From Message prayers this morning
Read Hebrews 11:1-3
1. Faith accepts Gods word.
It turns the prophetic into our promise. Be sure of what we hope for. Build on the word of God.
2. Faith wins God’s approval.
Without Gods favour we’re doomed to struggle! Lets encourage one another. Gods approval is on us.
3. Faith recognises Gods power.
Jesus is big enough. God can speak & everything changes. Expect a new level, a new opportunity!
My notes on Lynns talk tonight
Murderer told her in jail, I regret so much that I can never make it right.
Life is cheap.
Raul Moat.
It’s on our news all the time.
Road rage. You could be the victim or the perpetrator!
It’s when you feel I’m in the right & I have to put you right.
Air rage. All the signs warning you not to kick off.
1 in 4 women will have been assaulted by their partner.
You can be passive and commit murder. Effectively – When you see people starving and say it’s not my problem.
Will we care for those around us – preserve and protect life.
Eg Abortion. 6 million in UK, since 1967 Act. We can’t sugar coat this.
Jesus goes from murder to anger. Matt 5:21.
Includes racism, hatred, grudges.
We use angry language.
Drop dead!
There’s a thin line between hateful words and actions. Watch you don’t go over the edge.
You can be…
Maniac. Fly off publicly. Raging. Scary!
Mute. Deny it, repress – conceal how you feel. Bury it – alive!
Manipulator. Hurtful humour?
How do we manage our anger?
Admit it. To friends & before God.
Deal with it immediately. You can’t shake hands with a closed fist. Eph 4:26. Don’t give the devil a foothold.
Don’t seek revenge – leave it to God!
Understand anger. What’s under the surface? Pain? A need. Learn not to react, but respond.
Stop & think – before you speak.
James 1:9. Quick, slow, slow.
Be careful how you use your words
Be filled with the Spirit! Self control is fruit.
The local church should be the best run organisation in your city. People should be coming to you to say ‘How do you get so many great people to do such incredible stuff – as volunteers?’ That should happen and shouldn’t surprise us if it does.
If you can touch your thumb to your finger you’re a primate. The opposable thumb has allowed us to do what no animal could do, achieving incredible things. Throw a ball, pick up a contact lense. You can put the right pressure on, and control it.
But where there is pressure there is also tension.
Tension is a neccessity to an organisation that wants to make progress. Great leaders do not solve all teh problems and reslove all the temsions. They learn to use that tensions to make progress.
Every organisation has problems that shouldn’t be solved, and tensions that should NOT be resloved. To do so would cut of your thumb.
EG what wodl it look like to fully resolve the tension between excellence and careful stewardship? Between hiring staff and spending on R & D. The tension between letting the preacher go as long as he or she wants and letting the kids out of their groups? Local outreach vs global outreach, numerical growth/ maturity.
Temptation = solve them.
But if you resolve any of them, you create a whole new tension. You impede progress. Eg if you opt for excellence and throw out financial sense? Or if you go the other way and say, ‘I don’t want to spend money…’
What happens if you’re all theology and no application?
If you ut off your thumb you realise progress will be impeded. If you always want to be a pacemaker, so conflict/ tension averse – that can become the problem. You create a barrier to progress.
How to identify a problem that should be solved: (vs a tension that need to be managed)
1) Does it keep resurfacing? Eg – in January loads of people come to church. I June less do. It’s too do with how people come to church – it’s not about the sermons.
2) There are mature advocates on both sides. (Some are saying how do we reach people vs how do we make mature disciples).
3) Are the two sides of the tension really interdependent? (If I decided to work all the time I’d lose my family, or if I stayed at home I’d lose that job but have to get another). So there is not a solution, just a tension to manage.
YOUR ROLE in this dynamic is to leverage the tensions for the benefit of the organisation – because when properly managed, they will bring progress.
1) Identify the tensions in your organisation.
2) Create new terminology. ‘This is a tension we have to manage.’ This isn’t a problem to solve! ‘This isn’t about you winning or losing…’
3) Inform your Core. Book – ‘Hilarity Management’
4) Continually give value to BOTH sides. As a leader you have an opinion, and as a leader, your words have a lot more weight than others. So, get in the habit, regardless of our opinion – to methodically speak value to both.
5) Don’t weigh in too heavily on your personal bias. (eg., you’re the worship leader – how much time should we have?). Based on your giftedness and responsibility you have a bias. Step away! My goal is not to win, or always resolve – but to make sure that the important progress never gets out of sight. You can win, but in doing so - cut off your thumb!
