mikescape

The Pastor's Wife

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 02:13:00 +0000

Really...?

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:59:00 +0000

When some Arminians accuse Calvinists of having a "gospel without Jesus" or of being spiritually sterile, it's not only offensive, it is also wrong.

But just so's we're clear - it's equally wrong and offensive when Calvinists feign indignity at their Arminian brothers' ignorant claims...while making equally ignorant counter-claims like this, all the while trying to pull off the "Whaaaaaat? I'm not beingbroad-brushed and insensitive - I'm a theologically orthodox Calvinist! It's those dirty Arminians who are the ignorant Philistines here!"

Give.

Me.

A.

Break.

Greg Laurie: Thank God for Unanswered Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:28:00 +0000

Greg Laurie hits a homerun in his latest blogpost, Thank God for Unanswered Prayer.

DOAGM: Discipline–Examples

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:38:00 +0000

I’ve begun taking some of the guys in the fellowship through R. Kent Hughe’s book, Disciplines of a Godly Man. The introduction has a section giving examples from the world of man regarding the indispensible role of discipline in reaching one’s human potential in merely temporal things – and connects the dots regarding the absolute necessity of it in spiritual things.

Those who have watched Mike Singletary (perennial All-Pro, two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, and member of the Super Bowl XXV Dream Team) “play” — and have observed his wide-eyed intensity and his churning, crunching samurai hits — are usually surprised when they meet him. He is not an imposing hulk. He is barely six feet tall and weighs, maybe, 220. Whence the greatness? Discipline. Mike Singletary is as disciplined a student of the game as any who have ever played it. In his biography, Calling the Shots, he says that in watching game films he will often run a single play fifty to sixty times, and that it takes him three hours to watch half a football game, which is only twenty to thirty plays! Because he watches every player, because he mentally knows the opposition’s tendency — given the down, distance, hashmark, and time remaining, because he reads the opposition’s mind through their stances, he is often moving toward the ball’s preplanned destination before the play develops. Mike Singletary’s legendary success is testimony to his remarkably disciplined life.

We are accustomed to thinking of Ernest Hemingway as a boozy, undisciplined genius who got through a quart of whiskey a day for the last twenty years of his life but nevertheless had the muse upon him. He was indeed an alcoholic driven by complex passions. But when it came to writing, he was the quintessence of discipline! His early writing was characterized by obsessive literary perfectionism as he labored to develop his economy of style, spending hours polishing a sentence, or searching for the mot juste—the right word. It is a well-known fact that he rewrote the conclusion to his novel A Farewell to Arms seventeen times in an effort to get it right. This is characteristic of great writers. Dylan Thomas made over two hundred handwritten(!) manuscript versions of his poem “Fern Hill.” Even toward the end, when Hemingway was reaping the ravages of his lifestyle, while writing at his Finca Vigia in Cuba he daily stood before an improvised desk in oversized loafers on yellow tiles from 6:30 a.m. until noon every day, carefully marking his production for the day on a chart. His average was only two pages — five hundred words. It was discipline, Ernest Hemingway’s massive literary discipline, which transformed the way his fellow Americans, and people throughout the English-speaking world, expressed themselves.

Michelangelo’s, da Vinci’s, and Tintoretto’s multitudes of sketches, the quantitative discipline of their work, prepared the way for the cosmic quality of their work. We wonder at the anatomical perfection of a da Vinci painting. But we forget that Leonardo da Vinci on one occasion drew a thousand hands. In the last century Matisse explained his own mastery, remarking that the difficulty with many who wanted to be artists is that they spend their time chasing models rather than painting them.6 Again the discipline factor!

In our own time Winston Churchill has been rightly proclaimed the speaker of the century, and few who have heard his eloquent speeches would disagree. Still fewer would suspect he was anything but a “natural.” But the truth is, Churchill had a distracting lisp which made him the butt of many jokes and resulted in his inability to be spontaneous in public speaking. Yet he became famous for his speeches and his seemingly impromptu remarks.

Actually, Churchill wrote everything out and practiced it! He even choreographed the pauses and pretended fumblings for the right phrase. The margins of his manuscripts carried notes anticipating the “cheers,” “hear, hears,” “prolonged cheering,” and even “standing ovation.” This done, he practiced endlessly in front of mirrors, fashioning his retorts and facial expressions. F. E. Smith said, “Winston has spent the best years of his life writing impromptu speeches.” A natural? Perhaps. A naturally disciplined hard-working man!

And so it goes, whatever the area of life.

Thomas Edison came up with the incandescent light after a thousand failures.

Jascha Heifitz, the greatest violinist of this century, began playing the violin at the age of three and early began to practice four hours a day until his death at age seventy-five — when he had long been the greatest in the world — some 102,000 hours of practice. He no doubt gave his own “Hear, hear!” to Paderewski’s response to a woman’s fawning remarks about his genius: “Madame, before I was a genius, I was a drudge.”

We will never get anywhere in life without discipline, be it in the arts, business, athletics, or academics. This is doubly so in spiritual matters. In other areas we may be able to claim some innate advantage. An athlete may be born with a strong body, a musician with perfect pitch, or an artist with an eye for perspective. But none of us can claim an innate spiritual advantage. In reality, we are all equally disadvantaged. None of us naturally seeks after God, none is inherently righteous, none instinctively does good (cf. Romans 3:9–18). Therefore, as children of grace, our spiritual discipline is everything — everything!

I repeat … discipline is everything!

Defeatism vs. Triumphalism

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:47:00 +0000

There seems to be a creeping, pervading problem in American Christianity which infects many if not most sectors of the church, and which proves, in my opinion, to be very problematic.

On the one hand, you have an attitude of defeatism, where believers are fixated on their present struggles, despairing of their frailties, and overall hamstrung in their spiritual lives by an over realization of their persistent sinfulness. These poor saints really do love the Lord, really do want to live lives pleasing to Him, really do want to see Him lifted high…but feel very deeply and very powerfully that they are completely disqualified from ever seeing Him glorified in their lives, convinced that He’s only tolerating them because He promised to take “whomsoever will,” and that if He would have thought that one through a bit more before saying it, He would have added the proviso, “except for that guy. I mean, come on…just look at him. Can you believe he calls himself a Christian? Hey, Mike, Gabe…I’m a bit busy over here in the galactic core taking care of Sagittarius A* – can you just reach down and zap him for Me real quick in retaliation for his even trying to ask Me into his life, eh? Thanks, guys.”

The Christian life for these poor saints is not a joy, it is a misery. True, it’s less a misery than knowing for sure that they’re lost, still dead in their sins back in the world; but it’s a drudgery nonetheless because they are never sure that God has really forgiven them, that He’s really accepted them, and that He really delights in them. They get it that the way of the transgressor is hard, but that’s the entire problem for them – because they are painfully aware of their own persistent sinfulness, they never really draw into God, never really experience the peace of God, and so when hard things inevitably come into their lives, they become increasingly convinced that this is simply further proof that they may just in fact still be reprobate, may in fact not truly be saved – that they may in fact still be transgressors in the essential sense. All of which leads to spiritual melancholy – and outright depression.

These poor saints are trapped by defeatism, caused by an over-focus on their practice rather than their position. Their hearts and eyes are firmly fixed on the fact that they are still mired in their own flesh, that they continue to live less than God’s best, that they continue to sin. And though most wouldn’t say that their salvation is in any way dependent upon their performance, though most readily admit that the Bible clearly teaches that salvation is based entirely on Jesus’ FINISHED work for them on the cross, in practice they really aren’t sure of it at some deep, perhaps even subliminal level. They want to draw near to God, they want to experience His grace and His peace…but they are so very painfully aware that they very much do not deserve it that they are hindered from ever really resting in His finished work for them.

Their symptoms point to a single diagnosis: Their focus is on their practice, to the downplaying or outright ignoring of their position. The indicated treatment: meditating on what the Bible says of who they are and where they are in Christ, meditating on the fact that Jesus is infinitely mightier than their own fallenness. Jesus has conquered their sin at the Cross, and when He took the cup of the Father’s wrath for their sin, He drained it to the dregs, so that there is nothing left for them to atone for once they have called on Him for mercy.

And that yes, it “took” the first time they asked Jesus to forgive them. No, they’re not on probation. Yes, I’m really, really sure. Here’s Ephesians; let’s study that deeply for a while, eh?

On the other side of the problem, however, you find the equal-but-opposite problem – and it can be even more of a doozy than the first. On that side of the equation, you have a pervasive (and, quite honestly, very odiously arrogant) attitude of triumphalism. The problem here is an over-focus on position, to the downplaying or outright ignoring or denying of practice.

Here on the Glorious West Coast of Michgan, I deal with a lot of saints who struggle powerfully with spiritual defeatism. I have had to continually remind these precious saints that the issue was decided at the Cross, and that they need to take their eyes off their own selves and turn them to Jesus and His finished work for them.I have recently, however, been seeing an uptick in the instance of Christians who are walking in an obnoxious species of triumphalism. Whereas the defeatist Christian never fully experiences the awesome peace and grace of God because of their awareness of and over-focus on their own frailty, the triumphalist insists that no, he is not acting in the flesh, because He is hidden in Christ, so back off, bub…while he is, in fact, very much operating in the flesh.

