherwise, but ‘Yes you can!’ You can do this.
“I know you, you can do it” ever notice how other people see more in us than we do ourselves?
Is there anything you’ve given up in your life?
What has crushed the possibilities of what’s supposed to happen in your life?
We need others to encourage us, to tell us, ‘Yes you can’

more on love next week

'Finding GOD in your iPod' - iWorship

This artist’s name is Matisyahu. Matt is the one who introduced me to this guy, he said, “Have you heard all the underground buzz, it’s like this jewish orthodox reggae rap, have you heard of it?” I was like, “ofcourse, I’m always on the cutting edge of jewish orthodox reggae rap, c’mon”
No - I’ve never heard of him.
We started listening to it in the car and basically what this guy has done is he’s gone back to the Torah w/ this reggae fusion rap thing w/ these phat rhymes - it began underground,
but when CD hit - it broke out on the charts and soared to 4.
then live CD moved to 36.
Pretty interesting life story - He grew up in white plains, NY - parents sent him to Hebrew school - he didn’t like it - caused problems - almost kicked out - he went beyond the typical teenage rebellion stage - started experimenting in different ways.
Thru all this he said he felt a void in life - so he went to Colorado on a life quest, so to speak - it was there and that time when he came to realization that there is a God.
He began to explore his roots - went to Israel - once back in US he met a Rabbi who spoke into his life and that’s where he (Matthew Miller) became ‘Matisyahu’ - which is basically the Yiddish pronounciation of Matthew - he is fully devoted in the Jewish orthodox lifestyle and is all over the billboard charts.

“All of my songs are influenced and inspired by the teachings that
inspire me. I want my music to have meaning, to be able to touch
people and make them think…Breaking out of slavery is definitely
a theme in my music: You're a slave to yourself and you don't even
know…I think this is a concept many people don't recognize. We
think of slavery as someone else enslaving us, but in truth, we are
often the ones enslaving ourselves. We are so busy being influenced
by money, by society, by external pressures, that our true identity
and abilities can be hidden.” - Matisyahu, Interview at Chabad.org

check out some of these lyrics:
Chorus:
What's this feeling?
My love will rip a hole in the ceiling
Givin' myself to you from the essence of my being
Sing to my God all these songs of love and healing
I Want Moshiach (messiah) now so it's time we start revealing
You're all that I have and you're all that I need
Each and every day I pray to get to know you please
I want to be close to you, yes I'm so hungry
You're like water for my soul when it gets thirsty
Without you there's no me
You're the air that I breathe …
Said, thank you to my God, now I finally got it right
And I'll fight with all of my heart, and all a' my soul, and all a' my might
Bridge:
Me no want no sinsemilla.(don’t know what that is, that’s probably a good thing - it’s a highly potent kind of pot)
That would only bring me down
Burn away my brain no way my brain is to compound
Torah food for my brain let it rain till I drown
Thunder!
Let the blessings come down
Strip away the layers and reveal your soul
Got to give yourself up and then you become whole

So what’s this about - it’s about getting your eyes off yourself and focusing on something or someone bigger than you.
To attach my life to a higher level of meaning and value.
To sum up this song in one word it would be iWorship.

Now I know when i say the word worship and you saw when you came in that today is about worship - immediately our thoughts go to this churchified mindset, primarily religious connotations. I wonder what’s the 1st word that pops into your mind?
Tendency to lean towards formal religious kind of stuff - singing, prayer, church service... maybe something like this
(video - Mr. Bean goes to church)

Some people quite comfortable w/ that - they understand it, grew up in it
For others it’s a very Mr. Bean type scenario that’s foreign and uncomfortable and maybe disconnect. Worship, “That’s not me, that’s not about everyday life, it’s maybe something I can squeeze in an hour on the weekend.”

What I’m not going to talk about is adding more spiritual activity -
ultimately I don’t believe that’s the primary goal of worship.
Singing and prayer and other activities are an important component of worship but it’s a very small portion of it - Worship is much more than religious or spiritual activities.
You see worship can include a vast # of act. you’re already doing day after day -

Worship all depends on mindset and heart attitude.
Instead of defining it as activity, what if worship meant being a better employee, boss, spouse, parent, friend, butcher, baker, candlestick maker - what if worship meant everything we do, even the mundane, mow the lawn, do the laundry,
answer email, meet deadlines.
What would happen if worship could enter into my everyday life and change my life?
Worship is way of Life

Now worship is primarily for God and we give it to God, not to get anything back, but b/c He is worthy and b/c God is sooo good and in that it changes us. Thru worship our hearts are filled w/ joy, we become grateful for what we have, we become more confident b/c we are loved just as we are and assured of that. In worship I remember I am not alone, God is w/ me and that creates new levels of peace, comfort and security. I am humbled in God’s greatness, I realize it’s not all about me - remember, I’m not talking about just singing here, it’s a way of life - here’s what i noticed - when I don’t worship I get attitude problems, I become anxious about tomorrow and other stuff, I envy other people and what they have, I get this sense of entitlement that destroys gratitude and I think you get the picture - you see we were made to worship - it’s like Matisyahu said, “it’s like water to my soul, like the air that I breath” and it’s alot bigger than maybe we thought it was.
We’re going to unpack 1 scripture that’s really going expand the traditional mindset we have of worship - Romans 12:1
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, (like Matisyahu said, got to give yourself up to make you whole) holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.”
I love the Message tranalation - “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life
and place it before God as an offering. Romans 12:1 (MSG)
That is worship.
That tells me worship is a way of life, it means I get up in the morning, worship is when I eat breakfast, and going to work, laughing w/ friends, playing w/ my kids, and dealing w/ difficult situations, it’s way of life. (gona come back to that)
That’s the summary of what Paul is saying in Romans 12:1
Now he breaks it down w/ 2 ideas - here’s the 1st one

He says, “in view of God’s mercy”
Worship is a new perspective I view life from

If I could describe worship w/ 1 word it would be perspective.
We all know perspective can change everything.
I have a letter here from a young college girl writing to her parents: Dear Mom and Dad,
Just thought I'd drop you a note to clue you in on my plans. I've fallen in love with a guy named Jim. He quit high school after grade eleven to get married. About a year ago he got a divorce.
We've been going steady for two months and plan to get married in the fall. Until then, I've decided to move into his apartment (I think I might be pregnant).
At any rate, I dropped out of school last week, although I'd like to finish college sometime in the future.
Your loving daughter
P.S. Mom and Dad, I just want you to know that everything I've written so far in this letter is false. NONE of it is true. But,
I did flunk Chemistry - I just wanted you to keep it in
perspective.