6)Understand the upside of the opposite side, and the downside of your side. Learn to be the champion of other’s perspective. Or you impede progress.
7) Don’t allow the strong personalities to win the day. The goal is to maintain the important tensions, the goal is NOT to win. You have to l
You need passionate people who will champion their side, AND you need mature people who will understand this dynamic.
8) Don’t think in terms of BALANCE, think RHYTHM. (It’s not, ‘how many minutes/ pounds did you get? Let’s all get balance. – there are times when you eed more preaching than music, there are times when you need to spend, and times when you need to save. There’s a season for everything.
‘I hear what you’re saying. I value what you value, but in this season, we need to do this…”
But when are we going to?
‘We value it – we see the tension, this is a tension we must manage..’
The world is changing. So we have to change. Business knows this. You can’t just cater to people like you etc. Leadership is not about planning to be where you are but having foresight- to see where you’re going.
Jesus said, ‘Go into all the world and reach all kinds of people,’ Not just your neighbourhood. All the world.
Understand your responsibility. Great leaders take the risk of getting out front. That’s where you get shot at! Because you are a ‘forward thinker.’
When Ruth talked with Naomi, she said, ‘I’m going with you – where you go I will go.’ Didn’t know that would take her outside her comfort zone.
She was by the edges of the field, but got called into the centre of the field. Don’t hide in the corner. Get into the thrust of things. Otherwise if we just minister in our little communities, we WILL end up obsolete.
On your marks, get set – GO! Where? Not just where you have been,,,
GO Into all the world and PREACH the gospel to EVERY living creature. Because God is going to do a new thing in your life. We live in crazy times.
If Ruth had been stuck in a corner, gleaning, she would not have met Boaz; but in the centre she met him and ended up owning that field!
There are some giant killers, planet shakers, some treasure – here today! You can’t change the world from the corner. His name is Emmanuel – because his tabernacle was in the centre – in the centre of the tribes, so nine of thme owned his glory.
When people retreat into what’s safe – they are NOT leaders. You can’t play it safe and be a leader- you have to get out front. You will get shot at – but the angel of the Lord encamps around them that fear him. And greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world! So get some backbone.
We have a broader reach to touch more – but are we armed with the language that touches them. The Disciples wrote the NT to show how the church connected with the culture. You can’t have a multi-cultural church and not be a multi-cultural person. You have to sit with them at your table. You have to eat different food.
Leaders are forward thinking people who are stretched, it happens first in PRIVATE.
Run the risk of saying something stupid. Because the only way to learn how not to say something stupid, is to say some stupid things.
God spoke different languages.
Eg he spoke fly and frog and to water – to connect to Pharoah. He could speak to anyone.
You can tell who you speak to by who you call.
Do the phone test. Who’s in your phone? If pretty much everyone in there is like you – this is the time to break the rule. Preachers shouldn’t just talk to preachers. Women shouldn’t talk with just women about what’s wrong with men (this is why women’s mags are wrong – they’re all written by women- talk to your MAN! Even though we don’t talk, we grunt. The grunt means something.). You must have cultural development – to learn how to learn the language of the masses.
We are responsible to lead the direction of the next generation.
‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always be where you are.’
If you’re in a fish tank but you’re called to an ocean. There are some fish, if you put them in a bigger tank they grow accordingly. God wants to put you in the ocean.
How about going where you feel out of place? Where is that – Ballet? Opera?
If you are struggling with the stress of trying to respond to everyone – if you are always the smartest person in the room – get out of that room. Go out of your element; because that’s where God says ‘this is the year I’m going to stretch you.’ Go to some new places.
Go where you don’t just teach, but LEARN. Every speaker has to be a great listener. If you cannot HEAR (in the natural And in the Spirit) it effects how you speak.
GO.
Go scared if you have to, but GO. Because people are hungry to know you and starving to be known, they long to be understood – because we are all fighting the same battles.
God is not hiding in the corner, he says, ‘Let my glory be in the centre.’ Then when we all get together,we build a picture of who God is.
God will not allow sameness to procreate. Because fruit is only borne when differences come together. Cross pollination. We are called to be more fruitful than ever.
The only thing to avoid is… CHICKEN.
The Bible talks about Eagles a lot. They have a wingspan of 9 feet.. They can soar above the storms, see for miles. But they do not mess with chickens. Eagles make love in high places in mid air, in soaring intimate embrace in teh sky – so that no eagle has to ever wonder, ‘Am I holding a chicken?’
Because chickens can’t fly that high!
