Covid has been like a mission trip for the analog church. We thought we were going on a short-term trip to a place that felt foreign. We got there, and had to immediately learn some new languages and methods. Turns out, this is becoming more like a long-term mission assignment. And since arriving in this digital Babylon (credit to David Kinnaman), we have been reaching people we never thought possible. It has actually led us to a stronger, more relevant and durable way of doing ministry with analog tools, digital tools, and everything in between. As Nicky Gumbel recently summed it up  on Carey’s podcast,  “we have tasted something better.” For many leaders, the conversation around technology in ministry is relatively new. And not always welcome. Consider three postures that a leader might take when facing the possibility of innovation in the local church: Some leaders get excited at the thought of trying something new. Some leaders will try something new if they must (a good pandemic always helps). Some leaders will refuse to adjust methods no matter the circumstance. Each leader has followers who take a similar posture, which usually enhances the confirmation bias of the leader. This makes it difficult to form a measured, objective opinion about how and whether to adopt the new method. All three postures can produce benefit or harm if taken to an extreme. IT’S ABOUT CHANGE, NOT TECHNOLOGY The debate about technology’s role in the church has ranged from wineskins and a torn curtain to pipe organs, radio, and streaming video. With each advance, church leaders have had to grapple not only with the new medium, but also with the implications on power, ministry, and trust. In many ways, Christianity owes its global spread to the work of people powered by technology. In fact, a sense of curiosity among Spirit-led pioneers of the past led us to adopt innovative technology for the work of the church. The implications were often positive, though often not fully anticipated. Consider: The printing press enabled not just Scripture distribution, but also increased literacy rates and changing roles in the church. It also changed the understanding of “prophets, priests, and kings,” which eventually led to full-scale reformation. Broadcast technology allows God’s Word to transcend borders, even into closed countries. It also enabled the rise of large-scale revival and personality-driven ministry. This made possible the rise of the megachurch in the late 20th century. The combination of streaming media, video conferencing, and data-informed ministry made ministry possible during the Covid-19 pandemic. Quite literally, it was the lifeline that kept churches connected and, in some cases, made the decision between survival or closure. Leaders who recognize the possibility of the moment are the ones who can smartly make new technology a tactic in their ministry strategy. Are we in an Awakening? We are in a watershed moment for the Church. In a recent interview, James Emery White (pastor at Mecklenburg Community Church) shared this with me: “I think the pandemic may have just saved the church in many ways. It got us out of a Sunday/weekend-centric approach. It forced us online and into social media, it also made us open to change, being creative when we were not creative before, and open to innovation. It also got us back down to raw mission–what is our mission? You add all of that up, and it is dangerously close to an awakening.” Here are 12 key trends that have emerged so far this year. I believe every leader needs to critically evaluate whether these are true in each local context, and if so… how to respond. 1. ATTENDANCE IS OFFICIALLY DEAD By most estimates, the average family attended church between 1.2 and 1.7 times each month in 2019. Reasons for this vary, but it really messed with attendance numbers. Do you have average weekly attendance of 500? That could really mean you are reaching as many as 750 or 1000 people, just not all on the same week. Sporadic attendance patterns also make engagement models tough. So, we had a problem with regular attendance. Then Covid hit. Our buildings shut down, so attendance crashed to zero right? Well in many cases, pastors actually watched digital engagement increase at the very moment that physical attendance became impossible. Then we entered phases of the numbers dilemma: 1. Tuning in:  Digital viewership soared (we think) 2. Church surfing:  many people viewed sermons, devotionals, music, and content from more than one source 3. Re-opening surprise:  as churches opened their doors again,  only 35% of people came back 4. Habit change:  it’s looking like many folks will permanently opt for a more digital (or at least hybrid) model for engaging with the church. What does “attendance” even mean anymore? Counting people in a blended physical/digital environment is challenging. Churches desperately need new ways to not just get an accurate number, but to know who they’re reaching. At Gloo we’ve been talking to a number of churches about this problem, and they’ve helped us develop some early solutions such as the  new Insights+ suite of tools.  It’s now possible for any pastor to know how many people are interacting with the church online, and to see the human side of the numbers. What are the demographics? How are the marriages and relationships? What are the deepest spiritual needs in the communities I serve? Rather than counting attendance, churches should start counting engagements and outcomes in the people they serve. 2. PEOPLE (YES EVEN OLDER ONES) WILL LEARN TECHNOLOGY IF THEY HAVE A GOOD REASON Here’s something that shocked us at my church during the quarantine. We had the highest level of Zoom participation in our Boomer groups and older. And although these folks were all-too-glad to get back to face-to-face fellowship, they’ve now seen that technology can work, and can help them maintain connection with people. More broadly, according to a  new Barna study , millennials have actually been more likely to stop engaging with church during Covid, compared to Boomers and Elders. Pastors should consider technology-based solutions for effective ministry for the whole church, not just for the younger generations. Your middle and older generations may actually thank you for it. 3. KIDS STILL NEED AGE-APPROPRIATE WAYS TO LEARN AND ENGAGE What has been one of the most stressful parts of quarantine? For parents, it’s trying to juggle daily responsibilities while keeping kids occupied. What has been one of the biggest impediments to engaging with church, including watching the weekend streaming service? It’s the fact that kids don’t like it. And for those churches who have been doing virtual kids’ ministry, many have been trying to combine several grades together so they can all watch together. This can result in watered-down or too-young programming that the older kids will tune out. Try thinking more strategically about engaging kids online, such as: For middle and high-school students, schedule your digital programming sometime other than Sunday morning. They likely aren’t awake anyway. Segment younger elementary from older elementary. Fourth grade is probably a good cutoff; the older kids will likely lose interest in the songs and message if it feels like they’re targeting the little kids. Kids crave community and like to learn when it’s fun. Try using various online tools such as YouVersion plans (groups can read together),  Journey Studio  to develop age-appropriate growth plans with a facilitator, or other learning tools like Kahoot for live quizzes on the material. Since you’re not spending money on snacks and stage props, invest in some tangible books, curriculum, swag, or other items you can physically send to every kid’s home. They’ll be excited to get mail and much more likely to tune in digitally when they have the materials you sent. Don’t forget the kids without phones and tablets. Some of them might be able to watch a YouTube video on a computer, or complete a hands-on study lesson and then send it to a friend. 4. OUR BUILDINGS AND BUDGETS NEED TO CHANGE Leaders may never get a better opportunity to scrutinize every budget line. As you consider re-opening and adding back programs, ask: “What does this enable us to do?” “Does this help us accomplish our mission?” “How can we measure the success of this program?” “What should this program look like if we want to serve both our physical and digital communities?” “Is our church the best one to create or own this program, or should we curate/partner with the work of another organization?” Every dollar you free up from old, outdated programs is a dollar you can now invest in reaching people in ways that are culturally relevant, measurable, and effective.  5. THERE IS HOPE FOR THE EXHAUSTED PASTOR This year has probably been the hardest leadership environment we’ve seen. Here are just some of the heavy, mind-crushing decisions that pastors have been asked to make: Should I close my building? How do I set up streaming? Should I re-open my building? How can I address racial equality in a way that is helpful? Should we close again? What if our government imposes rules on us that violate scripture? At every turn, many leaders approached these decisions with a rigorous, careful process that included many voices and data. Yet some pastors resorted to an isolated, gut-feel decision making process that left them wondering (maybe deep down) if they were making the right call. This is exhausting. Healthy leaders are a prerequisite to a healthy organization. Operating for an extended period has taught us that using data to make decisions is very freeing. You’ll never have 100% of the information to make any decision. But when you have more of the information you need: Your decisions will consider a wider range of factors You will reduce your blind spots You will be better able to defend your decision to critics (you’ll always have at least one) You can stop guessing The best tool of the Covid season, from my perspective, has been church-specific assessments. Asking your people for input on everything from face masks… to job loss and financial disruption…. to protesting racial injustice has helped thousands of churches know their people better so they could make more informed decisions. Every church should be in the habit of checking in with people both physically and online; it’s one of the easiest ways to take burden off the shoulders of a pastor and let the Holy Spirit, wise counsel, and objective data guide the decision.   6. KNOWING PEOPLE HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER There’s no replacement for face-to-face. But does that mean digital is impersonal? Quite the opposite. Here’s what one pastor told me in April: “I was a critic of digital ministry until we were forced to switch. I’m completely converted. The quality and depth of the conversations I’m having with people online is incredible. Never have I been able go so personal, so quickly as I am right now. People are willing to share very personal things with me that they would never talk about in our building.” Not only can personal interactions be surprisingly intimate online, but it’s also now possible to know more than ever before about your community, and your engaged audiences (whether online or physically present). Churches are using macro-level information to learn things such as: What are the demographics of the communities I serve? Are the marriages in my church healthier now, compared to a year ago? How many people are visiting our website for a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd week in a row? What are the spiritual postures of people in different neighborhoods nearby? These questions and many more can be answered, and can lead to incredible ministry opportunities. Churches can attract, get, keep, grow and multiply people more effectively now than in any prior time period. It’s easy to implement these capabilities using  brand new offerings from Gloo. 7. DIGITAL IS DIVERSE, IN EVERY WAY You don’t need a big budget to leverage digital tools. In fact, congregations from the inner city to the suburbs are finding creative ways to reach more people than ever before. What’s working? It’s not slick production, fancy lights or multi-camera setups. Those are nice-to-haves. What reaches people is authenticity. A pastor recording a 3-minute honest comment on a smartphone can touch people in places where a 30-minute sermon cannot. Further, digital pathways provide the means for any congregation to reach any individual–crossing the lines of ethnicity, community and social station. Pastor Samuel Rodriguez told me, “The digital platform is multi-ethnic. It’s not like there are groups left behind. It’s multi-ethnic, multi-generational, and it becomes our primary faucet for disseminating the Gospel.” 8. DIGITAL IS BOTH GATHERED AND SCATTERED, AND IT’S NEITHER Is small group still small group when it’s over video? Does virtual prayer still count? Can a person grow spiritually in a community that interacts through screens? Hang in there, I’m not saying that Matthew 18:20 is irrelevant. But what if “where two or three are gathered” could extend to new definitions of “gathered?” Could God still move through pixels? Things you can only do in person: Face to face fellowship Corporate worship Community care and outreach Local ministry Things you can only do online: Streaming Targeted communication Personalization Data-informed leadership Measuring growth over time Things can actually be better with a blend of analog and digital together: Worship Bible teaching Prayer Evangelism Giving Groups Leader Development 9. PEOPLE MAY NOT BE LOOKING FOR CHURCH, BUT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR ANSWERS. Thinking about the 5 core areas of human flourishing, our world is disrupted in all of them. Spiritual Relationships Finances Vocation Health Research on Google Trends reveals that each of these topics has experienced spikes in traffic since March 2020 (health and money are the leaders). If your church is preaching scripture, then you have something to offer your community in all of these areas! The question is, will you be able to reach these people in new ways? Reaching people through an area of their lives with acute need (see the list above) can lead to gospel conversations, spiritual formation, and deeper discipleship opportunities. This applies in person, and it applies online. This is your moment to think about how to be a more externally-focused church.  10. THE FIELDS ARE RIPE Is the world hurting right now? You bet. Is your community in need of gospel-centered love, restoration, teaching and truth? Absolutely. Are they finding it in church buildings? Not so much. The gospel message is not tied to any one delivery mechanism, and regardless of medium, it never returns void ( Isaiah 55:11 ). As many are hearing the groans of a broken world in need of a savior, the gospel message is more needed now than ever. And people are responding online! Terry Storch, Digerati Pastor at Life.Church , shared a breathtaking statistic with me after our first all-digital Easter. Across the thousands of churches that interact with the Church Online Platform that his team manages, they saw 75,000 people indicate a first-time decision (online) to accept Jesus Christ as savior on Easter alone. Praise God for the technology to reach people who need to hear the Good News. We must hold each other accountable to evangelize. Not later, but right now. By any means available to us. If your church is solely using its online presence as a content delivery channel for existing members, you are missing the bigger opportunity to reach people and help them grow. Whether it’s neighborhood evangelism, Google ad campaigns, or any form of social media outreach, there are countless creative ways that you and your congregation can reach people right now. 11. NEW TECHNOLOGY MAKES DISCIPLESHIP MORE ACCESSIBLE AND MEASURABLE There are rich and effective tools available to draw each person forward on their spiritual journey. One of our core tenets at Gloo acknowledges that relationships catalyze growth. Intimate, life-on-life discipleship often involves in-person connections (as it should), but we can leverage additional tools in the process. Not just as an alternative, but to enrich the personal connection! Have you ever used a personal trainer or a nutritional coach? These relationships work because they involve a few key steps: Set a baseline of my current state or situation Agree on a goal Recommend steps for me to take Monitor my progress Encourage and hold me accountable me along the way Measure at regular intervals until I reach my goal Celebrate and set the next goal Using a trainer/coach helps me reach my goal because I am combining a relationship with the right steps, and we can measure the result. Your discipling process might look slightly different, but should mirror this sequence for the most part. Effective discipleship ministries are leveraging tools to equip their people to disciple each other effectively. These might include: Bible app Videos, books and resources from networks, denominations, or other movements Discipleship apps such as One 2 One, LifeCoach, or Blue Book/Green Book A comprehensive growth step delivery platform such as the  Gloo Journey Studio , which lets you create a custom plan for any person or group, deliver it in the context of a discipling relationship, and measure the results 12. WAITING FOR THE OTHER SHOE TO DROP… IS A BAD STRATEGY The church has adopted new tools before, with significant consequences. Consider things we take for granted now such as printed Bibles, musical instruments, buildings with climate control, websites, online giving, and live streaming. Every leader has a choice on whether to keep pushing forward. Sometimes that means doing the same thing for a while. Sometimes that means trying new things. I get it. We’re tired of disruption. Tired of pivots. Tired of hearing about the “new normal”. But a big reason we’re tired is because we’re in uncharted territory, and it’s hard to keep guessing at what’s coming next. Change involves curiosity. Sacrifice. And often, getting outside your comfort zone. Don’t wait for the world to throw your church another curve ball. You can be more prepared for what’s next, if you continually seek ways to reach people no matter the landscape. The future of the local church will be shaped by how we handle the digital opportunity now. I’ll close with a reminder of Douglas Adams’ quote from The Salmon of Doubt: “1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” This post was written by Brad Hill. Brad is a senior executive leader at Gloo, a technology company built on a passion for personal growth and transforming lives. By connecting an innovative suite of products and resources for church leaders, Gloo supports a trusted platform that helps church leaders know and move every person they serve. You can learn more at  gloo.us . WANT TO KNOW EXACTLY WHO’S WATCHING ONLINE?   As people connect with your church online, you’ve lost visibility into who is engaging with your church. Insights+ , a new service being offered by my partners at Gloo, removes the confusion. They use online data to bridge the digital gap between you and your people. With this new platform, you can: See where your viewers are (down to the specific neighborhood) Learn how often they view your website Create custom audiences to target based on different data points And compare specific analytics between audiences In a world of confusing and vague YouTube and Google Analytics dashboards,  Insights+  gives you the ability to clearly see your people again. www.CareyNieuwhof.com .