Perspective can change everything.
Perspective changes the way we see something, when we see something differently it profoundly changes the way we react to it. (like glasses - w/out blurry, w/ clear)
We have all seen people face very similar circumstances that were difficult and one person got bitter about it while
another got better.
One person, “I’m the victim, everything’s going wrong, and nothing is good”, yet the other found a way to find hope in it.
To find opportunity in the challenge. What’s the difference -
Perspective
Worship is a new Perspective
Jesus didn’t come to give us a new religion, He came to create in us a new perspective, He said, “If you live according to my teachings, it’s like having a house that’s built on a firm foundation and it will withstand the storms.”
He helped change our perspective - that there is a loving
Father who longs to be w/ you - a relationship w/ you.
How does this happen? this new perspective -
“I have set the Lord continually before me.” - Psalm 16:8

That’s profound, that’s the goal. that’s the perspective of worship. That doesn’t mean I sit in lotus position all day chanting scripture and hymns.
It means thru all the activities of my day, I try to develop this way of bringing my mind back to God’s goodness, greatness, faithfulness - I become aware again and mindful again on purpose. (God compass)
Some may say, no way, can’t do it - we do it all the time - phone conversation w/ one person yet simultaneously you’re
thinking about another convo. or...
you walk in home from work, play w/ kids, yet not really there b/c mind is thinking about project needs to be done at work.
or... at work typing on computer, but not there, thinking about lunch.

We do this all the time, kinda 2 places at once. So instead of drifting, instead of wandering mindlessly into another place - like ever read a page or article get to bottom and not know what just read - ever sit in a room listening to someone speak then realize later you have no idea what they were saying, are you doing that now?
it’s like auto pilot, just drift - this mindlessness is totally fatal to my experience w/ God. find myself stressed, fatigued, tense
We are can purposely draw ourselves back to God. To keep Him continually b4 us - it’s a lifestyle of worship, we live and act and work and play from this God perspective. (ask Holy Spirit to keep us aligned)
Discussion Questions:
• Which part of the day do you find the hardest to share with God?
• What is one thing you can do to be intentional about keeping the flow of thoughts upward during that part of the day?

“in view of God’s mercy” getting a new view, perspective

“Take your everyday, ordinary life … and place it before God
as an offering.”
Worship is a lifestyle that includes every area of my life.

‘Take you everyday life’ - it’s a lifestyle and you place all it b4 God - he repeats this in - Colossians 3:23
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were
working for the Lord and not for people.
This is revolutionary stuff guys, look at ‘whatever’ underline that. That word in the greek, whatever, you know what it means... whatever.
You see he’s not saying, when you pray or when you do
religious activities - whatever you do - he says it again
- 1 Corinthians 10:31 whether you eat or drink (all the ordinary and mundane of life) or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Ethical boundaries - can’t say, I’m gonna hot wire a car for Your glory Lord”
The vast majority of the stuff we do can be an act of worship.

Think about your vocation for a minute, col. 3:23 - you get this and you’re headed down God’s path.
In life it’s not what you do that matters;
it is who you do it for.
God is not into what you do for a living, it doesn’t matter if you’re a truck driver, CPA, student, or Pro football player - His 1st concern is, “are you doing it for ME?”
Here’s a thought - If Jesus were to show up at your work dressed for the same job, would things go differently?

We can learn a thing or 2 from Jesus, even in the workplace.
When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the
synagogue, and many who heard Him were amazed.
"Where did this man get these things?" they asked.
"What's this wisdom that has been given Him, that He even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter?” - Mark 6:2-3
Yes He was. That’s what most people knew Him as.

Remember at His baptism w/ John and the dove and the Voice from heaven, which was Father God saying, “this is my servant whom I am well pleased.”
Pleased w/ what? Not His preaching, He hadn’t started that yet - what was He talking about? He’s been in the carpentry shop for about 20 yrs. now making chairs, making tables - Father God was saying He’s just as much in my will there as He will be teaching and preaching.
How do you think Jesus was at work? Do you think He did shotty work? Do you think He was ever ticked at His boss, “Man, working for Joseph really sucks” Do you think He ever bad mouthed other employees? “James you’re a lousy bum!”
How do you think He did His work?
Jesus is our model. A christian is to be Christ-like.
So much so that Father God is pleased with us even on the job - not just on Sunday. God is not saying, “I sure am happy Joe goes to church every Sunday” - You know why?
B/c worship is a lifestyle that includes every area of my life.

review: worship is new pers/ lifestyle includes every area life
(rem. compass)

Discussion Questions:
• What can I do to take my everyday work and place it before God as an offering or worship?
• If Jesus were to show up in my workplace looking just like me,what would the execution of my job look like? What adjustments would He make? Where am I getting it right?

Breaking Through Barriers - "When Others Distact"

Part 2
Moses has a lot to teach us. One of the things I want to talk about today is by looking at the life of Moses I want to ask this question: How do you and I remain faithful in the small things day in and day out? How do we remain faithful to following God’s ways day in and day out?

last week says, What do you do when God captures you’re attention with all this big stuff happening?
All this stuff has been big: Follow your dream! Reach the world! All this stuff. Because of that today I want to go small. I want to focus on the small. Because really for the big to ever happen you’ve got to be able to master the small. How do we stay faithful in the little things, day in, and day out following God’s ways?
To help us find some answers and connect with last week’s message I want to look at the life of Moses. The journey that Moses took and why he finished well.

Deuteronomy 34:10. That talks about Moses at the end of his life. It says this. “There has never been another like Moses whom the Lord knew face to face.” Here’s a guy, it’s describing him. There’s never been another like him, the Lord knew him face to face. When you know somebody face to face you’re not a stranger. This passage was written right before the death of Moses. It was talking about Moses’ life.

