pursuitALL

What if every believer pursued Gods mission for their lives with ALL they have.... wonder what that would look like.....

#‎impact

"Loving God with ALL your Heart" - ALLmost series of talks

   Bill Frist, a thoracic surgeon. had performed about 150 heart transplants. In an address at the National Prayer Breakfast he talked about the miracle of heart transplant. He spoke about this moment when a new heart had been grafted into a new body, and all the surgical team could do once the grafts had taken place, all they could do was wait in hope that it would begin to beat. Then he stopped talking in medical terms and started talking more in spiritual terms about this moment when a new heart would beat in a new body. He called it a mystery.

Folks, So it is with you and I. When we give our heart to Christ, Christ gives his heart to us. In a sense, there is a transplant that happens.

In the book “A Man After His Own Heart” by Charles Siebert he referred to these medical heart transplant donors as, I love this, as the tribe of the transplanted. Isn’t that cool? The tribe of the transplanted. I would suggest that if we are following Christ, we are a part of the tribe of the transplanted, and that’s exactly what Ezekiel Chapter 36 talks about, verses 25-27 to be exact.

What an amazing promise! I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you and I’ll take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. Isn’t that what you and I need? What we need is for God, not just to give us a face lift, not just to put a band-aid on something, but my hunch is that what most of us need is for God to do a deep work within our hearts. 

Let’s look at these verses.... 

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.

We are half way through this year, and I think it is an opportunity to look back & evaluate these past 6 mos. Maybe some habits you shouldn't have, or with some things that have crept into your life, maybe routines or just wasteful things, things that are permissible but not beneficial, or maybe things that have pulled you away from a relationship with God. Is there something in your life that needs to be purified? 

 Now, you have to do the hard work of purifying yourself and you can’t, only Christ can do it for you, but it is by His sacrifice on the cross that you can be clean and set free. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and the moment you do that, I’ll tell you exactly what will happen, the father of lies, the one who seeks to bring condemnation into your life, will try to remind you of everything you’ve done wrong this past year, but that is not the heart of your heavenly Father, who is all about giving us a new start over and over, his mercies are new every morning. I believe that if you will purify yourself before the Lord, He can do some amazing things in your life. But let me put it this way, I’m not just talking about ‘Lord forgive me for everything I’ve ever done wrong,’ that’s weak. I don’t let my kids get by with that. 

(lil johnny tell your sister you’re sorry, [moan] johnny… [moan sorry] sorry for what? [idk] johnny… what are you sorry about?) 

I don’t let my kids get by with that. Parents, do you let your kids get by with that? No, tell me what you are sorry about, because unless you understand it, then you are going to go back and do the exact same thing over again.  It is so easy for us to go through the routines and get in our habits and do our things, I’m just saying, if we don’t redeem the opportunity of evaluating our lives to do some deep cleaning in our hearts, then we are missing an opportunity for God to enlarge our potential for his kingdom’s sake.

Is there something in your life that God needs to purify? 

Then we continue, the end of verse 25

and you will no longer worship idols.

There again, it’s like, we want to skip to the next verse. I don’t have any idols! Are you kidding me? We immediately think of ancient people bowing down to little statues. Those silly, foolish ancient people, pagans, bowed down to wood carvings. Are you serious? As we go to the mall this summer and buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t even like. We are just sophisticated idolaters. That’s what we are. We wouldn’t bow down to a statue of Aphrodite, but when we are at the gym, checking ourselves out in the mirror, you know what I’m saying. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Take care of your temple but how many of you know that that thing can become an idol in your life? Or… you may be more like me, who’s allowed food and atrophy to become an idol. I’ve had to many trips to Whataburger & allowed the lack of physical maintenance & desire for food to rule my life.

See, here’s what’s so tricky, you think of idol and you think of something bad, but it’s not always, it can be something good. Nine times out of ten, an idol in your life is something good but that something good has become something bad because instead of seeing it as a means to an end, it has become an end in itself. So everything from money to sex to family to your job, any of those things can become idols in our lives if they displace God as being primary in our lives.

Matthew 6:33: Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added upon you.

It doesn’t say to seek God second or third or fourth or tenth, seek God first. The reason why many of us struggle spiritually, I am so convinced, I don’t know if I have the words to frame it but it is very interesting that the first of the 10 commandment is have no other Gods before me. It’s a commandment against idolatry. The first commandment is where it’s at, because if you break that one, you break all of them, but if you can keep that one, then you can keep the other ones. It really comes back to, is there an idol in your life? That’s what I’m trying to say. Is there an idol in your life and are you courageous enough to look in the mirror and ask God that question.

How do I know if it is an idol? Maybe it is a good thing that is a little out of control. Listen, it takes tremendous discernment. I’m not saying it is easy, but let me help you a little bit. Here are a few idol questions:

Number one, are you willing to give it up? If you’re not willing to give it up, maybe it is something that has a hold on your life.

Number two, what do you think about when you don’t have anything to think about? If you are like, I don’t know what my idol is, what do you daydream about? What do you fixate on? Is it possible that that thing can be taken to an extent where it begins to consume you more than your relationship with God?

Number three, what do you put your money into? Or too much money? Your spending habits are idolatry clues, because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I’m not trying to find the idol in every closet. All of us struggle with things that could be idolatrous, so I don’t want all of us walking out totally discouraged. But listen, I need to ask a hard question, is there an idol in our life?

Number four, does the thing draw you closer to God or push you further away? Be honest. Is it something that helps your relationship with God or something that hurts your relationship?

Number five, is it something you control or something that controls you? An idol is often an addiction. It is something that displaces God and you don’t control it, it controls you. It has become a master in your life.

Those are tough questions that we don’t ask all the time but this is a time where we need to ask those questions. Have you given something else the title to your heart? Then you need to give it back to God. 

Last piece of scripture:

26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

Let’s close with this. I pray this for my kids all the time. I pray that God would give them a soft heart. It is so easy for the heart to become hardened to the sin in our life; it is so easy for our hearts to become hardened to the things of God. Does your heart break for the things that break the heart of God? It is so easy for us to have a callused heart because it is so hard to have a vulnerable heart that you put out there. But my prayer for us is that we would have a soft heart towards God. It says, God says, “I will put my Spirit in you.” I want to end with this promise. Can I tell you what you need the 2^nd half of this year? Here it is, you don’t need more money, you don’t need more opportunity, you don’t need a relationship; what you really need is more of the Spirit of God filling you, that’s what you really need. If you are going to produce the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, then you need the Spirit of God in you. It is the Spirit of God that gives us a new heart.

