NATIONAL COMMUNITY CHURCH May 02, 2021 Stirred: Stirred, Not Shaken Dr. Mark Batterson “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God was hovering.” Welcome to National Community Church. This weekend we kick off a five week series called ‘Stirred’ and I've got to say I love that trailer, it gave me goosebumps. Wow and debuts on National Dance day. That's what I'm talking about. There's a word in the Greek language, perichoresis, and it's used to describe the Trinity. Scholars liken it to a choreographed dance. It's unity in diversity. It's beloved community that we know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What I want to do this weekend is high dive into the deep end with a little crash course in pneumatology. Ready or not? Here we go. In the beginning, the Spirit of God is hovering like a hummingbird. Now, the Hebrew word is paniym. It can be translated faith or favor countenance or presence it's two dimensional. In regard to time paniym refers to the split second before and the split second after. It's almost like the time stone in Guardians of the Galaxy krono kinesis. The Holy Spirit forms a parentheses in time. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and ever present help in time of need. In regard to space, paniym refers to the place right in front and right in back. The psalmist said he hems me in behind and before. The psalmist said he is singing songs of deliverance all around us all the time. The Holy Spirit forms a parentheses in space. He is Jehovah Nissi, God our banner, the God who goes before. He is counselor and paracleat. It refers to a military formation where soldiers would stand back to back. The Holy Spirit has your back. He is your rear guard - the God who comes behind. W. Tozer said it this way, “God is above, but He’s not pushed up. He’s beneath, but He’s not pressed down. He’s outside, but He’s not excluded. He’s inside, but He’s not confined. God is above all things presiding, beneath all things sustaining, outside of all things embracing and inside of all things filling” He is God most high. He is God most high. He is bigger than big and he is closer than close. And I've got some really good news. The Holy Spirit is still hovering over the darkness, over the emptiness, over the chaos in your life. He hovers in our hopes, in our hurts, in our hearts. The Holy Spirit, he hovers in the 40 nanometer gap between the 125 trillion synapses that crisscross the cerebral cortex. And that’s just pneumatology 101. We're two verses into Genesis and the Holy Spirit is hovering. Now, in Genesis two the same Spirit who hovers over the water animates the dust of the earth gets down and dirty. Genesis 2:7 “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Hebrew word is ruwach, it translates spirit or breath. Before the day is done, you will inhale and exhale 23,000 times. Five quarts of blood will circulate through 100,000 miles of veins and arteries and capillaries. There are 37 sextillion chemical reactions happening in your body right now. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. In Him, we live and move and have our - 2 - being. If God were to withdraw his breath, the book of Job said we would return to dust. The Spirit of God is the breath of life. That's pneumatology 201. Now we're two chapters into Genesis. The Holy Spirit is hovering and animating. We get to Exodus 31 and the same Spirit who hovers over the chaos who animates the dust is now anointing, a man named Bezaleel with creative imagination and artistic giftings. The anointing is the difference between the best you can do and the best God can do. No matter who you are, no matter what you do you're a teacher, a writer, an entrepreneur, you are an athlete, an artist, an architect. Please hear me, the Holy Spirit wants to help you do what you do better than you're able to do it, beyond your ability, past your pay grade. Now I want to plant a seed of faith this weekend. I believe that we are coming into a season when the Spirit of God is going to activate those gifts of the Spirit in an unprecedented way. Why? Because we need it. We need a supernatural demonstration of his love and power. We need a fresh anointing, a new anointing I pray it on your life, right here, right now. We're two books in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is hovering, animating, anointing and we aren't even to the New Testament yet. Holy Spirit hasn't even gotten his game on yet. You get to the New Testament, I'm gonna go really fast. Read the Gospels, read the epistles, read the book of Acts, and the Holy Spirit is healing and sealing and revealing. The Holy Spirit is counseling and convicting and comforting. The Holy Spirit is fruiting and gifting and guiding. I'm gonna add one more to the mix. Holy Spirit wears so many hats, does so many things, play so many parts but over the next five weeks we're going to focus on one thing - the Holy Spirit is stirring. The goal of this series is pretty simple that we would be a people who are stirred not shaken. If you have a Bible you can meet me, the Minor Prophets, Haggi, one of those hard to find books. I'll give you a minute to find it, right there the end of the Old Testament. The Jewish prophets predict an exile in Babylon, but they also prophesied the restoration of the nation of Israel. Now Haggi comes on the scene about 520 BC and he's a straight shooter. He accuses the Jewish people of misplaced priorities; they're apathetic when it comes to injustice. He calls them to repent, and to prove that repentance by rebuilding the temple that was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and that's where we pick up the story. We'll start in Haggi two, verse six, and then we're going to reverse engineer this revival. “This is what the Lord Almighty says: “In a little while, I will once more shake the heavens and the earth…” Now if that sounds familiar it's probably because I think I've quoted that verse more than any other verse over the past year since this COVID crisis began. I am not suggesting that God caused a COVID crisis that is correlation without causation. But I have no doubt that God is stirring something up. I believe that God is shaking false securities and false identities. God is shaking false assumptions and false narratives. God is shaking false idols and false ideologies. Lots of people have had their confidence shaken, in lots of different ways, but we are stirred, not shaken. Why? Because we don't trust in horses and chariots. We put our trust in the name of the Lord our God. We don't take our cues from - 2 - cultural talking points. We don't put our trust in these temporal things we trust in the name of the Lord our God, and at that name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to the glory of God the Father himself. We’re grounded in God's word. We're standing on God's promises and we are led by His Spirit. That is why we are stirred, not shaken. Stirred, is rising above the rhetoric and living according to Biblical convictions. Stirred is taking our cues from scripture. Stirred is giving God veto power. Stirred is operating in the power of the Holy Spirit while obeying the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Let me back up the bus. Haggi chapter one, verse one, and we'll go verse by verse. “In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the six month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggi to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest...” Now, there are decades when nothing happens, and there are days when decades happen. This is the day when decades happen for Zerubbabel. The Bible is a book about real people in real places in real time. If you cross check the Hebrew calendar with the Persian calendar, it's August 29, 520 BC on the Gregorian calendar. Verse two, “Tthis is what the Lord of Heaven's Armies, says: “The people are saying, (the people are saying,) ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” I want you to notice two narratives. There's always two narratives. Why? Because there are two realms, there are two kingdoms. You've got what God is saying, right? This is what the Lord of Heaven's armies says. And then you've got this trending hashtag, this cultural talking point that is being propagated by the people, “The time hasn't come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Really? Really? Cuz I have three kids who were really good at delay tactics. I think this sounds like that. And I think delayed obedience is disobedience. And so, let me ask a couple of questions at this juncture. What percentage of your thoughts, words and actions are a regurgitation of the news you're watching and the social media that you're following? And what percentage of your words, thoughts and actions are a revelation that you are getting from God's word? Are you being conformed to the world around you? Or are you being transformed by the in working of the Holy Spirit? Are you being named and tamed by culture? Or are you being named and untamed by the wild goose? Are you being fed and led by talking heads? Or are you being fed and led by the word of God and by the Spirit of God? Finally, who is the loudest voice in your life? Is it the loudest voice? Or is it the still small voice of the Holy Spirit? If you are Spirit filled and Spirit lead, I'm not worried about you. Why? Cuz you're gonna get where God wants you to go. You're gonna do things that are past your paygrade and God is going to fill fulfill his plans and purposes in your life. Which narrative are we listening to? - 2 - Verse three, “Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggi: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house speaking of the temple remains in ruins?” In other words, come on, quit raising your standard of living and start raising your standard of giving. Verse five, “Now, this is what the Lord Almighty says, “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much but harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” Haggai is telling them to take a long, hard look in the mirror. How's that working for you? Right? We need someone to occasionally ask us that question. Your system, I love you, your system is perfectly designed for the results you're getting. And I mean that across… Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. If you want God to do something new, you can't keep doing the same old thing. Now drop down to verse 13. “Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord.” Oh, come on, someone needed to hear that right now. Someone needs to know that. If God is for me, and if God is with me, mmm, I'm good to go. Listen, one and God make a majority, Frederick Douglass, Verse 14, and this is where I want to park the food truck. “So the Lord stirred the spirit of the spirit of Zerubbabel, (There it is) the Lord stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, son of Jozadak, the high priest, (And then get this. It's contagious. It’s contagious. When God starts stirring people with his spirit, it gets contagious) and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD of hosts...” Now, there are a few ways to translate this Hebrew verb, and you'll see them on the screen. Stirred (verb): 1. It means excite the courage 2. animate the zeal 3. awaken from sleep 4. arise to action. But however, you slice or dice it, it is an action verb. Let me share a story and then we're going to talk about five ways that God stirs us up. A few weeks ago got a letter from Christie Luther. Christie has what I would call a Zerubbabel anointing. And I want to describe what that is. When the Jewish remnant returned to Jerusalem it's in ruins, it's in ruins. Like they're staring at ruins. Most people come on, see what is. Some people remember what was. Oh, but then there are Zerubbabels who see what can be. They don't just see the ruins, they see a second temple, where the glory of God is going to be even greater. Zerubbabel anointing is seeing what can be and doing something about it. May God give us a Zerubbabel anointing. Now, few years ago, Christie Luther got a vision to start the very first cosmetology school in an Oklahoma prison. She was writing to request some copies of the Circle Maker. And so I signed them, we sent them and Christie wrote a little letter and I want you to hear what she said. The Lord is stirring things up. The Lord is stirring things up. Each morning as I sit in my car in the prison parking lot, I look - 2 - at razor wire and I pray revival over that person. See, a lot of people would look at those inmates, and they would see what is and they would see what was, they would see the ruins? No, no, no. When you look with the eyes of faith, you see what can be, you see second chances, you see the Spirit of God, you see a temple that is indwelt by the spirit of Almighty God. So Christie took some hula hoops into the prison and turned them into prayer circles. And she said, some of the women got inside those circles and they just curled up and cried. Other women got in those circles and she said they lifted their hands and in her words, prayed fiercely and intently. I'm going to show you a few pictures that Christie sent. I'm gonna share one last thing that Christie said. There is a shift, a change and it's smells like revival. He turns ashes into beautiful things, doesn't he? Aren't you grateful for a God of second chances? Here's the big idea. Here's the bottom line. And this is what we're going to keep coming back to over the next five weeks. It always starts with a stirring. It always starts with a stirring. Every move of God starts with a stirring. Every revival starts with a stirring. Every vision starts with a stirring. And so let's get really practical, really quick five ways that biblically and experientially I think God stirs us up. And so if you're taking notes, you can jot these down. 1. The Holy Spirit stirs us with sanctified emotions. Now, when I was in grad school, I had a professor that asked this question, what makes you cry, and pound your fist on the table? In other words, what makes you sad? And what makes you mad? Cuz you might want to pay attention to those things, because maybe God is stirring something up. Now, I would add glad to the mix. What puts a smile on your face? Here's what happens, your heart begins to break for the things that break the heart of God and it moves you. And then I'll flip that and say, “Delight yourself in the Lord,” Psalm 37:4 “and He will give you the desires of your heart.” In other words, he'll begin to conceive within you these desires and these sanctified emotions and sometimes this mad, sad, glad, but it's always serving God's purpose. 2. The Holy Spirit stirs us with God ideas. Now, I'd rather have one God idea than 1000 good ideas, right? Good ideas are good, God ideas change the course of history. But let's be honest, it's not always easy discerning between a good idea and a God idea. And if we're being really honest, not always easily discerning between a good idea and a bad idea. Okay. But I do know this a God idea. It's going to be beyond your ability beyond your resources, beyond your education. beyond your experience. Zerubbabel is in over his head. But that is when and where and how God shows up and shows off. I really believe that there are moments when you just have to go bigger, go home. Show me the size of your dream and I'll show you the size of your God. That’s not just some catchy saying; your vision is a reflection of your theology. On that note – two NCC updates last week, because we got to praise God when stuff like this happens. Last week we received a half a million dollar gift from someone who doesn't attend this church for the vision that we cast for phase two. Can we praise God? I think that's okay. Wow. - 2 - Wow, that gets us awfully close to doing phase two debt free just a few $100,000 away. And if you want to make a pledge or fulfill a pledge NCC.re/vision. When God gives a vision he makes provision. But here's the catch. You need vision beyond your resources. Two - we’re awfully close to signing a letter of intent on a piece of property for our combined campus in Northern Virginia. I can't tell you where yet. And I'm so sorry. But it's got incredible accessibility and visibility and whooo it’s go bigger go home. It's almost 60,000 square feet. Okay, that's larger than phase one and phase two at our Capitol Hill campus. And I cannot wait to sign on the dotted line so we can share the details. So, stay tuned. 