Commitment Issues Levi Lusko If you have a Bible, Joshua 24 is where we're going to be. And if you have a Bible, the verses are going to go up on the screen as Jennie reads them. The title of my message is Commitment Issues. Come on. Someone tell your neighbor, if you like it, put a ring on it. Commitment issues, and honestly, we're going to see within this passage probably the most important relationship tip you could ever hear, you could ever receive from God's word. Commitment issues, we've narrowed down a passage, Joshua 24, to some of the key parts. So let's read that together. Let's do it. Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem. Let's say that together and called for the elders of Israel for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers. And they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord God of Israel, your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor dwelt on the other side of the river in old times. And they served other Gods. Then I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river, led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac. Then I brought your fathers out of Egypt. And you came to the sea. And the Egyptians pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. So they cried out to the Lord. And he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time. And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. And they fought with you. But I gave them into your hand and that you might possess their land. And I destroyed them before you. I have given you a land for which you did not labor and cities which you did not build. And you dwell in them. You eat of the vineyards and olive Groves which you did not plant. Now, therefore, fear the Lord. Serve him in sincerity and in truth. And put away the Gods which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt. Serve the Lord. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the Gods which your father served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Thank you so much, Jennie. This is one of those passages that you only have to be mildly religious to have seen. Maybe I should amend that. You only have to have gone to a Christian's home at some point in your life, and you've seen this verse. This is always the one on the chalkboard on the Pinteresty cool, or the plaque. This is the stuff that Christian Facebook posts are made of. It's all over Pinterest. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Choose for yourselves this day. But I think it's so powerful, especially perhaps when it comes to the buzz word phrases from the Bible to really examine their origins in context to see what the real story actually is. And so for this one, there are four kind of key things I think that if we understand, will help us to accurately understand. And then we'll see this, apply what it means to our love lives. So Joshua, you have to picture it, is standing in front of the whole nation of Israel. And they've just finished this whole siege for the Promised Land, because Moses brings them out through the Red Sea out of Egypt. And then Joshua takes him into the Promised Land. They fight all these incredible battles. And it's towards the end of the whole conquest of the Promised Land, that he now addresses the nation of Israel. And it's within that that he gives this epic line that's gone down in history almost like, I regret that I have but one life to give for my country, or one small step for man, one giant leap for, right? This is Joshua's moment to shine here as he gives this line that would echo in eternity. See what I did there? And so what he says to him is, choose for yourself this day whom you will serve. But know whatever you choose, as for me and my house, we're going to follow God and serve Him only. All right? But what do we need to cause these words to come to life? We need to know, first of all, the location. Location, location, location, location. Why? Well, specifically, within the Bible, geography impacts history and informs theology. And that's why there's maps in the back of the book. Y'all, did you ever notice that there are maps? Did you think that was just because they were worried the Bible wasn't going to be long enough? Right? Why are there maps back there? It's because geography impacts history and informs theology. Now, battles are fought over and won or lost surrounding land. People want to get the river land. People want to take the hill country. People want to get the good land. So all throughout history, geography has impacted history. But within the realm of scripture, it also informs theology. Why? Because God's covenant always have to do with land. You see Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the place that they were given stewardship over. It was about that land. Then, of course, God raises up Abraham. And Abraham is given the promise. The promise was what? A Promised Land. It's not a trick question. It's literally a land of promise. And so we call it the Promised Land. We know of it as Israel. So all of God's promises are connected to parts of the world. Geography impacts history and informs theology. Now, all of this that we're reading, it went down at a specific part of the Promised Land called Shechem. We had you say it out loud so it gets stuck in your head. Shechem is a significant part of the Promised Land that pops up again, and again, and again. And when you're reading the Bible, repetition reveals importance. Places that we come back to, things that keep getting repeated, a location that gets revisited, OK, this is important. Why? Because God's like your mom, if he says it a bunch, it's because he wants you to pay attention, y'all. Right? So Shechem, why are we always coming back to Shechem? For example, when Abraham got called to leave Ur of the Chaldees where he used to live before God got a hold of him and said, I'm going to give you a land. I'm going to make you a great nation. I'm going to bless the whole world through your descendants, which by the way, was a veiled promise about Jesus, the Messiah, coming to save the world from our sins, that through Abraham's family, there would be a person that could bless the entire world through him, that's Jesus. All right? But when Abraham left, he didn't know where he was going. God just said, I'm going to have you go. And Abraham literally was like, well, where are we going? And here's what God said, I'll tell you when we get there. How do you pack for a trip like that, right? So Abraham and his wife, amazingly by faith, just went out. And they start walking. And where'd they stop? They stopped where God kind of spoke to them and got a hold of them, which was where? At a place called Shechem. Let me show it to you. This is Genesis chapter 12, verse 7: the Lord appeared to Abraham in Shechem and said to him, to your descendants, I will give this land. So it was while he was in Shechem that God first started to speak to him. And so what did he do? He built an altar there. And he started worshipping God. So he's got a promise. He's got a location. So now it's significant. And the promise gets further unpacked. You're going to have as many descendants one day as stars in the sky and sand in the seashore. But they're going to live here in this place. But God told Abraham, your kids: they're all going to have to live in a place of bondage for 400 years. And we know that as Egypt after the fact. So they're going to live in Egypt. This is all history. The nation of Israel ended up as slaves in Egypt. And yet, the promise, God says, as crazy as it sounds, they're coming back, back, you're going, going back, back to Shechem, Shechem. That's what God was saying back in the day. I got to stop that. I get so much hate when I quote rappers. All right. So they're going to end up back in Shechem. I like big Bibles, and I do not lie. These other brothers can't deny. Right? So basically, time passes. Abraham does have a kid, as crazy as it was, because he was 75 when God gave the promise. And his wife was pushing 90 when she finally had their baby, Isaac, child of promise. Someone say, ouch. Right? That's crazy. Think about carrying a baby full term in a day with no anesthesia. My wife, for our fifth child, she said, I'm thinking about getting, what's that thing called? Epidural. I said, I'm thinking about getting one too, girl. What are you talking about? Watching you have these babies makes me hurt. But no anesthesia, Isaac, the child of promise, gets born. And Isaac and his wife have twins: Jacob and Esau. Jacob's name gets changed by God to Israel because he's like Prince, the artist formerly known as Jacob. He's now Israel. And the Bible says Jacob eventually came back to Shechem. His life was crazy. He was always cheating people, ripping people off. He was like that friend who was always in multi-level marketing scams on the internet. And then he always had a shady angle and stuff and always knew a guy who could get you a deal on stuff. Jacob was the worst. Some of these people God uses, you're like, how could God use any of these people? And then you realize God wants to use us. And we're like, OK. It makes sense. But Jacob, he was the worst camper anyone's ever heard about. One day he went camping, and he used a rock for a pillow. That's not REI. That's not a Bear Grylls move. He's sleeping with a rock under his head. And God gets a hold of Jacob. And guess what? He ends up in Shechem one day. And there, Jacob builds an altar. And Jacob has a meaningful encounter with God. And the Bible tells us that by that point, God was blessing Jacob's life to where he had lots of animals. And so in Shechem, Jacob built a well. And that well that he dug... what did he dig? He dug a well. And that well is there to this day. Now, let that sink in. This isn't like Hansel, and Gretel, and the witch that they pushed into the oven. These places, this is real. You can book a plane ticket right now and fly to Tel Aviv. And you can go to Jerusalem. And you can go to Shechem. You could go to these, these places are real places. And this is real stuff we're talking about. I think, sadly, the mythology of Paul Bunyan that we hear while we're hearing about David and Goliath can cause us to almost feel like these are all just fables. But these are actual, real people. You're going to meet these people in heaven one day. And this is real stuff. And God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob even this day. Even though they're dead, he's still their God. Because they're still people. He's not the God of the dead. He's the God of the living. Jesus used that to show that God is alive and there is a life after death. Come on, someone. There's a hope. This is real. We're not just dusting off some ancient history book to read some made-up story. So Jacob digs a well there. And that well is there to this day. And time passes. You know Jacob had 12 boys. They become the 12 tribes of Israel. And one of his sons is the most famous of them all. His name is Joseph. His brothers hated him because he was his dad's favorite. So they sell him into slavery. And he ends up in Egypt. Egypt, where through a series of events, he becomes, your campus pastor needs to read his Bible some more. Where he becomes, I set you up for that one a little bit, though. Shechem. He says, Shechem. Yeah. Joseph's adventures in Shechem. Joseph's father told Joseph one day his sons were going to have a piece of land in Shechem. That was going to be the area that Joseph's sons would own one day, Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's two sons. But Joseph ended up in Egypt where he was basically the second in command, right? So Pharaoh is the top dog. Joseph was his numero dos. So if Pharaoh was rolling in Air Force One, Joseph had Air Force Two, OK? So he was in command. He was able to save his whole family's life during a famine. And that's how they ended up in Egypt for 400 years and eventually became slaves. But Joseph, on his death bed (when he died in Egypt) had one last request. Make A Wish comes in. They're like, what do you want? You're dying. What do you want? And he says my one last request is that you don't bury me here permanently. Now, I realize you got to bury me here temporarily. You can't be like Weekend At Bernie's. I can't be propped up in a La-Z-Boy. So you got to do what you got to do. But promise me when we leave (and this is faith) when we leave to go back to the Promised Land, when you all go, I don't care how long it takes, it would be 400 years. When you go, bring my bones with you. Bring my bones with you. And would you believe it? These are his dying words. Joseph said, I want you to lay me to rest in Shechem. Abraham's first altar. Jacob digging a well, encountering God. Joseph longing for his bones to be laid to rest. 600 years passed from Abraham's first altar to the day that we're reading here, 600 long years. But would you believe that as Joshua stands before the nation of Israel, the 12 tribes of Israel before him, and he calls them on this moment to honor God fully and to fear him with an undivided loyal heart. They have the bones of Joseph with them. And after this speech is over, they're going to lay Joseph's bones to rest in Shechem, with the sound of Joshua's voice ringing out over the hills of the mountains as he says, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Does the location help a little bit? But that's not even all. Because there's also this incredible emotion. You're like, what are you talking about? I'm already crying a little bit. There's some emotion when you understand two really key things. And they're both good things. Number one, the emotion sets in. And that's our second word if you didn't get it: emotion after location. There's emotion because of how good Joshua's been and how they realized they're at the end of his life. We didn't read it, but in chapter 23 of Joshua, he basically told them, I'm about to die. Joshua says, it's over for me. And of course, that setting in for the people would be hard for them to hear because he's old. He's got game. But he's old. He's Yoda old. The dude's 110 years old. And he's been strong this whole time. But he's old. And as they realize, and it's setting in, oh, my gosh. All we've ever known is Joshua. Moses got us to the Jordan River. Moses got us to the edge of the Promised Land. But it was Joshua who brought us in. It was Joshua at Jericho. It was Joshua at AI. It's been Joshua all these battles calling us to God, fearlessly following the Lord. And now the realization is it's going to be life after Joshua. It's going to be life after this amazing leader. So there would be a motion they would feel because of the loss of this good leader who led with integrity, and character, and he wasn't perfect. He made mistakes. But he was a good leader. And so that would be emotional. But also at this moment was emotion because of the goodness of God. And that's far more important. And that's what Joshua was pointing them to. Because long after he's gone, God's still going to be good. Long after he's gone, God's going to be the Lord. And your connection to God is going to be helped by a lot of people throughout your life. But you must rely fully on God and not on any person that God uses. I hope your small group leader, I hope the team leader on your team, I hope the godly people in your life, who encourage you are a blessing to you. And I hope you honor the pastors and leaders that God brings your way in life. But I'm telling you: your faith has to rest solely on God. You have to trust in him because there's one mediator between God and man. And that is the man, Christ Jesus. So any pastor, any earthly leader is going to let you down in small ways or in large ways. But your faith has to rest on Him. And one person being revealed as being mortal as we all are cannot be enough to devastate your faith if you have built your life on the chief cornerstone, God's son, Jesus Christ. So the goodness of God is what Joshua's pointing to. He doesn't use his last speech to just say, look how good I've been. He says, man, look how good God is. Look how good God is. And what does he do? He points them to the past. Because when you look to the past, what you find is evidence of God's goodness. Sometimes when you're present, it's hard to understand what he's doing because sometimes he seems absent. Because you're so close up to the canvas, you can't see what the colors are creating. So with time, you get to see. I figured this out in Life Church that the fingerprints of God are best observed in the rear-view mirror of life. So sometimes you get some distance, you realize, man, God is good. Because what does Joshua say? He goes, remember Abraham? That fool was an idolater. Now we call him the father of faith. He started out as an idolater. And now that's almost sacrilegious for him to be messing with Abraham. He's like, dude, Abraham? He's like, yeah, Abraham, that was weird how he was worshipping the son. Wasn't that weird, all those idols? In fact, some commentaries believe that Abraham's father owned an idol manufacturing business. What was the family business of father Abraham? All these little trinkets and idols that people used to worship sex, and worship money, and worship the God of the moon, and the God of the harvest, and all that. That's how Abraham started out. And so what he's saying is, how good is God that he would use someone that messed up? How good is God that he would call him? And then he says, how good is God that he would use us? And then he just points thing, after thing, after thing to God's goodness. God's goodness. God's goodness at the Red Sea. God's goodness in Egypt. God's goodness 40 years wandering in the desert with y'all being a bunch of whiners. 