“…Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”
-Rev. 2:4
Have you ever missed the first button on a shirt you wearing? If you have, it doesn’t matter how well you button the other buttons. If the first button is out of whack, the rest will be too.
Our love for Jesus is the first button in our relationship with Him.
When it is ‘out of whack’, then everything else is too.
Jesus has not just called us to serve Him, but He has called us to love Him. In all the hustle and bustle of life, it is easy to allow our passion for Jesus to wane. But our love for Jesus is the foundation for a life with Jesus.
I know this isn’t easy.
But we MUST prioritize our relationship with Jesus.
But Jesus never said it was going to be easy.
He just said it would be worth it.
“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
-Malachi 3:10-12 (New International Version)
8 Steps to Financial Breakthrough:
1. Make life decisions that are led by God, not by money.
2. Give: Tithe First (Make this the 1st check you write. Before taxes and anything else.)
3. Live with integrity in all that you do. (If you get extra change at the store, give it back!)
4. Adjust your Life to make room to honor God (Sell stuff, get out of debt, educate yourself, speak to a financial advisor)
5. Speak like God (Speak God’s word over you, your family, and your finances.)
6. Get God’s words in you (Let the reality of the Word become your reality)
7. Journal your dreams and things that God has promised you (Dreams for your family, dreams for your ministry, dreams for your future)
8. Worship like you have won. (Surrender everything before you get anything. Do it today)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
-Hebrews 11:6 (New International Version)
Pastors, your faith must be rooted in God. Rooted in His word. His truth. His ideas. In His leadership.
“Of course”, you say (and so do I!).
But saying the right things isn’t nearly enough. Living the life of faith is where preaching becomes real.
As a Pastor this principle is vitally important.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many people show up during Sunday services.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many people showed up on time for Sunday services.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how much money people gave in the offering.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many “amens” we got during the morning message.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in whether the sound system squealed or not.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many people responded to the altar call.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many people think we are cool.
Our faith must to rooted, grounded, and based in God.
And God alone.
When we walk this way, we can properly lead our people in the path of faith.
“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”
-Ps. 27:4
What is the One Thing God is asking you to do? The One Thing that He is asking you to give up? The One Thing He is asking you to embrace? The One Thing that He is imploring you to seek?
Most of us get overwhelmed with the 2 million things that we need to do that are not done.
But God is not asking us to tackle 2 million things at once.
He is asking us to address One Thing.
One priority, one focus, one area.
When we are consistently faithful in the One Thing, we can get to everything if we learn to be patient.
By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 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 his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.
-Mark 6:35-43
We often speak of ‘thinking outside the box’. By thinking outside the box, we become more innovative, creative, and more cutting edge. I sincerely believe in all these things.
I like to consider myself an outside the box thinker.
But sometimes thinking ‘outside the box’ gets us into trouble.
That’s the problem in the above text. The discipes couldn’t keep their thoughts ‘inside the box.’ They kept thinking outside the box. Their response to the directive of Jesus was to think, “if only”.
If only we had more bread we could obey your command and feed this huge crowd of people.
When Jesus commands us to do something, we often say the same thing.
If only:
We had more supply.
We had more money.
We had more help.
We had more talent.
We had more training.
We had more connections.
We had more time.
We had more education.
If only. If only. If only.
If only we had something ‘outside the box’, we could obey the commands of Jesus.
But if we could keep our thinking ‘inside the box‘, we would easily become witnessess to the power of God. When the disciples finally trusted Jesus with the little that they had, a miracle happened right before their eyes.
If only the people of God actually trusted Him for outside the box provision by staying faithful with what was inside the box.
Because of a strange quirk in the warranty, we had to wait 2 months before the dryer could be serviced.
So for the past 2 months we have been taking wet clothes to the homes of relatives and friends, in addition to going to the landry-mat (where ladies look at your underwear!).
This has been a inconvient and at times, frustrating process.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday it ceased to be frustrating and quickly became embarrassing.
Yesterday we diagnosed what our dryer’s problem was.
It wasn’t a mechanical issue where trained professionals needed to be called.
It was the result of a breaker switch that simply needed to be flipped on.
That was all.
We flipped one switch and everything wass different (at least in the Newman home!)
In many cases, change is simple.
It doesn’t require complex analysis, or extensive research.
It just takes one simple decision.