What’s interesting to me I think is one of the things that pulls us away from knowing God is the busyness and the bigness of stuff around us. But here’s a guy Moses – he was surrounded by the big and yet he was faithful in the small. ” The stuff with the Pharaoh, the plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna, the food coming down from heaven, the ark of the covenant, – all that stuff that surrounded Moses. Yet in the midst of the big, he didn’t lose sight of being faithful to God in the small. In all the activity, he was with God. In the midst of all the noise he was able to find silence. With all the chaos of the people that was always around him he sensed God’s presence.
Can I tell you what Moses did? Let me just give you a summary of what Moses did. He loved God and he loved others. That was the life of Moses. He loved God and he loved others. Can I tell you what’s very clear throughout all of scripture? That message is very consistent. That is God’s call to us. If you were to read the Old Testament, you would find that’s what it’s all about – love God, love others. Then it’s shouted in the New Testament in the life of Jesus. God comes on to earth as Jesus and says, “Love God, love others.” As a matter of fact when Jesus was asked to summarize the entire Old Testament, the entire what was called the Law of Moses at the time here’s how Jesus summarized it. Matthew 22 they asked “’Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the Law of Moses?’ Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself.’” God shouted it in the Old Testament, lived it in the New Testament. Basically simplifying it so that in the twenty-first century a knucklehead like Joe Parks could not only understand it but teach it in the simplest form. You want to remain faithful in the small? Love God and love others.
Some of you are thinking, “Hey, Joe, that’s nice. I’ve heard that before, though. How about something new and fresh?” My response is, Are you living it? I look at a lot of people’s lives and I wonder how different our world would be, our homes would be, our relationships would be, our families would be if that’s all we did – love God and love others.
Why don’t we do that? What is the hang-up with this?

I want to talk about these distractions today.
I believe it’s longing inside of us all, God hard-wired that into their soul, it’s longing to do right would draw them to Him because He wants a relationship with them. But whether you’re a non-Christian or a Christian today there are distractions. If you’re not a follower of Christ there are distractions to doing what is right and being a moral person and living the right way. And if you are a Christian there are distractions to loving God and loving others.
I want to walk through four distractions that I think get us off track.

1. Lack of confidence.

These distractions don’t come out of just my life although I can see them in my life. You probably see them in yours. I also see this in the life of Moses. Sometimes the biggest distraction is not other people – that’s the other three we’ll talk about. Sometimes the biggest distraction is ourselves. We are our own worst enemy in the pursuit of being faithful in the small.
I’ve heard people say, “I’m not very religious,” or “I’m not very spiritual.” They lack confidence to get involved in different things. They go, “I don’t know that much...so I’m going to feel dumb so I don’t want to extend myself and put myself out there. It’s this whole lack of confidence.
What I want to say to you is if you lack confidence about being able to love God and love others, you’re not alone. This isn’t new. A s a matter of fact, the story of Moses, God appeared to Moses in this burning bush – the presence of God. The Bible says God said, “Moses, you’re on holy ground.” Even when Moses was standing on holy ground and God said to Moses what He wanted him to do, listen to the very first words that Moses says back to God, “But who am I?” God appears to Moses and He tells him what He wants and there’s an immediate lack of confidence. “But God, who am I?” – this total lack of confidence.
I wrote in my Bible the word “doubt” next to that.
Immediately it goes to doubt.
Why did Moses doubt? I don’t know. But he had doubts. Maybe he doubted because he had some of the same feelings that you and I have. Why do you doubt?

Some of you doubt because of your past. Moses didn’t have a stellar past. If you know something about Moses you know that one of the reasons that he was in the desert is because he murdered somebody. He killed somebody trying to defend an Israelite. He killed an Egyptian then he ran away. Murder
That’s in his past. That’s not like a minor character flaw.

Maybe you’re sitting here and you don’t feel all that great about your past. You’re not alone. Every one in here has a past. Many of us are ashamed of things that we’ve done. When you think about your past it’s hard to focus on what your future could be like with God. People have doubts about your past. Maybe you?
Does God really love you? Could He really use you? Maybe Moses had doubts because he didn’t think he was smart enough to do this whole job. I’ve heard people say that. “I don’t know if I have what it takes… I don’t think I’m ready…” This lack of confidence enters in.

Moses may have been thinking that. For forty years you know what his job was? Tending sheep. He was a shepherd. That’s not a cool job. You don’t put that on your resume. It’s not sexy. “Watching sheep.” Sheep are dumb.
That’s his job. Sitting there every day, watching the sheep. And he wasn’t even the head shepherd. He was the co-shepherd working for his father-in-law. What a loser job that is!
So when God says, I want you to know Me and love Me and follow Me and love others, “I don’t know that I have what it takes.” A simple command.
This simple command – love God, love others – I just want to ask you a question where you’re sitting right now. Do you really feel right now that you can love God and love others? Or do you lack confidence in that? Do you feel like I can have a loving, vibrant, growing, passionate relationship with God and through that love I can extend that to other people. Or do you have doubts that that can actually happen with you?
Because if you do have doubts God’s answer to you is the same as it is to Moses. When Moses doubted, God came up with an answer. Moses says, “’Who am I? How can You expect me to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?’ God told him ‘I will be with you.’” Those five words are key for today. Would you underline those five words? In that promise, in the moment of doubt with Moses lacking confidence here’s what happened. God says, “I will be with you.” That is a promise. With the promise comes His presence. And with His presence comes His power. So He made a promise – I will be with you. That’s the promise of His presence. And with His presence comes His power.
The second distracter I want you to write down is what I would call…

2. Consuming challenges

The challenges that Moses faced, they were not small challenges. This main challenge that Moses had… Imagine God saying, “I want you to lead that entire nation who have been enslaved by these Egyptians who loved having slaves. I want you to lead them out of Egypt. I know you’re eighty years old, Moses, and it’s going to take you forty years even though if you just walked from Point A to Point B where I want you to go it would only take about eleven days, but you’re going to wander for about forty years. And this people group that you’re leading out they’re not always going to be happy with your leadership. They’re going to be prone to what I might call Miracle Memory Loss. They’re going to occasionally worship some cattle along the way.”

Imagine that challenge for a minute. But really how different is it from the challenges that you and I have? Our lives are filled with challenges. Some of you in here today you have children who are sick and when they’re sick they’re a challenge and work. Some of you have parents who are aging and sick. And that’s a challenge. For some of you your job has disappeared and you’re surrounded by challenge. Maybe you’re a mom here this morning. You’ve got little kids in diapers and you’re always exhausted. And that’s a challenge. Maybe you have a job where you’re always frustrated because you work for an unpleasable boss. Whatever it is, we all have challenges. What do those challenges do? They take our eyes off of God, that simple command – Love God, love others. They take our eyes off of Him and put it on the problem or the challenge.
And it’s not just challenges at home. It’s challenges everywhere. It’s challenges in the marketplace. Just by show of hands how many of you have challenges at your work that consume a lot of your thoughts? You’re not alone
Here’s my point. We all have challenges. Challenges have different faces but we all have challenges.
Different settings, different circumstances. But you can’t go through life without challenges.
Whatever Moses’ challenges were he remained faithful. You know why he remained faithful? Because he never lost sight and he never forgot those five words – “I will be with you.” And with that promise was the promise of God’s presence and with His presence came God’s power – I am and who I am is enough. And Moses believed that in the midst of these challenges. That’s why he was able to remain faithful, to love God and love others.
There’s another distracter I want you to write down.

