Sunday January 24 message

Who is God? Message 1 I am a big picture thinker. I look at things and I immediately see down the road a ways. I try to put big picture thinking into everything I do, people call it being a visionary. Well, there are times where it is vision that God gives me and there are other times where it is simply big picture thinking. Things like putting an underclassman in to play in a lot of softball games even when they are struggling simply because a few years down the road it will pay off. Maybe playing someone out of position from time to time because well, things happen like injuries and such. We make a lot of decisions as parents don’t we. I will guarantee you that the bigger the picture is of your kids future, the better decisions you will make. We have to punish them, and feel like they hate us in the immediate moment but in the big picture we know that they will grow up to be better people and love you more because of it. I tell parents all the time to let coaches be hard on their kids and push their kids because it prepares them for life. Un-coachable kids grow up to be unemployable adults. Now if I, as a fallible human being can see the big picture what does God’s picture look like? I liken it to a puzzle, each day we are given a piece of that puzzle and each day we search for where it fits and God has the box cover before we are even born. He knows where the piece you get each day goes and he knows what you need. God is a different type of gardener: Jeremiah 17:5-6 Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. He will be like a bush in the wastelands, he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert in a salt land where no one lives. Now I know quite a few farmers, and they have seasons that they plant their crops because that is when they will grow the best. They can plan and plan and watch their almanacs or their weather channel apps, regardless they are not going to be able to overcome floods or a drought, they just can’t. Jeremiah 17:7-8 But, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. Now look at these verses, this second half of our passage and think about what they are saying. I mean yes a tree next to a stream isn’t worried about the heat or the weather, but what about a real roots system. I mean a roots system grounded in the water isn’t very strong at all. The whole point to these verses is that when we trust in God, when we place our trust in Him, we can release all of our worries. Because, God isn’t just a gardener who plants, he is a gardener who guarantees the fruit that He needs. But let’s look at another passage on God as the gardener. John 15:1-2 Now a gardener in a vineyard would have several jobs, all of them pretty much for the same purpose but different all the same. 1. He oversees the wellbeing of the vine. Overseeing is not micromanaging. If God micromanaged us we would not love Him as strongly as we do. 2. He oversees the wellbeing of the branches of the vine. He oversees the vine and he also oversees the branches. 3. He prunes the branches so that they produce more fruit. Here is the part that none of us like. He prunes the branches so that they will produce more fruit. Raise your hand if you want to be pruned to produce more fruit. God uses us to reach the lost, but when the fruit isn’t happening He does some pruning. You see if a grape vine was left just to grow on its own it would. It would grow and it would produce fruit but it would stretch out and grow all over the place and soon it would produce less quality and then soon less quantity and what it does produce eventually would be overbearing and would end up on the ground, trampled and rotten. The vine has to be pruned, it has to be watched over or it will never produce the way it was created to. 4. He oversees the production and development of the fruit. He oversees again, no managing but overseeing. Giving the nutrients and pruning needed to bring about the best of results. 5. He gathers the fruit. No the vine doesn’t gather the fruit, no the branches don’t gather or eat the fruit, the gardener does. We talked last Wednesday night about how if we truly believed John 3:30 and that all that man has comes from above then we would take every ounce of fruit, every positive gain that comes to us as a gift from God. Realizing that we were simply vessels that God used to reach His people with. Instead, however, we do something good and we post it on social media, we wave our flag, and we eat up every ounce of credit, AKA glory hogs. Chinese bamboo many times gets chopped down prematurely by unsuspecting people. To those who don’t know anything about it Chinese bamboo appears to do nothing to grow the first 4 years of it’s life. At the end of 4 years it is rarely more than a few feet tall, it is seemingly puny and weak. But, the entire first 4 years of it’s life it is growing underground, it is growing a roots system that will stand up the demands of year 5. In the 5th year of it’s existence Chinese bamboo can grow to well over 80 feet tall. Think about that, 2 foot in the first 4 years, 80 plus the next year. That is all part of God’ design and if you don’t know anything about it, you know nothing about the roots that God put there first. God always has a plan. The birth of Jesus was not God’s alternative plan when the rest of His plan didn’t work out. God foretold of Christ’s coming as far back as the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:15). You can trust today that God has a plan for your life.