40 years of the goodness of God. And as the stories of God's goodness went out, this emotion of gratitude would rise up. They say if you take even just a few minutes once a week and write down five things you're thankful for, that your perceived sense of your happiness in life will increase by as much as 25%. Because it's easy to get into this woe is me. Life's so hard. I didn't get invited. This person got my promotion. But I'm just telling you, when you just look back go, thank you, God, for saving me, thank you, God, for life, thank you, God, for my car, thank you, God, for my kids, thank you, God, for this, thank you, God, for this, all of a sudden, it shifts something in your spirit, so this emotion of gratitude. And then he gets to his big crescendo. He's like, hey, look at this country we get. Hey, those olive groves, we didn't plant those. Hey, that city over there, we didn't build that. Hey, the town over there, we didn't plan that. God gave US cities to live in we didn't build, because he gave them victory over the enemies. They were driven out. And they got to live in cities that were fully built. They got to enjoy the use of land for which they did not labor. He's basically saying, God did it. God gave it. We just get to enjoy it. How good is our God? You know what? I feel like that right now. Because I was looking into the past, into the records, thinking about how 100 and 110 years ago, respectively, someone decided to open up a hotel called the Hotel Montana. And 100 years ago, someone decided there needed to be a theater called the Liberty Theater. And every single brick was built. And God allowed it. And God permitted it. And God oversaw it only to a point. Because he saw in his mind's eye the day that this would be a house of God for his people to praise him. God gave us a hotel and a theater. We got to connect him. I know we did something. We worked hard on it. But you know what? God did it. We're here on this day not to say, look what we did. We're here to say, thank you, God, that you gave us a city to live in we didn't build. You gave us buildings that we didn't, you see, even back then, God saw what he was plan, God knew on the day the first brick was slid into place that this room would be filled with praise for his son and that lives would be saved here, changed here, healed here, made whole here, that we would walk in forgiveness here, that from here, he would launch a work that like the Continental Divide, would reach from coast to coast like the rain that goes to the east and goes to the west, that God will bless the country and bless the world from little old Kalispell, Montana. But God did it. And we get to walk in it because we're a part of the only thing that will outlast everything: the Church of Jesus Christ. Names that are powerful today like Amazon, and Tesla, and Apple, and Coca-Cola, and Wells Fargo, I'll tell you what, a million years from now, there is one name being spoken today that will still be spoken. It's the name of Jesus. It's the name above every name. Whatever's big now, whatever's big 100 years from now, there's still a name above every name. And what we're a part of is what he's doing. And when we lose ourselves from focusing on just our little story and our life, and we lose ourselves as a part of something bigger, we get to discover that God, outside of time, what he was setting up. And then we get to play our little part in it. And we're a part of something so big. And here's the exciting thing for you and for me, just as he was 100 years ago planning this moment, what was he planning 80 years ago that we're going to discover 20 years from now? What was he working on 50 years ago? What's he doing right now that our children's children are going to walk in one day? I'm telling you, we're not done yet. We need to keep fighting, keep growing, keep believing, keep dreaming, keep building. Come on. Salt Lake City's coming. I'm telling you. We've got work to do. We can't relax on our laurels. Yes, it's a celebration. But we don't relax. We just reload. Come on, someone. There's still more work to do. We have still more hurting people to reach. Just one more. Just one more. Just one more. There's emotion. But then with all that kind of setting the stage, he gets down to brass tacks. Joshua, he's old. But don't misunderstand what you're dealing with. Like Yoda, the cane is just for fun. He could still fight. Because he drops down this decision. He calls them, third word, a decision. It's a decisive moment. It's the gloves come off. And the gauntlet gets thrown down when he says, yeah, there's reports that there's still idols in the camp. Oh, it got quiet up in there. It got quiet up in there. Yeah. So I understand that there's still some idolatry happening. I understand some of you are still worshipping sex, and worshipping the sun, and worshipping the moon. Awkward. That's how we started. That's what God delivered us from. That's how Abraham used to be. Look at it. Let it sink in, the gravity of it when he says, you guys, you got to serve the Lord and put away the Gods that your father served. How are you still worshipping the Gods that people on the other side of the river worshipped? Are you telling me some of them snuck in and smuggled in in their carry-on luggage little Egyptian Gods? And they're still at low moments, they're showing up to church for sure, but at low moments, they still go back to their go-to God when they need validation, when they need security, when they need to hit, there's still these certain things that they're resorting to. And so they're worshipping God. But their hearts are mixed. Their hearts are not loyal. And so what does he call them to do? He says, put that stuff away. You don't need that stuff. He says, instead, you should evaluate the options and choose for yourself this day whom you're going to serve. If you want to worship one of those Gods. Great. Go worship them. Go build a temple to them. Go gang busters. Get a tattoo of their name: Marduk, on your forehead or whatever you want to do. If that God's better than the God who's done all this stuff for us, then please go worship them. But if you're going to worship God, then worship God only. He's saying, pick a team, y'all. He's saying, I'd rather have you be 100% against God than just 50% for him. Because it's insulting for you to even bring any other God into the same conversation with our God. There's no God but our God. Any other thing you can worship, think about it. What else could you live for? Because everybody has a God. No, no. I'm an atheist. You have a God. You have a master passion. You have a controlling interest. It just might be you. And what a crappy God you are. You are not a good God at all. But some of us are living lives as our own Gods. Our careers are our Gods. Or some achievements our God. Or some drug is our God. But when you have cancer and pray to that God, it's silent. Its mouth doesn't move because it can't speak. Its ears don't listen to your prayers. When you need it the most, whatever you look to: maybe it's your figure. Maybe it's your sex life. Maybe it's how powerful you are. Maybe it's the money in your bank account. But when you desperately need it, it doesn't say anything to you, does it? Because you're talking to a volleyball. So he says, that's a funny reference to Castaway. So he says, choose for yourself this day whom you serve. Now, I have to point out just real quick that this fiery ultimatum, this moment of decision, it comes after he tells them all that God's done for them as his chosen covenant people. It doesn't come before, meaning he didn't say, choose, he didn't walk into the meeting, all right. There's idols in here. Give me your idols. Pass everyone through an idol detector or something like that. Beep beep. Start wanding people down for little Buddha statues or something. He doesn't do that and then say, and if you throw the idols away all the way, then God will give us olive trees we didn't plant. And if you really get rid of the sin in your life, then guess what? God's got a great building for you he wants you to live in. Because that's religion, isn't it? Behave, get saved. That's not our God. Our God says believe, and you'll receive even though you're unworthy, even though you still got your suitcases full of idols. Our God cleans his fish after he catches them. The amazing thing about grace, they don't want you to know this, is that God's righteousness is not based on you. It's placed on you because of Jesus' credit. So God just gives you lavish treatment, gives you heaven, gives you his calling, gives you his spirit, gives you his home, gives you his family, gives you gifts, gives you power, gives you everything that he has. It becomes yours. And then he says, now that you've been given it all, give it your all. Now that you've been given it all, evaluate it. Look. What are these other things doing for you that you still have with you? Do you have room for that in your life? And he calls you to shed the sin that so easily entangles and the weights that slow you down, and to cast those things off not so God will love you, but because he does and will never stop loving you. That's grace. And so he says, look how could God's been. What do you need those idols for? That's just going to keep you from properly possessing your possessions. Listen, there are things we have in our lives that will stop us from possessing our possessions. Having something is not the same as enjoying it. Something being yours doesn't mean you're going to get to enjoy the full use of it. So all the God's given to us, the things we should be looking at in our lives, going, this doesn't make sense for me anymore in this season. As God has called me who he's called me to be, this doesn't make sense for me. So we begin to shed those things not motivated by guilt, motivated by love, and motivated by grace, but a decision he gives them, nonetheless. Choose for yourself this day whom you'll serve. And then I love it. He ends with maybe the most important part of it all: a demonstration. He demonstrates personally what he's calling them to. And every good leader does this. Why? Because leadership is not a title. It's a lifestyle. Leadership is not having authority to tell people what to do. It's about giving people an example to follow. So a good leader never calls someone to go where they're not willing to go themself. So Joshua doesn't say, get rid of your idols. He instead demonstrates and says, as for me and my house, we're going to serve God. What is he doing? He's saying, I don't, yeah. Good. Excitement, I like it. He's saying, I love you all so much. But I love God too much to continue to allow your choice to determine mine. I love you with my whole heart. But no matter what you choose, I have decided to follow Jesus. And though none of you go with me, still, I will follow. And if you look at the nation of Israel's history, you will see them perpetually plagued by something called peer pressure. Their Achilles heel was a phrase used again, and again, and again, they wanted to be like the other nations. So why even now do they still have some of these idols? Because they wanted to be like the other nations. Now, I know this doesn't affect us anymore today in the year 2019. None of us want to be like anyone around us. None of us do anything stupid to be like, I know none of you students have ever done anything, that was a joke. Right? So much of the dumb stuff we do is to keep up appearances, and to be like other people, and to fit in, and all that. But that was perpetually a problem. So he's demonstrating the cure. For him to just say boldly, here's what you guys should do. But no matter what you do, here's what I'm going to do. So he's not saying, do as I say. He's saying, do as I do. And I love it so much because it's just a show of steely resolve for him to say, as for me and my house, here's what we're going, I'm not waiting for you tell me how you like my talk. Here's what I'm going to do no matter what you decide. We are going to serve God. We are going to serve the Lord. This week, I thought of Joshua's resolve a lot as I was watching a documentary film that so many people probably heard about for the first time after the Oscars. Of course, it won the Academy Award for the Best Documentary Film. And it's the story of free-solo climber Alex Honnold, who goes rock climbing with everything you need to climb rocks except for the rope, which is kind of an important part, really, if you think about it. But he's made his career and made a name for himself by doing normal rock climbing routes that you do, but the only thing he brings with him is climbing shoes and a bag of chalk. And the documentary film that I watched, Free Solo, was about his successful attempt to climb up El Cap in Yosemite, kind of the gold standard of rock climbing. Pull up some of these pictures. It's unbelievable. Here he is climbing. And you're like, where's the harness? There's not one. Where's the rope? Yep. That's the point. There's no rope. He is not held to the mountain at all. He's holding on just with his fingertips and his feet. Here's another shot that shows how high up he gets, literally climbs up El Cap, which at the top is 3,000 feet, and the documentary shows him doing it. You're wondering, how tall is 3,000 feet? Well, here's a comparison to the Space Needle, to the Eiffel Tower, to the Sears Tower, and it's also tall taller than the Empire State Building. So he went from the very bottom to the very top of El Cap completely unassisted. The film crews did not intervene whatsoever. And at any moment had he lost his grip, he would have fallen to his death. Someone said to him, but that'll be the most exciting four seconds of your life, though. And he said, actually, it'd be about 14 before I explode when I hit the bottom. So he realizes at any moment, should there be any misstep whatsoever, he falls. This is so intense. I watched it at the Oscars. I almost DVRed right past it, actually. Best documentary, yawn. But then I saw something a little bit and ended up watching it. I was like, oh, my gosh. I think I've heard of this guy. And I realized a while back, I'd read a book by Stephen Cutler where he talked about his attempt to climb up the Half Dome. Before he mustered up the courage to climb up El Cap, he climbed Half Dome in Yosemite as well, unassisted. And when I was reading that book, I excerpted this quote and had no idea it was connected to this. Here's what he says of free soloing in general: he says, it's the equivalent of an NBA basketball player under last-game-of-the-Finals pressure, having to execute 1,000 free throws, step back to the 3-point line and shoot 100 3-pointers, and then after all that physical and mental exhaustion, step back and shoot one half-court shot. And all the shots have to go in because any miss is fatal. So I grabbed the movie, gathered my family, and I wanted to watch it just for the inspiration factor. I sat on the edge of my sofa and sweated for the entire thing. My kids were just like, and Jennie falls asleep. She was there for the beginning. The moment he started climbing up El Cap, she just falls asleep and wakes up as he's pumping his fists at the top. I don't even know her anymore. Here's the part that got me, and you should watch the film. But please don't start free soloing. Please. I love you too much. He says this, he goes, the crazy thing about it, everyone says, your hands must be so strong. And obviously, they are. But he says it's not about my hand strength. It's all a head game. He says, because I just have to know that once I start climbing, at a certain point, he gets above a ledge, backing up, or quitting, or failure is not an option because he can't down climb. And so once he's in it, he is in it. And as I was watching that film and thinking of Joshua, I realized that's the kind of resolve God wants from us. Because so many of us are tethered to this rope of this other God and this other thing. And we're trying to follow Jesus. But we're clipped in to so many other things that we think we need for our safety, we