For these saints, the very deep and abiding problem is that they never come to terms with the fact that they are still prone to sin. Sure, they admit that they struggle, that they make mistakes, that they still sin in a very general sense…but it’s not as bad as all that, you see, because they are saints, after all. What this leads to is a tendency to be very quick to dispense correction to others…but to be invincibly closed to receiving correction themselves.

The defeatist saint is crippled with stunted spiritual growth due to an inability to enter into the rest of the Lord; the triumphalist saint is crippled with stunted spiritual growth due to an inability to see their own very real fallibility, and therefore an inability ex post facto to deal with their flesh – since what they deny has any real, pervasive force they likewise deny really needs to be dealt with.

Here’s how that manifests: A triumphalist saint walks in pride, is critical of others, is lax with regard to personal holiness, but claims to be mature, has a vaunted view of his own spirituality, and feels unduly entitled to the deference which is due them their position, absent any real substantive reason for said deference (and, in fact, in the presence of real, substantive reasons for withholding such).

A defeatist wearily toils under the impossible burden of self-condemnation, and any critique of his walk with the Lord tends simply to confirm that self-condemnation and increase his burden. A triumphalist will critique you on your walk with the Lord, but will react very badly when you return the favor.

We came face-to-face with this phenomenon recently; an individual that my lovely and gracious wife and I are peripherally familiar with acted in a very inappropriate manner and needed to be rebuked, which set off the proverbial fireworks. When confronted with the inconsistency of his claim to be a godly, mature spiritual leader, he immediately responded that he was highly offended that his godly, mature spirituality would ever be called into question – he was, after all, filled with the Spirit, called holy and a saint, and had been given victory in Jesus.

He could not see – could not see – the gross inconsistency between his position and his practice…and therefore could not see that that very dissonance is something that needs to be addressed.

As Martin Luther’s famous restating of James’ great maxim puts it:

We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.

The triumphalist would likely never consciously contradict Luther…but his actions and attitudes stand in as sufficient contradiction nonetheless.

The defeatist cannot bring himself to claim any of the blessings of God for his life, so wracked with guilt as he is. The triumphalist claims those blessings and more, demands them even due to his position, and does so while subtly or flagrantly living contrary to the God who desires in all cases to bestow such blessings. He feels no particular need to live according to the responsibilities of his position, while seeking to enjoy the rights and privileges of it.

In both cases, true spiritual growth is greatly hindered, true spiritual maturity is denied, true fellowship with God and man remains unrealized.

The answer to both extremes is a remarkably simple one: To realize both my position and my practice matter, to acknowledge that my standing before the Lord is wholly dependent upon my position, and the Spirit’s great work in my life this side of the veil isn’t so much to bestow upon me His spectacular gifts of prophecy, healing, and tongues (though He obviously does that), but rather more so to incrementally bring my practice into harmony with my position, and that the two sides to the same issue are utterly inseparable.

To the defeatist, the Bible’s encouragement is to fully trust in Christ and His finished work for you. Your standing before God, and His favor towards you, is not in the least measure based on your performance, but on your simply trusting in that finished work. You are secure in Jesus, because He carried your sin on His Person to the hill of Calvary, all of it, suffered the full and unmediated wrath of the Father for that sin, and forever secured your salvation and right standing with God. He did all of this alone, and He did it infallibly. You cannot ever improve on His finished work by your penitence, your self-improvement, or your anything; He did it all, He paid it all, and now in return for your simple faith He gives you all. Enter into the rest and joy of your Lord, for this is His great desire, and this is what pleases Him, not your doomed efforts at reformation. Your simple, child-like faith in His mercy and grace won for you at the Cross, and nothing else. As the hymn of the faith says:

Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Therefore, you can rebuke the whisper of the enemy in your heart which says that the Father is displeased with you, that you do not measure up, that you are utterly unworthy of the least of His mercies. With the exception of the first part, the rest is all true! And so what? Even so, God is forever pleased with you, because of Jesus, and since you are hidden in Him, and He does measure up, and He is worthy, so are you.

Don’t rest on how you feel, rest on what He says!

Don’t wait until you “get” it or “understand” it – you never will! Instead, rejoice in it by faith – which is the very principle by which we are called to live in the first place, not by merit or performance. Simply faith!

To the triumphalist, the Bible’s admonition is to remember that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble – and that the essence of humility is to have a right and sober view of oneself.

Which includes the concept of not thinking of oneself more highly than he ought to think, in fact, of thinking of others as as being better than oneself.

Paul puts it like this:

Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Understand also, dear trumphalist, that although it is indeed true that your standing before God isn’t based on your performance, your life still matters to God, and He expects you to live it for Him – which includes the idea of daily crucifying your flesh…which in turn directly implies that your flesh requires daily crucifying! Keep in mind that Romans 7 appears before Romans 8 – by design, not simply by logical necessity. The same Apostle who speaks in the present tense and includes himself in the triumphs and glories of the eight chapter, speaks in the present tense and includes himself in the struggles and setbacks of the seventh chapter. John, agreeing with Paul, in the same epistle in which he declares that the true believer cannot {continue in} sin, also is very painfully clear that the believer can never be completely free of sin this side of the veil, and must determine to struggle against sin.

Therefore, you must be open to the same correction you are quick to apply to others.

You must recognize that though what you do does not save you, your salvation necessarily changes what you do. Yes, you are blessed beyond the curse because of Jesus, but you are supposed to, therefore, live in real blessing, not simply demand it. Yes, you are eternally righteous in Jesus; therefore, live like it. Yes, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise; therefore, give evidence of that sealing by a life lived in humble joy before God and man.

As Martin Luther has said:

The true, living faith, which the Holy Spirit instills into the heart, simply cannot be idle.

…which is really another way to restate James:

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

Both Christian defeatism and Christian triumphalism are extremes of Christian thinking and attitude which are combatted by a proper perspective: My position is eternally secure in Christ, my standing with God is based on His finished work, and so my practice, which does not determine my standing, is however daily to be brought more and more in line with that exalted position, by the grace and working of the Spirit.

VEE: Free Church?

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 02:06:00 +0000

Excellent point here.

Why the “New Reformed”…aren’t.

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:14:00 +0000

From a “truly Reformed” perspective, says something that I’ve long pointed out (and been hammered at for doing so): Reformed means a lot more than just believing in TULIP; it’s an entire theological structure and worldview that encompasses vastly more than soteriology.

Here’s the article.

Spot-on.

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:14:00 +0000

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 12 - Damien Kyle

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:16:00 +0000

COMMUNION SERVICE

· {{began by praying for the gift of Tongues for the brothers who expressed a desire to pray for that particular gift}}

· ACTS 25

· The account of the Apostle Paul’s very memorable defense before the Roman Procurator Festus and King Agrippa (and his wife Bernice)

o Middle of a story that had begun a few years earlier

§ Included his arrest by Roman soldiers

§ After having been rescued by them from the violent mob at the Temple mount

§ The plot against his life by the 40 religious fanatics

§ Resulting military escort from Jerusalem to Ceasarea to ensure his safety

§ Left in prison without charges for two years

· Felix hoping that Paul would try to bribe him

§ When it became apparent that Paul was not going to have his case heard fairly by Festus (who had taken over from Felix), Paul exercised his right to appeal to Caesar

§ And so Festus, having to specify charges, determined that there would be a hearing for the purpose of hearing Paul’s case, so as to enumerate charges.

· When permission was given to Paul to speak, he became the focus of the room

o Everyone’s eyes now came upon Paul

o And eeverybody had two questions:

§ What would he do

§ What would he say

o The most powerful government leaders in that part of the world were now his audience

o Would he use this opportunity to defend himself?

o Would he accuse the government of abuse of his rights?

· When Paul opened his mouth, he proceeded to give them the most valuable thing that he had to give

o The one thing that Rome couldn’t take away from him – chains couldn’t take away from him – no one could take away from him

o He gave them his testimony.

o His personal story of how he came to faith in the Lord Jesus.

· It is interesting to notice how often the Apostle Paul publicly recounted his testimony, and how often that it’s recorded in the Scriptures

o No less than 3 times in Acts alone

o Multiple references to it in his epistles

o This tells us that Paul never lost his awe over his salvation story

§ It had an ongoing influence on his Christian life and service

§ Had a healthy humbling praise-producing effect on his personal life and ministry

§ As he thought about what he was before Jesus, how God had saved him, and the amazing privilege that was his to live his life for Jesus

· What was I before Christ?

o What would I be now without Him?

o What did He save us out of – and what is the life that He has saved us into?

o Thank the Lord for our testimony – for our salvation

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 11 - Chuck Smith

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:15:00 +0000

· ACTS 20

· Paul is at Miletus, about 40 miles from Ephesus

o Called the elders of the church of Ephesus to meet him & the Miletans on the beach.

· He tells them, “you know me.”

o “I’m not revealing anything new to you.”

o He’s going to commission them for the ministry.

o He’s not sure they’ll ever see him again.

o He’s living in uncertainty as far as the future is concerned.

o He knows that wherever he goes the Spirit is warning him of what’s coming.

· “I was serving the Lord with all humility of mind, with tears, with trials…”

o “You know I’ve served the Lord with humility of mind…”

§ God has been very good to us.

§ He just keeps blessing.

§ It’s an interesting thing, when God begins to bless, you probably have one of the greatest dangers in ministry.

§ If you can explain why God is blessing, you’re in trouble.