Chickens go 3 feet high. They live in one dimension.
Only eagles make love in the air.
Are you going to be an eagle – or stay in the corner, on ground level, like a chicken?
It’ time to spread your wings. You can fly!
those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
I believe YOU can fly!
The enemy wants to split us not just into denominations, but also generations. Isolating the younger from the older and vice versa.
But we NEED each other.
Am I in the older generation?
If you asked, you are.
Don’t resent, fear or judge the next generation of leaders but find them and pour into them. Eleven year olds are the church of TODAY. They are different, they are supposed to be. Don’t worry about styles.
But we feel insecure. We wonder, ‘Are my best days behind me?’ Don’t delegate tasks, that gets followers delegate authority – that grows leaders.
Just be yourself. Be authentic.
If you are not DEAD, you are not DONE. Your age is your greatest asset, not a liabilty.
Lylle Schaller. Church consultant/ writer. Now 87 years old. He said he peaked in his early 70s. Told Craig, when considering starting a new service, ‘All you young guys think too small..’
Open your home to other generations. One of the greatest honours is to become like a spiritual dad to the next generation, Don’t try to be cool or a coach – be a parent. Pray, like David, “That I may declare you to the next generation…”
Younger generation?
What’s the number 1 word to describe emerging generation – begins with E
Asked young people in their twenties what they thought that word was? – ‘Exceptional, extraordinary.’
But older people usually described them as ‘Entitled.’ They have been over-protected - feel it should all come easily to you. That you should easily get what the older ones worked hard for. You tend to over-estimate what God wants to do with you in the short term, and when you don;t get it – you under-estimate what God wants to do through you in the long run.
This is a generation which does not honour well those older than them.
Honour publicly leads to private favour. ‘But they don’t get it.’ No, but honour them, and they will.
Jesus was healing people allover the place but it says in Mark 6: ‘only in his home town was he treated without honour…’ Greek word - atemos
He COULD not (that’s what it says) there was no faith because there was no honour. There was no faith in those above us. When we truly honour Jesus we will honour those he has placed in authority over us. Being biblically submissive.
TIME – Greek word = to respect, treat as precious and valuable. Honour values, dishonour devalues. Place in a high position and treat well. Don’t say, ‘I will honour my leader if he were honourable,’ maybe if you honoured him he would be able to rise to that.
When I ascribe honour to you you will become honourable. Many younger leaders need to repent because they have been dishonouring. Be teachable. Speak well of them.
Who can you honour today? Of another generation, who have gone before us. We stand on their shoulders.
Younger generation- don’t feel entitled. You don’t deserve the same salary as Mum & Dad right now. There is kingdom greatness in you, if you will learn to honour like this.
Yu believe in God? God believes in you. There could be a future Spurgeon, Piper, Hybels, Wesley… if you come under authority – the greatness can be released. Take the best of those who gave gone before and the audacious faith of those who are now coming and work TOGETHER for the Kingdom.
3 collisions
Where are we?
What’s happening?
How do we come alongside our culture, which is…
Post Modern = a scepticism toward certainty.
Post Christian – church is not at centre of culture any more. We’re sidelined.
Pluralistic – Judeo Christian values no longer dominate. All faiths not not just tolerated but celebrated.
We can entrench and react from fear? Or seize the new day.
Possibilities are
1) Seperatist – world is the enemy, I fight it.
2) Submerge in culture. I’m the same as it. Blend in.
3) RESTORE.
To do that we have to understand the gospel. Know the story of God and find your place in it.
Seperatist story only has two parts – 1) sin 2) saved.
That’s true – but incomplete.
Submerged story only has good deeds, disconnected from Christ.
Restorers know the story has an ending which involves partnering with God for the restoration.
We’ve been given the call to restore. First things are first. We’re responsible to use our talents and gifts to restore. Don’t be scared or offended by broken world – ENGAGE with it. Go there.
Don’t be a critic – be a Creator, creatively engaging, for…
The KINGDOM. We have people all around us in churches but disconnected to what Christ wants to do through them. That gives us a great opportunity. Everyone gets to have a ministry now! Media, education, wherever. They are not there to show up and serve the church. We have to recognise that as we look at congregations we are seeing an army of people who are already on mission.
Just as much as those on mission to foreign lands. Affirm and celebrate that, to see a revolution, and awakening.
Culture changes when leaders work together toward a common goal. Business leaders, artists and politicians moved strategically to take their ideas forward.
What convenes these sectors on a weekly basis? Only the church can do that in your city. It’s doing it.
