"Unexpected Jesus" (new sermon series description)

How big would God be if you had everything about Him figured out? How awesome is He if you know 100% of how HIStory unfolds? To me, this would mean that I serve a pretty small God. If my 32 year old brain of average intelligence has the almighty God figured out, then how powerful can He really be.

The truth is, the more I learn about God and His ways the more He surprises me. Almost daily God does something unexpected in my life. He calls me to do something greater then I could have ever imagined. He teaches me something that I know my average brain shouldn't be able to comprehend. He allows trials and discipline to come and stretch my own faith in unimaginable ways.

One of the big reasons Jesus walked this earth was to show mankind an accurate picture of our heavenly Father. To show this almost everything about Jesus is unexpected. How many kings are born to virgin, unmarried moms, in dirty inns with animals and little fanfare (well except for a heavenly choir of scary angels)? From Jesus' first breath to His last, He never did what others thought He was supposed to do. How special would He really have been if He played by our rules and followed the messiah playbook by the letter? Personally, I couldn't follow a Savior like that. An expected God is a small God.

My Current Favorite Woship Song

I SHALL BE FREE

One day I went walking

Down a lonesome road.

And I came upon a strangerin some faraway clothes.

He said he was a soldierI said, "where's your gun?"

He said, "I don't got no weaponand I don't need one."

"I don't need no weapon

cause I don't fight no war.

"I said well then Mr. Soldier,what you fighting for?

Well he didn't say nothing,he just smiled at me.

And then I heard him whisper,"You shall be free."

mhmm...mhmm...mhmm...

Well excuse me mister,are you saying I ain't free?

Well I don't see no shacklesor no chains on me.

He said we're chained to our hatred.

And shackled by greed.

Too blind to see the wonder and mystery.

We got to love one another.

Give our love so strong.

Love your brother, man deeperwhen he treats you wrong.

When you love without limits, unconditionally.

When you love without fear,then you shall be free.

mhmm...mhmm...mhmm...

So I pried my heart open

as wide as the sea.

And the strangest sensations came over me.

I could see the clouds dancing.

Felt a raindrop sting.

I could hear the tiny beating of abutterfly wing.

And as I sat in the middle,I felt this love unfold.

A love too bigfor this body to hold.

That day I became a warriorwith no enemy.

Now I am that funky soldier

and I shall be free.

mhmm...mhmm...mhmm...

Now I ain't afraid of living

and I ain't scared to die.

Cause I feel this vibration that I can't deny.

I can feel it singing through me like a symphony.

And it tastes so sweet;like destiny.

It's in everything I touch, everything I see.

It's in every single fiber of my body.

Every star, every creature, every leaf on every tree.

Is a lesson and a blessing and we shall be free.

mhmm...mhmm...mhmm...

I shall...I shall...Be Free

I shall...I shall...Be Free

I shall...I shall...Be Free

-Kid Beyond

Be Better (More Creative and Smarter)

Dozens of times over the last few years I've told people that my favorite place to do sermon prep and other writing is at a Barnes and Noble Bookstore. Until last night I was never quite sure why. There is something about all those books, people reading, people conversing, and all that caffeine! For some unknown reason it just felt better to do work there then at my house or in an office.

Something I read last night might shed some light on why this is. In the book "Blink", Malcolm Gladwell mentions a study where a large group of students were given the same Trivial Pursuit test. Five minutes before the first group took the test they were told to think about what it would be like to be a professor. These students were then directed to quickly write down all of their thoughts about being a professor. Five minutes before the same exact test the other group of students were told to think about soccer hooligans.

Now how did the two groups do with the same test? Group one (the "Professor" group) answered 55.6% of the questions correctly. Group two (the "soccer hooligan" group) just answered 42.6 correctly. What an enormous difference?

Gladwell goes on to say that neither group was particularly smarter then the other. The difference was one group was thinking about being smart while the other group wasn't.

Reading this last night shined some light on my B&N habit. While I'm there I feel smart and creative. I don't think I'm necessarily smarter or more creative there, but the atmosphere triggers something deep inside that lets the juices flow.

Everyone has to find their B&N, but I encourage all of you to look for it. If you're a student, go somewhere that makes you feel smart. Wear that shirt that makes your brain feel bigger (this also helps when taking a final). If you are a pastor and you have an institutional feeling office, get out of there man. Go to the beach, the coffee house, go wherever you can that makes you better then you really are. I bet it will make a difference.