WEdnesday evening's message

Ten ways to check your character week 2. Malcolm in the middle clip on Youtube as the Duel at the Mall Everyone has a guiding power in their life. It’s that innermost voice that guides and directs us in the decisions we make. It appears in many cartoons as an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Well, as Christians we are called to be driven and guided by the Holy Spirit. That is God’s gift to us to help with tough decisions. If God and the Holy Spirit are the guides in our lives then there is fruit that comes from that. Fruit is the product of a tree, the same way spiritual fruit is the product of a life lived for Christ. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. To be honest just sharing Galatians 5:22-23 is the answer to all of the character tests I gave you in our list of 10 ways to test your character. Love – we know what that is but do we show it? And do we show it in the times that it will mean the most? It’s pretty darn easy to love the people who love you back, but what about the flip side? Joy – not happiness but joy, which is the overflow of our hearts. Happiness is circumstancial I can be happy when things go my way, I cannot be happy when life throws some impossible things at me but I can still find my joy because that will never faulter. Peace – not the absence of conflict but the absence of worry, fear and stress in the middle of conflict. Forebearance – Toleration of an offense, AKA patience Man oh man, tolerating someone who offends you in some way that is quite the test now isn’t it. Kindness – the act of being kind, very rarely is anyone referred to as kind. WE say man he/she is such a great person, so giving or so loving but never kind. Is it because we have forgotten how to be kind or because we don’t even think about kindness at all? Goodness – the outward act of being good and full of good. No not for goodness sake, but Goodness as in full of good. Faithfulness – the quality of being faithful Gentleness – the quality of being gentle, now here is a tough one. I have met a lot of people who never seem to get mad or upset, they are what we refer to as gentle. They can speak for themselves, they can correct wrongs and do it without getting mad or ugly about it. Self control – yikes this one is scary, self control is a control that overtakes all others, it means absolute control over your thoughts, actions and attitudes at all times. 1. What you think when someone takes your parking spot, or your driving lane Christmas time, driving thru a crazy parking lot and hoping to shop for the things you want to get for your loved ones. There is a certain amount of hurry because you have waited until the last minute and the place is packed. You cruise thru and find a good parking spot a row over, you speed down the row make the turn and rush to be met by a little car whipping right into your spot. Or worse, you drive up and turn on your signal to show that you are pulling into that spot and all of a sudden they pull in knowing you were headed in there. What do you think, what do you do, how do you react? How do you want to react? Character is deeper than our actions. It is controlling your thoughts, if you can keep yourself from wanting to set fire to their car you have won the battle for your character. A few years ago I was talking to someone who suffered from road rage, possibly some of the worst road rage you will ever see. She was always angry when people cut her off in any way. I tend to laugh it off, I mean someone cuts you off now you are going to be a whole 3-5 seconds later where ever you are driving. She told me the story of how one morning she was headed to the dentist, got in her car and realized she was running just a few minutes late. SO she drove fast to make up for the time, she was coming up to a red light and as she was slowing down a car cut her off. She didn’t have to hit the brakes she just didn’t like the car pulling in front of her so when the light changed she whipped out of line and drove fast to get around the car and get back in front of her just for spite. Not only that she drove as slow as she could for a while to prove her point. As she reached for the door at the front of the office when she arrived it was locked. She stood there for a minute and a lady opened the door. She said sorry I am running a little late, my daughter threw up in the bed this morning and I had to clean it all up before the sitter got there, my car wouldn’t start and I had to get my neighbor to come over and jump start the car in the freezing cold this morning and then to make matters worse as I was driving to work a car cut me off and drove as slow as they possible could. Yep, sometimes we need to realize that others are in the same hurry we are(and at times not in a hurry at all). 2. How you react to slow internet or phone connection: Patience, patience patience. We live in a world of constant contact. We want so badly to be in constant touch with people even when we aren’t around them. Tara is the world’s worst phone person. I can get a text from her, respond immediately with a phone call and no answer. It’s so frustrating but is the frustrating part that she is so bad in responding or that I am not getting my way. I work in the field of domestic violence and all unhealthy relationships boil down to power and control. One person is overpowering and controlling the other. I hear horror stories of people not getting their way and hurting others violently. Not because they did something wrong, not out of frustration but out of a need for control in that moment. As I type this Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide seem to be positioning themselves to make the college football playoffs and contend for another title. Actually I can say that they have won another title now that I proof read this Tuesday morning the day after they won it. People ask all the time what makes him tick, what makes him so successful and so different. I watch and I see a few things, one work ethic. It seems nothing gets in the way of his work, his preparation and his determination. I also see determination and drive. He is self motivated he doesn’t need anyone telling him he needs to win, he will win because he is driven to. But I also see control. He only loses his cool when things happen that are out of his control. The press, he hates them because they post and print and spread things he cannot control. He had someone ready to write about book about his life and he was going to make millions and millions but he wouldn’t do it because he demanded to have the final say in what went in the book. So no book. Control, he is fine as long as he is in control and I think in many ways we all are. So a lot of this boils down to the fruits of the Spirit which I shared at the beginning and a lot of it boils down to learning to control what you can control and letting go of the things that you cannot.