I want to promise you this and I want to invite you to this. If you give your heart to Christ, Christ will give his heart to you. The tribe of the transplanted. I have no idea where many of you are at in your spiritual journey, but I want to talk to two specific kinds of people...  Number one, I think there are many people who have been seeking and searching and thinking and praying and wondering and asking and dialoguing for a long time about what it means to follow Christ and what is this thing called Christianity all about. It is all about loving God heart, soul, mind and strength. It is not all these religious trappings, it is about a love relationship with the Creator who sent his Son to die on the cross for you. If you give your heart to Him, He will make you into a different person. He will begin to change you from the inside out. He will begin to shape a new heart within you. That’s what we need! We need for God to give us His heart.

Then, I wonder for some of us, in you’re in this place where, oh man, if you had any idea how hard my heart has become, like, I hear your words but they don’t even touch my heart because my heart is so callused that the word of God hasn’t penetrated my heart in years. And for some, it is just fear of opening themselves up. For some, it is a level of brokenness and it’s so hard for you to think about becoming vulnerable again. I don’t know what it is for you, but I wonder if for some of us, we need to give our heart to Christ again.

When you give your heart to Christ, He give His heart to you and your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God. 

Welcome to the Tribe of the Transplanted.

Watch or listen to "ALLmost" part 1, Loving God with ALL your Heart:

http://focuschurch.com/social.php?item=item:201306231106518C00ED

Are you giving God your ALL or your most? - ALLmost series of talks

Its so easy for us, especially in our western culture to not "give it our all" or "go all out" from time to time, wouldn't you agree? I mean sometimes it makes sense right?
There are certainly times in life when you do not need to "go all out" or "give it everything you've got", I mean sometimes that mentality can be downright ludicrous.
You know what I'm talking about... like the 38yr old guy who dresses up in his Jedi outfit for the premiere of the latest Star Wars movie (be on guard summer 2015) maybe a little overkill huh?
Or the guy in the gym who is scream/grunting (loudly) through every...single... rep.
So sure there are times when we can pull back.
There are also times when we do pull back & not give it all that is required and it hurts us.
You probably have plenty of personal examples of that.... not paying a bill on time, forgetting that its past due and hello disconnection.
Waiting til the last minute to attend the "Defensive Driving" class that will allow your ticket to be dismissed and end up paying full ticket price and insurance increase.
Not studying for a test and barely getting by with a "passable" grade instead of a good grade.
It seems that we do both. We can Over Do It and we can certainly Under Do It.
A big problem for us is when we get comfortable with "just getting by".

The big question here is.... how do you approach your relationship with Jesus Christ?
Do you give it "everything you've got" or do you have the "just getting by" attitude?
It's really a hard question to ask ourselves isn't it? It's tough to look in the mirror and ask the hard questions....

So here it is... Are you giving God your ALL or your most?
Are you giving God ALL of you, I mean everything you've got?
"There's no doubt about it my life is centered in Jesus Christ and my priorities, time, energy & resources reflect that."
Or......
Are you giving God most? And hey, most is pretty good right?
"I'm doing pretty good when you compare me to the guy next door, he never goes to church and cusses all the time. Heck I'm doing great compared to that guy. And I love the Lord, I really do. I want to read my bible more and live by God's standards but I'm not perfect you know."

ALL or most?

2,000 years ago, Jesus was asked an interesting question. A scribe said, “Which of all the commandments is most important?” It was kind of a trick question. Honestly, I don’t think he thought he was going to get an answer, but Jesus, as only Jesus can do, answered in a way that is so profound. How many of you know that we have a tendency to complicate this thing called Christianity? We complicate it, but Jesus had a way of simplifying it. He could say so much in so few words. What Jesus said was this, “The greatest commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) That’s it. What He did was take hundreds of laws that had been accumulated and thousands of years of tradition and history and He said here it is, in one sentence, love God, heart, soul, mind and strength.
Here’s another question for you – if Jesus said that’s most important, doesn’t it naturally, logically follow that we ought to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to understand exactly what that means and obeying it. What does it mean to love God heart, soul, mind and strength? By the way, it is not enough to love God in just one of those ways, you’ve got to love Him in all those ways, like love to the fourth power. These are the four dimensions, this is the great commandment, Love God heart, soul, mind and strength.

I believe if we honestly pursue the Great Commandment, study it, understand it, apply it to life it will become much easier... or maybe the right phrase would be "it would become natural" to give God ALL of us.

So for the next few posts I'm going to pursue just that. An ALLmost series of talks.
I'd love to hear your feedback, your struggles, your triumphs, questions or whatever suits you through this series of talks so please join in the discussion.

Til next time, go ask the hard question...................

Man of Steel

A recent message from Cathleen Parks:

Probably the Biggest Blockbuster of this summer is Man of Steel open this upcoming Friday, June 14th

OPEN: (play the opening to the original Superman series, as well as displaying a picture of George Reeves - which stay on the screen thru the opening of message)

(video: "Faster than a locomotive. More powerful than a speeding bullet. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the air! It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman.

Superman. Visitor from a strange planet endowed with powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men. Superman. Who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet, wages a never ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way.")

George Reeves was one of original actors who portrayed Superman on TV. But his fame was not without certain risks. Every time he donned his superman suit in public there were people who would: kick him in the shins, 

hit him in his back with their fists, 

and otherwise assault him. 

Obviously, that was usually people that were young and his admirers didn’t mean any harm really… they were just eager to prove how strong the "Man of Steel" really was. This was their idol.

One afternoon in Detroit in 1953, Reeves’ costume nearly cost him his life. He was making an appearance at a department store when a young fan pulled out his father’s loaded .45 caliber Army Colt and pointed it directly at Reeves’ chest. Miraculously, Reeves talked the kid into putting it down. He assured the boy that Superman could stand the force of the shot, but "when bullets bounce off my chest, they might hurt you and others around here." That cracks me up - the fact that he stayed in character. I’d have been like ‘hey kid, I’m just a man in a suit. Put that gun away!!!’

