Category Archives: Preaching

Conference, Discipleship, Heroes, Leadership, Leadership Axioms, Ministry, Personal Leadership, Preaching

Catalyst Dallas Highlights

I had a full weekend.

I had the opportunity to attend both The Catalyst Conference in Dallas with some of my team and than a Men’s Conference with some great dudes from our church. I am exhausted, inspired, spent, fired up, sleepy, and wide-awake. Many of you in ministry and leadership know exactly the kind of tension I am feeling right now. These events are often like trying drink from a firehose. With so much information and inspiration coming at you you grab what you can, take some notes, sing loud and proud, and then find some time over the next few days to ruminate on and incorporate what you’ve learned into your real world.

The theme of Catalyst this year was A Community of Change Makers. I attend the Atlanta event back in October and was excited to take a handful of our ministry leaders to the event at Gateway Church here in the metroplex. The major emphasis from every speaker was that to truly lead others effectively, a leader must lead him or herself first.

Here is a fundamental truth that is so important for us to learn and live out:

Who we are as leaders is more important that what we do.

For today, I just want to share a few of my favorite quotes from the weekend – with a couple of Don Miller & Bob Goff quotes from the Men’s Conference. I hope that these thoughts give you some motivation for your week ahead. Be sure to comment on the exit question at the bottom.

Whatever you have to do today, Love. Everybody. Always.

Andy Stanley

  • 2 questions every leader must ask: 1) Who am I? 2) What breaks my heart?
  • Great leaders make things better for their people.
  • You have no idea what hangs in the balance of your decision to embrace the burden God has put in your heart.
  • Many years from now, what would you like people to line up to thank you for?

Lisa TerKeurst

  • External Change requires Internal Shifts.
  • The 1st Five – give the first five minutes of your day to the Lord.
  • God is good and God is good at being God.

Dr Caroline Leaf

  • Your brain is nothing compared to your mind.
  • Change you mind and you can change your brain.
  • You can listen to God or Google and Gossip. (Non-toxic thoughts vs. Toxic Thoughts)

Eugene Cho

  • God doesn’t want to change the world. He wants to change us.
  • Act upon the thing that God puts on your hearts.
  • Don’t be more in love with the IDEA of change. Actually Change.
  • Don’t quit. Persevere. (Note: Apparently Cho had been ill and traveled from Seattle to Dallas. He had to stop part way through to take a breath and recover.)

Robert Morris

  • We may be born selfish but we are re-born generous.
  • Do not GIVE in order to GET. Wrong motivation.
  • Mammon promises us things only God can give. Life. Peace. Joy.
  • People don’t need money. They need God.
  • Abel gave of his first fruits. Cain gave what he wanted, when he wanted, in the way he wanted.
  • We are the most like God when we GIVE.

Robert Madu

  • When you encounter Jesus you always walk away with more than you expected.
  • Fatherhood is the best ‘hood.
  • There is a vast difference between knowing Church and knowing Jesus.
  • Jesus wasn’t just a good man but a God-Man.
  • When someone is lowered through the roof… you should probably shut that sermon down.
  • When your EXPERIENCE doesn’t line up with your EXPECTATIONS God is probably giving you a REVELATION. Pay attention to what he is telling you.

Danielle Strickland (The Highlight of Catalyst for me)

  • Everyone wants to change the world. Not everyone is willing to get up (early) to do it.
  • You know which surfer catches the wave? The one in the water.
  • Posture yourself/Posture your life in such a way that when the wave comes, you can catch it.

Rich Wilkenson Jr

  • God hasn’t called us to hard things. God has called us to do IMPOSSIBLE things.
  • Don’t let your past failures or your fear of future failures keep you from following where Jesus is calling you.
  • Don’t take a fragment of failure with you to the next place.
  • Criticism can get on you but don’t let it get IN YOU.

Bob Goff

  • You are not defined by your worst day or your greatest success. You are defined by LOVE.
  • When we live under the banner of Christ it doesn’t just change some things, it changes EVERYTHING.
  • I’m just trying to be the next humblest version of myself.
  • Love. Everybody. Always.
  • People turn into who others say they are.
  • You get the green lights you get.
  • God wants us to live right on the edge of YIKES.
  • It’s not about MANNING UP. It’s about SHOWING UP!