3. Conflict

Conflict is a big distracter. I think if it was just challenges, just the difficult tasks, Moses would have said, “Bring them on. I like a challenge.” But conflict has a way of making it a little more difficult and painful. Moses had conflicts with all kinds of people.

Let me read a verse out of Exodus 14 says “They turned against Moses and complained. ‘Why did you bring us here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? Why did you make us leave?’” Here are the people. They were in captivity for 430 years as slaves and Moses frees them. Now they’re saying we’re going to die in the wilderness. We could have died as slaves. He had conflict not just with the masses.

He had conflict with his key leaders. There’s one time when he went up to the mountain to spend time with God and he stayed up there a little too long for some people. By the time he came back down some of his key leaders were melting down gold to build calves for idol worship. He was always around conflict.
But really that’s no different than you or me. Our stories are filled with conflict. Sometimes I think the word “life” and the word “conflict” are synonymous. God walked on earth as Jesus and everywhere He went there was conflict. Those who are closest to Jesus, His disciples, were in conflict with one another. The Apostle Paul who wrote half the books in the New Testament was in conflict with Barnabus. This was the guy who was known as the Encourager. You’ve got the guru of theology, Paul, and Barnabus who get in conflict so much so that they have to go their separate ways. Why would we think it would be any different in our lives? When we experience conflict in our homes, with roommates, family, neighbors, people that we work with.
It’s everywhere you go. What happens is these things are distracters.
But the thing with conflict is it eats at you, doesn’t it? You feel it, you think about it. You’re in the shower. You’re quiet. You turn off the radio. It’s all consuming. And what does that do? It takes us away from focusing on God. It takes us away from loving God and loving others.
What was the secret of Moses? He remembered and hung on to those five words – I will be with you. When conflict hit his life he remembered God said, “I will be with you,” that promise was a promise of presence and with His presence came His power. “I am” is enough.
There’s a fourth distracter. This distracter is bigger than conflict. It’s a little more personal. This one is really a drag.

4. Criticism.

b/c it’s personal. Conflict is like a boxing match. Criticism is like backyard wrestling where anything goes and nothing is unfair. These people that should have been the most thankful to Moses were criticizing him all the time. They questioned his leadership, they attacked his faith. Exodus 16 says “The whole community of Israel spoke bitterly against me.” Some scholars believe there was over two million people. He’s saying everybody did.
Numbers 14 – I love the word picture here – “Their voices rose in a great chorus of complaints against Moses.” I think of a choir. I picture everywhere Moses went there was a chorus of “We don’t like you… Your leadership stinks…” Whatever it was. He was always being criticized. I can’t even imagine that. I get my share of criticism but I can’t even imagine a whole chorus of it.
I understand criticism and so do you. Some of you are criticized for coming to church....criticized for being a Christian...criticized for the way you raise your kids...
criticized for where you live and who you hang out with and what you listen to and who your friends are. What we try to do is we try to go through life pretending that criticism doesn’t hurt. But it stings. Even though criticism doesn’t require truth, nor intelligence. And criticism doesn’t typically come from a critical mind. It usually comes from a person’s critical heart. Hurt people, Hurt people.
And even though we can try to talk ourselves out of some of this stuff you can only hear this depressing junk for so long and it begins to demoralize your spirit and drag you down.
You know what Moses did in the midst of that being criticized? With big challenges and conflicts and already feeling a little bit insecure about himself you know what he did? You know what he wanted God to do? Kill him. Surprise! Here I’m talking about this great man of faith and it got pretty dark and he said, “God, kill me.” Numbers 11:11-16“He asked the Lord, ‘Why have You brought this trouble on Your servant? What have I done to displease You that You put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? They keep wailing to me. I cannot carry all these people by myself. The burden is too heavy for me. If this is how You’re going to treat me put me to death right now. But if I have found favor in your eyes do not let me face my own ruin.”
If you ever get to the point where you’re deeply discouraged, you’re in good company. One of the things I love about the Bible is how real the Bible is to true human feelings. Have you ever got to the point in your spiritual life where you just wanted to cash it in? You wanted to give up? You waned to turn your back to God and to the church and to other Christians and just walk away? Because your prayers don’t seem to be answered. You come here to church and you hear a guy talk about having great dreams and God gives everybody a dream and you’re sitting there going, “I don’t have a dream.”” You hear people talk about cool things God is doing in their lives, “He’s not doing that in my life.” You really want to love God and you want to love others but you are just so distracted. And you want to cash it in.
Can I tell you that when you have that feeling you’re not the first? You’re not the last. That’s part of it. That’s part of the journey. Moses spent forty years walking in the desert, being faithful to God, loving Him and loving others. It wasn’t a walk in the rose garden. That’s not the Christian life. The Christian life is surrounded by distractions where the enemy wants to take our eyes off of God and off of loving Him and loving others.
But you know what Moses did to get that reputation of being a man like no other? You know what he did? As I study his life because I have really studied his life I go, “What was it about him?” it is painfully basic.

He got before God.

He was always getting before God.
Folks, I want you to get this so bad. Here’s why I want you to get it. People in church and out in the community when it comes to their spiritual life they’re spiritual life is dry. They’re spiritually anemic. They’re relationally void. Because they think just coming to church, sitting in a chair and singing some songs is going to do it all. They’re inundated by all these distractions when it’s really simple –
love God, love others.
How do I do that? You get before God. Mon - Sat
So my rhetorical question to you is, How are you getting before God? When are you getting before God? I’m not telling you what to do when you’re before Him. I’m not saying, Read three chapters, memorize this, write in a journal, create acrostics. I’m just saying get before God. Whatever that looks like for you.

Then second is follow God’s ways.