My vision 2016

Small group: Lee, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and a self-professed atheist was sitting at his desk on Christmas Eve. A slow news day he found himself reminiscing about the Delgado family that he had featured while writing a series of articles about Chicago’s neediest people a few days earlier. The Delgado’s were comprised of a grandmother named Perfecta and her two granddaughters, Jenny age 13 and her sister Lydia 11 years old. He remembered how unprepared he was when he walked into their two room apartment on the west side of Chicago for the interview; bare halls and bare walls, no furniture, no rugs, nothing but a kitchen table and a handful of rice in the cupboards. He learned during the interview that Jenny and Lydia only had one short-sleeved dress apiece, plus a thin gray sweater that they shared. On cold days when the girls walked the half-mile to school, one of the girls would start with the sweater and then give it to the other at the halfway mark. It was all they had. Perfecta wanted more for her granddaughters and would gladly have worked, but her severe arthritis and age made work too difficult and painful. Since it was a slow news day Lee decided to check out a car and drive to Chicago’s west side to check up on the Delgado’s. When Jenny opened the door he couldn’t believe what he saw! His article on the Delgado’s had touched the hearts of many subscribers who responded with furniture and appliances, rugs, dozens of coats, scarves and gloves. The girls wouldn’t have to share a sweater any longer. There was cartons and cartons and boxes of food everywhere. They had so much food that the cupboards and closets couldn’t contain it. Someone had even donated a Christmas tree, and under it were mounds of presents and thousands of dollars in cash! Lee was astonished! But what astonished him the most was what he found Perfecta and her granddaughters doing. They were preparing to give most of it away. "Why would you give so much of this away?" Lee asked. Perfecta responded, "Our neighbors are still in need. We cannot have plenty while they have nothing. This is what Jesus would want us to do." Lee was dumbfounded. After regaining his composure he asked Perfecta another question. He wanted to know what she and the girls thought about the generosity that was shown to them. Again, Lee was not prepared for the answer. She said, "This is wonderful, this is very good." "We did nothing to deserve this; it’s all a gift from God. But," she added, "It is not his greatest gift, Lee. No, we celebrate that tomorrow. Jesus." Lee was speechless as he drove back to the office. In the quiet of his car he noted a couple of observations. He had plenty and along with it plenty of anxiety, while the Delgado’s despite their poverty had peace. Lee had everything and yet wanted more, but the Delgado’s had nothing and yet knew generosity. Lee had everything and yet his life was as bare as the Delgado’s apartment prior to the article running. And yet the Delgado’s who had nothing were filled with hope, contentment and had a spiritual certainty. Even though Lee had so much more than the Delgado’s, he longed for what they had in their poverty. When I closed out sharing this illustration I prayed for every individual in attendance. This is something I have been wanting to do for a while and I hope to do it regularly. I challenged our congregation however, that I want to do it in their homes. I want people to invite me and my family into their homes to pray for them and their families on a regular basis. The time is now for us to start working together as a church to reach our lost loved ones. Growing God's kingdom one life and one heart at a time starting with those we love the most.

Sunday January 10 message

January 10 2015 Acts church What if I asked you to define church? What would it be, would it be a building, would it be a time of week, would it be a group of people? If it is a building what type of building is it? If it is a time of week, what day and time is it? If it is a group of people what would they be doing? Now I want you to Biblically describe and define the church. Not the way we define it based on our past and present experiences. Define it, truly define it the way the Bible does. What are the characteristics of the church? Biblically the characteristics would be: 1. Love – The greatest commandment straight from Jesus’ mouth was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all of your soul and all of your mind. Then comes the second, to love your neighbor as yourself. 2. A group of people on a mission – One of the greatest gifts of coaching sports is getting a group of young people to work together, strive together, sweat together for a common goal. How much greater it is in a church to do the same thing. 3. A group of people gathered to pray and focus on Jesus – a group that when they did gather, they prayed and focused on Jesus. Not the music, not the message, not the lighting, comfort level of the seats or the air temperature. A true focus on Jesus and prayer for all who don’t know Him. 4. A group of people equipping and training people to go out and serve – here comes the purpose, the true purpose of meetings should be to equip and train people to go out and serve their community and love on the lost like Jesus. Now that we set out some characteristics let’s look at where and how the church first started. Acts 2:42-47 V. 42 tells us they devoted themselves Devotion is defined as: love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause A. love for a person – Jesus loyalty to a person – Jesus enthusiasm for a person – Jesus B. Love for an activity – sharing Jesus Loyalty to an