· If you think it has anything to do with you, that you have some kind of a secret, that God has chosen you because of your ability or whatever

§ Humility of mind – very important, because the danger of success is we begin to lose that humility.

· We begin to attribute that success to something other than God’s grace.

§ God is good, and He wants to bless

· But often He knows He cannot bless, because the success causes a person to stumble.

· They think it’s them instead of God.

§ God allowed Chuck many years of dismal failure – 14 years in the ministry.

· Struggled for those 14 years.

· Hard time

· Even so, it was a necessary time

· God had to empty him of himself, his confidence in his abilities

· “God has prepared us for the work that He has beforeordained that we should walk in them.”

· In looking back, Chuck can see how God allowed him to go through those years, so that when He began doing His work, Chuck would not be tempted to take any glory for what was going on.

· God prepared him through the failures in the ministry for his future ministry

§ It isn’t your ability that He is interested in at all; He’s interested in your availability.

§ It’s amazing what God can do when you get out of the way and allow Him to move.

o “…tears and trials…”

§ Tears over failures, mistakes, trials, going through hard experience

§ Yet in all of it learning very important lessons, learning about the faithfulness of God, His provision

· Holding back – don’t. You’re to minister, not in a reserved kind of way

o “Well, I have 10 minutes for you, so make it snappy and say what you have to say…”

o Be available for the people

· “And I showed you and taught you publicly and from house to house”

o Paul didn’t just minister from behind the pulpit, but he got out and was with them and showed them by his life.

o He wasn’t ashamed to make tents to provide so that he might not be a burden

o Showing them that we’r e not above work

o Our greatest sermons aren’t from the pulpit but away from it

§ Letting people see the Word in our lives

§ Letting them see what it is we’re teaching

· People are not going to learn nearly as well as when you can demonstrate with your life

· It’s interesting that the first word of the Gospel is “repent.”

o Surely a great need of our world today

o Of ourselves today

o It’s not about what we have done, what we can do – it’s about showing them Jesus, pointing them to Him

· Paul then speaks about his circumstances…”I don’t know what’s going to happen, but the Spirit’s warning me.”

o Paul went in with his eyes wide open

o The Lord warns us it won’t be easy, so that we don’t have to be blindsided.

o If you’re afraid of what might happen, you might not ever go where God calls to begin with.

· “I don’t know what’s waiting for me, but I know it’s bad.”

o Yet, Paul felt constrained to go

o He felt it was necessary to go

o So his attitude, knowing the difficulties, still went.

o “I know the future’s going to be bad, but none of these things move me.”

§ All that mattered to him was faithfulness, not the consequences of faithfulness.

o Let what happens happens, let them do what they will, let them say what they’re going to say

§ You be faithful.

· “that I might finish my course with joy.”

o I want to finish my course with joy.

o Many people have a great start, but a poor end.

o It’s a lot of times because we’re not following the exhortation of Paul to serve the Lord with all humility of mind

§ You think you’re above the laws of God

§ You’re an exception

§ It really was all about you and how awesome you are

§ Don’t think “it can’t really happen to me.”

· IT CAN!!! IT WILL!!! If you don’t take heed!

· Finish well!!!

· Paul was pure of the blood of all men.

o He didn’t compromise the truth

o Didn’t try to give people an easy way in

o Declared all the counsel of God

o Our goal – to fully declare to our people through all of the counsel of God

§ If you don’t take your congregation through the entire Bible, you can’t really claim this.

§ Don’t skip.

§ He honors His Word above even His Name

§ He will bless His Word

· The people will grow strong and blessed in the Word of God

· And so, Paul’s final admonition to the elders: Feed the church.

o “Feed My sheep.”

o Feeding of His sheep is the only response of the one who truly loves Him.

· Chuck’s challenge to us: Take heed to the flock of God over which He has given us the oversight.

o There are people coming to our churches coming to hear the Word of God, to find answers to the problems of life

§ Take heed to the flock of God

§ Feed the sheep, that they might grow in their knowledge of the Lord and in their walk and relationship with Him

§ Be faithful in feeding the sheep.

· Who knows? With the condition of our world today, who knows if we’re going to have another one of these conferences?

o We may not have the same freedom we have now, in not so long from now.

o If it becomes against the law to preach the Word of God, send Chuck a file in the package we send him, and he’ll see if he can’t somehow break out.

· Preach the Word!

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 10 - Lloyd Pulley

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:13:00 +0000

· ACTS 15

· Very contentious passage…about contentions

· The Bible does not directly say who was right – Paul or Barnabas

· The first principle of contentions in the church – it’s normal to disagree.

o Cults operate on the principle of forced unity

§ You can’t deviate one iota – if you do, you’re out.

o Real unity – we’re all looking in the same direction with the same heart

§ Forced unity – not the same thing at all.

· There are places on earth where perfect peace, perfect unity abides

o We call them “cemetaries.”

o As long as there’s life, there will be contention, there will be problems.

· Avoiding dissenting voices or pretending they’re not there is not the answer

o The key is in both Paul and Barnabas’ lives, they both had very different views of what’s coming ahead.

§ Realize they were looking at things from different perspectives.

o Barnabas was all about grace, Paul was all about the mission. He understands the battle ahead.

§ Who was right?

§ Which side will you take?

· First step is to see it’s normal – and we therefore need to give people the freedom to have a dissenting voice.

o Give people the freedom to push back; and when you go to minister to the body, you do so in one spirit

o The break between Paul & Barnabas did not spread; it did not form factions.

· Warning – wolves in the church will appeal to Matthew 18

o They want to keep people in the dark, keep them from comparing notes.

· Paul & Barnabas kept things between themselves, and they came to a conclusion – even though we might not have much liked it.

· Know your limitations – you don’t know what you don’t know.

o Some times that’s enough in the subject of contention – you must realize you don’t have all the information.

o Up to this point, the Lord has moved among us

§ Let’s not wreck it by speculation and assumption

o That person who feel s he has to get to the bottom of everything is both insecure and dangerous.

· Read Spurgeon’s “A Blind Eye And A Deaf Ear”

o If you hear your servant talking behind your back, don’t take it to heart

§ You know you’ve done it, too!

o There are people who just can’t let things go.

o Sometimes, you need to develop a thicker skin – take your shots – don’t defend yourself.

o Your critics can be your best friends if you look at it the right way – they will often see what you can’t!

§ At the very least, they’ll keep you from believing your own press, and will keep you praying and humble before the Lord.

o Be thankful for those who point out your faults!

o Be thankful for those who point out your shortcomings!

o Small-minded people feel they have to get to the bottom of everything.

o Don’t take things to heart in the sense of mulling, dwelling, worrying, etc.

§ Take things to Jesus, and let Him apply what’s legitimate to you.

· Spurgeon said, “we don’t have earlids like we have eyelids” so we need to find another way not to take things to heart.

· A lie is like a fish out of water – eventually it will flop itself out.

· Stoke the true fire rather than try to put out all the other fires the enemy starts.

· “Difficult people are God’s agents to scour the lives of His chosen servants.”

· The root of many disagreements: Strengths overplayed.

· In most cases, it’s more important to be loving than it is to be right.

o Win the argument, lose the fellowship, what have you gained?

· “Are they convinced that you love them?”

· Can you tell the difference between a wolf and a wounded sheep?

o Wounded sheep can be very loud

o “Have you ever had anybody spiritually throw up on you?”

o Love them, love them, love them.

o Take it. Don’t take it to heart, take it to Jesus, and love them.

o “Once you’re a part of this church, you’re a part of the family, so I’m going to love you anyway even when you hate me back.”

· In the contention that we see in Acts 15, God does something powerful through Paul which confirms he is in the right for some people.

o What people really want to know is, “is the Lord among us?”

o Go back to the cross.

· Spurgeon put it this way: people will forgive many of your shortcomings and faults if they’re well-fed and well-loved.

o You can’t stop many contentions in the fellowship

o But you can be faithful to keep loving and keep praying and keep teaching the Word.

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 9 - Sandy Adams

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:10:00 +0000

· ACTS 10-11 – Adventures In Grace

· {{story about “Carrie” and “Grace”}}

· It’s not enough to receive grace; having received we must now extend grace.

o It’s not enough just to know grace if you’re not going to show grace.

· A right standing with God is both obtained and maintained by the grace of God alone.

· “Mrs. Wilson gives us cookies not because we’re nice, but because she’s nice!”

o Jesus’ work on the cross is accredited to me because of His grace

· Peter knew grace, he taught grace…and then he was challenged to apply grace.

o Often for pastors, practice lags theology

o Should not be so!

· Grace is more than a blurb in our statement of faith or doctrinal summary

o We must – must – live it out.

· Next to the Day of Pentecost, what happens in these chapters contain the most important, strategic event in the history of the church.

o Never has so much theology been worked out over lunch. It was a true power lunch. {{yes…he said that.}}

· All religion defines “clean” from “unclean”

o Even pseudo-Christian religion – defining who’s “clean” and who’s “unclean”

§ Who’s “holy” and who’s “unholy”

§ Who’s “in” and who’s “out”

· Here’s the problem: everybody’s a bad guy.

· Religion chooses sides – picks out good guys from bad guys – assigns white hats and black hats – awards merit badges for accumulating filthy rags…

o But that’s not Christianity.

o The goal of Christianity is simple: bring everybody to Jesus.

o The point: we are all the bad guys – and we all need Jesus badly.

