Pathway Church Palo Alto, CA - "Together on the Journey"

Truth In The Movies Series - Movie: Soul Surfer - Can Bad Things That Happen In My LIfe Really Be Used For Good?

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:59:00 -0700

Here is the audio of the talk I gave last night about the movie "Soul Surfer".
It's answers the question: Can Bad Things That Happen In My LIfe Really Be Used For Good?

In this talk you'll hear:

-The story of the day I got kidnapped
-My story of a flight I was on that had emergency landing in the middle of a snow storm and how it caused me to discover a way God uses bad for good
-An amazing prison-break story from the Bible that leads to a surprising conclusion
-How surfer Bethany Hamilton lost her arm in a shark attack and ended up seeing so much good from it that she wouldn't change it - even if she could
-4 ways that God can use bad things for good in your life

Click the link and then click the headphones icon to listen to it online or click the down arrow to download it and listen to it offline:
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"Truth In The Movies" series: MOVIE: “127 Hours” - Topic: What are you willing to do to be free?

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:47:00 -0700

Intro:

***Start by watching trailer here***

James Franco stars in a survival drama based on the incredible true story of Aron Ralston.

Aron Ralston is a man who became trapped alone in a Utah canyon for days after slipping on a loose rock, and resorted to extraordinary measures in order to make it out alive.

An experienced hiker and climber, Ralston is very much in his element when he parks his truck by a mountain near Moab, UT, hops on his bike, and peddles to the middle of nowhere.

Later, when Ralston encounters a pair of young female hikers who have gotten lost while searching for a local landmark, he jovially shows them a sight that most casual hikers miss before telling them goodbye and continuing on his journey.
Drifting through the canyons alone, deep in thought, however, the explorer who presumed he was ready for anything quickly discovers just how fast things can spin out of control when a rock gives way as he shimmies down a crevice, and pins his hand to the wall of stone.

Over the course of the next 127 hours, Ralston tries everything he can think of to free himself, flashing back to small but memorable events in his life -- as well as forward to the future that he might enjoy should he manage to wiggle free -- as his body begins the slow process of shutting down.
(Edited from description at http://www.allrovi.com/movies/movie/v504504*)

Let me show you a clip of him loosening the bolder and getting trapped... ***Show 1st clip: of climbing & dislodges a huge bolder and gets trapped. approx. 16:19 - 18:45 **

I'll talk about what he finally did to escape, but let me ask you something to set the stage for what I'm going to talk about today...

We need to ask ourselves this question: Why was Aron Ralston able to escape?
The thing that helped him escape is the same thing that will help us to escape from some of the habits and the problems that we’ve been struggling with for years.

Today I want to talk to you about this main ingredient that’s required for us to see successful change in our lives. By the time we’re done today, we’ll look at 3 steps you can take to help you see change in your life.

Turn in your Bibles with me to John 5:2-9.

What you're about to hear is an amazing little story that reveals how we can begin to see change happen in our lives.

Let's look at the story now...

"2Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" 7"Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." 8Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked."

(NOTE: What you need to understand about this story is that the people there believed an angel would stir up the water and if they got in in time, they would be healed. That's why he answered Jesus the way he did.)

You know what’s sad in life?

People who live their whole lives dealing with the same problems; people who live their lives and never seem to be able to improve who they are.

These people come to the end of their life and they still haven’t changed! They come to the end of their life and they’ve never become all they could’ve been or done all they could’ve done!

Why was Aron Ralston able to free himself?
Because he really wanted to be free!

1. The first step towards real and lasting change is for you to really WANT to change!

Look at John 5:5-6.

This guy has been sick for 38 years! That’s longer than most people lived back then!

And Jesus asks him this, “Do you WANT to get well?” Why would Jesus as him that question?

It’s because Jesus knew that this man would never change and be healed if he didn’t first want it!

A lot of us say we want to change.
We say we want to stop doing something or start doing something. We say we want to do more of something or less of something – but we don’t!

Could it be that it’s because we don’t really want to?

It’s easy to get used to our problems and kind of have a love-hate relationship with them. We complain about them, but they sure give us good excuses when we need them!

In 1993, it was reported that a small order of Franciscan nuns in Prague decided to subsidize their convent by opening the downstairs of their facility - formerly an underground detention center used by the Communists to imprison and torture their enemies - as a hotel.

For $33 a night, you could stay in a former prison cell. The proprietors say they try to achieve a middle ground between comfort and authenticity in the "hotel."

Many people are really looking for just that - a comfortable prison cell.

Jesus is asking each one of us here about some of the problems and habits we’ve had all our lives… “Do you want to get well?”

How we answer that question will determine whether we ever see lasting change or not!

What’s this handicapped guy’s answer to Jesus’ question?
It’s just like ours!

Look at John 5:7 “Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me."
I heard of story of two college students who decided one night to pull a prank on a sleeping fraternity brother. They took limburger cheese and rubbed it gently on his upper lip.

When he woke up, he sniffed, looked around and said, “This room stinks!” Then he walked out into the hall and said, “This hall stinks!” As he was leaving the dorm, they could hear him say, “The whole world stinks!”

The two college students laughed as they saw him walk away, because they knew their buddy was going to walk around blaming the smell on everything else around him, when the problem was with him!

--------------------------A personal story----------------------------------------

When Sue and I used to live in a one bedroom apartment in Redwood City, there was an older man who used to live on the 2nd story of an apartment building next to ours.

One day I got talking to the man and he began complaining about some of our neighbors and saying how mean they were to him. I listened and didn’t know what to think about those neighbors anymore.

He told me he needed some help and I told him I’d talk to some people at the church at worked at back then and see if they could help him. The problem was I wasn’t able to get a hold of these people at our church for awhile.

He ended up coming to our apartment one day yelling and telling Sue off.

I finally had to talk to him and tell him and explain to him that I couldn’t get a hold of the people I thought might be able to help him. I told him I should’ve let him know what had happened, but I didn’t appreciate him yelling at my wife and that I didn’t want him coming over to our place doing that ever again.

After talking to the neighbors he warned me about they said they had the same problem! This guy reminds me of the guy with Limburger cheese on his lip! This guy was blaming everybody else for his problems, never realizing that maybe the reason he had the same problem with everybody was because he was the problem!

A lot of people are like this.

They blame everyone else for their problems. Some people blame their parents, some people blame their friends, or their teachers, or their boss – some people even blame God!

But the real problem is that they never take responsibility for their own problems!
That’s why people stay stuck where they’re at and never see change!

They’ve been blaming everyone and everything all their lives.

Did you know that blame is the second sin in the Bible?

When Adam and Eve sinned what happened? Adam blamed Eve (really blamed God) he said, “It was the woman you gave.” Eve blamed the snake. They blamed everyone else but themselves!

It started way back then and we’re still doing it today! Blame seems to be one of the devil’s top tricks for keeping us from growing and becoming all we can be.

Business philosopher Jim Rohn says this, “I used to say ‘I sure hope things will change.’ Then I learned that the only way things are going to change for me is when I change.”
You can look through the Bible and you’ll find this common theme: God will not force us to change!
My promise to you is this: If you don’t really want to change, then you never will!

The other interesting thing to me about Jesus question and the man's answer is that the man doesn't realize JESUS is the one where he can get healing from, not the water! He says, “I want to but I don't have someone to take me to the water”

2. The second step towards real and lasting change is for you to respond in faith to Jesus!

Look at John 5:8, after Jesus asked the man the question and the man responded with his excuse. Jesus told the man, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!”

The handicapped man had two choices:

1. He could have faith in Jesus, trust what he said and respond.
2. He could decide not to trust Jesus and just sit there!

Faith is a verb. We have to trust God to help us to change and that trust has to manifest itself in action!

It the late 19th century there was a young chemist named Robert Chesebrough who sold kerosene. He got his kerosene from the oil of sperm whales, but by 1859 he was put out of business.

In 1859, Robert Chesebrough took off for a Pennyslvania oil field to "strike it rich."
What he came back with made him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he DIDN'T become rich from OIL!

Oil field workers had told him about this "sticky stuff" that stuck to the drilling rigs. The riggers hated this stuff - it caused the drilling rigs to seize up. For all the problems this substance caused, the riggers found one small use - when rubbed on a cut or bruise it helped it to heal faster.

He bottled the stuff up and dragged it back to his Brooklyn laboratory. He began a search to duplicate the petroleum-based lubricant, and by trial and error, he was able to extract the key ingredient - the translucent material we now know as petroleum jelly.
But it had to be tested, and tested it was. He needed a guinea pig to test it out on. But who could he use?
Chesebrough cut his OWN hands and arms, burned himself with flames and acids and each time he would then cover them with his new gel. ALL the self-inflicted wounds responded to his petroleum jelly and were healed!

Satisfied that his new grease had healing properties, he took to the road with his own medicine show, but first he named his gel. Using the German word for water (wasser) and the Greek word for oil (elaion) he came up with "Vaseline."

He took it out on the road and would demostrate it by cutting or burning himself and then applying his vasleine.

He also showed his audience the healed scars from past experiments. Amazingly this worked! Soon he was selling a jar a minute, and when these ran out people begged their druggists to order more from Chesebrough. It was used for everything: chest colds, chapped hands, nasal congestion, and even to remove stains from furniture.

By the turn of the twenty century it had penetrated the American market and was entering Europe, and Chesebrough had become a very rich man!

Although its miracle properties were eventually debunked (it really healed because it sealed wounds from bacteria like a band aid), Chesebrough himself was always a true believer. He lived to age 96, revealing shortly before he died the secret to his longevity: *Every day of his life he ate a spoonful of vaseline! (* Not recommended! DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME! :)

Cheesbrough succeed because he believed in his product and he proved it by his actions!

Faith isn’t faith without action! Faith goes beyond communication (words) to demonstration! One of the church fathers Clement of Alexandria said, “Faith is a voluntary anticipation.”

If we don’t combine action with the desire to change, then change will never happen! When the man heard Jesus' words he must have instantly had faith in him and what he could do, because something amazing happened next.

And it reveals the 3rd step...

3. The third step toward real and lasting change is that AFTER you do your part and respond in faith, then you have to SUBMIT yourself and let God do the rest!

Look at John 5:9 “9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.”
Did you notice what just happened?
It's subtle, so you might have missed it.

He was healed even before he took action in faith! We have to let God do his part and then keep doing our part!

But this only happened because he had to decide to quit doing things his way (going into the pool for healing) and start doing things Jesus’ way (submit to Jesus as the source of healing).

Think about this…
There are too many times in life when we choose to do it our way instead of God’s way!

There are too many times in life when we try to do what only God can do for us and don’t do what only we can do to see change!

I want to share one last story with you that I love...
The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north."

The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!" Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones."

Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship." Then the reply came "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse."

This story remind me so much of us. So many times we're trying to get God to do it our way instead of doing it his way.

Submission isn't popular, but it's requirement if we want to experience help and freedom from God.
This is what submitting means…

When you submit to Jesus it means to stop doing what only God can do. It means to stop doing what you think is right and start doing what God has told you is right!

We have to learn to submit to God and his ways while still doing our part, otherwise we will never see change in our life.

Conclusion:
How badly do you want to change? Do you really want to get well?
Aron Ralston finally realizes that the only way out is to leave part of himself behind, the exhausted, delirious adventurer draws his cheap made-in-China multi-tool, and does what it takes to survive: he cuts off his own arm!

SHOW 2nd Clip: When he finally walks out of crevice into the light. approx. 1:20:40-1:20:55.

The interesting thing about the example of this guy willing to cut off his arm to be free is that it sounds really similar to something Jesus said in Matt. 5:29 – 30...

"29So if your eye—even if it is your good eye —causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your hand—even if it is your stronger hand —causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."

Now Jesus was exaggerating to make a point.
He's not really suggesting that you cut off a part of your body. He's saying you should be willing to cut anything out of your life that will ultimately destroy you.

There are things, habits and/or relationships in our lives that will one destroy us - literally. And there are things, habits and/or relationships that won't destroy us physically, but will destroy our potential, destroy our usefulness, destroy our families, or destroy who we are.

What will you do about these things? Are you willing to cut out anything that’s holding you back?
(Show pic of him with the bolder at the top of this blog post. That bolder is your "problem" or )

Will you really cut out anything?

Negative relationships?
Bad habits?
Even things that you like and things that make you happy?

If you are not will to cut out anything, then listen to these sobering words from Abraham Maslow,“If you plan on being anything less that you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.”

This might sound weird, but life is about more than your happiness, accumulation of things, and making you feel good. It's beyond that. You can be happy, accumulate many things, and feel good – all while destroying yourself.

Jim Rohn said it like this… “The major value of life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become. You see, what you become is far more important than what you get. The important question to ask on the job is not, ‘What am I getting?’ Instead, you should ask, ‘What am I becoming?’”

Aron Ralston was willing to do whatever it took to be free. That’s why he’s free today!

Are you and I willing to do whatever it takes to be free? Change begins ultimately ends with this question!

Here’s what I think we need to do today to end this time together… (Altar time)

1. You need to ask God to show you an area he wants to change.
2. You need to think about whether you really want to change or not. You need to ask God to show you if there’s some way you’ve been holding back
3. You need to ask God what action he wants you to take. What you need to let him do and what he wants you to do.

Will The World End On May 21st At 6pm?

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Sat, 21 May 2011 10:55:00 -0700

If you haven't heard a man named Harold Camping has said that based on his biblical calculations the world is going to end on May 21st at 6pm.

He has purchased billboards around the country and has gotten a lot of media attention.

Because of this fact, I thought I should write a note to share with our church (http://www.ExperiencePathway.com/) and my Facebook friends about this prediction, so here we go:

1. Do I believe the world is going to end at 6pm?

No. I won't go into details, but I've read his reasoning and I think he is misinterpreting and misapplying scripture. But...

2. Do I believe that ONE DAY the world will end?

Yes. If kingdoms can end (think Rome), then a whole world can come to an end. It’s only logical. This planet once didn’t exist. It had a beginning and that means that one day it will have an ending. That’s not a crazy idea.

In fact, I don’t think there are even any scientists who would argue that this world will one day end. Did you know?...

Scientists Created A "Doomsday Clock"

In 2007, scientists were worried about the threat of Global Warming and Nuclear War in what they called “second nuclear age." Because of this, in 2007, they moved the "Doomsday clock" forward two minutes, so it was set to 5 minutes to midnight.

(This clock was introduced in 1947 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to determine the threat of a nuclear holocaust during the Cold War.)

One quote from Stephen Hawking hit me...“As citizens of the world, we have a duty to alert the public to the unnecessary risks that we live with every day, and to the perils we foresee if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change.”

(What you also might not know is that the hands of the "Doomsday Clock" was moved again in 2010. Why? Factors influencing the last Doomsday Clock change include international negotiations on nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation, expansion of civilian nuclear power, the possibilities of nuclear terrorism, and climate change.)

Think about this… Scientists, are wise enough to pay attention to the signs and we need to be wise too.

But does that mean it will happen on May 21st? No. It doesn't. I'll explain why with this story...

What Jesus Told The Disciples About Knowing When The End Would Come

It's an incident in Matthew 24:1-42 that happened towards the end of Jesus’ life and ministry. It’s an event that began with a simple walk, that Jesus and his disciples took, and it ended with them sitting on the mountainside riveted to Jesus’ every word, as he revealed to them about the end of Jerusalem.

It would be a day they would never forget.

They left the temple and were walking away from it when his disciples came up to Jesus to call his attention to its buildings. (They were caught up and impressed by it all.) They kept walking with Jesus, bragging about the temple, and Jesus shocked them with this statement in verse 2...

"Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." This had to be totally unimaginable to them.

The temple was the center of their society. But he not only told them that, he went on to tell them that Jerusalem would be destroyed and that the world would one day end.

(NOTE: Their temple and Jerusalem were both later destroyed, just as he said.)

They couldn't believe what they were hearing, so they asked him, "When will the temple be destroyed? What will the signs of the end of this world be?"

He told them about some of the signs and many other things, but the one main thing that applies to knowing whether the world will end on May 21st is found in verse 36.

Jesus told them, "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. "

Did you catch that?

Who did Jesus say knows when the end would be?

Did he say the Mayans would? No.
Did he say Nostradamus would know? No!
Did he say Harold Camping would know?

Nope. What did he say? NO ONE will know the exact day or the hour, except God!

