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Sunday, May 28, 2006

Investing in Your Future - Being Humble

Terrell Owens was in the sporting news a lot this past year. Why was that?

Terrell Owens is a great football player and decided that he was so great that he needed more money. So, he caused a great controversy in his team to try to force them to give him more money. His attempt failed and he ended up getting cut by his team because he was such a problem.

In memory of Terrell Owens, I would like to share with you all a few quotes that are quite eye opening as they reveal a lot about who he is.

T.O. Quotes:
"Anytime I am on the field I expect to have an impact. I just don't foresee myself being a decoy. That is just like putting Shaq on the court and not giving him the ball.”

"I'll watch the highlights every now and then, but as far as watching the game, I feel like I am the game."

"I love me some me, believe it!"

"Just ask yourself, 'self, would the Eagles have gone 0-2 last year if they had T.O.?'"

"Don’t hate me, cause you love me."

What do these quotes communicate to you about T.O.?

They communicate his arrogance. Sure, he is a great football player. However, no matter how good anyone is, no one wants to hear about how great you think you are.

As we continue our series on Investing in your Future, we are going to talk about having humility and how that humility can help you in life.

Before we begin, I want you to know that there is a difference between being arrogant and being confident. Being arrogant is to exaggerate one's own worth or importance in an overbearing manner. Being confident is the trust or faith that a person or thing is capable.

T.O. is confident in his ability but it leads to arrogance in which he over exaggerates his own worth.

Right now, I want to take a look at a story in the Bible the clearly highlights the difference and we will see how being humble will help you as you invest in your future.

Read Luke 18:9-14

1. Who are the 2 people involved?

2. What were they doing?

3. Why were they going to pray?

They were seeking justification from God. Both men came before God seeking Justification. Justification is the "process by which an individual is brought into an unmerited, right relationship with a person". Both the tax collector and the Pharisee were seeking to get into a right relationship with God.

4. What was different about the way they prayed?

The tax collector was humble and recognized that he was a sinner and needed God's help. He couldn’t "do" things to get right with God - for he had done so many wrong things. He simply had to seek God and ask Him for forgiveness. The Pharisee proclaimed how good he was by comparing himself to others. He might have thought that because he wasn't like others he was justified. When he came to pray, he didn't seek God - he didn't need too because he was already perfect and better than the rest.

5. The tax collector, not the Pharisee left their prayer time justified. Why is that?

Because he was humble and sought God's help. He recognized who he was and how he needed God's help.

Challenge

So, how does this example of humility help us in life and prepare us for the road ahead?
No matter how good we think we are, Christ says, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted"

We all need to humbly seek God. We all need to be justified with God - to be made right.

Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death. We have all fallen short of God's desire for our life and are headed down the road towards destruction.

No matter how well life is going or even how crappy life is going, God can lead us through it. We need to come humbly before him and seek his plan for our life, not our own.

Being humble can also help you…
- gain more understanding of others and who they are. By listening and serving/helping others you let others know that you care about them
- learn more. When you are humble, you can be teachable as you seek to understand the best way to accomplish a task. You are admitting you don’t know it all and you want to learn the best way.

More importantly, thought, when we humble ourselves before God and seek His will and plan for our life, we will leave justified before Him and walk down the better path in life.

Right now, take a minute and jot down 1 thing you can do this week to
1. be humble in relation to others and
2. how you can humbly come before God and seek Him

Monday, May 22, 2006

Investing in Your Future - Taking a Stand

I have here a puppet. There isn’t anything special about this puppet. He wasn’t my doll growing up or anything like that. The one thing about this particular puppet that separates him from some others is that I have strings to control him. I control the puppet completely.

If I want him to hit someone, I make him do it. If I want him to sit down on someone's lap, I will make him sit down. He has no say in what he does – I am the master. You see, this puppet can do nothing on its own. As I mentioned before, I control it completely. My question is, does anyone or anything control you? If so, who and why?

Today, we are going to talk about taking a stand. More importantly, we are going to talk about taking a stand for Christ. To quote the lesser known, but great country singer Aaron Tippin, “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything. You’ve got to be your own man, not a puppet on a string”.

What do you stand for and why?

There is a man in the Bible named Joshua who was the leader of the Israelites who took a stand for something. But, before you read what he said, I need to give you a little background. You are going to pick up where Joshua, leader of the Israelite (God’s chosen people), is getting older in age and he is issuing them a sort of farewell speech.

He has highlighted to all of them all God has done for them – how God them out of Egypt, helped them cross over the Red Sea and into the promised land. Read Joshua 24:14-15

What was said here?