Don Miller

  • Tie your dreams with the dreams of others. Good stories involve other people.
  • Think of Joker’s face and Vader’s limbs. They didn’t do the hard work needed to bring about real healing.
  • We are in the middle of Act II. It’s difficult. There is no resolution. In the midst of conflict.
  • Look at the people God calls into LEADERSHIP. You have not done worse than them.
  • Heroes are in it for the sake of others.

Exit Question:

What is the most important leadership lesson you are currently try to live out in your leadership context?

Leadership, Preaching

4 Reasons Why I Prepare My Preaching Calendar Months in Advance

This is a big week for me because this is the week I plan my 2014-2015  Preaching Calendar. I already have everything laid out through the end of the year but after this weekend I will have the next 12 months of my preaching calendar planned out. For me, this is huge and very exciting.

I believe that planning ahead is a great way to trust in the Spirit and allow him to move through the entire process from prayer to planning to study to execution. God blesses planning and preparation as well as faithfulness. Planning your Preaching Calendar one month, 3 months, or even a year in advance is a way of being faithful to Jesus, God’s Word, and your calling to share the Good News.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been listening to God, praying, and asking for wisdom in planning this calendar. Before I share with you the steps I take to create this calendar, I want to share with you 4 Reasons WHY I Prepare My Preaching Calendar Months in Advance:

1) Planning ahead simply helps give me DEPTH in my preaching through advanced studying and preparation. When I know what I’m preaching on and when I am preaching on it I can take more time in my reading and study. I have the time to research, interview, read, and listen to what other have said. I also have more time to think through and clarify my thoughts and understanding of topics or passages. Planning ahead helps me go deeper.

2) Planning ahead aids in giving me room to share the message of Jesus more CREATIVELY. Personally, I believe that it is next to impossible to go deep and/or be creative at the last minute.

3) Planning ahead makes sure that I am being faithful to the WHOLE of SCRIPTURE and not simply preaching on the flavor (issue) of the month. I would preach on Discipleship every single weekend if I didn’t have a plan. Creating this calendar will help bring balance to what I teach week in and week out.

4) Planning ahead helps me ENLIST HELP in gathering resources, help, buy-in, prayers, and fuels an excitement among the leadership about what God will be saying to us.

When all is said and done this week, I will have a guided map for my study and preparation for the next 12 months with a tentative plan for each of the next 52 weeks.  Will some of these series change or be scrapped? Maybe. What if God calls you to speak on something else? I’ll submit willingly and gladly! I estimate that with this process only about 70% (conservative estimate) of what is planned remains set.

I started planning out my teaching series years ago and it has helped make all the difference in the way I pray, plan, study, and prepare my lessons. Less pressure and more reliance on God to help and guide me means more encouragement and focus on what he has called me to do. That is a great position to be in!

Up Next: How I Prepare My Preaching Calendar Months in Advance

Discipleship, Jesus, Preaching, Sermon Series, Sermons

Bringing the Heat

This Summer, I’ve been preaching out of Proverbs for my Summer Sermon Series: Wisdom for Living. Since it’s 4th of July weekend I decided to stick with the fireworks theme and talk about what God’s Word has to tell us about handling Relational Conflict. Light that fuse!

Where there are relationships, you will find conflict. When people interact and bump up against each other there will be conflict – big and small. Our culture loves to disagree over so many things: race, religion, family issues, politics, world views. You name it and people are fighting over it.

Now you might say, “Micheal, surely those of us who love Jesus don’t have to worry about conflict in the church!” After you’ve stop laughing and finished wiping the laughter-tears away, read this story:

In 1995, a man named Chuck Noland was stranded on a desert island after a horrific crash. He was alone on the island for nearly twenty years until a passing freighter spotted him on the beach last February. When his rescuers told him that they were there to take him home, he was overjoyed. Noland asked them if they would accompany him to the shelter he had built so that he could retrieve some of his belongings. When the group arrived at the shelter, they were amazed at how big and beautiful his island home was. Then someone noticed another structure to the right, larger and more grand than his home. When they asked Nolan what the other structure was he told them that it was his church – the place where he worshipped. Amazed at what Nolan had been able to build there in the jungle all by himself, the group turned to head back to the rescue ship. That’s when the saw a third building just as large and grand as the other two. They asked what this was and Nolan said in a hushed tone, “That’s the church I used to go to.”