Do what God tells you to do. That’s what Moses did.
Somebody says, “How do I do what God tells me? How do I know?” Start here in His love letter, which is really the direction for living. If you’re a Christian listen to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to impress on you decisions, direction. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit. Don’t know what to do, here’s what I would suggest. You think, What step would honor God and love others. What direction would I take to do what God wants me to do? What would be honoring to God and loving to others? Chances are that’s what God wants you to do.
A third thing is you point out the goodness of God to others. Point out God’s goodness to others.
That’s what Moses was always doing. He said, The reason is God is good.

There’s something I want to ask you to do.
It’s little experiential for us here today.
I want to ask you something. Would you write down what distraction you’re feeling right now? What’s the main one that’s kind of gripping your heart? Is it a conflict? Is it a challenge? Is it a criticism? Is it your lack of confidence? You don’t have to write down the word. Maybe write down the initials of the person or something. When we’re done, What I’d like you to do is I’d like you to symbolically take this and give that distraction as an offering to God. That’s what an offering is. You’re saying, “God, take what is mine and I want to give it to You.” Put this in the offering basket, your distraction. Then my prayer this weekend is that you will feel in that moment, maybe you just need to say to yourself in the silence of your heart, I will be with you. I will be with you. So you give the distractions as an offering and you sense God’s presence saying, “I will be with you.” Write down a challenge that you’re focused on, a conflict that you’re facing, a criticism that you’re feeling an area of your life where you lack confidence. What God wants for us is when we’re doubting He wants us to hear those words,
“I will be with you.”

Breaking Through Barriers - "When God get Your Attention"

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When God gets your attention, what do you do? As we think about what happened over the last couple of months in ‘Chasing Daylight’
I would guess that for some of you this past series God got your attention as we begin to talk about God’s going to use you in a way that makes a difference in the world, and all around you. That’s an attention getter! Even if you missed some of those mess. go online.

God’s got a lot of ways of getting our attention, have you noticed that? Sometimes...a little phrase that somebody says, an offhand remark that does something to you...through a problem. Sometimes God gets your attention through a success. Have you had that happen? Things go great and God does something through that success to help you realize there’s something happening here in my life.

But as you hear things about that, as God gets your attention about things like that, my question is what’s your response. How do we respond? A response is not always what you might think our response would be.
If you were setting there thinking, “That makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I'm not sure I want to do that. I like where I am. I like how things are going now.” There’s some fears that brings up of all the things that might happen. If you were feeling that way, let me just tell you, join the human race. We all feel that way. That’s how we feel as human beings.

Take a look at the Bible. People that God used in the greatest ways they all had those kinds of feelings. They had to come face to face with those kinds of feelings. In fact, we’re going to look at one of those guys today. A guy by the name of Moses.
Moses had an immediate reaction when God came and said, I'm going to do something great with your life. His immediate reaction was the same as a lot of us have. He was confused. He didn’t know what to say. He had some questions.

Let me just bring you up to speed on the life of Moses.
Moses, you remember, lived the first 40 years of his life in Pharaoh’s palaces in Egypt. He was at the top, the center of power. Then in frustration over the fact that the people of Israel were being held captive in that nation, he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t make a change, he eventually murdered an Egyptian out of his frustration. And in fear of what would happen to him he went out into the desert. Not Palm Springs desert, but a desert called Midian. In this desert he spent forty years. He was a shepherd out in this desert for forty years. He worked for a guy named Jethro. He eventually married the boss’s daughter. He’s going to inherit the family business. He’s got this perfect little life. He can see the future all laid out for him.
Then he runs into a problem. He runs into a bush – not a George Bush but a burning bush. This bush, this fire, look at what the Bible has to say in Exodus 3 “One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro and suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a blazing fire in a bush. Moses was amazed because the bush was engulfed in flames but it didn’t burn up.” That moment changed everything. God got his attention. It changed everything in his life.

You and I are probably not going to trip across bushes burning and that don’t burn up. But let me explain to you what a burning bush experience is. What is it that happened in Moses’ life?
A burning bush is when in the midst of the routine, this was just a common old bush. There were hundreds like it on that mountain, very routine thing. In the midst of the routine, when you least expect it, this was totally unexpected. Moses had been living there for forty years. He’d awakened to the same landscape for 14,600 mornings. Now this. In the midst of the routine when you least expect it you’re surprised by God’s invitation. What made this bush extraordinary was the fire. It was God’s presence at the center. His presence changed things. It caused this bush to catch fire. It causes our lives to catch fire and God to do something in us.
Look at what happened when Moses began to approach this bush in Exodus 3:4-5 “When the Lord saw that He had caught Moses’ attention [you might circle “caught his attention”. That’s what God wants to do. He wants to catch our attention just long enough for us to be able to hear what He has to say, the strength the He wants to give, the faith that He can bring into our lives.] When the Lord saw that He had caught Moses’ attention God called to him from the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ ‘Here I am,’ Moses replied. ‘Don’t come any closer,’ God told him. Take off your sandals for you’re standing on holy ground.’”

I think the amazing thing is the first thing Moses heard was his name. It became very personal. This is a personal experience. We’re very personally seeing, God wants to do something in my life that only God can do in my life. Moses hears this great thing that God wants to do and he’s got some questions. He wonders how is this going to work, how is this going to work out. He asks the same kind of questions that you might be asking when God say I want to do something great in your life. You may very well be asking one of these four basic questions that Moses was asking.

1. Who am I?

Who am I to do this? How can I do this? Exodus 3 “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh,’ Moses asked God. ‘How can You expect me to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?’” Moses was saying, “Right God! How am I going to do this? I'm too ordinary. I am not qualified to do this job.” And the truth is if God asks you to do something great and all you’re looking at is yourself, you aren’t qualified. You’re always going to be too old or young or fat or skinny or hairy or bald. Moses says, “I can’t do this. Who am I?” God’s got an answer for him. To encourage him in the midst of what he’s facing. He was hearing knock, he was hearing God call in his life. But he didn’t feel qualified to answer that knock, that call.

Halloween. out of candy. And you know there’s a bunch more kids coming by. At that point you have two options. Option one, you dress up, get their candy, come back give it to the kids. But the other option is the one we usually use. You turn out the light, you make sure they can’t hear you. Somebody knocks on the door and you don’t go to the door because you don’t have anything to give them.

I think a lot of us feel that way in our relationship with God. We see Him invite, we hear Him knock and say, I want to do something great in your life. But the truth is we feel like “If I went to that door I don’t have anything to give Him. So why should I even answer the door. It’s going to be embarrassing for us both. I don’t have what it takes to make it.” That’s why we don’t answer.

