I Surrender - Part 3!

1 part commitment to living as a living sacrifice.
1 part identifying which God you are going to love with all your heart.
3 parts Surrender
=  a Life pleasing to God. 

Sound easy?  I don't think so.  Last week I said 2 parts surrender - your past and your future.  Today - there is a third surrender.  What else is there you ask?  What doesn't fit in the past or the future?  How about - YOUR substitutes.  What?  What substitutes. 

You know what I mean - all those things you have that you keep putting in the place of God - or in the way of your following him. 

Let's make a short list of what those substitutes could be:

your job

your cash flow

your heritage

your home

your addiction - (food, drugs, alcohol, etc....)

your church (yes)

You can make this list as long as you want.  But the fact of the matter is there is an endless number of possiblitites.  Anything you can put the word "your" or "my" in front of can become a substitute for the real thing.  It is the dilemma of the rich young ruler.  Hungry for more real food we reach for anthing we can get to our mouth - to our soul - but if we have too much to choose from we will never surrender - anything of real value. 

 Here is the reality:  no matter who we say we worship - we really worship what we believe deep down gives us life.  How do we know?  How do we know what we are really worshiping?  Here are places to look: 

Where do you spend your time?

Your money?

What do you feel you can't live without?

Where do you turn when you are frustrated or empty?

If you are thirsty for the water of life - you have to go to the ever-living spring.  (Jeremiah 2:10-13)  And you have to surrender everything that gets in the way.  

Keep taking the steps!

Pastor David



I Surrender - Part 2!

On the journey to living a life pleasing to God - we have found a series of steps and on this journey we have found:

Step 1:  Make your life a living Sacrifice - Romans 12:1.  This is about being all in - a whole person involvement in becoming the person God wants us to be.

Step 2:  Deciding on and committing to the God that is big enough to create the universe and caring enough to love each one of us.  See Psalm 145 for a description of this kind of God. 

Step 3:  Surrendering Our Past.   This means to stop holding on to the things from our past - and most of us have things that we don't want to let go of.   The longer we hold on to things that keep us from being fully committed to serving God the tighter our grip seems to get.

Step 4:  Surrendering our Future:    Even if we do give up, surrender our past there is more for us to surrender - including our future.  We all want to think that we have one.  Jeremiah 29:10 says that God has one for us.  The problem is that we don't always see the future God has for us.  We see only the future we have created.  And the future we have created is always filled with us!  It's about us, serves us, celebrates us.    In order to truly have the future God has for us we have to surrender the futures we have created for us.

I wonder - who's future for you do you think will be better? 

Pastor David -

I SURRENDER!

Listen to this story that I had the honor of hearing:

A woman came into a courtroom asking for orders against her ex-husband. She was haggard with emotion, nervous and upset to the point that she seemed ill. Trembling, she related at length how bad her ex-husband was, how ever since their divorce he had been poisoning her son’s mind against her and was constantly interfering with their relationship.

She seemed a bit old to have a young child at home, so the attorney interrupted and asked the age of her son.

"He’s just turned 32," she said.

"Oh," said the attorney, "And how long ago was the divorce?"
"About 17 years," she said.

This woman had made her divorce a career, a way of life! 
Do you know of anyone like this?  Does this sound like anyone you know?  Is it you?

This woman and many like her are trapped in a prison of idolatry - because the focus here is herself.  It is her story, her life, her topic - I can tell you that people avoid this woman like the plague because of her self-centeredness.   Wholeness will never come to her until she surrenders - and it is true for each one of us too - wholeness, health, life will never come to us until we surrender that which is keeping us the center of our own attention. 

Truth is it isn't just about the negative things like divorce, death, depression, addictions, that keep us in the prison of self.  Good things like our families, churches, jobs, money, possessions also keep us from being free.  These must be surrendered just like the bad things, they keep us focused on ourselves, instead of God.

Surrender today.

WHO IS YOUR GOD?

Have you joined the journey the last two weeks? Have you been thinking about what it means if life isn’t about you?

So many have been told all of our lives that life is about “ me” – and that it is what I think and about what I do that is important. But there it is – one line at the beginning of a powerful book: “It’s not about you.”

The journey has started with focus? Where do we look? Who is God in our lives? Is it me or is it somthing I possess? Is it cash or a job? Family or social standing? What is God in our lives? Who is God in our lives? This is a very important question for each one of us. I think it has a relatively easy answer that I would like to share. Our God is the person, place or thing that we turn to in our hour of need. Where do you turn when there seems to be nowhere else to turn? The answer to this question is your God.

Even those in the church have a hard time with this question, maybe most of all. We are supposed to have “the” answer, the God of gods! But I also know that I have kept God in my little “God-Box’ many a time, when if I had simply let him out to be powerful, life-changing, life-giving my life would have been hugely different.