There WILL be signs for us to notice and pick up, so we can know that the end is near, but we’ll NEVER know an exact date/time.

We need to stop listening to the people who say they know when the world will end. As soon as they've say it, they prove they're wrong because NO ONE will know! (I think Harold Camping is sincere, but wrong.)

BUT we need to realize this… Jesus said the end will come subtly.

If people aren't looking or don’t know some of the signs, then Jesus says they will miss out on the signs and they’ll still be doing their thing: feasting, partying, and marrying. And once it’s finally time for the end, then it will come suddenly. It will come quickly.

So what can we do?

Jesus gives us the key piece of advice in verse 42 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. The only thing we can do is keep watch, so we won’t be caught totally off guard and surprise when the end comes.

The Bible does NOT say the world is going to end on May 21st at 6pm! That’s not true. But don’t get me wrong. It could end this year, or this month, or even today.

We don’t know EXACTLY when the end will come. We just know that it will come. Our job is just to pay attention and keep watch, so we can be ready.

We Could See Our OWN End Before THE End

If you don't believe the world is going to end for biblical reason (or even scientific reasons), then that's fine. But we all need to admit the one fact that we all try and pretend is not true: one day our lives will end.

And for most of us the end of our lives will come suddenly and not when we expect it. It will not be something we have time to do something about just before it happens.

We need to live our lives always remembering that they will one day end. It's one of the few guarantees in life.

I don't tell you this to be morbid. Knowing that the world will end, or that our lives will one day end, is a good thing for us – even if we don’t know the exact times. Why?

It can help us to be patient and it helps us to prioritize.

Not only that it helps us to appreciate what we have, appreciate the here and now, and helps us to plan ahead for when this is all over.

Lessons From Those Near The End

When you speak to someone who has lived a long life what do they tell you? They tell you how fast life goes. They tell you that good times and bad BOTH will come. They tell you to appreciate what you have because it will all be gone before you know it.

They don't tell you this to scare you. Right? It’s to help you! That’s what this knowledge is supposed to do for us. Knowing there will be an end and that we don’t know when exactly its coming should affect how we live for today and for the rest of 2011.

We need to watch and be alert.

We need to remember that all that seems so important and consuming in this life will one day be gone. As we set your goals for 2011, dream big dreams, accomplish big things, because one day this will be over.

Let’s love our family and friends more. Let’s stop worrying and stressing out over things that don’t really matter, because one day we won’t have this life or this world anymore.

Let’s invest in the things that last and will matter when this is all over: God’s kingdom and our relationship with God. These things will help us to do well in 2011 and helps us to be prepared for the end – whenever it comes!

One last idea...

Live Like The World Is Going To End At 6pm

Maybe being prepared for the world to end today at 6pm might not be such a bad idea. It might cause us to live today better, live it more fully, and live it focused on things that last and mean something in the end.

And when we're given another day to live on May 22nd, we can wake up thankful and ready to live another day like it was our last. And so on. And so on. Until the one day it really is our last.

A Virtual, Online "Good Friday" Event

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:42:00 -0700

Today we did an event we've never tried before.

We did a virtual, online-only "Good Friday" event.

It was from 12pm-12:30pm and it went really well. I got a lot of positive feedback from the people that were on the live event.

During The Event I Shared These Things:

The person who I think had the greatest faith in the whole Bible
The often overlooked words that this man said and why they prove to me his incredible faith
What Jesus said to this man
Why this person's story is good news to us today

You Can Watch/Listen In Right Now
The recording is now available. After you click the link below, then click the organish-yellow "view recording" button to watch the recording.

You can watch/listen or share with friends...

Click here to watch the recording of my "Good Friday" event!

NOTE: On the recording, I talk for a few minutes and stall while people were joining in, so if you want, you can fast forward to about 6-7 min. mark to where I actually begin.

There's More Than Meets The Eye...

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:22:00 -0700

I spoke this talk first to our church and then shared it the following week at another church. I got a lot of really positive response both times I shared it.

The talk is called, "There's More Than Meets The Eye". Here are some of the things I shared:

How our eyes actually LIMIT us in life.
How living by faith is the only way for us to see God to amazing things in our lives.
How successful people throughout history have lived their lives beyond what they could see and that enabled them to succeed.
How if we really look at things the way they are, then living by faith is the only way we can really live for God.

You can watch the talk below...

"You Are God's Means & Method For Accomplishing His Work On This Planet

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:59:00 -0700

I have a story I want to tell you today. And if you listen carefully you might catch some similarities to something you’ve seen, heard or even experienced before…

"On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur there was once a crude, little life-saving station.

"The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat. But the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea.

"And with no thought for themselves, they went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.
Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted
to become associated with the station and give their time, money and effort for the
support of its work.

"New boats were bought and new crews were trained. The little life-saving station grew.

"Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place
should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.

"They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building.

"Now, the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as a
sort of club.

"Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life saving missions, so they hired a life-boat crew to do this work.

"The life-saving motif still prevailed in this
club’s decoration, and there was a symbolic life-boat in the room where the club
initiations were held.

"About this time a large ship wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick and some
of them looked different than the club members. The beautiful new club was in chaos.

"The property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where the victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership.

"Most of the members
wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities because they were unpleasant and a
hindrance to the normal social life of the club.

"Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station.

But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their
own life-saving station down the coast. They did.

"As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old one. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded.

"History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit the seacoast today, you will find a whole bunch of exclusive clubs along that shore.

"Shipwrecks happen all the time in those waters, but most of the people drown."

Think about how sad this story is!

A life-saving station becomes a club. And the saddest thing about this story is that it describes what happens to some churches!

They lose their purpose and go from being a life-saving group to a social club.

That has to be one of the greatest sins we can make as Christ-followers. I don’t want
that to ever happen to our church. But if we’re not careful it can happen to us!

For the next 2 Sundays, we’ll be doing a new series called, “Your Great Purpose On This Planet And How To Fulfill It”.

In this series, I want us to take a new look at what the Bible means when it calls the church “The body of Christ”.

As we go through this series, we’ll discover what our great purpose on this planet is – both individually and as a church – and you’ll discover how to fulfill your purpose!

Today, in this first talk, we’re going to begin by looking at God’s Primary Means And Method For Accomplishing His Work.

God's purpose for saving you was to save others.
And you weren't left alone to do this.

You were made to be a part of the church, which is described in God’s word and Christ’s "body" on this planet.

I think many of us have heard that phrase so many times that it’s lost it’s meaning and impact!

Think about this for a second.

Christ came into this world to do one thing: to do God’s will.

And God’s will was, and is, to seek and save the lost! In Luke 4, Jesus was in
the temple and handed one of the scrolls to read from. He opened the scroll to a place in
Isaiah and read out loud to the people gathered around him.

Luke 4:18-21
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight
for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of
everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them,
"Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Do you see/hear Christ’s mission in these words? He mission was to…

• Preach good news to the poor
• Proclaim freedom for the prisoners
• Recovery of sight for the blind
• Release the oppressed
• Proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor!

And the cool and amazing thing about these things is that they include both actual and figuratively poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed.

This is such an amazing life-mission
and purpose!

Do you realize this?

We the church are called Christ’s body. That means that Christ's mission is now ours! YOU are God’s primary means and method for accomplishing
His work on the planet.

But there’s more to our mission and Matthew 28:18-20 - "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching
them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the age."

Do you hear it in Jesus’ words here?

The disciples, and all of us after them, are told to do what Jesus did while he was on earth: make disciples of all nations, baptize people, and,
teach them all Christ taught.

Jesus’ mission has never ended!

He now just wants to use all of US to accomplish it.
And there’s one more shocking thing about this mission he gave us.

He reveals it in John 14:12 when he says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what
I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the
Father.”

Jesus is saying, “If we believe in him and trust in him, then we’ll do what he did.”

But then he adds the shocking part… We can end up doing even greater things than Jesus did
because he’s going to the father and will send the Holy Spirit to work in us and through
us!

Can you imagine doing greater things than Jesus? It’s hard for me to! But Jesus wants to do greater things through us – his body.

You want to know God’s purpose for us as a church called, Pathway?
You want to know what your purpose is individually?
It’s to seek and save the lost!
It’s to preach the good news to the poor.
It’s to proclaim freedom to people who feel trapped.
It’s to help those that are blinded by the things
of life to see.
It’s to help release the people who feel oppressed.
It’s to go around
proclaiming the amazing news that NOW is the time where God wants to show his
favor to the world!
So many of us are looking for a great cause to be a part of, but can you think of a
greater cause than this? Those of us who were lost and have experienced salvation
get to help others to experience it.

We now get to join God in the redemption of the
world!!

Some Christ-followers seem to think we’re just supposed to help people get to heaven and that’s it. But our mission is so much more!

It’s to help people in the here
and now: by bringing good news, freedom, sight, release and realization of God’s
favor.

Why did people flocked to Jesus and want to hear about how to live in this life and how to have eternal life?

They did this, because he showed them love and helped take
care of the needs they had now! That’s what Jesus wants us to do as his body.

This
altogether is our great purpose on this planet!

But how do we achieve this?

I don’t think that we as a church, or individually, are doing as much of living this out as we wish we would. If this is our great purpose on this
planet, then how can we live this out more?

I think the secret is in this passage of scripture I want to look at for the rest of our time together today…

Ephesians 4:11-13 11 - "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare
God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until
we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

God gave the church gifts.
What were the gifts?

They were people
who could be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

Did God give us those people so they could do everything and help the church grow? No! The reason he gave us those people as gifts was for your benefit!

The purpose of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers is to help you grow! It’s to give you tools to help fulfill God’s purpose through your life.

That’s how bad God wants you to grow!
That’s how bad he wants you to become a person he can use!

He gave you people whose main job is to help make this happen.

Someone described what this passage is talking about once like this…

"Imagine that we are TV sportscasters standing on the sidelines of a football game to give the play-by-play.

Scene #1: The team nearest us is standing together, heads bowed in prayer, with the coach in the center. Suddenly they give a great cheer, and the coach trots out onto the
field by himself.

The players go sit on the bench. "What's going on?" we ask as we stick a microphone in front of a 250 pound guard. "What's the coach doing out there?" "Oh, he's
going to play today." "All by himself?" "Sure, why not? He's had a lot more experience and training than the rest of us. We've got a lot of rookies on this team, and we might
make mistakes. Anyway, they pay the coach well. We're all here to cheer and support
him--and look at the huge crowd that's come to watch him play!"

Bewildered, we watch
as the opposing team kicks off.

The coach catches the ball. He valiantly charges upfield,
but is buried under eleven opposing tacklers. And he's carried off half- conscious...

Do you think this is a crazy sounding story?
For a lot of people that’s how they see the job of a pastor.

They think a pastor’s job is to do the ministry of the Church, but in reality a pastor’s job is to help people to use the gifts God’s given them so they can become the
ministers God created THEM to be.

So you are as much, if not more, the ministers of this church as I am! I really have one job as the lead pastor of Pathway and that’s to help you grow and become all that he
made you to be, so you can do what God’s made you to do.

My job is to be a body builder!
To help us, as Jesus’ body, to become and do what he has for us.

My job is NOT to get you to do my work. My job is not to do your
work. My job is to prepare you for your work – what you were made to do, what God
created you to do.

My job is to encourage you, equip you with knowledge and give
you the opportunities to serve.

I’ve been realizing something more and more about this fact recently.

Our church will never become and be able to do all that we can if me and Brett try and do everything.
If this church’s ministry is based on only what Brett or I can do, then our influence and impact will always be small!

If we try and do everything, then we’ll end up being
defeated and carried off the field like the coach in that story.

But if this church ministry is based on what each one of you here can do, then our impact and influence will be exponentially bigger!

Ministry will go from being about
me and Brett about being what happens here on Sundays to being about you and
being what happens wherever you go!

That kind ministry has a force and the reach that can’t be compared!

This church will have some of my and Brett’s influence, but it should really be flavored and
based on your strengths, talents and personalities, because you are the church!

The types of ministry we do or don’t do should be based on you.

God wants us all TOGETHER to grow more and more like Jesus! As we do, what we become known
for as a church will based on your passions and gifts!

Where does ministry happen?

Some of it happens here, but the majority of it happens anywhere/everywhere but here!
That’s cause that’s where you (the ministers of God’s church) spend the majority
of your life!

What is ministry? Or, What does ministry look like?

It looks like the traditional way you’d picture it, but it goes way beyond that!

•Maybe your ministry is that you regularly walk your block and pray for your
neighbors and you look for ways to just help them, love them and bless them!
•Maybe your ministry is that you gather groups of us together to have fun and
hang out so that we can grow closer to each other and really can BE the church.

There are as many different ways to minister as there are needs!

Anywhere you see a need and fill it for Jesus, in the way he would, is ministry! Do ministry is doing his
work!

It could be a word of encouragement to someone, a word of truth to someone, it could be helping someone, it could be protecting someone, it could be showing love to
someone.

Everyday God’s looking for someone to be his hands, his feet, his voice and to minister to the needs that are all around us.

When you do that you’re doing ministry!

Sunday Gatherings – Weekly Huddle
I want you to see these Sunday Gatherings (LG & SG times) as a time out from your week – like a time out in a football game.
We huddle on Sunday in these different modes and then we go out on the field to play!

Sometimes we huddle for encouragement, sometimes it’s for training, or teaching or
maybe it’s to help us get refocused or recharged.

But AFTER the huddle, the real game begins. That’s when the real ministry happens!

The purpose of the huddle is only to help us win the game. THAT’S the purpose of our gatherings!

Growth will happen when w
e begin to all do our share and fulfill our purpose we will grow as a church
numerically and individually.

It will happen numerically because we’ll be able to reach more people, more effectively with more people serving and using their gifts for the common goal.

We’ll
grow individually, because no one will be stagnant.

We’ll all be active and this will cause us as it says here to grow together in faith and in knowledge of Jesus. We’ll all begin to reach a new level of maturity. This is the
only way we can gain the full measure of being like Jesus individually and as a body
accomplishing his mission here.

But something else amazing will happen in us and our church…

Ephesians 4:14-16 -
"14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their
deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up
into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held
together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part
does its work."

We’ll stopped being knocked around spiritually in our lives and tossed back and forth b
y every teaching, trend and fad that comes along.

Instead this working together and
serving together and serving each other will cause us to speak the truth to each other in
love and this will cause us to grow up into Jesus - the head of this body that we make up.

Don’t miss this important fact.

Christ is the head. God has called me to be the pastor of this church and to lead and guide us, but I’m not the head of this body.

I’m not the one who you get your direction from. Each of us must be connected with the head. That way you can know personally when what I’m teaching is true and what God
wants us to do.

That way you can know if you are supposed to be a part of what God has called us to be and do as a church. That way you can know what you should and shouldn’t do as a part
of this body. That way you can hear your calling of service and begin to do it, so we can
support you in it!

I can be your encourager and help lead us, but Jesus is the head of the body.
Your growth in life cannot come from me. It can only come from and through Jesus.
Your strength can’t come from me. It can only come from and through Jesus.

I’m here
to prepare you for works of service, but your works are ultimately for Jesus not for me!
We each need to be connected to and become more like Jesus who we’re supposed to be
the body of!

How many of you have ever hear of a guy named Charles Atlas?

His most famous ad featured a weak 97 lb scrawny, weakling kid who decides to bulk up after getting sand kicked in his face at the beach. The ad sold a workout method he
learned and used.

But some of you might not know the story behind it all…

Charles Atlas was born Angelo Siciliano in 1892 and immigrated to the U.S. from Italy in 1903. When he came to the U.S. he changed his name to Charles. He really was the
kid who got sand kicked in his face at the beach.

He decided to do something about it, and got the idea for his special kind of exercises while watching lions stretching at a zoo.

After building his own body, he saw a statue of the Greek god Atlas at Coney Island and decided to change his name to “Atlas” to reflect his new image. Several years later,
he met entrepreneur Charles Roman and the two designed the formal exercise program
(and its advertising campaign). Atlas died in 1972, but his company is STILL selling
the instructions today on the internet!

And just what do the instructions say?

The core of what Atlas is teaching would now be called "Dynamic Tension". Dynamic Tension is a self-resistance exercise method which pits muscle against muscle. The
practitioner tenses the muscles of given body part and then moves the body part against
the tension as if a heavy weight was being lifted.

You want to know how well does his techniques work?