That seems crazy though doesn’t it? To think, that just the appearance of George Reeves in his Superman costume would elicit such a response from people. But, there was something about that suit that set George Reeves apart.

If he’d walked into that Department store simply wearing a business suit, or a Hawaiian shirt, he might have been mobbed by his fans… but I doubt they would have hit him – or pointed a gun at him. It was the suit that set him apart

It was the suit that stood for “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”

It was the suit that struck fear into the hearts of evil doers 

And it was the suit that created hope in the hearts of the down trodden

It was the suit that set Superman apart

He was a strange visitor from another planet, endowed with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men.

But… he was fiction. 

The red caped Superman has never existed except in the lands of TV, movies and comic books

I. Years ago, however, there lived a real superman – born in a little Smallville known as Zorah

He may not have been faster than a speeding bullet

More powerful than a locomotive 

Able to leap tall buildings with a single bound

BUT I suspect he could have bent steel in his bare hands

His name was Samson.

Just as an example of how powerful Samson was:

"…Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and he came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion roared against him and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion asunder as one tears a kid; and he had nothing in his hand." (Judges 14:5-6 RSV)

"When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the ropes which were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and seized it, and with it he slew a thousand men." (Judges 15:14-15 RSV)

"The Gazites were told, ’Samson has come here,’ and they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, ’Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.’ But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is before Hebron." (Judges 16:2-3 RSV)

Samson killed a lion with his bare hands

Wiped out 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey 

AND uprooted a city gate, carrying it nearly 40 miles away.

Samson was not someone you messed with.

To paraphrase an old Jim Croce song:

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit in the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger… and you don’t mess around with Samson 

The Philistines feared him, the Israelites adored him, and everybody knew WHO he was

Just like Superman and his cape, Samson had one thing that set apart from mortal men. One distinctive mark, one unique characteristic that even to this day identifies Samson as a superhero. When you think of Samson, what do you think of? (his long hair )

Samson’s long hair was the mark of his vow to God 

From the date of his birth till sometime just before his death, he never cut his hair.

Can you imagine how long his hair must have been?

II. Samson’s hair was the outward mark of his Nazirite vow.

Numbers 6:2-8 "Say to the people of Israel, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink, and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins. "All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the LORD, he shall be holy; he shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long. "All the days that he separates himself to the LORD he shall not go near a dead body. Neither for his father nor for his mother, nor for brother or sister, if they die, shall he make himself unclean; because his separation to God is upon his head. All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD." 

Notice: A Nazirite was required to observe the following guidelines:

He was never to cut his hair

He was never to drink alcoholic beverages

And He was never to touch a corpse (a dead human body)

AND as long as he observed these regulations – he was HOLY unto the LORD

Samson was committed to those rules even before he was born. As far as I could tell Samson never broke THOSE rules. He had other problems in his life, other sins - but he never broke those rules.

Now, what was distinctive about Samson was that he was the only Nazirite ever endowed with superhuman strength because of his vow. 

Samson was unique, distinctive, special – and I think there was a reason for that.

III. The reason? I believe Israel NEEDED a hero like Samson. A superhuman hero.

Look again at Judges 13:1. In the first verse of the chapter, God sets the stage for the reason He is creating a hero like Samson:

"Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years."

Forty years is a long time. How many of you are under 40 year old?  Can you imagine what it would be like to live your entire life totally dominated by a cruel and repressive nation like the Philistines? Israel had done what was evil in God’s sight. And because of that, they were delivered into bondage to the Philistines. Israel became a whipped people. 

For example, when the Israelites were threatened because of Samson’s exploits, they complained to Samson:, "Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" (Judges 15:11) 

They just wanted to be left alone and here Samson was bringing the wrath of their overlords down upon them.

But Israel’s dilemma had been their own fault.

You see, because of Israel’s failure to set themselves apart TO God…

And because of their failure to separate themselves FROM the uncleanness & the deadness of the culture around them they were now weakened and in bondage. 

Samson was God’s OBJECT LESSON to the Israelites. Through Samson, God was saying to Israel:

"If you want to be strong "

"If you want to be confident." 

"If want the Philistines to fear you."

The key is:

To be different from the world around you. To “live by faith” which means obedience to God’s Word and when you do that…. It’s clear, you’re not like everybody around you, there’s something different.

By his very existence Samson was billboard declaring “separate yourselves.” Make yourselves a HOLY PEOPLE for your God.

IV. Back to Superman. Why was he so strong?

Was it because of his cape? Or because of what he ate? Was it because Clark Kent worked out at the gym every day?

NO… (pause). Then why was Superman strong? He was strong because he was "a strange visitor from another planet."

NOW - why was Samson so strong?

Was it because of his vow? Was it because he didn’t eat unclean foods, and touch unclean things? Was it because he didn’t cut his hair? NO, NOT REALLY! If that were true, every Nazirite would have had Samson’s strength.

Samson’s was strong because – years before he was even born - his parents were visited by a strange visitor from another realm.

REREAD: Judges 13:3-7 (the angel of the LORD appearing to Samson’s mother)

3 The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah’s wife and said, “Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 So be careful; you must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. 5 You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”

6 The woman ran and told her husband, “A man of God appeared to me! He looked like one of God’s angels, terrifying to see. I didn’t ask where he was from, and he didn’t tell me his name. 7 But he told me, ‘You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink nor eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.’”

As you read these words, you realized that Samson had his strength because God’s angel had come with a promise. Samson’s strength didn’t rest with his hair. Samson’s strength came from God.

…And that’s the way it’s always been for God’s people.

David wrote:

The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. Ps 28:7 

The LORD is the strength of his people, he is the saving refuge of his anointed. Ps 28:8 

In the New Testament, Paul writes to us:

“… be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” (Eph 6:10)

– JUST LIKE SAMSON – Our strength lies with God

Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) 

In other words, if you’re not connected to Jesus… if He doesn’t abide in you and work thru you… you may as well go down to Katy Barber Shop and get a buzz cut… because you will have no real strength without Jesus. You might be able to do many things in this life, but without Jesus - nothing of any value will last.

It is when we realize that it is in God’s strength that we have any impact in our lives that we can begin to make a difference in life. Paul recognized that and he wrote:

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2Co 12:10)

How many of you can say that today? I am content with: 

Weaknesses

Insults

Hardships

Persecutions

Calamaties

And again: “I can do all things in him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

You see, God isn’t interested in how how intelligent we are or how well we perform. He’s only interested in our faithfulness. He’s only interested in us being set apart to be used by Him. When we’re willing to be used... then He can take our weaknesses and turn them into His strength.