need for our comfort, but what God wants for you is for your faith journey to be a spiritual free solo, to follow Jesus totally untethered, to commit yourself to him, to burn the ships, to say though none go with me, still, I will follow. And to just completely cast yourself on God's grace and his mercy, and you will find his strength and power able to sustain you. Isn't that what Jesus said? If anyone desires to follow me, let him carry his cross, pick up his cross, and come after me. I'm telling you, you just got to go up that rock, and you will find that his mercy, there's nowhere you can go where the grace of God can't sustain you. That's Joshua's bold demonstration. Now, you might be saying, that's all very nice. What does this have to do with relationships? There might be one or two of you thinking, as you remember this is a sex, love, and dating series. Thank you for bringing that up. There is one last Shechem I want you to see that I believe will bridge the gap and connect this moment here to what happens day in and day out in our love lives that causes us so much frustration. And in it, we'll find this relationship chip that is perhaps more important than any others. It's in John chapter four. And if you want to flip over there, you can. Do you remember what I told you Jacob dug in Shechem? He dug a well. Well, in John chapter four, we're told that the same place is mentioned in Genesis, all throughout that we studied, we're told that in verse five, Jesus arrived at a Samaritan village called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph long ago. Wearied by his long journey, he sat on the edge of Jacob's well. What does that mean? Jesus finally shows up. And one day, he goes to Shechem and sits on this very well. Why did he go there? Because he knew that not long after verse eight, a Samaritan woman was going to come and draw water. Now, we only know a little bit about the Samaritan woman. But what we know comes from verse 18, that she had been married five different times. And she was currently shacked up with a man who is not her husband. In other words, this girl had some serious commitment issues. And Jesus planted himself where he would bump into her. She would have felt like an outcast in that day, a pariah for sure, and Jesus engages her and begins talking to her. And basically, it comes down to a moment in time where he tells her this in verse 13: if you just drink from Jacob's well, you'll get thirsty again and again. But if you drink the living water that I give you, you will never thirst again. And you will be forever satisfied. For when you drink the water I give you, it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit springing up and flooding you with endless life. This woman had been looking to men to give her living water. And Jesus came there that day to say, honey, living water doesn't come from men. It comes from the son of man. And if you want to nail down your love life, what you need to do is nail down your first love. Make me the love of your life. Because the truth is you'll never be right with a mate until you get right with a maker. In our culture, there's this idea of she completes me. And we're hoping that one will come along: he or she will come along one day, and we'll be able to say, oh, my gosh. Love at first sight, she completes me. He completes me. But no human being can handle the weight and the freight of your soul. That's too much to put on anybody. You want to know why? Because we're all so screwed up. People talk about compatibility. People talk about irreconcilable differences. You want to know the truth? Every single one of us is incompatible with every single one of us. You throw any of us into a cage match called marriage long enough, there's going to be blood. Right? I'm just saying that we're all messed up. And yes, of course, you want to find someone that you're attracted to. There's a time and place for all those things. But we're missing the point if we forget that what it should be is you follow Jesus. Let him fill the hole in your soul. And then you allow him to draw you to another person who's made Jesus the North Star of their life. And then together, you two get to imperfectly follow Jesus with grace, and forgiveness, and humor, and yes, even occasionally makeup sex. And you get to do that day in and day out on the journey together following Christ. Amen? Amen. This remarkable sermon is tremendous! Commitment to God is essential to develop any successful relationship. Joshua challenged Israel, “Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The key to understanding Joshua’s message: “Geography impacts history and informs theology.” This sermon is a unique look at the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and how God revealed Himself to them. www.freshlife.com .

DON’T LET NEGATIVE BECOME YOUR NEW NORMAL STEVEN FURTICK God is saying, "You know what? I'm taking you through something uncertain right now. I'm taking you through something right now that you've never seen before, but just because you've never seen it before doesn't mean it's not normal". Just because I have never known it doesn't mean it's not normal. "You mean it can be normal for me to have a heart that is at peace"? Yes! Yes! That's how it's supposed to be. You are supposed to have peace in the middle of a storm. Jesus did. He slept through stuff that we scramble about because he's not from here. See, when you're from somewhere else, it changes what you see as normal. Because I come from a different place, because I am not from this world, because it is not my home, I do not have to accept the patterns of this world as normal. I don't have to accept Egypt as normal. What if God is trying to bring me into a new normal but I'm so afraid I reach for what's familiar? Can I tell you one new normal I think God is trying to give us right now? Better priorities. We are so toxic in the way we treat each other, what we say to each other, how we categorize and box each other. Well, we can't box each other like that anymore. Now I need you and you need me, and if we don't all do what we're supposed to do, we may not ever get out of this. God is making a nation. God is bringing the people through the Red Sea together, but not for them to go through. For them to get there, there's something they have to give up. Question: What is God calling you to give up to get there? What if there's a new normal? What if your true nature has been so buried and embedded in what Romans 12 calls the patterns of this world…? Here's what I want to show you from Romans 12:1. Some of you have heard this Scripture before, but let's put it in context. Just like the children of Israel were going through the Red Sea… And remember, all they've known as normal, all their parents knew as normal, all their parents' parents knew as normal, all their parents' parents' parents knew as normal… This is 430 years. Look at how weird our world has gotten in just a few weeks. This is 430 years of you thinking you're never supposed to have enough, you'll never be free. This is what it's like to be in bondage. Some of you know this because you've been in bondage to depression. You've been in bondage to patterns of thought. This is a chain-breaking Scripture in Romans 12:1. I never saw it before, y'all. Watch this Scripture in Romans 12:1. Are you ready? This revelation to me… I've read both of these Scriptures a lot. They're both classic passages. The children of Israel are coming through the Red Sea. They want to go back to Egypt. They want to go back to what they've known. They want to go back to what's familiar because they are afraid. I'd rather go back to what is negative, even if it's not really normal. We'll call negative normal just because it's what we know. Do you see this? Some of the things I've called normal my whole life aren't normal. This Scripture shows me the full extent of it in Jesus Christ. Now let's put the gospel on this Old Testament passage. "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy…" That's not normal. How many of you in a relationship can do wrong over and over and over and over and over again and the person fully accepts you? Only God. So in view of that kind of mercy… That's where we get used to things. Things we used to be grateful for we become entitled to. Remember, for this community Paul is writing to, none of this is normal. They're used to relating to God through a sacrificial system. When they come before God, they have to make offerings and spill blood in order to have their prayer requests heard, in order to meet with God, in order to atone for sin. So this is not normal for Paul to be talking about mercy, coming to God on the basis of grace. This is new. This is a new normal. And do you know what their temptation was? To go back to the old way. So he's telling them, "No, no, no, no. In view of God's mercy, I urge you, I need you to, I'm begging you to, stop trying to get back to normal. Stop thinking there's something you could do to earn God's love and realize it has already been done through the gift of his Son Jesus Christ, that the blood has already been shed. Instead of getting back to normal, move forward into this new way of life. Instead of offering pigeons and turtledoves and lambs and goats and rams, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. This is your new normal. Your new normal is that you are forgiven and not condemned". Your new normal is that you are a child of the Most High God. I am no ordinary child. I am a child of God. Moses and I have Acts 7:20 in common. I am no ordinary child; I am a child of God. I am a royal priesthood. I am a holy nation. I am set apart. I'm not trying to be normal. Normal is broken. The culture is broken. The world is weird, and it didn't just get weird when a virus was unleashed. The world has been weird for a long time. I'm going to show you in the Bible. This is way before coronavirus. You got it? Romans 12:2: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world…" Why not? Because the world is weird. "I don't know about Christians. They're weird". Do you know what's kind of cool about going through something really traumatic? What used to be weird now is the only thing that works. That's the only thing I'm excited about. I'm not excited about anybody being sick, anybody dying, anybody losing their job, anybody losing their company, anybody losing their life's work. I'm not excited about anybody having to work 20-hour days. I'm not excited about any of it, but what I am excited about is that our faith finally fits. See, the world always operates by logic, but now we've come to a Red Sea. So the world is trying what it has always tried. "Ah, more information". And none of it works. So now there's room to do what Romans 12:1 says, and worship isn't weird anymore. It's not weird to worship now, is it? Because the only thing I can do now is call on God. People are praying right now who used to think praying was superstitious. It's not weird anymore. For once, we're not the weird ones. For just a minute, let's just take this moment. It's like we're a middle school boy who finally hit a growth spurt, and our voice isn't cracking, and we finally fit. The church finally fits. You could send this link to somebody today, and they wouldn't be annoyed that you invited them to church. They'd be excited. They are bored to death. They have three ulcers. They have ulcers in places where you don't even normally get ulcers. So faith finally fits. This is our moment! This is our time! This is what we were born to do. I wasn't born to be normal. We fit. It's an amazing moment. Finally, there's space for faith in your life. As long as everything is normal, there's no space for faith. "Oh, I've got this. I've figured this out. Here's what I do: I take the kids here, and I take the kids there, and I take the kids there, and I take the kids there". The Lord said that in this season he is helping people reset their schedules. Since you didn't want to do it manually… Now, as the whole thing is shut down, one of the new normals God might bring us into is that we have a different baseline for busy or a reordering of priorities. Think about this. Many of us worshiped soccer more than we worshiped the Savior. I know that sounds like one of those clichés. I would normally do it in the country preacher voice. "Y'all worship soccer more than the Savior". But it's the dang truth. I don't have anything against soccer other than I hate it, but listen to me, church. Are you listening to me right now? Sit up and listen to this. God said, "I'm not trying to get you back to the normal where you worshiped your kids' activities and left no space for me. I'm not trying to bring you back to that Egypt where you had to make bricks without straw and you were just spending your money and spending your time and never full, with holes in your purses, and just running after this and running after that to impress people". Now you're going through a season where you can put on any clothes you want and nobody is going to see them. God is reordering some priorities, because… Romans 12:2: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind". Why? The world was weird to begin with. It's not normal. Even the way you develop your construct of the world is important. Right? If you get your construct of what the world is like from the news, you will not know normal. The news does not make money by showing you normal. The news makes money by showing you the most extreme example to keep you watching. You think the news is there to inform you? The news is not there to inform you. The news is there to engage you so you'll keep watching. You're getting your construct of the world right now from the news, the news, the news, the news. That's not normal. I'm not telling you not to check the news; I'm telling you not to watch it all the time. It's not normal. That is not normal. You know how the world has these patterns, all of these patterns of the world where we overextend ourselves all the time. We do all of these things to impress people. That has never been normal. That has just been culturally accepted. That doesn't make it normal. What does God call normal? That's what I want to know in this season. What does God call normal? I told Elijah the other day, "I don't care if you like sports or don't like sports. If music is your thing…" I grew up with this too. The kids who did sports were normal. The kids who liked music were weird. You know what? I'm 40 and I probably can't play sports anymore either, even if I was good at them at one time, but I can still make music. What was weird then is making ministry happen now. "Do not be conformed…" That's to be acted upon by the outside. That's conform. You can make it what you want it to be. That's what the world has done to us for so long. "Your faith goes here. Don't talk about your faith". That's not normal. The world is weird. Faith is normal. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Now we get it, that the unseen is the most significant. I've been preaching this since the beginning of the year, but now we finally get it, that what is unseen is most significant. We get it because we're fighting a virus we can't see. Now we understand that the things which are seen were made of things which do not appear. Faith finally fits, because we are standing in front of the Red Sea, and we no longer understand, and we can't count on the things we used to count on. In one sense, we want them back for comfort, but God cannot bring change while we hold to comfort. There is a new normal. There is a better you, a truer you, a real you. The patterns of this world are just pretend. It is not real. There is a peace that comes from above. There is a wisdom that whispers, and it doesn't shout. God said, "I'm not trying to get you back to normal; I'm trying to bring you into it". I'm looking forward to normal. I'm looking forward to God reinventing me. I'm looking forward to God increasing my capacity to connect with people for real. I prayed that God would help me with my gratitude. I'm looking forward to being able to put it into practice in the next season. I'm looking forward to normal, not trying to get back to it. Every one of us has something we would give anything to get. Right now, many of us would give anything to get back to normal. But, as Steven Furtick asks in this message, “What if God is trying to bring us into a new normal?” What if there’s a better way to live than what we’re used to? What would we be willing to give up to get that? Romans 12 verse 1 teaches us about patterns of thought that, although normal to the world, need to be renewed in our minds. We think negatively! We tell ourselves we could never do enough, never have enough and never be enough to be accepted. But God says that’s not normal. And His message of grace, if you’re willing to hear it, is telling you, “Don’t Let Negative Become Your Normal.”