3. The Holy Spirit stirs us with prophetic words. Now, I'm gonna have to go really quick right here. We aren't just the priesthood of believers, we are the company of prophets in Judaism. The prophetic gift was not reserved for a select few, it was the fruit of spiritual maturity. Moses himself said I wish it all the Lord's people were prophets. Now that doesn't mean that we all go around predicting the future, okay, because sometimes that's what comes to mind. It's about speaking words of comfort, words of encouragement, 1 Corinthians 14, but here's the key, as prompted by the Holy Spirit. Have you ever had someone say to you the right words at the right time? Man, it can change the trajectory of your life. That's what I'm talking about. You know, sometimes it's listening prayer for someone you love. Sometimes it's a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom. One way or the other Hebrews 12:24 says, “Let us consider how we may stir, how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.” Oh, may we be a beloved community that stir one another, that spur one another on? And you know what? We don't just prophesy to people. Can I just throw this in? We prophesy to crack houses that become coffee houses. We prophesy to abandoned apartment buildings that become DC Dream Centers. We prophesh to 130 Year Old Navy Yard car barns where Hey, they used to fix street cars, we're gonna dance. I literally am watching that video and I'm thinking what would those mechanics have thought 100 years ago? How awesome to just, ahh, yeah, all right, I gotta keep going 4. The Holy Spirit stirs us with holy discontent. Okay, this one gets tough. At some point, the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. That is when we go see a counselor. That's when we check into rehab. That's when we go to the altar. Unfortunately, often not a second sooner. Now, Deuteronomy 32 says that God is like the eagle that stirs the nest. And I'll come back to this at some point but a mother Eagle would stir the nest by removing feathers and removing down. Why? To make the baby birds uncomfortable. Well, that doesn't sound very motherly. Well listen, if you have grown kids, you know that there comes a moment when those baby birds got to get out of the nest, right? Right around 18, okay. The big bird’s got to get out of the nest. Okay, I’m having a little bit of fun. There comes a moment where the mom removes layers of comfort and removes layers of security. Why? So the sticks start poking those eaglets. Why? Poke the bear poke the bird same difference. If you don't get out of the boat, you will never walk on water. If you don't get out of the nest, you will never fly. God loves you too much - 2 - to leave you in a place of comfort. That's never where we grow. So many moments in our history as a church God stirred the nest. We're meeting at Giddings School and it closes because of fire code. But it was so scary, but God was stirring the nest. We end up in the movie theaters at Union Station. 13 years later, those movie theaters closed and I'm wondering are our best days behind us. No, God was stirring the nest. We end up buying a piece of property on Virginia Avenue. Oh, then CSS decides we're going to build a train tunnel and derail your plans for about five years. And I'm thinking like what??? And then oh no, but then we find the miracle theater. Oh, and then we get the property across the street, the Navy Yard. Thank God for those inconveniences. Thank God for the discomfort. Thank God for the things that were so scary when they happened. Listen, that's how you learn to fly. Okay! 5. Holy Spirit stirs us with Scripture. Okay, Psalm 119, longest chapter in the Bible by a longshot. It's a poem consists of 22 stanzas. Each stanza begins with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. 11 times that the Psalmist uses the word quicken. It’s a Hebrew word chayah - sounds like a karate chop. The Psalmist says quickened me, according to Thy word. It's synonymous with this idea of stirring. It means to restore, to refresh, to revive, to resurrect it means to conceive to chayah. You don't just read the Bible, the Bible reads you. Why? It's living and active. It's Mentos and Diet Coke. When you get into God's word, when God's word gets into you, it begins to stir us into action. I love what Pastor Rob said, on upper zoom this week. He said, “Revelation doesn't happen without application.” Oh, wait but we want more revelation. No, God wants more application. You have to be obedient to the level of revelation that you have. Let's be honest, most of us are educated way beyond the level of our obedience already. We don't need to know more; we need to do more with what we know. And that's what Zerubbabel does, it says he began the work - that's all. You don't have to finish it. You don't have to do…, but you have to start it. I'm going to close with this... Let me invite the worship team to come. In August of 1996 reading the book of Joshua, get to verse three of chapter one I will give you everywhere you set your foot just as I promised Moses. You've heard me tell this story many times. I feel this stirring in my spirit to pray a perimeter around Capitol Hill. I think the week before we had about 13 people that was our attendance. And so I wasn't praying for property, I was praying for people because we needed people. A couple of decades later, we own half a dozen properties on that prayer circle. Please hear me. Ebenezer’s Coffee House was once a stir stick. The Miracle Theater was once a stirring. Capitol Hill campus was once God stirring. It always starts with a stirring. Here's how I want to end. I am believing God for a fresh infilling as his Spirit - Ephesians 5:18 “Be filled with the Spirit.” Present imperative verb means keep on being filled with the Spirit. “The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us.” But we leak. Or is that just me? And so we need to be Spirit filled and Spirit lead every single day. And so as we go into a time of worship in the house, - 2 - online, wherever you are right now, would you invite the Holy Spirit to fill your mind and your heart and your soul? Here's what I know for sure - Holy Spirit is present. All that’s absent is our awareness. He is perichoresis. Not only is he dancing all around us, he is singing songs of deliverance. And so the Spirit of God is still hovering and animating and anointing and healing and sealing and revealing and counseling and convicting and comforting and fruiting and gifting and guiding and stirring and may He do it again in your life in Jesus name. Amen - 2 - Hebrews 12:27 moment—everything that can be shaken will be shaken. God is shaking false securities and false identities, false assumptions, and false narratives, false idols, and false ideologies. But we are STIRRED, not shaken. Why? We are grounded in God’s word, standing on God’s promises, and filled with God’s spirit. We don’t take our cues from cultural talking points. We don’t put our trust in horses and chariots. STIRRED is rising above the rhetoric and living according to your convictions. STIRRED is giving the Holy Spirit veto power. STIRRED is operating in the power of the Holy spirit while obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Preached at National Community Church

The Unrivaled Power of God Transcription The Unrivaled Power of God - Psalm 139:13-18 - Skip Heitzig There is no God. I mean, look at what's going on. I am my own God. God, Allah, Buddha, whatever. He's just waiting to destroy us all. There's, like, hundreds of gods. He's just like that bumper sticker says. I am my own god. Dog is my co-pilot. There is no God. There is one true God. He is all knowing, all powerful, and He loves you. God isn't really something to worship. He's just waiting to destroy all of us. I guess there's a God out there somewhere. I hope there is a God. God isn't really something to worship. God, Allah, Buddha. God is everywhere. Well, I want to welcome you to our first and largest service of the weekend here at Calvary in Albuquerque. You know, I say that because this is a little studio, and there's just a few people in it. But we also realize that of all the services we do, it reaches more people than we could ever fit in our auditorium if we had 10 or 20 services a weekend. So we know that we have a large audience, and we appreciate you being a part of it. And we realize that these are trying times, or difficult times, and even though we have three campuses and they're all open, and we have live services at all of them, we also know that a small percentage is allowed to come. We are allowed here in New Mexico 25% of our capacity, and we space that out. We take all the necessary state given mandate precautions. And so we realize that we're not seeing everybody coming, and we realize that's for a number of reasons. Not only the state mandate, but some people just are not comfortable getting out yet, and you may be one of them, and we want to say to you, that's OK. We're here to minister to you, and we're glad that we can do it this way until you feel confident and ready to go out. So we're just happy that we can minister to you in this capacity. But we're doing a series called 2020. And it's about seeing truth clearly. And basically, what we're doing is taking a look at the major teachings that the Bible presents about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit, about the Trinity, about people, about Satan, and so we can get a real clear view of those things. So if you have your Bibles around, turn in them to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 is where we have been the last few weeks. This is the third study out of just this psalm. And that is because David conveniently writes about a few of the attributes of God next to each other, one after the other. And we look at today, beginning in verse 13, down a few verses to about verse 18, where David considers the power of God. The power of God. Acquiring energy is becoming a daunting task. It's a constant challenge in our world. That's because just about everything we have or do requires a consumption of energy. Whether it's the battery in your phone or you need gas for your car or you need power to run your air conditioning at home, or if you happen to be in a colder climate, a heater at home. But every day, it is estimated that human beings on planet earth, the human species every day uses more than a million terajoules of energy. That is the equivalent to if every single person out of the 7.5 billion people on the earth boiled 70 kettles of water per hour around the clock. That's how much energy we are requiring. It's estimated that the average American household has roughly 50-- that's 5-0 --devices and appliances that are always drawing power. Even when we think they're off, they're drawing power. So we are highly dependent on our power grid for us to live. And it's not going to get better. According to the World Energy Council, it projects that primary energy demand is going to triple by the year 2050 when there will be at that time, not 7.5 billion, but 9 billion people on the earth. So what happens if it shuts down? And that actually has happened in a few places. Last year in Venezuela, there was a five-day national blackout. And the whole country went dark. So elderly people had to be taken out of high rise, out into the streets, and out into other homes. Food was spoiling in refrigerators. People had to cook with wood fires out in the streets, or in their homes. They ate by candlelight. Traffic lights failed. The pumps that bring water into homes failed. Hospitals, you can imagine, were in crisis mode. Patients whose kidneys depended on dialysis treatment couldn't get them. Gunshot wound victims couldn't get operated. On it was pandemonium for five days, because they couldn't get power. But what if you had unlimited power? What if you always had reserves and you would never run out, and you could do anything? Well, that happens to be one of the qualities we're talking about when it comes to God. God operates at full power. Now, in Psalm 139, David the psalmist has considered what God knows, the knowledge of God. God is omniscient. He knows everything. He has considered the presence of God. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere present in the totality of His being. And now, he considers in poetic fashion the power of God. The biographer here is, of course, David. The shepherd boy David who became King David. And one thing is obvious about David, is that his view of God was enormous. David served a big God. There is a great little book that has been out for years by J. B. Phillips called Your God is Too Small. And perhaps that's true for some of us. Maybe our view of God is a limiting view, and we think of God in terms not as he really is portrayed in the scripture. But one thing for certain, David knew and served a big God. One of my favorite stories is about a preacher by the name of Donald Grey Barnhouse who pastored back in the East coast. And he went to Princeton Theological Seminary. And his Hebrew professor was a very famous man at the time, very astute Hebrew scholar named Robert Dick Wilson. Well, Barnhouse had graduated and he returns back to the seminary years later to preach a devotional sermon in the chapel there at Princeton. And as he's preaching, his professor is sitting in the front row. From years before, Robert Dick Wilson, listening to every word he's saying. That's daunting when the people who teach you are sitting listening to your message. And so he preached. And afterwards, the professor came up, put his hand out, and shook it. Those are the days when you could shake hands. Shook his hand and said, thank you very much. It was good to hear you again. If you ever preach here again, I'll never come back to hear you. And he says, don't take offense to that. I always come back to hear my students preach once. And then I will know what their ministry will be like. I listen to see if they are a big-Godder or a little-Godder, G-O-D-D E-R. A big-Godder or a little-Godder. And Barnhouse is sort of puzzled by that. He goes, I don't understand. What do you mean, a big-Godder or a little-Godder? And Robert Dick Wilson explained. He goes, well, some men have a little God. And they're always in trouble with him. He can't do any miracles. He can't take care of the inspiration and the transmission of the scriptures. He doesn't intervene on behalf of his people. They have a little God, and I call them little-Godders. But then there are those who have a great God. He speaks and it is done. He commands, and it stands fast. You, Donald, have a great God, and He will bless your ministries. He smiled, said God bless you, and he walked off. David was a big-Godder, and I'm hoping that through this series 2020, your view of God will grow, as it should, and you'll be a big-Godder and not a little-Godder. Well, I'm going to make with you in this text three observations about the God who is all powerful. Three observations. God's work is marvelous. God's workmanship is meticulous. And God's wisdom is matchless. All three I find in the text that is before us. First of all, God's work. And David says, it is marvelous. God's work is marvelous. Verse 13. Let's read through this text and kind of get an idea of what it's set out like. "For you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they all were written. The day's fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them." Now, go back to verse 14 and look at the second part of that little verse, where he says, "Marvelous are your works." Now, that second part of verse 14, marvelous are your works, is the hinge of this little section that I just read. It really is the pinnacle. It is the middle thought of verses 13 through 15. And it is a summary statement of God's ability. Marvelous are your works. Marvelous are your works. Or singular are your works. Could even be translated miraculous are your works. He is looking at the power and the ability of God and saying, there is nothing like it anywhere. Marvelous are your works. Now, notice that to consider God's power, God's works, David goes inward and not outward. He looks at the intricacies of the human body rather than the majesty of the constellations in the heavens. That's just an interesting thing to note. It's not that David didn't consider the heavens. In fact, he did consider the heavens. In Psalm 8, he said, "When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the sun and the moon, or the moon and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you visit him?" And in Psalm 19, he said, "The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day, they utter their speech. There is no speech or language, he said, where their voice is not heard. But here, in Psalm 139, to illustrate God's great power, his marvelous work, David goes inside the human body. The development and the embryonic and fetal stage of a human being. Why does he do that? Here's why I think he does it. Because humans happen to be the crowning creation of God's work. Of all the things God ever made, mankind is His crowning creation, His best work. Your dog is not the crowning creation of God. A waterfall-- and no offense to your dog or cat --a waterfall in Costa Rica is not the pinnacle of God's creation, or the Belt of Orion and the constellations of the heavens. It is us, humanity, because we are made, the Bible says, in God's own image, Genesis chapter 1 tells us. So David, in these verses poetically, is describing a powerful God. Not a weak God. He is saying God operates at full strength. I just want you to get that in your heart. God operates at full strength. God always has full strength. God never says, I'm tired, I need to rest, I need a little break. You say, yeah, but He rested on the seventh day. Only because He was done, not because He was tired. He did it all. It only took Him six days. He was done with it. In the scriptures, God is referred to as all mighty 57 times. He is all mighty. Psalm 24 says "The Lord strong and mighty." Job chapter 42. He said, "I know that you can do every thing and that no purpose of yours can be restrained." The prophet Jeremiah said, "God, I know that nothing is too hard for you." Paul the apostle, Ephesians chapter 3, "He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think." There are several times where God's all power comes out in the scripture. The angel Gabriel said to Mary when Gabriel appeared to her and announced her pregnancy. He said, "For with God nothing shall be impossible." And then Jesus said, to reverse it, "All things are possible with God." So you put all of those scriptures together that are saying the same thing, that God can do anything, and you have to come out the other end and be a big-Godder, if you believe the scripture. It should make us all big-Godders. God's work is marvelous. God can turn a 99-year-old Abraham into a dad, and a 90-year-old Sarah into a mom. God can make the Red Sea open up so His people can cross through, and then turn around and use that Red Sea to drowned an army of the Egyptians. God can take a slave people out in the desert and give them their own land, and then re-gather them thousands of years later, like He did in 1948. So God is all powerful. His work, the summary statement, His work is marvelous. But that brings up a question. Are there things God can't do? And the answer is yes, actually. There are things God can't do. It's really not accurate to say that God can do anything it would be more accurate to say God can do anything that is in accordance to His purpose and His nature, because there are certain things God cannot do. The Bible says, in Hebrews 6, 18, God can't lie. It says, "It is impossible for God to lie." Another thing God can't do is He cannot approve of sin. That's contrary to His nature. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13, he said, "You are of purer eyes then to behold evil, and cannot look on wickedness." Another thing God cannot do is be tempted. And because of that, He can't tempt anyone else. That's James chapter 1. "God cannot be tempted with evil and he tempts no one." So it's accurate to say God can do anything He pleases that is in harmony with His nature. That sums up this quality or attribute of God, God's omnipotence. God can do anything He pleases that's in harmony with His nature. Sometimes you'll get a skeptic who will say, "Can God make a rock so big that even He can't lift?" You ever heard that question? Let me answer that. God doesn't answer ridiculous questions. That's just a stupid thing to say. So God's work is marvelous. Second, God's workmanship is meticulous. Now David, in these verses, highlights human origin. And he focuses, first of all, on creation. Creation, verse 13. "For you formed my inward parts." That speaks of creation. "You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Essentially, what David is doing, poetically in this little section, is hearkening back to Genesis chapter 1. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Now, I know that whenever you bring up creation outside of a church building, outside of a studio like this, and you're in the real world, you're at Starbucks, you're getting coffee with your friends, or you're at the store, you're hanging out, especially if you're at a college campus and you bring up creation, you will be laughed at. You Will be scoffed at. You will be mocked. Because the idea of special creation, especially ex nihilo creation out of nothing is seen as so passe and so inaccurate and so naive that they would say, oh, come on. Nobody really believes that any more. It is ridiculous. Evolution is just assumed as the science de jure, right? Everybody just sort of knows automatically that we evolved. The problem with evolution time and time again is that research keeps defying the theory of evolution. And there are, I could give you so many quotes by great scientists on this. Let me just give you one from biologist Michael Denton. Molecular biologist Michael Denton who said, and I quote, "Evolutionary theory is still, as it was in Darwin's time, a highly speculative hypothesis entirely without direct factual support." So when people say, show me the science, there is the science, from what a renowned scientist. Now, Darwin knew this. Charles Darwin knew that his theory of evolution had some weak points in it. One of the weakest point was the paleontology in the world. He thought the fossil record did not support his theory. But he believed that given enough time it would, that as time went on, people would make discoveries and the paleontological record would support him. Problem is, that did not happen. And this is from David Raup, who was the curator of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. He said, and I quote, "We are now about 120 years after Darwin, and the knowledge of the fossil record has been greatly expanded. We now have a quarter of a million fossil species. But the situation hasn't changed much. We have fewer examples of evolutionary transition than we had in Darwin's time." In other words, we don't have transitional forms. We don't have transmutation that would bear out the idea of evolution. So David just says, "You made me. You created me. Your marvelous work is seen in the fact of your creation." Now, let's get a little more specific, because he drills down from creation to gestation, human gestation. That is, the forming of a child in the mother's womb. Verse 13, "You formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them." What he's doing here, obviously, is looking at the marvels of the human body as it develops from its embryonic form to the fetal stage to live birth. The marvels of the human body. Now, just listen to that phrase again. The marvels of the human body. I know a lot of people that are not happy with their bodies. I think we all have a feature about us that we'd change if we could. Right? I wish I wasn't this or that. Or I wish I could change it. Listen, God says your body is marvelous. Marvelous are your works. And that, my soul, knows right well. David says you are marvelous. Look at verse 15. "My frame was not hidden from you." That refers to the skeletal system, the bones, the infrastructure of the human body, the scaffolding upon which muscles are placed and sinews are placed, the skeleton of a developing child. He said, "My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret," and look at this, "skillfully wrought, skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." Now, that's poetic language, and it's literally translated-- I heard a cardiologist this week describe it. It means to be knit together or embroidered together. And he suggested that it shows the formation of veins and arteries in the womb of a mother like forming a matrix for a vascular system, being woven together like the knitting or weaving of a fabric. And then verse 16. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. The original suggests being scrunched together, rolled up, or wrapped together. You know what it's like when you look at an ultrasound of a child? You look and say, gosh, that just looks like it's all scrunched together, all rolled up together. At first, you just see a bunch of folds. And then after a while you start noticing body parts. Especially as that little fetus begins to grow. Now, all of us start out unformed, as David said. We start out as a microscopic speck. But David said, every cellular second is monitored by God. We go from zygote to embryo to fetus to baby to toddler. The growth continues after birth all the way to an adult. The average human being has 100 trillion cells. This is your body. 100,000 miles of nerve fiber. 60,000 miles of blood vessels, along with 206 bones. Add to that joints and muscles and other things. It's amazing. Now, put this together with verse 1 of this psalm where he says, "You have searched me. You have known me." And now he talks about my human development being supervised. God knows us so well, because he's been monitoring our developments since conception. God really knows me, because he saw my existence since I was that small. There's something here we have to touch on, because it's so obvious in the text. The Bible acknowledges humanhood, personhood, from the moment of conception. Not birth, but the moment of conception. The very moment of conception, that's when that becomes a human being. Over and over again, the Bible says that. Isaiah chapter 44, "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb." Jeremiah said, God said, "Before I formed you in the womb. I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart." The tragedy of our culture is the fetus has been regarded as a nuisance to be removed. If it doesn't suit your lifestyle, or your ability to handle a child at this point, just remove it. It's like an appendix, a ruptured appendix. Just get rid of it. That has been one of the blights on our nation and, I think, on our world. Since 1973, that landmark case of Roe v. Wade, 61 million children have been aborted. I know that's a big number, but let me spell it out to you. That's over 926,000 per year. That's over 3,000 per day. That is 137 per hour. That is 2.3 every minute. That is one child every 26 seconds eliminated. Again, those are just numbers. Let me give you another perspective. That would be like totally annihilating in one fell swoop the population of the United Kingdom, England, Wales, Scotland, removing it, and Australia, all at once. That's that population. We have failed because we have failed to see that we are marvelous, we are formed, we are skillfully wrought by God in heaven. I don't know if you caught this recently, but Kanye West-- of course, he's running for president. Some of you may know that. But when he announced that he was running for president, he made a very emotional statement about the fact that he almost killed his own child. He said, you know, I almost killed my own daught-- I wanted to have an abortion for one of my children, he goes. And then he started weeping. I almost killed my own daughter. And then he said, you know what, there was a time in my life when I was in my mother's womb and my dad wanted an abortion. My mother, he said, saved my life. There was an ethics professor who told this problem to the class. He said, a man has syphilis and his wife has tuberculosis, and they have had four children. One of those children died, and the other three have what is considered a terminal illness. Now the mother is pregnant again. What do you recommend? The class talked back and forth, bantered it, and voted, and after a spirited discussion, the majority of the class members voted that the mom should have an abortion. That's the solution. And at the end of the discussion, at the end of their vote, the professor said, congratulations, you just killed Ludwig van Beethoven. And went on to explain those were the particulars of his life and his background. So here David talks about creation. You made me, you formed me. Talks about human gestation, how all the different phases of personhood are monitored by God. But there's something else that just fascinates me. I'm going to call it preparation. I want you to look at verse 16. Again, "Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed, and in your book," notice it says, "in your book they all were written, your days fashioned for me." You see that word written? It could be translated pre-recorded. Pre-recorded. You could call it predestined. But here's the point. God knew my life in advance and he knew the development of my life in advance as if it were written down or pre-written or pre-programmed. So when I read this, that my substance, yet being unformed, and in your book they were all written or pre-programmed, what came to my mind is human DNA. And you know, we all have DNA, right? Deoxyribonucleic acid. It tells every single cell how to operate, from conception all the way to death. It'll inform your life, your body, how tall you're going to be, how wide you're going to be, the density of your bones, color of your hair, and how your body is going to operate. You have 100, as I said, 100 trillion cells in your body. The DNA of the human cell, according to Francis Collins, who headed up the Human Genome Project, he said it's 3 billion letters long, and written in a strange and cryptographic four-letter code. You know that there's 46 segments in each cell, 23 from mom, 23 from dad. You remember that from school. But it contains densely coded information. If you could take the information of one cell and translate it into written form at a normal font, it would form a library of 4,000 books. One cell. One cell would produce in written form translated from that densely coded information in the cell 4,000 books. A live reading of that information, of that code, at a rate of three letters per second would take you 31 years, according to this human genome expert. Now, if the DNA was likewise uncoded from all cells in your body, all 100 trillion cells in your body, it would be enough books to fill the Grand Canyon 78 times. That's how much information is there. And so I like how David put this. I don't think he was thinking about DNA. But I love how the Holy Spirit's behind all this. Where he says, and in your book, they were all written. God wrote down you in the book of the DNA that you carry around in your body. It's pretty amazing. That's God's power. That's God's power. So God's work is marvelous. God's workmanship is meticulous. Let me take you to a third. God's wisdom. God's wisdom is matchless. He concludes this little section by saying, verse 17, "How precious also are your thoughts to me, oh God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you." Now, one of the things we've noticed in the Psalm is that it's essentially David having a devotional about God. He's musing about the attributes of God in this psalm. But here, in these verses, what is stirring David's heart aren't his thoughts about God, as much as realizing God's thoughts about him. How precious are your thoughts to me. So the combination in this text is marvelous are your works, precious are your thoughts. See, it's one thing to have power, but then to take that power and to turn it into a personal musing of your creation, of those that you made, where he says this, where he says, "Not only marvelous are your works, but precious are your thoughts." What it tells us is that not only God are you powerful as a creator, you are wonderful as a sustainer, a nurturer. So God isn't just cognizant of me. God is concerned for me. Precious are your thoughts. See, that's one of the amazing things about the psalm. If you put it all together, the omniscient, the omnipresent, the omnipotent God knows I exist and He cares. That one knows that I exist and he cares. Have you ever had somebody say, you've been on my heart lately? I've been thinking about you lately. I've had that all the time. I had a guy come up to me the other day. I was thinking about you yesterday. Or I had a dream about you, and I thought about you through the day. And so I prayed for you. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. God is saying, you've been on my mind lately. I've been thinking about you a lot lately. How much is a lot? If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake I am still with you. So listen to this, if God knows that much, if God is everywhere, if He is that powerful, then He has the strength and He has the wisdom to take care of anything that happens to me. Do you believe that? Can you rest in that? If He can think that way, if He can know that much, if He can be that powerful and that present, and He's thinking about me, what do I have at all to be worried about? Oh, about that much. About zero. By the way, I just couldn't resist, have to throw this in. If you were to calculate the number of grains of sand in a teaspoon and multiply it by all the beaches and deserts in the world-- believe me, this has been done --the number would be roughly 7.5 times 10 to the 18th grains of sand, or 7 quintillion 500 quadrillion grains. So you math heads, it just sounds like a lot to me. I don't know exactly how many zeros that is, but that's a lot of thinking that God has toward me. Now, speaking of this. Speaking of God's thoughts being more in number than the sand. There was a little boy who went to the park with his dad, and he was playing in the sandbox. It was something he was looking forward to. Brought his toys out there and little tractors and he's moving sand all around and having a good time. But he noticed that as he was playing in the sandbox, there was an enormous rock in the middle of the sandbox. So he was digging around it. And he started moving it, really pushing and pushing and pushing and he moved it. And he did it again, dug out and pushed it, and he kept doing this. It took him a long time to get it to the edge of the sandbox. And he thought, I gotta get it out of the sandbox. So with all of his strength, using his feet, using his hands, he would get it up on the edge of that little wooden container frame around the sandbox, and just when he thought he would get it up and over, it kept falling back into the sand. Finally, he just started, what kids do, he just broke down in tears. His dad was watching the whole thing. His dad walked over to the little boy in the sandbox who was still in tears and said, so why didn't you use all the strength you had available? The little boy said, daddy, I did. I used all the strength that I could. He said, no son, you didn't use all the strength that you had available. You didn't ask me. He walked down, stepped down, took the rock, tossed it over the edge. It was done. It was done. Think of all the strength available by the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God who makes Himself available to us. So your God made everything in the universe. Your God made it out of nothing. Your God does not have the word impossible in His vocabulary. Your God can do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think. Your God knows you, your God formed you, your God has plans for you. Will you turn your thoughts to the God who has turned His thoughts to you? Will you do that? Will you think of Him? Will you consider Him? Because He's been considering you since before you were born. And for some of you, the Bible says He has chosen you before you were born. And He's chosen you for this moment, this time that you're watching this broadcast, to say yes to Jesus Christ. This is your time. All of life so far has brought you to this single moment, where you release your life into the hands of the one who is all knowing, ever present, all powerful, loves you deeply, and can change your life forever. He's got the bases covered. He sent his son to pay for all the sins you've ever committed on the cross. Done deal. It is finished. It now takes you to say yes to Him. And I'm going to give you that opportunity every week. People are doing this around the world, around the country. This is your time now. Some of you've held on tightly to your life. Now is the moment to let go and give it to him. Give your life to the one who made you, who formed you, who loves you. If you're willing to do that, it's a simple step. You don't have to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, Jerusalem, Rome. You can stay right where you're at, sheltered at home, and say yes to Jesus, and he'll write your name in heaven, and you'll be there one day. All you have to do is commit your life to Him. I'm going to lead you in a simple prayer. I want you right where you're at to say this prayer. Say Lord, I give you my life. I admit I'm a sinner. Forgive me. I'm sorry for my sin. I believe in Jesus. I believe he came from heaven to earth. I believe he died on a cross and paid for my sins with his blood. And I believe he rose again from the dead. So I turn from my sin. I repent of it. I turn to Jesus right now as Savior and Lord. I take him as my Savior. I want to follow him as my Lord. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Help me to do that today and every single day. In Jesus' name. Amen. Now, I believe many of you did that. And if you did, I want you to text the words saved, S-A-V-E-D, to this telephone number, (505) 509-5433. That's (505) 509-5433. Or if you happen to be on the computer and you're not at the website yet, go to calvarynm.church and right on the right hand corner of that website is a little button called Know God. Click Know God. Click that little button. Somebody will reach out to you right there and put something in your inbox, something in the mailbox, get information of what are the next steps in following Christ in your life. We want to welcome you to the family of God. We want to welcome you to this online community. [APPLAUSE] And I've been around for a while. And I've watched people do this, and I've watched lives changed. My own life changed. I recall that. I have seen so many people with testimonies give their lives to Christ. And their whole world is brand new. I can't wait to hear your story. So write us, tell us how it happened. And tell us that you did it, because we'd loved the chance to be able to share that online as well. So God bless you. Thank you for joining us. May God keep you, preserve you, as you walk with Him this week. God is called  Almighty  fifty-seven times in Scripture. It means that the resources of His power are boundless. He is unlimited in His ability and unconstrained in His capacity. God’s attribute of omnipotence is helpful for us to remember when we are feeling overwhelmed with threatening circumstances. Just as we feel confident when our mobile devices have plenty of battery power to spare, we can live confidently knowing that our great God has power for any of our problems. www.connectwithskip.com .eternal

Rest: Acceptance Matt 11:28-30 G: Rest begins with acceptance. Matt 11:28-30 J: Culture desperately in need of rest of all kinds. TIME is the most significant commodity. Queen Elizabeth: “all my possessions for a moment in time.” We were promised more time! The economist John Maynard Keynes in 1930 predicted 15 hour work weeks for his grandchildren. A senate subcommittee in 1960 predicted 14 hour work weeks by 2000. G: Camping story: disconnect from rat race. Series Rest: Slow Down, Simplicity, Sabbath. Today, relational rest. Begins with acceptance. Restlessness is a search for acceptance, approval, significance, meaning. J: Matt 11:25 Prayer; 11:27 Father: eternity of glory Father/Son/Spirit. G: Search for acceptance: funeral story. J: Jesus/Father: validated: Mt 3:17: if Jesus needed to hear it, we do! Story of All Stars. G: Son: tested, worshiped, Peter’s confession. Matt 17:5. J: Matt 11:27: foundational passage: prayer = relationship, rest. G: Matt 11:28: Come to me: only way to the Father. Labor/heavy laden: John Odam/Insecurities. Rest and Father. Rest and Father. Acceptance, approval, encouragement, respect, meaning, significance, comfort, security. J: Matt 11:29: Gentle and Lowly in heart/toxic masculinity. Dangerous when wedded with Xy. Rest for your souls. Have you experienced X? Have you experienced his rest? G: Matt 11:30: Yoke, rest not passive. Active. Earn, accept, impress, approval now lower bar. Matt 5:48: Jesus, gift, rest, enter. J: Altar call: God at arm’s length. Christian who has been trying to earn acceptance. Are you worn out? Commit to finding your rest in Christ. 1/3/2021 Rest is not passive, it’s active. We must accept his grace and strength and rest upon Him. Give your burdens to Christ and experience His peace. Team sermon preached at New Life Fellowship by Greg Lavine and John Beeson.

Recently I’ve been enjoying the book, Christianity on the Offense: Responding to the Spiritual Beliefs of Seekers, by Dan Story. It’s always good to learn something about the competition, so to speak, and I occasionally read such books to keep me up to date on worldview issues. The pages I read today, however, got me thinking not about the world-views of today, but the world-views of tomorrow—apropos to the change of calendar coming in just hours. It’s interesting to me to trace how different world-views like Naturalism, Modernism, Buddhism, and competing religions have all contributed to one another over the centuries. These worldv-iews often borrow points from one another, specifically the Western world-views have been borrowing from the Eastern, thus becoming their worldview cousins. Christianity is different in that when someone tries to integrate other religious philosophies into its framework it becomes something wholly different—something other than orthodox. As one example, we see a lot of this in Mongolia as many young Christians, not fully understanding the unique nature of Christianity, attempt to bring in some of the beliefs and practices of Buddhism and Animism in the name of preserving culture. This practice of syncretism ends up creating something other than a biblically-based Christian expression. It was also strongly condemned by Peter (II Peter 2:17-22) and Jesus (Revelation 2:12-29). The study of apologetics is always a study of the past, even the recent past. That makes sense. The past is immutable. We can study the history of religious and philosophical thought and the impact on societies to see how those ideas shaped societies. But wouldn’t it be interesting, and perhaps even more advantageous for us to see where these views might lead us to in the future? How’s that for a New Year’s thought? Let’s approach it this way: Who among Christian leaders of the 17th and 18th century that battled the influence of the enlightenment would have guessed that it would eventually pave the way for Darwinism, Secular Humanism, then a Post-Modernist view? Applying this speculation to today, what kind of worldviews will the Christian Church have to do battle with tomorrow? When we read the scriptures about the coming End Times we are faced with a stark reality about the future—it may be as equally immutable as the past. Prophetic scripture reveals that things are going to get bad for those with a Christian worldview. Even the most casual read from Matthew 24-25 and the book of Revelation reveal a ballooning anti-Christian fervor. Can we deny that we experience it today from the courtrooms of America to the prisons of China? The Apostle Paul warned Timothy about this very thing, paving the way for us to prepare for battle in the future. “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron…” (I Timothy 4:1-2) “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power…evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (II Timothy 3:1-5,13). Just as the past is immutable, so too it may be that the future revealed to us in these and other passages, is equally immutable. God has already revealed to us, in advance, that we will be faced with opposition to the Christian worldview with increasing frequency and fervor. Since the scripture reveals it then we know it will come to pass (Romans 4:17). So how will we deal with this immutable future of trouble? That’s a question we should consider as we enter the last year of this decade. Paul provided more than a warning of what was to come, he also provided a solution. “You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them…you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:14-17). I love it. When revealing what believers face in a future time Paul simply goes back to the old standards. Like a plaid-suited used car salesman on a cheap TV commercial he shouts, “Yesterday’s technology today!” Except what Paul is selling is the real deal. Its power is truth. Its potential unending. It never goes out of style or become irrelevant. At all times there are always signs before us pointing to what the future may hold. The signs of our recent economic crisis were in place in 90s. So too there are warning signs before the Christian about what to expect in the future. The road we are on is designed to take us to that future. How we will deal with it when we get there should be of great concern along the way. The road may twist and turn but the rules of the road are unchanged. guywithabible.com

Our thoughts are important. Our minds are a factory of thoughts, some intentional, some not intentional. We strategize, reflect, and ruminate. And sometimes we experience intrusive thoughts, those thoughts that pop into our mind and can feel out of our control. Recently on vacation I was snorkeling and my mind produced the thought: what if a tiger shark is trailing you right now? My head whipped backward to see if the intrusive thought was a premonition. It wasn’t. Harmless fish schooled behind me. Our intrusive thoughts can feel overpowering at times. How do we navigate them? Last week we considered three questions to ask ourselves when we experience intrusive thoughts. Those were: Is there something different about the season I am in? Does my personality lend itself to more frequent intrusive thoughts? Why am I having this intrusive thought? These questions help us frame the intrusive thoughts and consider how we ought to treat them: are they flagging the presence of stress in our lives? Are they indicators of a battle with compulsive tendencies? Do they reveal sin in our hearts? Today, let’s press into scripture and consider how to be proactive with our minds. PREPARING YOUR MIND In 1 Peter 1, Peter encourages his audience that they have had given to them a salvation that was secured by the suffering Christ. That salvation secured for us glories to which even “angels long to look.” Peter then turns and says, “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:13). Essentially, Peter says, “You are completely secured in the glorious rescue of Jesus Christ, but beware! Guard your mind for battle!” Peter goes on to urge his flock that, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere and brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart…” (1 Pet 1:22). From Peter, we learn a few important truths about our battle with intrusive thoughts. LOOK BACKWARD AND FORWARD First, Peter points us to our salvation. Our salvation is the ground of how our minds are shaped, and that salvation is not secured by us, but by Jesus Christ himself. When intrusive thoughts come, look backward to the cross of Christ and forward to the hope that Christ has secured for us in eternity. Intrusive thoughts can act as a mental black hole, collapsing our mental energies into the present and into ourselves. It can feel as though our escape from the dark matter depends on us alone. This is a lie. Peter reminds us that the work is accomplished in Christ. Look to the cross! Christ secured for us a new mind in his atoning work. Look to heaven! Christ has secured for us a transformed and future of complete rest in himself. LOOK TO ONE ANOTHER Finally, Peter points us to the community of faith. In verse 22, Peter reminds us that our purified minds are not merely for ourselves, but to be directed in love toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. “Love one another earnestly from a pure heart,” Peter says. Jesus calls us to love as a hope-filled invitation outside of ourselves. Intrusive thoughts can trap us in a cycle that is inward and self-focused. Jesus calls us outward in love. KNOCK DOWN AND OBEY Similarly, Paul echoes Peter’s admonition in 2 Corinthians 10, where he urges the community at Corinth to actively fight the untruths that are being spread by false teachers. He says, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). Note the two-step approach Paul urges here. First, he says, knock down the untruths. Pick apart the lies that are at the heart of your intrusive thoughts with the truth of the gospel. And then, second, move forward in obedience to Christ. Move outward in action. IMAGINE Paul reminds us in Philippians, that it isn’t enough to destroy false thinking, we have to create healthy imaginations. In Philippians 4 he says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8). In other words, actively create mental playgrounds of gospel creativity. Many of us can expend so much energy trying to knock down destructive intrusive thoughts that we leave no energy to build constructive imaginations. We begin to believe the lie that our minds are dangerous and need to merely be shut down. Your mind is a gift and God intends that gift to be used for his glory. God’s desire is to reshape your mind to be a factory of God-glorifying curiosity. CONFESS TO ONE ANOTHER God intends all of this to be done in community. James urges us to “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (Jms 5:16). Can’t we just confess our sins to God? Why must I reveal the darkness of my mental life to someone else? James tells us that as we confess to one another and pray for one another, healing will come. I’ve seen this again and again as a pastor and counselor. I’m often the first person someone shares their intrusive thoughts with. Perhaps they have been struggling with lustful thoughts or violent thoughts. They muster up all of their courage to tell me what is going on and then I can see them brace. They prepare for my disgust and judgment. When empathy and mercy come instead, they physically change. They exhale, shoulders loosen, and tears often flow. Inevitably, I will encourage them to share their struggle with a trusted friend and inevitably they will resist. Why would I want them to go through the pain of sharing again? For a few reasons: first, because sharing loosens the grip that sin has over us. We cannot hide our sin. We are less likely to believe that the sin is just between us and God, we recognize the corporate implications of our sin. Second, because confiding with a friend releases the power shame has over us. Very often those near us will identify with our struggle. They’ve had similar struggles. And they can speak against the untruth that any sin identifies who we are. No, our adoption into the family of God identifies who we are. And finally, bringing brothers and sisters alongside us in our struggles brings powerful spiritual partners in prayer. A SPIRITUAL BATTLE Do not be deceived, the battle for our mind is no mere battle against brain matter. It is a spiritual battle. And we need spiritual tools for that battle. So, let us destroy the lies our intrusive thoughts can speak. Let us move outward in love. Let us build minds of God-glorifying creativity. And let us do so in the context of the family of God, of brothers and sisters in Christ. Your intrusive thoughts do not have the final say in your life. Jesus Christ has spoken a more powerful word on the cross. And he invites you into a joyous place where your mind is an ally, not an enemy in your striving to conform to his likeness. thebeehive.live .