Moses faced that feeling and God had an answer for him. When he said, “Who am I to do this?” God answered in Exodus 3:12 “God told him, ‘I will be with you.’” The amazing thing to me about that is God could have built Moses up. God could have said to Moses, ”Moses! Who are you? You’re the guy who grew up in Pharaoh’s household. Who are you? You’re the one who understands the ins and outs of that government on a personal basis better than anyone else I could call. Who are you? You’re the best guy for the job!” But instead of saying that, because He knows that wouldn’t be enough, He says to Moses, “I will be with you.” And that was enough. He didn’t point to Moses’ qualifications. He pointed to His greatness. He pointed to what He could do. “I will be with you.”

Some of you need to hear God saying that right now. You’re going through the greatest transition of your life. Everything’s changing.It’s all up in the air.Maybe God brought you here this morning so you can hear Him say to you,“I will be with you.”
Some of you, you’re going through your greatest problem of your life. It’s never been this tough. You’re wondering how you’re going to make it through. You’re wondering if you
have the strength to make it through. God brought you here to say to you, “I will be with you.”
I know some of you are feeling like God’s taping you on the shoulder. He’s saying I want to do something in your life. You’re not sure if you can do it. God wants to say to you, “I will be with you.”

Psalm 91:15 “When you call on Me, I will answer you. I will be with you when you’re in trouble. I will save you and I will honor you.” In the end it’s not your ability that matters. It’s your availability. Let me tell you why that’s more than just a cute phrase. When it comes right down to it, if God asks you to do something and you don’t have all that it takes to do that, don’t you think God is more than able to make up for your lack of ability? Of course He is. That’s why the person who isn’t very able but he makes himself available to God can do great things because God can make up for whatever lack, whatever gaps there is. It’s your availability that matters. That’s what makes the difference. Because God will be with you. No doubt about it. God is more than able.
Who am I? God will be with you. That’s where Moses starts. After God says “I’ll be with you,” there’s a second question that’s pretty obvious. The next one is, “Ok, God, You’re going to be with me.

2. Who are You?

That’s the next question. Who are You if you’re going to be with me? Excuse me for being doubtful God but how are You going to give me strength. God gives him a real simple answer. Two words: “I am.” That’s His answer.
Exodus 3:13-14 “They will ask, ‘Which God are you talking about? What’s his name? What should I tell them?’ God replied, ‘I am the one who always is. Just tell them I am has sent me to you.’” Moses had to be thinking, “That’s really going to help! I am. Could You at least finish the sentence? Give me something here God that’s going to really help them. What does this mean – I am.” That’s one of the most powerful and important names of God but what does it mean?
What God was saying to Moses and what He was giving him to give to the people he was going to talk to was, “Tell them this. Tell them that I am the one who can meet their needs. Whenever needs arise, I am the one who can meet those needs.” How do I know that? Because when you look at the rest of the Old Testament God uses this name again and again, this “I am” name. And as He uses this name He keeps tacking different endings on it. As a new need comes up in their lives God says I am.
Then had a need for food, they had a need for provision. When that need came up God said, “I am your
provision.” “Jehovah” which means “I am” and jireh which means provision.
When they had need for victory in their lives, their personal lives and in the life of their nation, God said “I am your victory. ”
When the need came up for peace in their lives, God said “I am your peace.” “Jehovah” – “I am” and shalom which in Hebrew means “peace.”
When they just needed to know that God was there, God said, “I am there.”
Each time someone had a need, God gave them a new name that was the way that He said, “I will meet that need in your life.” What He’s saying is, I can meet the needs of your life. In a world where we say, I wish, God says “I am the one who can meet your needs.”
Who are You? I'm the one who can meet your needs one at a time.
Moses isn’t done. He’s talked about himself, he’s talked about God, but he’s got somebody else in mind. He says, I’ve got another question.

3. What about them?

What about this group I’m going to? What about these people of Israel that I'm going to go talk to? They might have some questions. The Bible says in Exodus 4:1-2 “Moses protested again, ‘Look! They won’t believe me. They won’t do what I tell them. They’ll just say, “The Lord never appeared to you.”’” He’s almost saying, “God, I hate to be difficult here but I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I'm going to go in and I'm going to say, ‘God told me to set you free,’ and they’re going to say, ‘How do you know God told you to set us free,’ then I'm going to say, ‘Well this bush talked to me.’ And, God, it’s not going to work. It’s going to go downhill from there.”

He had this feeling that they were going to reject him. And it wasn’t an invalid feeling. Forty years earlier when he said, “I'm going to set you free,” they rejected him. Part of the reason he left was not only was he afraid of getting arrested for that murder but because the people of Israel had rejected him. So he’s walking right back again into that fear.

And it is serous business. It really is. It’s amazing what they keep us from in our lives. “What will they think? They might reject me. They might ignore me. They might ridicule me. They might not accept me.” The thoughts of that are huge in many of our lives. Sometimes it’s even people who are gone. Some times it’s a friend who moved away years ago. It’s a parent who died years ago but still somehow that voice is in your mind. And it echoes. And when you hear somebody say, “God wants to do something great in your life? There’s a change that He wants to work in your life.” The first voice you hear is some them voice that say, “It’ll never work. It’ll never happen.”
How do you break through that?

Here is God’s answer to Moses. “‘They won’t listen to me,’ Moses said. The Lord asked him, ‘What do you have there in your hand?’ ‘A shepherd’s staff,’ Moses replied.”

God’s answer: What’s in your hand? You can see what God’s doing. God’s saying, “Moses get your eyes off of them and just look at what’s in your hand. Get your eyes off of the unknown and get your eyes on the known. Get your eyes off of what might happen or what they might say and look at what you do have and what I can do. Look at what’s in your hand.” God’s taking familiar things and He’s using them to take care of Moses’ imagined fears. But Moses has to do something to make this whole thing work. God says “Moses, what’s in your hand? I want you to take it and place it in My hand.”

You break thru when you realize that you can’t give God what you don’t have. You don’t need to worry about giving to God what other people have. All you can do, all I can do, is give God what I do have. When I make that choice it begins to break through some of those fears.
Exodus 4:3-4 “God said ‘Throw it on the ground.’ So Moses threw it down and the staff became a snake. Moses was terrified so he turned and ran away. The Lord told him, ‘Take hold of its tail.’ Moses reaches out and he grabbed it [which I think took a lot of faith, I don’t know about you. But he took it by the tail] and it became a shepherd’s staff again.”