Though simple, it still may be difficult.
It may require courage.
Sacrifice.
Challenge.
Endurance.
But though all this maybe true, we can take solace in the fact that by one ‘flip the switch’, everything can be different.
“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
-Acts 17:6
I have been studying the people of the Early Church in the book of Acts this past week. The Christians chronicled in the 5th book of the New Testament changed the world forever. They were passionate, bold, full of faith. They had an extreme hunger, desire, and urgency for the expansion of the kingdom of God.
As I have read through this adventure story, I came to this conclusion:
Love for Jesus and commitment to His mission was the main focus of their entire lives.
Anything that was in competition or in conflict with that focus was quicklty cast aside and put to death.
They lived completely abandoned to God.
In our generation we more commonly put to death (or at least dillute) the commitment to love Jesus and give ourselves to His mission so we can protect our methods, money, status, reputation, pride, personal priorities, and a host of other things.
They lived to abandon themselves while we live to protect ourselves. Part of the challenge with the modern day, new millennium church is that we have a confused sense of purpose.
We are looking to save the church (and ourselves), but the Early Church understood that Jesus created the church (through Him) to save the world.
My prayer is that the world again sees a group of Jesus followers completely abandoned to God in their generation.
Have you ever made a promise that was a challenge to keep?
Last week I had a promise to keep that when I intially made it, didn’t seem like a big deal. A friend invited the Newman family to a birthday party last Thursday night almost a month ago. The schedule seemed clear, we wanted to celebrate this little guy’s birthday, so we were happy to go.
What I couldn’t have possibly forecast was that Game 7 of the NBA Finals would fall on the exact same night.
I was shocked.
Most of you know I am a rabid NBA fan. The NBA Finals in June is a big deal in our house. Tiffany’s favorite team is the Los Angeles Lakers and they were in the championship series. She can get really crazy during the games.
One Tuesday night during the 1st round, the pizza delivery guy came to the door at the exact same moment Tiffany unleashed a blood curdling shriek. He looked a little unsettled until I said, “NBA Playoffs man, my wife is getting a little wild. But everything is okay here.”
With that backdrop you can see how this conflict could be an issue.
Leading up to Game 7, I did everything I could to resolve this conflict.
I checked the time of the party: 5:30 pm
I checked the time of the game: 6:00 pm
I called the place where the party was being held (Bounce U) and asked them how long the party would last: 2 hours.
I called them back and asked them if they had televisions on site that would show the game: They didn’t.
So I was faced with a decision: Do I keep my promise, or make an excuse?
I opted to keep my promise.
We had a great time with our friends, ate pizza, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (and no, we didn’t leave early!).
After getting home, we were able to jump in during the 3rd quarter and watch the thrilling finish.
What if we came to God to give to God for a change? What if we came to God with the intention of blessing Him rather than to seek a blessing? What if when we did ask for something, we prayed that God would bless us with the resources and the tools to be a blessing to others?
What if we esteemed God above anything He could ever give us?
What if we lived as if God was the most valuable connection in our life?
“…Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”
-Rev. 2:4
Have you ever missed the first button on a shirt you wearing? If you have, it doesn’t matter how well you button the other buttons. If the first button is out of whack, the rest will be too.
Our love for Jesus is the first button in our relationship with Him.
When it is ‘out of whack’, then everything else is too.
Jesus has not just called us to serve Him, but He has called us to love Him. In all the hustle and bustle of life, it is easy to allow our passion for Jesus to wane. But our love for Jesus is the foundation for a life with Jesus.
I know this isn’t easy.
But we MUST prioritize our relationship with Jesus.
But Jesus never said it was going to be easy.
He just said it would be worth it.
“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
-Rev. 2:7
To hear my recent talk on having a passion for Jesus, click here.
Posted in The Church, Worship, Discipleship | No Comments »
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
-Malachi 3:10-12 (New International Version)
8 Steps to Financial Breakthrough:
1. Make life decisions that are led by God, not by money.
2. Give: Tithe First (Make this the 1st check you write. Before taxes and anything else.)
3. Live with integrity in all that you do. (If you get extra change at the store, give it back!)
4. Adjust your Life to make room to honor God (Sell stuff, get out of debt, educate yourself, speak to a financial advisor)
5. Speak like God (Speak God’s word over you, your family, and your finances.)
6. Get God’s words in you (Let the reality of the Word become your reality)
7. Journal your dreams and things that God has promised you (Dreams for your family, dreams for your ministry, dreams for your future)
8. Worship like you have won. (Surrender everything before you get anything. Do it today)
To hear my recent talk on breakthrough called, “We Will Worship”, click here.