BOOM!

The truth is that there is no perfect church because there are no perfect people. Churches split and relationships crumble, not due to conflict, but though the way we handle conflict. There are ways to approach conflict that can be life-giving and there are ways that can be soul-crushing. The number one reason that the church is irrelevant, ineffective, and gasping for air can be tied back to our unwillingness to deal with and work though conflict biblically.

As followers of Jesus Christ we must learn how to effectively deal with conflict when it arises. It is my hope through this lesson will help us, in light of our relationship with Jesus, RETHINK conflict and RELEARN how to effectively and positively deal with it in your life.

Here is what I truly believe: when we learn how to biblically handle conflict we will REVEL in our relationship with Jesus, experience RESTORED relationships with one another, and we will better REVEAL to the culture around us the God who pursues and redeems relationships broken by conflict.

 

 

Bible Study, Discipleship, Mission, Preaching, Sermon Series, Sermons

NEXT: Identify with Jesus

Earlier this month I started a new sermon series entitled, NEXT: Taking Your Next Steps in Faith. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus gives us the goal of Spiritual Growth when he says that we are to increase in our Love for God and our love for Others. Next Steps help us grow in our love for God and others by giving us the opportunity to put our faith into practice by following or obeying what he is calling us to do.

In each week, I have had a specific agenda for those listening to my words.

In week one, I was clear that I wanted us to take the next step to CONNECT WITH A CHURCH. A church isn’t a building or an address in Google Maps. A church is a group of people who seek out God together, live together, and work together in order to bring glory to Jesus Christ. Connecting to a church doesn’t mean your growth is automatic or that growth only happens within the four walls of the church. However, when you CONNECT with a group of disciples you are putting yourself in an environment where you can grow in RELATIONSHIP with Jesus Christ, your FRIENDSHIP with God’s people, and your INFLUENCE with those who are far from God.

The following week I my agenda was to get all of us to ENGAGE WITH GOD’S WORD. According to Move: What 100 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth (Hardback, Kindle), the number one catalyst for spiritual growth whether you’ve been a Christian for 5 minutes or 50 years is reflecting on Scripture or ENGAGING with God’s Word. That looks a little different than simply reading your Bible everyday. To ENGAGE encompassing READING the Word, THINKING about what God is saying to us, PRAYING that God will reveal himself and his will to us, and LIVING out what you see God calling you to.

This week, I want those who have not yet been baptized to take that next step to privately and publicly IDENTIFY their lives with Jesus Christ through being BAPTIZED.

Baptism can be an emotional topic to discuss because everyone has different opinions and traditions depending on how they grew up. My motivation isn’t to teach on how everyone else is wrong or misguided. I have one goal and that is to invite and challenge those who have not yet been baptized to do so. 

There are three things that I want to avoid with this week’s message on Baptism:

  1. I don’t want to cause conflict. There was a time in my life when I thought I knew everything there was to say about baptism. At our Christian high school, I can remember starting quite a few arguments with my classmates around this subject. “The Bible told you to do it, you should do it.” was my line and I delivered it with all the care and concern of General Rommel taking North Africa. I was too bombastic and failed to understand that we all come to this topic with our own personal histories. The last thing that I want to do is create conflict around what is, by far and away, the best way to IDENTIFY yourself with the message and person of Jesus Christ.
  2. I don’t want to cause pain. Typically what happens when we begin to talk about baptism is that some pain and angst begins to well up inside of us when we think about friends and family members- primarily those whom have passed away- that were not baptized. We begin to worry about Uncle Sal or we get hurt because someone suggested that our friend may be downstairs when we believe they are upstairs. When I’m discussing baptism I want those that I’m sharing with to think about their own decision in the here and now. I do not want to speculate about theological positions or postulate on things that I just do not and cannot know.
  3. I don’t want to cause confusion. I want everyone who chooses to IDENTIFY with Jesus Christ through being baptized to be sure of their decision. I don’t want someone to look back and be confused about the reasons why they were baptize or to question their own salvation. Baptism paints a perfect picture of what Jesus did on our behalf and is a beautiful expression of our relationship with him. Just as Jesus died for our sins, we are to die to ourselves and our ways of living life. Jesus as Jesus was buried and in the tomb for three days, so we are buried under the water. Just as Jesus was raised to life again through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit empowers us to live the resurrection life as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