The Sound of Silence.... from the "Serenity in the Storm" series

So let’s take a day trip to Mount Horeb, the mount of God, where we find the prophet Elijah hiding in a cave in fear for his life. God tells him to stand at the mouth of the cave, for He was about to pass by. It’s at this point that we read a most beautiful and haunting passage.

1 Kings 19:11-12
“And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.”

What we’re seeing in this passage is called a theophany, a visible manifestation of God to a human being. In the ancient Near East, theophanies were connected to battle. It was believed that the warrior gods would use thunderbolts (lightning or fire), the stormwind and the trembling earth to fight for their people, terrifying the enemy. Baal, in particular, is pictured as holding a handful of thunderbolts. So, it was believed in that culture that the gods operated and communicated by way of instilling terror into their enemies with violent natural elements.
Theologians suggest that Yahweh (God) is also viewed as a warrior in that He fights for His people. But as always Yahweh has His own counter-cultural way of communicating. Unlike the ancient Near East gods who never articulated a plan for their so-called cultural involvement,
Yahweh operated with a grand plan.

But the point in our discussion is not what God's plan was per se. Rather, it is how Yahweh communicated His plan to His people. This brings us to the mouth of the cave where Elijah stood. He stood there because God told him that He was about to pass by, He was going to reveal His plan to Elijah. God was going to communicate with Elijah. This awesome passing of God gives us insight into how God talks to us, right here and now.
When God passes by Elijah, three elements precede His actual passing: the stormwind, an earthquake and a fire. Sound familiar? These are the very elements through which the ancient Near East gods were supposed to speak.(the elements describing our lifestyles SoN) And God uses them, but He's not in any of it! Instead, a fourth element follows: "the sound of a low whisper." The Esv rendering here is strikingly close to the Hebrew meaning. This phrase is not describing the sound of God's voice, as if it was like a gentle whisper.
Elijah hears the sound of silence. The serenity w/in the storm.
The prophet encounters God's plan and direction not from the bombastic language of the ancient Near East gods, the language of culture, but from silence, literally.
There are two applications we can take from Elijah's brief encounter.
First, God does not work in the ways that make sense in our culture. In fact, they look—or in this case sound—completely different from what culture offers.
(how have you seen god working counter culture? He doesnt use the wise, the bible says, but what? What the world considers fools. He’s not into your amazing abilities but what? Youre availability.)
 Second, in order to hear God's direction in our lives we need to cultivate space so that we can linger in the silence of God.
 We may expect Him to communicate His plan amonst our common cultural mode, but this is not reality.
In the book of Matthew ch. 14 we see Jesus Himself, on multiple occasions, pursuing a quiet place to pray. We see Jesus experiencing a full day of teaching, feeding the five thousand and eventually walking on water in the middle of the night. But, wedged in between those events Matthew records that, “After he had taken leave of them [the disciples], he went up on the mountain to pray”.

The ultimate prayer scene with Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane. Think about the circumstances. Jesus leaves with His closest friends to a quiet place in the middle of the night. Jesus leaves His friends and goes further into the garden to pray in the quiet and the shadows. Once alone He pours out His supplication to His Father. He asks for another way out of this whole dying for sinners situation—He asks not to have to die.
Before the biggest day of His life, where do we find Jesus? On His knees, sweating blood in a quiet place, praying.
“It's in the silence that Jesus seeks Father God's face.

It's in the silence that Jesus approaches the biggest event of His life.

It's in the silence that Jesus gathers strength for the cross.
This is the silence He calls us to. This is the silence after the stormwind and the earthquake and the fire—the language of the culture. The Storm of the Norm that so many of us are living.
This is the context by which God reveals His direction for our lives. This is the context we see Jesus cultivating throughout His ministry. And this is the context from which Jesus gathered strength to face the insurmountable.
Our culture has a way of drawing us into its modus operandi. Almost without knowing it we expect God to work the way culture works—fast and obvious.   But if we carry this expectation, we show our hand and reveal our own shallow understanding of God and how He works and communicates. We get so entrenched in the cultural language and so dialed in to the speed and immediacy that our childlike faith disappears. Instead, we wield an adult religion that falls vacant on our hearts and has little impact on the lives around us.

What will it take to get to that place of silence where we can actually find direction from God? What will it take to shed the culture, the storm of the norm and begin a new way of living, one marked by silence, childlike and new every morning? Discovering serenity in the storm.


Last week in a video piece I shared one of my childhood memories. Did that ignite something in you? (watch: Remember When... video)
Remember when…. Remember when you were a young child and life was easy & carefree….
God wants us to get back to that place. We’ve left those childlike behaviors, yet God’s direction is to find him there.
Remember when… how does a child spend a day? What does a child believe? How do they respond to life and everything surrounding them? What about the trust they have? How do they see the world? And their incredible imagination… (watch this… Childlike Faith video)

Here’s what Jesus said about childlike faith, found in Mark 10
“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” 

And in Matthew 18:2-4 what does Jesus do?
“He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”

Do you want to enter into the rest God has for you? Remember when….. Remember when….
Go to that childlike faith and submit and trust, like a child. Cast the cares, the burdens, the weight of this world, the weight of your busy lifestyle upon the Lord….. Like a child drops their mess in front of their parent. And the parent cleans it up, lifts up the child, and loves on them. Loves them with a spectacular love. Do you want that?

Watch/Listen to entire message "The Sound of Silence"

A Prayer for Moore, OK. - Cathleen Parks

This is a prayer for all effected by the devastating tornado that ripped through Moore, Ok. from Cathleen Parks, pastoral staff at Focus Church.
Cathleen grew up in Oklahoma and has many family members in Moore, Midwest City, Oklahoma City, Enid and other cities....
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Okay everyone.........my cousin Brian is working search and rescue at the elementary school in Moore, Okla. as I type this message! PLEASE be praying for him and all the S&R teams that are working tonight.
"Father, you are in the God who directs our paths. You shine light into dark places. I ask you Lord to direct every individual who is searching for people in the path of destruction tonight. As the sun goes down and darkness descends, Father shine yourlight into dark places in the ruble. Reveal those that are trapped to the rescue workers and be with them as they pull them to safety. Be with all the families tonight who are still waiting to here about their children, fathers and daughters. You God are our source of hope and strength. Be with your people in Oklahoma tonight. In Jesus name I pray - AMEN (so be it!!!)" - Cathleen Parks

Mother's Day is a Big Deal, right?

