Uploading this before I go and do a kettlebell workout (in my opinion the very best workout available and you can do it at home!).
I’ll also do some pull ups, but not as many as this guy – and he’s doing them on his 73rd birthday.
What’s your excuse?
Debra Green at Ivy Manchester
Olympic Church
The Main Event
Life’s full of challenges, there are hurdles in the race of life. How do we sustain?
Hebrews 12:1-3
This shows us how not to lose heart!
We have got so much surrounding us, that’s helping us on.
1) All Heaven is on your side!
Jesus is praying for you, interceding for you before the Father. Especially at the times when you fail and feel discouraged,
2) The heroes of faith – listed in chapter 11: the church Triumphant.
They did it! They made it! They kept going and crossed the line. And it wasn’t all glory days and perfect obedience
3) The church militant,
Those we are running with now. The way you run is critical to someone running alongside you. You are part of someone else’s crowd. How do you look when you look at you? The ministry of smiling.
Of hospitality.
Of rejoicing in your success.
Do you feel like giving up?
Sickness, debt, job loss?
The people around you need you to keep going.
They are in your crowd.
Look out.
See past the smile and ask a question and offer to pray.
Are there weights holding you back?
That’s why God put you in church!
To lift each other up.
Is there sin?
There’s a big difference between condemnation and conviction. Condemnation tells you you are out of the race with no way back. It’s from the devil.
Conviction says, ‘I want you restored to run again.’ He comes in one moment to free you.
You will finish well.
Remember Paula Radcliffe when she failed 3 miles out?
What do you think those around her said – you’ll run another day!!
6 things those who finish have..,
Network of friends
Honest & confessional
Persevered
Perspective
Intimate with Jesus
Willing to learn.
Run this race!
Psalm 67
It’s a missionary’s psalm. May ALL the peoples praise you!!
One of the emphases of Proverbs is the need for wisdom.
So much information – so little wisdom these days. People can be brilliant in one field and awfully foolish in other ways.
The wiser you get, the less confidence you’ll get the truth you need from the media.
Most people who go Overseas in mission end up going back to their own country – and end up influencing there.
So
Go into all the world!
2000 years on, how is that going?
5 different kinds of countries:
1) Massive Growth:
1 million more Christians a year in Brazil.
Exploding growth in S Korea
And China, church growth spreading from countryside to the cities. Philippines. Singapore.
Many nations – Global South.
This was not true 50 years ago!
We long for more here!
2) significant breakthroughs – but not great.
Algeria. Very little fruit visible for some missionaries
USA – lots of new movements, but some decline.
3) People think nothing’s happening – but it is.
Eg France. Spain. Small churches – but exciting work!
4) relatively strong church, but not sure of the way forward. Eg Britain!
There has been a great shift toward social action, incarnation. That costs hundred times more money – its all consuming. Wonderful. But you have to raise tons of money for that if you are not going to just do that & not stop proclaiming. We have to fight to keep the balance. To keep bringing the Word too.
If we are going to fight more we need a bigger army! We need more workers for the harvest! God is working in a variety of ways.
Number 1 controversy in missions? Muslim ‘insider movement.’ it’s just contextualised Christianity.
In Britain, the gospel is still strong! We should still be sending people, we are among the top nations of the world able to do so.
5) the nations with almost nothing of the gospel – waiting for a word.
Acts 20 is the mount everest of Acts.
Check it from vs 17.
Look at 20:20
20 20 vision = public and personal ministry.
Preach to many but don’t get too busy for the one. We should never get too busy to get to focus on individual people. Give time to someone who will never help us or return the favour. How can we not be concerned for the grieving and suffering. This is the fun generation.
We have to work. Because God has put a calling on our lives.
Vs 24. I consider my life nothing to me if only I may complete my race – i want to complete the task Jesus has given me: to proclaim the gospel.
In music in testimony in art in preaching…
Anytime you have the opportunity – do it. Listen to people, see what their attitude is to Christianity. Share the gospel.
We are not perfect – it’s a battle!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Matt Barlow
CAP changes lives, now & into eternity. Jesus calls us to represent his heart to the poor, summed up in his manifesto: Not just recounting what Isaiah saw, but fulfilling it.
It’s happening
The Spirit of the Lord is on me..
To preach good news to the POOR
Freedom for the prisoners
And release the oppressed & proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.
I’m here to do this! To release the oppressed.
He has predestined us to be confirmed to the likeness of his Son. He says If you are going to follow me, you are to be like me. Shout loud & clear.
The poor need to be set free. There has to be room for them, in your house, round your table & in your finances. How do we do this?
Well the biggest cause of relational & social breakdown is debt. And it’s hidden. You don’t see it, they don’t wear a sign around their neck announcing it.
We have a consumeristic, keep up with the Jones, ‘I’m worth it’ culture. Debt & finance issues are ripping the nation apart. As a country, we are nearly as bad as individuals at this as governments are. The Uk hold 2/3 of the credit card debt in Europe.
Borrowing isn’t necessarily bad. But then a change happens & you can’t pay it back, you’re in trouble. A new baby? A drop in salary? Redundancy? 74% of those CAP help are so stressed they are at the Drs.