activity – sharing Jesus Enthusiasm for an activity – sharing Jesus C. Love for a cause – growing God’s kingdom Loyalty to a cause – growing God’s kingdom Enthusiasm to cause – growing God’s kingdom So what were they loving, loyal to and enthusiastic about? The apostle’s teaching – Fellowship – Breaking of bread – Prayer – Everyone was filled with awe. Awe means - a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. No not some, not a few every one of them was filled with awe. The only thing we can have awe for is God himself, nothing on earth and no one who has walked this earth outside of Jesus. I can tell you this, I have tried my hardest to go to concerts, I have. You sit and watch people scream at and idolize human beings. But, I will tell you this if you EVER get to go to a Casting Crowns, Newsboys, Chris Tomlin or Christian concert and see them put the words on the screen and the whole auditorium singing praise to God, that is an awe moment for sure. v. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. Everything in common, why? Because it wasn’t about a preacher, a worship team or a style. It was about a Savior and a God who they were all in awe of. What was in common? Their love, their loyalty and their enthusiasm were all for one common person and one common goal. Jesus and sharing Jesus. v. 45 Selling their possessions and goods to give to anyone in need. Not saying they sold their homes, their cars and their furniture but they raised money to take care of the needs of those they came in contact with. V. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. Every day, well we can’t do that but you know what we can do, we can read God’s word together. I want to get back to the read the new testament in a year plan and read it all together so that we are all reading God’s word together. What is so important about this everyday part? The more you are around someone the more impact they have on your life. Think about the parts of you that have changed the most over the past few years, why is that? Most likely it is because of the people you spend the majority of your time with. This church this group of believers were together all the time, and that meant they were influencing one another. V. 46b They broke bread together in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. I think in all honesty there is a word in this verse that sets them apart from all others. Sincere, they ate together and were glad together and it was because they were sincere and true absolute true sincerity can only be found in a group of people all doing what they do for the same reason. Theirs was sharing Jesus with their city. v. 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved The last word in our text today is so, so important saved. Not attending, not giving, not singing, not working not even serving, saved. Here is something to think about. The original origin of the word sincere was Sine (which means without) and cera (which means wax). When we get ready to sell a car what do we do? We clean it up and make it as shiny and clean as possible, probably cleaner than it ever was when we weren’t attempting to sell it. If we were sincere, we would show it to them just the way it sits, unwaxed. A glad and sincere heart would be a real, true 100% real representation of ourselves and a heart that lives, beats and shares Jesus.

Youth character series overview (January 6 2016)

10 Character tests So many things in life are so hard to measure. Success is hard to measure, no matter what you are doing with your life there will either be somone doing better, or someone who makes it appear that they are doing better. Also, if you are doing really good at something, there will be someone who is better at something else than you are. I used to love the song I want to leave a legacy, in the chorus were the words: I wanna leave a legacy, how will they remember me? Did I choose to love, did I turn to you enough. Make my life a humble offering. We all want to be remembered, there isn’t one of us that doesn’t. I will tell you I have grown to love the things I do being remembered more than me. When I was 17 starting out doing a little youth ministry I wanted to be a front and center doing it all and getting all of the credit guy. About 2-3 years later I began loving and chosing opportunities to do things behind the scenes, I loved hearing people talk about it and loved even more that they couldn’t quite put their finger on exactly who did it. Those come with the development of your character. Character is very easy to measure. I dare say there is nothing easier to measure than someone else’s character. Let me restate that, there is NOTHING easier to measure than someone else’s character. There is nothing tougher than measuring our own character. There are those people who are too lenient on themselves. Well, people change, times change, things change, blah blah blah. Then, there are people that are too hard on themselves. And there are people caught in the middle. So what I want to do is help you, in my LEssofme mindset for 2016 measure your character. I am going to lay out 10 ways we can do it, then I am going to elaborate on each of them over the next 10 weeks. Not to challenge or question your character, but to let you measure it. First and foremost, before we talk any more the bottom line is this. Your character can only be compared to that of Jesus. The end, no further explanation needed. The mistakes we make are greater when we measure our character in other ways like: Peers – Parents – Pastors – Coaches/leaders – Good people – So here is the ten checklist in no particular order, some of them are a little humorous but if you have been in the situation you will get it immediately. 