Posted in Discipleship, Faith | No Comments »
Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
-1 Corinthians 11:1
Would you take swim lessons from someone who didn’t know how to swim?
I wouldn’t either.
But when we attempt to point our followers to places we’ve never been, we become swim teachers that don’t get in the pool.
We preach on prayer but rarely pray.
We teach on serving but never serve.
We tell others to share their faith in Jesus but don’t follow our own advice.
We talk about worship but never spend time in the presence of God.
We speak about generosity but keep our cash to ourselves.
When our leadership is not rooted in reality, it has no power to change lives.
We don’t have to be perfect, but we must be reaching.
Reaching for obedience.
Reaching for His presence.
Reaching for God.
Those that reach for God will find Him, and can lead others there too.
Posted in Leadership, Discipleship | No Comments »
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
-Hebrews 11:6 (New International Version)
Pastors, your faith must be rooted in God. Rooted in His word. His truth. His ideas. In His leadership.
“Of course”, you say (and so do I!).
But saying the right things isn’t nearly enough. Living the life of faith is where preaching becomes real.
As a Pastor this principle is vitally important.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many people show up during Sunday services.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many people showed up on time for Sunday services.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how much money people gave in the offering.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many “amens” we got during the morning message.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in whether the sound system squealed or not.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many people responded to the altar call.
We can’t allow our faith to be rooted in how many people think we are cool.
Our faith must to rooted, grounded, and based in God.
And God alone.
When we walk this way, we can properly lead our people in the path of faith.
Posted in The Church, Discipleship, Faith | No Comments »
The laborer’s appetite works for him;
his hunger drives him on.
-Prov. 16:26
Have you ever wondered where your life was headed? How things were going to turn out? Whether you were going in the right direction or not?
A simple way of determining of where you’re going is to examine your appetite. What do you desire? What are you hungry for? What do you have to have?
If you are hungry for the presence of God and the things of God, then you are headed to the right place.
If you are hungry for all the things that you know you shouldn’t be connected to or involved with, then you are definitely headed for trouble.
To simplify it further, if you have an appetite for the right stuff…then your destination will be right.
If you have an appetite for the the wrong stuff…then your destination is guaranteed to be wrong.
At the deepest level, our appetitie sets the course of our life.
So…what are you hungry for?
Posted in Leadership, Discipleship | No Comments »
“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”
-Ps. 27:4
What is the One Thing God is asking you to do? The One Thing that He is asking you to give up? The One Thing He is asking you to embrace? The One Thing that He is imploring you to seek?
Most of us get overwhelmed with the 2 million things that we need to do that are not done.
But God is not asking us to tackle 2 million things at once.
He is asking us to address One Thing.
One priority, one focus, one area.
When we are consistently faithful in the One Thing, we can get to everything if we learn to be patient.
If you don’t know what the One Thing is, ask Him.
He’ll let you know.
God has One Thing for all of us.
Posted in Leadership, Discipleship | No Comments »
By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 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 his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.
-Mark 6:35-43
We often speak of ‘thinking outside the box’. By thinking outside the box, we become more innovative, creative, and more cutting edge. I sincerely believe in all these things.
I like to consider myself an outside the box thinker.
But sometimes thinking ‘outside the box’ gets us into trouble.
That’s the problem in the above text. The discipes couldn’t keep their thoughts ‘inside the box.’ They kept thinking outside the box. Their response to the directive of Jesus was to think, “if only”.
If only we had more bread we could obey your command and feed this huge crowd of people.
When Jesus commands us to do something, we often say the same thing.
If only:
We had more supply.
We had more money.
We had more help.
We had more talent.
We had more training.
We had more connections.
We had more time.
We had more education.
If only. If only. If only.
If only we had something ‘outside the box’, we could obey the commands of Jesus.
But if we could keep our thinking ‘inside the box‘, we would easily become witnessess to the power of God. When the disciples finally trusted Jesus with the little that they had, a miracle happened right before their eyes.
If only the people of God actually trusted Him for outside the box provision by staying faithful with what was inside the box.
What amazing things we would see.
If only.
Posted in Leadership, Discipleship | No Comments »
Our clothes dryer broke about 2 months ago.
Because of a strange quirk in the warranty, we had to wait 2 months before the dryer could be serviced.
So for the past 2 months we have been taking wet clothes to the homes of relatives and friends, in addition to going to the landry-mat (where ladies look at your underwear!).
This has been a inconvient and at times, frustrating process.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday it ceased to be frustrating and quickly became embarrassing.
Yesterday we diagnosed what our dryer’s problem was.
It wasn’t a mechanical issue where trained professionals needed to be called.
It was the result of a breaker switch that simply needed to be flipped on.
That was all.
We flipped one switch and everything wass different (at least in the Newman home!)
In many cases, change is simple.
It doesn’t require complex analysis, or extensive research.
It just takes one simple decision.
Though simple, it still may be difficult.
It may require courage.
Sacrifice.
Challenge.
Endurance.
But though all this maybe true, we can take solace in the fact that by one ‘flip the switch’, everything can be different.
Flip the Switch.
Posted in Leadership, Discipleship | No Comments »
“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
-Acts 17:6
I have been studying the people of the Early Church in the book of Acts this past week. The Christians chronicled in the 5th book of the New Testament changed the world forever. They were passionate, bold, full of faith. They had an extreme hunger, desire, and urgency for the expansion of the kingdom of God.
As I have read through this adventure story, I came to this conclusion:
Love for Jesus and commitment to His mission was the main focus of their entire lives.
Anything that was in competition or in conflict with that focus was quicklty cast aside and put to death.
They lived completely abandoned to God.
In our generation we more commonly put to death (or at least dillute) the commitment to love Jesus and give ourselves to His mission so we can protect our methods, money, status, reputation, pride, personal priorities, and a host of other things.
They lived to abandon themselves while we live to protect ourselves. Part of the challenge with the modern day, new millennium church is that we have a confused sense of purpose.
We are looking to save the church (and ourselves), but the Early Church understood that Jesus created the church (through Him) to save the world.
My prayer is that the world again sees a group of Jesus followers completely abandoned to God in their generation.
Let’s do it again.
Let’s change the world.
Posted in The Church, Discipleship | No Comments »
“..who keeps his oath even when it hurts.”
-Psalms 15:4
Have you ever made a promise that was a challenge to keep?
Last week I had a promise to keep that when I intially made it, didn’t seem like a big deal. A friend invited the Newman family to a birthday party last Thursday night almost a month ago. The schedule seemed clear, we wanted to celebrate this little guy’s birthday, so we were happy to go.
What I couldn’t have possibly forecast was that Game 7 of the NBA Finals would fall on the exact same night.
I was shocked.
Most of you know I am a rabid NBA fan. The NBA Finals in June is a big deal in our house. Tiffany’s favorite team is the Los Angeles Lakers and they were in the championship series. She can get really crazy during the games.
One Tuesday night during the 1st round, the pizza delivery guy came to the door at the exact same moment Tiffany unleashed a blood curdling shriek. He looked a little unsettled until I said, “NBA Playoffs man, my wife is getting a little wild. But everything is okay here.”
With that backdrop you can see how this conflict could be an issue.
Leading up to Game 7, I did everything I could to resolve this conflict.
I checked the time of the party: 5:30 pm
I checked the time of the game: 6:00 pm
I called the place where the party was being held (Bounce U) and asked them how long the party would last: 2 hours.
I called them back and asked them if they had televisions on site that would show the game: They didn’t.
So I was faced with a decision: Do I keep my promise, or make an excuse?
I opted to keep my promise.
We had a great time with our friends, ate pizza, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves (and no, we didn’t leave early!).
After getting home, we were able to jump in during the 3rd quarter and watch the thrilling finish.
Yes, we missed some of the game.
But we kept a promise.
Posted in Relationships, Sports, Discipleship | No Comments »
What if we came to God to give to God for a change? What if we came to God with the intention of blessing Him rather than to seek a blessing? What if when we did ask for something, we prayed that God would bless us with the resources and the tools to be a blessing to others?
What if we esteemed God above anything He could ever give us?
What if we lived as if God was the most valuable connection in our life?
How would our life be different?
Posted in Transformation, Worship, Discipleship | No Comments »