In 1922, the publisher of the magazine Physical Culture dubbed Charles Atlas "The World's Most Perfectly Developed Man" in a contest held in Madison Square Garden.

He was chosen by a cross-disciplined group of health and medical experts, educators, anthropologists, scientists and medical doctors who viewed Atlas as the "perfect male
body" and placed his physical measurements in a time capsule.

I’ve actually been doing this recently and you can see it’s had similar results of perfection with my body! :)

But the reason I tell you this story is because, to me, this story is an example of we help each other grow!

Look at verse 16 again…

16From him the whole body, joined
and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as
each part does its work.

When one of us begins to do God’s work it pushes another
person and that causes that person to grow… and back and forth. And what happens?

We build each other up! It’s spiritual dynamic tension!

When I used to lift weights at my house I needed a spotter for two reasons: to protect me and encourage me. We need each other for the same reason. Someone
to help us when our ministry becomes too heavy and someone to cheer us on to keep
going and not give up.

This is the new way I want you to see any and all of our gatherings.

We’re ministering TO each other when we’re together. But that’s just to prepare us for when we go out
to minister to others.

We need each other! I need you to help me grow! You need me. The people here sitting around you need your gifts in their life. They need your help, your push, your
protection and encouragement.

When that happens we’ll begin to personally, and as a
church, look and act more like Jesus.
We’ll begin to fulfill our purpose on this planet!

But notice again how it happens:

It starts with our spiritual exercise: works of service.
The results: we become spiritually buffed – we reach unity in faith & knowledge, become mature.
And that causes us: to be tossed like infants/grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. This is the only way to become and do all God wants us to!

Conclusion:
WE are God’s primary means and method for accomplishing his work on this planet. There are amazing things God wants to do here locally and around this world and he’s
looking for people who will be his hands, feet, and voice in doing these things.

These are the questions we need to ask ourselves:

• Will we be these people? Do we want to be a part of the greatest cause and purpose on the planet?
• Do we want to help free people, change their lives for the better, and give them hope?
• Do we want to help save people to a better life in this world and the next?
• Or do we want to settle for just being a social club that comes together to learn and talk about things?

If you want to be a part of the greatest cause and purpose, then you need to begin to pray ask God what are the works of service he wants you to do among our church, this
local area, and the world.

Next talks: We’ll continue this new look at what it means to be the body of Christ.

• I’ll give you some questions you can begin to ask to uncover what Jesus wants your personal works of service to him to be.
• We’ll discover how being a part of this body can help you to become more of who you were meant to be.
• You’ll see how it can help you to accomplish your individual purpose in this life.
• We’ll see how we each gain things we need to make it through life by being a part of this body.

"Truth In The Movies" series: MOVIE - "Prince Caspian" Theme: "Trust In The Dark"

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Fri, 2 Oct 2009 17:08:00 -0700

Intro:
Dark times come to everyone at some point in life.
They come to us personally or they can come to us as citizens of this country or this world.

We can see them in the current recession and in the various struggles and troubles we each are dealing with right now in our lives.

How we view these times will determine how we feel in the middle of the darkness.

And how we handle these times will determine how we make it through them - or even IF we make it through them.

In this talk you'll discover:

The facts about dark times in this life.
3 main reasons for dark times.
Reasons why God allows them into our lives.
Why God's ultimate goal (like a good parent) is NOT to do everything he can to make us happy.
What God's real priority is.
How the ancient view of dark times, that the people in the bible days had, can help us to wait and endure until God brings us through.

You can listen to the talk now. Here's how...

Stream and listen to the talk online
Right-click to download the talk and listen offline

Series: "SWAYED: Have YOU Been?" - Talk: Truth vs. Lies

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:41:00 -0800

Intro:

We started with a version of old game show "To Tell The Truth".

We were trying to figure out who really did this truth...
“I’m ________ and I personally climbed two volcanoes.
(*Listen to the audio to discover the real volcano climber!)

Knowing what’s true in life is as important as knowing what reality is. If you don’t know what’s true in life you’re no better off than someone who doesn’t know what reality is.

How do we know what’s true? What’s right? What’s wrong? Is it what the majority says? Is it what the minority says? Or is it only what, the media, our educational system, or science tells us is true?

Most of us believe that we’re independent and think for ourselves. We don’t think that we’re that influenced by others.

But I want to show you this morning that that’s not true!

Every single one of us here have been influenced.

We’ve been swayed by almost "invisible forces" in our culture that have influenced us all in some way. Once you realize what these forces are, then you'll see their powerful ability to sway you and your friends.

Truth In The Movies" Series: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium - The Possibilities Of A Life With God

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:43:00 -0700

Possibilities. Potential. These are things that are usually hidden from the naked eye. It’s so hard to see the true FULL potential in someone and it’s even harder to see it in yourself. Let me give you an example…

Cullen Jones was just an ordinary kid living an ordinary life until one day he almost died. When he was 5 year old his family went on vacation to a water park in Pennsylvania. Jones became separated from his inner tube at the end of a ride down a slide and passed out. He almost drown until they pulled him from the water and performed CPR on him.

Because of that accident his Mom, Debra, just days later, enrolled him in swimming classes. And that decision revealed his true hidden potential as swimmer. In the summer of 2006, he became a professional swimmer after signing with Nike.

(Show other shirtless pic)
At the 2006 Pan Pacific Championships he set a meet record in the 50m Freestyle with a time of 21.84. He also swam a in the world record breaking 4x100 m Freestyle Relay along with Michael Phelps, Jason Lezak and Neil Walker.

Jones is the third black swimmer to ever make a United States Olympic squad.

And the race he one with Phelps, Lezak and Walker made him the first African-American to hold or share a world record in swimming

If you saw him on that day back in Pennsylvania being rescued from the water, you would’ve have guessed that his potential to be a swimmer.wasn’t very good. But if you would’ve guessed that back then, you would’ve been wrong!

Someone’s true possibilities and potential are sometimes invisible to the eye.
What are all the possibilities of what you can really do and become?

What’s your true potential?

If we could see the combined true potential, the true possibilities, of each person here in this theater we would be shocked!

The problem with people and potential is that so many of us live below our full potential.

Jim Rohn - Every life form seems to strive to its maximum except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can. Human beings, on the other hand, have been given the dignity of choice. You can choose to be all or you can choose to be less. Why not stretch up to the full measure of the challenge and see what all you can do?

Why do we live below our potential? Sometimes it’s because of fear. Sometimes it’s because of doubt.

But the fact is so many people settle for less than they could be and do. People live below their possibilities...

Did you know that to reach your God-given potential you're going to need to accomplish MORE that just the possible? You're going to need to do the impossible.

What am I talking about? Listen to the full talk now.
Stream and listen online. (length 29:00)
Download here.

Supreme Series: Solutions To 2 Problems We Have

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:07:00 -0700

I want to talk to you today about two big problems we have and give you two major solutions.

You can see our first problem revealed in this video – check it out…
(You can see the video I showed this Sunday here.

Or you can watch a similar video below...)

Copyright 2007 Orchard Valley Community Church, Aurora, IL
www.orchardvalleyonline.com
info@orchardvalleyonline.com

For those of us in this room who consider ourselves Christ-followers, we have a big problem!

People love (or least like) Jesus, but they have a problem with us. Did you hear what they called us? “Trouble,” “Weak,” “Boo!”

Why do you think people like Jesus, but have a problem with Christ-followers?
I think some of the reasons are...

Christians misrepresenting Jesus with their words and actions, Christians treating non-believers harshly, & media misrepresenting Christ-followers.

I don’t think that any of us are this way, but either way we still have an image problem that we need to overcome if we’re going to ever have a chance to be effective in sharing Jesus with people.

In just a minute we’re going to look at Colossians 4 and see a solution to this problem, but before we do that let me tell you about our second problem…

Our second problem is that we’re missing out on some things in our lives – some things we realize we’re missing and some things we don’t. We’re less effective than God wants us to be and we’re not experiencing all that he wants us to.

We’ll see the answer to that problem in Colossians 4 today.

First let’s review where we’re at in this series. We’re doing a series I’m calling "Supreme." It’s based on a book from the Bible called Colossians. We’re looking at the things God has done for us or wants to do for us that are so much greater than all we chase after in life.

The first Sunday, we looked at Colossians 1 and saw the dangers of letting other things in our lives take the place of God.

The second Sunday, we looked at Colossians 2 and saw the danger there was in adding to Jesus. The danger of adding other philosophies to him and the danger of adding rules and rituals to him.

The third Sunday, we looked at Col. 3 and the mystery that Paul understood about Jesus that few Christ-followers understand: Paul understood the mystery of our union with Jesus. We talked about how realizing this can help us to live more powerfully.

Last Sunday, we looked at a Col 3:18-19 and saw passage of scripture that’s has been misused in the past in ways that caused wives to be mistreated and husbands to be harassed. I helped break apart the old interpretations and helped us see the real meaning that is more freeing and fulfilling to both husbands and wives.

I got a lot of good feedback and response last Sunday after the gathering. If you weren’t with us and want to hear this talk, then look in your bulletin for the URL and you can go stream it online or download it onto an MP3 player.

Alright, so let’s get back to our 2 problems for today…

1. We have an image problem with some people.
2. We’re less effective and experience less than what God has for us.

Let's look at what Paul gives us as our 2 solutions in Colossians 4:2-6...

Stream it
Download it

"Supreme" Series: Two Requirements In Marriage = Submission & Sacrificial Love

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:24:00 -0700

Today, I want to start with a story I saw online…

In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia. Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the cause of the accident.

It wasn't a technology problem like radar malfunction--or even thick fog. The cause was human stubbornness. Each captain was aware of the other ship's presence nearby. Both could have steered clear, but according to news reports, neither captain wanted to give way to the other. Each was too proud to submit and yield first. By the time they came to their senses, it was too late.

I’m going to talk to you about something that, in our society, is almost considered a bad word. I want to talk to you today about “submission.”

In our culture submission, in general, is thought of as a negative thing. Submission is seen as a sign of weakness. It’s something for a weak person to do. It’s what you do when you lose or give in. It’s something a less educated or less powerful person should do.

But what if our society’s view of submission is wrong and backwards?

The Bible has a different view of submission. The Bible has a positive view of submission. The Bible actually reveals submission as a requirement for all people in some form whether it’s submitting to God or to submitting to each other. The Bible actually reveals submission as a part of God’s nature!

Bible Commentator, David Guzman said this about submission…

”This idea of an order of authority and submission to an order of authority are so important to God that they are part of His very being. The First Person of the Holy Trinity is called the Father; the Second Person of the Holy Trinity is called the Son. Inherent in those titles is a relationship of authority and submission to authority.

“The Father exercises authority over the Son, and the Son submits to the Father's authority - and this is in the very nature and being of God! Our failure to exercise Biblical authority, and our failure to submit to Biblical authority, isn't just wrong and sad - it sins against the very nature of God.”

Today we’re to take a look at a passage of scripture that talks about submission in marriage and also in some other realms of life. This passage has been has been misapplied by Christ-followers in the past. And I want to shatter those misconceptions and talk today about what the Bible really does say about the roles of husband and wife and about the role of submission and authority.

First let’s review where we’re at in this series. We’re doing a series I’m calling "Supreme." It’s based on a book from the Bible called Colossians. We’re looking at the things God has done for us or wants to do for us that are so much greater than all we chase after in life.

The first Sunday, we looked at Colossians 1 and saw the dangers of letting other things in our lives take the place of God. The second Sunday, we looked at Colossians 2 and saw the danger there was in adding to Jesus. We saw that it was dangerous to add other philosophies to him and it’s dangerous to add rules and rituals to him.

Last Sunday, we looked at the mystery that Paul understood about Jesus that few Christ-followers understand: Paul understood the mystery of our union with Jesus. He understood how we’re one with Jesus just like husband and wife are considered one.

Today we’re going to look at a passage of scripture that’s has been misused in the past in ways that caused wives to be mistreated, husbands to be harassed. The crazy thing is that's not what the Apostle Paul meant! Paul was saying something that was meant to improve marriage relationships.

Today we'll shatter the old, incorrect understanding of these verses (Col. 3:18-19) and look at what these verses really mean for us today.

Stream online
Download

"The Big Give" - How To Use Your Gifts & Talents To Make A Difference

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:43:00 -0700

Intro:

An unknown poet wrote these words that I want to start with today...

My life shall touch a dozen lives before this day is done;
Leave countless marks for good or ill, ere sets the evening sun.
This is the wish I always wish, the prayer I always pray:
Lord, may my life help other lives it touches by the way.

Even though we don’t know who wrote these words, we can all relate to this person because this is a person who, like us, wants to live a life of influence.

Last Sunday, I told you that when we think and talk about salvation we usually overlook something. That’s this…

The fact that Jesus saved us for something, not just from something.

God has a purpose for each one of us, individually, and he has a purpose for us as a church.He saved us so we could accomplish something, so we could have an impact on the world and people around us.

Not only does God want us to accomplish something, but each of us here have a desire to matter in this life. We all want to live a life that will make a difference in this world.

We want to have a life that has an influence on others and on this world.

The question I asked last Sunday was this…

*If that’s what God wants and what we want, why don’t more of us find ourselves living a life of influence and impact?

I told you that I think the reason is because we don’t know where to start. We don’t know how to use our gifts and talents in a way to impact other people’s lives in a big way.

And with so many needs out there, wee don’t know who we can help out in the biggest way.

That’s why for these last two Sundays I’m doing this series called, “Big Give.”

In this series, we’re going to be looking at a new matrix that will allow you to discover a way to have larger impact on the people in need around you. It will help you to discover, develop and/or deploy your gifts and talents in new ways.

Last week, I reminded you of this…

God is the one who took the first step and he did the ultimate Big Give. He gave himself and he paid the ultimate price: his ife. And God now expects us to give to others as he’s given to us.

When he sent the disciples out on their first mission Jesus told them this in Matt. 10:8, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

Jesus wants us to give to others in the way we’ve received – generously and freely! He wants us to help them out, bandage them up, heal them, lift them up, and set them free people who are in need around us.

I told you that the funny this is that I’ve been seeing TV shows living out what God wants us to do better than Christ-followers. Shows like “Extreme Makeover Home Edition”. I think they appeal to people because we crave to live a life like that. I told you last week that it was after watching Oprah’s “Big Give” show that I suddenly had a new idea…

We don’t have to wait until we’re a bigger church to give big. We can have a huge impact on people’s lives at this stage.

It will happen when we each find the sweet spot of our maximum effectiveness. It will be when we begin to live this out together – inspiring each other, working together and challenging each other in the process.

We’re going to provide this through a friendly challenge I’m going to give Smaller Gatheringss that will allow us all to live these ideas out in a unique way. Hebrews 10:24 it says (NLT), “Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds.” The NIV translates it this way… “And let us consider
how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

I’m challenging the SG groups to take the ideas that we’re talking about in this series and run with them in such a huge way that it will be a way we can encourage and spur each other on toward actually living out these outbursts of love and good deeds!

I want your SG group to find an individual or organization that you can do the BIGGEST Give to. I want the idea that you know other groups are using their creativity and aiming high to spur your group to go for it a big as you can

Today will help you to do that. You might want to have a pen handy again as we start.

Listen to this talk now...

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Life Management Series: Gift #3

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Wed, 6 Feb 2008 11:19:00 -0800

I haven't had a chance to post "Gift #2" yet, so this is out of order. Sorry!

Intro:
I want to start today by talking about unseen dangers. These are the little-known dangers that are around us, all the time. You can look just where you live and find them!
Did you know…

· A Household dryers can be dangerous? Dryers cause more than 15,000 house fires every year.

· Toothpaste is poisonous?
If you shallow too much of it can actually kill you! Label… “If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional assistance or contact a Poison Control Center right away.”

There are dangers like this from everyday items that we use all the time. I saw something funny online when I typed in “warning labels” on Google…

These are labels from the 11^th Annual M-LAW Wacky Warning Label Contest…

Third place: A baby stroller featuring a small pouch for storage that warns: "Do not put child in bag."

Second place: An iron-on T-shirt transfer that warns: "Do not iron while wearing shirt."

Grand Prize: A label on a small tractor that warns: "Danger! Avoid Death."

The gift we’re going to look at today is another amazing gift that can do a lot of good in our lives and others lives, but there also is a danger comes with it. It’s a danger that most of us don’t even think about, but it’s serious! It has the power to ultimately destroy our lives if we don’t use it carefully!