§ Pew-sitting bad guys, and pulpit-occupying bad guys

§ Heretical bad guys, and Calvary Chapel bad guys {{this after a long, funny, but very very telling list of “x” bad guys and “y” bad guys, all building to this point}}

· Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation

o No one is being labeled good guy/bad guy any longer

o Now it’s all about all of us receiving the love that none of us deserve.

o “Rise, Bubba! Play and sing!” {{you have to hear this for yourself…}}

o “Grace exploded in my soul. Suddenly, you didn’t have to live up to my standards or my theology before you could receive the grace of God.”

· Over the years, however, Sandy’s observed the sad truth that we all have our kosher laws.

o Even Calvary Chapel pastors.

o Religion is easier than grace.

§ It’s easier to assign white hats and black hats.

o Pride will always lean us toward religion.

· It’s only when I realize that there’s nothing I can do, that it’s all about grace that I will finally, truly get it.

o None of us is any more deserving of God’s grace than the murderer or child molester.

· Religious caste system – exact opposite of grace.

o If that kind of pecking order exists in the church –shame on the pastor.

o What God has cleansed, you must not call common.

· We are complete in Christ, not because we toe the party line.

· If Chuck has his own way, we will finish as we began – in radical, wild grace.

o There is no more distinguishing mark of our movement than the radical love and celebration of grace.

§ Sound theology, expectancy of Jesus’ return, all that are marks of our movement

§ But grace used to be the defining mark – and must continue to be.

o Your denominational affiliation didn’t matter; your political affiliation didn’t matter; your opinion on secondary matters didn’t matter

§ What truly mattered was Jesus

o It’s not that we didn’t have opinions about these things, but we put them in perspective!

· Start down the finger-pointing path and it’s a very slippery slope.

o It’s real ugly there at the bottom!

· Don’t misunderstand; we must be faithful to speak out against false doctrine and teach the Word

o But God has not called me to police the neighborhood.

o I must give the people room to grow, room for grace.

o We can still learn from others – even when we sharply disagree with them!

· Calvary used to do a lot of finger pointing – we were pointing at Jesus!

o When did we start pointing at each other?

o We must get back to the point of continuing in the grace that we have received!

o “What grieves me more than the saint with the mug shot is the saint who went looking for the mug shots!”

· Are we treating people with the same grace that we have been shown?

o We must teach grace

o But it’s even more important that we show grace.

· Peter was trapped in a bias

o And there is nothing that’s a greater hindrance to living in grace than a bias

o It can even trap an entire movement.

· What keeps us from practicing grace?

o Misinformed principles

§ Conscience is taught by truth…or tradition.

§ Peter needed to surrender his conscience to the Lordship of Jesus.

o Prejudice

§ Don’t underestimate the power of a prejudice!

§ There are some things that don’t “feel right” to you…but that in itself doesn’t make it wrong.

§ You must be careful not to teach your prejudices as truth.

§ Your prejudices will close the door to some people; grace will keep it open.

§ Calvary Chapel has been around long enough to develop a few biases of our own.

· Be careful! What if God wants to move in a different direction than what we are used to?

o Precedent

§ “This had never ever happened ever!”

§ Think “tradition”

§ God wanted to take Peter not up to the edge of where he’s been, but to a new place

§ Some steps we’re called to take are hard just because we haven’t taken the steps before.

· Unlike religion, Christianity isn’t a commitment to a principle, a prejudice, or a precedent, but to a PERSON.

o The Ruler trumps the rules

o The Lawgiver trumps the law

o We are to follow Jesus!

§ Will you go where He sends you?

§ Do what He instructs you to do?

§ Love whomever He sends to knock at your door?

· If you are ready for this, there will always be a knock at the door!

· You get grace from God, but then you send grace to all those around you.

· Religion is predictable

o Grace is wild and wooly

o It’s orthodox to believe in grace, but it’s risky to practice it!

o Practice grace, and you’ll find yourself in uncomfortable places, with uncomfortable people, in uncomfortable situations

· We read the story of the prodigal son, and we marvel at the extravagance of the Father’s love

o But the other brother had a different opinion

o Thought the dad was soft on grace

o Which will you be?

· Religious people love to put up a bunch of hoops that you must jump through

o When you remove those hoops, they will be mad at you

o If you show this level of grace, you will be misunderstood

o If you’re not being accused of sloppy grace – maybe you don’t actually walk in grace!

· Grace applied changes everything

o Living by grace is living graciously

o Everything changes when grace explodes in your heart

· The good works that followed in Cornelius’ life was the fallout not the cause of grace.

· Calvary Chapel is our Joppa

o We have seen the vision

o Now there’s a knock at the door

o Do you hear? Will you answer?

o Will you live out these principles?

o “Rise, pastor! Kill and eat!”

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Thursday Devos - David Trujillo

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:09:00 +0000

· God did not save us to sit on a bench, but to get out there and get the Gospel to the lost.

· We are given to live for the Kingdom of God, not our kingdom.

· We are Christians first, not pastors.

· REVELATION 2

· God knows of our labors, what we do for Him

o Nevertheless (can be stated, “despite…however…”)…

o “Man, I’m doing all this stuff, doing all these outreaches…”

o Left the first love (Jesus) to focus on at-best-secondary things (building the church)

o {{story of showing the marked Bible}}

o Am I doing what I am doing for God – really?

§ Or am I doing what I’m doing for myself?

o If I lose my love for God, I will lose my love for humankind, too, and be filled with love for self.

o I can’t do what I do to try to build a church; I must do what I do out of love and devotion to Christ.

· God’s call, His solution: remember who you are, remember Who He is.

o Return to your first love.

o Get back to your Dad’s pad.

· When I do what I do for Jesus, there is joy, there is blessing – no matter what the apparent success or lack of it happens to be.

· Repent, do the first works again.

o Got caught up in doing the work of the church? Repent.

o Remember those first works, the works motivated by love, and do those.

o WE NEED REAL DEVOTIONAL TIMES.

§ Studying, preparing to share, is not devotional time – is not time spent specifically to hear from the Spirit.

§ Read the Bible, pray for your fellowship, your relationship with Jesus.

§ Joshua 1:8

§ Saturate your minds in God’s Word.

o Pray continually.

o Share [the Gospel] constantly

· Remember the works of the Spirit

o We need to get back to total submission to the Spirit of God

o We need the power of God in our lives if we want to do His work effectively

§ Which means we need to stop trying to do it ourselves

o We need to be sensitive and attentive to the Spirit

§ Which by the way means that we are to live in continual repentance

o We need to be led by the Spirit

§ {{story of ministering to the girl}}

o Take ventures of faith with the Spirit

§ Where God guides, He provides

o Be controlled by the Spirit

§ Be held in check by the Spirit

§ If you’re in the flesh, you hinder the Spirit.

§ Never live in such a way that you wonder, “what could have the Lord done in my life?”

o {{story of his brother, having been shot}}

· Let God keep you in check

o Stay in the Word

o Stay close to Jesus

o Stay in the Spirit

o Continue to take ventures of faith

o Encourage the brethren

· The Lord wants to do much through us, but we often tie His hands with our agendas.

o Live for Him – wholly for Him!

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 8 - Brian Brodersen

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:08:00 +0000

I am extremely miffed at myself – but I missed most of Brian’s session. I had a meeting that ran long at lunch, so I came in quite late.

What I’d heard of Brian’s message, however, was priceless.

The main points I’d heard:

When sending out men to plant churches, send your best – the experienced ones – not the ones you think you can do without.

Experience is needed, so that when hard things and hard times come, the man doesn’t fold – he’s seen God move similarly before.

We must not get caught in a rut as a movement – be open to whatever the Spirit wants to do – our way is not necessarily the best way, be open to learn from others in the Body.

I can’t wait to get the MP3s of the conference so that I can hear Brian's session in full.

I have the sneaking suspicion that his session will turn out to be the one that’s worth the price of admission.

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 7 - Bob Caldwell

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:07:00 +0000

· Matthew 21:43

o There are natural laws you can depend on

o This verse is a principle of Christ you can depend on

o He has ultimate authority over His Kingdom.

o What this verse says to us is:

§ We own nothing.

· It’s His Kingdom

· He gave it so we can bear fruit

· We don’t bear fruit, He will take it.

· This is not your church, this is not your turf, this is not your city – this is not your thing at all – it’s His.

· We have to be free from the delusion that we own anything – as men, as churches, as a movement.

§ God needs nothing

· Including us

· There has never been a time in the history of the planet where there has not been a voice for God’s Kingdom, where there hasn’t been a clear manifestation of the Kingdom of God.

o The Kingdom of God has non-exclusively been given to us, that we might bear fruit.

§ The fruit does not come from the kingdom of man

§ God desires for the fruit to continue

§ He is not dead, He is not done

§ He loves humanity, and He has chosen to work through you to love them.

· It is up to us to be faithful to allow Him to bear His fruit.

o It’s not time to be mellow about the Kingdom, about what He’s given us.

o Until everyone hears, until everyone sees the manifestation of the Kingdom, until they’ve been given a legitimate expression of the power of God, the job’s not done.

· Instead of complaining of how bad things are in our culture, understand that it’s a huge opportunity.