  Mother's Day should be special shouldn't it?
I mean if we think about it, MOM's are pretty amazing!
If we were to stop, just for a minute or two and ponder all the ways she cares, provides, encourages and loves us unconditionally we should shower our Mother's with substantial praise!

When I stop and ponder about my mother.... I'm in awe actually. What a woman!
Growing up as the oldest of three boys and reflecting on those times... WOW.
All of the things she did as a mother is astounding. Awaking early in the morning before everybody, making sure us three boys were up and preparing for our school day, packing our lunches, helping us get dressed, seeing us out the door with a kiss and a smile  :)

While everybody is out for the day, tidying the home, with an occasional deep cleaning (recalling 3 boys & a husband can be very dirty).
Taking care of our needs at home... bumps and bruises and scraps getting tended to, wrapped in bandages or a good ol' fashioned band-aid, even when it wasn't necessary.
Carefully, lovingly taking us through the steps of pulling out baby teeth and we cried and cried the whole way through. But her love and patience, oh my the patience.
How incredibly patience is a mother?
There's so much more but I don't have that much patience.......

She taught us so much.
I remember as a young teenage boy in the kitchen one evening with my mother and she had just started washing the dishes from that night's dinner and she told me to help her because I needed to learn "how to do the dishes". I remember looking her right in the eyes and saying, "I don't need to learn how to do the dishes cuz my wife will do them".
She smiled and said, "Well, you may not get married right away and live on your own for a while so you'll need to know how."
Which speaks to the wisdom of a mother. And how to speak the right words that make sense to a child.... I learned how to do the dishes that night.

Then there's our Grand Mother's. Can it get any better than a Grandma?
Grandma's are the best! Talk about unconditional love. Grandma's are the happiest, most loving people in the world. So it would seem to me in my world.

That brings me to my wife, the mother of our two daughters.
Man, you talk about an amazing woman. My wife, my girls mother is absolutely incredible.
It's staggering to see her in action day in and day out.
I have learned so much about parenting my girls by just watching and seeing her love, take care of, and nurture our girls.
I can literally say I'm a better parent because of my wife, the mother of our children.

It takes me to Proverbs chapter 31, verses 10-31 where scripture describes "the godly woman". As I read through it, I see my mother, my grand-mother, and my wife.
verses 26-31 really hit home.....

"She speaks wise words

  and teaches others to be kind.

She watches over her family

    and never wastes her time.

Her children speak well of her.

    Her husband also praises her,

saying, “There are many fine women,

    but you are better than all of them.”

Charm can fool you, and beauty can trick you,

    but a woman who respects the Lord should be praised.

Give her the reward she has earned;

    she should be praised in public for what she has done."

I couldn't have said it better myself, good job God.

That's how I feel about the women (Mothers) that have greatly influenced my life. 

How about you? 

Mother's Day is a BIG DEAL, right?

I'd encourage you to go "all out" this upcoming Mother's Day because Mom's are truly amazing  :)

additional amazement of Mother's: click here

The BEST Example Ever..... of finding Serenity in the Storm

Are you ready for a great example of what this looks like?

I’m talking about a great example. Check out Matthew 14 and we are going to walk with Jesus Christ through an incredibly busy, busy day. 

And let’s see, let us allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us individually….

 "At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, 2 and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

Ok Herod is speaking about all the amazing things that Jesus Christ is doing and he says it’s John the Baptist working through Christ… Herod doesnt know Jesus the Messiah so he resorts to what he believes, he’s wrong, but he doesnt know. So Matthew now explains why Herod believes this.

Matthew walks us through what took place… he gives us the back story.

3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.

6 On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much 7 that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” 9 The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted 10 and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. Ok so Matthew told us the story of the death of John the baptist to give us Herods reasoning of why he thought John was helping Jesus. OK? So now vs.12 takes us back to current time this was written. V.12 says, John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.

So John the baptist was murdered and the next day some disciples go and tell Jesus what has happened.

Look at how Jesus responds to the death of His cousin, John the baptist.

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. 

What does He do? He breaks away, first thing in the morning to be alone with the Father in solitude.

What does that speak to you and me?

v. 13 continues… Hearing of this, the crowds followed him (Jesus) on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

At the end of His time away in solitude immediately His busy day begins. He spends hours, through the morning into the afternoon looking after the needs of the people. 

That’s draining folks. Hours of ministry will wipe you out. 

Hours of your work day will wipe you out.

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

So wow! What just happened? After hours of tending to and miraculously healing the sick Jesus pulls off 1 of 2 amazing miracles of feeding thousands with just a tiny amount of food.

This is a very busy, very strenuous day right?

So what happens next?

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,

It’s into the evening now and Jesus sends His buddies off, why? So He could be alone.

In rest, quietness and trust you will be liberated and strengthened. (ref. "Are You Living in the 'Storm of the Norm"?)

Let’s keep reading...

24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

OK that was a lot that just happened… Jesus walks on water, (another miracle) tells Peter to join Him, rescues Peter due to Peters lack of faith, gets into boat and calms the storm that its waves had been crashing against the boat terrifying the disciples. And they are standing there in awe and wonder.

Because it’s here with Jesus, alone with Jesus in rest, quietness and trust that the storm of the norm can be calmed…. And we are delivered, liberated.

Guess what? His day is not finished.

Let’s keep reading...

34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

They land on shore and again immediately people begin to bring their sick to Him…. Begging the scripture tells us to heal their sick.

How much longer into this already full day do you think Jesus ministered to those people?

Was He literally up, awake, working and ministering for 24hrs straight???

Hear me folks… please see the point… That was an incredibly busy busy day right? 

Actually it makes our days seem not so bad… especially when this day began with the news of the murder of your cousin. 

How productive are your days upon the news of someone close to you losing their lives? 

We recoil don’t we? We don’t want to do anything. However that’s not the point.

What’s the point? Please allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you personally.

Our days are so busy, our schedules are over-run with activity. Sometimes we find time just to veg-out but they are still so busy. 

