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Loving the tough to love...

    Many of us will spend some time this Holiday season with people who are... let's just say it...tough to love! It is reality. Some people are harder to love than others. They talk about themselves constantly. They have to be the center of attention. They have more problems than we do. They take much more than they give.

    The Bible indeed concedes that some people are harder to love! However, God does NOT lower the requirement to love our neighbors as ourselves:

"If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that." Matthew 5:46–47 (NLT)

Jesus modeled this for us, by the way. In our relationship with Him, we are  the draining ones; the ones who have all the problems; the ones who take much more than we give! Yet, He loves us unconditionally! 

So this Holiday season, let's allow the love that Christ has shown us to be reflected in the relationships around us...even to the tough to love...because that's who we are!

"Lord, surround me with Christians friends"???

From time to time, I'll have someone say to me: "I've been praying that God would surround me with more Christian friends," and while I understand what they're trying to say, I take issue with the statement. The church is to be that place in our lives where we do life with Christian friends. The primary reason our Life_Groups exist @mtnlakechurch is to provide the kind of Biblical Community every Christ follower needs.

However, outside of that, I don't think Jesus' goal for our lives is to surround us with "Christian" friends. Jesus actually reveals through His life, that outside of our relationship with the 12 (or so) discples we hang out with, every other part of our lives is to be lived as lights among darkness...not light among lights!

Jesus intentionally spent the majority of his day surrounded with people who didn't believe, belong, or behave like He did. Jesus was even questioned about who He hung out with:

"But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus’ disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with such scum?” Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.”Luke 5:30–32 (NLT)

You want Christians friends? Christ's friends were referred to as "scum". If you hang out with some "scum" then you indeed have Christ-like friends. If you don't hang out with "scum" your relationships differ from those of Jesus.

So who are the "scum" in your life God could be placing around you for His purposes?

How Satan attacks leaders (pt. 2)...

Satan also attacks leaders through:

Dissension/Division

• Gossip
• Not honoring spiritual authroity in our lives
• Not handling conflict God's way and going to the person we have an issue with! 
  

 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NLT) — 10 I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

Disappointment

• People who let us down.
• People who don't make it the entire journey.
• People who abandon us.

Defeat

• "I'm a failure."

• "I'm finished."

• "I'll never be any better."

• "I can't do this."

• "God's done with me."

When we're attacked by Satan in one of these seven ways, we need to keep in mind God's word through the apostle Paul:

Romans 8:31, 35–39 (NIV) — 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

How Satan attacks leaders (pt.1)...

During our series on Angels and Demons, I mentioned that evil demonic forces seem to attack leaders first and hardest. Why? Get the leaders, get the followers!

I didn't have time to unpack everything I wanted to say, so here are specific ways Satan and his demons attack leaders.

Disasters

• Illness
• Pain or physical suffering
• Death of people we love    
• Ministry disasters (the wheels falling off right before an event, etc).
• Financial calamity

Distractions

• Satan will seek to use disasters for the very fact that that they can become distractions.
• "putting our fires..."
• exchanging busyness for effectiveness

Draining people

• Know what persecution is? People giving us a hard time because of what we believe and do!
• "Extra grace required" people
• "High maintenance" people
• Negative people

Destructive attitudes & behaviors

• Negativity
• Inappropriate thoughts
• Inappropriate habits
• Inappropriate relationships

As a leader, have you felt Satan attack you in these ways? Would love to know!

Stay tuned for Part Two of this series!

 

 

 

Am I a promise keeper? Or promise maker?

Our world is full of promise makers:

"'til death do us part."

"I'll call you."

"I'll call you right back."

"Count on me. I'll be there."

"I'll drop you an email."

"I'll be there at 12:00."

"I'm behind you."

"I'll be praying for you."

"Lord, if you'll get me out of this, I promise..."

Making promises is not the problem in our culture. Keeping them, is. See, the problem with you and me is that we tend to keep our promises as long as it's convenient, easy, and comfortable. However, when it gets hard; when it hurts; when it costs us...we shrink back; we make excuses; we rationlize; we run for cover; we cover our butts!

What we need more of in today's world is the kind of people David described in Psalm 15:4: those who "...keep their promises, even when it hurts."

So ask yourself these questions:

Do I return my calls/emails...in a prompt manner?

Am I on time for my appointments?

Do I do what I tell people I'll do?

Can my boss, my team, my staff, my company, my church count on me?

Do I keep my pomises? When it's hard? Even when it hurts?