Invert the pyramid. Mentor the leaders in the workplaces where they have been called. Give them something to do, inspire them to be part of God’s greatest plan, creatively using their plan.
Isaiah 58
if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
This is a very funny guy! So pleased my team get to connect with hi & his New Spring people at a Round Table he’s organising in the UK soon.
1 Kings 17
Describes a visit to St Lucia, how he didn’t feel safe following the guide they gave him.
Ever wondered whether God is leading you to where you think you shouldn’t be going to.
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe [a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word. 2 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there.”
That’s miraculous, supernatural..
So he did what the Lord had told him.
That’s the best ministry advice. More time on your face, less time on Facebook. It’s Jesus’ church, ask HIM what he wants you to do.
5 So he did what the LORD had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
It’s easy to follow God some days. When the miracles are coming thick and fast. The greatest things that happen in ministry are unexplainable or God didn’t do it.
But after Invitation we can face
These moments happen to us BECAUSE we’re following Jesus.
7 Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Do you think Elijah worried about that? Prayed about it, begged God, spoke in faith… until it was DRY. No water! ‘How could you do this God? I followed you – you led me to the brook and now it’s dry.”
For some, you followed Jesus somewhere – now the brook is dry.
God told you to do this, and it’s falling apart, and you’ve prayed, ‘Dear God, what am I supposed to do NOW?’ Ever been there?
Most of us understand 1 Kings 18.
God didn’t bring Elijah to the brook to PUNISH him, but to PREPARE him for greater things. For the fireworks. For the battle, the big rain, and revival. So if you’re in a place where the brook is dry, he’s not punishing you, he’s preapring you- don’t give up when you’re by the brook.
God had to teach Elijah something by the brook. Becasue he thought the brook was his supply. You don’t depend on brooks.
God is NEVER dry. He reigns over every situation. God is about to blow your mind and come through in the darkest time.
God came on the THIRD DAY, when everyone had given up. That’s when God blew the tomb doors off.
Never run from a situation that God reigns over. Best reason not to quit? You said you’re a follower of Jesus, and Jesus is not a quitter. Don’t give up on the God who never gives up on you.
Life changes, but the gospel stays the same as the day Christ Jesus died and rose again!
Prov 3:21-26
My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; 22 they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. 23 Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble; 24 when you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. 25 Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,26 for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being snared.
For the LORD is your conference and he will keep you from being snared.
We’re looking at Fear here.
NLT says, ‘For the LORD is your security and he will keep your foot from being caught in a trap.’
We have got an issue with INSECURITY – if we believe that we’ll get trapped or snared. We are not trained to meet with this one.
That self-centredness will steal the life of God from us. That gets bigger and bigger. Our culture preys on it. It calls forth our insecurities, we’ve never risked being defriended by people we didn’t know were our friends before. We’re in the rea of instant scrutiny. Before we’re even finished with a message – the words are out there immediately. That can be great – unless you said something stupid, or wanted to tell a secret.
Everyone now has a voice and an opinion. We’re getting published all the time, without an editor. People are tweeting the point before they get it
You have to EAT it before you TWEET it. Don’t just pass it on and be done with it. Let the message sink in. Absorb it. We have to have a word from God in real time. We need direction. The future will NOT turn out like you picture it. But Jesus says, ‘It doesn’t matter what it looks like, what matters is ‘Follow me!’
And it’s not just the BAD press that makes us insecure. One of the greatest battles great leaders will have is the sense of feeling threatened. Can we deny ourselves & take up our cross?
There came a point in your life when you realised that WWF isn’t real – that there’s a difference between what is & what you were expecting.
The way our economy works drives our culture.
There were agricultural groups self subsisting then there were princes and rulers
The economy changes things.
My $40billion mistake
He looked at the internet then wrote a book years ago about the internet that sold 850 copies, at the same time yahoo started.
The record industry used to be great. Go to a shop, buy a record. Break it, buy another.
Then it changed.
Betty Crocker – decided that advertising got things bought
Henry Ford – made more by mass producing. Even had Ford sheep to produce wool for seats. Interchangeable parts. And interchangeable PEOPLE.
Factories led to SCHOOL. Andrew Carnegie. Because our kids need to learn to be obedient and do what they’re told and buy stuff. Fit in by buying stuff. It all feeds teh factory system.
Seth was sitting with some young teens, had a perpetual motion drinking bird. Asked, How does it work? For half an hour they looked at it, without a clue of how to think about interesting questions.
the factory that governs the country, the church,
the factory changed us – told us that the BUILDING mattered – that the hard part is the building.