The Big Story of God: Week Five

Jesus, Savior of the World

Verse to Memorize: John 4:42 (this is so sweet)

"Nobody can force a single soul... to turn to Christ. All that we can do is to lift up Christ before the world, bring Him into dingy corners and dark places of the earth where He is unknown, introduce Him to strangers, talk about Him to everyone, and live so closely with and in Him that others may see that there really is such a person as Jesus." -Elizabeth "Betty" Stam

Jesus faced a lot of great challenges while walking this earth. One of His biggest challenges was changing how His disciples and His community saw the Messiah. Everyone was looking for a Messiah, but their view of "Messiah" was very limited. 

Look at these Old Testament prophecies regarding the coming Messiah...

Isaiah 9:1-3

Isaiah 49:6

Folks were pumped about the idea and reality of a savior, but were expecting a savior for Israel, not the world (nations). 

Get your Bible out (hopefully, its out already) and turn to Luke 4. 

Read verses 14 and 15...

What are the people's attitude toward Jesus and His ministry?

Read verses 16 through 19...

What does Jesus do after reading the passage in Isaiah?

Read verses 20 through 22...

What was the people's response to what Jesus read?

Is this looked at negatively or positively by the people? (look carefully at this)

Read 23-27...

Why do you think Jesus made this statement? Why these two stories?

Jesus had His audience right where He wanted them and then He goes and ruins it. :)

Now read verses 28-29

What was their response to Jesus' two stories?

I hope that you noticed Jesus' main point with His stories of Elijah and Elisha. These two mighty men of God could have gone and were expected to go to Israel to bring healing, but they went outside of the nation. This did not sit well with His peeps. 

One of my favorite things that Jeff Lewis says is, "Jesus is not YOUR personal Savior. He is not a personal pizza or a personal trainer. He is the WORLD's Savior." He goes on to say that we should know Him personally, but He does not solely belong to us. I love that!

Final verse: John 3:16

"It may be he has only sent me here to be a stopgap. Part of a soldier's duty is to fill gaps, you know. One must as willingly be nothing, as something." -Amy Carmichael 

(like the rest of "The Big Story of God", most of this week's study is taken from Jeff Lewis' "God's Heart for the Nations")

The Big Story of God: Week Four

WEEK 4: The Role of Psalms/Prophets in HIStory
Verses to Memorize- Psalms 67:1-3

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”- Jim Elliott

“Take your time and mediate on the following Psalms and write down your reflections. When you see the word ‘peoples,’ the psalmist is referring to the nations.”

Psalm 2:1-12

Psalm 22:25-31

Psalm 57:7-11

Psalm 66:1-8

Psalm 67:1-3

Psalm 87:1-7

Psalm 98:1-9

“The prophets were continually proclaiming God’s desire to be known, worshiped, and served by the nations. They also revealed the future fulfillment of the nations coming to God.”

Isaiah 19:18-25

Daniel 7:13-14

Micah 4:1-3

Malachi 1:11, 14

How does the Old Testament teach God’s story?

What are a couple of themes that seem to repeat themselves in this amazing story?

“The way I see it, we ought to be willing to die. In the military, we were taught that to obtain our objectives we had to be willing to be expendable. Missionaries must face that same expendability.” –Nate Saint

WE ARE RENEWING OUR VOWS TODAY!!

Sorry for raising my voice there in the blog title, but I’m pretty pumped. Today (Feb. 15th) Ellie and I are renewing our marriage vows. Anytime Church is capping off our sermon series “Fireproof” by having a large group Covenant Marriage Service this morning at 10am. Ellie and I are celebrating this with around 20 other couples. What a unique celebration it will be!
Please go to www.anytimechurch.com and watch the ceremony in a couple of days. Celebrate with us.
Billy

The Big Story of God:Week Three

THE BIG STORY OF GOD
WEEK 3: WHY ISRAEL?
Verses to Memorize- Genesis 12:1-3


“How often do we attempt work for God to the limit of our incompetency rather than to the limit of God’s omnipotency.”- J. Hudson Taylor

Genesis 12:1-3

What was God’s side of the agreement?

What would be “Israel’s”?