Joshua said a few key things:
The 1st thing he said was Choose today who you will serve – either God or some random other gods

Whoever you choose to serve, serve them wholly. You cannot serve both God and something else. You see, despite all that God had done for the Israelites, they always struggled with worship other gods and idols. No matter what God did, it never seemed good enough.

Why can’t you serve more than one? Remember what Christ said when talking about serving 2 masters? Matthew 6:24“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

You cannot serve God and something else. Why? Because, you will be love one and despise the other. Trust me, I have tried it doing 2 jobs before. When I worked at a church part time and Young Life part time, I was constantly being pulled in many different directions. Because of that, I would love one and hate the other. I almost drove me crazy as I tried to figure out my loyalties. Are you trying to serve 2 masters?

In the same way, when we try to serve God and something else, we are constantly torn between the 2 and both suffer.

Joshua was challenging them to pick one and serve that one completely.

The 2nd thing that Joshua said was that no matter who you choose to serve, me and my family will serve the Lord

He took a stand. He said, I don’t care what you choose to do…me and my family, we are standing by God.

Why did he say that? Because he knew all God had done for them. He saw the promises that God had fulfilled. Joshua took a stand for God and others followed it – Read Joshua 24:16-21

They said that they too wanted to follow. When he challenged them more and said that this isn’t a half-butt commitment this is all the way, they stepped up to the challenge.

I had a choice in college. I could have either taken a stand for Christ, who was apart of my life, or be a follower of what wasn’t so good. One of my roommates was the model Christian and spent his time trying to follow Christ with all his heart, mind and strengthen. He encouraged me as well, but I wasn’t able to step up. Instead, I stepped up to the pitchers of beer and clubs in college. Largely because I couldn’t stand up for anything, yet alone Christ. I followed another friend and we drank and drank and drank. Why? Because I was a wuss and other people’s opinion of me was more important than taking a stand and being who God desired me to be. I was the puppet on the string for these guys.

Application

The great thing about God is that He didn’t make you a puppet on a string – you have free will. You are free to acknowledge God as your creator and follow Him or not.

Just as Joshua knew, many of us have seen God work in our lives. We know the truth about God. However, when it really comes down to it, do you take a stand for Christ like Joshua did or do you wuzz out like college boy Pounder did?

Don’t wuss out like me because you’re too afraid of what other people will think. Joshua didn’t care what others thought – he shared who he was and what he was going to do. Because of his boldness and confidence in Christ, others followed it.

Even if you don’t have a relationship with God, you can make a stand for Him. How? By beginning to walk down the road to find out all that God has to offer you. By coming back week after week to hear about Him, to open a Bible and discover for yourselves the promises of God and to surround yourself with godly friends who will help walk down that path with you.

So, I ask, what are you standing for? Right now, I want you to take a piece of paper and write down what you stand for. Who do you stand for?

What will you do this week to make a stand for what you believe? Commit to something and stand by it. I promise you though, if you commit to make a stand for Christ, you won’t be sorry.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Investing in your future - What is your calling?

I want you to think to yourself all the things you enjoying doing or are gifted at doing

When I say the word investing, what comes to mind?

Investing is the "action of putting something in to somewhere else". Investing is commonly used in financial and economic terms.

You can invest in a lot of things. You can invest in the stock market, you can invest in a home, or you can invest in a mutual fund.

Over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to be talking about Investing in Your Future. We are going to go over things you can do now, characteristics you can start developing now so that your future can be bright.

This week, we are going to talk about following your calling in life. Each of us has a calling in life. Some people’s calling is to be a firefighter. Some is to be a teacher. Some is to be a Youth Pastor…isn’t that all of yours? :)

Each of you has a calling. But, how do you find it? Then, once you find it, what do you do with it? Let’s look now to find out.

Scripture

How do you find your calling?

What are you gifted at? Back to my initial question – what excites you? What drives you?

Your calling comes from God (1 Samuel 3:1-14; 19)
- Samuel didn’t know God at the time God spoke to him. However, God had a calling for his life.
- What was that calling? To be a prophet – who is a person who has directly encountered God, of whose intentions he can then speak
- So, the encounter Samuel had with God was his first, but as it is pointed out, God continue to speak to Samuel for many, many years.

God’s calling on Samuel’s life was to be a prophet. His calling for you is probably different. Regardless, he has a plan for you and wants to share it with you.

What happened when Samuel responded to his calling? He invested in it and became one of the great prophets.

So, how do you find your calling? Ask God. Matthew 7:7-8 – “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

What do you do with your calling?Read Matthew 25:14-30

1. Everyone is given a talent. You need to invest in it…start becoming great at it

How do you invest in it? How do you become great at it?
- Practice
- Become a student in it – know the hows and whys that make your talent so special
- Seek God’s desire for you and your gift. He gave you the gift, he probably knows how to best use that gift.