1. What you think when someone takes your parking spot, or your driving lane 2. How you react to slow internet or phone connection: Anyone who knows me knows that most days I am wide open. I mean if you are 25 years or older you should be able to recall the days of dial up. If any of our kids had to sit and look at or listen to the dial up sounds the way we had to when the internet first hit they would go crazy. How do you react when the things you count on aren’t ready when YOU need them to be. 3. The gap between what you think and what you actually say when someone compliments you: Christians are so famous for false humility aren’t we. We accomplish something huge and we are greeted with applause or congrats. WE answer it with oh it wasn’t me it was God, or it wasn’t much. Jeff awesome job Sunday, that was a great message: Thanks, it wasn’t me it was God(I am positive God would preach it better) Hey _________ great job, that was awesome! You say, thanks it really wasn’t much. You think, Heck yeah! I rocked it, you better not forget it. You say, I am not so sure I really deserve all of theat. You think, Yes I do, it’s about time someone recognized. C.S. Lewis said, true humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less. 4. How you respond to critics: Haters gonna hate. We all walk around with this puffed up attitude that we have haters. I don’t get it, I know everyone is a critic but come on with the haters thing, it’s ridiculous. How do you react when someone criticizes you? 1 – do you hate back , start listing reasons they can’t talk 2 – Start telling them reasons why they are wrong 3- Start attacking them and their weaknesses What if when someone criticized you, you said thank you(even if it is silently) because I will tell you this, people usually don’t criticize people or things they don’t care about. 5. What you tell yourself when you make a mistake: There are two different types of people when it comes to this reaction and I am going to have a grading scale for you to place yourself on when we study this one further. You are a loser, you are such a failure and always will be --------------------- there must be a mistake, I don’t mess up. 6. How big is the gap between who you told people you were 5 years ago and who you are today: The people who can make the biggest impact for God whether we like it or not is people who lived contrary to Him. In other words a convict, felon, thief or drug addict can make a bigger impact than 90% of Christians because they have personally experienced the grace of God and the love of Jesus in a way that people will be blown away by. A backsliding Christian who becomes luke warm, acts the way they used to condemn will make less impact because they look like a hypocrite. I am not bragging at all, okay maybe a little, but I had a friend who I hadn’t been around in a while. He said to me, you know why it was so great talking to you again, and why I trusted you so fast? Because you have never changed, same old Jeff. Most people call that boring, you will learn to call it consistency and people resepect that. 7. How you react when someone overfills the trash and doesn’t take it out: Oh Josh, my live in youth intern. We used to have a contest, whoever went to put trash in the kitchen trash can and it didn’t stay had to take it out. Let me tell you, we jumped up and down, smashed it in there until the sides were bulging on the can. When you did have to take it out, it was impossible to get it out, and even more impossible to get it out of the can without stuff flying everywhere. I am sure it drove Tara crazy. Truth is, when you walk by you want to just drop your trash in, having to stop what you are doing and take the trash out is a huge inconvenience for you, but remember it was a huge inconvenience for the last 10 trips by and several people as well. 8. Your social media voice: What looks important to others? I can tell you what kind of person most people are by what they post, but I can’t do it for myself. I see parents and grandparents posting stuff about their kids/grandkids all the time and I love it. I know teens hate it and that is why snapchat is so much cooler to them because they can post their own hundred pictures a day while complaining about adults posting 2-3 a week lol. What does your voice say? Who are you vs. who do people think you are? Social media voice is so important and people don’t get it. What do you do when you find out someone is dating someone, if you don’t know them you go straight to their social media to try and see what you personally think of them. All you can go off of is what you can see, and 9 times out of 10 you will find something you don’t like. 9. How you react to other people’s social media voice: How angry do you get when people post something contrary to what you believe? Politically, religiously, taste in sports teams?etc……. 10. How you return the shopping cart: If you truly want to know how humble you are, think about how you returned the shopping cart the last 5 times you shopped with one. You were in a hurry and left it in a parking spot(blocking others from parking, making more work for the workers, possibly scratching or denting someone else’s vehicle). You had some trash and left it in there because you didn’t want it in your vehicle.(leaving stuff someone else would have to take care of) This whole series came from a quiet time I had in my pastoral care email one morning. Character is so important, it is so much more than what we give it credit for and some worry too much about it, and some don’t care enough about it either way it’s still there and it isn’t going away because you try to ignore it.