In my past, I am sure that I caused some conflict, pain, and confusion when I have argued about baptism. If you were one of those people, I am truly sorry. I promise this weekend, I will take more care as I discuss this highly emotional topic.

My goal this weekend will be to invite others to IDENTIFY with Jesus through taking the next step and being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Discipleship, Faith in Action, Preaching, Unremarkable

Convert Life to Truth

“I once heard a preacher who sorely tempted me to say I would go to church no more.

A snow-storm was falling around us.

The snow-storm was real, the preacher merely spectral, and the eye felt the sad contrast in looking at him, and then out of the window behind him into the beautiful meteor of the snow.

He had lived in vain. He had not one word intimating that he had laughed or wept, was married or in love, had been commended, or cheated, or chagrined. If he had ever lived and acted, we were none the wiser for it. The capital secret of his profession, namely, to convert life into truth, he had not learned.

Not one fact in all his experience had he yet imported into his doctrine. This man had ploughed and planted and talked and bought and sold; he had read books; he had eaten and drunken; his head aches, his heart throbs; he smiles and suffers; yet was there not a surmise, a hint, in all the discourse, that he had ever lived at all.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

RWE delivered this story 173 years ago and in some churches the problem still remains.

Preacher, if the people who gather to hear you connect their lives to the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE see that there is NO LIFE within you- don’t be surprised when they don’t come back. If you cannot convert LIFE– your relationship to Jesus- to TRUTH– that a relationship with Jesus is real and vibrant and life transforming and to be lived out- then sleep in this Sunday. Do not bother delivering that sermon you pulled out of your filing cabinet this week.

When I step into the pulpit each Sunday or when I stand beside my table to teach class or when I open up the Word over a cup of coffee with a friend the whole point is to connect our lives to the life of Jesus.

In the Incarnation, Jesus became flesh and bone, blood and sinew. He was real. His words were alive. He is still real. His words are still alive.

In John 15:5-8, Jesus gives us the key to converting life to truth. He says to us, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”

If you want people to be moved by the Son of God you’ve got to let them know that he moves you. If you want to see others transformed by Jesus Christ, than they have to know that he radically transforms you.

Otherwise, you might persuade them to skip out or check out… Permanently.

This Sunday, make sure you connect Life to Truth.

Best Practices, Personal Leadership, Planning, Prayer, Preaching

Plan Your Work

I had a fabulous weekend at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. ACL celebrated it’s 1oth Anniversary in style with big name artists like Coldplay, Kanye, Stevie Wonder, My Morning Jacket, and Arcade Fire. I got to see some of my favorites too including Ray Lamontagne, Brandi Carlile, Cee Lo Green, Iron & Wine, and, a new favorite, Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses. I had a blast and I hope I can attend this festival again.

The festival gave me an opportunity to relax and rest but it also gave me a chance to get some planning done. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday planning out my preaching calendar. I already have everything laid out through the end of the year but after this weekend I have the next 10 months of my preaching calendar planned out. For me, this is huge and very exciting.

I believe that planning ahead is a great way to trust in the Spirit and allow him to move  through the entire process from prayer to planning to study to execution. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been listening to God, praying, and asking for wisdom in planning this calendar and I feel like God blessed me this weekend as he helped me put it all together.

Here are 4 Reasons I Am Preparing My Preaching Calendar Months in Advance:

1) Planning ahead simply helps give me DEPTH in my preaching through advanced studying and preparation.

2) Planning ahead aids in giving the Spirit room to help me share the message of Jesus more CREATIVELY. (Note: I believe that it is next to impossible to go deep and/or be creative at the last minute.)

3) Planning ahead makes sure that I am being faithful to the WHOLE of SCRIPTURE and not simply preaching on the flavor (issue) of the month.