And here is the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m talking about the Lord, the King of Kings, Creator of the universe walking in flesh, and in His flesh how many times did He break away to find solitude with Father God? How often did He (hear me) prioritize breaking away for a while to find rest, quietness and trust?

So what do we find here in scripture? The very busy lifestyle of Jesus Christ. 

We see that, plain as day… what we don’t find anywhere recorded in scripture is Jesus talking about His busy schedule and being worn out from it… what we do see is HOW He managed to live, deal with that crazy, crazy lifestyle…. Prioritizing solitude. Finding, making time in rest, quietness, and trust to be liberated, to be strengthened to continue on….

What is God’s Word saying to you and your schedule?

Are you living in the "Storm of the Norm"?

Our lives are busy. We are a “busy” society. We live in a society that applauds the busy lifestyle. Because if you’re life isn’t full of activity then your are not living, you are missing out, and quite frankly, you’re boring. You lead a boring life if it isn’t full of activity. It actually doesnt matter what the activities are, you just need to be busy. Therefore it has become the norm. We’ve been conditioned that it is the norm. This is just how it is. It’s a busy life. So get used to it buddy, put your ‘big boy’ pants on and get with the program.

So that’s how we live. This is the life we live. A busy life.

(let's see if you can read down to the dotted line at an increased speed for effect)

Get up in the morning, when does your alarm go off… 5am, 6am? Get yourself prepared for the day.

Do you exercise early in the morning, well get going. If you do or maybe not, then start getting ready for the day ahead. Shower, get dressed, brush your teeth (I hope) - do you have enough time to eat breakfast or do you grab something out of the pantry to eat along the morning commute, or do you stop somewhere to grab some coffee and something to eat along the commute? 

Oh wait… are you a parent? Do you need to wake the kids in the morning, get them up and prepared for their day. There’s quite a bit involved in that morning routine huh? 

Ofcourse all your children jump out of bed are so excited to get ready for their school day so there’s no stress involved with that, right?

Now you’re at work. Phone calls, emails, customers, your boss, meetings. Oh the meetings are so fun and productive. Now you’re a little behind, try to catch up, more phone calls, customers, what another meeting… really….. You drudge through the day...

You don’t seem to catch up but you know you’ll be back tomorrow. But you need to head home. Maybe stop to pick up a child or 2 from daycare or after school care. 

Cmon kids weve gotta get home, start dinner or call for pizza. Take care of the needs within the home. Maybe some cleaning, some laundry, maybe do some homework w/ the kids, help them study for a test. 

Oh we’ve gotta get lil Johnny to baseball practice. Drive him there, drop him off, stay there for practice or leave & come back 45min. later to pick him up and drive home.

  Pizza here, or get the dinner ready, lets eat. After dinner is clean up. Does everybody get in on the clean up or are you doing it alone? Now what. You try to get a few minutes of peace from your rushed day. You go sit on the couch or maybe lay in bed, just for a few minutes to veg out… but if you have children the minutes may be a little less. 

Like this video........

You look at he clock, Oh my, its bedtime. Get the kids ready for bed. And they are totally down with that. They love going to bed to night. No stress there. So everything that’s involved with getting everybody to bed. 

Now you get to get ready to go to bed. You finally lay down at what??? 9pm, 10pm? Later? Possibly watch the late news or some show you DVR’d….

You make sure the alarm is set before you doze off so you can do it all again tomorrow.

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It’s the norm. 

We didn’t discuss the weekends full of activity, kids games or practices or dance recitals nor any after school extra-curricular activities 

“Studies show that 79% of America's middle and high school students regularly participate in activities both after school and on weekends and 57% have some kind of non-school activity nearly every day.”

Last weekend, Get this, Cathleen and I triple booked our weekend…. It was partly foolishness on our part for not seeing it coming, it was partially due to the busy, busy lifestyles we live.

Allison is involved in club VB, their biggest tournament was last weekend in dallas, so Cathleen knew that months ago that it was last weekend (thur-sun in Dallas) we also promoted and led our growth group, “Cleansing Stream” - the highlight of that group study culminates with a weekend retreat… that retreat was last weekend in Ft. Worth. So while Cathleen & the girls were in Dallas Thursday, I traveled to Ft. Worth Fri, along with the rest of our group. She drove over to FW fri night to the hotel we were staying in & Jess drove back to Dallas that night to be with Allison and do the tourn w/ her Sat, while Cathleen and I were involved in the big CS retreat all day Sat.

After the CS event Sat. Night we met Jess n Alli for dinner in Dallas where Cathleen went back to their Dallas hotel for Sun games of tourn and I drove home Sat. Night to be here Sun morn for our guest speaker last sun Bess Blanco. Originally we planned on spending a portion of Sat. Together w/ Bess and her husband Juan, ofcourse not realizing we were gonna be in Dallas/FW on Sat. It’s crazy...

Listen folks, it’s tough right? It’s over-whelming, it fills our lives with stress, anxiety and we feel the heaviness, the weight of our schedules. That hear me now, can bring us to tears sometimes, can push us to the brink of throwing up our hands and screaming I DON’T CARE ANYMORE!

And it can, if it hasnt already, bring tension in the family and our lives personally.

So Here’s a question. Can you make any changes to your schedule that would make your life not as busy as it currently is? Most people (a very high %) would say NO they don’t see how they could.

There’s a very small % who’d say they’ve made some minor and fewer that would say major changes to slow the pace of life down.

So that being the case, I’m not gonna tell you that you should change your schedule. 

My schedule, my families schedule is very similar to that and yours. 

I would encourage you to do an evaluation of your schedule just for the sake of your family health, your own health and for that matter sanity. 

What I am going to talk about is that God’s Word tells us that’s how our lives would be and actually says that we’d choose to live this way. Plus it tells us how to find peace, how to find serenity within the storm. The storm of the norm. Because that’s where we are… we are living in the storm of the norm. 

So let's just look at God’s Word. Two passages in particular that have had a big influence in my life personally and we’re just going to read those and allow God through His Holy Spirit to reveal to each of us individually what  His Word is saying to us.

Along the way I’ll point out some facts, and some similarities to our lives and you can certainly jot down some notes - but more so… let’s all be aware of what God is saying to you personally.

Will you do that with me?

1^st passage - Isaiah 30 -  Beginning in vs. 15…

Are you ready? Listen to the Lord….