Last year's new year's message

First series of based on Francis Chan Quote 2015 preview sermon: It is no great secret that my heart beats for people, for young people and for sports. I love competing in and playing sports and I also love coaching sports. I love comparing the first week of practice each season to all of the hoopla that is created about players coming in. I hear how great they are, how they are going to be varsity starters and division 1 college prospects and all this before the set foot on the field. I can usually tell you by the end of the first day who is going to live up to the hype and who isn’t, and more often times than not they will not come anywhere close. The problem is the game is played on an open field in public and against others of real skill levels. Not in a batting cage, at a closed workout or in a backyard where there is no comparison and no pressure. Well, several years ago they decided at Ancient City that they wanted to have a church softball team. I explained to them at the time that we had no athletes in our church. It was true my youth groups there were big but at first there were zero athletes. I didn’t even have anyone to play catch with at the beach with a football. But, I told them I would give it a try but I am a little too competitive for this go and have fun picture they were painting. Day one, we meet at a ball field and I have about 17 people show up. Good deal, problem though 4 of them had played before and 3 of those it was in PE at school. Problem #2 we had 17 people there and about 10 gloves, 4 of them belonged to my dad and I. This is not looking good. Then in church the next Sunday a young high school kid who looked a little athletic but not really came up to me and apologized for missing practice. Said he and his family really wanted to play and they were good at baseball. I couldn’t argue with that so I told them to come out the next week. He showed up brand new cleats, a pair baseball pants(like bright white brand new for picture day at Little League), brand new batting gloves and a batting helmet. I told him this was church softball and I was excited about his enthusiasm but that he wouldn’t be needing the helmet or the metal spike cleats or the baseball pants and cup he had gone out and purchased(I knew I was in trouble then) . He walked out to start playing catch and he had a glove for the wrong hand, he was right handed and his glove was for his right hand. You ball players get the picture. Then, I loaned him a glove and kind of lost track of him until he was ready to bat. I threw a pitch it arced came down and he took it. He said he was just getting his timeing right. Next pitch up came down and whiffff! He swung and missed, this continued for about 12 swings( I know if I had a heart I would have stopped after 3-4 but he looked so sharp in all of his new stuff). After practice he told me Jeff, this is the first time I ever played baseball( I said nooo really?) He then told me he and his buddy were headed home to play some more MLB on their playstation so they would be prepared for our first game. That’s right folks, he decided he was good at playing baseball because of his skills on the video games he had purchased. This whole series I am doing now is on mobilization. Get out of your pew, get out of your comfort zones and share God’s word. Show Francis Chan Quote from Pinterest: Simon says, “Pat your head we pat our heads. Jesus says, “Go therefore and make disciples we memorize that verse.” Matthew 28:16-20 All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me Therefore go and make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and the Holy Spirit And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Acts 1:7-8 It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you And you will be my witnesses in JerusalemJudeaSamariaAnd the ends of the earth. Why do we fall short and fail in this area so often? Proverbs 29:25; Galatians 1:10 Because in our own little way we all strive to be people pleasers. I read a book by a famous baseball coach and he had an entire chapter in his book on hecklers. Hecklers are people who show up at games just to make fun of people, attempt to demean the players and coaches and break them down mentally. They will call them names, make fun of their names and possibly even dig up something from their past to get inside their heads. Well, the coach said, if you are listening to the stands as a coach or a player you are going to be sitting there very soon. It makes sense, it is your job as a coach or a player to perform and not to worry about what is being said in the stands. What about Jesus? What about God? Our lives unfortunately are full of hecklers.People who only want to see us fail, or possibly they want to see us be successful in their eyes rather than God’s. The people pleasing trap is a huge one and it is the main reason we don’t share God’s message with more people. There are 5 harmful affects of people pleasing: 1. It causes you to miss God’s will for your life God created you to fulfill His expectations not the expectations of others. God never called you to be the absolute best in the world at anything, He called you to be the absolute best you can be based on the tools and the abilities He gave you. God made you to be you, and He gets great pleasure in watching you simply be you. 2. It prevents your faith from growing. When the opinions of others mean more than the opinion of God it causes insecurities. Be honest, what are you most insecure about? Your looks, your height or weight? Your intelligence level or your abilities in some area? What truly causes those insecurities is valuing far too much the opinion of others. Here is a test for you, whose opinion matters the most to you in your life? If it is someone other than God then that person is your god! 3. It leads you quickly into other sins. The Bible is full of people who did things their way or gave in to peer pressure or did things based on their fear of others. A few examples are: Samson – the strongest man who ever lived wanted so badly to be accepted and worried so much about Delilah that he broke his covenant with God to make her happy. Peter denied Jesus three different times because he was afraid of what others were going to do or think of him. Pilate- knew that Jesus had done nothing worthy of any form of punishment, certainly not death and yet he let the people vote and thereby allowed Jesus to be crucified. If we are completely honest we can all think of a time or times where we made bad decisions, and those decisions were driven by our longing for the approval of others. That is what peer pressure is. 4. It causes hypocrisy. I really don’t think there is any one word that causes more distress than the word hypocrite. No one wants to be a hypocrite and no one wants to be called one even if they aren’t being one. The word hypocrite actually comes from an ancient Greek word used to describe stage actors who played multiple roles in the same play by wearing different masks in different scenes. Basically it was a budget way of making a play work with less actors and actresses. People pleasers wear masks, there is no way around it. When they are with their family, they try hard to be what their family wants them to be and who they want them to be so that everyone is happy. When they are with certain groups of friends they are who those friends want them to be and they do it to avoid any form of negativitiy from that group. Some people even fit in several groups and so they wear several masks. Many people wear a mask at home, a mask at school or at work, and a mask at church. The saddest thing is that they miss out on being themselves and truly pleasing God. 5. It completely silences your life message. Your testimony finds all of it’s strength in the conversion that you received the moment you accepted Christ. Accepting Christ did not take away all of the things you do in your life it gave them a different meaning. I played baseball, basketball and football before accepting Christ as a young boy. I loved drag racing and playing with my hot wheels and playing video games. None of that had to go anywhere, they just all slipped down a slot in the meaning category. And by placing God first those things had more meaning because now I was doing them not just for me, for my enjoyment or even for my parents I was doing them for God. Your testimony is weakened not by sins or mistakes but by not being who God designed you to be and become. Satan’s greatest weapon is the fear of rejection. Be honest, we all hate being rejected. There are days that I am stuck in the office all day, the girls are all at school and I want to text or call and see if someone wants to do lunch but I don’t because I would rather sit in a restaurant all alone reading a book than be rejected. And in reality I it wouldn’t even be that big of a rejection, it’s the fact that others would rather be with someone else than me or the fact that hey here’s a news flash Jeff they already had plans and they aren’t going to invite you to tag a long with the person they have plans with.