4) Planning ahead helps me ENLIST HELP in gathering resources, help, buy-in, prayers, and fuels an excitement among the leadership about what God will be saying to us. (I would like to see us move to sermon based small groups in 2012. To do this, you need help from other leaders and those leaders need material and time to pray, plan, and prepare.)

Are all of these series set in stone and immovable? No way! Will some of these series change or be scrapped? Maybe. What if God calls you to speak on something else? I’ll submit willingly and gladly!

I started planning out my teaching series about 4-5 years ago and it has helped make all the difference in the way I pray, plan, study, and prepare my lessons. Less pressure and more reliance on God to help and guide me means more encouragement and focus on what he has called me to do. That is a great place to be!

Ethos, Experience, Film & Theology, I Love My Church, Life, Preaching, Questions, Remarkable, Sermons

The Hero’s Journey

I’m in the middle of preaching through The Sermon on the Mount and I have been so excited about what I’m learning and how God is connecting me to his overarching story. In my study over the last few weeks I have seen a connection between Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey. If you are unfamiliar with the Hero’s Journey, let me give you a quick tour of what I’m talking about.

There are two things I love to do- read and watch movies. I feel that these two pursuits often go hand in hand.  In fact, I have heard it said that movies are today’s literature.

Both movies and literature seek to tell us a compelling story and when we interact with those stories we can’t help but try and find ourselves within the narrative. We imagine ourselves in the role of our favorite characters and often times we try and emulate what we see on the screen or what we read on the page.

While watching the King’s Speech, I began asking myself how I would react if I were in Prince Albert’s position. If I had a debilitating speech impediment, how would I react? Would I become a mute- so embarrassed by my stutter that I decide not to speak at all? Would I seek help? Would I pretend nothing was wrong with me?

As the film progressed, I began asking what if I were asked to give a speech to rally the entire empire against an enemy as fierce and evil as the Nazis? What would I say? How could I convince the people around me to join the cause and fight for a better tomorrow?

Stories force us to look at our lives and how we are currently living them and they give us a glimpse into how our lives could be and they whisper to us concerning what should be.

In 1949, a man named Joseph Campbell published a book entitled, The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Campbell studied thousands of myths and stories from every era of human existence and out of all those stories and myths, he identified a similar patter regardless of time and culture. He called this pattern The Hero’s Journey. This is absolutely fascinating to me. If you went home and pulled out your favorite book or movie, there is a very good chance that you would see this pattern.

I just turned your quiet Friday night into an academic exercise. You’re welcome.

In every story, the hero or the main character starts out living his life just like everyone else. He is knee deep in living an ordinary life. Rick owns a nightclub in N. Africa. Dorothy lives with her Aunt and Uncle on a farm in Kansas. Tomas Anderson is a computer programer. Ben-Hur is a Jewish noble.

Then our hero is Called into an Adventure. Sometimes this is an actual call- Build It and They Will Come. Sometimes it is an event or something outside their control.

In all the gin joints, in all the world Ilsa walks into Rick’s American Cafe. Dorothy is carried away by a tornado. Neo meets Morpheus. Frodo is given a ring. Ben-Hur is betrayed by Messala.

This call to adventure is really the opportunity for something greater. The hero is invited to change their life and USUALLY the lives of those around them by entering into a great adventure.

The hero has to make a choice– life as they know it or take the journey and change the world. They can Refuse or Respond to the call.

Will Rick help Ilsa and Victor Lazlo get to America so they can continue the Resistance against the Nazis? Will Dorothy stop the Wicked Witch of the West? Will Neo embrace his destiny and free the human race? Will Frodo destroy the ring?

If the decision is made to respond and answer the call then the Hero begins his journey. There is usually some spiritual help or aid- A Fellowship, a French police officer, a yellow bricked road, Yoda- that guides our hero toward his/her goal.

Then our Hero comes face to face with a Road of Trials.

The German Major Strasser and the Gestapo arrive in Casablanca. Dorothy is captured. The Fellowship is broken. Cypher makes a deal with Agent Smith. The Empire decides to Strike back.