Tim makes light sabres. Making them is not selling them. What’s hard is figuring out a business on how to make and sell them successfully. From idea to output.
In the world of Google, COMPETENCE is no longer enough. So there’s a problem. It’s to do with BOWLING.
Pro bowling is about being perfect. Trying to avoid a gutter and make a strike. the problem with bowling is they will die, because they race to the bottom. The shop says, ‘I can do it cheaper.’
If someones racing to the bottom, somebody else will be a bit more convenient, dont go there.
Now, there’s a new revolution – that’s destroying the industrial revolution.
What can you count on these days?
Well…
In a world where people have choices… Because all that matters now is that you do something more graceful than others? GRACEFUL = accepting others and doing art. The kind of person that when you leave the room they were glad you’d been there.
The factory system got people to COMPLY.
The new revolution – the more connected people are – you win by being more connected. You can’t comply your way to success. You have to be willing to fail – rather than be AVERAGE.
Nobody wants to be a boring tribe. You will never create a movement by complying, you have to be willing to offend some.
Apple don’t just build phones, they built a tribe. If you want to be in, you’re in. It builds because people want to talk about it.
Why am I going to talk about you?
Because you’re a genius – who knows how to be a human being and make a change that needs to be made.
Who’s setting your agenda?
Are you making ART? Not painting. One third of all the paintings in the world are made in a village in China. Painted Mona Lisa.
Art is a gift that enriches someone. And it’s a GIFT. No gift, no art.
The gift changes everything, it means it’s not a business transaction now – that’s US and THEM. (Usury). Acts that bring us closer together makes for a Connection Economy.
Emotional Labour is art. Exposing ourselves to intellectual risk. That’s work worth doing – makes you a Lynch Pin, someone who will make change even if it fails short term.
Do you fire someone because they are NOT making mistakes? Or reward them.
The more change we can make the more the Tribe will grow.
How tight is the Tribe? Would they miss you or be missed? If you’re at the centre of a Tribe that matters, you’d matter.
Of course they won’t. Change is always made by individuals who stop pursuing deniability, but are eager to give away credit. Organisations want lynch pins.
You can never fit in enough. But you CAN make a difference today. Or five.
Plastic Sharks. In the USA last year, deer killed a lot more people than sharks. But we’re afraid of sharks.
Why did the chicken cross the rd? It’s brain told it too. All wild animals have a lizard brain; responsible for safety. Instinct. If I put you on an MRI scan I can see yours. The lizard takes over in panic situations. It’s the resistance. It stops you taking a risk.
Do you know how many people would love to have the Platform you have – to do work that matters?
Question from Andy Stanley: What about the need for System? Doesn’t that need compliance.
Leadership needs systems – directions, tell me where I’m going. But you don’t have to tell me exactly how I have to get there.
She was in Florence, went to a cathedral. From the top of the steeple, there were hundreds of people taking photos. What was once in the centre of the city a place of healing & hope was now a place of hope – now just a monument.
God said to her – This is what happens when you stop BEING the church and just starts DOING church.
There’s a passion deficiency syndrome in the church. God wants us to get what he’s consumed with. Luke 15. We are his GPS system. If we forget that we lose everything.
Passion is what drives you to do what nobody makes you do.
What passion?
What GOD is passionate about!
Lost sheep, lost coin, lost son! We don’t have to theologise about that or discuss it. People are LOST, all over the place. Sheep just end up lost. Maybe with coins it’s someone’s fault. When people ae being careless with their lives, they or others get lost.
We have a responsibility to be God’s GPS. seek and save – bring life, hope & answers. When people are going on the wrong roads the church is there to help ‘Recalculate.’ the route…
Today there are 27 million slaves on the Earth (UN estimate).
We think we’re the good Samaritan – but we’re too often like the levite & the priest. We pass them by. Do we GO to them? Otherwise it’s just sympathy. Compassion is crossing the street and investing time, talent & treasure.
She started the A21 campaign. To rescue. Numbers are overwhelming, but one or two have faces & names.Lillia. Bulgarian girl, went to Greece with promise of being a hairdresser, raped and forced into prostitution.
On our watch, human beings are being shipped around the world in containers. One girl said to her,
Why are we so afraid of the darkness? Her daughter bought a little torch – then wanted to go look for some darkness to shine it in!
Imagine if we didn’t go?
Ephesians 5:18 Awake O Sleeper – get out of your comfort zone. That’s where you find the light & life of Jesus at work.
Don’t just do church – BE church, to illuminate the darkness.