15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation, - this word salvation, the hebrew meaning is to be delivered, to be liberated, to give victory. OK, so what is the Lord saying to us regarding our busy lifestyles?

In repentance and rest you’ll be liberated, you’ll find what? victory! Victory from the burdens, the weight of the busy lifestyle… how do we become liberated and find victory? ……

V.15 continues..    in quietness and trust is your strength, Stop. How do we find strength?…..

So repentance, rest, quietness, and trust (that’s a big word trust) we are liberated with victory and strength.

OK so what does the Lord say about our lifestyles and schedules? v 15 continues...
    but you would have none of it. Wow! So basically God knows how we’re livin’ 

He even gives us details  v.16 

You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
    Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
    Therefore your pursuers will be swift!

17 

A thousand will flee
    at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
    you will all flee away,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
    like a banner on a hill.”

What is God’s Word telling us here? You don’t ever slow down… you just go go go. There’s no stop and we just keep adding and adding to our schedules and lives more and more and more and now here we are…. Feeling alone, over-whelmed, exhausted.

So the book of Isaiah was written aprox 2700 yrs ago yet God knew the busyness of our lives even then, well he knew it before then but it shows us how relevant scripture is to our lives today.

So God continues to speak to us v. 18 

Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!

Wait a minute, in God’s great compassion towards us He says that those who wait upon Him are what? … blessed, happy. 

v.19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Do you want this blessed life? He hears us when we call on Him, He will answer. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. That’s Holy Spirit revelation folks. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”

That’s some harsh language to get His point across…. Those idols overlaid w/ gold and silver for us have a few meanings but w/in the context we’re talking about today it’s all about our busy lifestyles… that we worship. How? We give everything we’ve got to keeping our busy lifestyles afloat. It takes all that we have, all our energy and theyve become idols. It’s crazy folks but we’ve gotta call like it is in order to find freedom, to be delivered, liberated - to find victory in the Lord.

We must make time, find time… actually prioritizing our time to be with the Lord. Everyday. Not just Sunday. Everyday. 

How? Remember, we’ve already read it… in repentance, (I’m sorry Lord, I need You) rest, quietness, and trust. (we stop, everyday to sit before the Lord. It’s a good time to have scripture in front of you, but maybe you don’t everyday. The key is to stop in quietness and trust the Lord will allow you to complete the day. There you will be what? Liberated and strengthened.)

Look at this folks, please get this today… otherwise…. When we don’t do that, our schedules, our busy lives become our god, our idol. That’s what we bow down to day in and day out....... That's living in the Storm of the Norm.

But God wants to show compassion, He wants you to be liberated. 

Will you STOP?

"We are living in the "Storm of the Norm" video: https://www.sermonconnect.com/mediapreview.php?id=201304211004192E57B3

Four Myths Concerning Our Busy, Busy, Busy Lives

Do you ever feel over-run, over-whelmed, exhausted and just plain wiped out?
Guess what? So does everybody else....
Apparently it's the norm. Apparently this is the life we live. The society we live in mandates it.
Since everyone around us lives this way, if we don't, we scorned and mocked so we put on our "big boy" pants and we adhere... to the norm.
It's what I call, "The Storm of the Norm"

Did you know scripture actually points out that we (you and I) would choose to live this way? Unbelievable right? Stories and wisdom thousands of years old point out not only would we live like this but we'd choose to. How about that?

So I'd like to start this little series of writings with some myths.
Some myths we've all fallen into and all have believed.....

Myth #1: Busy equals important.- we think when you’re really busy it means you’re really living.- actually, being overly busy cuts us off from the time we need to spend cultivating the important relationships in our life: with our spouse, our kids, our friends, our God.

Myth #2: Someone wins the rat race.- this is a lie because the rat race is all about "what you do" and God is more interested in "who we are."- God will not ask at the judgment, "How busy were you?" Rather, He will ask, "Are you like Jesus?"

Myth #3: Hurrying will buy us more time.
- all this technology we now have was supposed to create tons of free time, but in fact it has increased the pace at which we have to work.- hurrying will buy more heart attacks, ulcers, stress, and headaches; but not more time.- our society is hurrying faster than it ever has, yet, ironically, we seem to have less time than ever before.- perhaps if we deliberately slowed down, taking that step back from our frenzied activity would give us the perspective to be able to see which things in our lives are worth doing.

Myth #4: "Down time" is wasted.- we are made to feel guilty if we aren’t constantly "doing something."- but God instituted the Sabbath into the system and the Scripture is filled with the idea of "God’s rest."

Read Luke 10:38-42
The ultimate tragedy of the busy life is the same as the tragedy that Martha faced - offered the opportunity to sit at Jesus’ feet, she (and we) are too busy to spare Jesus any time.
Is that your lifestyle?

Your Purpose and Place in this World

 "Some recent studies show that as many as 80% of people in the workforce don’t enjoy their work and nearly 75% don’t know their passion. This is not a coincidence." – TheOneQuestion.com

We have an identity crisis on our hands. 

While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens. One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens. The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to fly. Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an eagle.

"Still it has the heart of an eagle," replied the naturalist, "and can surely be taught to fly." He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, "You belong to the sky and not to the earth. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle, however, was confused. He did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again. The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, "You are an eagle. Stretch forth your wings and fly." But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food. Finally the naturalist took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain. There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, " You are an eagle. You belong to the sky. Stretch forth your wings and fly." The eagle looked around, then up to the sky. And the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble. Slowly he stretched his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away.

For many people life is a lot like that story, only they never stretch out their wings and attempt to fly. 

They spend their lives living the life of chickens when they could be living the life of an eagle. That is what we are going to be talking about for the next few weeks in a new series called “Who am I?”

We all dream of that life up in the clouds, soaring with freedom and power, but all to often we stay in the barnyard picking at chicken feed. We all can relate to this and today we begin with the first key to unlocking the life we have always wanted, the fulfilled life like that of an eagle. 

The first thing we must find is who we are… Who am I? Where do I fit in life? Am I valuable? These are all identity questions that must be answered. 

The eagle from the story was not a common chicken, but he did not know this until someone came along and showed him who he really was. And that is my goal today, I want to be like that naturalist that came along and noticed that the eagle was unaware of his true identity. I want to show you your true identity, and help you unlock the first key to discovering “Who am I.” 