When we experience any kind of trauma, we can respond to the threat in various ways to cope. We are all familiar with the fight or flight response, but there are actually four main trauma responses, which are categorized as “the four F’s of trauma”:  fight, flight, freeze and fawn . In this  podcast  (episode #302) and blog, I will talk about these different trauma responses, and how to manage them in the moment using self-regulation and mind-management techniques. Although recent research indicates there may be two more trauma responses common to human beings, I am just going to concentrate on the main four for this podcast. These main trauma responses are actual neural structures that get built into our brain as “thought trees.” The experience triggers the response with all its memories, including the knowledge, data  and emotions that are attached to the memories like branches and leaves on a tree.  The more intense the experience, the more energy and strength the thought tree has . When this happens, the brain sends a message to all the cells of the body about this thought tree, so  the memory is stored in the body as well . The more this trauma pattern is activated/triggered, the stronger it gets. This means that when anything similar happens to us, the predictive pattern will “switch on” in our mind, brain and body, and we can automatically revert to it, which strengthens it further. Knowing about these trauma responses can help you see how you are responding to trauma triggers, which will, in turn, help you recognize the warning signals of how they are showing up in your life and what they mean for you. This will enable you to reconceptualize (reimagine/rewire) them into a pattern that works for you and not against you. Over time, you can work on healing your trauma; you do not have to let it take up any more room in your life. You do not have to default to unhealthy trauma responses that keep you stuck. As mentioned above, the four types of trauma responses are:  fight, flight, freeze or fawn . You may have one or more of them at different times and under different circumstances: The flight response  can be defined as getting away from the situation as quickly as possible. The fight response  can be defined as pure self-preservation. The freeze response  can be defined as pausing instead of running. The fawn response  can be defined as keeping someone happy to neutralize the threat. These trauma responses  can show up in either a healthy or unhealthy way . For instance, an unhealthy fight response may result in increased aggressive behavior, while a healthy fight response may be the desire to set and maintain healthy relationship boundaries. An unhealthy flight response, on the other hand, may be to become a workaholic to avoid confrontation, while a healthy flight response may be to exit an unhealthy relationship. Unhealthy flight responses  can include obsessive or compulsive tendencies, needing to stay busy all the time, panic, constant feelings of fear, perfectionism, workaholic tendencies, and the inability to sit still.  Healthy flightresponses  can include being able to disengage from harmful conversations, leave unhealthy relationships, remove yourself from physical danger, and properly assess danger. Unhealthy fight responses  can include controlling behaviors, narcissistic tendencies, bullying, conduct disorder, demanding perfection from others, and feelings of entitlement.  Healthy fight responses  can include establishing firm boundaries, being assertive, finding courage, becoming a strong leader, and protecting yourself and loved ones. Unhealthy freeze responses  can include dissociation, isolation, frequent zoning out, brain fog, difficulty making decisions, difficulty taking actions or getting things done, fear of achieving, or fear of trying new things.  Healthy freeze responses  can include mindfulness, awareness, and full presence in the moment. Unhealthy fawn responses  can include codependent relationships, staying in violent relationships, loss of self, destructive people-pleasing, or few or no boundaries.  Healthy fawn responses  can include compassion for others, compromise, active listening, and a sense of fairness. The first step in managing any response awareness—we must feel to heal.  Often, these four types of trauma responses, if they manifest as unhealthy responses, can keep us stuck. But,  by becoming aware of them, we can understand them and learn how to make them work for us and not against us . We can start doing this by switching them from unhealthy to healthy trauma responses through the process called reconceptualization, which I describe in detail below. When you learn how to mind-manage a trauma response when triggered, you can choose what will work best for you to help you get through the situation . This will give you a sense of agency and control, which will further empower you to take control of your life. To this end, I recommend doing a Neurocycle, which is the 5-step mind-management system I have developed over the past 38 years, and is based on my research and practice. (I discuss this in detail in my book  Cleaning Up Your Mental Mess ,  my app  Neurocycle  and in my  recent clinical trials .) The 5 steps are: 1. Gather awareness of your trauma response. What are your emotional warning signals? What are your physical warning signals? What are your behavioral warning signals? Which of the four f’s of trauma, or what combination, are you in? 2. Reflect What is the pattern you have developed to cope with your trauma? What are you doing and how are you responding specifically? Does your response serve you well in your relationships? Do you need to change it? Where is the trauma that this response is coming from? (It’s ok if you can’t answer that now, it’s good enough to know it’s a response to an underlying cause. You can work on this separately over 63 day cycles to find the roots of the trauma and embrace, process and reconceptualize them). 3.   Write  Write what you have gathered and reflected on to help organize your thinking. 4. Recheck Look at what you have written, and see if you can reconceptualize the trauma response, – that is, shift it to a healthy response – by finding what I call the “antidote”. For example, you can say something like  “This place still makes me sad, but it doesn’t hurt anymore; I don’t see myself as the one who is always being left; rather, I am the one who was willing to stay.”  5. Active reach What is an anchoring action or statement you can quickly do and say to yourself when a trauma response is triggered? For example, you can say something like  “I am going to put on my imaginary suit of armor, practice deep breathing to control my panic, and then I am going to stop pacing, sit down and assess the situation to see what has made me panic. I will ask someone I trust to help me, like a therapist or counselor.” www.drleaf.com .

Do the Hard Things Levi Lusko All right, let's go. We're in a series of messages, if you're just jumping in, now is the perfect time, by the way. Glad to have you here, but the series is called "Some Assembly Required". And that's because our relationships, they don't work like they're meant to. They don't function like they're ultimately going to right out of the box. It takes painstaking work to assemble them. I think about when I bought my daughter, at the time I only had one daughter, it's crazy to think about that. Now, there's like 94 of them. I bought a little kitchen set, and it was a great thing to buy and bring home. And that was easy. I mean, I had to pay for it, but I didn't bring this thing home. That was easy compared to putting it together, because there was approximately 94 billion pieces to this thing. And I remember just so many hours, just hunched over, my back hurting, just all the work that went into assembling this thing that I had bought and brought home. But before it could work like it was meant to, it had to be assembled. And if I had stopped at any point in the process, it wouldn't have done everything that the picture on the box said it would, or that it ultimately could, had I stopped prematurely. And our relationships are like that. Some of us just, for years, have been limping on with relationships in our lives that are missing out on features that they could have, that they have within them, the capacity to produce and to function. But we're just keeping them in the state of arrested development because we're unwilling to move on to that next step. So that's our goal. Each week of the series we're trying to receive tools, because you can't assemble something if you don't have the proper tools. And so we're not so much focusing on individual relationships, and saying, for this one you're going to need this, and a whole week on that. But I really made it my goal so that this can be universally applied, would be that every week we would walk away with a tool that could apply to any relationship in your life. So you could use that tool at work, use that to at school, use that tool on your soccer team, use that tool with any context, even a complete stranger in a customer service situation, or anybody that you meet. That's our goal. I really want this to be practical, and I hope you'll continue to come back, because the more tools you have, the better off you'll be. And so the next couple of weeks, there's going to be some really super practical tools that, in your relationship, I wonder what new features might get unlocked if you could get a working knowledge of these unique tools. Well, last week we talked about the tool of alignment, and how to align our behavior with the outcome that we want, our intentions and the impact that we actually have. Because we said that your intentions don't really matter, quite frankly. It's the impact that you're having that actually is felt by the world. This week, I want to talk about the tool of embracing discomfort. That's the tool. It's not too late. You can leave. This is a tool we want to figure out how to get a good working knowledge of embracing discomfort. If I do what I feel like God's called me to do this week, you're going to all walk out of here understanding, hopefully, a little bit better about how resisting the urge to resist discomfort will actually help your relationships. You need to learn how to embrace, this sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it, discomfort. If you have a Bible, Proverbs 3 is where we're going to begin. Every week in this series, we're really taking some principles from the Proverbs. It's been called a manual for skillful living, so that seems like it would be a helpful place, if we're going to assemble stuff, we need a manual. Make sense? So we're going through the book of Proverbs. It's so helpful in so many ways. You cannot read the book of Proverbs and not find things to apply or understand the reason you're getting so much difficulty in life. Oh, that explains everything. Dang it. I was way off. Samsonite, I was way off. So Proverbs 3. Title of my message is this, Do the Hard Things. I didn't go for clever, bee stings, and those. No, no. I just wanted to give you your assignment. Here's the whole, this is it, man. Do the hard things, because we're learning how to embrace discomfort as a tool for our relationships. It can make your marriage better, believe it or not. It's going to make your relationship with your third cousin twice removed, or the one that you wish would be completely removed, whatever. If you could embrace some discomfort, imagine how much further you'd go in this life. Do you feel at the outset, your relationships get better, like I do? Yes, approximately one fifth of the room are where I'm at, the rest of them aren't with me. It's cool. No, it's fine. No, it's good. It's OK. I asked for it, it doesn't count. I'm embracing discomfort, like preaching to you all. Just kidding, just kidding, just kidding. In Portland, they're going crazy. It's revival, I can tell. All right, so here's the deal. Proverbs 3, Do The Hard Things is the title. Do you like to take notes in church? I do. When I listen to messages, if I'm not preaching, I'm at a church, I'm listening. I'm taking notes. You want to know why? Because I do not have the memory I wish I had. I'll remember that forever, no I won't. But I know where to find it. And so I'm always writing stuff down. I listen to church messages. I'm a preaching junkie. I love a book that will help me, anything. I'm always trying to learn. And so I'll have a podcast on in the car. I'll have a teaching on here. I'll have a book by my bedside table, book by the coffee table. And I'm always writing notes down, and I try and compile them back to where I can find stuff. So I think it's really helpful is all I'm trying to say. And I'll pull over. If you see me on the road, no police behind me, it's because I'm trying to write down a note before I forget it. Because I gave up on Siri. That was just futile. Siri, text me this. It's just nonsense. So it doesn't make any help. So all that to say, if you like to take notes at church, I have the title, which I already told you, which is Do the Hard Things, and the tool is embrace discomfort. I've also got a sneaky secret subtitle. So it's going to be one of those sermons. So if you do like to write that down, you can write in parentheses next to my actual title these four words, I am the lion. So just jot that down. Because that's our secret subtitle. And it's the path to doing the hard things. I am the lion. All right, Proverbs 3, here's what we find in verse 11. "My son, do not despise", someone say do not despise, "the chastening of the Lord". In other words, don't despise something that naturally is despicable. "Do not despise the chastening,", or the discipline, or the correction, oh, I love correction. I hate it. "Do not despise the chastening of the Lord". Or in other words, don't go with your natural inclination on this. "Nor detest his correction. For whom the Lord loves he corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights". To fight against, or to hate against, or to resist God's chastening, or to go with your gut on how it feels, like you should be responding, would be to keep you back from something that God wants you to experience. As we let that sink in, let's pray together. Jesus, thank you so much for this beautiful simplicity of what we just read, that how we feel in certain situations is not an indicator of what we should do. Thank you that as we see the invisible. It will give us the strength to realize this and to walk out of this reality. I pray you would help me to communicate what you've been showing me and speaking to my heart, and I pray you'd help us all to live out of this. Not just hear it, but do it. And I pray that you would draw people who are hearing this message who are far from you, who are hurting, who are empty, who are sad, who are lonely, who don't know you. I pray you'd draw them to yourself. And I pray you'd draw all of us closer to you. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. The sort of big idea here in these two verses, and really what I want you to understand about this topic is that just because something's unpleasant, that doesn't automatically make it unprofitable. OK, just because something that you experienced in life, now, it can be, but just because something's unpleasant, that doesn't automatically make it unprofitable. And our tendency would be to see no good in something that's unpleasant, and to miss out, potentially, on something that could actually help us, something, listen to me. Being hard doesn't automatically make it bad. You know this is a principle that's bigger than just a specific instance, but it's very much true when it comes to God's discipline in our lives. God's correcting in our lives, God steering us in our lives, at times, dealing with things that hurt. But really, God's discipline isn't pleasant. We'd be lying to say it was, that when God works in our lives trying to steer us in the right direction at times, that means that we were taking some swats. And that's kind of the way he compares it. It's like a father that spanks his son. Do you think this sounds like, dad, that was great. Can we do that again tomorrow night? It's not pleasant. It's something that your initial response is to detest it. I hated every spanking I got as a child. I hated them all. Does anyone want to be undisciplined when it comes to physical fitness and eating? Like, no one wants to be undisciplined, that you feel like you just eat without even thinking about it, or you eat emotionally. No, you would like to be a person who's disciplined: disciplined in body, disciplined in mind, disciplined in word, disciplined in finances, discipline in habits and choices and decisions that you make. We all want to be disciplined. I flew to Colorado Springs this week. And you land there, they make a big deal about the fact that the United States Olympic training center's there in Colorado Springs, where they train at a mile high. And you think about how, to be an Olympic athlete, what do you have to do? You have to be disciplined. So we celebrate those who are disciplined, the master violinist, the master dancer, the master whatever, pole vaulter, right? So that's someone who's become incredibly disciplined. So we, deep down, respect the results of discipline. How do you get to be disciplined? You've got to get disciplined. So no one wants to be disciplined. We detest it when it happens. But the result of fighting against it and not leaning into it is ending up at a place that you don't want to be deep down. So discipline would then become an unpleasant means to a profitable end. Therefore, something being hard, can we agree, doesn't automatically make it bad. So we bring this now (this construct) to our relationships. And in relationships, I don't care if it's a co worker, or in-law, or a spouse, there are things that don't feel good. There are things that are uncomfortable about being in relationship. There are things that are uncomfortable about keeping a relationship healthy. And our unwillingness to embrace discomfort keeps the relationship from becoming the mature, healthy, vibrant source of life that it's meant to become. What sorts of things would we be tempted to withdraw from? Well, I don't know your triggers. I know mine. But I made a little list, and maybe this will hit you. Maybe it won't. But here's some of them, certainly not exhaustive, things tha Here's the thing. When you did this, it didn't make me feel well. Now, how do you respond to that? Do you love confrontation? Do you love someone, even when they do it lovingly? Coming to you and, here's what happened. Here's how that made me feel. Not blowing up, but actually confronting you in the right kind of way. Or any kind of conflict, correction, or criticism. Maybe that's what you withdraw from. The moment someone tries to correct you, the moment someone tries to help you see life through your eyes, all of a sudden, you resist that because it's uncomfortable to go there. Or just difficult conversations of any depth at all that's beyond anything superficial. How about vulnerability? Feeling exposed, feeling like someone can see you on the inside, being honest. Maybe that kind of depth scares you off. But it's necessary to achieve intimacy. How can you have intimacy without vulnerability? Showing weakness, is that difficult for you? Do you resist that because it's not comfortable to you to show weakness? Here's some. Being caught off guard, surprised, scared, guilty, feelings of guilt, this comes up feelings of shame. Moments where you have to apologize. How about success? Some people, they withdraw from relationships when they're going well, because they start to feel this fear, and so they want to almost self-sabotage it because it's going well. Or feeling like there's the need for commitment, and the inability to handle a conversation that's meant to define the relationship and move it towards commitment. Or how about things not going your way? Or how about when someone that you're trying to speak to on something needs time to process? This can be difficult if you're a, let's sort this out, let's hash this out now. But now they're saying, hey, let's sleep on it. Let's give this some space. I'm not ready to talk about it. How do you handle that? The point is, there are things that are uncomfortable for you that are going to be completely fine for me. And there are things that are going to be, then, the source of discomfort for me that, perhaps, won't be for you. The same trigger doesn't apply to every single person. But what is universally true is if we're going to be in a relationship with someone, there are going to be necessary moments of discomfort, necessary moments of pain, find myself wanting to pull back from this. I think back to when I was in third grade. When I was in third grade, I found out that I don't like environments where I walk into them that are new, the first day of school type environments, or really any situation where I walk into a room and a ton of people's eyes all go to me at the same time. I realize that's an ironic thing for me to not like, but I've had time to acclimate to this environment. The perfect example. When I would get late to school, it was one of my biggest fears in life, would be being late to third grade. And everyone's in the desk, and everyone's sitting there, and the teacher has already done roll call and is beginning the class. And for me to walk into that and swing that door open and have everyone's eyes look at me, you are literally defining hell for me. I hated that. A little bit about my mom. She's never been on time to anything in her life. Doesn't even know what that means, right? So there was a lot of moments where there was tension between me and my mom because I'm late walking in this room and I just wanted to write the day off. Let me just try again tomorrow. I'll just stay here now, I'll be early for tomorrow. The way she tells it, I don't remember this exactly, but she says I was standing in the hall fighting, trying to pull away from her, biting her hand. And she would make me like, go into class. I'm like, no. There was one moment when I asked permission to go to the bathroom. And I don't know why or how this happened, but on my way out... did your parents always tell you to turn the lights off when you left the room? One time in third grade, I was going out to the bathroom and out the door, I just shut off walking out the room. And everyone started laughing, but I didn't know what happened, honest to God. So I go to the bathroom and I come back in the room. When I come back in the room, my teacher is boiling red, and everyone's clapping and laughing at me. And I was just so bewildered, just had no idea what was happening. I think about another time, I was preaching a sermon. And I'm preaching a sermon, and I'm just preaching my heart out, just trying to remove the devil from the atmosphere, and I don't know how this happened, a dog got out on stage and walked out. Like, how does this even happen in a church? And I'm preaching this sermon, and everyone in the room is just laughing at me and pointing. And I was just, like is this not a good idea? And I didn't know. So people could tell I didn't know, so they're laughing harder. So finally, I turn. But just before I turn, the dog ran off stage. So I turned, there's no dog. And so now I'm just so confused. If you watched the video, which I've deleted from the internet, as far as I can tell, then the first thing I did was I think, is my fly down? So I looked down at my fly, and I'm just perplexed. I have no idea. And literally, it was one of those moments in life, I felt myself just all the blood running to my face. And those are really difficult moments for me, being a shy, kind of introverted person. That's very challenging for me to walk into a situation like that. So I know my triggers. I know what is uncomfortable for me. The key is to figure out what's uncomfortable for you. And how are you, potentially, being held back from somewhere that God, and you, if you're honest, want to go. Somewhere that God and you want to go by things that you're resisting. Listen to me very carefully. The reward for avoiding pain is remaining the same. That's the first thing I want you to really take to heart on this subject. We're talking about how something being unprofitable doesn't automatically make it unpleasant. And if you resist the triggers that you know it's hard for you to deal with this, and so you just pull back and every time, you shut down. Every time the conversation gets to a subject you don't like, tears come up. You're like, call your sister, call your sister, call your girlfriend. You just can't handle emotion. You can't handle a coworker bawling. And you're like, what's going on? Well, they start opening up to you, telling you how hard her hard life is. And you're just like, uh, well, I hope everything just goes better for you. Good luck with that, and you run off. You can't handle any kind of emotional vulnerability, or someone being candid, or any discussion about things of death, where you just automatically shut down. Listen, the reward for avoiding that pain, congratulations, you'll remain the same. And if that's all you want, that's great. But if you want to grow, if you want to become something different, if you want relationships to mature, and to be transformed, and to be a source of joy, if you want to be a blessing to your coworkers, and a blessing to the waitress, who you can tell has had a hard life, and you had a moment there. If you don't want to stay the same, like I don't want to stay the same. The don't want to stay at third grade level. I don't want to be still struggling with these things. I want to see growth and see myself become all that God sees is deep down inside of me, then we have to embrace that pain, embrace that discomfort. We have to do the hard things. That's what it's going to take. What is it with us hating pain so much, and hating discomfort so much? I was reading an interesting interview with someone who seems to love pain. His name is Dean Karnazes, and he's been nicknamed the Ultramarathon Man. Get this guy. One time ran 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days in 50 different places, 50 marathons, 50 days in a row, in 50 different places. He's run marathons in places like the South pole and Death Valley. This guy clearly loves pain. But he says something interesting, Dean Karnazes did, in an interview with Wired magazine. Listen to what he said. I thought it's very provoking for our subject. "Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think if we had every comfort available to us, we'd be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now, we're so comfortable", quote, unquote, "we're miserable. There's no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes easy. What I've found is that I'm never more alive than when I'm pushing and I'm in pain, and I'm struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there's a magic". Come on, that's good. There's an embracing the struggle, because he doesn't want to stay the same. So he's not going to avoid the pain. And I'm not saying you need to go run a marathon on the South pole, but what I am saying is that Scripture tells us pain is not all bad. Proverbs 20 verse 30, look at what this tells us. It says, "blows that hurt cleanse the way evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart". What do you need to know? You need to know that comfort zones don't keep your life safe. They keep your life small. You see, when I talk about resisting discomfort, I'm only talking about living in a safe comfort zone. I don't go there. I don't open up. I don't talk emotions. Or I do, that's all I talk about. Or I can't give people space. Whatever it is for you that makes you uncomfortable that you tend to avoid because of what you've gone through pain previously, the family you had. When it comes to having healthy relationships we must get out of our comfort zones and do the hard things. Just because something is unpleasant doesn’t mean it’s unprofitable. Preached at Fresh Life Church. www.sermons.love

What will we experience on the New Earth? (Make your own list. This is just a portion of mine.) Forever more: Closeness to God greater than we’ve ever known The companionship of Jesus Wonderful, loving relationships with people Reunions with family and old friends Making new friends Getting to know angels Seeing how God truly did work all things together for our good Meeting and talking to Christians who impacted us through their writings and lives Happiness Delight Comfort Righteous desires and emotions Perfectly healthy, strong bodies Eating and drinking (redeemed food and taste buds—you may yet discover your favorite food and beverage!) Story-telling around tables and fires Laughter Humor—not degrading and mocking, but enriching Fun that’s worshipful Animals—our favorites kinds, with loving relationships, no harm, no fear Adventures Travel (there are streets, people come in and out of the New Jerusalem, there’s a world to see while serving Jesus) Learning Art—drawing, painting, sculpting, ______ Reading literature (poetry, drama, story, nonfiction…) Music Play (hiking, climbing, boating, sports—maybe your favorite sport will be is one you haven’t played yet!) Exploration of a fantastic planet and likely of other redeemed planets and galaxies Astronomy Fulfillment of lost opportunities and dreams Work God has for us that’s fulfilling, engaging, fun, and fascinating Rest Leisure time with God and His people More great things to do than ever Time to do everything! Heartfelt worship with people from every tribe, language, and nation Delightful and engaging service of Jesus What will we NOT experience on the New Earth because of “No more Curse”? With the absence of the negatives, ponder the presence of the positives. We’ll have the good that’s the opposite of all the bad—the blessings that correspond to the absence of the curses . No more: Sin Suffering Death (of children, parents, spouses, siblings, friends) Satan or demons Weeping (out of sorrow or pain) No more: Sexual immorality Adultery Pornography Lust Sex trafficking Cruelty to people or animals Gender confusion Racism False worldviews No more: Starvation Polluted drinking water Cancer Blindness or deafness Futility Insanity Dementia Drug abuse No more: Crime Rape Holocausts Drowning Terrorism Persecution Child abuse (or elder abuse or any abuse) Abortion Murder Slavery School shootings Poverty Homelessness Car accidents Prisons Physician assisted suicide No more: Lying and deceit Peer pressure Mockery and contempt Tyranny Bullying Jealousy Hatred Self-obsession, self-promotion, self-congratulation, or self-exaltation (No more self? No! A  redeemed,  Christ-like self!) No more: Grief Shame Hurt feelings Pandemics, no more COVID Fights about COVID or politics Berating people for their beliefs about the masks or social distancing or vaccination Corrupt and confusing politics Cutting, biting words (tongues finally tamed by righteousness) Snarky, berating, insulting social media posts (You are dishonoring Jesus and pushing people away from Him— please don’t post these and say you are a Christian . Jesus says in  Matthew 12:36-37 : “On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. By your words you will be acquitted, or by your words you will be condemned.”) No more: Blasphemy Questioning God’s goodness and mercy Arrogance Greed Divorce Blame Insecurity Self-pity Hating the way we look, or the things we do Fear Worry Depression Suicide Loneliness Broken relationships No more: Enemies Torture Tragedies Home invasions Forest fires or homes burned to the ground Natural disasters Sweat shops Witchcraft No more: Division Alienation Amputations Gossip Phobias Slander Betrayals Broken friendships Rebellion Idolatry No more: Funerals or hospitals or rest homes Putting to sleep a beloved pet Broken hearts Locking doors Exploitation or neglect of the poor and needy and elderly Poor and needy and elderly! Beatings Exploitation of children Giving up on or demeaning the sick and disabled Big and powerful people deciding small and weak people have no rights No more: Provoking each other to anger Disobedience Unreasonable expectations False advertising Kidnappings Plane crashes Identity theft Catastrophic business failures Arson No more: Doubting or distrusting God Sleepless nights Embarrassment Self-consciousness Humiliation Abandonment Regrets Misunderstandings Hurting others’ feelings Trying to figure out whether someone trying to hurt us No more: Food poisoning Dysentery Tape worms or intestinal parasites Deadly viruses Neuropathy No more ADHD Asthma Autism Chronic fatigue Epilepsy Fetal Alcohol Disorder HIV/AIDS Kidney Disease Meningitis Strokes Agoraphobia Claustrophobia Phobias of any kind No more: Getting fired Hostility Indifference or apathy about others Grudges Corrupt governments Cursing of God Sense of entitlement Defensiveness Denying Jesus Defrauding others Vanity Bragging Whining and complaining Victims Perceived victimization No more: Gluttony Prostitution Flattery Rage Revenge False Christs Favoritism Hard hearts Doublemindedness Evil desires Temptation toward sin False worship Demonic influences Assault Being deceived False teaching Laziness Narcissism No more: Eating disorders Broken bones Back pain Paraplegia Quadriplegia Heart attacks Flu Headaches Stomachaches Acid reflux Neuropathy MS Measles or mumps or chickenpox Shingles Down Syndrome Trisomy 13 or 18 Lyme disease Birth defects Arthritis Rheumatism Allergies Loss of limbs No more: False promises Broken promises Broken marriages Sickness of any kind Weakness Getting weaker as we age Petty hurtful arguments Media bias False accusations Separation from our spiritual family Boredom Alcoholism Addictions Violence Contradictory studies “proving” that opposite positions are true (regarding COVID, masks, vaccination, etc.) Choosing to believe only the “facts” stated by people who think like we do Ridicule No more: Judgmentalism Self-righteousness Being proud of what we should be ashamed of Abuse—sexual or verbal or any other kind Condemnation Self-justification Putting people “in their place” Chauvinism Pain about past injustices Assuming that someone is a racist or chauvinist No more: Plots Anarchy Riots Oppression Taking verses out of context Envy Bitterness, resentment, and grudges Getting fired or going out of business Insurance and taxes Feeling superior Feeling unworthy Stubbornness Assuming we know what we don’t Self-harm Grudges Ingratitude False religion No more: Assuming the worst Stealing Suspicion Disillusionment Despair Death of dreams Wrong or misguided dreams Unqualified or incompetent leaders Moral compromise Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl and other minor irritations www.epm.org