Am I  a promise keeper? OR promise maker?

 

 

 

 

 

The best time to demonstrate our faith...

The most interesting thing to me about the story of when Jesus asked Peter to step out of the boat in faith and walk on water (Matt. 13), is the fact that when Peter stepped out of that boat, it was in the middle of a HUGE storm! I don't think, by the way, that anything Jesus said or did was unintentional. What was Jesus trying to teach Peter here by the timing of His call? What is He trying to teach us? Well, very simply, that:

The best time to demonstrate our faith is during the storm; not the calm!

It doesn't take any faith to step out of the boat when it's calm. When you can clearly see everthing in front of you; when things are certain; clear; when we're in control. However, it takes FAITH to step out when we can't see; when everything is out of control!What we can't do is get so focused on teh storm, tat we take our eyes off jesus. When Peter did that, is when he started sinking! So the challenge for us during these story days, is to continue to lift our eyes off the storms and put them back on Jesus! Are you doing that?

Just so you know, even our church, just like every other church in America right now, is being challeged financially by the storms out there in our world and economy. However, I don't think all of this is bad. Why? Because:

The best time to demonstrate our faith is during the storm; not the calm!

Now is the time for the church to PROVE we trust God. NOW is the time to place our eyes more fully on Jesus than ever before. NOW is the time to step out of the boat, and take new ground for the Kingdom. Now is not the time to shrink back into the boat in fear!Now is time time to demonstrate our faith to a watching world!

Make no mistake: You know who the most miserable people were during Peter's enounter with Jesus on this dark, stormy night? The other disciples! you can be sure that they regretted shrinking back in fear. Deep down, as they watched Peter walk, sink, walk again, and a miracle occur, they all had to be saying to themsleves: "I wish I had been the one to get out of the boat." Let's don't let that be us. Let's put our eyes on Jesus, step out of that boat in faith, and trust Jesus to work to do miracles! However, God won't step in until someone steps out. Will you be the one?

 

 

10-24-10 Reflex...

So yesterday was the day. We issued, yet again, another radical call to follow Jesus by calling people to come forward out of the crowd and be baptized in our worship services. All in all, I think we baptized 158 people yesterday @mountainlakechurch! Praise God through whom ALL blessings flow.  Here are a few reflex for me:

• The message and baptisms from BOTH services willl be posted HERE later 2day.
• What we witnessed yesterday was like a scene out of the New Testament!
• Thanks to Eric Echols and Blake Stanley, whose backs and arm are sore today after baptizing 156 of the 158 baptisms!
• Thanks to John Shepherd, Spiritual Formations Pastor, and Wendy Poole, her Life Group, and our baptism team who helped make yesterday a HUGE success!
• We baptized 89 people in the second worship service alone! 
• We lost so much water with so many people being baptized in the second service that Dixon Poole had to take the stage with the water hose and start refilling it WHILE we were still baptizing! THAT'S a TON of baptisms!
• We turned two of our hallways coming out of the Auditorium, my office, and other backstage rooms into changing rooms for this day. We needed every ounce of that space!
• 158 people still hold alot of water when they come out of it! The stage was soaked. The hallways were soaked. My office was soaked. The restrooms were soaked. The lobby was soaked. Eric & Blake were soaked. That's a good baptism day!
• Baptized a young man who attends my Life Group.  He had never been in a Life_Group before a couple months ago. He's been coming to our church for five yrs. God uses relationships in small groups!
• We baptized a man who once told me one he loved our church; but he'd be baptized over his dead body. He must be dead because he got dunked yesterday!
• We baptized probably a dozen people over 6o yrs of age! I love it when God teaches old dogs new tricks! Thanks for modeling the way, Seniors!  
• My Middle School daughter, Hannah (who's already been baptized), told me later, SHE sat in our crowd and cried tears of joy as she watched all the people being baptized. Wow. Faith impacts faith.
• 158 people gave evidence of the fact that God directly spoke to them.
• 158 people proved they care more about what God thinks than what others think.
• 158 peopel proved they mean business in following Jesus.
• 158 people proved they are not ahamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
• 158 people impacted my life and and they will impact the the lives of thousands of other people through their obedience. 
• The fact that God would use me to be part of this is a testimony of His amazing grace. To GOD be the glory.
• So glad I got ackowledge publicly how much I love my wife. So glad she got to witness some fruit of our labors once again. I love you, Tricia.
• Game changing day @mtnlakechurch.

