sermonshorts

As I was studying the other day a verse of scripture just jumped out at me. It was so good that I had to share. Here it is:

7Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Hebrews 13:7

I think maybe it hit me because this is what I do, speak the word of God.  Honestly, it wasn’t one of those feel good scriptures but rather one of those stop you in your tracks and re-evaluate your life kind of scriptures.

Here’s why.

The writer of Hebrews is challenging them to not just listen to those who speak the word of God to you but to “Consider the OUTCOME of their way of life”. Did you catch that?  It is one thing to stand up and talk about God but it is another thing to live it in such a way that it produces certain outcomes.  As a pastor the ultimate test of my teaching is the OUTCOME of it in MY OWN LIFE.  That is huge.  Can I truly say don’t just listen to me but also imitate me in the way that I live.  Are the outcomes of my way of life worth imitating?

Before you listen to me or any other pastor/leader first consider the outcome of their way of life and ask yourself these questions “Do I want my life to go the way theirs is going?  Do I want the same outcomes they get?  Is their life/faith worth imitating?”  If not then pack up shop and start listening and following another.  If so, then truly consider their outcome and go beyond just listening.

SO please excuse me, as I go consider the outcomes of my way of life to evaluate if they are worth imitating.

Well it is getting into to football season so I am already starting to think like I did back in my old football days.  I have come to learn that being a Pastor is a lot like being a Captain of a football team: not only are you in the trenches playing but you are leading your team too.  And as I think about our game-day tomorrow I have a few reflections tonight in my pre-game study ritual.

• Sunday is a big day for Churches and even lost people know that so we need to be on our game
• Tomorrow might be the first time somebody comes, meets Jesus, finds hope or simply finds a group of people willing to accept them so it is not just a normal Sunday morning
• If it were not for the rest of our team (staff and volunteers) there is NO WAY we could BE the church.  I am honored to pastor such a great TEAM
• Our opponent tomorrow IS NOT other churches but the forces of spiritual darkness.  Hundreds of other churches in our county will show up tomorrow to meet with Jesus and His people and that is a GREAT thing
• Don’t get sidetracked by what other teams are doing or not doing, they will have to report to their own COACH and that is NOT YOU
• It is our job to study our OWN game film and make sure that we are operating as a healthy church by making sure that each player is playing their part well
• We should get butterflies on game day as we PRAY for God to show UP and show OFF
• After the game is over we should be able to walk off knowing that we left EVERYTHING on the field

Tomorrow is a BIG DEAL for our church and every church that is preaching about JESUS and I am praying tonight for us all.  We all need the Holy Spirit to continue to fill us so that as we represent Jesus tomorrow we would do it in such a way that people would be attracted to HIM.  It is humbling to think that Jesus ever called me up from the bench to lead at all so tomorrow I am going to give it all through Him, for Him and to Him.

If you would have told me 6 months ago God would be doing ALL that He is at Revolution Church I would have told you’re crazy. Now, don’t get me wrong, I believed that He could do it but I just honestly thought it would take LONGER than it has for us to get where we are. Shows you how much I know, huh. I am literally AMAZED at ALL that God is doing in our midst. If I told you all the stories we hear of what God is doing then we would be here all night. Here are just a few of them:

• 33 people put their faith in Jesus this weekend
• 8 people got baptized last week at 1st Wednesday
• We had 45 first time guests this weekend and we average around 25 a wknd
• We had right at 1000 in attendance and over 200 volunteers
• We have 80 women going through our first ever women’s Bible study
• Countless stories of people’s lives being changed

I only share these numbers with you because they represent people and are just a small glimpse of what God is doing at Revolution.  Also, this weekend we started a new series called FRANTIC that I am really stoked about because I know God is going to use it in massive ways.  For the series we are walking through Colossians 3 and we started a 30 DAY CHALLENGE where we take 3 minutes a day and read through Colossians chapter 3.  I truly believe in the power of God’s word and I know as we walk through it people’s lives will be transformed.

Also, our BRAND NEW website just went live today and it is awesome.  We are still making tweaks to it but the majority of the info is there.  Go check it out and let us know what you think or other ideas that could be helpful.  Amazed at it all.

The beauty of vision is that when you can clearly see what you want in the future it determines all the steps you need to take in order to get there.  When you have a vision for how you want something to look then it narrows your focus and your choices become easier to make.  This last weekend at Revolution we spelled out our vision which is to:

LOVE JESUS. GROW PEOPLE.

This vision focuses us in the kind of church that we are trying to build.  We want to be clear and communicate our vision simply so that everyone can know it and understand what we are trying to do.  Revolution church will first be about Jesus and then second about people.  We have a keen awareness that this is Jesus’ church and that He is the one that brings about life change.  Also, we know that what people need most is a relationship with him.  That leads us to the second part of the vision where we want to GROW people.

We want people to see that Jesus died and rose again for them so that they can have life by putting their faith in Him (GOSPEL) and then we want them to get connected into the church so that they realize they are not alone in their struggle by living out their faith with other believers (RELATIONSHIPS) which push them to course correct areas in their life where they have been disobedient as they read and study the Bible (OBEDIENCE) that in time produces fruit in them by changing their hearts as they begin to serve others and share their faith with those that are lost like they once were (WORK).

In short, our vision defines for us what we are trying to do and how we are trying to do it.  I cannot tell you how POWERFUL this weekend was for all of us at Revolution as we lived up to our name and started a NEW REVOLUTION.  This is only the beginning as Jesus builds us into an unstoppable force in our community.  Hold on as we begin to see in our lives the greater things that we can only dream about now.

The best is yet to come.

Here are my sermon notes and also a great article on the power of Vision.

Jeremiah 2:5 states “⁵ This is what the Lord says:   “What did your ancestors find wrong with me that led them to stray so far from me?  They worshiped worthless idols,
only to become worthless themselves.”

Here God says that his people strayed far from Him and went after worthless idols and in so doing they became worthless themselves.  The problem with idols is not just that you are looking to something else besides Jesus as your first love but that when you do that you actually become WORTHLESS.  Now, I honestly think most people don’t intend to BECOME worthless but what they don’t realize is when they chase someone or something else besides God that is what happens.

The word worthless literally means in vain or empty and is the idea of a breath that goes away and disappears.  The interesting thing about that is people that go after something else tend to talk a lot as they do so because they are trying to rationalize what they are doing.  But the irony is that their life is becoming exactly like what they are saying, vain and empty.  Listen to what God said right before this:

This is what the Lord says:    “I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago, how you loved me and followed me even through the barren wilderness.”  God says that he wants us to go after Him like a bride goes after he husband when they are first married.  He wants us to treat Him as ULTIMATE but not just for him but also for us because he knows that if we go after anything else then we become worthless.

An idol therefore is ANYTHING or ANYONE that you are following that is not Jesus.  That could be:

• A certain way of living
• A relationship
• Success
• A certain style of church
• An authority figure
• Anything or anyone else that you are tempted to listen to over Jesus

My goal for you is to have a WORTHY life as you worship the only one who is worthy and sometimes that means calling out what you are worshiping that is worthless.