We’ll look more at that in a second, but first… Let me remind you about what we’re trying to do in this series. When we started this “Life Management” series and I told you…

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For 5 Sundays, we're looking at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

The FIRST week, I talked about the first gift that God has given us to manage, which is TIME.

You only have 1440 minutes given to you everyday. If you sleep 7 hours that leaves you 1020 minutes. You can never get more. The only way to make more time is by managing it better. How we manage our time becomes our worship to God.

It makes “Time Management” a holy thing!

The LAST Sunday we were here at the theater, I talked about the second gift that God has given us to manage, which is our health. I showed you in the Bible that God care about all of us – not just our spiritual health, but also our mental, emotional and physical health.

I told you that how you manage your gift of health will decide the quantity and quality of your life. You can listen to these last two talks at PathwayPaloAlto.Blogspot.com.

Today we’re going to look at the 3^rd gift.The third gift God’s given us to manage is Wealth.This gift has one major danger...

Listen to the rest:

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*Two Handouts That Go With This Series:

1. "3 Ways To Better Manage Your Money"

Simple method to eliminate your debt.
How to grow your money from your knowledge.
Tips for giving.

2. Ministry & Missions Giving Goals

Life Management Series: Gift #1

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:30:00 -0800

Let’s talk about gifts for second. (Show wrapped gift)

We all like getting these. I don’t know anyone who hates getting gifts!

Why do people give them?

To show someone we love or appreciate them. To see the excitement on their faces. To give them someone what they need or want.

But a gift always leaves us with a choice: Will you accept it and use it or will you reject it and throw to the side?

God has given you (and will give you) all of the "raw materials" and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

At the end of our lives, no one is going to be able to blame God that he didn’t give them what they needed to make it in this life.

Whether you reach your full potential, or not, will be based on how you managed what you've been given. Did you waste your gifts or cherish them?

For the next 5 Sundays, we're going to look at 5 of the most important raw materials you've been given to form your life with. I'm calling these 5 raw materials of life "5 Gifts" that God has given you to manage.

What are you going to do with these 5 gifts God’s given you? Will you accept them or reject them? Use them or abuse them? An unaccepted or unused gift isn’t any better than no gift at all!

Today we’re going to look at the first gift. (Begin opening wrapped present) Let’s see what it is…

Listen to the rest:

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"The Fear Factor" Series: "Life Giving Fear"

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:12:00 -0700

Spoken on 10/14/07
(*Scroll down to stream or download the audio or read the intro first)

Intro:
In The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis, there’s a scene where he has the two girls, Susan and Lucy, getting ready to meet Aslan the lion, who represents Jesus. I want to start this morning by reading you that from scene because it contains an important truth.

Two animals, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, get the girls ready to meet Aslan. "Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie." said Mrs. Beaver. "And make no mistake, if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knee's knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then isn't he safe?" said Lucy. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king, I tell you!"

In the Bible “Fear of God” is a positive thing. It was a way to describe someone who knew God and walked with him. To say that you have no “Fear of God” was a negative thing back then. It was the way non-believers were described.

Nowadays it’s the opposite! We’ve emphasized “The Love Of God”, “God as our father”, “God as our friend” so much that we have no fear of God left! In fact we think of “fear of God” now as a negative thing!

“Good… but not safe.” is a description of God that we all need to have and know again. It’s the place where wisdom, life and success all begin.

Many of us misunderstand what it means to fear God.

Today, I want to help us have a Biblical view of the fear of God. Today I’m going to talk to your about what I’m calling “Life Giving Fear”.

Listen to the talk now:

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You can read the book I mention at the end of my talk called, "The Judgment Seat Of Christ" by Rick Howard online, for free by clicking here!

"The Fear Factor" Series: "Making Friends With Fear"

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 16:03:00 -0700

Spoken on 10/7/07
(*Scroll down to stream or download the audio or read the intro first)

Intro:

How many of you know who Ann Landers is? She’s a famous old advice columnist who wrote her column for 43 years. Her column ran in newspapers across the country. People would write to her with all kinds of questions and problems and she’d give them advice.

In the book, “Conquer Fear!” by Lisa Jimenez she tells this story about Ann Landers that I want to start with today. Listen to what it reveals..

Newspaper columnist Ann Landers was once asked, “Out of all the thousands of letters you receive each month, what problem is most dominant in people’s lives?”

Her answer was shocking! “It’s fear!” she replied without hesitation. “The one thing that keeps people from the life they dream of is fear. People live every day in their fear. They’re afraid of losing their wealth. They’re afraid of losing their loved ones. They’re afraid of being themselves. They’re afraid of growing up and being responsible. They’re afraid of making the wrong decision. They’re afraid of making a commitment. They’re afraid of life itself!”

When I was praying and thinking about what I should talk to you about for our next series I felt like God led me to this topic of fear because it’s so universal.

No one is completely fearless. We all fear something or some things. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a student or a parent, single or married, young or older – we all have things we’re afraid of.

What I’m afraid of might be nothing to you or what you’re afraid of might be nothing to me. Fear is unique because it’s subjective and really in the eye of the beholder.

And just like when we were kids, most of the things we’re afraid of aren’t real. They’re make-believe or at least not real yet!

But these make-believe fears, in a very real way, hold most of us back from doing, living and being what we’re meant to do, live and be!

That’s what makes fear such a negative and restrictive thing. But fear isn’t only negative! HowItWorks.com said this about fear…

If we couldn't be afraid, we wouldn't survive for long. We'd be walking into oncoming traffic, stepping off of rooftops and carelessly handling poisonous snakes. We'd be hanging out with people who have tuberculosis. In humans and in all animals, the purpose of fear is to promote survival.

Listen to this Wikipedia definition of Fear… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear

“Fear is an emotional response to impending danger, that is tied to anxiety. Behavioral theorists, like Watson and Ekman, have both suggested that fear, along with a few other basic emotions (e.g., joy and anger), is a trait innate to most higher functioning organisms. Fear is a survival mechanism, and usually occurs in response to a specific negative stimulus.” And later it says, “Fear is related to a number of emotional states including worry, anxiety, terror, fright, paranoia, horror, panic (social and personal), persecution complex and dread.”

Not all fear is bad! God gave us fear to protect us. Without it we’d be clueless and constantly in danger and not even know it! We’d be like young kids.

Picture of why we need fear: Addison is 18 months old now and he’s fearless about falling. He’ll walk, stand, and fall on our chairs, couches, and our bed. When he’s doing this he’s laughing and completely clueless that he’s in danger. He needs to have some fear of this, not so he’s too afraid to ever stands on a chair (he’d never be able to change a ceiling light bulb if he was like this), but he at least needs to have a fear that causes him to be careful. Otherwise he’s going to get hurt!

What I’m going to be talking to you about today is NOT about completely getting rid of all fear. It’s impossible and not healthy or smart to totally get rid of fear!

I’m going to be talking instead about changing the way see/respond to fear! We have to change our paradigm of fear.

Stephen Covey in his classic book “7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” says this about paradigms…

“It becomes obvious that if we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms.”

We need a new way to see and respond to fear. Instead of seeing fear as something to run from fear we need to make friends with it and realize that it can help us and inspire to action.

If we don’t do this, then we’ll never get rid of one of the major barriers that hold us back from living and fulfilling our purpose!

Can you imagine all that you could do and be if you could change how you think and respond to fear? Have people imagine/write down what they’d do if they weren’t afraid (1 minute). Isn’t that reason enough to change your mindset?

The good news is that God wants you to change your view and response to fear too!
God doesn't want you to be afraid. God doesn't want you to live as a prisoner of your fears. He wants to set you free.

That makes this quest to change our mindset about fear so much more doable and possible because God and we both want the same thing! We just have to ask God for help and do our part and we’ll begin to see this barrier dissolve!

Today I want to look some more at fear and give you specific things you can do to change your mindset of fear from your enemy to your friend.

Listen to the talk now:

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Truth In The Movies Series: Spiderman 3 - Our Ultimate Battle"

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:07:00 -0700

Intro:

(Scroll down to stream or download and listen to this talk now.)

Today, I want to talk to you about the greatest battle that you’ll ever face in your life. It’s the battle whose victory matters most – more than any other.

The battle I’m talking about is the battle within. This is a battle against your own destructive desires. It’s our ultimate battle.

We all have good qualities, strengths, and a desire to do what’s right. You probably have done and probably will do some pretty impressive things in your life. You probably have done and will do some pretty good and kind things in your life.

In some ways you’re a pretty good person! In some ways I am. But we all have a problem.

Deep down we all have thoughts, desires, and emotions that are wrong. They’re not just wrong, but they’re dark, destructive – even evil. You might hide them, suppress them, and keep them in the dark, but they still exist.

The biggest danger this dark side of us has is that if we feed these negative qualities we could destroy a part of our lives or even destroy ourselves.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Owen Wilson. He’s a funny, likeable, successful guy. But recently his dark side showed itself. A source close to him has said, “A good portion of his [Owen’s] life has been dedicated to fighting depression and addiction… This is the third time he’s tried killing himself.”

In People magazine another source close to the actor said, "Owen is in bad mental shape but said he is thankful to be alive. He knows he came close to ending his life, and he is happy that he was saved from himself. He is basically at home with people watching him 24/7."

Owen isn’t the only successful comedian this has happened too. Chris Farley died at the age of only 33 from what they say was a combination of obesity and substance abuse. Jim Belushi died of an overdose.

It’s not just comedians who have a dark side. Check the news and you see senators, businessman, housewives, and pastors being caught in adultery, embezzling money, murder, and all sorts of crazy things!

But it’s not just them! These people are all people just like us. The only difference is that they happen to be in the spotlight, they made decisions that fed their dark side and eventually destroyed part of their lives.

If we don’t face the fact that we have a dark side whose desires, thoughts and emotions could one day destroy us, then we will be blindsided one day by it.

Today I want to use the movie Spiderman 3, as a backdrop to look at this idea and to discover some ways to help save us from ourselves.

The Spiderman 3 DVD isn’t out yet, so we’ll just use the trailer and an online clip to take a peek at the movie.

Listen to the talk below...

NOTE:
I've edited the movie clips out of the audio, but you can pause the audio and watch the clips below when those parts of the talk come on.)

1. Watch the trailer here.

2. Brock turns into "Venom"

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR THE TALK:

Stream this talk here!
(Time: 29:55)

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“What All Great People Of Faith Have Done BEFORE They Saw Results”

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 16:34:00 -0700

Intro:
(Scroll to bottom to stream or download the audio now.)

I’ve felt like God’s led recently to do a personal self-study on faith again. I started reading Abraham’s story again, and others. I’ve reread Hebrews 11, Romans 4, and James 2.

In the middle of this study I’ve discovered what seems to be THE requirement for seeing God do huge things in and through your life. This simple thing is something that needs to happen before we see any results.

I want to talk to you about that today, but first I want to tell you an amazing story about an Eastern Indian women that I read in INC magazine.

This woman came to this country with just a simple goal. And it came true in a way that was beyond her dreams…

Prathiba Ramadoss emigrated from Chennai, a coastal city in southeast India, to St. Paul in 1999 when she was just 21 years old. She was newly married, and determined to start a business.

Two years later, with a six-month-old in tow, she launched an IT staffing firm, Business Integra, from her garage. When she started out she persistently called 50 to 60 companies a day until her husband, Selva Jay, a software consultant, came home to help her tackle the West Coast.

With Jay as her CTO, Ramadoss has transformed her company (now based in Maryland) into a full-scale contracting firm and software developer with $4.7 million in sales.

Listen to how she describes starting the company…

It was very difficult initially. When I called companies, they wouldn't listen--probably because of my accent. They would just hang up the phone. I don't blame them; they tend to get numerous calls a day. But I was patient and persistent. I would call the next day and say, "Sorry, when I called you yesterday the phone got disconnected. That was my fault, but I have some good consultants looking for a project, so if you have anything coming up I'd be happy to help." Now one of the companies that hung up on me calls me every day to get into our vendor program.

She went on to say…

My degree was in zoology, but my husband's experience in IT made it easy for me to transition. Otherwise, I would have gone into biotech.

They say behind every successful man is a good woman. Well, I have a good man behind me. Selva molded me into this level. It would have been different if I was in India, but here I am shy. He taught me the business way of talking. Like when we speak to clients, we should refer to our consultants as resources, not people. Because of my background in science, I also didn't have an in-depth knowledge of things like Dot.NET, Java, and data warehousing, which he explained to me. I'm planning to enroll in an M.B.A. program--once I have a little more time.

__________________

Did you catch where she said, “It would have been different if I was in India, but here I am shy.” She grew the company to $4.7 million in sales! And that’s when she’s SHY!

This woman came from another country and for some reason had enough guts and determination to start a business and see it succeed in HUGE ways. Her company is listed in INC as one of Americas 500 fastest growing private companies!

There are three things that she had or did that helped her succeed. She had faith. She believed she could do it. She gained the knowledge. She talked to her husband and learned the industry. And this is the most important part - she took action! She continually called 50 to 60 companies a day! And she didn’t just call them once. She called them again and again – even when they hung up on her!

A lot of people have more knowledge in the IT field, but they never accomplish anything like she did!

Why? I think there are two reasons. They don’t believe they could and they won’t take action.

Belief and action are BOTH needed in order to succeed.

If you have belief but no action you’ll have no results.
If you have action, but no belief that you can do it, then you have poor results. You won’t try hard enough. You won’t be persistent, etc.

You have to have strong belief and action to succeed!

I just got a book in the mail yesterday, that I ordered from Amazon.com called, “The Magic Of Thinking Big”. It’s a classic book, that’s sold more than 4,000,000 copies, by a Ph.D. named David J. Schwartz.

The whole premise of the book is that successful people aren’t successful because they’re smarter, luckier, work harder or any other advantage like that. He says that the reason their successful is just they believe in themselves and because the aim higher!

They have the confidence and belief to try something BIGGER than most people would. I can really see that in Prathiba’s story! Can’t you?

This idea that has some things in common with what I’ve discovered in my study of the “greats” of faith.

Listen to the talk now:

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Heroes Series - Gideon

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 4 Sep 2007 16:01:00 -0700

This is from the Heroes series I finished on August 12th. I just finally got a chance to upload it.

You'll learn how God can use you even if you're fearful, faithless, and full of doubt.

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Series: “Heroes: Extra-Ordinary Living For Ordinary People”: 2nd Hero - Joseph

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:26:00 -0700

Here's the audio from last Sundays talk.

You can download it and listen to it on your MP3 player or you can stream it and listen to it online right now. Choose the link below you want.

Joseph - Blessings In Disguise Stream
Joseph - Blessings In Disguise Right-click to download
Talk length (41:48)

Below is the intro to the talk to give you a little teaser of what the talk is about....

Intro:
This story is from Reader's Digest, March, 1993, p. 123….

“A friend of mine awoke one morning to find a puddle of water in the middle of his king-size water bed. In order to fix the puncture, he rolled the heavy mattress outdoors and filled it with more water so he could locate the leak more easily. The enormous bag of water was impossible to control and began rolling on the hilly terrain. He tried to hold it back, but it headed downhill and landed in a clump of bushes which poked it full of holes.

“Disgusted, my friend threw out the water-bed frame and moved a standard bed into his room. The next morning, he awoke to find a puddle of water in the middle of the new bed. The upstairs bathroom had a leaky drain.”

Sometimes problems in life just seem to get worse and worse and make no sense at all. It’d all be funny if it wasn’t you!

· If you’ve ever felt like God has delayed his promises or blessings in your life, then what I’m about to talk about is for you.

· If you’ve ever felt like God’s forgotten you or that he just isn’t coming through for you, then what I’m about to talk about is for you.

Here’s the thought I want to plant in your mind as we start today…

What if the delay and the problems you’ve felt showed God was against you were actually a part of the plan to help you live out your purpose?

Last week, I read to you from John Eldredge’s new book “Epic: The Story God Is Telling”. I want to remind you again of one part of that quote from John. He says, “What if all the great stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears – what if they are telling you something about the true Story into which you were born, the Epic into which you have been cast?

“We won’t begin to understand our lives, or what this so-called Gospel is that Christianity speaks of, until we understand the Story in which we have found ourselves. For when you were born, you were born into an epic that has already been underway now for quite some time. It is a story of beauty and intimacy and adventure, a story of danger and loss and heroism and betrayal.”

