Yeah, we can do that...

This is an excerpt from a recent teaching of mine…

Here are some really important ideas about the life God is calling us to live…

1.   God wants to use you to impact this world

2.   God can use you to impact this world

3.   Be Prepared to be used by God

4.   Use the tools God provides

Fact: You are Amazing & You are not alone in this…

Greatest part of the tool kit God has given us is: Each other.

God has designed us to do life together…

Sad reality is, most of us do not do this very well.  We suck at relationships…

Phil. 2:3)

A question I want to pose is this:

How can we do life together more effectively?

Think for a moment about why it’s important to even worry about our relationships with other people.

Here is what I believe scripture tells us…

We can only fulfill God’s purposes for His church, together.

You cannot do anything of value for the church on your own…

It is impossible.  No matter how talented or gifted you may be or how called you may feel to a specific vision, you will never fulfill the plans God has for His church alone.

It’s like this… Say you were given an enormous object, like a boulder and told, here move this across the street…  you would have a difficult time accomplishing the task on your own.  You might strain and struggle and exhaust an enormous amount of resources in order to fulfill the task, but in all honesty, you would succeed more rapidly, with less effort and resources expended, if you asked other people to help you with the task.

Only together can we fulfill God’s purposes for His church…

But…

Now this may seem somewhat contradictory to the previous paragraph, but: 

Obedience to God’s plans begins with the individual. 

You are personally responsible for your obedience or lack thereof.

Here’s a key:

What you do or do not do affects the people around you…

Imagine if there was no one to lead the worship, no one to run the sound and multimedia… no one to serve in the nursery… make the coffee in the café… and on it goes… it would negatively affect your worship experience.

So, not only are you responsible for your obedience to God’s plans,

You have an obligation to the community, the group of people around you, because they, whether they or you realize it, are counting on you to do what God has asked of you.

Phil. 2:4)

How does this work?  Doing life together more effectively, begins with taking responsibility for yourself, and the community, but has to contain a critical element called; Humility.

Define humility -  Understanding who I am in light of who God is and what He’s done for me… not drawing attention to myself.

Humility is a cornerstone of unity. 

It enables us to do life together more effectively and accomplish the purposes God has for His church.

So, in light of who I am because of Jesus Christ, the needs of others must surpass my own.  Not that I become a doormat for everyone to step on…

Or that I take a negative view of myself – “I suck…” or an overly

confident one either… “I am amazing”.

We must understand that we have a contribution to make, that God has enabled us to accomplish for the benefit of others… (He’s given us stuff to do and the ability to do it…not for personal gain or glory)

What does that look like… in real life terms?

Well, we’ve got to start with the prime example…

Phil. 2:5-8)

  

God may never require you to give your life for someone else, however, we are asked to take on this mindset… “attitude” that Christ shows us, in our relationships with other people… others first.  Serve in order to fulfill the task.

But Pastor Troy, that’s big… I mean… I don’t know…

I like me, I like catering to me and making me happy… I don’t know about all this others first stuff…

Don’t I have a right to be happy?  Don’t I have a right to be fulfilled and enjoy all this world has to offer… yeah, you do.

But, Jesus rejected what was rightfully his for the sake of humanity. (are you willing to reject what is “rightfully” yours for the sake of others?)

Do you understand what He gave up?

So, here’s how we do life together more effectively and fulfill the purposes God has for His church…

-       Reject the idea that this is all there is.

a.   We’ve got to have an eternal perspective… this life is temporary and our ambitions are so small… ego, fame, wealth, beauty, all fall short of what really matters and expire so quickly.

b.   Challenge the status quo… is this really as good as it gets?

Why would you stay the same if you knew God had something better for you?

-       Reject the idea that fulfillment only comes by serving yourself.

If you live your life like that… you will be very lonely, very empty and full of regret.

-       Embrace the Attitude of Christ.

a.   Welcome the challenge of fulfilling the purpose God has for your life… Jesus didn’t shrink from what He knew God was asking Him to do…was it hard?  Did Jesus have second thoughts?

Yes and yes, but he did it and his obedience yielded an amazing outcome. V. 9-11)

God blesses those who are obedient and who are willing to lay down their lives for the sake of others… figuratively and literally.

Qualifier… we don’t obey for the sake of the personal benefit.

We obey because it’s what God asks us to do and we know it will ultimately benefit others. 

                  And it will ultimately accomplish what God set in motion for us at Creation… That we     

                  might do life together more effectively and fulfill the purposes God has for His people.

Life together, humbly serving one another, obediently fulfilling God's purposes for His church.

Short term memory...

As a parent, if I pay attention, I can learn a lot from my children... I know that's a loaded statement, but it rings true so often in my life, it needed fleshing out in this medium.