Barriers arise and seek to derail our hero and try to keep them from achieving a new life. These Trials are difficult to overcome but if our Hero desires to change their life and the lives of those they care for the Trials must be dealt with and overcome.

So what does this have to do with The Sermon on the Mount? Like any great story, this post is To Be Continued….

Best Practices, Leadership, Planning, Preaching, Sermons, Study

Sermon Prep

Over the last few years I have been experimenting with my weekly schedule in order to maximize my time studying, ministering, teaching, and planning so I can then make sure that I am growing personally and relationally in my own faith and with my family. I have to stay on top of things organizationally because, frankly, organization doesn’t come naturally to me. I get a real kick when people tell me they think I am “really good at organization.” Any semblance of order has come from many hours of trial and error, flexibility and expiermentation.

Now that I am having to present a message in the form of a sermon each week, I’ve been playing around with my schedule again trying to figure out how I can adequately prepare for the weekly message and do everything else I need to do. Nelson Searcy says, “Someone pays the price for the sermon preparation. Either the pastor pays the price during the week or the people pay the price on Sunday!” I firmly believe that!

One goal I have set is to have everything for Sunday- outline, presentation, notes, full sermon- ready to go by Thursday afternoon. For the most part, this has happened and I have felt like my schedule and crazy life has really benefitted from this goal.

Having the message finished by Thursday allows for a few thing:

1. Friday is my day off. The last thing I want to do is worry about, fiddle with, and obsess over my message for the weekend. My day off is for me to abide with the Father and spend time with my family. Fridays are Hewson and Daddy days. I owe the Father and my family my attention for the day. Having my message finished by Thursday actually helps me be present where I need to be on Fridays.

2. Everything is ready for the bulletin. Each week, I provide a fill in the blank outline for people to follow along with on Sunday morning. It is my responsibility to make sure that I’m not throwing something together at the last minute.

3. After spending the whole week on my message, stepping away for a few hours helps me internalize the message. This is a personal conviction I have: I believe that standing and reading a script (not-so)subtly communicates to people that “This message didn’t impact my heart enough to make much of a difference in my own life so… yeah.” How sad.  If I can’t remember the message to deliver it, no one who hears it will remember it or apply it tho their life either.

4. I’m not staying up late on Saturday putting together a PowerPoint presentation. When I was a campus minister I had to put together a ppt presentation almost every single day so I’m pretty proficient. Still, that last thing that I want to do is mess with my slides. I want to be running through my message, memorizing, cutting unnecessary tangents, and praying over the words I’ll be saying. Visuals are super important to me but they aren’t what I want to spend the bulk of my time on when the pressure is on.

There have been other benefits to getting everything together by Thursday but these are the ones that I have seen week in and week out. Sure, life gets in the way and the Spirit has challenged me to stray from my outline late Saturday night. However, I have found that when I am prepared I am much more flexible and in a position to react with an open heart and open mind because I’m not rushed and frantic.

This has worked for me. Maybe it will inspire you to find what works for you.

Discipleship, Jesus, Jesus is the Christ, Preaching, Sermons

Sermon: Over The Edge

Take a moment and let’s read the words of Jesus from Matthew 11:28-30.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 TNIV)

I’m here to tell you. I am TIRED! The month of April has wore me out! Anyone else here just plain tired right now?

When I about 12 years old I had a season pass to Wet ‘n Wild in Garland. I would ride my bike to the park and then spend the entire afternoon riding the rides and hanging out in the wave pool. Oh. I loved the wave pool! If you’ve never been to one of these water parks there is a large pool in the center of the park and every fifteen minutes or so a bell rings, kids go crazy, and everyone flocks to the pool to enjoy the waves. A giant machine pumps water into the big pool and causes these massive waves to build up and if I remember right these waves can get as high as 30-50feet (Don’t check that fact. Just trust me).  The wave pool really is a ton of fun but it can also be really, really dangerous. One time I was in the wave pool and I was extremely tired. I decided I was going to climb out of the pool at the ladder but I slipped, fell into the high waves, and then struggled to stay above the water. The waves kept coming and pounding me and I was helpless to do anything. By the time it was over I felt bruised, beaten, and helpless. I was done with the water park.