We looked last week at the story of David and Goliath and saw that God sends trials to use to prepare and train us so that we can learn to trust him, rely on him, take risks, and learn how to let God use us.

Today, we’re going to learn one final lesson about being used by God to live heroically. It’s something that could change the way you see your problems right now and it could reframe the way you see your whole life.

We’re going to discover this idea by looking at the life of Joseph. He was a guy who had a dream that didn’t get fulfilled in the way he thought it would. It was in harder, but greater and larger way, then he ever could’ve imagined! We’re going to start our story today in Genesis 37...

Listen to the audio to hear the whole talk!

Series: “Heroes: Extra-Ordinary Living For Ordinary People”: First Hero - David

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 13:26:00 -0700

Sunday July 8^th – 1^st talk in series

Intro: John Eldredge, author of Wild At Heart, has a new book out. It’s a little book called, “Epic: The Story God Is Telling”. I want to start by reading to you some of it today. And I want you to listen to what he says in it about our lives. He says…

“We find ourselves in the middle of a story that is sometimes wonderful, sometimes awful, often a confusing mixture of both, and we haven’t a clue how to make sense of it all.”

Then he asks, wouldn’t it be great to be able to know where you are in this story and where you should go? And he tells a clue about where to start. He says…

“Start with the movies you love.

I’m serious. Think about your favorite movies. Notice that every good story has the same ingredients: Love. Adventure. Danger. Heroism. Romance. Sacrifice. The Battle of Good and Evil. Unlikely heroes. Insurmountable odds. And a little fellowship that in hope beyond hope pulls through in the end.

Most of us haven’t stopped to ask ourselves, now why that heart? Why those longings and desires? Then he says…

Next, I want you to notice that all the great stories pretty much follow the same story line. Things were once good, and then something awful happened, and now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken. At just the right moment (which feels like the last possible moment) a hero comes and sets things right, and life is found again.

Its true of every fairy tale, every myth, every Western, every epic – just about every story you can think of, one way or another. Braveheart, Titanic, the Star Wars series, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They all pretty much follow the same story line.

Have you ever wondered why? And this is the part I want us to hear from him today…

Every story great and small shares the same essential structure, because every story we tell borrows its power from a Larger Story, a story woven into the fabric of our being – what Jung tried to explain as archetype or what Joseph Campbell calls myth.

All these stories are borrowing from the Story. From Reality. We hear echoes of it through our lives. Some secret written on our hearts. A great battle to fight, and someone to fight for us. An adventure, something that requires everything we have, something to be shared with those we love and need.

There is a Story that we just can’t seem to escape. There is a Story written on the human heart.

As Ecclesiastes has it,

“He has planted eternity in the human heart”

Later Eldredge says this...

What if?

What if all the great stories that have ever moved you, brought you joy or tears – what if they are telling you something about the true Story into which you were born, the Epic into which you have been cast?

We won’t begin to understand our lives, or what this so-called Gospel is that Christianity speaks of, until we understand the Story in which we have found ourselves. For when you were born, you were born into an epic that has already been underway now for quite some time. It is a story of beauty and intimacy and adventure, a story of danger and loss and heroism and betrayal.”

Most of us here today don’t realize it, but the problems and junk that you’re facing in your life – that you think are holding you back and messing you up – could actually be the battle that gives you the greatest opportunity you’ve ever had to see God work in you and through you.

Today you’re about to hear one of the most famous, amazing stories in the Bible about a mild manner guy who because of his faith in God, faces a problem – the battle of a lifetime – and comes out of it as a hero. And after it all over, his life is never the same!

You’re about to see from the life of David the first lesson you need to learn to become a hero. Turn with me to 1 Samuel 16. I’m just going to just tell you the story today, but you can read and follow along – if you want to.

Backdrop: Israel has rejected God and asked for a leader. He gave them a great one named Saul, but Saul has turned from God and fallen from God’s favor. Israel now needs a new leader. And God is about to give them one. That’s where 1 Samuel 16 begins…

1 Samuel CHAPTER 16 - Samuel Anoints David as King

¹Finally, the LORD said to Samuel, "You have mourned long enough for Saul. I have rejected him as king of Israel. Now fill your horn with olive oil and go to Bethlehem. Find a man named Jesse who lives there, for I have selected (past tense – already done) one of his sons to be my new king."

²But Samuel asked, "How can I do that? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me." "Take a heifer with you," the LORD replied, "and say that you have come to make a sacrifice to the LORD. ³Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you which of his sons to anoint for me."

⁴So Samuel did as the LORD instructed him. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the leaders of the town became afraid. "What's wrong?" they asked. "Do you come in peace?"

⁵"Yes," Samuel replied. "I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice." Then Samuel performed the purification rite for Jesse and his sons and invited them, too.

⁶When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, "Surely this is the LORD's anointed!" By any human standards Eliab, Jesse’s oldest, was the man! He was the first born and he just had the look of a leader. But was he the one? Listen and see…

⁷But the LORD said to Samuel, "Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn't make decisions the way you do! People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at a person's thoughts and intentions."

Let’s stop for a second here, so we don’t miss this… God has a certain standard he uses when he chooses someone to use and it’s not the same ours and the rest of the world’s standards.

We judge by people’s look, their personality, their charisma. We look on the outside. We look at their family background. We look at their resume.

But God decides who to use based on the qualities you can’t see. It’s based on their heart - their thoughts, desires, and intentions – and their faith. God’s looking for a person with a good heart. Someone who has good thoughts, desires and intentions - someone who has faith in Him.

He’s not looking for someone who is perfect. He’s looking for someone who wants to do their best to do what’s right. He’s looking for someone who will trust and rely on him. He’s looking for someone who will take a step of faith and take a risk for him. That’s someone he can use!

This is good news! That means that anyone – any of us – can qualify to be used by God. If we just guard our hearts and trust in God.

Alright, back to the story…

⁸Then Jesse told his son Abinadab to step forward and walk in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "This is not the one the LORD has chosen." ⁹Next Jesse summoned Shammah, but Samuel said, "Neither is this the one the LORD has chosen." ¹⁰In the same way all seven of Jesse's sons were presented to Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen any of these." ¹¹Then Samuel asked, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse replied. "But he's out in the fields watching the sheep." (Jesse didn’t think God could want to use David, because he was the youngest and in their culture that meant you were the lowest on the totem pole.) "Send for him at once," Samuel said. "We will not sit down to eat until he arrives."

¹²So Jesse sent for him. He was ruddy (reddish faced) and handsome, with pleasant eyes. And the LORD said, "This is the one; anoint him."

¹³So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the olive oil he had brought and poured it on David's head. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him from that day on. Then Samuel returned to Ramah. You can’t imagine how amazing this moment was for David. His other brother had to be shocked and jealous!

Before we go on, I want you to remember today, that it doesn’t matter today if you meet the requirements of what the world says is a successful person. God has a different set of requirements and he might just have chosen you or be choosing you to do something great through.

But first he has to prepare you for the big day when he can use you. You won’t be able to be used by God unless he can teach you how to trust him, rely on him, take a risk, and let him use you. And that lesson isn’t learned quickly. It takes repetition and practice.

You’re about to see how God prepared David and you might just find out that you’re in the middle of your training right now and not even know it…

CHAPTER 17

Goliath Challenges the Israelites

¹The Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camped between Socoh in Judah and Azekah at Ephes-dammim. ²Saul countered by gathering his troops near the valley of Elah. ³So the Philistines and Israelites faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them.

⁴Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was a giant of a man, measuring over nine feet ^F58 tall!

I want to stop for a second and clarify something here. Goliath was not a giant like in the story Jack and the beanstalk. As kids that’s the way we were told the story and that’s what made it seem to unbelievable to us later as grown-ups.

He was not a giant. He was just a huge man. Goliath was 9.75 feet – 3 meters. 3 ft 4 in. taller than Ioannis. (A lot taller than me!) That’s huge, but it’s not an unbelievable height.

The tallest recorded man to ever live according to the Guinness Book of World Records was Robert Pershing Wadlow. (See pic) He was 8 ft 11 in. He lived in Alton, Illinois and was measured on July 15, 1940. Goliath was only 10 inches taller than this guy.

So see? This story’s not so unbelievable! Let’s get back to the story…

⁵He wore a bronze helmet and a coat of mail that weighed 125 pounds. ^F59 ⁶He also wore bronze leggings, and he slung a bronze javelin over his back. ⁷The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver's beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed fifteen pounds. ^F60 An armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a huge shield.

⁸Goliath stood and shouted across to the Israelites, "Do you need a whole army to settle this? Choose someone to fight for you, and I will represent the Philistines. We will settle this dispute in single combat! ⁹If your man is able to kill me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! ¹⁰I defy the armies of Israel! Send me a man who will fight with me!" ¹¹When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.

Jesse Sends David to Saul's Camp

¹²Now David was the son of a man named Jesse, an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. Jesse was an old man at that time, and he had eight sons in all. ¹³Jesse's three oldest sons—Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah—had already joined Saul's army to fight the Philistines. ¹⁴David was the youngest of Jesse's sons. Since David's three oldest brothers were in the army, they stayed with Saul's forces all the time. ¹⁵But David went back and forth between working for Saul and helping his father with the sheep in Bethlehem.

¹⁶For forty days, twice a day, morning and evening, the Philistine giant strutted in front of the Israelite army.

¹⁷One day Jesse said to David, "Take this half-bushel ^F61 of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread to your brothers. ¹⁸And give these ten cuts of cheese to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along, and bring me back a letter from them." Jesse and David don’t realize this at the time, but Jesse is about to set his son up for a moment in time where he’s going to get the chance to be used by God to become a hero.

¹⁹David's brothers were with Saul and the Israelite army at the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines. ²⁰So David left the sheep with another shepherd and set out early the next morning with the gifts. He arrived at the outskirts of the camp just as the Israelite army was leaving for the battlefield with shouts and battle cries. ²¹Soon the Israelite and Philistine forces stood facing each other, army against army. ²²David left his things with the keeper of supplies and hurried out to the ranks to greet his brothers. ²³As he was talking with them, he saw Goliath, the champion from Gath, come out from the Philistine ranks, shouting his challenge to the army of Israel.

²⁴As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright. ²⁵"Have you seen the giant?" the men were asking. "He comes out each day to challenge Israel. And have you heard about the huge reward the king has offered to anyone who kills him? The king will give him one of his daughters for a wife, and his whole family will be exempted from paying taxes!"

²⁶David talked to some others standing there to verify the report. "What will a man get for killing this Philistine and putting an end to his abuse of Israel?" he asked them. "Who is this pagan Philistine anyway, that he is allowed to defy the armies of the living God?" ²⁷And David received the same reply as before: "What you have been hearing is true. That is the reward for killing the giant."

²⁸But when David's oldest brother, Eliab, heard David talking to the men, he was angry. "What are you doing around here anyway?" he demanded. "What about those few sheep you're supposed to be taking care of? I know about your pride and dishonesty. You just want to see the battle!"

²⁹"What have I done now?" David replied. "I was only asking a question!" Isn’t this a classic argument between an older brother and his kid brother!?!³⁰He walked over to some others and asked them the same thing and received the same answer. ³¹Then David's question was reported to King Saul, and the king sent for him.

David Kills Goliath

³²"Don't worry about a thing," David told Saul. "I'll go fight this Philistine!" Are you wondering why/how could David have so much confidence to volunteer to fight this huge dude? You’re about to see why. Listen…

³³"Don't be ridiculous!" Saul replied. "There is no way you can go against this Philistine. You are only a boy, and he has been in the army since he was a boy!"

³⁴But David persisted. "I have been taking care of my father's sheep," he said. "When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, ³⁵I go after it with a club and take the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. ³⁶I have done this to both lions and bears, and I'll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God!

Can you believe someone could kill and bear & lion like that? Again I want you guys to see that this isn’t some make-believe, unbelievable story. I can prove someone killing a bear or lion like that because of what just happened less than a month ago!

Chris Everhart, an ex-Marine, saved the lives of his three young sons when a 300-pound bear attacked their Georgia campsite.

While cleaning up after dinner, the family came face to face with the large animal.

"From out of nowhere we heard this loud crash," Everhart said on "Good Morning America." "For a second, I didn't know what it was, but I realized it was a bear. I went to the back of the Jeep to get my pots and pans to scare the bear off."

At the same time, Everhart's 6-year-old son, Logan, tried to frighten the animal. Instead of running away, the bear turned on the boy. Logan's brother, Kyle, tried to help him.

"I threw about five rocks at the bear to keep him away," Kyle Everhart said.

Realizing his sons could be killed, Everhart grabbed a log and threw it at the bear's head, striking and killing him.

"I forgot all about pots and pans and picked up whatever I could to try to distract, fend off, do what I could to get this bear away," Everhart said.

(See pic and full story at http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3306263)

That’s living proof of someone killing and bear with a log, so it’s obviously possible to kill it with a club like David did! But don’t be fooled. Don’t think David was able to do this cause he was some tough or powerful guy. He knew it wasn’t from his strength. He told Saul…

³⁷The LORD who saved me from the claws of the lion and the bear will save me from this Philistine!"

Let’s stop again for a second. Here’s the reason David had so much confidence!! He had already seen God help him defeat a lion and a bear. (Bear’s average size can be up to 6 ft./Lion is 9.84 ft in length about Goliath’s size.)

David believed if God could help him defeat these two animals he could help him defeat anything! When you think about it that way, David’s confidence and faith seems a lot more logical.

Think about your current problems. What could God be training you for? In what ways could he be trying to grow your faith? One day if you trust God through it all you’ll be able to use this experience to defeat a bigger problem… and see victory!

That should be your incentive to trust God in whatever you’re going through! That’s how David was prepare and trained for his battle with Goliath. Back to the story…

Saul finally consented. "All right, go ahead," he said. "And may the LORD be with you!"

³⁸Then Saul gave David his own armor—a bronze helmet and a coat of mail. ³⁹David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. "I can't go in these," he protested. "I'm not used to them." So he took them off again. ⁴⁰He picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them in his shepherd's bag. Then, armed only with his shepherd's staff and sling, he started across to fight Goliath.

It was good that David didn’t wear Saul’s armor, not just cause it didn’t fit him, but because it could’ve made him rely on the armor instead of on the Lord – the one who had always given him the victory before! This also allowed God to get the glory and credit in this.

⁴¹Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, ⁴²sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. ⁴³"Am I a dog," he roared at David, "that you come at me with a stick?" And he cursed David by the names of his gods. ⁴⁴"Come over here, and I'll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!" Goliath yelled.

I would’ve been getting nervous at this point, but not David. Listen to the faith and courage (in God) in his words…

⁴⁵David shouted in reply, "You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD Almighty—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. ⁴⁶Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! ⁴⁷And everyone will know that the LORD does not need weapons to rescue his people. It is his battle, not ours. The LORD will give you to us!"

The cool this is that David never forgot this whole time who his strength was in and what was going to give him victory. It wasn’t his strength, or skill with a sling. He knew it was God.

This next scene is so cool. You’ve gotta imagine it in your head with me. Listen to what it says…

⁴⁸As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. ⁴⁹Reaching into his shepherd's bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it from his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face downward to the ground. ⁵⁰So David triumphed over the Philistine giant with only a stone and sling. And since he had no sword, ⁵¹he ran over and pulled Goliath's sword from its sheath. David used it to kill the giant and cut off his head.

This is one of those moments when one person’s heroic action inspires and affects people all around him. Watch what happens next…

Israel Routs the Philistines

When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they turned and ran. ⁵²Then the Israelites gave a great shout of triumph and rushed after the Philistines, chasing them as far as Gath ^F63 and the gates of Ekron. The bodies of the dead and wounded Philistines were strewn all along the road from Shaaraim, as far as Gath and Ekron. ⁵³Then the Israelite army returned and plundered the deserted Philistine camp. ⁵⁴(David took Goliath's head to Jerusalem, but he stored the Philistine's armor in his own tent.)

I think the Israelites and the Philistines both realized the same thing when David killed Goliath: only God could have caused that to happen! When the Philistines realized this they became scared and ran. And the Israelites realized this they were filled with faith and courage and they ran and attacked!

⁵⁵As Saul watched David go out to fight Goliath, he asked Abner, the general of his army, "Abner, whose son is he?" "I really don't know," Abner said.