What’s going on here? Why is God doing this? He’s saying Moses take this familiar thing – it’s the most familiar thing in his life, carried with him every day of his life – take the most familiar thing in your life, the most ordinary thing in your life and make it available to Me. Watch what I can do with it. It was a snake and Moses picks it up. That staff, that simple stick, Moses is going to hold it out over the Red Sea and it’s going to split in two. Moses is going to touch the Nile River and it’s going to turn to blood. He’s going to strike a rock with it and water’s going to flow out of a rock. God’s saying this is what I can do if you’ll just give it to Me. Something amazing happens when you and I look what’s in our hands and we say, “God it’s not mine, it’s Yours.” So the question obviously is “What’s in your hand?” I don’t know what it is. What is it that you need to give to Him. It might be some ability that you’ve been holding on to pretty tightly. It might be a relationship. It might be a step of faith in your life. What’s in your hand? It might be a failure. It might be a hurt in your life. Sometimes those are the things we’re holding in our hand, things that are most obvious to us, things that we’re living with every day. If you give those things to God He can even use those. He can use your failures, He can user your hurts. He can use anything when we put it in His hands. You’d think after this snake thing that Moses would have been done. That’s pretty cool really if you saw this whole thing happen. But he isn’t finished. He’s got one more question. You can almost sense that he’s been saving this one till the end. The big question.

4. How about this?

It’s the big this in his life. It is the thing in his life that he feels like “I cannot serve God because of this. I cannot do what You’re asking me to do because of this.” This is the big gun. He says in Exodus 4:10 “Lord, I'm just not a good speaker. I never have been and I'm not now even after You’ve spoken to me.” Do you see a little blame toward God, some little jabs in there? “You’ve spoken to me. I’m not any better. Obviously I'm not going to get better. God, I'm clumsy with words. How about this, God. You’re telling me to go speak to Pharaoh. I'm clumsy with words. This isn’t going to work. So take that!” It’s almost that a moment. It’s as if God didn’t understand what Moses was going through. It’s as if God wasn’t aware of what Moses was going through. “I can’t talk!”
Moses felt handicapped. There’s all kinds of handicaps. Some of you feel handicapped by your past. You’re not but you feel that way. Some of you feel handicapped by your education. You’re not but you feel that way. You might feel handicapped by your age or your health or your emotions or your circumstances. You feel that way.
God has an answer. God looks at Moses and He says in Exodus 4:11 “Who makes mouths?” That’s pretty simple isn’t it. “Moses, who makes mouths? It’s as if I didn’t under stand that you’re clumsy with words. I'm the one who made the mouth. Don’t you think I can help you?” In fact, the next verse says, “Moses, I’ll help you. I'm the one who made your mouth.” He’s saying, “I'm in control. I'm aware of your handicap but I want you to be aware of My strength, My ability.”
And God’s aware of your handicap. But He also wants you to be aware of His power. He’s aware of your shortcomings. And who doesn’t have those? But He also wants you to be aware of His overcoming strength.

My big question about Moses is how was he able to do it? A lot of us have heard these answers. We know that God will be with us. We know we shouldn’t listen to them. We know all these things. But somehow we can’t break through those barriers. What enabled Moses to get a different perspective on life to help him begin to live this great life that God had planned for him?
The New Testament talks about that. This different perspective that Moses had. Hebrews 11:26 “He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value that the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward.” Circle “reward”. He’s talking about eternal reward he was looking ahead to. How could Moses make this decision? He wasn’t just looking at this earth. He was looking ahead at the eternal reward that God had. That enabled him to break through these questions that he had.

There’s another thing he was looking at. Hebrews 11:27 “He had his eye on the one no eye could see. So he kept right on going.” He had his eyes on God. So by putting his eyes on God and not on the circumstances he was able to have the strength to make the tough decisions and the tough choice in life.

The truth is many of us are stuck in our little world that’s comfortable. We’ve got things figured out. We know what’s going to happen each day. We get stuck there and that’s all we have. We know that there should be something more but it is scary. How do you break out of your little world?

Chasing Daylight - MOVEMENT - 'Ignite a Reaction'

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Sometimes we under-est. what 1 action might cause - sometimes we can’t even begin to imagine what 1 choice, 1
decision, 1 step, 1 sound, 1 word could catalyze a kind of movement - that you could ignite a reaction.

I wander how many times in life we have the opportunity to ignite a reaction, to be a part of even a small movement, but we just don’t step up and step out and step into that moment.

We have been following Jon and Saul in 1 Sam. 14, and as we wrap this series up today we will see how 1 person can be the catalyst of a movement, that you can ignite a reaction and begin to see things happen thru your life that you could have never imagined.
1 Sam. 14:15-20

We find a moment that no reasonable human being could imagine that they’d have success in, much less survive -
when Jon stepped past that zone of safety and went into battle there had to be in his mind this thought that his life was going to end that day.
How could he have ever guessed that thru his actions history itself would shift and that the activity of God would become undeniable thru everything we have talked about over these last couple of months.

I want to talk today about how we can move our lives into the epicenter of God’s activity - I think many times we live
oblivious that God is even there - in a rel. w/ J.C. and frankly a part of what’s suppose to happen is that there is this swirl of the invisible taking place where God becomes visible thru our lives to those who do not believe.
But it doesn’t just happen by acc.
How can we ignite a Reaction?
How do we find ourselves in the center of God’s activity?

BREAK

We have to break out of the status quo. We have to be willing to break out of the crowd.

The story at this place centers around this EQ and Saul asking who left, and discovering what had happened by leaving us this phrase, v. 17, “it was Jonathan and his armor-bearer who were not there.”

I know this sounds a little strange, but often what separates us from other people is that we separate ourselves from other people.
I’m not talking about relational isolation or trying to live a life disconnected to people.
I’m talking about living a life that sets you apart from others.
Simply put you’ve got to break out from the crowd.

1 of our problems in life is that it’s so easy for us to conform to the crowd, it’s so easy for us to hide in the middle and not be seen. And the reality is God uses people who are willing to break away from the crowd, break away from the norm, to separate themselves, to distinguish themselves from every1 else in the world.
That’s exactly what Jon did!

If you’re gona pursue the life God has for you, there are gona be moments when everyone in the world thinks you’re out of your mind and you’ll know that your out of your mind, but you’re gona have to do it anyway b/c there’s some things in life that even if there’s no possibility of accomplishing them you can’t live unless you try.