My 14 year old, like most teens, has this ability to recall things from events and conversations that took place years ago... like when he was 2 or 3 years old... but when it comes to remembering what I asked him to do 5 minutes ago, he struggles mightily.
Now, you need to have a little background on my 14 year old son.  He has some unique challenges that accompany his adolescent state.  
He is autistic.
Autism on its own presents some interesting challenges, but coupled with puberty, autism brings some extreme difficulties.
For instance; our son has very little ability to appreciate that there are consequences for disobedience.  He wants the punishment to go away as soon as he apologizes for his transgression.  I remember having moments like that as a teen too.  "I'm really sorry, can I not be grounded so I can go out with my friends?"  "I'll never do it again..."  "I'll do the dishes and keep my room clean for the whole month if you let me..."
I, like my son, became an expert advocate for the things I could to do in lieu of punishment.
Like my son, I just wanted the punishment to go away.
So, just like my parents before me, I tell my son; "sorry, it doesn't work that way".  Then I throw out some pithy little parental axiom like; "you do the crime you do the time."  "Next time, just do what I ask you to do..."
...which frustrates him to no end... and the beat goes on...
This morning, we had another in the long list of conversations surrounding disobedience and consequences, and to tell the truth, I can't even remember everything I said.
But, I do remember that still small voice of the Holy Spirit, nudging me, saying, "Now you know what it feels like".
Ouch.
My mind was taken immediately to the passage in the Bible from I Samuel chapter 15, verses 22 and 23.
Saul, the king of Israel, was given some specific instructions as to what God wanted him to do regarding the take-over of a neighboring kingdom.
Saul ignored God's instructions and proceeded to do his own thing.
Sound familiar?
God sent the prophet Samuel to confront Saul and deal with his disobedience.  We can see in chapter 15 of I Samuel, that Saul attempted to cover up his act of disobedience and even shift some of the blame on to the people around him.
God wasn't having any of it and Saul was deposed by God.
...Pretty heavy consequence, don't you think?
Here's why this is so interesting; God, speaking through Samuel, tells Saul that his actions, while not overtly egregious, represented something deeper lurking in Saul's heart... rebellion.
Saul had shown a track record of disobedience to God's instructions and had to be taught a very serious and difficult lesson... and in many ways God was making an example of him.  Why?  Well, in my estimation, scripture makes it pretty clear that obedience is the scale upon which God measures our dedication to him.  We can say we're sorry and promise to never do it again. We can come up with all sorts of acts of kindness and service to others, but that's not really the point.
God doesn't care about how good looking we might be, or what talents we possess or skills we have honed, and He isn't interested in the excuses we come up with or apologies we make, God simply wants us to do what he asks us to do.  It's not that God wants to rule over us with the iron fist of a dictator...His desire for us to follow His instructions stems from His understanding of what is best for us.
Now, it would appear that God judges the necessity and severity of the consequence based on the attitude of our hearts...which, consequently, only he can accurately judge.
On the outside Saul appeared to have it all together.  According to scripture, he was tall and handsome and pretty chiseled.
But Saul had shown that his heart was not fully dedicated to God. 
How do you know that?
You only have to look at his track record... a couple of different times, God had given Saul specific instructions and both times, Saul failed to do what God asked him to do.  His disobedience didn't come from the fact that the instructions were incomplete or that someone else had broken the chain of command to make Saul look bad.  In each instance it was Saul's decision to deviate from God's instructions and his alone.
And that's where it comes back to us.  God has given us some pretty clear instructions... if we're taking the time to hear from Him and familiarize ourselves with the things He's telling us in the Bible, His expectations of us aren't impossible to follow.
So, it becomes an issue of our willingness to do what God is asking us to do.
Ahh...the pride issue.  "Father knows best or do I...?"
Will there be consequences if we disobey?  
Well, check the history of God's interactions with humanity.  Yup, it would appear so...consequences are part of the deal.  Am I trying to scare you?
No.  ...just some friendly advice; If God wants our obedience more than anything else we can do for Him, doesn't it make sense to follow the instructions and avoid the consequence?  Doesn't it make sense to check the attitude of our hearts toward God and deal with any rebellion that might reside there?
Now before you exit this post in frustration, check the following sentence...
Doesn't it also make sense that if we do what God asks us to do, that He will bless our obedience?  Not that we want that to become our motivation for doing what God asks of us, but it just makes sense, right?  
Hear what He says and do what He asks and He'll take care of us... easy...
Like I tell my son, I love you and want what's best for you... I'm pretty certain it's the same with God.  He loves us and wants what's best for us, the trick is remembering...