Faith Among the Faithless Esther 3 The Adversary You never forget the clang of the steel vestibule doors of a jail. My first time in jail. One week until graduation. Cat calls. Doors rattling. “Fish!” Fear. Fear is natural and good. It can alert us to danger. It can protect us from harm. A certain level of fear is appropriate in jail. It is good to fear a red hot stove. A gun. Fear God or fear the circumstances around us. But fear can also control us. A decision awaits each of us: will we ultimately fear God or the circumstances around us? A story of people with misplaced fear. Haman. Xerxes. Saul. How do you respond to fear? When the principal calls you into his office? When your boss calls you into her office? When you see that it is doctor’s office calling with results from the biopsy you took yesterday. In the midst of the swirling fears of this world, God invites us to release the fear of the world and fear him. “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”” Romans 8:15 Fear doesn’t just change our actions, it changes our identity. We live out of slavery when we live in fear. We have been loving this sermon series on Esther. If you are jumping in with us now, we would love for you check out the earlier sermons on YouTube, but let’s catch you up with the action. The players: Mordecai, Esther, Xerxes, and Haman. Last week Mordecai saves the King from an assassination attempt. Esther 3:1 Chapter 3 begins “After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman the Agagite.” Wait a second. After these things Haman gets the promotion??? Not Mordecai. Life isn’t fair. Tex set up the scene so well last week: Haman and Mordecai are the same guy. Hungry for power and prestige. The fuel of compromise is fear. Three truths. We become who we don’t want to be because of fear. Haman exists because of compromise and because Saul didn’t fear the Lord. The Agagite. Haman was a descendant of Agag, who was the king of the Amalekites, the people who God commanded Israel to destroy, but they failed to do so because of their lack of obedience. You might remember the story of Moses’ arms being lifted when the Israelites fought the Amalekites. God promised to blot out the Amalekites (see Deut 25:17-19, Ex 17, and Num 24:7-8, 20). God repeats the commandment to Saul to destroy the Amalekites (1 Sam 15:1-3). Saul defeated the Amalekites, but spared Agag and took the best of the livestock. Because of this, God removed his blessing over Saul (1 Sam 15). Esther 3:2 Haman was only happy if everyone else was below him. Mordecai was no better. We think we are so unlike our opponents, but are we? Purim: booing and hissing Haman. Cheering Mordecai. Not that simple. Black hat and white hat. Haman and Mordecai. Old proverb about a crocodile: the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets. We think that we will satisfy our fears by feeding them, but it never works. A security system won’t cure your fears. An insurance policy won’t cure your fears. A promotion won’t cure your fears. They just morph and grow. It’s the same with all desire and sin. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 Kneel to God, not to your fears. God is in control. Esther 3:3-6 Who fills you with rage (v. 4)? Who is an annoyance? Unborn children who take away our freedom. Christians in India. Political opponents. Esther 3:7 Month of Nisan: celebrate deliverance from Egypt. Now they are about to be destroyed. The adversary they didn’t destroy is about to destroy them. 11 month reprieve. God is always in charge. Prov 16:33: The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. The resolve was taken up in the first month, in the twelfth year of the king, when Esther had been his wife about five years. Esther 3:8 Haman leverages Xerxes’s fear of a loss of revenue and a loss of respect. Esther 3:9 Master manipulator. 10,000 talents of silver in today’s dollars is about $321B Turn the King’s financial fears against him. Leverage greed. Esther 3:10-12 Even more power in Haman’s hands now. And yet Haman's true purpose was to advance himself and to see that everyone bowed low before him. So we treat this strange invader in our lives as though he were a friend -- we promote him and advance him. Isn't it interesting that we are not ashamed of our pride? We boast of it, we trust it, we regard it as an essential to life. We think that this principle, which demands that we think of ourselves first, is the very essence of living -- if this were destroyed, we would lose all. Thus we may recognize the Haman in our lives. Esther 3:13-15 There is no evidence of crime. No formal charge. And yet the command for genocide is compelled. Do not be confused. Jesus promised that his followers would be persecuted. It is certain, that persecution will only increase before Christ returns (Rev 17:6). And yet, we are not to fear. We are not to hope in political power of allegiances. We are to trust Christ, the crucified one. 35 While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?” 36 But overhearing[a] what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.” Matthew 5:35-36 Kneel to God, not to your fears. What fears are you vulnerable to? We are all vulnerable to different types of fear. Fear of missing out, fear of physical harm—sickness: covid. Fear of a lack of security. Temptation of cheating on taxes. Fear of losing respect. Fear of powerlessness. Every generation is tempted to bow to the government. We just came out of a season where two sides tried to convince you that your only hope was to elect their candidate. The same thing is going to happen in another three years. Fear we will be trampled: our rights. What drives you? Where are you vulnerable to the enemy’s temptation to fear? There is a problem with our problems are big and our God are small. Are we going to fear our problems or God? God is big and God is good. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18 “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”” Romans 8:15 God offers peace when we kneel to him and not our fears. But Haman expected, what the Persian kings frequently received, a species of Divine adoration; and this is implied in the word החש shachah, which signifies that kind of prostration which implies the highest degree of reverence that can be paid to God or man, lying down flat on the earth, with the hands and feet extended, and the mouth in the dust. Luke 12:31-33 31 Instead, seek his[a] kingdom, and these things will be added to you. 32 “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. When we sin, there is a price to pay even our grandchildren pay. But, when we obey, there are blessings to our grandchildren. Saul is 1050. Esther at 450. 600 years. Misplaced fear is the issue. We ought to bow. Esther had the courage to risk her life to save her people, the Jews. We can learn to have faith in the midst of tremendous obstacles. Preached at New Life Bible Fellowship. Sermon begins 26:40. Team sermon preached by Greg Lavine and John Beeson.

Are you really a Christian? How do you know that you are really a Christian? The scripture encourages us to test ourselves to see if we are really Christians (II Corinthians 13:5). What kind of test can you apply to discover the truth about your spiritual condition? I’d like to suggest that there are seven things that testify within us whether or not we are truly Christian. As I lay these out for you, you may find some things apply to you while others don’t. Or perhaps your Christian experience seems to be a matter of degree. Be encouraged. None of us are perfect, but we should be growing toward the spiritual things listed here. Sometimes these things are a matter of spiritual maturity. God doesn’t make us spiritually mature all at once. But he does take us in that direction. I would say that if you don’t have these seven things true in your life, then you are likely not a real Christian. Remember, Jesus said that we can tell a tree by the kind of fruit that it bears. If you don’t have these seven things, these fruits, so to speak, then you may be in trouble. Let’s take our test from scripture. If we want to know our spiritual state, then we must evaluate ourselves according to two major themes of scripture: Loving the Lord, and loving others. Let’s break them down into our seven traits. Love the Lord Jesus said the greatest commandment in all of scripture is to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37). There are five items under this category to help us determine if we are spiritual men or women. We talk about the Lord. Notice what Moses said about this in Deuteronomy 6:7. “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Do you have a spouse or children that you love deeply? Then chances are that you want to spend time with them and talk with them. We can say that one trait of being a spouse or parent is that we want to spend time with them. The same is true about our spiritual lives. If we have no desire to spend time with, or talk with the Lord, then something is amiss in our spiritual condition. Surround myself with things of the Lord. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:8-9). There are different ways that we can express this desire. Some of us decorate our homes with artistic expressions of scripture. Some fill their bookshelves with Christian books that build them up spiritually. Think about your wallet or purse or your smartphone. Do you keep pictures of people in these that are precious to you? My phone has a picture of my wife and I together. It’s a visual symbol of my love for her. The same is true with my kids. When I surround myself with things that remind me of the Lord or of scripture, I am expressing the desire to be with the Lord in some capacity. If the outward expressions of your heart do not include things of the Lord, then something may be wrong. Love the scripture. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 32:47 about the place that scripture should have in our lives. Scripture, speaking of itself says, “This is not an idle word for you. Indeed, it is your life.” Jesus reiterated this when he said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word…whoever does not love me does not keep my words” (John 14:23-24). Here’s one more from Deuteronomy, “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6).A Christian, even a young one who is being transformed by the Lord will want the scripture to play some preeminent role in his or her life. It may start small, but it must always grow. If you have no desire to know or love scripture then chances may be that you have not truly surrendered your heart completely to Christ. Bring my thoughts under the control of the Holy Spirit. What do you think about the most?How often in a day, or even a week, do you contemplate spiritual things? The Apostle Paul said in II Corinthians 10:5, “Take every thought captive to obey Christ.” When we are faced with temptation or have troubling thoughts that disturb us, we should be engaged in intentionally submitting our thought life to the control of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes this takes work. We all have bad thoughts from time to time. When this occurs, we should confess them to God and begin to think of scripture or biblical principles that are the opposite of what we are struggling with. For instance, if I feel the temptation of lust for a beautiful women, I say to myself, “No. I don’t want to go there. I will think and commit acts of faithfulness to my spouse.” We want others to love the Lord. Consider what Jesus said in the Great Commission. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). This principle is built in to the Christian experience. It is the primary command in scripture that tells us what we should be doing with our Christian life. If you have no desire for others to know Jesus, or to grow to maturity in Christ, then you may not have your heart right with the Lord. Love Others The next two items on our list are under the category of loving others. Moses said in Leviticus 19:9, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Apostle John took this even further. If you don’t love your brother you are not a Christian . Look at what John said, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (I John 4:20-21). Let’s be honest. Loving others can seem like an impossible thing to do. This is especially true about those we don’t know or may have just met, or for those who have deeply offended us. This is why this principle is so important. It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that we can love others like this. It’s one thing to say intellectually that we love our enemy. But, it is another thing altogether to have warm feelings in our hearts for those who want to harm us. If we have some measure of love like this in our hearts, then it is a sign that the Holy Spirit is working in us to transform us to be like Jesus. Love others as Jesus loved us. This is a little different that what I just mentioned. Jesus raised the bar when he said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). How did Jesus love us? He sacrificed himself for us on the cross. What greater love is there than this? Now, to be honest, this is probably the hardest way to love someone. And we don’t usually come upon it early in our Christian experience. But, we should at least be growing in this direction. So, check yourself. Are you willing to become this kind of person? A Clarification Now, what does not make you Christian? Practical service. You can do all sorts of things we think of as spiritual things—volunteer at church, feed the homeless, be hospitable. But these are just deeds. Atheists and Buddhist do these. But that doesn’t mean they will go to heaven. In one sense, if we do these things in combination with the previous seven, they serve as strong testimony that we are in Christ. But if we do these things without the seven foundational things above, then they are just deeds without a truly spiritual core. In the Four Spiritual Laws by Dr. Bill Bright, we are asked who we want on the throne of our lives. Most of us want to be in control of our lives, make our own decisions, and be free to do what we want to do. But the Bible does not speak of a true Christian in this way. We are to surrender ourselves to Christ, stepping off the throne of our lives so that Jesus can sit there, and command from there. Who do you want in control of your life? This is probably the first question we should ask ourselves, along with the previous seven issues, to help us determine whether or not we truly have a salvation experience with the Lord. If you lack these seven things, you should begin your transformation by confessing these things to God in prayer and ask him to transform you into this kind of person. Then, step out in faith and start the process of incorporating these behaviors into your life.