The search for ones identity is a task we all have gone through and for most of us are still going through.  It is tough to find out who the real me is?

“Today we see millions desperately searching for their own shadows, devouring movies, plays, novels, and self-help books… that promise to help them locate their missing identities. In the United States, the manifestations of personality crisis are bizarre. Its victims hurl themselves into group therapy, mysticism, or sexual games. They itch for change but are terrified by it. They urgently wish to leave their present existence and leap somehow to a new life – to become what they are not.” – Alvin Toffler (writer in NYC now 84 yrs. old & former editor of Fortune Mag)

We try to find our identity in many places, and many of those places are destructive. Some girls crave love and attention so much that they settle for anything that even resembles it, mainly from guys looking for only one thing. Some guys crave status and respect and when they cannot find it they are fooled by its illusion in pornography and casual sex. Lonely people longing for approval fall into the world of drugs and alcohol, And insecure people strive to get to the top, only to find their identity lost when they finished second. In each case, people are looking for the fulfilled life, that life like the eagle, and instead they wind up more confused as to who they are, and where they fit into the world. We have all felt the sting of insignificance, and left wondering if life is even worth it. So where can we find the answers to who am I, and where do I belong, and am I even important to anyone. You might be surprised at the answer… Jesus Christ made a statement once 2,000 years ago that might blow your idea of Christianity out of the water.

John 10:10 “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance.” 

Most people have this idea in their head that Christianity is a bunch of rules and don’t do this, and don’t do that’s. But true followers of Christ know that this could not be further from the truth! Jesus said I came that they might ENJOY life, he is saying, “God, my Father has sent me to this earth to show you how to have a good time in life.” Not only does he say that he came so that we might enjoy life, but he came so that we could have it in abundance. 

The NIV version of the Bible says so that they might have life, and have it to the full. No matter how many people you sleep with, and no matter how many lines of cocaine you take, or any amount of trophies and fame you will obtain will ever give you the full life, life that is in abundance. I am talking about life that is fun, fulfilling, and free, and Jesus Christ came so that we can have that life. He is the key to not only finding my identity, but also to finding this “Abundant Life.” So what does Jesus Christ do for my identity? How does a guy who lived back in the first century help me find myself in the 21st century? That is what I would like to spend the rest of our time answering. 

Understand....

I am forgiven and free

 Jesus Christ came to earth as a human being like you and me, and did what no other human has done, he lived a perfect life, a life that allowed him the right to be with God. But instead look at what happened:

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin (Jesus) who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” NRSV

Jesus switched roles with us, when he died on the cross he died that spiritual and physical death that we had coming to us. Now instead of a do not pass go, do not collect $200 dollars go directly to jail card, we now have a get out of jail free card. We have been forgiven for our sins because of Jesus Christ! The Bible says “your sins are forgiven on account of his name.”

Colossians 2:13 – 14 “God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.” NRSV

But it does not end there, for God did not leave Jesus dead, he raised him from the grave of our sins giving us FREEDOM from sin and FREEDOM from guilt, shame, and worthlessness. Because we are no longer held back by our sins we can dance in freedom, true freedom that can only come from God. We don’t have to stay bogged down in destructive things like drugs, and pornography all the while looking for our identity, We can hold our heads high and soak up the freedom that comes when we realize that our identity is in Jesus and his forgiveness.

2 Corinthians 3:17 “The Lord is the Spirit who gives them life, and where he is there is freedom.”

The next thing Jesus does for our identity is we can say:

I am valuable

There was a wealthy man and his son once who loved to collect rare art works. In their collection they had everything from Picasso to Raphael. They loved to sit and look at the paintings and talk. When the Vietnam conflict broke out the young man was drafted and went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle rescuing another solider. The father was notified and grieved deeply. About a month later, right before Christmas there was a knock on the door. A young man stood outside the door with a large package in his hands. He said to the father, “I am the man your son died to save, he saved many lives that day. He often talked about you though and how you and him loved fine art.” The father unwrapped the package and it was a painting of his son done by the man. “I am not a great artist, but I want you to have this.” The man said as he walked away. The father was amazed by the portrait of the son and hung it over his mantle and every time a person came to the house he showed them this painting first. The man died a few months later and a great action was organized to sell the fine works of art in the collection. Many influential people attended. On the platform on the day of the auction was the portrait of the son, and the auctioneer cried out, “Who will bid on the son?” The room was silent… no one wanted this picture and soon the people shouted for the famous pictures they came for. The auctioneer persisted though, “Who will bid on the son.” Finally a voice in the back spoke up and said, “I will give $10 for it.” It was the family gardener and he did not have much money. The auctioneer said, “I have 10 who will give me 20…” The people were furious by this point and shouted for the famous paintings. “Going once, going twice, sold to the man in the back for $10.” The auctioneer now placed down his gavel and stepped down saying the auction was over. The people shouted “What is the meaning of this?” The auctioneer stated that due to a secret stipulation in the will the person that bought the son was to receive the entire collection as well.

You see Jesus is a million times more precious to God than this man’s picture of his son, but he was willing to give it all away for you and me. He was willing to sacrifice his only son so that we might be forgiven and free. 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” NRSV

Imagine that… we were valuable enough to God for him to put his Son through humiliation, torment, pain, heartbreak and death for you and me. The God of the entire universe, the one who created the earth and the stars, loves us. We are like the same people surrounding the cross who spit in his face and rejected his kindness only to have him chase after us with a love that is so powerful you cannot chose to do anything but accept it when it hits you. So many times in our society we are told, especially when we are young that we are expendable, we are worthless and meaningless. But God says I love you enough to give up my only son for you. That makes us extremely valuable!!! 

I have to mention one last thing. Remember the story of the art collector and the gardener who bid on the son and got it all… this “Abundant Life” is kind of like that in this way. Whoever gets the Son gets it all, whoever gets Jesus, God’s Son, gets it all. 

“The pathway [to identity]  is to follow in the footsteps of the Master” - John Whelan

“When you know who you are, you 

know what you are to do,”

“When you know who you are, you 

know in what direction you walk; 

you know the mission God 

has called you to”

For more on this and others in the "Who Am I?" series go to:

http://focuschurch.com/social.php?item=item:2013010608015399487D

OR

http://www.sermonconnect.com/mediapreview.php?id=2013010608015399487D