2. Use your gift for the Lord

After all, He gave you the gift. We should honor him by investing in it and give him the glory for blessing us with it.

How?
- The way is probably the most visible way – particularly in the past 5 years or so. But when you are honored for your particular gift (ie, win an award or get celebrated for hitting the game-winning shot), give thanks to God for the impact He has in your life and give him praise. By that, all who hear you will realize God’s impact in your life and, hopefully, be challenged in their life.
- Use it to serve others. There are so many ways, but some right off the top of my head is if you are good at basketball, try playing in those FCA camps that will help others. If you are gifted musically, try being apart of a worship band and use your gifts to help lead others in worship. If you become a doctor or nurse, try helping out various organizations that go and help people in other countries and share your faith with those you help.

There are countless ways for you to use your gift for God.

Challenge

So, as you invest in your future, know that:
We all have a calling from God. Each calling is different, but none-the-less, it is from God
We need to invest in our calling by practicing it, becoming a student of it, and seek God’s desire for the use of it.
Lastly, we need to use our gift for God

Who wants to wander through life aimlessly? No one. We can find out what our purpose, what our call in life is by asking God for it. God has gifted you with something great. Will you use it the way that God intends?

Right now, I want you to think of 1 thing you can do this week to start finding or developing your calling. What will you do?

Now, write it down and share it with another person. That way, you can remind yourself and someone else can start praying for you and helping you this week.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

What's your gameplan to win yourself to Christ?

I want you to, on a paper, list your closest friends.

Next to their name, write where they are at with Christ. Are they a Christian, not a Christian, a Christian who doesn’t live it out, etc.

Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Day in and day out, it is so ingrained in us to look out for you and you alone…no one else matters. You are the only that matters.

That view, however, is not God’s view. Time after time, Christ looked out for everyone else first. Just look at what He did on the cross. He didn’t do that for himself – who would? He did that for us!

However, in order for us to reach out to our friends and be a witness to them, we have to first win ourselves to Christ. We have got to be the person God desires us to be before we could ever lead anyone else to where God wants them to be.

How do you do that?

Think of it on these lines… In order to be great at sports or in a musical instrument what steps must be taken in order for that to happen?

You need to:
Get the right equipment
Get training & practice
Go out and perform

Scripture:

How do we win ourselves to Christ?

Get the Right Equipment:
Get a Bible (or open it), get a notebook and Staying close to Christ (Matthew 6:33)

Get Training and Practice:
Being in Community of Believers (Acts 2:42-47)
- You get training in practice in a community where you are taught and encouraged to do as others are. The 1st Church Community was the perfect example
- We have that opportunity here to be a Community of believers committed to Christ 1st then each other 2nd
- Look at the people around you. We are all here because we know people and desire to be with them.

Think of the impact you can have on each other’s lives by being committed to Christ 1st and each other 2nd. With Christ as our source of strength and each other to rely on, we could immeasurable things for Christ and for others.

Go out and Perform:
Remember when you 1st committed your life to Christ – the joy and excitement you felt. How you were unafraid of what people thought of you? We cannot forget our first love (Revelations 2:2-5)

We were unafraid then, we need to be unafraid now and make the most out of the opportunities that are before us.

My small group has been going through Acts lately and the 1 thing that has stood out to me above all else is the fact that the believers made the most out of their opportunities:
- When the Holy Spirit came upon them all in Acts 2, people were saying that they were drunk and a bunch of idiots. But Peter got up there and shared the gospel with them all. What happened because he acted on his opportunity? 3,000 people were saved
- When a Blind beggar asked Peter and John for some money, Peter said, “I don’t have any money for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6) He took that opportunity and ran with it. What happened? Many people began asking questions about Jesus and wanted to know him.

God will bless us when we take the opportunities before us and run with them.

Why should we act on these opportunities? Because we are so in love with Christ that that love compels us to share about him.

We cannot forget our first love!

In order to be effective in reaching others for Christ, you have got to win yourself to Christ.

Application:

True or False: “You can only take others as far as you have allowed yourself to go in Christ.”

It’s true. We can’t take people past where they are if we haven’t allowed Christ to be that in our life.

So the question is - Is your faith worth imitating? (1 Corinthians 4:16)

We have got to take hold of our faith and win ourselves to Christ first and foremost before we can win others.

Let’s start imitating Christ and others that have gone on before us like Peter and Paul.

Let’s stay close to Christ, never forgetting our first love. Let’s fully commit to Christ ourselves so that we can win our friends to Him.

Write down 1 thing you are going to do this week to help win yourself more to Christ