The sheer power of the water and the constant beat-down I received from the waves drained me of all energy and stamina. I couldn’t take the constant pounding. I just wanted to quit. I was tired. I was used up. I was done.

Maybe that’s how some of you feel today as you sit here. April has been a difficult month for us all and some more than others.

  • Stomach bug
  • TAKS test
  • Surgery
  • Illness
  • Accidents
  • Emotional pain
  • Allergies
  • Death

This week I heard a seminar teacher challenge me with this thought. He said each week, someone in your community is In Trouble, Under Tension, or Going Through Transition. That pretty much sums up our problems doesn’t it?

This week, some of you were In Trouble. Your marriage is in trouble. Your kid is in trouble. Your job is in jeopardy. The credit card payment is due and you have no idea how you’re going to pay it. The brakes went out and there goes your bonus. Trouble is beating you down.

This week, some of you were Under Tension. (Joker- Dark Knight Score- The tension just keeps being ratcheted up as the film progresses) That relationship you’re in did not get better, in fact it is now worse. You were tested this week to compromise your integrity and your faith. You are under tension. Some of you in here are Under Tension with God. Your faith has taken so many hits you don’t know if God is even real. You are struggling to even care about your faith. You are living Under Tension.

This week, some of you are Going Through Transition. You are adding a family member. That means a new budget and a new schedule. You got promoted and demoted. Your teen started driving or got in a wreck this week- either way you’re transitioning into a new payment plan with your insurance agency. Life may be full of transition but transition/moving is tough.

Trouble, tension, and transition can be overwhelming. For some people the problems in life get too much to handle. People get depressed, apathetic, and despondent. Life becomes way too much to handle. When life becomes this hard we can relate to these words of Lamentations:

“Remember, LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace.

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.

We have become fatherless, our mothers are widows.

We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price.

Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest. (Lamentations 5:1-5 TNIV)

However, there is good news. Today’s message should not leave you feeling like Debbie Downer. Here is the Good News:

“What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who 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? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then can condemn? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39 TNIV)

Have you ever heard of the Tojinbo cliffs of Japan. These cliffs on the northern coast of the Sea of Japan are a formidable sight. Powerful winds and waves have pounded these shores and over time they have carved these ominous and treacherous cliffs.

Just looking at these cliffs you can almost imagine the sheer power and the drama that carved these cliffs can’t you.

The country of Japan has been faced with a suicide epidemic over the last few years. The suicide rate in Japan is more than twice that of the US. According to Time magazine, 1 in 5 Japanese men and women have contemplated suicide and 30,000 a year for the last 10 years have committed suicide. That is 300,000 people! In fact the article I read was from 2009 and that year from Jan to April, 11,236 people had committed suicide that year.

Many of those suicides happen at the Tojinbo cliffs. When the weight of the world comes crashing down on people they come to these cliffs to contemplate the end of their lives.

Maybe some of you have been in a similar place in life. The weight of the world seems like it is about to crush you and you just need some help, some relief.

Some of you know what it is like to stand at the cliffs of Tojinbo. You know what it is like to feel overwhelmed, lost, afraid, and alone. I think feeling alone and abandoned is the worst part of our pain. And Satan loves to exploit this. He’ll whisper to you that God doesn’t care. God can’t hear you. God has abandoned you. Satan loves to make you feel alone.

For years, the people who went to the cliffs of Tojinbo to end their lives were alone. However, since 2004, they have someone looking out for them. There is now someone who meets them at the cliffs, who counsels them, and who takes them in.

From TIME.com:

For five years, Yukio Shige, 65, has approached people at the cliffs’ edge with a simple “Hello” and a smile. He might ask how they came there and at what inn they were staying. Sometimes after a light touch to the shoulder, Shige says, they burst into tears, and he begins to console them. “You’ve had a hard time up until now,” he says, “haven’t you?”

The retired detective from nearby Fukui City has patrolled the cliffs two or three times a day since 2004, wearing white gloves and a floppy sun hat, carrying binoculars to focus on three spots on the cliffs where suicides are most common. After he’s talked them off the cliffs, Shige–a trained counselor–takes them to his small office, (for) counseling sessions. For men, Shige says, the biggest problems are debt and unemployment; most of the women are there because of depression or health issues. “If it’s a case of sexual harassment, I’ll go with her to the office and confront her boss,” says Shige. “If a child has issues with his father, I tell the parent that he is driving his child to suicide and get them to write a promise to change. They hang it on the wall.”