God's picture of CHristmas (from our Candle light service, CHristmas Eve Eve 2015)

The problem with life is the picture of it we have in our heads. Here is the thing, we all have a picture of what Christmas should be. It’s tricky, because you get married and now you have to plan Christmas around the traditions of others. What is your picture of Christmas? What are your favorite traditions of things you do with your loved ones on Christmas? I want to share with you a few of our Christmas cards through the years. Now, I don’t want to hurt any one’s feelings but if nothing else I am good at putting myself in other people’s shoes. Tara loves to open up Christmas cards and read them and see the personalized ones with a family portrait on the front. Well, I am not that into cards. I just don’t have a use for them and the reason is I am a realist. I know how I pick out cards at the store. I walk around and look for a large sign that tells you what section of cards you are in. I scan and look for the most appropriate(or most inappropriate one) I can find for the occasion. Whether it is birthday, get well soon, Merry Christmas or anniversary the process is the same. Then I grab my selection and if it is good I grab the envelope and I am out the door. Now, I know some of you get cards and you read them and think awe that is so sweet, that is such a great thing. I can’t believe they spent all that time picking out the perfect card for me. Well, if the he is Jeff he didn’t. It’s fate or it’s God’s plan it was not Jeff’s research. I also see the Christmas cards with the family portraits on them. I hate taking family portraits, I have done a good job of raising daughters who aren’t big fans of it either. But every year without fail, we dress up in some way and we go somewhere and we take pictures knowing that we will be immortalized on someone’s mantle mostly because we are so darn good looking but also because that is what people do. But, I know the pain of getting everyone dressed, getting everyone to look at the camera. Getting everyone to smile, have their hair in place and eyes opened all at the same time. I know there are lots and lots of takes and very, very few final products that make the cut. I have a few in particular that I absolutely love. One because I came up with the idea and the others because well it tells you who we are. Picture one, now we are not a clapping, speaking out, celebrating kind of church family I know this full well, But if you feel the urge to ooh and ahhh go right ahead I will pause for it each time we click thru these because we are pretty darn good looking if I do say so myself. Here is picture one it is one that I thought perfectly encapsulates the American family today, and yes this was a few years ago. We are all seated and on a phone or ipad while the picture is being taken. Here is another one where we are all taking selfies which if you think about it was before it’s time but we all know how cutting edge I can be. It’s realistic, I mean we could have made it more realistic and I plan on doing our Christmas card photo another way next year. It will be a picture of me separating Alexa and PJ as if they were in a fight while Tara is chasing Brae in the background. Now that would be real, but go into a restaurant and look at families, they are all on an electronic of some sort ignoring one another so we put this in a warm fuzzy feel good Christmas family photo. Here is the next picture, I love this one. For more reasons than one. First of all I love that it shows just how different we are. Alexa in her Miami Heat Dewayne Wade jersey, me in my Washington Redskins jersey, PJ in her Florida Gator jersey and hat and Tara in some ratty looking thing she found in a thrift store somewhere. But all of us are smiling, all of us are looking at the camera and well it’s perfect until you zoom in on our angel. PJ is in the background being PJ and we had no idea thru most of the shoot. Finally, this one happened by accident. Alexa, PJ and I were oh so thrilled to get dressed and ride all the way out to Washington Oaks to have our pictures taken in front of trees(not woods trees Alexa) but we have trees and ponds and things in town. About half way thru we were headed down a long tree covered path, and I put Brae down so we could have one of just Alexa, PJ and Brae and she started to fuss. So Alexa and PJ joined in and if that isn’t the most realistic view of what we think I don’t know what is. While family portraits are not my favorite Christmas tradition. I do have several that I absolutely love. I love waking up Christmas morning and watching the girls walk in to their gifts and seeing the look on their faces. I love taking them over next door and letting the do Christmas with my parents. I love taking them to Georgia and letting them do it all over again with Tara’s family. While I do not love putting the Christmas tree up, I do love watching the girls decorate it. I love watching Christmas movies I have my favorites and we all probably do. For me it’s Rudolph and it’s Charlie Brown. Those are my two favorites so we have to watch them each year as a family and if they aren’t your favorites there is a time after the service where I will offer prayer for you and your misguided taste in Christmas movies. But probably one of my favorites which has evolved over time is going around looking at Christmas lights with my family. We have done it in separate vehicles, as a hay ride and even once we played redneck bingo in the church van as we rode around. I love it. Those are my pictures of Christmas and they are probably different from most of yours. I know for a fact that all