 

Dufflebag Day...

Next Sunday, October 24, here at Mountain Lake Church, is what I am calling  "Dufflebag Day". You bring your dugglebag or backpack with a change of clothes, and if your desire is to go pblic with your faith in Jesus Christ through baptism, we will baptize you IN THAT SERVICE (9:30 or 11:15)! Dozens are already signed up for this, but you don't even have to sign up! You can just show up! We'll be ready for you! 

Here's what you need to bring: 

• Your faith in Jesus as your Forgiver & Leader.
• A dark T-Shirt and Shorts
• Flip-flops
• Towel
• Extra pair of underwear! 
• ALL your family and friends!

Here's what you WON'T need:

• No "baptism video" required.
• No counseling appointments necessary.
• No moral requirements.
• No church membership needed.
• No elementary kids to be baptized with you. we DO want to make sure kids are old enough to know what baptism really means. They will go through our normal baptism process thru teh Children's Ministry.
• No dry eye in the place that Sunday!
• No monkey on your back after next Sunday!

10-10-10 reflex...

Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. God came down in new fresh ways @mtnlakechurch yesterday and filled people's lives for the first time, and brought fresh wind and fresh fire to many long time Christians! Long post today, but stay tuned! Here are a few reflex from yesterday:

• We kicked off our new series "New & Improved."
• I talked about Ginsu knoves, the Sham-wow, and Netflix. Believe it or not, they all DID have a tie-in to the Gospel! 
• "Why are we drawn toward the new & imrpoved? I think it's because God placed that desire in us!"
• "As a matter of fact, as Christians, it's SUPPOSED to be what we're experiencing!"
• I think I helped everyone in the crowd totally relate to Nicodemus. 
• Please read this excerpt, then check the message HERE on Monday.

"We're just like Nicodemus. When we're not growing like we should be we often assume one more new teacher; or one more new teaching; will make us new & improved. In actuality, we're just like Nicodemus. We don't need something new. We need to BECOME something new. We don't need new teachers or training; we need transformation. We don't need to turn over a new leaf; we need new life. We don't need new habits; we need a new heart. We don't need new doctrine. We need new DNA. DNA from above.  God through Christ, must move into our hearts,take over, and make us new creations! We must be born again! Roughly 75% of Americans CLAIM to be Christians. I do not believe the percentage of people who are actually born again is anywhere CLOSE to that percentage!"

• I gave men and women an opportunity who maybe had FELT like in they had good with God, but maybe had come to the conclusion that they had never been truly born again, to pray with me.
• I then counted to THREE and asked those who believed they had just been born again to come forward, kneel, and pray.
• What happened next, felt like a dam opened. DOZENS and DOZENS and DOZENS of people came forward! I don't know how many...but trust me, it was  a ton of people! Overwhelming...
• I also allowed opporitunity for long time Christians who had been "prodigal children" to return to a fresh new vibrant relationship with Jesus. I invited them to come, kneel, and return to Him. ANOTHER FLOOD OF PEOPLE CAME!
• Our stage was surrounded with tears of repentance and joy!  
• In our first "New & Improved approach to ministry" announcement, I announced the END of mandatory baptism videos as a requirement for being baptized at Mountain Lake. I don't want any pastor imposed barrier to keep people from getting baptized! 
• I announced "Dufflebag Day" on Sunday Oct 24. People in our church can come on that day with their dufflebags packed with a change of clothes, their family, and friends, and we will baptize them in THAT service!   
• Unbelievable closing moments with the song "New Creation" while artists painted Todd Nichols' skin and made it new again and more peopel getting baptized!  Symbols of life change. Symbols of fruit. All make it worth it.
• God came down @mtnlakechurch yesterday. Many will never be the same. I don't think I will be. I'm not sure our church ever will be, either. That's a good thing. Stay tuned.

New & Improved...

Do we need something NEW? Or something old?  Does the church need something NEW? Or recapture something OLD? Do we need something NEW to make us happy? Or re-capture something old that we've lost somewhere along the way?  These are some of the questions we'll be asking  beginning this Sunday.

This Sunday: 

• We'll kick off our "new" series "New & Improved."
• We'll kick off  a "new" 21 day prayer and Bible Reading emphasis as church. 
• I'm going to be sharing about some "new" things God is placing on my heart.
• We'll be making big announcements about "new" changes in major ministries of our church!
• Other "new" surprises, too!

Suffice to say, it's going to rock!  

Get here!  See you then...