There’s no question everything in ministry has shifted in the last eighteen months. But the real question is how? Some things, of course, never change. The mission of the church is as critical as ever. The need for prayer, scripture, preaching, love, community, grace, forgiveness, and hope is as sharp as ever. And yet church leaders are struggling with how to connect with a deeply changing culture and reality. As church leaders prepare for a full hybrid future, which will feature both digital and in-person ministry, it’s not exactly clear what in-person services will offer that digital ministry doesn’t (and vice versa). As the Barna poll results below demonstrate, everyone did not miss the same thing when church went online in 2020-2021. Boomers missed different aspects of in-person church than Millennials. One trend is that people miss connecting with other people, which is completely understandable. In addition, live music is more important to Millennials than to Boomers. And in-person preaching seems to be missed more by older adults than those under 40. In  another Barna survey ,  67% of respondents say they learn just as much from a streamed message as from an in-person sermon. It’s still, of course, early days in terms of how all of this will fall out in the future, but looking at the trends, here are a few things that I sense will be true of growing churches in the future, both online and in-person. 67% of respondents say they learn just as much from a streamed message as from an in-person sermon. @barnagroupClick to Tweet 1. DIGITAL MINISTRY WILL BE ABOUT GENUINE CONNECTION Future ministry is hybrid ministry. If digital ministry (the online side of hybrid) is going to do what’s it’s designed to do, it will become about genuine connection. Right now, many churches are using digital ministry for content distribution via YouTube and social, but in its fullest form, digital ministry is about people. Ultimately, the goal of digital content is not consumption, it’s connection and community. The goal is NOT the number of: followers, views, minutes watched, likes, comments (as significant as they might be). Content alone doesn’t lead to engagement. Community and connection do. The goal of digital content is not consumption, it’s connection and community.Click to Tweet The graphic below is a  model for a Digital Engagement Funnel  for churches that shows how to move someone who clicks on your content to a true connection and relationship. The five steps move people from just watching or reading your content to connection, engagement and then commitment (to Christ) and, finally, for them to share their faith with others. The challenge is, right now, most churches have only explored Step 1. They post content and haven’t figured out how to move much past that. It’s a great first step, but real life change happens when you move into connection and relationship. Being online is one thing. Connecting with people online and moving that into real-life relationships is quite another. Content alone doesn’t lead to engagement. Community and connection do. 2. AN EXPERIENCE OF GOD WILL REPLACE INFORMATION ABOUT GOD Attractional church has seen thousands, probably millions, of people move into an authentic relationship with Jesus. Please hear that. But sometimes what we’ve done (I say “we” because I’ve done this) is we tend to share information  about  Jesus or Christianity when we preach or host services. There was a day when that was really helpful, and that’s still not an entirely bad instinct. Who, after all, wants to lose people completely? But remember, we now have the full-on internet that swallows daily life whole. We are drowning in a sea of information. Fast forward to church, and guess what? People aren’t looking for information. They’re looking for transformation. When people come to your church these days, fewer are looking for information  about  God; they’re looking for an experience  with  God.churches Both the digital explosion and the cynicism of our age have left people hungering for a transcendent touch. Think about the explosive rise of porn. People are looking for intimacy, but of course, in porn, get just the opposite. They’re looking for more. People are hungry for true community, deeper experiences, and authentic transcendence. Which is why churches that are growing are focusing more and more on creating  experiences  that engage more than just the head on a Sunday…but also engage the heart and relationship. In short, people don’t just want to know what’s true, they want to know what’s  real . And what’s real is deeper than just an idea—it’s an experience. They come looking for something bigger than themselves, and something frankly, bigger than us. They come looking for God. It’s a shame when people come to church looking for God and only find us. God, in his nature, is both immanent and transcendent. A few decades ago as the culture slipped away from church, focusing on the imminence of God brought many back. But the cultural shifts of the last decade and a half have left people (especially younger people) longing for the transcendent. This should be no surprise because of course the heart naturally longs for God. Sometimes we just long for God a bit differently than our parents. I think the best future churches will have content that leans toward the immanent—practical, helpful and digestible. Again, being completely obtuse and incomprehensible or insider-focused helps no one. And future churches will also offer experiences that feel transcendent…a sense that you had to be there to experience what happened. The best churches will offer both because that reflects the character and nature of God and the character of the Christian church at its best. It’s a shame when people come to church looking for God and only find us.Click to Tweet 3. FUTURE CHURCHES WILL GO TO PEOPLE, RATHER THAN EXPECT PEOPLE TO COME TO THEM Historically, the church has wagered almost everything on gathering people in a building. In the future, growing churches will focus less on gathering and much more on going to where people are. A small example. Simon Sinek teaches: “My responsibility is not to tell you where to get my stuff. My responsibility is to put my stuff wherever you are. So some people use one platform, someone uses another, and I try and share my work wherever you are. So wherever you go, I’m probably there.” Did you catch that? So  wherever you go, I’m probably there.  It’s a really great point. Church leaders today should be taking notes. In many ways, the first-century church was a church that met wherever people were. In the future, church will be much more like that, digitally, through central gatherings and micro-gatherings. Companies like DoorDash, Amazon, Brooklinen, Peleton and other companies have realized going to where people are is a great strategy. Connecting people who are engaging from home both with the church and with one another will become an essential skill for all church leaders. The easiest way to think about this is the same way church leaders have thought about small groups for the last 25 years. Almost no church leader today feels threatened by the idea that hundreds or thousands of people will be meeting in their homes to connect with other people. The church  facilitates groups  but doesn’t  host  them in a centralized facility. Instead, leaders simply connect people who want to be connected and engage them in the mission. This is where the potential for Sunday morning starts to move in a new direction. Small groups by nature tend to be closed and intimate. Gathering in people’s homes and outside the building on Sunday morning (or off-Sunday) would consist of micro-churches that are outward-focused. Think of groups, but with an evangelistic thrust. Gathering people on Sunday mornings will be as important as ever. It just won’t all happen in a building owned by the church. In the future church, gathering people on Sunday mornings will be as important as ever. It just won’t all happen in a building owned by the church.Click to Tweet   You got into ministry because your heart and mind are in the right place – to spread the hope of the Gospel and reach more people. But today’s culture is so different than what Christians value. You’re working harder than ever, yet seeing fewer guests and less frequent attendance. Increasingly, it feels like the culture is just tuning you out. The strange truth is, people are hungry for the message you’re sharing. Surprisingly, our culture isn’t craving an echo of itself, but rather an alternative to itself. www.careynieuwhof.com .

No matter how long you’ve been in leadership, it still hurts when people leave your church. It’s somewhat easy to understand people leaving when things are going poorly— when there’s conflict, division or dysfunction. But what most leaders aren’t prepared for is the reality that people will leave when things are going well. Even when they’re going really well. In fact, some people leave  because  things are going well, or because you’re getting healthier. As surprising as this sounds, every time you make progress as a church, you’ll lose people. This comes as a shock to most leaders. And it can be very disheartening, especially if you don’t realize some loss even in great seasons is ‘normal’. So why do people leave even when you’re making progress at your church? Simple. The people who are at your church today are there because they like it the way it is. Change that (even for the better), and some will leave. It will shock you. It will disappoint you. It will leave you scratching your head. And it’s unavoidable. But you need to keep moving or else you’ll be paralyzed by focusing on who you want to keep, not who you want to reach. So why do people leave when things are going well? Here are 5 rather startling reasons people leave your church when you’re least expecting it. 1. YOU CAST TOO BIG A VISION What ? Casting a big vision can cause people to leave? Absolutely. A big vision is inspiring. It’s also threatening. Vision threatens people because, inherently, vision challenges the status quo. It calls out the best in people. It asks people to think bigger, to think beyond themselves, to push past the status quo and to sacrifice.   As a leader, it’s critical to sift through you motivation every time you cast vision. If the vision is really about you, your ego, or your insecurities (you need to grow bigger to feel good about yourself), healthy people will resist it. (Wise, godly people can help you sort through your motives and see them accurately.) But you can have a beautifully motivated, compelling vision and still have people walk out the door. As exciting as the future is, some people prefer the present. Others live in the past. You can’t build the future church on people who live in the past. 2. YOU GREW Growth can be an awesome thing. Healthy growth means you’re reaching new people, baptizing people and seeing hope beat in the hearts of people who never knew hope, and so much more. But growth is threatening. You’ll see a few patterns emerge. First, people who love being a big fish in a small pond will immediately get uncomfortable. They’ll want more say…more power, more control. Others won’t be comfortable with the crowds or the parking issues or having to wait in lines when they were used to accessing everything instantly. And you’ll probably hear vague comments like “it’s just not the same anymore” or “we simply like it better when it was smaller.” So what do you do with that? Well, first, empathize. They’re right…things have changed and it’s not the same as it used to be. Second, ask them to invite their friends and get in on what’s going on. What you’ll likely discover is that some do, but most (or at least many) don’t. And for them, it might all boil down to this: the church isn’t really about accomplishing a mission. It’s about meeting their needs. The challenge, of course, is that the heart of the Christian faith isn’t about satisfying yourself, it’s about dying to yourself. So what do you do? If you’re going to make progress on your mission, focus on who you want to reach, not who you want to keep. The moment you focus on who you’re trying to keep, both the present and the future slip away from you. 3. YOU’RE REACHING DIFFERENT PEOPLE As a church realizes its mission, it means that you’ll reach your community, which when fully realized, means you’ll have a cross-section of your entire community. Rich and poor. Professional and blue collar. Republicans and Democrats. Black and white. Latino and Asian. It means you’ll have people in your church who are sober, and others who are working on it, and others still whose addictions are far from under control. Which is exactly what the church should be. The New Testament church was all those things. If you’re not convinced it was, please re-read 1 Corinthians. This can be really threatening for people who think church is for the righteous and for people who have all their issues worked out, which of course, is none of us. Tim Keller gets to the heart of the problem with modern Christianity in recounting this conversation he had with a woman about her self-righteous faith: I asked her what was so scary about unmerited free grace? She replied something like this: “If I was saved by my good works — then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with rights. I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if it is really true that I am a sinner saved by sheer grace — at God’s infinite cost — then there’s nothing he cannot ask of me. (Tim Keller,  Prodigal God ) If everyone in your church looks like you, acts like you, votes like you, believes like you and thinks like you, you’re probably not the church. 4. YOU GOT HEALTHIER When I look back at over two decades of leadership, I realize that so much of my journey has been toward greater and greater emotional and spiritual health. I’ve seen counselors over the years, hired coaches, read books, gone on retreats and done whatever I can to become more emotionally, spiritually and relationally healthy. And like every leader, I’m a work in progress. But here’s the good news. Leaders, when you get healthier, your church gets healthier. But it also means that sometimes, people who don’t want to get healthy leave. In the same way that healthy people are drawn to healthy leaders, unhealthy people are drawn to unhealthy leaders. Gossipers love other gossipers. Troublemakers love other troublemakers. Selfish people feel better around other selfish people. You get the picture. As your church gets healthier, unhealthy people really have two options: get healthy, or find a less healthy environment. It’s quite possible that the vast majority of your church will get healthier with you, particularly if you lead and teach out of what you’re learning. But some won’t want to make that journey. They’ll leave. And sometimes they make a scene when they go. Let them go. That’s what healthy people do…they invite, they encourage, and when refused, they move on. So…keep moving your church toward health. 5. YOU FINALLY MOVED INTO THAT NEW FACILITY So many people think a move into a new building is a positive step that will only cause growth. For a church that has momentum, that’s almost universally true. But even when things are going well, you  will  lose people. Some people will love the portable days even better. Some won’t like the new location. Others may not like the design. Others may feel displaced. For some people, there’s also a sentimental association with past places of worship as well. Maybe the sentiment is because they became Christians there, were baptized there, or even got married there. For sure, that’s understandable. Most people get past the sentiment, but some don’t. And they’ll leave. The church has to keep moving though…advancing the mission. After all, you cannot build a future by living in the past. WHY DOES THIS MATTER? All of this can leave you feeling discouraged unless you realize one core truth. Even if the handful of people who might leave aren’t unappeasable,  the people you need to reach are far greater in number than those you’re trying to keep. The people you might lose always have other churches they can go to. The unchurched people you will reach by changing…don’t. Don’t burn bridges with those leaving (be gracious…thank them for their time with you), but don’t sacrifice the mission for the sake of a handful of people who don’t like the future. The challenge, of course, is to reach more people than you lose and to keep unnecessary departures to a minimum. www.careynieuwhof.com .