⁵⁶"Well, find out!" the king told him.

⁵⁷After David had killed Goliath, Abner brought him to Saul with the Philistine's head still in his hand. ⁵⁸"Tell me about your father, my boy," Saul said. And David replied, "His name is Jesse, and we live in Bethlehem."

I want you to remember this today, because this is the part that applies to us …

David had the faith to face Goliath, because he had already trusted God over and over when he faced the lions and the bears. Those moments prepared him for this one.

Two things I want you to get from this:

1. For those of you who have seen God move and help you through things in the past… Is there a giant of a problem in your life right now? You know what you can do?

Remember what God’s done to help you in the past. Dwell on it. Relive it in your mind. Let it get you excited and let it remind you of God’s power. Remember what you did last time to trust God and move forward in action. Pray and ask God if you should do the same thing this time or something different.

I also want you to notice something else. It says that in the past, David clubbed the lion and the bear, but he doesn’t go in there this time with the same weapon and technique as he used in the past. He goes in with the same God, with the same faith, but he decides – this time - to use a sling and stones.

He let God guide him in a new way! So don’t get stuck on what you did the last time God did amazing things. Pray and ask God whether to do what you did before or whether you should do something else, but no matter what, go forward in faith and trusting God to help you.

For those of you who have never seen God move and help you through things in the past… If there’s a problem you’re facing right now, then this could be your lion or bear. This is your chance to learn to trust God!

Read stories like this one from the Bible or biographies of Christ-followers who God has done amazing things in their lives, so that they can inspire you to trust God and take a step of faith. Pray and ask God what to do and when. Then do it!

You can only learn how to do something by doing it. You can only learn how to do something well by doing it over and over. It takes practice and repetition!

What you’re going through now could be your practice to get you ready for a future victory – the one that will matter the most in your life.

How you respond to this training will determine if you ever are ready for your greatest battle and your chance to be a hero! So use what you’re going through now to learn to trust him, rely on him, take a risk, and let him use you.

What area do you need to work on? Is it trust, reliance, courage/risk, letting God use you? Pray and ask God and ask him for his grace to help you to learn and improve in this area! Let’s close in prayer.

"One Of The Secrets To Experiencing Change"

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 3 Jul 2007 15:54:00 -0700

I found a story online about ex-quarterback Roger Staubach that I want to start with today…

Roger Staubach who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in '71 admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn't call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play.

He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a "genius mind" when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team.

Roger later said, "I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory."

Many Christ-followers wonder why their lives aren’t going better. They can’t understand why things are the way they are.

They regularly attend church. They read their Bible. They pray. But things still aren’t any different! Why?

Because there’s something their life is missing – it’s the one of the things that will change it all if they just added it to their life. What is it?

Obedience. We need to obey God if we’re ever going to see change in our life. Without obedience, there’s no change!

This is obvious, but most of us never realize this missing element in our lives. We disobey God in different areas of our lives and then wonder why things aren’t working out right.

Obedience is one of the secrets to a better life.

Over the last few months, we’ve been talking about doing simple, but powerful things: praying for friends we want to know Jesus, reading, memorizing and meditating on the Bible, so we can know God’s and his word more, and shining the light of Jesus to other people around us by doing good deeds.

In our last larger gathering we had on June 10^th, I told you that the most important thing is that we need to make sure that in all we’re doing that we’re loving God. Without love of God behind all this we’re just doing empty, lifeless rituals! I told you that Jesus said the way to show that we love him is by obeying commands.

Obedience is the next thing to add to our lives if we want to go to the next level in our walk with the Lord.

Today, I want to help us see how important obeying God is in our everyday lives and overall life experience. Here is why obedience is important…

Obedience is how we show respect for Jesus as our Lord.

In Today in the Word, July 30, 1993 they told this story…

Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament. During the course of the visit, the group happened to meet Lord Hailsham, then lord chancellor, wearing all the regalia of his office. Hailsham recognized Marten among the group and cried, "Neil!" Not daring to question or disobey the "command," the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees!

These people heard a command (at least what they thought was one) and they followed it – instantly without question. Why aren’t we like this?

We read God’s commands, we learn about them, but we only seem to do them if they make sense to us and agree with them. Think about how disrespectful that is to God!

If we have to know WHY we should do what God has told us to do, then we’re basically saying to God, “If it makes sense to me, then I’ll do it, but if it does I won’t!” Does that sound like someone to you who believes and trusts Jesus as Lord?

The Culture and Media Institute released a special report March 7, entitled "The National Cultural Values Survey: America: a Nation in Moral and Spiritual Confusion”.

In it they had an interesting finding…
“While half the population (52 percent) said they believed the Bible was God's authoritative word, only 36 percent of those said they believed people should live by God's word, while 45 percent said they operated by a mixture of God's commands and their own inclination. 15 percent said they ignored God's word if it conflicted with their own plan.”

In Matt. 7:20 Jesus said this, "Not all people who sound religious are really godly. They may refer to me as 'Lord,' but they still won't enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The decisive issue is whether they obey my Father in heaven.” Obedience is how we submit to Jesus’ Lordship in our lives. Obedience is how we show and prove that we believe he is Lord.

God knows and wants what’s best for us. He always knows what’s right. Until we really know and believe that we won’t follow God’s commands.

The first sin, that Adam and Eve committed, happened because they didn’t obey – they didn’t believe God knew what was best. They believed the devil’s lie that God was keeping something good from them.

And that’s the same reason why every Christ-follower has sinned ever since!

But that’s not the only reason why obedience is important. We need to realize that obedience causes things to happen in our lives.

Here are some of the things it causes to happen in our lives…

Obedience keeps us safe.
If a kid won’t listen to their parent’s rules, then they won’t be safe. The other day I caught my son Will trying to put small bits of napkin in the fan. I told him that was dangerous and that he could get his finger cut off by doing that. He looked at me and listened, but I could tell he didn’t seem to believe what I told him. He had the “No it won’t” syndrome. He listened and pretended he believed me, but deep inside he was thinking “I can do that without getting hurt!”

We have that same syndrome. God tells us, “Don’t do this or that. It will hurt you,” and we look at like “Oh ok.” And turn around and do it! Then things go wrong later and we wonder what went wrong! We did. We went wrong! But obedience doesn’t just keep us safe…

Obedience gives us success.
If you think about it, the Bible is a book of “success secrets from the author of life.” That’s the way the Israelites saw God’s law. They saw it as a gift and an honor that God gave it to them.

That’s how we need to see it. Sometimes I tell the boys rules to protect them, so they won’t get hurt and other times I tell them rules to help them experience the best in life! My rules are because I want the best for them. God’s the same way!

Sometimes God tells you to do something. Sometimes he tells you not to do something.

That’s why obedience can be seen by what we do or what we don’t do.

Obedience doesn’t always look the same. Sometimes it’s action and sometimes it’s inaction. We should realize God’s commandment’s whether they start with “Do” or “Don’t” are never to keep us from the good things in life, but to help us experience the best in life! Jesus said it like this, “I have come that you might have life and have it to the fullest.”

Obedience brings us success in life! But it gets even better…

Obedience will bring success not just for us, but to our offspring. In Exodus 20:6, God says, “But I lavish my love on those who love me and obey my commands, even for a thousand generations.” Deut. 12:28“Be careful to obey all my commands so that all will go well with you and your children, because you will be doing what pleases the LORD your God." When we choose to obey God if gives us more success in life and that success and blessing passes on to our kids and grandkids and on and on!

Obedience also causes something else to happen in our lives…

Obedience gives us fulfillment.
How can we ever do and become all that God has created us to be, if we don’t obey what he tells us to do? It’s impossible!!

There are two kinds of commands that God gives us: personal, specific commands that are just for us and general commands that are for all people. There are commands that God has given to all people that any and everyone needs to follow, but there are also commands that God has given just to individual people.

There are things that God wants you to do that he doesn’t want me to do. There are things that God doesn’t want you to do that he DOES want me to do. And it’s the same for me! The general commands are found all through God’s word. The specific, personal commands are given to us as we seek God and learn to hear him.

The only way to reach and experience fulfillment in life is to obey God in the general and the specific things he tells us to do!

Dr. B.J. Miller once said, "It is a great deal easier to do that which God gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibilities of not doing it."

There’s something else obedience caused to happen in our lives…

Obedience is our source of rewards.
This idea is tied to the last one. When we obey God he rewards us – now and in the next life. When we obey we get to have these rewards, when we don’t obey, then we miss out on them!

Obedience lets us live a freer life.
In The Integrity Crisis, Warren W. Wiersbe, quotes Peter T. Forsythe as saying, "The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master".

There are so many things that we become entangled in, weighed down and trapped by, because we disobey God and do something he told us not to do!

Hebrews 12:1 says, “let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”

Think of how much freer we could be if we began to obey God and stopped doing the things he’s been trying to protect us from our whole lives! Psalm 119:44-45 “I will keep on obeying your law forever and forever. ⁴⁵ I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments.”

Ex. Me and the boys walking across the parking lot. I tried to teach them like always to be safe to protect them!

When we submit to Jesus’ Lordship we actually become freed from prison of our own sinful choices! Romans 6:16 “Don't you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.”

Today’s the day to choose the freedom that comes from obedience!

Obedience encourages others to obey.
It makes us living proof to others that God’s ways are right. Deut. 28:13, “9 "If you obey the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways, the LORD will establish you as his holy people as he solemnly promised to do. 10 Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.

Obedience helps others.
(One of Jack’s friends can’t play the rest of summer because of bad choice. This affects Jack and Will.) Deut. 4:6, “If you obey them carefully, you will display your wisdom and intelligence to the surrounding nations. When they hear about these laws, they will exclaim, 'What other nation is as wise and prudent as this!'”

Close:
The reason God gave us a free will in the first place was so that we could learn to submit ourselves to him, to trust him and obey him. God didn’t want people who had to follow him. He wanted those who wanted and chose to follow him!

To obey everything another person says – without question is a crazy thing to do! People don’t have perfect knowledge or understanding, they make mistakes, and they don’t always have our best interest in their plans.

But to obey all of God’s command – without question is NEVER a crazy thing to do! Because God does have perfect knowledge and understanding, he never makes mistakes and he always has our best interest in his plans!

But we need to understand something.

Obedience doesn’t mean you’ll have a pain free or problem free life. Obeying God doesn’t guarantee you won’t have any problems, pain or suffering. Sometimes obeying God will bring problems, pain and suffering into your life! (That’s because he wants to use these things to teach you something or prepare you for something.)

But what obedience does guarantee is that your life will be better overall. And most importantly, you’ll become and do what God has created you to do. In the end you’re obedience will please God and he’ll reward you for it – in this life and the next!

Revelations 2:26 - "To all who are victorious, who obey me to the very end, I will give authority over all the nations.”

The other important thing we need to remember before we finish today is…

We don’t try to obey God so we’ll be accepted or loved by God. We can’t be good enough! We obey because we are accepted and loved by God. Gal. 3:5 “I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law of Moses? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.”

Obedience is showing our love and gratitude to Jesus for loving us first!

1 John 2:4-5 “If someone says, "I belong to God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth. But those who obey God's word really do love him. That is the way to know whether or not we live in him.”

I really believe that if we’re going to be a church who sees God move in our lives (individually and together), then we’re going to have to obey Jesus more – individually and as a whole.

This has to be our highest goal.

If we become this type of church, our lives will change for the better, will see more success, we’ll be protected from unneeded danger, we’ll be rewarded and we’ll help others and show them the benefits of following God by our obedient actions.

Application:

Take one command that you feel you need to work on an focus on thinking/praying about how you can live it out 30 minutes a week. Live out the plan that week. Focus on a different command the next week. Try to mix between general and specific commans.

Start with the 10 commandments. Focus on one each week for 10 weeks, then start over. You’ll focus on each command about 35 times a year!

You might look at some areas of your life where you’re having problems and see if there’s a command from God’s word that you’ve been ignoring.

If you’re having trouble with your money, or your relationships, or whatever, then pray and ask God to show if you if there’s a command from his word about this area of your life that you’re ignoring.

Having trouble in an area isn’t always a sign that we’re disobeying God in that area. It could be happening for other reasons.

But if you’re having problems, it’s a good place to start. That way you can at least know to your best ability that you haven’t been doing or not doing something that has caused this.

Also this isn’t about seeing if you’re being punished. It’s about seeing if you’re missing out on a blessing or success in an area, because you haven’t been doing what God commanded us to do.

Trust leads to obedience. It’s where you have to start.

There’s an old song we used to sing when I was a little kid. “Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

This simple song is still as true today as it was when I was little.

“What Religion Is Missing”

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:07:00 -0700

Each one of us in this room is different. We have different interests, different skills, different tastes, etc…

But there’s one way that all of us in this room and in this world are the same. We’re all looking and searching through life for something. We’re looking for love. And we’re looking for love of all kinds: romantic love, family love, and friendship love.

In an article from Psychology Today called, “The Power Of Love” it says…
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20021201-000001.html

“Love is as critical for your mind and body as oxygen. It's not negotiable. The more connected you are, the healthier you will be both physically and emotionally. The less connected you are, the more you are at risk.

It is also true that the less love you have, the more depression you are likely to experience in your life. Love is probably the best antidepressant there is because one of the most common sources of depression is feeling unloved. Most depressed people don't love themselves and they do not feel loved by others. They also are very self-focused, making them less attractive to others and depriving them of opportunities to learn the skills of love.”

We all want someone we can love and someone who will love us. This desire, this need, affects many of our choices and actions in life.

Love is really the obsession of most people. They feel like Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, when she said, "I don't want to live - I want to love first, and live incidentally."

But there’s something about this desire for love that you might not have thought of.

This search for love is one of the few ways we can really relate and understand God. You see, God is looking for love. He desires it too. From the time when he created the first humans until now, it’s been what’s he’s been looking and hoping for.

When you love someone all you really want is for them to love you back – nothing more and nothing less will satisfy you. And no one would say that’s too much for you to ask!

That’s all that God wants is for someone to return his love – someone to love him back, just for who he is, not to get something from him.

That’s why religion and ritual, in and of themselves, are useless. Great acts of service and sacrifice aren’t any better if they’re not done in love!

That;s what the Apostle Paul is talking about 1 Cor. 13:1-3 when he says…

1 If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth ^F63 but didn't love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn't love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; ^F64 but if I didn't love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.

The last couple months we’ve been focusing on some pretty simple, but powerful things:

Praying for 3-4 friends who don’t know Jesus.
Reading, memorizing or meditating on God’s word more.
Showing the love of God to others through “random acts of kindness”.

All of this stuff is important and foundational. I really believe doing these things will cause us to grow personally and as a group of friends trying to be the church.

BUT…

I really felt like today I needed to remind us that all of this we’re doing, without love for God and love for others, will be meaningless, no good to us or anyone else and have no value.

Without love it all will have no effect on you, on God, or on others! Paul goes on in
1 Cor. 13 and says…

^“8Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages ^F65 and special knowledge will all disappear. ⁹Now we know only a little, and even the gift of prophecy reveals little! ¹⁰But when the end comes, these special gifts will all disappear.”

Then Paul says, “¹¹It's like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹²Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. ^F66 All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now.

^“13There are three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

In heaven we won’t need prophecy or any other gift, but one thing we’ll still need in heaven and always need is love!

We need faith, because it helps us see the possible. It helps us see the potential. It’s allows us to trust and believe God, which causes us to step out, let go and let God work in our life. Faith is important.

We need hope, because it helps us to see things in a different way. It helps us see the positive. It helps us believe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. This changes how we see and handle the hard, dark times of life. It causes is to keep going, not give up, to see the lessons and opportunities God has hidden in the trials of life. We need hope, that comes from Jesus, in our lives. It’s important.

But the thing that we need above all this is love!

Love needs to be our motive for everything we do as Christ-followers!

Dan Kennedy, a sales "guru" and author, talks about something he calls "Complexity Creep". He says, "People have an incredible tendency to complicate their lives."

I think this is a universal truth that applies to all areas of life. It applies to what I’m talking about today.

I think as Christ-followers we like to complicate what it means to serve and live for Jesus. Jesus made it pretty simple.... LOVE. When he was asked what the greatest thing God told us to do was he said…

Love God - with all your heart, soul and mind.
Love your neighbor - as you love yourself.

This sums up the rules of life and following Jesus!