of them are different from God’s picture of Christmas. John 1:1-2 God never sleeps, God never slumbers but let’s pretend he does for the sake of this sermon. That morning God woke up alone. His son who was always there with him from the very beginning now was not He was being incarnated and making his official entrance into the world. He was born in a mess, and not treated as the King of Kings. It wasn’t just a stark reminder of not having Him present there with Him in Heaven for about the next 33 years. It was the reminder that He was going to be treated poorly all of his life, He was going to eventually be beaten very badly and then crucified on a cross. All this is God’s first Christmas and what he planned out from the beginning of time. God knew how it was going to go, and I know how things are going to go a lot of times but there is wishful thinking. Many times my Sunday mornings are filled with wishful thinking, even though I know people will choose other things. I wonder if God has that, wishful thinking even though He knows without a doubt. Now every year, I will probably try to set aside a night to watch Rudolph, one of the girls will be at a friends house, or have a bunch of homework to do. I may have to take care of something or Tara may take too long at the store. The bottom line is it won’t be the way I pictured it and it will somehow have less meaning than if it had been exactly as planned out. I will try several times to plan out an event where we can all get together and look at lights and eat dinner and enjoy a Christmas tradition but odds are half of us will have other plans. That is life, and we cannot let things devalue our experience even though they seem to. God had a picture of Christmas the first Christmas, and He had a picture of every Christmas after that and the scary part is He has the power to make Christmas what He wants it to be. But, just like if I force the girls to stay home and watch the movie with us, it loses it’s feeling if it is forced. God gives us the ability to choose His Son as our Savior and He gives us the ability to choose what our Christmas is about. Let’s try harder this year in the coming days to make Christmas more like what God pictured than what we have made it about. There was once a man who didn't believe in God, and he didn't hesitate to let others know how he felt about religion and religious holidays. His wife, however, did believe, and she raised their children to also have faith in God and Jesus, despite his disparaging comments. One snowy eve, his wife was taking their children to a service in the farm community in which they lived. They were to talk about Jesus' birth. She asked him to come, but he refused. "That story is nonsense!" he said. "Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That's ridiculous!" So she and the children left, and he stayed home. A while later, the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. As the man looked out the window, all he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. He looked out, but couldn't see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside to see what could have been beating on his window. In the field near his house he saw a flock of wild geese. Apparently they had been flying south for the winter when they got caught in the snowstorm and couldn't go on. They were lost and stranded on his farm, with no food or shelter. They just flapped their wings and flew around the field in low circles, blindly and aimlessly. A couple of them had flown into his window, it seemed. The man felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It's warm and safe; surely they could spend the night and wait out the storm. So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. But the geese just fluttered around aimlessly and didn't seem to notice the barn or realize what it could mean for them. The man tried to get their attention, but that just seemed to scare them, and they moved further away. He went into the house and came with some bread, broke it up, and made a bread crumb trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch on. Now he was getting frustrated. He got behind them and tried to shoo them toward the barn, but they only got more scared and scattered in every direction except toward the barn. Nothing he did could get them to go into the barn where they would be warm and safe. "Why don't they follow me?!" he exclaimed. "Can't they see this is the only place where they can survive the storm?" He thought for a moment and realized that they just wouldn't follow a human. "If only I were a goose, then I could save them," he said out loud. Then he had an idea. He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around behind the flock of wild geese. He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn--and one-by-one, the other geese followed it to safety. He stood silently for a moment as the words he had spoken a few minutes earlier replayed in his mind: "If only I were a goose, then I could save them!" Then he thought about what he had said to his wife earlier. "Why would God want to be like us? That's ridiculous!" Suddenly it all made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese--blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son become like us so He could show us the way and save us. As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet and pondered this wonderful thought. Suddenly he understood why Christ had come. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished with the passing storm. He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer: "Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm.