“…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.”
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.
There was a moment during worship on Thursday night where there was such passion and intensity, that I was shocked. To see that many people (over 2000) praising and crying out to Jesus that fiercely…wow.
I have only witnessed that raw intensity in worship of Jesus a few times in my life (and to see our little girls singing and crying out to God was awesome!).
I am convinced that we are going to see a move of God in our generation. We are going to see it. The culmination of years of prayers, tears, and sacrifice. It is going to happen.
The love of Jesus is going to be expressed worldwide in a way that we haven’t ever seen before.
A move of God is coming.
And I am going to be a part of the movement.
The movement to change the world in the name of Jesus.
In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote the lyics, ” …you’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin.” Those words couldn’t apply more to our present epoch. We live in the new frontier of rapidly changing times.
With social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Ustream our communication has drastically changed since 1964. This change has affected the definition of our words and brought about the creation of new ones (see . . .terabyte, HDTV, WiFi, DVR). So with a million different voices clamoring for the heart of this igeneration, how does the church clearly communicate the timeless love and message of Jesus?
“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.
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” -Matthew 2:19-20
What if the only thing God could with you before He did something awesome was to wait for you to die?
That is what happened to King Herod.
He was in the right location.
He received the right information.
He had the right resources.
But he had the wrong heart.
God was forced to work around him because he was so stubborn, so resistant, and so stuck in his own ways.
So God simply waited for Herod to die.
In his case, the process seems pretty extreme.
But what if God is setting up a scenerio to get us out the way because we have become a barrier to His purposes?
Not because He wants to work around us, but because we won’t let Jesus work in us.
Think of how tragic it would be if our life was doomed to irrelevancy because we couldn’t do things God’s way.
The scariest thing is, when it is happening to you…you probably don’t even know it.
“You must pray with all your might. That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel with eyes wide open while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God…This kind of prayer be sure the devil and the world and your own indolent, unbelieving nature will oppose. They will pour water on this flame.” - William Booth
This week in our ‘Going Deep’ series we talked about the prayer life of Elijah (to listen, click here).
There are 5 things that stand out (from 1 Kings Chapter 18):
1. Purpose of God-Elijah prays the will of God. He doesn’t Pray his “own thing”, but prays according to the revealed will of God. We discover the purpose of God’s is according by on consulting the word of God.
2. Pattern of God-Not only does Elijah pray according to God’s purpose, he prays according to God pattern. As the old saying goes, “God works in mysterious ways”. This requires us to pay close attention to where God is leading.
3. Passionate Persistence in Prayer-Elijah doggedly persists in prayer, when there was zero evidence that God’s will would be realized. When in similar situations we must cling to God’s word in spite of what he see.
4. Provision of God- Elijah knows what the nation needs to move forward and for the curse to be broken over the land. But having the right knowledge, and doing the right thing isn’t enough. We must do our part. But we cannot produce the super-natural. When we are faithful to our part, God adds His part, and something truly special happens.
5. Power of God-After Elijah pressed through he was launched into another dimension. His body was super-naturally empowered to run faster than a chariot down to the city. When we trust God, believe God, pray to God, we receive the grace from God that gives us the ability to perform, respond, and react beyond our naturally ability.
It is our job to ask for rain, it’s God’s job to send it.
“…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 »
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 »
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield, [a]
your very great reward.
-Genesis 15:1
New message from New Frontier series called ‘Mountain of God’ about worship, passion, and the key to the human heart.
To listen or download, click here.
Posted in The Church, Worship | No Comments »
At Jesus Culture Conference with Tiffany and the girls.
Unbelievable event. Absolutely unbelievable.
There was a moment during worship on Thursday night where there was such passion and intensity, that I was shocked. To see that many people (over 2000) praising and crying out to Jesus that fiercely…wow.
I have only witnessed that raw intensity in worship of Jesus a few times in my life (and to see our little girls singing and crying out to God was awesome!).
I am convinced that we are going to see a move of God in our generation. We are going to see it. The culmination of years of prayers, tears, and sacrifice. It is going to happen.
The love of Jesus is going to be expressed worldwide in a way that we haven’t ever seen before.
A move of God is coming.
And I am going to be a part of the movement.
The movement to change the world in the name of Jesus.
Posted in The Church, Media/Culture, The Future, Worship, World Change | 1 Comment »
In 1964, Bob Dylan wrote the lyics, ” …you’d better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin.” Those words couldn’t apply more to our present epoch. We live in the new frontier of rapidly changing times.
With social networks such as Facebook, Youtube and Ustream our communication has drastically changed since 1964. This change has affected the definition of our words and brought about the creation of new ones (see . . .terabyte, HDTV, WiFi, DVR). So with a million different voices clamoring for the heart of this igeneration, how does the church clearly communicate the timeless love and message of Jesus?
To check out 1st 2 messages of the New Frontier Series, click here for “Inheritance” and here for “Flip the Switch”.
Posted in The Church, Media/Culture, The Future, Creativity/Innovation | 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 »
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” -Matthew 2:19-20
What if the only thing God could with you before He did something awesome was to wait for you to die?
That is what happened to King Herod.
He was in the right location.
He received the right information.
He had the right resources.
But he had the wrong heart.
God was forced to work around him because he was so stubborn, so resistant, and so stuck in his own ways.
So God simply waited for Herod to die.
In his case, the process seems pretty extreme.
But what if God is setting up a scenerio to get us out the way because we have become a barrier to His purposes?
Not because He wants to work around us, but because we won’t let Jesus work in us.
Think of how tragic it would be if our life was doomed to irrelevancy because we couldn’t do things God’s way.
The scariest thing is, when it is happening to you…you probably don’t even know it.
Posted in The Church, Worship, Discipleship | No Comments »
“You must pray with all your might. That does not mean saying your prayers, or sitting gazing about in church or chapel with eyes wide open while someone else says them for you. It means fervent, effectual, untiring wrestling with God…This kind of prayer be sure the devil and the world and your own indolent, unbelieving nature will oppose. They will pour water on this flame.” - William Booth
This week in our ‘Going Deep’ series we talked about the prayer life of Elijah (to listen, click here).
There are 5 things that stand out (from 1 Kings Chapter 18):
1. Purpose of God-Elijah prays the will of God. He doesn’t Pray his “own thing”, but prays according to the revealed will of God. We discover the purpose of God’s is according by on consulting the word of God.
2. Pattern of God-Not only does Elijah pray according to God’s purpose, he prays according to God pattern. As the old saying goes, “God works in mysterious ways”. This requires us to pay close attention to where God is leading.
3. Passionate Persistence in Prayer-Elijah doggedly persists in prayer, when there was zero evidence that God’s will would be realized. When in similar situations we must cling to God’s word in spite of what he see.
4. Provision of God- Elijah knows what the nation needs to move forward and for the curse to be broken over the land. But having the right knowledge, and doing the right thing isn’t enough. We must do our part. But we cannot produce the super-natural. When we are faithful to our part, God adds His part, and something truly special happens.
5. Power of God-After Elijah pressed through he was launched into another dimension. His body was super-naturally empowered to run faster than a chariot down to the city. When we trust God, believe God, pray to God, we receive the grace from God that gives us the ability to perform, respond, and react beyond our naturally ability.
It is our job to ask for rain, it’s God’s job to send it.
Posted in Prayer, The Church | No Comments »
1st message in Going Deep series called, “Are You Ready?”
To listen or download, click here.
Posted in The Church | No Comments »
New message at Renaissance Church called “Beautiful You”.
To listen or download, click here.
Posted in Relationships, The Church | No Comments »
Final week of “The Talk”, a series about love, sex, and relationships.
In “Freedom’s Children” I discuss how to step into both the freedom and forgiveness of Christ.
To listen or download, click here.
Posted in Relationships, The Church, Media/Culture | No Comments »