The purpose of this Bible Study is to enable you to activate the Word of God in your life. There is a difference between activation of the word and application of the Word. Activating the Word is like flipping on the light switch in your room which activates the electricity which is always available to your house. The light switch activates the light. When you pick up a book, you apply that light in the room so you can read. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. And God said (God’s words), ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. Then God said, (God’s words), ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters ..’ So God separated the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse. Then God said .. Then God said…” WHATEVER words God said, they became reality. Everything was created by His word. Although it was the beginning of His Creation, it was not the beginning of God. God is outside the realm of time and space. He dwells in eternity. Before He created the heavens and the earth, there was only the spiritual world. When God said, “Let there be light!”, those faith-filled words slung this universe into existence at the speed of light, from the idea that was inside God, His idea. Those words of creation were filled with power. Power that far exceeds any power we can comprehend. God and His Word are one. All powerful. God’s ultimate creation was the creation of a human man and woman who were made in His image! God created Adam and Eve to have them as His family, to fellowship with them, to bless them. But when they fell for Satan’s ploy and purposely disobeyed God, God could no longer fellowship with them, nor call them His family. God the Father had to have another plan in order that these extraordinary creatures could become His family! God then gave the Law and Commandments through Moses for people to follow in order to be righteous in His eyes. No amount of effort worked. It was impossible! No amount of sacrifice could take away the sin that entered human hearts when Adam and Eve took the bait of Satan. Prophets spoke and wrote down God’s word and will in order that the people would listen and follow God’s will for them. But this extraordinary human race, the epitome of God’s creation, went their own way, following their own thoughts, ideas and ideals. BUT THE GREAT I AM HAD ANOTHER PLAN IN MIND! The Father turned to the WORD Who was also God the Son, and revealed His fool-proof plan. His plan was to send The Word to the earth in order to reveal His love for them, and to give them a way to become His very own people. His family. ENTER THE LIVING WORD OF GOD IN HUMAN FORM! “Now the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a VIRGIN engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.’… ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High God will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.’” Luke 2. “And she gave birth to her first-born son, and she wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a cattle feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Unnoticed, born to a young Jewish virgin, God’s Spoken Word became part of a human family. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-3. Jesus, Who created all physical worlds, universes, stars, suns, moons, galaxies and all living creatures, entered the world He created. One hundred percent man, one hundred percent God the Son! The Word Who created every physical thing took on physical form and entered into and became part of that Creation. Think of this: God’s Spoken Word came to earth, and He interacted with human beings. This sounds like science fiction! But it’s not! This is what truly happened. The Word that God used to create the heavens and the earth came to the earth in human form. The Word that brought all creation into existence talked face to face with people around Him. Can you imagine the power in His words? Jesus the Word spoke words! These words came from the heart and mind of God Himself. It is no wonder that CROWDS followed Him everywhere He went. They surrounded Him constantly to hear Him speak, and to see Him heal the sick. They said about Him, “No one ever spoke like this man.” The Word of God in the form of a man stood among humans and spoke with them. The incarnation of Jesus brought to earth an awareness of who God is and what He is like. The words that Jesus spoke had the same power they had at Creation. Jesus is the Word because He was the means through which God brought all physical reality into existence and because He is the One Who represents the Father’s invisible nature and character to that creation. Think of that reality: Whatever He spoke – and we read His words in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts and the Revelation – came from the Living Word that spoke at Creation! The Word that caused all physical things to appear, and all those physical things were created out of nothing that existed! The entire Bible is filled with words that God Himself spoke or words He spoke through prophets and other human beings He created. The power of God is in every spoken word! One purpose of Jesus’ coming to earth was to show people what God is like, and what He says and does. God, being invisible, could not come to earth Himself. Jesus, Who brought every physical thing into existence, became Himself a physical Being. The main purpose of His coming was to provide the only way available to become God’s child, to become part of His family, and to live with Him forever in eternity when we leave earth. Jesus plainly said, “I AM the Way. I AM the Truth. I AM the Life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.” At last, God the Father was able to connect with man, whom He put on the earth, through this ingenious plan. He had His Son become like one of us! The Word was personal, interactive and alive. The Word was sent by God to reveal God, yet spoke as God and was worthy of worship and praise as God. The Word could rightly be distinguished from God, but could just as rightly be said to be the One True God. And then, the greatest Plan within the Plan. God the Father sent God the Son – The Word – to earth to become the SACRIFICE to take away the sin of the world. Through His sacrificial death on a cross, He became sin in our place. Then after 3 days in a tomb, God the Father brought Him back to life again. By accepting His sacrifice for their own sin, the human race now had the opportunity to become God’s own family! His beloved children! The Gospel came to life! If all the Word of God was so powerful, and it was, and made things happen, and it did, how can we then appropriate this Word for ourselves, for our situations, our families? If all of this Word is true, and It is, and if It is full of power, and It is, why do we not clasp It to ourselves, embrace It and speak It forth, expecting It to do what It says It will do? The promises of God? Knowledge of the Word is foremost. Knowledge of the Word is vital. But knowledge of the Word is not enough. When we speak that Word forth in faith that It will do what It says, God honors that. Is the Word true? Yes! Jesus Himself said that He (the Word) is the Truth. If the Word is true, then we cling to that Word, repeating that Word, expecting It to do what It says. Jeremiah 1:12 says, “I (God) watch over My word to perform it.” Does the Word accomplish what we pray for when we pray for it to do something? Not always. Faith in the Word comes by hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing the Word of God. Over and over and over and over again. The Word will take up residence in your heart when you repeat it again and again out loud to yourself. That’s the way it works. Many of us have had great disappointments when God didn’t answer when we wanted Him to and HOW we wanted Him to. This is the secret: It doesn’t matter what our past experiences have been, we still stand on God’s powerful Word. We stand and stand and stand. I have seen miracles happen immediately. This is my point: Jesus came to earth as the embodiment of the spoken Word of God. What I know is, God does not lie. His Word is true and He says to read it, meditate on it, and have it become part of you It then becomes easier to stand on His Word, expecting it to bring results, expecting it to work no matter what we see or hear or think or feel. You can get to the place that you stand on His Word no matter what. If your situation doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to, continue to stand, wearing the Armor of God. Stand in the Belt of the Truth of God’s Word, wearing the boots of the Gospel, wearing the Breastplate of Righteousness that comes from being born again, covering your mind with the Helmet of Salvation, carrying the Shield of FAITH (that’s important!), and wielding the Sword of the Spirit, the powerful Word of God. That’s when you truly experience His peace as you wait. Isaiah 55:10-11 – “For as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My Word be that goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire, and without accomplishing the purpose for which It was sent.”

Future Quest Week 5 February 7/9, 2020 https://vimeo.com/390364852 “Stay on Course” Ryan Leak SLIDE_________________________) Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” SLIDE_____________________________) Mark 4:3-9 “’Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!’” Then he said, ‘Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.’” SLIDE__________________________) Mark 4:14 “The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others.” SLIDE___________________________) Jesus puts more responsibility on the receiver of God’s word more than the giver of God’s word. SLIDE______________________) Mark 4:15 1 Future Quest Week 5 February 7/9, 2020 “’The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away.’” SLIDE_____________________) Mark 4:16-17 “The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.” SLIDE________________________) Mark 4:18-19 “’The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.’” SLIDE____________________) Mark 4:20 “’And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!’” SLIDE___________________________) What kind of ground are you? Which kind of ground do you want to be? SLIDE_________________________) (build) Having Problems 2 Future Quest Week 5 February 7/9, 2020 * Job Loss * Divorce * Sickness * Depression * Loss of a loved one SLIDE____________________________) All of our pain and problems can either be used steer us away from God or be used to steer us closer to God. SLIDE________________________) (build) Worries of this Life * Belonging * Popularity * Approval (being liked and getting likes) * Children’s Success * Career Outcome * Relationship Status SLIDE____________________________) Control the things you can control. Pray about the things you can’t. SLIDE___________________________) (build) Lure of Wealth & Desire for Other Things * Houses * Cars * Clothes * Status * Upgrades SLIDE_______________________) Do we have wealth or does wealth have us? 3 Future Quest Week 5 February 7/9, 2020 SLIDE_________________________) Wealth is only a problem for us when we believe it can do things for us that only God can. SLIDE__________________________) The filter we should use for everything we hold dear: Destiny or Distraction? SLIDE_________________________) Good things can distract us as much as bad things can help us reach our destiny. SLIDE__________________________) What are we going to do with the Message God has given us? SLIDE_________________________) Change our posture. Change our perspective. We all have a place we want to go, a goal we want to achieve. But one of the biggest challenges in getting to where we want to go is not getting off track. Distractions don’t need to be big to pull us off course. If we’re not careful, a lesser thing can keep us from reaching our desired destination. Preached at Chase Oaks Church. www.chaseoaks.org .