Let me give you a few ways to set yourself apart from the crowd, to distinguish yourself, to move out of the herd, to break away
1. The Quality of Your Work

We live in an environment where people give so much less than their best. People go to work, they take the paycheck, get the job done, do the minimal of what’s expected of them.
And we justify it in our mind, “Ahh it’s just a job”

The truth of the matter is, as long as you’re cashing that check and you’re a follower of J.C. you’re obligated to give your absolute best!
1 of the ways you break away from the crowd is you give your very best of who you are, and you lay it on the table day after day after day. It will begin to distinguish you from others around you.

2. Your Attitude

B/c alot of us live and work in this very competitive world where there are those who are always gona bring it, I mean they show up w/ their ‘A’ game.
They’re working hard, bringing their best, they’re pouring it all in and you’re thinking even if I brought my best I’d still be a part of the pack.
One of the great opportunities we have is to change theenvironment around us.

There are those in this world who have great abilities and know how, and great ideas but are never really utilized b/c they are not well liked. (mayb arrogant, loner, not a good people person, negitive, gossipy)
Have you noticed the opposite is true - not the best ideas or know how but I really like this guy so I’m gona do everything in my power to help him out.
Have you noticed when you like your boss you’re willing to work harder.
- Part of the way to BF from crowd is 2 create an envir. where other people enjoy their lives. To create an envir. where people feel valued, cared for, empowered, and heard - By the way, if you’re connected to God you’re supposed to be one of those people who always infuses optimism and hope into an envir. Christ followers really don’t have a reason to be absolutely cynical, and pessimistic and angry - a part of what it means to be connected to God is to infuse HOPE - now I’m not saying you always have to put on a show and be all stepford, don’t look out when it’s raining and say gee it’s so sunny out today” People will think you’re on drugs, not God.
You can shed light on gloomy sit. though

3. The Character you Demonstrate

There’s a person at work that you can trust, you know that when they give you their word they’re gona keep it.
1 of ways to BA from crowd is to live a life of integrity.

It’s the character you demonstrate and not to allow yourself to compromise your ethics.
I’m amazed by the fact that so many believers find it OK to blur the lines and smear their character.

I think it’s just that we live in an envir. where it’s OK to be dishonest, to compromise values and principles - I think what we under-estimate is that we are supposed to be the human personification of the exact opposite of Enron.
We should be the solution to the corruption in the world.

And people whether they believe in God or not, should be able to watch our lives and say, “I don’t know all about this guys belief system, but I know I can trust him. His values, his chara., his morals”
It shows by the Character you Demonstrate
“Our character is more caught than taught”

SHAKE

If you’re going to Ignite a Reaction you have to be willing to shake things up. - I love how Jon jumped into the battle and didn’t tell his father (I’m not sure why I like)
The point being that there are going to be times in life,
opportunities to seize, to take LIFE to the next level, when we will have to go against the status quo.
Those 600 men w/ Saul could have stepped out but they didn’t, you know why, b/c we all love permission to do the minimum.
It just makes it easier - if everyone agrees to do nothing it feels like your doing something, doesn’t it.
But then you have people like Jon. That if they get in the battle you feel obligated to do something.

Or if you really don’t want to jump right into the battle what do we do? PRAY- isn’t that like a form of running somtimes?

Jon in battle-kills 20-EQ comes-what does Saul do?
He calls the priest and has a prayer meeting.
(BTW, ever wander why some stuff is in the bible? Numbers, genealogies - name child after, show that you can’t speak or even pronounce Hebrew) something to note here -

1 Sam. 14 tells us early that the priest Ahijah was there.
Notably that there has always been an opportunity to pray.
Not only that, Saul asks him to bring over the 'Ark of God'
(which we all know what the 'Ark of the Covenant' is b/c we’ve all seen
‘Raider’s..’ and we’ve seen it’s potential for good/evil.
The Ark was there telling us the power of God was available if they just had the guts to step out and shake things up.
‘We have to do our part - God will do HIS.

When was the last time you did something after you prayed?
AMEN now go do it!
Actually alot of times after prayer we don’t move right into action - we like to speculate, contemplate, deliberate,
conversate, but we usually don’t like to initiate, instigate
we just like to talk God talk.

And God is wanting us to step out and shake things up.
How cool would that be? You’re just living your life for God day by day, just trying to follow Him, and you’re willing to shake things up a bit and all of a sudden you realize the whole earth is shaking and you go, “Wow, man, I didn’t
realize I could that” Then you wake up, “Ohh yeah, I’m getting some help”

Believe me when you begin to ignite a reaction moving w/ God’s heart/purpose you’re gona see that there is more
going on outside of you which leads to our 3rd word:

ILLUMINATE

Jon in battle-God shakes the earth-the lookout sees the Ph. army scrambling-Saul gathers his troops-begin running to the battlefield thinking they’re dead-they see the Ph. fighting boldly, courageously, stupidly, they are killing each-

You realize that Jon instigated this moment, but God has taken it over.
And there’s more going on that they could ever imagine.
When we move w/ the heart and purpose of God we no longer simply committed to a cause, we now become the cause.
God uses us to ignite a movement - in the hearts and lives of others.
And our lives become proof of God.

Steroid abuse in Baseball-
How many believe there's no abuse in MLB? If you believe there is steroid abuse in MLB raise your hand?

Here we are a bunch of cynics b/c we live in a world where people say I don’t believe in God - prove God to me - If you can’t prove it in a lab. I wont believe.
Do you realize every player in MLB today has passed Steroids test? And yet we still believe there’s Steroid abuse. Why is that?
Is it b/c guys are bigger and stronger at 42 than they were at 22, b/c age usually decays production but they hit more HR’s - once they were bruce banner now they’re the Incredible HULK. Do we really have enough evidence even though they came clean on every test. No proof of St use. Sure you do - U know Y?

B/c you can intuitively see the affect of something you have no evidence of.

This is what happens when we begin to live a life in God - it’s like Spiritual Steroids - they may not be able to prove it in a lab. but they know that your life is evidence of God.

Jon stepped into this dark, dangerous moment and he began to illuminate and evey1 around him saw that it was much bigger than flesh and blood. God sent the quake.

(glow sticks - break it, shake it, let it illuminate)

If you begin to break away from the crowd, and shake things up, you begin to illuminate the presence of God
- you will begin to ignite a reaction.