Your Next Steps

• They actually thought about making an instant Latte drink.  Why should us regular coffee drinkers have all the fun?
• Then they were clever enough to put it where these fufu coffee people hang.
• The fact that it’s instant explains to people all you need is hot water to make this happen.  Don’t fret – no machine required.
• The spiffy blue packaging let’s you know it’s different than their other instant stuff and yet it also goes with many of the newer SB stores décor.
• The price is right to get you to pick one up.

So here’s why I am pointing this out.

As a church how doe we point out what we want you to do?  Use a bulletin?  Make an announcement from stage?  A weekly email blast?

How’s all that working for you?

What if we tried to think about what we want our people to try and strategically thought about its placement?

• Putting information in a high traffic area where they will stop and notice.
• Do we offer things at the right price?  Free means cheep but low cost is a bargain.
• Do we stick to one product and just make variations of it?  Think ministries as compared to a variety of small groups.
• Put thought into packaging.  The rest of the world does this for the sake of attractiveness so should we.  Neon colored paper is soooo out guys.
• Is it easy to do?  Are there multiple steps to it or is it one stop shopping, as in signing up for a class or getting involved in serving.
• Can you create a culture/environment for the people that like to browse?  Most sales are done on impulse buying.

In times where nothing is certain in our economy we should be ready to embrace some changes.  What can you start doing today to attract the attention of your people?

It’s been a weird couple of weeks for me.  Seems like I have been talking to or I am aware of lot of folks going through hard times.

There is a common theme that I am finding between all of them.

Idolatry

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.    Colossians 3:5-6 ESV

Idolatry can be defined as “worship or reverence given to any created object or person.” Now you may say, “I don’t go around bowing down to things and worshiping them.” Yeah granted, because if someone saw you praying to your new iPhone which you spent three hours on today while you spent like 15 minutes reading the Bible people would think you were crazy.  Which, in the very example I just gave lets look at another form of idolatry.

Fetishism (fetish is derived from the Latin word factitius, meaning to make – ironically the word fact originated from the same Latin word) is when “any living or inanimate object is regarded with awe and devotion.”

Over and over again I hear how the sin of idolatry creeps into the lives of people and destroys families.  Let me show you some examples of what I heard.

“He spends all night sitting down in the basement watching tv but what about me?”

“All he ever talks about is fishing or work.  That’s why I don’t like going out with him anymore.”

“Yep, I am traveling again this week. If I don’t I can’t work.”

“I am always asked where does all the money go.  I get accused of spending it?”

“They don’t understand this is just a hard time.  Trying to close down this business is killing me.  I have to work all the time.”

“I know it’s wrong, but I think about them all the time.  I still love them.” (me-but you are married to someone else, duh!?)

It all comes down to where is your heart.  I gotta tell you I am really sick of hearing excuses.  Marital covenantal relationships is about SACRIFICE! It ain’t about you doing your thing!  It is a sin against God and He definitely can’t bless your relationship while you are engaged in the act of worshiping something else other than Him.  Doesn’t work that way.  So don’t go there.

The biggest thing out of all those examples above is that we make ourselves the idol.  We worship ourselves. That is why we have to put our needs above others.

Later this week I will share some personal examples from my life and how this affected me but let me leave you with how God views this.

3 “You shall have no other gods before me.  4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.   Exodus 20:3-6 ESV

How do you tend to deal with stress?  We all experience this right?  It’s going to happen, you can’t run from it.  There are just natural times in everyone’s life where things aren’t going your way.  We also have our own unique ways on how to deal with it as well.  Some of them are healthy and some of them are destructive.  People have been dealing with the causes and effects of stress for years.  Listen to some advice from a wise teacher that dealt with these issues a long time a go.

“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness, and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.”  Luke 21:34 NIV

Jesus recognizes the problem of when we get weighed down with all the cares of life.  But He was good enough to also recognize what happens if we do this.  Look at that last phrase – “that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.” He’s pointing out that if we focus on the cares we miss the point that He is coming back.  There is an end to our cares but it’s not all going to go away now.  He never said it would.