· Our world is in a major crisis – there is a vacuum

o People don’t know where to turn, ultimately.

o If there’s ever been a time to evangelize, pray for the sick, etc. – it’s now.

o Anybody, to anybody.

o Anyone can be radically transformed by the Gospel

o Look for the most lost people and love on them.

· Do you believe the Kingdom of God can heal a tortured mind?

o We live in the most dynamic time in the history of the human race

o Not the time to be rearranging the furniture on the Titanic while it’s sinking

o Get serious about eternity, about what will last!

· To be able to bring the Kingdom of God to a world that’s sinking – how awesome is that?

· ACTS 6

· The deacons in Acts 6 probably outdid all of us combined.

· What kind of a spiritual environment for a Philip or a Stephen to arise out of our fellowships?

· Remember: you are not the only one who has weird people in your church.

o Listen: you’re the pastor – people hardly ever rise above their leaders.

o If I am a pastor or a father, I can’t complain about my children, I have to complain about my pastoring, about my fathering.

o I should look at my life, and ask, “Lord, am I creating an environment that is conducive to the Kingdom of God.”

o I need to learn to live in the dimension of the Spirit.

· The Kingdom of God goes wherever we go

o It changes your life to consider that

o I don’t have to wait for funding, for advertising, for church buildings…I have the Kingdom of God

· Those “messed up” people are our opportunity

o We get to watch the Kingdom of God come in power to bring conviction, healing, restoration.

· The power of the age to come invades our present world in the preaching of the Gospel

· We live in a spiritual world, we are citizens of the Kingdom of heaven – that is our reality.

o If we choose not to have eyes to see that, we will not build the Kingdom of God.

· Bob used to get all worked up about the people who leave

o God spoke to him, “you can only pastor the people who want to be pastored by you”

o “so lighten up.”

o Love the people you have and just bear fruit.

· Jesus is the King of a Kingdom – and that means something.

o He is a King – we are His subjects.

· In the environment of Acts 6, it makes sense that two of the men raised up to be deacons, one would become a martyr, the other one of the greatest evangelists

o Why? Environment of prayer, reality of Jesus’ continuing presence through the Spirit, committed fellowship.

o They gave themselves continually to prayer and ministered the Word of God.

· Prayer needs to be a primary course for the preparation of the ministry.

o The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray

o “The way You pray, Jesus, is so far from where I’m at – I need help.”

o Samuel: “God forbid that I would sin against God and not pray for you.”

o Wonder how many pastors are worried like that…

§ “so you’re not doing porno anymore? Great.”

· But are you praying?

o Not driven by guilt, legalism…but by love, desire to know Him more, draw closer to Him, be filled more with Him.

· Want to be a better pastor, better father? PRAY.

· Bob would find young guys, take them up on Fridays to fast and pray – to develop them.

o Without computers, without cell phones, without iPods.

o Bob’s pro-iPod – but not when it drowns out the Spirit.

o It’s hard for many pastors to pray for 2 hours

o Their attention spans can’t handle it

o Because they’re spiritually weak.

o {{I think God’s really trying to tell me something…}}

· The Bible talks about the need to exercise our senses to discern good & evil

o How to do that?

o Read the Bible?

§ Yes, but also to PRAY.

o When your spiritual resources are weak, you’ll turn to natural resources.

o So when you turn to natural resources, that’s a great indicator of what’s going on with your spiritual resources.

· When I’m tapped out spiritually, I will try to grow my church with natural wisdom.

· Every church like every relationship goes through down times

o The answer is not to try to revive by natural means, but to re-hook-up with the Spirit through prayer & the Word

o You can’t wait for the people – you’re the leader. Lead in this area if in no other area.

· David had many problems – but he knew God

o David sinned more than Saul – but David had a heart for God, and so God continued to use him.

o If you don’t have the heart of a David, change your schedule to spend time with the Lord – because you’re sick and need to be healed.

o How do you learn more about Jesus: pray more, and meditate on His Word.

o You do that, you learn more about God, He’ll be faithful to bring others to you who want to, as well.

· When you become a friend of God and want to know Him, God will honor that.

o I want people who aren’t hungry to not like my church

o I want people who want to know God.

· What are you so hung up for?

o Teach the Bible

o Rely on the Holy Spirit

o Do whatever He tells you to do

o Don’t worry about those in the church at large – if they flake out, un-flake-out and upgrade your own walk with the Lord

· The needs & problems that you see in your context are the opportunities that the Lord is putting in front of you.

· “If you don’t push your church, I will fill this place with people who want to know Me.”

o It’s not about your church – it’s about the Kingdom of God.

· How do you begin to find & meet needs? PRAY.

o PRAY

o …and then, PRAY.

· There’s a need, you pray, and God does something sovereignly.

o I don’t have to produce that which He has not ordained

o I just need to be faithful to that which He has ordained for His purposes

o The burden to do and produce is off me

o I just need to be faithful and fruitful with what He’s given

· “Bob, I can do in a day what you can’t do in a lifetime, so relax. Just let me make you, let me mold you.”

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 6 - Raul Ries

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:06:00 +0000

· Raul began by talking about being overwhelmed by the awesome grace of God

o He will never give up on you – never.

· It seems that when God is moving, doing a tremendous work – we need to remind ourselves of the need to maintain purity in the church.

· We are living in very dangerous days in the history of the church

o The Spirit wants to do great things in the church

· Three things B. Graham warned of:

o Power

o Money

o Women

· Speaking of how he’s had many men come up in many conferences, confessing that they’re hooked on pornography, games that they shouldn’t be involved in, entertainments which defile rather than edify.

o These things short-circuit the moving of the Spirit

· Also, there are those who are fleecing the flock of God

o That is not your money, that is not my money

o It’s God’s money – watch out.

o It’s certainly not a good witness – and God takes that very, very seriously.

· We call ourselves ministers, servants – which means we need to understand the God we claim to serve

o He sees all

o We will give an account of and for all.

· God has given each of us a call to live not perfect lives, but holy lives dedicated to Him

o Live lives of continual repentance.

o I want Him to rebuke & chasten me – because I want to finish well, I want to stay as close to Him as possible.

o We don’t want Satan to hinder any of our lives so that we don’t come to the end and regret, wishing that we had listened to all the warnings.

· The purpose of this conference is not just for the purpose of getting away, but also for taking inventory with God, to allow Him to do a tremendous and deep work in our lives.

· ACTS 5

· If there is a country that needs more prayer than ever before, it is America.

· The church must become salt and light and speak truth, and never ever wimp out, even when and if persecution comes – keep speaking and living truth.

o That is only by the empowering of the Spirit and yielding to His Word.

· First observation in ch.5: as God is moving, the sin of hypocrisy seeps into the church – Ananias & Sapphira.

o Their names talk about their character – both are good names – what happened?

o They’d moved away – perhaps even imperceptively – from the first principles of the faith.

o When you move from the place of being in love with Jesus, it’s only a matter of time.

o The hypocrisy was that they wanted to appear something other than what they are.

· Satan hates people that are fully commited to God

o So he wants to get you to disqualify yourself.

o He is always studying, to try to get you to fall into an ambush

o Always laying new ambushes

o Always refining them, hoping you fall.

· A little leaven leavens the whole lump

o Right in the middle of revival, as God is moving, it all came to a standstill

o Why?

§ Sin.

· We need to be committed to be accountable to our wives, our congregations, our neighbors, everybody.

o We are not above examination

o Hypocrisy – pretending to be spiritual when we’re really not

· We need to be aware of the presence of the Lord.

o We need to be men of integrity.

o We need to look to the Lord as the Author and Finisher of our faith

o We need accountability

· To whom much is given, much is required.

o We are going to stand before God and give an answer

§ For our works

§ For our motives

· If you’re not called to minister, go do something else

o But don’t bring shame to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

· BE SERIOUS ABOUT SIN IN YOUR LIVES.

· If you want the Book of Acts to continue in your lives, get right with God.

· Don’t be afraid to confront people with the Word of God – because you have not been afraid to confront yourself with it.

· God uses donkeys (like us) to bring His Word to His people.

· I want God to move in His church (not my church, His church)

o So I need to make sure I am not disqualified

o I need to seek to live in holiness.

· Perhaps you haven’t stolen – your sins are “little” sins

o But they’re still sin

o They still hinder the work of God

o You want to see another Jesus movement in your church?

o Don’t play around with sin!

· Before the Holy Spirit came, Judas had to be moved out of the way.

o But those in the upper room who were looking for Jesus, He came to.

· The real power of God never brought any attention to what they were doing, but to what Jesus was doing.

· Do the hard work of studying to show yourself approved unto God.

· When you catch yourself lying, being less than truthful – stop.

o Repent.

o Don’t justify!

· Ananias got slain in the Spirit.

o God is not killing people today, but He’s not sleeping, either.

o Keep in mind – we are currently living in the Book of Acts.

o Think that one carefully through.

· Don’t be a different person in the pulpit than you are in the home or in private.

o Be a man of God at the home

o Be a man of God in private

· Don’t waste opportunities to repent! Think of Sapphira!

o If she was in prayer & sensitive to the Holy Spirit, things might have turned out very differently for her.

· Sin grieves the Holy Spirit of God.

o Be careful of what you approve of.

o May God help us not to test the Holy Spirit

o May He help us to be up-front.

§ Are we struggling? Be honest! Deal with it! God will not disqualify you if you lay it down to Him!

· Do you want effectiveness in ministry? People need to see the power of a life given over to God – they need to see the testimony of a holy life.