I don’t care how tough you are. You may be a Navy Seal who specializes in high altitude skydiving behind enemy lines. You might spend each day making million-dollar, split-second stock market decisions. Doesn’t matter. Every parent melts the moment he or she feels the full force of parenthood. The semi truck of parenting comes loaded with fears. We fear failing the child, forgetting the child. Will we have enough money? Enough answers? Enough diapers? Vaccinations. Education. Homework. Homecoming. It’s enough to keep a parent awake at night. Fear distilleries concoct a high-octane brew for parents, a primal, gut-wrenching, pulse-stilling dose. Whether Mom and Dad keep vigil outside a neonatal unit, make weekly visits to a juvenile prison or hear the crunch of a bike and cry of a child in the driveway, their reaction is the same: “I’ve got to do something.” No parent can sit still while his child suffers. As a parent and a pastor, I look to the Bible for stories of parenting. One man written about in the New Testament, Jairus, he couldn’t sit still. “Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying” (Luke 8:40-42). Jairus was a Capernaum community leader, a synagogue ruler. Mayor, bishop and ombudsman, all in one. The kind of man a city would send to welcome a celebrity. But when Jairus approached Jesus on the Galilean shoreline, he wasn’t representing his village; he was pleading on behalf of his child. Jairus isn’t the only parent to run onto Gospel pages on behalf of a child. The Canaanite mother. The father of the epileptic boy. Jairus. These three parents form an unwitting New Testament society: struggling parents of stricken children. They held the end of their rope in one hand and reached toward Christ with the other. In each case, Jesus responded. Deliberately. Quickly. Decisively. Note to all panicking parents: Jesus never turned one away. In the story of Jairus, Jesus made the father’s prayer his top priority. He heeded the concern in the parent’s heart. He will do the same for ours. After all, our kids were His kids first. “Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift? The fruit of the womb his generous legacy?” (Psalm 127:3, MSG). When you look at your children, you look at God’s most generous endowment. They upstage any divine grace He gives. Before they were yours, they were His. Even as they are yours, they are still His. We tend to forget this fact, regarding our children as “our” children, as though we have the final say in their health and welfare. We don’t. All people are God’s people, including the small people who sit at our tables. Wise are the parents who regularly give their children back to God. Parents, we can do this. We can be loyal advocates, stubborn intercessors. We can take our parenting fears to Christ. In fact, if we don’t, we’ll take our fears out on our kids. Fear turns some parents into paranoid prison guards who monitor every minute, check the background of every friend. They stifle growth and communicate distrust. A family with no breathing room suffocates a child. On the other hand, fear can create permissive parents. For fear that their child will feel too confined or fenced in, they lower all boundaries. High on hugs and low on discipline. They don’t realize that appropriate discipline is an expression of love. Permissive parents. Paranoid parents. How can we avoid the extremes? We pray. Prayer is the saucer into which parental fears are poured to cool. Jesus says so little about parenting — no comments about spanking, breastfeeding, sibling rivalry or schooling. Yet His actions speak volumes about prayer. Each time a parent prays, Christ responds. His big message to moms and dads? Bring your children to Me. Raise them in a greenhouse of prayer. When you send them off for the day, do so with a blessing. When you tell them goodnight, cover them in prayer. Pray that your children have a profound sense of place in this world and a heavenly place in the next. Parents, we can’t protect children from every threat in life, but we can take them to the Source of life. We can entrust our kids to Christ. Even then, however, our shoreline appeals might be followed by a difficult choice. As Jairus led Jesus through the crowded streets, “someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue ruler. ‘Your daughter is dead,’ he said. ‘Don’t bother the teacher anymore.’ Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.’” (Luke 8:49-50). The hard reality of parenting reads something like this: You can do your best and still stand where Jairus stood. We need to know what Jesus will do when we entrust our kids to Him. He unites the household. Jesus includes the mother. Up until this point, she has been, for whatever reason, out of the picture. But here, Christ unites them. He wants Mom and Dad to stand together in the struggle. And He banishes unbelief: “Now all wept and mourned for her; but He said ‘Do not weep; she is not dead, but sleeping.’ And they ridiculed Him, knowing that she was dead. But He put them all outside” (Luke 8:52-54, NKJV). God has a heart for hurting parents. Should we be surprised? After all, God himself is a father. What parental emotion has He not felt? Do you find yourself wanting to spare your child from all the hurt in the world? God did. And yet, He “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). “All things” must include courage and hope. Some of you find the story of Jairus difficult to hear. You prayed the same prayer he did; yet, you found yourself in a cemetery facing every parent’s darkest night. What hope does the story of Jairus offer to you? Jesus resurrected his child; why didn’t He save yours? God understands your question. He buried a child, too. Death wasn’t a part of His plan, and He hates it more than you do. God resurrected His precious one and will do the same with yours. Your child may not be in your arms, but your child is safely in His. Others of you have been standing where Jairus stood for a long time. You’ve long since left the water’s edge of offered prayer, yet haven’t arrived at the household of answered prayer. At times, you’ve felt like a breakthrough was nearing, that Christ was following you to your house. But you’re not so sure anymore. You find yourself alone on the path, wondering if Christ has forgotten you and your child. He hasn’t. He never dismisses a parent’s prayer. Keep giving your child to God, and in the right time and the right way, God will give your child back to you. © Max Lucado (excerpted from Fearless, Thomas Nelson 2009) www.maxlucado.com .

Am I sinning if I’m not happy as a Christian?” In answering this question, I’m assuming two things of readers: You are familiar with what I’ve written about  how happiness and joy are synonyms , and how Scripture uses a number of related words to express gladness in God. You understand the importance of walking in God’s revealed will in Scripture, and not seeking so-called “happiness” through sin and “whatever makes me feel good.” God Commands We Find Our Joy in Him The question is “Am I sinning if I’m not happy  in Christ ?” We need to understand that God doesn’t simply suggest that we find joy in Him; He  commands  it: Finally, my brothers,  rejoice  in the Lord. ( Philippians 3:1 ) Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters,  rejoice  in the Lord. (NLT) So now, my Christian brothers, be  happy  because you belong to Christ. (NLV) Be glad in the Lord always! Again I say, be glad! ( Philippians 4:4 , CEB) Delight yourselves in God, yes, find your joy in him at all times. (Phillips) Does God mean it when He says “always”? Yes. The reasons for gladness in Christ are constant, like an ocean tide. The water doesn’t remain in the same place, always lapping over our feet. But even at low tide, it’s still there, poised to move in again. Paul followed verse 4 with this encouragement: “The Lord is at hand,” which itself is a reason to rejoice. God is with us, never abandons us, and will deliver us soon, whether by death or by His return. In light of such passages, I believe that a Christ-follower’s resignation to unhappiness is unbelief and disobedience. That may sound harsh, but I’m convinced it’s true, and actually hope-giving. (Since I’m not naturally chipper or bouncy, but more melancholic, this isn’t my personality speaking!) God wouldn’t command  all  His children to rejoice in Him always if only the naturally gleeful could obey. A Measure of Obedience Since God repeatedly commands His people to be happy, our happiness is a measure of our obedience. Don’t rush past that statement:  our happiness is a measure of our obedience . Reread it. Ponder it. And consider that God in His grace would never command us to be happy without providing us the necessary resources to do so, including His indwelling presence. I’m well aware that some readers of this blog may be experiencing deep suffering and sorrow, whether through the loss of a loved one, a debilitating disease, a difficult season of depression, or other painful life circumstances. My wife Nanci was diagnosed with colon cancer early last year, and went through several months of treatment and painful side effects. There were some very difficult days for her. So no, we won’t constantly be “bubbling over” with gleeful happiness every moment of every day. In a world under the curse of evil and suffering, something would be very wrong if we were! But if we’re always focusing on life’s difficulties and trials, we won’t be happy people. Instead, if we focus on the Lord and His abundant grace, we  will  be happy. Paul said, “His glorious power will make you patient and strong enough to endure anything, and you will be truly happy” ( Colossians 1:11, CEV ). Joy Through Hardship Rejoicing always in the Lord seems unrealistic at times. But we must remember that this rejoicing is centered not in a passing circumstance but in a constant reality—Christ. Scripture  doesn’t  command us to rejoice in: the condition of our nation the direction our culture is headed the attitude of a spouse the struggles of our children painful events at our church the loss of a job poor health We’re to rejoice  in the midst of these things , but of course they won’t be the  source  of our gladness.  We’re told to rejoice  in the Lord . Rejoicing in Christ is superior to all other delights, but it’s not always separate from them. Rejoicing in a friend, a parent, a child, a spouse, a job well done, or a glorious walk in the forest can in fact be choosing to find happiness in Christ. The Bible never pretends that happiness is easy or constant. It’s unrealistic to expect perpetual happiness while the Curse is in effect. But the day is coming when “there will no longer be any curse” ( Revelation 22:3, HCSB ). Believing this can bring us great happiness even today. When I am grieving over what God grieves over, I am not sinning. But if I am always grieving and always unhappy, if that is the normal state of my life over the long haul, then something is wrong. God wants something better for me. He really wants me to experience gladness in Him, instead of consenting to perpetual unhappiness. I’m not always happy, any more than I’m always holy. I’ve experienced  seasons of depression , both before and since coming to faith in Christ. This is partly due to my personality type and emotional makeup (and perhaps genetics), while some is triggered by my long-term physical illness (insulin-dependent diabetes), and some is the result of adverse circumstances. So I’m not a stranger to unhappiness—I really do get it! But by God’s grace, I’m more supernaturally happy in Christ now than I’ve ever been. And as many other believers throughout history have, I’ve also learned to make choices that increase my joy. Great pain certainly dulls—and at times even overshadows—happiness, but it can’t destroy happiness that’s grounded in our ever-faithful God. Sometimes sorrow and joy do battle; sometimes they coexist, but when our hearts and minds are on Christ, joy is never far away: “You changed my sorrow into dancing. You took away my clothes of sadness, and clothed me in happiness” ( Psalm 30:11, NCV ). The Seriousness of Failing to Seek Happiness in God So just how serious does God take His commands for us to rejoice in Him? Consider this statement: “ God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy.”  I’ll bet that got your attention. I never would have put it that way myself. Standing on its own, it sounds shocking, even outrageous! But Scripture supports it. God’s Word Translation renders  Deuteronomy 28:47 , “You didn’t serve the Lord your God with a joyful and happy heart when you had so much.” Whether we find joy and happiness in God and His abundant gifts dramatically affects how He views our service for Him. He is not a master who cares only that His servants do what they’re told, but a Father who cares deeply about His children’s love for Him and the heartfelt emotional gladness we find in Him as we obey. The obedience of dutiful drudgery is better, but only marginally so, than outright disobedience. Indeed, God sometimes disciplines His people who fail to find happiness in Him by sending unfavorable circumstances. Here’s the whole verse I quoted with the jaw-dropping one that follows: “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you” ( Deuteronomy 28:47-48 ). This passage prompted British clergyman Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) to write the striking words I used above: “God threatens terrible things if we will not be happy.” [1] Read this passage, and you’ll see that Taylor’s statement is true. If we refuse to serve the Creator and Redeemer of our souls in happiness, we will surely end up serving the enemy of our souls in unhappiness. God’s severe mercy in bringing adversity when we don’t serve Him with joyfulness and gladness of heart may turn us to God, where we’ll find in Him the only heartfelt and lasting happiness available to us. I am well aware that after reading such strong language some people will feel guilty. Some will say, “Okay, I’m already unhappy, so now you’re trying to make me feel guilty for being unhappy?” That is not my goal. My goal is to believe Scripture when it says that God who truly loves you, and Jesus who gave His life for you, has vested interests in you being happy in Him. He offers you the strength in the Holy Spirit to experience this happiness. Yes, there will be times of sorrow, but God can truly transform our default condition to one of happiness rather than sorrow. Now, if your normal temperament lands you on a happiness scale of 2-3 out of 10, maybe the work of God’s Spirit won’t take you to a 10 but to a 6-7. But wouldn’t that be a greater miracle, then a naturally happy person (which again, I am not) becoming another 10% happier? So you don’t have to be the happiest person at the party to still enjoy God and find greater happiness in Him than you’ve ever known. Remember, God’s commands are not to burden us, but to free us—the truth, including the truth about Him wanting us to be happy in Him—should set us free ( John 8:32 ). Be encouraged, because everything God commands us to do He empowers to do, and He does it not only for His glory but for our good. His Empowerment of Our Joy The moment after death, all who know Jesus will experience a flood of happiness greater than we’ve ever known. We might ask ourselves in Heaven, if we are called upon to evaluate our lives here,  Given Christ’s finished work on my behalf, with the indwelling Son and Holy Spirit, why didn’t I experience more of this happiness in God before I died? The permanence of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in our lives allows us to continually access a supernatural happiness even now. So we can “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help” ( Hebrews 4:16, NET ). Our God of happiness has made the way for us to come before Him freely and draw deeply from His mercy, grace, and help at any and all times, including when we’re feeling drained of joy. If the happiness in our walk with Christ is consistently gone, we’re wise to ask God and ourselves what needs to change. We should join David in praying, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation” ( Psalm 51:12 ). This is a prayer God is always eager to answer. www.epm.org .   [1] Jeremy Taylor, as quoted in C. S. Lewis,  George MacDonald: An Anthology  (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), xxxv.

What lessons do we learn from the families in Genesis? Most consequences don’t come with an expiration date. Love your wife, love your kids, but put God first. Live a life amongst your critics that deserves respect. Preached at North Coast Church. Used by permission.