When faced with a trial, a temptation, a struggle or in the face of suffering we often turn to our own strength, our own devices, our own answers instead of trusting the one who is big enough to take care of all the issues. Even life-long church members are known to only go to the Lord in prayer as a last ditch effort.

Today I want to encourage you to answer the question:

“Who is my God?”

I hope you will answer this question with Psalmist’s answer found in Psalm 145:

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed, and I will declare your greatness. They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.

Have a great week -

Pastor David

IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!

This is the first line in Rick Warren's book - The Purpose Driven Life and in my opinion it is one of the most powerful lines ever written and here is why.


Each and everyone of us has two choices in life - we can choose to live for ourselves or we can choose to live for God. Now I know - we have lots of sub-categories that we think tell the world we are living for others... - things like our job, our families, our children, even our church. But all of these things - are about ourselves. So there two choices for who we are going to live for.

The choices I believe are choices of focus. We can focus on ourselves, our desires or we can focus on God and God's desires. Scripture tells us clearly that we can live for one or the other - but not for both. (Matt. 6:24) So which will it be for you? If life is really just about me - then it is just about you and I don't think it really can be both. Because we already know that if it is only about me - or only about you - then we will want what we want and won't care about what the other one gets - as long as we get ours...... It becomes a rather vicious circle really very quickly! But if it is about pleasing God instead of ourselves, then how we live will change - our focus will change from what "I" want to what God wants. Now here is the really cool thing - God wants you to have it all. Love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, happiness, understanding, hope, (Galatians 6:22) and more.

When we focus on what God wants for us do you know what happens? We get it all - Abundantly -(John 10:10) We end up being the blessed ones.

So what are you focused on today? Yourself & your own desires or God - and God's desires for you? Who do you think knows best?

Join us on the adventure - and live life to please God!

Pastor David

The Best Gift of All

Question:


What is the best gift YOU received this Christmas?

I think that the best gift I received this Christmas was the presence of people in my life. Having so many people come to our home for the open house. Having JaiLeigh here experiencing these two weeks. On Christmas Eve I was touched by the number of people in worship with us and how they responded to the arrival of hope that night. On Christmas my family touched the lives of the boys at our Allendale Shelter by fixing breakfast for the 10 boys and 5 staff members there. Then there were presents and the feeding of family and friends – and relaxing together because of Jesus coming. My Christmas continued with worship on Sunday and finding a gift here at the church and then more time with family Sunday afternoon. Christmas just kind of seemed to drag out – peacefully and wonderfully – the presence of people being so wonderful.

What I found to be true is that the best gift we can give is the same gift that God gave to us on the first Christmas – the gift of “presence.”  To be with – to spend time with, to include our loved ones in our day schedules – to touch lives with relationships that truly matter day to day.

Each gift that truly mattered to me this Christmas was the gift of presence – and I believe that this was true for each of you too. Your presence matters in the lives of the people who love you and whom you love.

As you get ready for the new year – I believe that the best resolution you can make is to be the best gift of all – to everyone you know and everyone you meet. Make your life a gift of presence – and really make a difference in your world.

Blessings with you on the journey!

YourPastorDude,

Pastor David

Excellence with A Common Purpose

Excellence with a Common Purpose


Question: What would happen if each one of us reading this article lived our lives with excellence for a common purpose? How would your life change?

How would your marriage relationship change if you and your spouse lived for a common purpose – only doing each and every task with excellence? How would your relationship with your children change if you lived by excellence with a common purpose? And what about the church? How would it change if every member lived by excellence with a common purpose? If the Pastor lived this way, worked this way, taught this way, preached this way? What if the choir sang this way? The greeters greeted this way? The ministry teams did ministry this way? Would there be a difference?

To live by excellence means to do everything we do to the very best standard – not just to our ability. To live by excellence means to strive to perform at a higher level in everything we do. To live by excellence means to aim higher, to live with greater distinction, quality, merit. To live by excellence means to no longer live with mediocrity. And what if we lived with a common purpose? Would that make a difference in our relationships? Paul says we are to live by watching out of the needs of others. (Phil. 2:4) In Acts 6:1-7 we read about how the church was mobilized for the first time to meet the needs of those who were suffering. The early church always moved with a common purpose.

We have a purpose at FCC in Gurnee – to be a community of intentional grace where people are loved, accepted and forgiven. What if every one of us in the church lived by excellence with this common purpose? What if we used our gifts to love God and love others? Accepted people as they really are with judgment or condemnation? And forgave as Jesus forgave?

I love this phrase. Why is this important? Because I believe that what you and I do here on this world today makes a difference for eternity and I am committing today as your Pastor to live this way beginning now.

See you Sunday!

Pastor David

http://www.disciplesgurnee.org/