· The way we live, the way we do things – God is fully aware.

· Want to see God move and use you? Humble yourself and bare yourself open to Him.

· After sin was taken care of in the church – there was revival, there was healing, there was growth.

o The power of God began to move.

o There was unity.

o It kept people away from the church who had less than good motives.

· Never use programs – rely on the Spirit to move through His Word.

o Have a small church? Praise God! Love them with all your heart

o Be content with where God has you

o Be content with the gifts God has given you

o Love your people

o Care for your people

o Be passionate for them, for the Gospel, for Jesus, for His Word.

· If anyone desires to come after Jesus, let him deny himself and take up his cross

o If you lose your life for Jesus’ sake, you will find it.

· Our new life:

o Is produced by the Spirit

§ Not by works of righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the Word

o Is produced by the Word of God

o Is founded on and lives in simple faith

§ Simple trust

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Wednesday Devos - Jason Duff

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:05:00 +0000

· PSALM 119:161-162

· Jesus taught the Apostles, the Apostles poured into the church fathers…and on, and on…Moody taught Wiersbe, Wiersbe taught a lot of the Calvary pastors, who then taught the next generation.

o There is a holy, awesome continuity

· “I stand in awe of Your Word; I rejoice as one who has found a great treasure.”

o What we have in our hands is a great treasure

o Never ever ever forget it

· By the time the Lord called Jason to go out, Calvary was no longer unique

o There were many other ministries teaching the Word

o Calvary had become mature, no longer cutting edge

· The temptation he struggled with is to forget the sufficiency & the simplicity of the Holy Spirit illuminating the Holy Scriptures to the hearts of men

o Not to try to find something else that might work…but wouldn’t be the Lord.

· Mark 6:34 – Jesus was moved with compassion, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and He taught them many things.

· He has seen the Lord change a community by the teaching of the Word.

· Not impressed with your church; you need to know how amazing the treasure the Word is.

· Don’t get caught up in all the wisdom of church growth gurus

o It’s not about facilities

o It’s not about location

o It’s not about methodology

o It’s about the Spirit working through the Word.

· “I know who I am, but I also know who He is.”

· Challenge to younger pastors:

o Modern fads of how to do ministry, get big churches

o “the sixties and seventies, the Word was enough, it’s not enough now…”

§ Don’t believe it.

§ It’s not personality

§ It’s not relevance

§ It’s not technology that changes peoples’ lives

§ It’s the Spirit ministering through the Word

§ It’s the Word, the Word, the Word.

· Encouragement to the “old guys:” There are plenty of young men in the movement who have learned the lessons you’ve taught, and are clinging to the Spirit and the Word.

· Pray things through.

o It might be frustrating to some not to make decisions without praying, but pray things through.

· If the Lord tarries, you know what’s going to happen at Calvary?

o Should the Lord tarry, we’re going to keep teaching the Bible and depending on the Holy Spirit, until Jesus comes.

o There is nothing else.

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 5 - K.P. Yohannan

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:04:00 +0000

Chuck Smith says that in the records of eternity, the work of GFA in India will go down as one of the most important movements in the history of the church.

KP Yohannan is the founder of Gospel for Asia.

{{Chuck then turns it over to KP}}

· KP tells the joke of the minister and the Hindi…”Shall we gather at the river…”

· GFA has a year-long school of discipleship in their US offices in Dallas, TX.

· ACTS 4

· As we study these things, we must not make the mistake of studying for the purpose of just increasing in learning – but of hearing the Lord’s voice, and obeying.

o You may be gifted with tremendous knowledge and being a great orator of the Scriptures

o But what makes the difference is how we give ourselves to the Scripture – to read and obey.

· Jesus said He was sending us as sheep among the wolves

o We can wish He’d said He’d send us as wolves among sheep!

o But He didn’t.

· Jesus said: “do not love your life (hold on to it), but give it away.”

· KP is recounting about the missionaries they’ve sent out who are now waiting for us to join them in glory.

· The call of the Lord is not just to have a nice, wonderful life and then one day to make it to heaven

o It is to follow Him daily, to take up our cross.

· In every chapter of Acts, suffering, persecution, and tribulations are mentioned.

o It seems that life seems to go on the track of these things in the service of the Lord

o One place: “count it worthy to suffer for His sake.”

o “Hallelujah! We are given the privilege to get beaten up and to suffer for His name’s sake!”

o “Those who lay down their lives for My sake will find them.”

· The persecution in India has escalated by orders of magnitude.

· KP is sharing the story of an old man who is being surrounded by men who will kill him

o He asks for a few minutes to pray before they kill him

o They allow it; he prays with them around him, swords and knives ready to kill him

o He prays in thanksgiving for His salvation, rejoicing that he is about to see Him, and praying for the blessing and salvation of the men who are about to kill him, and for Jesus to protect and provide for his wife

o He opened his eyes, looked at the men, and said, “now you can kill me.”

o Leader of the gang said, “how can we kill someone who looks like our father?”

o When asked later, the old man was asked, “were you not afraid?” He replied, “I was, but I was more concerned for my wife.”

o He had remembered what his pastor had told him – that our lives belong to Jesus, to serve Him and lay down for Him.

· Whatever Jesus wants – that’s really all that matters.

· The key, the principle of the Apostles’ spiritual authority – these believers accepted suffering joyfully, because they knew that the darker the time, the brighter Jesus will shine forth.

· The Moravians’ motto: “Our Lamb has conquered, let us now follow Him.”

· Most of the people who commit suicide don’t do it because they’re sick and poor

o They do it because of their mental anguish, that they lose hope

· The jars of Gideon – the light could not shine forth until the jars were crushed, broken, shattered.

· KP talks about learning to thank the Lord for what He allows him to go through, that he might come to know and understand Him more.

· Being a pastor responsible for the Lord’s work, you only know the agony that you’re going through

· People misunderstand often that living for the Lord doesn’t mean life without problems and difficulties.

o “if you have faith, everything will go well and you’ll have no problems.”

§ …NOT!!!

o It comes down to this: do I want the fellowship of His suffering, or do I want the easy road?

· KP’s challenge: learn to accept the difficulties and the problems, knowing that they are gifts from the Lord, that we might know Him more.

o We don’t have people chasing us with machetes – but we have the privilege of learning to embrace the inconveniences and annoyances for the sake of the Lord and for the sake of those who don’t yet know Him.

o Spend time – quality, quantity time in prayer.

· It is worth it to give it all and lay down your life to serve the Lord Jesus and bring souls to Him.

· America is a strange place – we are enamoured with things, stuff, names, association with big things…

o But the Gospel call is a call to dying to self and living for Christ.

· Does ministry, the call of God cost you anything?

o Any suffering, and inconveniences, anything at all?

· God is looking for men who will say, “my life is not my own.”

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 4 - Dave Rolph

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:03:00 +0000

· We look back at baptisms as being the start of a whole lot.

· This stuff isn’t just for the ‘70’s – it’s for 2010 – and beyond.

· ESSENTIAL CHURCH – Acts 2

· The Book of Acts is the story of what happened when Jesus continued His ministry through the church

o It’s more than just nostalgia

o It’s the way culture carries itself along as the story unfolds

· He’s not trying to say that Calvary Chapel is the only church that does this, it’s just his frame of reference – what he knows, what he’s experienced.

o When Dave studied this passage, he wasn’t drawn to point out how CC is doing it right, and everybody else is doing it wrong – he’s drawn to point out where the Spirit is saying we must focus and re-focus as a movement.

· The Apostles’ work was something that was moving towards strength

o They were devoted to the Lord, exclusively, and decided at some point that this is what we do – Apostles’ doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers.

o So many distractions in our lives – but Jesus and His call on us must be primary.

· Top of the list – APOSTLES’ DOCTRINE

o What we do starts with the teaching of the Word.

o Something unique about Pastor Chuck’s teaching when Dave first heard him.

§ He’d heard many pastors before, but there was something about the simple teaching of the Word, simpliy.

§ It wasn’t that he was saying things that nobody else had said

· it was the diligent, simple teaching of the Word.

· It was the consistency

· It was the simplicity

o Just a guy sharing the Word

o Not preachy, not a guy putting on a show

o Just sitting down with the Bible and the Spirit and letting it say what it said where it said it.

o Believed that the Word of God was strong enough on its own so that he could just bring it and let it do its work.

o How hard do we work at the Apostles’ Teaching?

§ How hard do we work to make sure our teaching is accurate?

§ It takes labor, it takes work.

§ Do we follow the example we have been given?

§ Dave mentioned, he doesn’t think he has ever preached a message that he didn’t think he could have done better if he’d have spent just a bit more time in preparation.

§ In Acts, they raised up deacons, so that pastors could devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.

o Teaching the Word of God is not an excuse for us to get off on tangents and just go off on our personal rants!

§ We must preach the Word, not our word!

§ Faithfully present the Word of God.

· Then there’s FELLOWSHIP.

o More than just the donuts after church.

o Koinonia – word means “common,” “shared”

§ They were devoted to being common.

§ When you came to CC Costa Mesa, you were going to be loved.

§ Thing is – we can’t generate it.

· Programs won’t work

· Trying to do it won’t work

§ Instead, it begins with the whole idea of being common.

· Being real

· Being accessible

· No hierarchy

· No agenda

o Want to work on fellowship?