Nestled in the last chapter of the book of Proverbs are three elements that provide insight as to how a godly man (husband) invests in his relationship with his wife and with his society. (1)   A godly man trusts his wife… “The heart of her husband trusts in her…” –  Proverbs 31:11a When my wife and I first got married, we realized very quickly our differences in handling money. It was our first reality check on how different our approaches to certain things could be. We had heard that that type of thing happened in marriage, and we now had experienced it first hand. It took some time, but we worked through our differences. Sure, there are times when the differences spring up, but we’ve learned to smooth them out through communication. What tipped the scales in smoothing out the disagreements? Trust. I realized that my wife needed more than anything for me to trust her as she handled the money. When I began to trust her with every penny, her little pedals began to blossom and she began to flourish. Finances are only one area where a husband can trust his wife. However, the principle is still the same. As a husband, I am walking in a godly biblical manner when I  trust  my wife. (2)   A godly man has a good reputation with outsiders… “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land.” –  Proverbs 31:23 The Proverb’s 31 man…the biblical man…has a good reputation with outsiders in so much as he has earned the right to speak into matters of importance and responsibility. It doesn’t mean he has to run for city council, but when it comes to decisions that carry weight in the lives of others, he is sought out for counsel. The apostle Paul instructs Timothy as he is placing elders in the church to make sure they have a good reputation with outsiders. He goes on further to guide the church at Colossae to  “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” Colossians 4:5-6 A good reputation comes through many things, but most specifically: a life of moral character the sacrifice of time, treasure, and talent a disposition of humility coupled with resolve (3) A godly man verbally encourages his wife… “Her husband also, and he praises her, saying: “Many daughters have done nobly, but you excel them all.”” –  Proverbs 31:28b-29 One of the challenges for a man is expressing on a regular basis his appreciation for his spouse. Some men think that if they expressed their appreciation at the beginning of the year, then it will be enough to carry their wife until the end of the year. It’s just not so. A godly Proverbs 31 man praises his wife. It’s a continual initiative that he makes to invest in their relationship. Moreover, his praise is distinct and penetrates the heart of his wife… He ensures that his wife knows that she (above every other woman) is first in his eyes…first in his thoughts…first in his devotion. How many marriages need a husband who verbally expresses not only the praises of his wife, but regularly lets her know of her primary position above every other woman in his eyes? May we, the husbands of our culture, be men who walk in similar ways to the Proverbs 31 man. www.staffandstones.com .

“Did God make them gay?” What a whopper of a question. I groaned a little bit inside as my inquisitive 13-year-old asked me this. He was peering over my shoulder at the computer screen. I was looking at pictures on Facebook of recent wedding pictures—two women holding hands in brides dresses. “That’s an interesting question,”  I replied.  “What do  you  think?” This prompted a discussion—as you can imagine, a little more than I had bargained for—about same-sex attraction. Here are my thoughts on handling the question “Did God make them gay?” So,  are  they born gay? Did God make them gay? Our children  are  going ask themselves questions about sexual orientation. And if you’re  lucky , they’ll want to talk to  you  about these questions. Yes, this is a  good  thing. It means you’ve fostered a good relationship with your kids, and they  want  to discuss complex topics with you. Unless you’ve been living under a rock on another planet, you know in recent years same-sex attraction has been a topic brought to the forefront in both media and politics. (Of course, in reality, same-sex attraction has been around for  millennia —it’s nothing new.) And the “Why” question is a pretty natural question to ask:  Why does someone experience same-sex attraction when the most of the world doesn’t? There’s been a lot of ink spilled over this question—many nature-vs-nurture debates: Are people gay because it was merely their  choice to be so? Does someone become gay or lesbian because of some kind of  trauma ? Is it because of  upbringing ? Do  genetics or  brain development  have to do with it—are people  born  gay? Did God make them gay? People often turn to science to answer these questions, and, of course, there’s nothing wrong with good scientific research.* But Christian parents don’t need to get  bogged down  trying to unravel the mysterious  origins of same-sex attraction  for their kids. Why? Because there are  better questions  we can teach our kids to ask… Better Question #1: Does science teach us what’s right and wrong? This is the question  behind  the question. It’s a question about ethics. When our kids wonder if a person is “born that way,” often they’re asking because they assume, “If someone is  born  gay, it means there’s nothing wrong with it.” But here’s the critical truth we need our kids to grasp: Science can only reveal what  is;  it can’t tell us what  should be . Of course, we can  use  scientific data to help us make moral decisions. But its never the data alone that determines right or wrong. Science can tell us how to repair a damaged heart, but it doesn’t tell us whether we  ought to operate. Science can tell us that a fetus is human life, genetically speaking, but it can’t tell us a fetus  should have a right to life. Science can tell us how alcohol damages a liver, but it can’t tell us we  ought to stop drinking. But we live in a world where culture pushes a twisted narrative: if you’re “born” with an attraction to your own sex, it must be right.  This is ridiculous. If my genetics predispose me to alcoholism, is it right to become a drunk? We don’t apply this logic to anything else. Christian parents should emphasize to their children only God can reveal what our values must be and He has revealed it through His prophets in the Bible. Better Question #2: Aren’t we all “born this way”? If  there’s some kind of genetic or hormonal component to same-sex attraction, it shouldn’t  surprise  Christians at all. For centuries, Christians have taught the doctrine of “original sin.” Because of our first parent’s (Adam and Eve) sin,  we have all corrupt hearts —impacting the way we think, what we desire, and even corrupting our physical bodies ( Matt. 15:19 ; Rom. 5:12 , 19 ; 7:21-23 ; 8:7-8 ; Eph. 2:1-3 ). Ed Shaw , Associate Pastor of Emmanuel City Centre in Bristol, England, has  experienced same-sex attraction  for most of his life. He explains what original sin is and how it impacts his understanding of his own homosexual desires: The Bible clearly teaches that all human beings sin naturally. But the Bible also clearly shows that all human beings have a propensity to sin differently. Moses had an anger problem. For David his weakness was sex. For Peter it was pride. For Ed Shaw it is (amongst other things), same-sex sexual immorality.   To quote Lady Gaga,  we are all “born this way.” So, your kids as you, “Did God make them gay?” And as Christian parents we need to explain to our kids how the Fall brought brokenness into our bodies, minds, and souls—and that shows up differently for different people. There are some temptations that appear to be nearly universal in scope: all of us are tempted to selfishness and pride. There are other temptations that only seem to afflict specific people. And yes, there are all kinds of sinful dispositions that may have some kind of hereditary or genetic component. But, even if same-sex attraction is somehow undergirded by genetics, Shaw comments, “ At the same time, God holds me responsible for how I respond to it and whether I act upon it ”—just as he does for every person with sinful desires. We need to let our kids know we all have sinful desires in our hearts that we haven’t chosen to be there, but this doesn’t make those desires good. Intentional  PARENTING   More Resources for Parents about Sex Education: Preparing Christian Kids for the LGBT World Transgenderism: 5 Things Your Kids Need to Hear You Say Modern SexEd Gone Crazy, and How Christian Parents Should Respond Christians: Stop Protecting Your Kids From Sex

“Wilson, where are you? Wilson! Wilson! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Wilson. Wilson, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Wilson! I can’t!” If you’ve seen Cast Away, this scene is etched in your memory. Chuck Noland (played by Tom Hanks) is on his rudimentary raft trying to paddle to freedom when his beach volleyball companion falls off and begins floating away. Stranded on a deserted island for four years, the volleyball is Noland’s only friend. Your heart breaks as Noland’s inanimate friend drifts away. Cast Away is a great movie not only about the triumph of the human spirit, but also about the reality that we are made to live in community. It can be watched as an extended meditation on God’s words in Genesis 2:18 , “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.” The very first thing our Triune God says is “not good” in creation is our aloneness. GOD IS COMMUNITY That isn’t surprising. God is community. Our Triune God has existed in community for eternity. Creation is an overflow of that love. Theologian Michael Reeves explains what it means that God is three-in-one, and not just one, “Everything changes when it comes to the Father, Son and Spirit. Here is a God who is not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity as the Father has loved the Son in the Spirit. Loving others is not a strange or novel thing for this God at all; it is the root of who he is.” [i] When the apostle John says, “God is love” ( 1 John 4:8 ), he is speaking about the very nature of our three-in-one God. And so, when God creates us in his image, we are created to image this love. Theologian John Owen wrote God is “the fountain and prototype of all love… And all love in the creation was introduced from this fountain, to give a shadow and resemblance of it.” [ii] We were made to reflect the active love of God that has existed for eternity. We need community to be who God has intended us to be. Life is better together. THE MESS OF COMMUNITY The challenges to this invitation abound. I write this post shortly after watching a Facebook interaction between two friends end with hurtful shots being exchanged. As soon as we enter any form of community, there is guaranteed to be social discomfort, cliques, and hurt feelings. This shouldn’t surprise us. When sin enters the picture, community gets messy. God creates Eve for Adam in Genesis 2 to create the first human community. In Genesis 3 , as soon as Adam and Eve have sinned, that community splinters. Adam blames Eve. While God has created us for community, sin is magnified and multiplied in community. COVID-19 COMMUNITY The challenge of community has become even greater during this quarantined season. Kids are going to school online, we are meeting online, and now we have to worship and gather in community online? It’s exhausting. Last night had a delicate conversation with loved ones over the phone. It’s a conversation six months ago we would have had face-to-face, but these are different times. As we spoke the hurdles were apparent: we couldn’t look into their eyes, give them hugs, or read their body language. It’s easy to want to just throw in the towel and slink back into our respective bunkers. Netflix always understands me. Let’s fight through the messiness because something better awaits us on the other side. Let’s push through the discomfort and annoyance because we need others and they need us. Let’s remember, life is better together . It’s who God is and who he has made us to be. [i] Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity; An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Downers Grove: IVP Academic), 2012, 41. [ii] John Owen, “Christologia,” in The Works of John Owen (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth), 1850-1855, 1:144. www.thebeehive.live .

Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 Don’t Leave Home Without It Embracing SLOW Jeff Jones Hello everybody and welcome to Chase Oaks and to this series. I’ve not spoken for the last three weeks, so you might wonder who I am. I’m Jeff, the lead pastor around here, and I’ve just gotten back from the study break I do every year, which is the time I plan the year ahead. It gives me way more time to plan and to pray, and many of you pray for me during this time of year—which I really appreciate, because it is the most important time of the year. And while I was gone, did I spoil you or what with the speakers we have enjoyed? Ryan Leak, Bob Goff, and John Townsend. All I can say is, Wow. So thankful for those guys. Bob and John kicked off this series we are in called Don’t Leave Home Without It, about embracing a new, better normal, as we try to figure out how to do life again in this pandemic and after this pandemic. It’s a challenging time but could very well be the most impactfully good experience we ever go through as a culture, if we are willing to learn the lessons such times provide. That’s what this series is about. As we eventually move toward something more normal, what is that new normal that we want to adopt? What have we learned that we don’t want to leave home without? Bob challenged us to live lives of focus and clarity around the things that matter most, and John talked about deeper connection. If you missed those, go back and watch them. Today we are talking about something that is very hard for me, and probably for most of you too, but absolutely vital to a Jesus say of life. Today we are talking about Embracing SLOW. At the beginning of this pandemic season, in March, we as a culture shut down most normal activity. We thought then it would be a two-week stay at home thing and then we’d be done. We’d beat the disease, or at least get it under control. It happened really fast, but once those weeks of quarantine at home came, thing slowed down immediately for most of us. All the activities we were driving our kids to, shut down. All church activities, shut down. Most of our offices, shut down. Bars and restaurants and movie theaters and malls, shut down. Getting nails done, hair done, tattoos done, shut down. Even ski resorts, shut down. We went from driving through life at 100 mph, to a dead stop. We had an opportunity we may never have again, to experience a completely different pace of life. We had the opportunity to embrace SLOW. Most people I talked to found it to be profoundly good. Families ate dinner together at the dinner table, many for 1 Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 the first time. Couples had time to actually talk with each other. Christy and I rode bikes together and took walks together every day. It made me realize how separate our lives actually were, because I am busy doing my work thing, she her work thing, and we had separate hobbies. So, we were mostly missing each other. And then those few weeks came. They were a gift. They brought us back together when I didn’t even realize we were so far apart. Many told me they had more time to read the Bible and pray than ever. Our church attendance online tripled for those weeks, people had time for church. It was a special time. And then it was over, at least for me. As we realized that this wasn’t going to be a 2 to 4 week break, but a longer term process, for many of us life became even more intense than it was before the pandemic. We had to transition our businesses, jobs, organizations to this new reality, and I know for me at least the last months have been some of the most intense months of my life. Then came the death of George Floyd, following Ahmad Arbery and Brianna Taylor, which became and continues to be an intense time of learning and leading. My only brother also was diagnosed with brain cancer, and soon went into a coma, while all that was going on. So, I was shooting back and forth to Alabama. That was what led up to study break. Some years I jump into study break with energy, other years I crawl into study break depleted, but this year, I couldn’t even crawl. I just sort of rolled into it. It’s why I didn’t do what I’ve always done, and that is ask for prayer requests to take with me. I usually take many 1000’s of prayer requests with me, the last few years sharing them with the elders. But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t have the gas that takes. I’ll make it up to you. We’ll find a time to do that soon, but I just couldn’t. In God’s providence, right before study break, I called John Townsend to get him ready to speak and after a while he said, “How are you doing with all that is going on?” I told him a long list of things we as a church