In April, on the fifth anniversary of starting his operation, Shige sat reading a three-page, handwritten letter he had received that day from a Shizuoka man, one of many he gets from those he has helped. The letter concluded by thanking Shige for providing the man with an awareness of the love that surrounded him. As Shige finished reading, the melody of “Amazing Grace” rose from his cell phone. “I want Tojinbo to be the most challenging place,” he says. “Not where life ends, but where it begins.”

Guess what? In your life today at your cliff of Tojinbo- whatever your feeling, whatever your trouble, whatever the pain- you have Yukio Shige and his name is Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus himself has been to the cliff. In Genesis, we find the first prophecy ever concerning Jesus. God warns Satan about the coming King by saying that, Satan will bite his heel but that Jesus will crush his head. One of the Hebrew words for a cliff is SHE-en and it means Sharp as a Tooth. Jesus triumphs over the Sharp Teeth that try and destroy us.

Jesus left the throne room of heaven to become a man. He walked the earth and lived among us. He didn’t just speak to us from afar behind the pearly gates. He didn’t call out from behind the clouds, “I feel your pain!” No! He came to earth and he touched and healed the sick, the poor, the hurting. He knows what you’re going through because he knew suffering while on this earth. His family rejected him, his followers abandoned him, he was beaten and hung on a tree.

Jesus deals with the true source of our pain- Sin. One of my favorite parts of the article is when Shige deals with the source of the people’s pain. If the problem is the boss, he talks with the boss. If it is a family member, he talks to the family member. He goes straight to the source of the pain and the problem.

For us all pain and hurt and confusion come back to Sin and its effects. Sometimes the sin is committed against us and sometimes we suffer the consequences of our own sin. God was no satisfied with sin separating Him from us.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Corinthians 5:21 TNIV)

The Cross is where life begins. If you are struggling in your life right now with anything you are at a moment of challenge. How will you respond? Will you give up, abandon hope, abandon faith? Will you believe the lie that you are alone and that God wants nothing more to do with you? OR… Will you believe that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ you have an advocate and a Savior more powerful than any problem in your life?

“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:2-12 TNIV)

Preaching, Resources, Sermons

Reveal Part 1

I had the opportunity to preach this week and since we spent the first part of the week skiing I got to prepare most of my sermon while on the mountain. As I was thinking and praying about what to share this week an overwhelming sense of thankfulness and gratitude filled my heart at the thought of how we serve a God who is not hidden. Our God has made himself known to the entire universe. He has REVEALED Himself throughout history and continues to REVEAL Himself everyday.

The word REVEAL comes from the Greek word we use for apocalypse meaning to “take off the cover, to disclose, to pull back the curtain.”

When I think about this idea of pulling back the curtain to REVEAL a mystery I think about the movie “The Wizard of OZ.” Remember, the great and powerful OZ appears to Dorothy, Tinman, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion as a massive face with a loud and booming voice. Fire and smoke fills the room. The Wizard instills fear and trembling into Dorothy and her friends… but not Toto.

Toto pulls back the curtain to REVEAL the true nature of the Wizard. He is not great and powerful but weak and sad. The Wizard was nothing more than a con-man with a laser light show and a fog machine. The Wizard wanted to remain hidden behind the smoke in order to boss people around. His power came from the mystery.

The REVELATION of God couldn’t be more different than that of the “great & powerful OZ.” While there is and always will be some element of mystery surrounding God, He has INTENTIONALLY revealed Himself to us. He pulls back the curtain and says, “Look, see this is my nature. These are my plans. This is WHO I AM.”

God is powerful not because He is hidden but because he has made Himself known.

We could talk about the millions of ways that God REVEALS Himself to us but we would be here until Kingdom Come. This week I want to talk about 4 Ways God REVEALS Himself to the world. Tomorrow, we’ll look at how God REVEALS Himself through His CREATION.