§ Work on commonness.

o Often, the intelligence of the pastor is in inverse proportion to the effectiveness of their ministry!

§ All your smarts isn’t going to “make this happen.”

§ It’s the Holy Spirit.

§ To get to the point where people realize it’s God, that He uses anybody – Paul had to get to the point where he came to them in absolute brokenness and humility, determining not to know anything among them – except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

o Until you work at being common, you’ll never be able to achieve communion.

o Realize – we are all in this together.

§ {{story of Chuck Smith & Katherine Kuhlman}}

o Common, regular people – as soon as we become something else, we are not doing what the Lord intends.

· Then, there’s THE BREAKING OF BREAD

o Probably talking specifically about the Lord’s Supper

o People go to one extreme or the other

§ First end, mystical – transubstantiation/consubstatiation

§ Other end, that it’s not that important, treated lightly.

§ Both wrong!

o Communion is, in fact, a big deal.

§ Treat it as such!

· Then, PRAYERS

o Definite article – literally, “in THE prayers.”

o Later in Acts – “you deacons do what you do so that we can devote ourselves to prayer”

o Are we in to praying?

§ Do we schedule prayer?

§ Do we encourage people to pray as they are worshipping Jesus?

§ Do we pray corporately?

§ Do we choose songs that express prayer and such?

· Not so much the “Jesus is my boyfriend” creepy choruses

§ How much of an emphasis do we put on prayer?

· Remember the emphasis in the Word!

o “PRAYER…and the ministry of the Word.”

· The result: “Fear came upon every soul.”

· When we lose simplicity, we lose gladness.

o When we complicate things, make them burdensome, the first thing that goes out the window is joy.

· God desires us to set the scene in the churches we’re given to pastor to encourage Acts 2:42 expressions.

· {{story of yelling in a mailbox, “JESUS LOVES YOU!!!}}

· When the church does what the church is, God shows up.

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Session 3 - Bob Coy

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:44:00 +0000

EVANGELISTIC PREACHING

· Ever say anything dumb, foolish or lame?

o Of course we all have

o But how many have done that in the name of Jesus?

o Supposed to be speaking on His behalf – and as soon as it comes out of your mouth…it’s not His half…

o After the fact, you think, “If I could only have a do-over…”

o Most of us have been there

· Most of us preach at least three times

o Even when we’re just getting started, and we only have one service

o First is the one we’re preaching in the shower beforehand in our heads

o Second is the real one…that tanks.

o Which leads to the third message – the one you preach all the way home

§ “If I had the chance again…”

§ “next time, I’d…”

o Most of us have been preaching three messages for years!

· Sunday night is the worst, as we’ve had all day to mull over how much we roached it.

o Bob thinks that’s the position of Peter here…

o He lays at night thinking…”It’s good for us to be here…? Really? Three tabernacles…?”

o “If I had the chance to speak for You one more time, Lord…I wouldn’t blow it…”

· Like Peter, perhaps we question our call – a lot.

o “If You gave me one more chance, Lord…”

o At that moment, when we like Peter think that, the Spirit says, “you’re on.”

· Text: Acts 2

· Four simple somethin’s

o First, sometimes you have to tell people what’s not happening, so that they understand what is happening.

§ Three groups of people

· The amazed (we like those)

· The perplexed (…)

· The mockers

o {{you HAVE to hear Bob talk about this one}}

§ Pete’s bugged about the mockers, and responds to them.

· He needed to explain to them what’s not happening before he could explain to them what is happening.

· “They’re not joining our church, they’re joining The Church.”

§ There is a context to what we are doing and who we are, which is specific to us (in whatever context the Lord has us).

§ In v.14, Peter draws the mocker’s attention to what is going on.

· How are we helping even the mocker get the story straight?

· If I do my job and make sure you get the story straight, even if you don’t receive, I have done what I have been called and sent to do.

o Second, make your case with the Word of God - clearly - so that they can “get it” even if they never come back.

§ It’s His Word that never returns void, not your Word.

§ Fill your heart, fill Your mind with so much of the Word, so that it just oozes out of you.

§ Pete’s a Spirit-filled man saturated in the Word, so that when you touch him, out pours the Word.

§ Don’t be afraid to offend people by bringing out the Word when you’re evangelistically sharing – the Word is the whole point!!!

§ Let the Word of God have “the run of the house” in your heart.

§ Peter hadn’t prepared for what happened in Acts 2 – didn’t have the whole night to pray and prepare

· Instead, he was perpetually ready because he was perpetually I n the Word.

§ If you’re think you’re only “on” when it’s pulpit time Sunday morning, you’re missing it.

· Be always in the Word, so the Word is always ready in you.

· “Be instant in season and out of season!”

· You’re on all the time.

· Be the pastor for anyone who needs pastoring – no matter what church they go to, if any at all.

· You are an Elder in Israel – you’re not a kingdom builder, you’re being used to build His Kingdom – which is much, much bigger than you.

§ People are waiting for – needing – desperately needing to hear the Gospel.

o Third, if you’re going to preach evangelistically, tell them Who Jesus is, and that He is alive!

§ Peter has the life of Christ in him, so that when you see him you see Christ.

§ The point of the entire rap that Pete’s talking about is that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be, He is alive, and it is our job to bring them to Jesus.

§ There are a lot of people out there practicing pastoring on people who don’t know what they’re doing – and they scare people.

· I can write a pretty scary end-times rap or “attack of the killer Emergents” rap to scare people.

· No; focus on Jesus.

o Fourth, when you’re evangelistically speaking, rely on the Spirit to get the Word of the Spirit out.

§ Each and every one of us has been given the opportunity, right where we’re at, to invite the Spirit to anoint His Word and move.

§ He is the One who does the work – we are only to be the vessels.

§ Rely on the Spirit – He will cut people to the heart, pierce them with His Word, and produce the change.

§ We are all fishers of men

· We might have different lures, different baits, but we’re all doing the same thing for the same Master for the same point.

· Final thought: Bob made the decision to always present the Gospel at the end of the Bible studies – and told h is church that this is what he was going to do, so as to encourage the people to bring people so that they can hear it.

o First several times, the net was thrown, pulled in empty (ever had that experience as fishermen?)

o But eventually, people began bringing people so that the net wouldn’t be empty anymore.

o “If you bring lost people here, we’re going to do everything God gives us to do to get them into the Kingdom.”

o Do you know how the heart of God wants to have lost people found?

o We don’t have that much time!

§ Get serious!

§ Get them into the Kingdom!

2010 Senior Pastors' Conference - Missions Sharing Time 1

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:42:00 +0000

Dan Finfrock shared about what the Lord is doing worldwide through the Inductive Bible Study ministry.

He’s asking for prayer – going to teach right under the nose of the Taliban.

2010 Senior Pastors’ Conference – Tuesday Morning Devos

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:42:00 +0000

· It’s so easy to spot when someone’s not in the Spirit

o The problem is discerning whether or not I’m walking in the Spirit

o That’s why we need our brother’s help, the Word, and the conviction of the Spirit

· We are gathered here to hear from the Lord – called here, enabled to be here to hear from the Lord

o We can get so caught up in technology {{hey – I’m doing the Lord’s work here getting the notes up for those who can’t be here, back off}}

· Text: Malachi 2

· The curse is already in place – it’s like gravity, there’s no way around it.

· The Lord laid it on his heart to come here with a heart ready to repent

· We have this great legacy, and we want it to continue on.

· If we come to these conferences and we don’t think we can be changed, conformed – how can we think we can go back and be used by the Lord to bring God’s heart-changing Word to His people?

· All we have to do is take things to heart and desire to give glory to God – that’s it

o It’s so simple

o We overcomplicate things

o Hearts yielded – whatever it takes, give us that heart

· It’s so easy to get caught up in routine, isolated in our own fellowships, running a show

o And the Lord would have us focus on Him.

· Illustration of the guy at the conference that went into a seizure – “I’m not eating your food!!!”

o God uses fools! {{Thank God for that!}}

· The simplicity we have in Christ.

· “Jesus is speaking in a hyper-boil.”

· It is the Spirit who comforts you, enables you, picks you up and carries you on.

· Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

o So seek the Lord

2010 Senior Pastors’ Conference – Day 1 Afterglow

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:08:00 +0000

Brian Brodersen shared that the guys who prayed for and planned this year’s conference really felt impressed by the Spirit that we need to spend quality, quantity time just waiting on the Lord and seeking His face. So the conference is deliberately set up with extended periods of non-planned-activity to give the Spirit room to move as He wills, extended time for fellowship, and a worship/afterglow time each and every evening.

Brian led this evening’s afterglow; Scott Cunningham led the worship. Brian had us break up into groups of four to six guys and pray specifically for three areas of focus during three sessions of prayer interspersed with extended times of – quite simply – awesome worship. The first prayer focus was for our familes and each other. The second prayer time was for our ministries. The third was truly awesome; Brian specifically asked us to pray for revival – not so much in Calvary Chapel, but for other ministries and movements that God is raising up, church planting movements outside of our own, that God would abundantly bless them, and to pray for the Body of Christ in all her messy glory, that the Lord would pour out His Spirit of grace on the entire Body, no matter what name is above the door, and that He would bring true revival in the nations.

I was renewed and awed by the presence of Jesus tonight. I’m sitting in the Overflowing Cup typing this out mainly because I’m so jazzed I can’t actually sleep yet.