I'm trying to live a more simple faith. I'm trying to help us be a more simple expression of what it means to be the church.

Simple doesn't mean easy. It just means not complicated.

We still need God’s grace and the Holy Spirit working in us and through us to do these things, but they’re not complicated.

We need to sense God’s love – for the first time or again. When we do we’ll respond in naturally, without even trying, with love towards God and others.

How do we increase our love for God?

· Spend time with Him.

· Get to know him.

· Look at and think about his attractive qualities: his mercy, his patience, his grace, his forgiveness, etc.

· Remember his love for you - his sacrifice for your sins.

We need to remember God’s love for us everyday. We need to feel it, rest in it and respond to it, live in response to it.

Brennan Manning in an article in Discipleship Journal called “Living as God’s Beloved”said this…

“As a man, I love the Jersey shore, Handel’s Messiah, hot fudge, and my wife, Roslyn. I love what I find congenial or appealing. I love someone for what I find in him or her. But God is not like that.

“The God and Father of Jesus loves men and women not for what He finds in them, but for what He finds in them of Himself. It is not because men and women are good that He loves them, nor is it only good men and women whom He loves. It’s because He is so unspeakably, unimaginably good that He loves men and women, even in their sin.

“It’s not that He detects what is congenial and appealing and He responds to us with His favor. He is the source of love. He acts; He does not react. He is love without motive.

“Does God love me because I spend time with AIDS victims and alcoholics, or because I spend an hour in prayer every day? Or because I’m rigorously faithful to my wife? If I believe that, I am a Pharisee who feels entitled to be comfortably close to Christ because of my good works.

“The gospel of grace says I am loved for one reason only and that is because God loves me…period.

Every page of Christian Scripture declares that He loves us in a way that defies human comprehension and escapes human limitation. That is why I can say with theological certainty: God loves you unconditionally as you are and not as you should be, because you are never going to be as you should be. God loves you in the morning sun and the evening rain, without caution or regret. If God ceased to be love, God would cease to be God.”

How do we show God love?

If you want to show me love, then love my children. If you want to hurt me, then hurt them.

Jesus said something similar in Matthew 25:35-40 when he said…

³⁵For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. ³⁶I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.'

³⁷"Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? ³⁹When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' ⁴⁰And the King will tell them, 'I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, ^F143 you were doing it to me!'

There are many ways to show and tell God you love him - Jesus said we love him when we do what he told us to do (if you want to know how to love him discover what he told us to do).

But one of the most practical, tangible ways to love God, is to show love to others!

Discipleship Journal had a cool example of this in an article about Mother Teresa. I want to read you some of the highlights from this article that apply to what we’re talking about today… http://www.navpress.com/EPubs/DisplayArticle/1/1.9.13.html

It says…

”Mother Teresa willingly gave up a secure, comfortable position to serve the less fortunate. She followed the example of our Lord, who "made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant" (Philippians 2:7). A living model of what it means to be a sacrificial missionary in a foreign culture, her ministry reflects Christ's earthly mission: "Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9).

“By 1948 she was ready to begin the ministry she is known for today–serving the poor and abandoned people living in the slums. Her motivation was simple, as we learn in her statements quoted by Malcolm Muggeridge in Something Beautiful for God. "I wanted to serve the poor purely for the love of God. I wanted to give the poor what the rich get with money."²

Later she explains that loving people is a way of loving God.

“Our neighbors we can always see, and we can do to them what, if we saw him, we would like to do to Christ. . . . Our hearts need to be full of love for him; and since we have to express that love in action, naturally then the poorest of the poor are the means of expressing our love for God.⁵

The article then says, “Her example can help us express this same love in our own lives for those who are, in her words,

unwanted, unemployed, uncared for, hungry, naked, and homeless. They seem useless to the state and to society; nobody has time for them. It is you and I as Christians, worthy of the love of Christ if our love is true, who must find them, and help them; they are there for the finding.⁶

Mother Teresa clearly recognizes the worth of every individual.

I do not agree with the big way of doing things. To us what matters is an individual. To get to love the person we must come in close contact with him. If we wait till we get the numbers, then we will be lost in the numbers. And we will never be able to show that love and respect for the person. I believe in person to person.⁷

Later… Although she has focused her ministry among the poor of India, Mother Teresa's mission has responded to needs worldwide. She says,

People today are hungry for love. That is why we are able to go to countries like England and America and Australia where there is no hunger for bread. But there, people are suffering from terrible loneliness, terrible despair, terrible hatred–feeling unwanted, feeling helpless, feeling hopeless.1¹¹

Conclusion:

Religion without love is no better than a marriage without love. The one thing God wants from you and me more than anything else is love. He loved us first, loves us today and will always love us.

I want to keep praying for your 3-4 friends, keep reading and desiring to know God’s word, keep shining God’s love on others through good deeds, but make sure that in all you do that most of all, above everything else that you’re loving God.

That will make a difference in your life, in the lives of others and to God.

Shining Good Deeds

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Tue, 5 Jun 2007 11:05:00 -0700

Intro:

In a tenement district in New York City, a boy in ragged clothes was seen with a small piece of broken mirror in his hand. Holding it high in the air he moved it slowly back and forth, watching the narrow slit of a window above him as he did so. "What are you doing?" a man suddenly demanded as he shook the youngster roughly by the shoulder. "Like most boys in this neighborhood, you're probably up to some mischief, aren't you?" The boy looked up into the stern face of his accuser and said, "See that window up there? Well, I have a little brother who has a room on that floor. He's a cripple. The only sunlight he ever sees is what I shine up to him with my mirror!"

There are people all around us, everyday who are living in the darkness. They feel alone. They’re stressed. They feel helpless and hopeless. They’re worried. They’re running looking for something, but they’re not even sure what it is.

They work with you, they wait on you, some are strangers or just acquaintances, and some are your friends, classmates, co-workers, neighbors.

Who will you reflect some light to them? Will you?

But don’t just think of these people who are desperate. What about the people who aren’t living such hopeless lives, but they’re still in the dark about Jesus?

They don’t believe in God. Or they don’t know if God’s real and they don’t care. Some used to believe, but something happened and they gave up and stopped believing. These are people who think they can take care of themselves. They don’t want anything to do with religion.

They don’t know God is real. They don’t know he loves them.

They work with you, they wait on you, some are strangers or just acquaintances, and some are your friends, classmates, co-workers, neighbors.

Will you reflect at least some light to them? If not you, then who will?

I really want to reflect more light to the people around me! Don’t you?

But how do we really do it? I’m not talking about theory.
I’m talking about how do we really do it in our busy, everyday, up-and-down lives?

That’s what I want to show you today.

First, we need to understand something about light.

When you think of light symbolically you probably think of knowledge, or love, or truth. Light can represent all those things.

But when we talk about shining light into people’s lives, I want you to think of light as more than that. In John 1:4-9, he Apostle John tells us Jesus is the source of all light when he says… “4Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. 5The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. 6God sent John the Baptist 7to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light. 9The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world.”

But wait a second…
Jesus, the “light of the world”, said something that you probably remember in Mattbew 5. He told all of us who are Christ-followers that we’re the light of the world!

This doesn’t mean that we’re the source of light. It just means our job is just to reflect the light (reflect Jesus) to others!

Think about this…

Without real light we wouldn’t be able to see. Colors wouldn’t exist to us!

Jesus is saying our job is to reflect his light so we can help people to see God – so they can see that there’s more beyond this black and white world, so they can see the full spectrum of the colors.

That little boy in the story I just told wasn’t trying to make sunlight. That would’ve been impossible! He was just trying to do something he could do - reflect it!

A well-known Bible teacher Keith Brooks had just finished speaking to a large class of businessmen on the Christian's responsibility to be a "light" in the world. He emphasized that believers are to reflect the Light of the world, the Lord Jesus. After the class, one of the members related to him an experience he had in his home which had impressed upon this same truth.

He said that when he went into his basement he made an interesting discovery. Some potatoes had sprouted in the darkest corner of the room. At first he couldn't figure out how they had gotten enough light to grow.

Then he noticed that the cook had hung a copper kettle from the ceiling near a cellar window. She kept it so brightly polished that it reflected the rays of the sun onto the potatoes.

The businessman said to Brooks, "When I saw that, I thought, I may not be a preacher or a teacher with ability to expound Scripture, but at least I can be a copper kettle catching the rays of the Son and reflecting His light to someone in a dark corner."

That’s all that Jesus is telling us to do. Be a light by reflecting his light!

So how do we reflect Jesus to the world?
What’s our mirror to shine him to the people around us?

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:16!

In Matt 5:15 he says, “Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all.” Then he tells us HOW to let our light shine and reflect him for all to see…

"v16In the same way, let your good deeds shine out, for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly father."

*The way we shine our light and help people to see Jesus is by our good deeds!

Through simple acts of kindness and love to the people around us we can shine the light of Jesus to them. This is something any of us can do - whether you have a little money or not, whether your married or single, whether you know a lot about the Bible or not.

It doesn’t have to be anything huge or fancy. Just simple things!

Susan Michelle Van Hook tells a story about doing this in an article she wrote for Steve Sjogren’s ezine “Serve”. Her article is called, “Love in a pair of baseball cleats".

Listen to what she says…

Galatians 5:6 “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

It was an accident, really. We had recently moved and were just trying to figure out which ball field to be in at what time for which child. Chaos reigned as children of all ages, gender, size and team logo ran around with a frazzled parent not far behind. It was opening day at the local recreational center. Every team had pictures, a scrimmage, an opening ceremony, and time to meet the coaches, players and parents. A few words come to mind to describe what we were thinking to try such a thing, “crazy” being one of them.

That’s when I met who we will call Julie. She and her fiancé had three kids between them, the youngest of which was on my sons’ 4-year-old t-ball team. We were making introductions and small talk about the upcoming season when I noticed that her little boy was the only player without cleats. My son had recently sprouted and grew into his older brothers’ cleats, so I offered her our extra pair. The cleats were a size 10, exactly the size her son wore.

Throughout the course of the season we bonded over shouts of praise and laughter when our 4-year-olds would vacillate between showing major league baseball potential and dog-piling on top of one another in mass chaos. I think another name for Servant Evangelism and Friendship Evangelism could be “Sideline Evangelism”. The season wasn’t fully over before the couple got married, our kids began to play together and the whole family began to attend church with us.

I don’t know when it was that this new family decided to give God a fresh glimpse, but my husband traces it back to a little pair of baseball cleats. I know that it had very little to do with me. I know that God must have been working in their lives for them to be so receptive. All God needs is for someone to show others that He cares. I wasn’t trying to teach them the four spiritual laws or the theology of our denomination, but they got the message. I believe that many will hear things we say and will see how we act, but they will respond when we care.

Again, Galatians 5:6 says, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love”. It matters to others when we show love in action, but to think that faith expressing itself through love is the only thing that counts to Christ- that is most compelling. That was how Jesus chose to live His life. He showed us Gods’ love by caring for our needs. He revealed the heart of God when He showed that He cared about our hunger, our disease, and our deepest hurts.

And so, somewhere between snow cones and juice boxes, a need was met. What may have seemed random to me was not random at all to God. Our random acts of kindness are actually when God allows us to spontaneously be a part of His plan. And He allowed a little pair of shoes to lead a family straight to Him.

You see it’s just simple good deeds that meet needs!

If we can begin to notice the needs of the people around us, we’ll have ton of chances to reflect the light of Jesus into people’s lives.

But if we’re going to really be able to let the light of Jesus shine in a way that will cause people to praise God, then we have to understand the truth about something that many Christ-followers argue about.

Some people emphasize tell people the truth.
Some people emphasize showing people God's love with acts of kindness.

Who's right? NEITHER!

They're both wrong, cause they’re both missing a key ingredient - what each other is emphasizing. We need to show and tell about God's love.

Jesus was the perfect example of this!

I’ve been about how Jesus came and began to gather the church.

He didn’t just tell people the truth. He showed them God’s love! His acts of love and kindness drew crowds to him. They made people talk about him. And when they came, he told them the truth they needed to hear!

If people are to have the good deeds lead them to Jesus, then we have to do one of these two things:

1. Identify ourselves as a Christ-follower.
2. Mention God/Jesus before, during, or after our good deeds.

We have to do this in Jesus' name!

After doing your good deeds you can say something like…
"A group of my friends from my church have decided to do small, random acts of kindness to make people's day and remind them that God loves them."

You might do that with your words, or with a simple card you can hand them (I’ll have some made for us).

You might tell them this upfront or wait until they ask and say something simple like, “I’m just trying to live more like Jesus.”

Maybe if it’s someone you see regularly you won’t say anything upfront. You’ll just keep doing small acts and when they ask why you can say, “I’m a Christian and I think it’s something Jesus would do.”

Or maybe somewhere in your regular conversations with these people you drop a clue that you’re a believer.

But you have to somehow let people know why you’re doing these good deeds or who you represent otherwise you’ll get the praise and not “your heavenly father”!

I’m trying to give you ideas of what you COULD say, but I don’t want to give you an exact script of what to say.

Pray and ask God to give you something you can say, that you’ll be comfortable saying, that will still help people see the light about him and his love.

Mention Coyote Point story. I casually mentioned. I was a pastor and with some friends from our church. We plan on hanging out with them again.

STOP and Pray for Murray family in Ireland who suddenly lost 20 year old daughter 7 weeks ago.

I’ve been thinking about this more and more…

We can’t just sit around and talk about God and learn about the Bible on Sundays and wait for people to find us. That’s “attractional” thinking. It’s dumb for us to do. It seems almost sinful to me now.

We’ve got to go and be “incarnational” and reflect the light with our good deeds!

Here’s what I think we need to do…

1,000 Good Deed Seeds
We need plant at least 1,000 good deeds "seeds" of God's love this Summer (June-August).

How?

Individually:

Buy cashier a drink or a candy.
Buy someone you regularly bump into something.
Tell someone you’ll pray for their need. Mik story here?
Street Church – Menlo Park behind Borrone’s
What else? What are your ideas?
(ServantEvangelism.com)

Group: SG & Whole church:

Water bottle giveaway - Go see how many bottles we have. Where/When
would be the best place to give them away?
Gas buy down
300 Newspapers – at train 2 stations in Palo Alto ($70)
Meals for New Moms?
What else?

remember the "parable of the sower"? Fling those seeds everywhere!

Steve Sjogren & Dave Ping say something in their book, Outflow that I want you to hear. Listen…

“The overflowing life he’s calling you into is more than an occasional thing – it’s daily. So whatever you do to pay your bills, its just a means to fulfilling this higher calling. The Apostle Paul funded his day-to-day outreach by making tents, but you might fund yours by working for an insurance company or a plumbing supply business. Whatever it is that you do, you can go about your day intentionally flinging seeds, nurturing relationships, and bearing lasting fruit for God in the lives around you. If you do this, loving your city will become a part of your everyday lifestyle!”

I want us to shine brighter this summer.

I want us to do this because God wants us to and because people need it. But the side effect will be that some more people will become a part of our church.

Why? When light shines in the darkness it draws a crowd.

I’m looking for people who will do this with me this summer – alone and together – so that it will become a way of life for us.

Listen from the Servant Evangelism experts Steve Sjogren… READ from Outflow pg. 169-170.

If you’re shy. What Steve says about introverts in Outflow pg. 171:

“Introverts are some of the most effective evangelists around. We know this sounds contrary to the image you’ve been led to expect, but it’s true nevertheless. Small things done by quiet people can change the world.”

Examples:

Paying for meal behind you in a drivethrough line. Give cashier and extra dollar to tell them, “Someone bought your meal today as a practical way of saying God loves you.”
Tipping well. Say it or write in on the check. “Here’s a little something extra just to remind you that God loves you.”

When we do these simple things to show people God’s love. We show people that God’s changed us. When we do these things in God’s name we make HIM look good!

We change people’s opinion of who God is and what it means to be a Christ-follower.

We need a god-sized vision where if God doesn’t show up and do something, we’re in a big bunch of trouble! – steve sjogren

Paul Thomas Thigpen said it like this in an article for “Discipleship Journal” that he wrote called, “Why Should I Care?”…

In Miami or Moscow, New York or Nairobi, Denver or Dublin, in the 1st century or the 21st, whatever may change, some things remain the same: spiritual need, material need; empty hearts, empty hands.