Why did God create the powerful, blessed nation Israel?
Genesis 22:16-18

Genesis 26:3-5

Genesis 28:14

Why did the “Ten Plagues” happen?
Exodus 5:1-2, 7:1-5, 8:10, 18-19, 9:13-17, 29

Why did God perform the miracle at the Red Sea?
Joshua 4:23-24, 2:8-11

Why did God give Moses and His nation the 10 Commandments?
Deuteronomy 4:5-8

Why did God give Solomon so much wisdom?
1 Kings 4:29-34

Why did Esther need to save her people?
Esther 8:15-18

What can we do with this information?

“Americans suffer from mono-lingual myopia- a disease of the tongue that affects the vision.”
–Tom Brewster

The Big Story of God: Week Two

The Big Story of God
Week Two: God’s Blessing/Man’s Responsibility
Today’s Verse to Memorize- Genesis 1:28

One of the Bible’s primary themes are clearly laid out in this verse. What are the two themes?

Genesis 1:28- What does God do for mankind? What command does He give mankind here? Why do you think God wants mankind to “fill the earth?”

Genesis 9:1- What did God tell Noah?

Genesis 11:1-9- How is man breaking God’s commandment here? What does God do because of man’s disobedience?

What does this account tell us about God achieving His ultimate will?

Psalm 67- Is it okay to pray for yourself? What do you want to do if God blesses you?

For centuries men and women have prayed that God will bless America? Has He blessed the U.S.? According to Psalm 67, why has He blessed our country?

Has God blessed you? What does God want you to do with those blessings?

“As we journey through the Bible we will discover the parallel nature of the two themes of blessing and God’s purpose/man’s responsibility. The pitfall is failing to keep these two themes in their parallel tension. Our tendency is to see God’s blessings disconnected from His purpose. That perspective will create an egocentric faith.”- Jeff Lewis

How can God use this information for our transformation?

“What are we here for, to have a good time with the Christians or to save sinners?”- Malla Moe

The Big Story of God: Week One

The Big Story of God
Week One: God’s Purpose/Man’s Responsibility
Today’s Verse to Memorize- Genesis 1:27

How to read the Bible to best understand HIStory…

Isaiah 43:25- Why does God forgive and forget?

Hebrews 6:17- What does the “eternal nature of His purpose mean?”

Genesis 1:27- What do you think it means that mankind was created “with the image of God?”

Ezekiel 20:5-14- What was God’s offer to Israel? What was Israel’s response?

Life, existence, everything is for God’s glory. Now the question is, what can we do to glorify Him?

“GLORY. Throughout the ages books have been written to declare its meaning. It seems so transcendent to me that I cower from trying to understand it. Consider the following: It is the splendor, majesty, honor, and reputation of God. Glory (noun) is used to describe the power of God. The Hebrew word most often translated glory in the Old Testament is ‘kabad,’ to be heavy, weighty, honored. It is the weightiness of the presence of the holy and majestic God. God’s glory is the self –manifestation of God’s character, attributes, and actions as he invades human reality. Also, we glorify (verb) God as God manifests Himself in us, through our words and actions.” –Jeff Lewis

What kind of actions glorify Him?
1 Corinthians 6:20

1 Corinthians 10:31

1 Peter 4:11

1 Peter 4:16

Matthew 5:14-16

How can God use this information for our transformation?

“The presence of God became unutterably real and blessed, and I remember… stretching myself on the ground and lying there before Him with unspeakable awe and unspeakable joy. For what service I was accepted I knew not, but a deep consciousness that I was not my own took possession of me which has never since been effaced.” – J. Hudson Taylor

Can Someone "On Mission" Fail?

I was thinking about this passage earlier today...

24I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. 28When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. 29I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. -Romans 15:24-29

I love the fact that in verses 24 and 28 Paul reveals his longterm plan of bringing the gospel to Spain. I love two things about this. First, Paul clearly understood his divine trajectory. Paul says in a couple of verses before these... "thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation..." (vs. 20) No one had started a church in Spain yet and Paul was designed to take the message of Christ's love to new spiritual frontiers. There was no better place then Spain. Paul was the man. He knew what God had created him to do and he made his travel plans based on that.