had been doing and planned to do, and he responded, “You didn’t answer my question. You told me what you are doing, which is cool, but I asked you, “How are doing? A lot of lead pastors aren’t doing very well, really depleted right now, so I’m just wondering how you are doing?” So, I told him that I was more depleted than maybe ever, but I was going on a study break, so it would be all good. He said, “Tell me about that. What does that mean, “study break?” I told him what I do during that time, and he said, “Why do you call that a break? That’s a strange word for what you do. You basically take some weeks, where you pack in as much intense study time as you can to prepare sermon series, to read and think and plan for the future of the church, often twelve to fourteen hours a day, and you call that a break?” I said, “Well, a break from the normal.” He said, “I would call that a study intensive, because that’s what it is. How are you going to get a real break?” I hadn’t even thought about it, but I’m so 2 Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 glad that I talked with him, because I did take time to think about how I live my life—how sustainable is it really. I have a lot of friends in ministry who are checking out or burning out or flaming out. I don’t want to be that guy. So, out of all this, I am trying to follow Jesus in a new way, and that means embracing slow. I value the idea, but I’ve never embraced slow. I think that’s true of most of us. As Americans, slow for us is a bad word. When people talk about slow movies, a slow person, a slow line, we don’t hear those as good things. For us, fast is good, slow is bad. But what we don’t realize is how much we lose when we go through life fast. Years ago, there was this campaign to help make highways safer with signs all over highways that said, “Speed kills.” You may remember that. What is true on highways is also true in life. Speed kills. Speed kills our soul, our peace, our joy, the depth of relationships, depth of character. Nothing lasting or deep is built fast. Can you know the soul of a child at 100 mph? The frenetic pace of American life is an anomaly. We think life has always been like this, but it hasn’t. You know before the invention of the light bulb in 1879 people averaged 11 hours of sleep each night? Now the average is 7. Dumb light bulbs. But we can also blame screens. When asked about competition from Amazon Prime and other streaming services, the CEO of Netflix shrugged his shoulders and said that their biggest competition was sleep. That's what they're after. Make people stop wasting so much time sleeping, so they can look at more streaming things on screens. HBR did a study that found the average American worker now works four weeks longer per year than we did in 1979. It’s only getting faster. Even today, most cultures around the world don’t live nearly as fast and busy as we do. We had this writing partnership with us, a partner in New Zealand, and another partner based in Austria, two very developed, productive countries. When we were planning our meeting schedule for the year, the Austrians said, “Well, of course we can have no meetings in August.” I was like, “August—the whole month?” “Absolutely. Nobody works in August.” And then the Kiwis chimed in. Same with us but in January. And I’m like, the whole month of January? Any other times I should know about? And there were. So un-American. We think we are winning, but what if we are actually losing? During those weeks of quarantine, we got to experience what we lose when we speed through life. So, today, I want us to make sure we don’t miss the lesson. I want us to learn to embrace slow. This is important for all of us, but way important for those of us who are Jesus followers, because you and I cannot follow Jesus and go faster than he does. 3 Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 Doesn’t that makes sense? You can’t go faster than what you follow. A pastor and really great writer John Ortberg writes about a conversation with Dallas Willard, who was an amazing thinker and writer. If you have never read a Dallas Willard book, give it a shot. They aren’t easy because every sentence is deep and meaningful. They are not fast reads. So, Dallas was asked by a friend of John, “If you could have only one word to describe Jesus, what would it be?” That’s a big question, and there is nobody I’m aware of that has the depth that Dallas had to answer it. Of all the words he could have chosen, you know what he chose? Relaxed. Dallas acknowledged that Jesus had the most important mission of anyone in history and had the most impact on this planet that any other single human in history, but the one word he chose to describe him was “relaxed.” And the more you think about it, you can see why. Jesus was never in a hurry. He walked through life, not sped through life. He lived at the speed of foot, not going 100 mph but more like 3. He had time for people and never seemed to be in a big rush. He could have bought a high-speed chariot with a team of horses, but he didn’t. For his disciples, he chose slow learners, not fast hot shots. In Luke, he tells them, “how foolish you are and slow to believe.” He could have chosen anyone, but he chose people he knew would be slow but open. He even waited thirty years to start his ministry, and the first thing he did when he started was taking forty days to be alone with God out in the wilderness. He started the mission by taking a break to be with God the Father. He didn’t preach his first sermon until age thirty, and his first miracle, at thirty years old, he considered it too soon but did it anyway because his mom begged him to do so to save a wedding for a friend. During his ministry, he always had time for people, hung out with people, said yes to every spontaneous party invitation. Compared to most of us, even though Jesus accomplished more than anyone, he was indeed relaxed. He embraced slow, and if you are like me, that may be one of the hardest things to embrace about the Jesus way of life. I don’t do slow well. I’ve talked about that a lot over the years with driving because I’ve gotten a lot of tickets over the years. I actually thought I was doing a lot better, and a few months ago got a ticket, and the policeman said, “You know, if you get another ticket, your license is going to be suspended.” I was like, “That’s a thing?” So, I’m trying to drive slower, but going through life that way? Most of us know that life would be better if we did, so let’s learn from Jesus how to embrace slow. How to accomplish way more by going slower. What if the 4 Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 fastest way to get the most done, to become the people we want to become, to have the deep connections with the people we love, is to go slow? SLIDE_________________________) What if the fastest way to get the most done, to become the people we want to become, to have the deep connections with the people we love, is to go slow? Let’s learn from the one many of us have chosen to follow. Embracing slow means living at a slower, more relaxed pace, with more margin and yet great intentionality at the same time. If we are going to follow Jesus, we have to learn to walk with him at his pace through life. He came and lived here, so we know from the biblical accounts of his life a good bit about what embracing slow looks like. So, let’s break it down. Embracing slow means EMBRACING INTERRUPTIONS. SLIDE______________________) Embrace Interruptions. Most of my life tends to be very planned, and I generally don’t like interruptions. My guess is many of you are the same way. But Jesus didn’t live that way. He lived with enough margin in his life, that he saw interruptions as opportunities. In fact, all the great stories we have about Jesus were not planned in his outlook account. The healings, the incredible interactions, and so on, were unplanned interruptions. One of those multiple interruption days began with a very dramatic healing of the Gerasene demoniac, and the interruptions kept coming: SLIDE_____________________) Mark 5:21-23 “When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, ‘My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.’” 5 Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 So, this is in the middle of the sermon, and Jairus is so desperate with a dying daughter that he interrupts Jesus mid-talk. I’m trying to think what I would do— probably say, “Dude, I’m still preaching. Why don’t you make an appointment with my assistant, and we’ll see what we can do?” But here’s what Jesus does: SLIDE_______________________) Mark 5:24 “So Jesus went with him.” He just leaves with him. Says, “Sermon’s over. Catch ya later.” So, Jairus’ heart is pumping, hoping that Jesus gets there on time. But on the way to the house, a lady who had been sick for years passes by Jesus, and there is this whole interaction where he heals her and converses with her. Jairus’ blood pressure is boiling; he’s like, “Lady, I feel for you, but my daughter is dying.” And sure enough, while he is talking to this lady, we read: SLIDE_____________________) Mark 5:35 “While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. ‘Your daughter is dead,’ they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?” How dejected he must have been, but Jesus doesn’t leave him in that state long: SLIDE____________________) Mark 5:36 “Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, ‘Don’t be afraid; just believe.’” He basically says, “Relax. Just believe.” He finishes the conversation, goes to Jairus’ house and raises his daughter from the dead and she is fine. His whole day was one big string of interruptions, which is really the story of his ministry. It makes me wonder how much I miss, having my days so planned, so packed, that I have no margin for interruption. And when I am interrupted, I tend to see them as impositions. Jesus saw them as opportunities. Embracing slow doesn’t mean that we never plan. We obviously have to do that. But it does mean that we leave 6 Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 margin for unplanned interruptions--that we have enough margin in our lives to look for opportunities to serve, to encourage, to bring healing and help to people around us. If Jesus lived as planned as I usually do, we wouldn’t have most of the amazing Jesus stories we have. SLIDE________________________) Embrace R&R Embracing slow also means that we embrace R&R. Jesus’ life was full of mission. He wasn’t a slacker, but he didn’t just work hard. He played hard too. He rested. He recreated. We have stories about Jesus taking naps, which is kind of strange. I’m embarrassed if I take a nap. I don’t want people to know I need them. Jesus had no problem with that. The Son of God was a Savior, but he was also a napper. People are giving me granddad name suggestion since last time I spoke I shared I am going to be a granddad and I asked for suggestions. Several have suggested Napaw, and one family said the granddad earned it by being such a prolific napper. If Jesus was a granddad, he could be that guy. We also see Jesus getting creative to get away to spend unhurried time with his Father to renew, to get away with the disciples and other refreshing people, or just to be out in the wilderness alone. Jesus also honored this thing called sabbath. At the very beginning of creation, God set in motion this cycle of work and rest, work and sabbath. Sabbath is a day in the week set apart for restoration. Sabbath became part of the OT law, and when Jesus came, he didn’t blow it off like a lot of people think. He didn’t kill the sabbath idea but sought to rescue it from the religious leaders who made it this legalistic juggernaut. As he said to them, one time when he was breaking their rigid Sabbath rules, SLIDE___________________) Mark 2:27 “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Jesus participated in the Sabbath, as well as all the special feast days God instituted, which were also designed to days of restoration. When you add all those up, it’s about 25% of their days were R & R days. That was God’s calendar for his people in the Old Testament, and Jesus who is God, honored that. But let’s take all the special celebrations out of it, and just focus on the principle of the Sabbath. 7 Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 I have yet to figure out how to do that. I do normally take Saturdays off. That’s my off day. But it’s usually a Sabbath day, because it or at least part of it, is for doing all the crud you have to do in life that is not work. Stuff around the house, etc. The idea of Sabbath is to do only that which is restorative for one day a week. One time a wealthy business guy I know was kind enough to send me to this very high- priced effectiveness program for CEO’s. They had spent millions of dollars researching how CEO’s could be more effective and creative, and you know what their top finding was? That if a CEO took what they called a Free Day, a 24-hour period of time where they only did what was restorative, their creativity and effectiveness the other days of the weeks spiked up. I wanted to raise my hand and say, “You could have just read the Bible. This was actually God’s idea.” But I didn’t. God tells us to do it, and Jesus modeled it, but most of us blow it off. Jesus let us know we don’t have to be slavish to it. The idea is for it to be good for us, not a pain in the rear. However, this is how we are designed to flourish, and we need to make a priority of R&R like Jesus did. SLIDE_______________________) Embrace Relationships. I’ll be brief here because we talk a lot about this, but the reason we talk a lot about it is that it is so biblical and so important. You and I are created for deep connections with other people. Jesus modeled that, but when you look at how he developed his close relationships, the #1 learning you will gain is that he made them a priority. As busy as he was, he made time for his closest relationships…and guess what kind of time? Slow. Unhurried time. That’s the only way relationships go deep, is unhurried time. You cannot speed your way to a deep relationship with someone. I know that, because I’ve tried. It doesn’t work. When I was a young parent, I had several big aha moments that made me prioritize unhurried time with our kids more. It took more than one because I’m like Jesus’ twelve disciples that I mentioned were slow to learn. One time I was reading to my kids when they were very young, and it had been a long day and they seemed really sleepy. They picked one of the longer books we used at night because they wanted more time. I had things to do, so I started skipping pages after a while and rushing through it. Collin caught me, and said, “It’s okay dad. You don’t have to read to us any more tonight. We can go to sleep without it.” And wow was that a wake-up call. It was like God saying to me, “You big dummy! One day you are going to wish you could be reading to your kids again, and you are blowing it.” 8 Don’t Leave Home Without It- Week 3 July 24/26, 2020 That conversation helped changed the way I parented because you can’t speed your way through parenting and expect to have a close connection to the heart of a child or a teenager. It takes lots of unhurried time. That’s true in every relationship. So, we have an opportunity to do life differently. Earlier this year, most of us (not all, I realize), had an imposed slow down. Now things are progressively speeding up, at least we think they are. Regardless how the pandemic plays out, things will speed up to full speed if we allow it to do so. And is that what we want? Do we want to say yes to everything we used to say yes to? Do we want our kids to be in every activity they were in? Do we want to approach our work life the same way we used to? Or, are we willing to consider living more like Jesus, which means embracing slow. Imagine if we did that, how our work life could actually improve, as we are more creative and effective when we do work, how our relationships with people would deepen, with God deepen, our characters deepen. It’s ironic, but true: the fastest way to get to where we want to go is slow. We can’t speed our way to depth. So, what does that mean? It means changing our pace. It means embracing interruptions as opportunities. It means embracing R&R as a spiritual discipline. It means embracing relationships, meaning unhurried time, in a whole new way. Pray. These changes are hard, and God can help us. We need the help of other people too. So, seek it out. Talk about this with a trusted friend. Talk about it as a married couple. Talk about it as a whole family. As we move toward the new normal, are we willing to embrace a slower approach to life? What changes would we make? esus never seemed to be in a hurry. He lived and interacted with others at the speed of walking. He had time for people. He was relaxed. However, for most of us, slowing down is one of the hardest things to implement about the Jesus way of life. Jesus has much to teach us about managing our pace and succeeding in the things that matter most. Join us online this week as we learn to change our pace and embrace slow. www.chaseoaks.org . Used by permission.