Could God's heart be any clearer? Could His call be any louder? Think of it: Our Lord weeps for our community, for those who surround us every day. The waitress we snub, the boss we complain about, the driver we cut off in traffic, the child next door whom we scold for playing in our pansies.

He weeps as well for those who surround us at a distance, invisible to us but all too visible to Him. The unwed teenaged mother, the crack addict, the patient and the prisoner, the disabled orphan awaiting a foster home, the forgotten great-grandmother alone in her room.

Can we afford to turn away from His tears?

This isn't confrontational stuff that I’m talking about. Its just meeting needs with good deeds! It’s the easiest, funnest way to share God with others!

Here’s my suggestion:
Start with people you know, work to people you interact with regularly and move to strangers.

Want to learn more how to do this?

Get a copy of this book Outflow, read his ezine “Serve” or go to his website servantevangelism.com

CHALLENGE:
I’m looking for people who want to do this this Summer (June to August).

I’m looking for people who will do this on their own, or maybe in small groups with friends, or maybe with your smaller gathering groups or at least with us all when we do it in our larger outreaches.

*I passed around a sign-up sheet to people who want to commit to doing this for the summer (June-August). If you're a part of Pathway and want to join the 10 of us who committed to this, then email me!

“Spiritual Anorexia”

noreply@blogger.com (Scott Aughtmon) — Mon, 7 May 2007 17:54:00 -0700

Intro:

I want to start today with a story that John T. Spach tells in Reader's Digest …

When their son left for his freshman year at Duke University, his parents gave him a Bible, assuring him it would be a great help. Later, as he began sending them letters asking for money, they would write back telling him to read his Bible, citing chapter and verse. He would reply that he was reading the Bible--but he still needed money. When he came home for a semester break, his parents told him they knew he had not been reading his Bible. How? They had tucked $10 and $20 bills by the verses they had cited in their letters.

The truth is this… The Bible contains what we need for life.

We can’t grow spiritually if we don’t read God’s word regularly. We can’t know the truth if we don’t ever read God’s Word.

I want to talk to you today about one of the main ways to see amazing growth in your spiritual life. It’s comes from God’s word. It comes from reading, studying, knowing and living it.

It’s one of the most simple and basic ways to grow as a Christ-follower and it’s one of the things so many people leave out of their lives!

Ex.
Show a table full of food. What is the one simple thing we need to do with this food in order for it help nourish us? (Let people answer.) Eat it! This food can’t help us by just sitting hear on the table or just being in our cupboards or in our fridges. Right? No! This food is no good unless we eat it and digest it.

The truth is: you can starve in a room full of food if you don’t eat it.

I’m been thinking about this lately and I’ve realized that many Christ-followers have spiritual anorexia. They’re starving themselves from God’s word and they’re in total denial about it.

They go for weeks, months – some even for years without ever feeding on God’s Word, themselves. The only time they ever “taste it” is on Sundays when someone else feeds them.

What I’m about to tell you might sound strange, but it’s true…

It’s good to have your own a Bible. But God’s goal isn’t to have his truth in a book.

He wants it in our heads, in our hearts and lived out in our lives! If it’s just locked in some book form it’s useless. It has to be lived out!

Some of you might not know this, but…

Most people in the Bible days didn’t own a Bible! They had to memorize it – “store it up in their hearts” – if they wanted to take it with them.

Actually, most people, even in later times, didn’t have their own copy of the Bible.

It wasn’t until Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400’s that people later started being able to have their own personal copy.

TWO COOL FACTS ABOUT THIS I THOUGHT YOU’D WANT TO KNOW:

The Gutenberg Bible was the first book to ever be printed.
In the time of King Edward I, in 1250, it took the earnings of a day laborer for fifteen years to purchase a manuscript copy of the entire Bible.

Now you can get a copy of the full Bible for $4.49 from Christian Book Distributors!

Not only that, but the good thing nowadays is you can not only have a personal copy of the Bible, but can have the Bible in many different formats…

For people who are readers you can have it in a book like this, or on your computer, or on a website (Studylight.org).

If you don’t like to read you can have it an audio version - on your Ipod or on a CD.

Since the Bible comes in many different formats, none of us have any excuse to not read or listen to it!

If we want to grow as Christ-followers we need to read and know God’s word.

Why?

It’s our Spiritual Food
Just like physical food feeds the physical body, the Bible is the spiritual food that feeds the spirit. We all know it’s not healthy to just live off of snacks. We need to have full meals. It’s the same with God’s word. We can’t be spiritually healthy by just tasting a little bit here and there. Reading Christians books is a good thing to do, but it’s not the same as reading the Bible.

Amy Carmichael said it like this, “Never let good books take the place of the Bible. Drink from the Well, not from the streams that flow from the Well.”

We need to learn to feed ourselves just like a kid needs to. Leroy Eims, tells this story The Lost Art of Disciple Making.

One spring our family was driving from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, Florida. As far as the eye could see, orange trees were loaded with fruit. When we stopped for breakfast, I ordered orange juice with my eggs. "I'm sorry," the waitress said. "I can't bring you orange juice. Our machine is broken." At first I was dumbfounded. We were surrounded by millions of oranges, and I knew they had oranges in the kitchen--orange slices garnished our plates. What was the problem? No juice? Hardly. We were surrounded by thousands of gallons of juice. The problem was they had become dependent on a machine to get it. Christians are sometimes like that. They may be surrounded by Bibles in their homes, but if something should happen to the Sunday morning preaching service, they would have no nourishment for their souls. The problem is not a lack of spiritual food--but that many Christians haven't grown enough to know how to get it for themselves.

If we don’t learn how to feed ourselves from God’s Word, we’ll never know how to survive and grow as a believer! The Bible’s not only our Spiritual food….

It’s our Spiritual Weapon
That’s why we need to read large amounts of it In Eph. 6:17 Paul is talking about spiritual warfare and he says, “take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” God’s word is the main thing we can use to fight back from spiritual attack.

Illust.
I’m a pretty positive person. I don’t really get down or depresssed very much and when I do I don’t stay that way long. Yesterday morning, for some reason, I noticed that out of nowhere that I felt down, impatient and angry.

It was supposed to be my day to hang out with Jack and Will and I didn’t want to stay like this, so I started reminding myself of some truth from God’s word. It didn’t happen right away, but later I noticed the change - I didn’t feel down or mad anymore.

We’ve got to load up our minds with God’s word so we have ammo to fight back and defend ourselves! There’s another reason we need to feed on large amounts of God’s Word that closely connected to this one…
It’s our Truth Detector
The Bible helps us to know what’s true and real if life. It gives us God’s view and His opinion of life. It gives us a behind the scenes view of things. It’s a mirror. It shows us the end – where this world is eventually heading.

Revelation 12:9 it says, “⁹This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.”

The devil is the deceiver of the world. When we all see him one day we’ll be shocked at who and what he is and how he fooled us and all the world with his lies and deceptions.

Not knowing the truth is one of the things that can cause the most damage in our lives! It can cause us to settle for less in life, cause us to fall into sin and could even cause us to give up in walk with God.

That’s why we need to know the Truth from God’s Word. Jesus said, “The truth will set you free.” Jesus used the word to defend against the devils lies. To everything the devil said Jesus kept answering, “It is written…” We can’t defend ourselves if we don’t even know when we’re being lied to.

There’s no way to grow, defend ourselves from spiritual attack or really know the truth about life without feeding regularly on God’s word!

When we begin to feed on regular amounts of God’s word it will literally change who we are, how we think and how we live.…

There’s a story from a magazine called, Signs of the Times that shows this that I want you to hear it... One of the most dramatic examples of the Bible's divine ability to transform men and women involved the famous mutiny on the "Bounty." Following their rebellion against the notorious Captain Bligh, nine mutineers, along with the Tahatian men and women who accompanied them, found their way to Pitcairn Island, a tiny dot in the South Pacific only two miles long and a mile wide. Ten years later, drink and fighting had left only one man alive--John Adams. Eleven women and 23 children made up the rest of the Island's population. So far this is the familiar story made famous in the book and motion picture.

But the rest of the story is even more remarkable. About this time, Adams came across the "Bounty's" Bible in the bottom of an old chest. He began to read it, and the divine power of God's Word reached into the heart of that hardened murderer on a tiny volcanic speck in the vast Pacific Ocean--and changed his life forever.

The peace and love that Adams found in the Bible entirely replaced the old life of quarreling, brawling, and liquor. He began to teach the children from the Bible until every person on the island had experienced the same amazing change that he had found. Today, with a population of slightly less than 100, nearly every person on Pitcairn Island is a Christian.

This simple change in our lives, of feeding more on God’s Word, WILL have a powerful affect!

You’ll be a stronger Christ-follower and we’ll be a stronger church. Our discussions will be more powerful in our smaller gatherings. The advice you give to your friends will be more life-giving. You’ll be wiser. You’ll know God more.

In Psalm 119: 97-104 it says…
”⁹⁷ Oh, how I love your law! I think about it all day long.
⁹⁸ Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for your commands are my constant guide.
⁹⁹ Yes, I have more insight than my teachers, for I am always thinking of your decrees.
¹⁰⁰ I am even wiser than my elders, for I have kept your commandments.
¹⁰¹ I have refused to walk on any path of evil, that I may remain obedient to your word.
¹⁰² I haven't turned away from your laws, for you have taught me well.
¹⁰³ How sweet are your words to my taste; they are sweeter than honey.
¹⁰⁴ Your commandments give me understanding; no wonder I hate every false way of life.

God’s word is such an amazing gift. I want us to really realize this. I want us to fall in love with God’s word again – or for the first time. When we do, no one will have to convince us to read it and no one will be able to stop us from reading it.

Robert L. Sumner, tells a story of someone with this type of love for God’s word in his book The Wonders of the Work of God. He says…

A man in Kansas City was severely injured in an explosion. The victim's face was badly disfigured, and he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. He was just a new Christian, and one of his greatest disappointments was that he could no longer read the Bible. Then he heard about a lady in England who read braille with her lips. Hoping to do the same, he sent for some books of the Bible in braille. Much to his dismay, however, he discovered that the nerve endings in his lips had been destroyed by the explosion. One day, as he brought one of the braille pages to his lips, his tongue happened to touch a few of the raised characters and he could feel them. Like a flash he thought, “I can read the Bible using my tongue!” At the time Robert Sumner wrote his book, the man had "read" through the entire Bible four times.

That’s how much I want to love God’s Word. That’s how much I want you to love God’s word! No matter where you’re at in your daily intake of God’s Word, from not reading it at all to reading it daily, I want to encourage you to go to the next level.

Here’s how…

READ IT

If you’re not reading the Bible I want to encourage you to make it your goal to read 1 chapter a day. If when you’re reading you really get into a section of scripture you can always read more. If it’s really deep you can always read less, but make it your goal to usually read a chapter a day. Start in the New Testament and keep reading until you get to the end. Do the same with the Old Testament

MEMORIZE IT
If you’re already reading the Bible, I want to encourage you to start memorizing it. This gives you God’s Word it in a “to go” format. It gives you instant access to it whenever you want!

Noted Bible teacher E. Schuyler English told of Michael Billester, a Bible distributor who visited a small town in Poland shortly before World War II. Billester gave a Bible to a villager, who was converted by reading it. The new believer then passed the Book on to others. The cycle of conversions and sharing continued until 200 people had become believers through that one Bible.

When Billesetr returned in 1940, this group of Christians met together for a worship service in which he was to preach the Word. He normally asked for testimonies, but this time he suggested that several in the audience recite verses of Scripture.

One man stood and said, "Perhaps we have misunderstood. Did you mean verses or chapters?" These villagers had not memorized a few select verses of the Bible but whole chapters and books. Thirteen people knew Matthew, Luke, and half of Genesis. Another person had committed to memory the Psalms. That single copy of the Bible given by Billester had done its work. Transformed lives bore witness to the power of the Word.

Memorizing God’s word is getting into your head. It’ll begin to get you thinking about God’s Word. It will influence your thoughts. But there’s the next level…

MEDITATE ON IT
If you’ve already memorized some of God’s word, then I want to encourage you to start meditating on it. In Psalm 119:148 the psalmist says, “My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.”

Bible meditation is not the same as Eastern Meditation. It doesn’t mean to empty our minds, but fill them with God’s word, his truth, his qualities. Doing this really helps you to really digest and get the most out of a passage of scripture.

The word for “meditation” actually has the same meaning as a cow “ruminating” or chewing it’s cud.

A cow has one stomach with four compartments. They swallow the food into the first compartment which starts digesting it, then they regurgitate their food, and “chew the cud”. Then they swallow it into the next compartment which digests it more. Then they spit it up and do it again until it goes through all 4 compartments.

This helps them get the most out of hard to digest foods like grass. A cow spends a lot of time eating – up to 8 hours per day.

When you meditate on God’s word you chew up and think about different parts of a verse or passage. Ex. Luke 1:37- For nothing is impossible with God… For nothing is impossible with God… For nothing is impossible with God.

Illust.
When I was in my early 20’s I heard a guy named Bill Gothard challenge people to meditate on large portions on scripture. I have a pretty good memory and it’s
not hard for me to memorize things, so I decided to try it.

But I needed someone to keep me accountable and to check to see how I was doing. I couldn’t think of any friend of mine who was Christ-follower to help me with this, so I asked my friend Harlan, who was Jewish, if he’d help me. I asked him if he check regularly and make sure I was doing it and also listen to me say the verses to make sure I memorized them the right way.

Surprisingly, he said, “Yes!” We’d drive 4 nights a week to Half Moon Bay for Karate class and on the half an hour ride over the hill and back we’d talk about all sorts of stuff and eventually go over the verses I was memorizing.

Harlan would have my Bible open on his lap and I’d start quoting the verses I was memorizing. I’d always start at the beginning each time, so by the time I memorized all of chapter 5, Harlan would have sat through hearing the chapter over and over.

The funny thing was that Harlan heard the verses so much that he’d noticed if I left out a part! He’d say something like, “Didn’t you leave out the part, ‘unless you obey God better than the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees do, you can't enter the Kingdom of Heaven at all!’” (Harlan later became a Christ-follower and I think this was a time where the seeds were planted.)

Meditating on scripture really changed how I knew “The Sermon on the Mount”. It caused me to see the thought patterns in what Jesus was teaching! It will help you to know God and his truth in deeper ways.

If you read God’s word regularly, and already have memorized God’s word, then I’d really encourage you to begin meditating on God’s Word.

Start by just meditating on a verse or two, then try some other verse or two. After that, start to meditate on large passages of scripture. Tell me what happens when you do it!

LIVE IT
There’s one last level that actually any of us can start doing right away.

I want to encourage all of us to apply what we’re reading in our lives. Pick one thing you’re learning from God’s word and decide to apply it for the next week. That’s it! See what happens.

God wants us to read his Word, know it, memorize it, and live it!

----

Close: This is an amazing book. There’s no other book like it in the world. One unknown person described it like this…

An unknown writer said, "This Book is the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding; its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure. Follow its precepts and it will lead you to Calvary, to the empty tomb, to a resurrected life in Christ; yes, to glory itself, for eternity.

God made sure that the Bible has survived through history, so we could have it in our hands today. We need to make sure we have it in our hearts and apply it in our lives.

My old pastor used to say, “Sin will keep you from this book and this book will keep you from sin.”

Challenge:
The last few Sundays, I’ve encouraged us to do just two simple things:

1. Make a list of friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, or classmates who don’t know Jesus and begin praying for them regularly.

2. And today, I’ve encouraged you read, know, memorize, meditate and live God’s word.

I know these are simple things, but don’t be fooled by how simple they are.
Everyone wants some complicated secret to success, but if there were any – most people we wouldn’t do them, cause they’d be too hard or too complicated.

The fact is that it’s the simple truths when they’re actually applied that cause massive, explosive results! I believe these two simple things can cause HUGE change in us individually and as a church. But we’ll only see these results if we DO them.

That’s why I want to challenge to do this:

Find someone who can keep you accountable and who will ask you about whether you’re reading God’s Word and praying for your list of 3-4 friends.

It can be someone who’s a part of the smaller gathering you’re part of, a sibling, or a spouse or any friend (even a non-believer).

All I ask is that they’re someone who will check with you weekly about how you’re doing. You could do this in person, by phone or email. (in person is best, but on the phone or by email works too).

We’ll check in about this in our next smaller gathering in two Sundays and see how everybody’s doing with this. Let’s pray…