The second thing that I love about this passage is that Paul probably never made it to Spain. This is debatable, but I believe Paul believed he was to serve in Spain, but never made it past Rome. If my theory, and many other's is true, then was God wrong in telling Paul to go to Spain or was Paul wrong in wanting to go someone place God didn't want him? The fatalist would say the latter. I say both of those choices are incorrect.

In the great hall of faith chapter of Hebrews it says, "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised..." (11:13) Knowing what God's divine trajectory for your life is doesn't mean that anyone failed if that trajectory isn't hit on the bulls eye. It looks like to me God told Paul to go where there were no churches. Because of that reason and probably a few more, Paul set his sites on Spain. Through being arrested, tried, and probably put to death that goal wasn't met. But, here's the kicker, Paul advanced the gospel by witnessing to big time government officials, his personal watchguards, and by writing a bulk of the New Testament. Wish I could "fail" like that.

My New Favorite Word

I've been informed by several people recently that my new favorite word is "trajectory". Apparently, I'm using it a lot. I can't help it. There's a lot of power in the understanding of trajectory.

A few months ago I was hanging out with a good friend at Starbucks. My friend was telling me about how unhappy he was with his life. His marriage was great, his kids were doing very well, he had a good job, but something was missing. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt like he wasn't fully alive. What was missing?We've had this conversation a couple of times. I love my boy, but I finally decided to go a little hard core on him. I asked him two questions. First, what had God designed him to do with his life? I know he's wrestled with this and had been slow in going public with his divine design. But this time we had the conversation something was different. Without missing a beat he told me that God had designed him to be a church leader, what we would call a "pastor". Great, so now we both know what God's ministry destination is for my friend. My second question was a little tougher to answer. I asked my friend to tell me about his current trajectory to reach this destination. This stumbled him. After a few awkward attempts to answer the question he came clean. God had shown him where to go, but he was not doing anything to arrive. His trajectory was leading him in a different direction. No wonder he wasn't feeling fully alive.

This idea of trajectory has become personally important to me. My divine design is to help churches get started and established. When you arrive in a new city, you are very, very far away from achieving the goal. But, the key is to know your trajectory to reach the goal. What do you do on the first day to propel you down the right road? How about after your first major setback? The key is knowing where God wants you to end up and what you can do today to help get there. Sounds simple...but that's about all you can do.

Biblically, there are many examples of the importance of divine trajectory. The one that comes to mind first is the historic account of Abraham in Genesis 12. God told Abraham that he would be the leader of a vast nation that would be a blessing to all nations. Abraham wasn't anywhere close to seeing this as a viable reality. But, divine trajectory required him to leave his home and everything he knew. The Bible says, "so he left, as God had told him". He knew where God wanted him to be, now he had to shove off and live to get there. Maybe you're struggling with the present reality of your life. Let me ask you the same to questions I asked my friend. 1) What's the divine design for your life? 2) Is your current trajectory carrying you there?

And The Youth Shall Lead Them

Every youth generation gets a bad rap. Doesn't matter if it's 1709 or 2009, the adults in charge will not like the music, clothes, vibe, or actions of that generation's youth culture.

Today, of course, is no different. Almost daily I hear some old dude (this means anyone over 30) rail on the evil teens/college students. I keep thinking that I must be doing something wrong. The more I watch and learn from today's youth, the more impressed I am. I would love for today's church leaders to take notes on how important relationships, community, and connecting are to teens and young twenty somethings. Actually, it seems like these things are held as their highest value.

Usually, the grumpy old man rant begins by talking about how young people constantly update their facebook or myspace pages and can only communicate with a cell phone in hand. Do a little digging and you find out that they love to keep everyone in the loop of what is going on in their lives. They have an unexplainable desire to know what all of their friends are doing at every waking second. I love it! Community isn't something that ends when you leave someone's presence, but its something that you strive to develop even when you are on vacation, alone in your bedroom, or wherever you might find yourself.

I also love the authenticity of our youth culture. It wigs old folks (again, anyone over 30) out when they see the personal information that the next generation leaders so freely post on public sites. They don't care who knows that they broke up with their boyfriend or are feeling depressed. Its almost like someone forgot to teach them that they are supposed to put on the mask of happiness and keep everyone at an arm's length. I wish the church and especially her leaders could be so vulnerable and open.

(Before anyone says it, I understand boundaries for our teens. I'm not talking about specific safety boundaries, but generational generalities.)