What he has done for us though is give us something else to put our focus on right now.  You see in order to give some of our habits up (worrying about the crud of this world is a habit, ask yourself how much you do it) you have to have something else to put your focus on right now.  He is stating that in the end all of the things we will endure are not as important as the fact that He is returning.  That not only means an alleviation of stress but we have work to do.  Lets get the focus off of us and put it back on Him.

He even points out how we try to cope.

1. drunkenness – numbness, we don’t want to feel pain so we berry it all forms of substance abuse.  But when we numb ourselves we never heal and we’re numb to what God is trying to do for us as well.
2. anxiety – we freak out, because we can’t deal with it.  This comes from the illusion that we had or should have control of everything in our lives.  There is no such thing as control.  Although there comes a peace from knowing God is sovereign.

This little post isn’t about how to be mentally healthy.  It’s about why you should want to.  In the end the only answer is Jesus.  He is the only thing that makes sense.  Those of you dealing with a #1 or 2 from above begin the process of telling yourself ‘NO’ when those negative feelings attack.  We still have work to do and when you focus on that, I mean really begin to think about that, it’s going to get better.

Leadership can and most usually is a difficult task.  It is simply not a process of giving commands but getting people to do what is needed.  A part of leadership is to help one’s people accomplish the goals that are set before them.  But there can be a multitude of reasons why this doesn’t come off so well.

People are flawed and will usually error on the side of what’s easier for them.  One of the things that will separate a good ‘spiritual leader’ (pastor, elder, deacon, small group leader, etc.) is the ability to discern what’s worth the effort.  They should have the ability to take in what they believe God’s will is while taking out their personal wants and interests.

Joshua, the leader that took Moses’ place, was facing a dilemma of trying to get his people to see what their God given path was before them.  As usual they couldn’t see the same things Joshua was seeing.  Check out this passage and notice his leadership technique.

14 Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the Lord has blessed me?” 15 And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.” 16 The people of Joseph said, “The hill country is not enough for us. Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.” 17 Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, “You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only, 18 but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”

Joshua 17: 14-18 ESV

Technique – Restate the Obvious.

Now here’s why I think he did this or here’s the possible intention behind his words.

• I am one of the last surviving people from the Exodus.  I have seen God do the impossible on multiple occasions.
• This project/task is not based on your limitations but it is based on God.
• God has promised, actually entered into a covenant that He will deliver this land to us to dwell in.
• Lastly, I have confidence in you…

Sometimes we need to restate the obvious.  Upon hearing/seeing a vision from God repeatedly, the future will begin to sink into our heads now.

Yesterday after church at Oak Leaf it was the usual scene.  I hang out up front afterwards in case someone needs to talk.  It’s funny, for some people this would be a trying time  but I really like talking to people that are feeling the convictions of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  This is the time where I get to see the scriptures play out in some one’s life and as much as it helps them it bolsters my faith as well.

It also reminds me to stop with the pity parties for myself because my problems are small compared with most of these people.

I talked with a gentleman yesterday who is separated from his wife.  This is the good part because then it all goes down hill from there. I can’t get too specific but it involves drug use, drug dealing, multiple jail times, unfaithful spouse, you get the picture.

The good part to this story? He tells me that God found Him while he was in jail.  Not him finally believing and following, but God got him.  He hasn’t used, hasn’t been around his old friends, and is seeking how to do this life right.  I love hearing about how the God of the universe chooses to love us by reaching down, picking us up out of the dirt, brushes us off  and makes us one of His!

Now here’s the funny thing.  I have heard this before.  Seriously, like a month earlier I almost heard the same story from another guy.  Then the wheels starts to turn in my head.  God is getting ready to redeem a people!

There is a part of our town here that God is about to call home.  He is about to destroy old habits, stop generational sin, rescue the fatherless, deliver the users, and care for the destitute.

That’s why a few months a go God puts in my head to start some type of recovery group this year.

This fall we will have two recovery groups begin.  They are the beginning of of something that I think God is going to bless over time.  There are so many people out there with, as I like to say, “junk in their trunk” that they need something like this to begin unpacking all of it.

Please pray for this with me.  Pray that we can become a church that will become the lighthouse in our community.  That we will be able to go to bat for those that need us the most.