AND THIS IS ONLY DAY ONE!!!

2010 Senior Pastors’ Conference – Session 2 – Tom Stipe

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:41:00 +0000

· During the planning sessions for the conference, Chuck had asked a pointed question: “Can we continue in the Spirit.”

· We are not going to find a model for the church from the ‘70’s – because this is 2010.

o However, the Spirit is still the same.

o Calvary Chapel began in the Spirit – and He does not change.

o “Dude, age happens. But not for the Holy Spirit.”

· Tom’s text – Acts 1.

· Luke was witnessing to Theophilus – he was witnessing to a friend.

o How would you like to get Luke & Acts as personal letters?

o The story of the Christian church.

· The two (the Gospel and Acts) are closely tied together, because if you have an experience with Jesus, you will have an experience with the Church – the two go hand-in-hand.

o There are those who say that it’s not necessary – Luke would disagree.

o Acts is a story that has no end – until the Rapture.

o The Acts carry on the life of Christ.

· The Holy Spirit gave commandments – and the Church’s job was to fulfill them.

o “I hope God commanded you to go where you are as a pastor.”

o “If the Holy Spirit has not made a command to you, please don’t go out – do anything else.”

o If you have not heard from God Almighty, don’t go into this line of work.

· Imagine spending 40 days with the resurrected Jesus – “Unlearned men?” I don’t think so!

· The many infallible proofs have to do with the Resurrection.

o Whatever proofs He gave were convincing!

o Easter wasn’t once a year for these people – it was all the time.

o The message of the Gospel always involves the truth of the Resurrection

§ Because if Jesus wasn’t alive – what would they say?

§ I mean, really?

o The church is empowered when it is saturated with the truth of the Resurrection.

· Easter is a sad time for church plants –w here all the people take their families to legitimate churches {{OUCH!!!}}

· The Resurrection was something they talked about all the time.

o Everybody knew that Jesus was crucified – it was done in public

o They needed to keep talking about & focusing on the Resurrection.

o Everybody knew He was crucified – they needed to know He didn’t stay that way!

· Tom likes to do a “Thomas Sunday” a week after Easter – to talk about questions & objections.

· By the deeds of the church & a profound part of their witness, they told the world of the reality of the Resurrection.

· The church didn’t know when He would appear during those 40 days – it was good practice!

o Expectation is a good thing

o They were prepared for the presence of Jesus & the Holy Spirit

· Evidently the Baptism of the Spirit was kind of a big deal.

o The Gospel is about the reign of God over the hearts and lives of those who trust in Him, not about kicking out Rome.

o “BUT you shall receive power…”

o The power of the church comes from the Holy Spirit and not from man.

· Tom was asked at his ordination, “Are you an Acts 1:8 Christian?” ;D

o That’s a great question to ask ourselves.

o Are we?

o Christians were filled fresh & new with the Spirit when new challenges & new opportunities present themselves.

· We are just pennies in God’s pocket that He can spend wherever He wants to.

o “It’s called surrender.”

o Ordinary Christians could do extraordinary things because it wasn’t them but the power of the Spirit in their lives.

o The Spirit is an absolute necessity – because this work will wear you out.

· When He ascened, did they miss Him terribly immediately?

o They had to be staring up in heaven for a while, since angels had to come and tell them to stop staring up in heaven.

· Have you ever wondered about the other guy (not Matthias)?

· Did Jesus allow them to be without Him long enough to long for His presence – and that’s when the Spirit came?

· Sometimes, Tom misses the drama of beginning in the Spirit.

o The early days were crazy.

o As part of the drama, Chuck allowed anybody in – and that got exciting at times.

o “…he let in carnal, and backslidden, and drunkards, and druggies, and even Baptists!!!”

§ (Tom was a Methodist youth director when he started coming to Costa Mesa.)

o Sinners come with baggage – and lots of it.

· Tom got fired from his first ministry job (at the Methodist church) for two things: falling in love, and getting baptized in the Holy Spirit.

· While some people have a calling to evangelism, we are all called to share our faith – to put Jesus in our lives on display.

· “They were all with one accord in one place.”

o I hope we find that reality, too.

o “with one accord…in one place”

§ Perhaps in this place {{AMEN!!!}}

§ At this point there were three things that were true of the disciples:

· One, they were humble, broken

· Two, they were obedient – when they were told to stay, they stayed, when they were told to go, they went.

· Three, they were expectant – perhaps the biggest thing of all.

§ Jesus told them to wait – so they were expectant.

o At Costa Mesa, they knew something was going to happen, that God would show up in power.

§ Every single night.

· Continuing in the Spirit requires beginning in the Spirit.

o Finishing in the Spirit requires beginning and continuing in the Spirit.

· The rest of this week, the rest of our lives, can be filled with stories of men changed by God the Holy Spirit!

· The people at Fuller asked Lonnie Frisbee, “what do you read?”

o His response: “The Bible and Foxes’ Booke of Martyrs”

o They got into such trouble – many students got saved & filled with the Spirit.

· The Bible equates the filling of the Spirit with boldness

o i.e., the supernatural ability to serve the Lord.

o BTW – refills are free!

· This is what we are going to attempt to do this week {{EXCITED!!! SO EXCITED!!I}}

· Francis Chan wrote The Forgotten God

o The equality of the Persons

o The Spirit is not the church janitor

o He is the driving force that changed the way they thought, talked, acted, worshipped

o He applies the truth & reality of the Gospel to our lives

· Tom calls the “discernment” types “The court of the women.” LOL!

· They built into the schedule for this conference more time for fellowship, for seeking, for worshipping.

2010 Senior Pastors’ Conference – Session 1 – Chuck Smith

noreply@blogger.com (mike macon) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:52:00 +0000

· We are living in extremely exciting days – we wonder just how long the Lord can tarry before He calls His church home.

o Israel seems to be God’s time piece – you want to know what time it is on God’s clock, look at Israel.

o Turkey has turned from its alliance with Israel – another piece of the puzzle falling into place.

o Turkish president has threatened to come himself in the next flotilla to try to break the blockade

§ Also threatened to bring the Turkish navy

· We really feel that things are starting to wrap up quickly – take the fire home to your congregations, to see people built up & grow in the Lord!

{{Pastor Chuck asks Amir to come up and share}}

· What we are seeing today is part of the deception that the Enemy is only beginning to unfold on the earth, but which will escalate as we get closer to the eschaton

· BTW – he (Amir) just came from Jerusalem, and he assures us the tomb is still empty.

· There is a dual target right now with the enemies of Israel:

o First, to turn world opinion against Israel

o Second, to divert the attention of the world so as to allow an easier attack.

· In fact, the IDF just recently turned back a terrorist thrust, hoping that Israel was so embarrassed by what happened this last week that they’d have lost the will to respond.

o They didn’t.

· When the flotilla launched, three different groups merged in an alliance to hit & hurt Israel

o Obviously, the first is a group of terrorists

o Leftist activists

o Journalists {{but I repeat myself – Ed. Note}}

· The moment the flotilla approached Israeli waters, they realized that they had to make their move before dark so as to embarrass Israel.

o First Israeli soldiers who landed on the boat were armed with paintball guns – it was for riot control, not for a firefight.

o When it became apparent that the terrorists were trying to kill people, the soldiers were given permission to use deadly force to defend themselves.

o Each of the terrorists who died was holding a weapon – not sticks.

o {{Amir calls the journalists the “media-ites.” Hilarious.}}

o The journalists called it a “slaughter of innocents” – no bias there.

· Interestingly enough, help came from an unexpected direction:

o A Lebanese cameraman working for al-Jazeera acutally recorded the truth – that the Israelis were acting in self-defense, and the terrorists were the real provocateurs.

· “The fact that the Enemy is called the ‘Liar’ and the ‘Deceiver’ means that he knows the truth.”

· There are more flotillas on the way.

o Interestingly enough, the excitement of the world is causing people to send ships to the region to help keep things under control – thus making it so that Israel has an easier time to defend herself. {{awesome!!!}}

· Why the blockade?

o Last time Israel checked an incoming ship, it was carrying rockets & other weapons

§ Not very helpful for feeding the hungry.

§ Great, however, for killing the Jews.

o NOBODY is going hungry in Gaza – true humanitarian aid is flowing in from around the world – and from Israel.

o Israel however will make sure that her citizens are protected from terrorist attack.

· Israel just found a huge reservoir of natural gas – bigger than the one was found earlier.

o Also, signs of oil are being uncovered in central Israel.

o The alliance of Ezekiel 38-39 might not be formed just to kill Jews, but to plunder Israel.

o Right now, Russia is largest exporter of natural gas in the world – would be threatened with Israel’s latest find.

o The situation in the Middle East has never been so close to Eze. 38 than it is today.

o There is no other person in the world – aside from Ezekiel – who could have predicted the situation in the M.E. to such incredible detail.

· The good news is – GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL.

o As the urgency of the times and the seasons is birthed in our hearts, remember to provoke the people of Israel to jealousy – pray to & love the Lord with all your heart!

· Formally, America is no longer with Israel.

o The latest UN resolutions show that America is no longer on Israel’s side automatically as things sit.

o Frankly, he says that we are in a better position than they are {{true!!!}} , so he makes a deal with us – we pray for Israel’s salvation, and he’ll pray for ours. {{DEAL!!!}}