Every third family will have a member who considered suicide. Utter hopelessness, nowhere to turn. 1 in 20 will have attempted to commit suicide.
Matt then interviewed Phil, who CAP helped through the process of being made bankrupt.
CAP visit someone in their own home. Keep the creditors from the door, help them build a budget. Do whatever needs to be done. They don’t pay off people’s debts but stand in the gap between those being oppressed and those who they owe money to. And they do it through a local church. Offering prayer, inviting them to church. Average of 50 new people saved every day, nationally.
So…
Could you be on the team? Go & visit.
Give to CAP? (50% of our Christmas offering this year will help us fund this work).
It’s really pretty simple in any language.
If we want to enter the kingdom, be like children…
GREAT TALK from a fantastic Network Day! All our team who attended were blown away.
Well worth looking over and praying through in your teams etc.
Psalm 133:
1 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard,
running down on Aaron’s beard,
down on the collar of his robe.
3 It is as if the dew of Hermon
were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.
Have we accessed this blessing to its full extent?1
We can INSTIGATE this, bring it in ourselves. If… we can figure out how to be united.
And that’s not about standing up and all hold hands. That can be purely external. We need this REAL unity. In our teams, churches, cities. In our marriage and with our kids is where it starts.
Where has this gone wrong?
Go and look for brothers in the Bible that got along – there weren’t many!
Cain and Abel
Jacob and his brothers
David and his
Joseph and his
The enemy’s having a laugh at our expense! We are praying for a blessing and it starts here. Or not.
There are two brothers (this goes beyond male/female). Two big categories. The enemy finds it easy to separate these two and bring tensions.
Brother Reliable.
Brother Restless.
Reliable – you never have to remind them twice, they’ll take notes, and pass them on. Think it through, plan it through. We celebrate him (behind the scenes).
Restless – fidgeting, twittering, never quite there with you. A million ideas all at the same time.
We have both of these people and we have to understand how it works.
The parable of the prodigal son was not about the failure of ONE brother, but of two. And the Restless one comes back – which doesn’t often happen in the house of God cos we push them out.
And Reliable brother doesn’t like it.
If you let Reliable run the show, on his own he’ll become Resentful (why are we throwing a party for you, not me?).
If you let Restless go for it completely he’ll become Reckless.
i.e.., They will go to their EXTREMES.
The father’s saying ‘I’m Dad of BOTH! If you’d keep these two skill sets together, a blessing would fall.
Who do you preach to? Do you make one feel good at the expense of the other feeling bad?
He’s the father of both. He’s not excluding either.
Joseph and his brothers came from two very different vantage points.
Gen 37: 1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
REPORTS can replace RELATIONSHIP
The first indication of the difference. Reliable (Joseph) – sees something that the others don’t see. They’re having a laugh, not taking the work seriously, a way they could improve etc. Something that could be given a better system.
When Reliable people enter in and see that, but there’s no RELATIONSHIP, then he’s just filing a report. What we’ll have in teams is SNITCHES.
And notice that what Reliable sees is RIGHT, it’s something we DO need to change/tweak. But without relationship it’s putting brother against brother. And division creeps in – and it will go to whatever team/ network they’re in. And then we pray, ‘God bless us’ but he can’t. The way you say it matters.
Not everyone is like you – and God designed it that way.
We can build a staff top heavy with one type of people or another, and try keeping the same people all together. Like separating kids off into their bedrooms. False peace. We need to mix them up.
ROBES can divide RELATIONSHIP.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
We mistake God’s favour for his favourites. God gives us his favour to commission you for what you’re going to do next. Titles, bonuses etc can become a dividing issue. If we put a robe on someone, do we think about it beforehand? How it will effect them and the team?
That robe or this one may fall on one, and all the others should celebrate that. For Joseph, it may have felt very awkward to wear that robe. The others may have felt overlooked – but God says, ‘figure it out’ – celebrate this, because it’s a robe of responsibility = more work.
Be careful how you speak over other’s lives. Put words in that defuse the other brother spirit in those around.
5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
RELIABLE bluntly says it as they see it. Reliably. ‘Deal with it.’
A Restless person would bring it very differently. Talk all about how they feel etc. Creative, passionate, persuasive.
Reliable people need help with discernment.
Restless is sensing something else.
You need BOTH to give you a report. Listen to both reports:
Reliable, ‘It was great, started on time, finished on time…’
Restless – It was boring, nobody engaged.
The dream that caused division – was a dream of future restoration, in a moment when robes would not be an issue.
How is this FIXED?
In our teams.
(Especially in worship teams where the divas are!).
Don’t kick one out – say, ‘You’re brothers – figure it out. Seek to work together for the long term – the blessing comes there.’
How to bring reconciliation?
The Reliable ones have to be willing to drop their guard – even lose control.
Gen 45: 1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
Be willing to show your vulnerability. That you’re not perfect. That we need to talk about this. To say, ‘Hey – we’re brothers! let’s see the big picture.’ He’s showing his human side.
Close the Gap
vs. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.”
Explain the dream – a different way.
When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God..
If there was ever a day when robes could divide – it was that day, but he now had a come close attitude.
Talk about it together
Not shout. Not compete. Talk. About how we can be more united.
14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
We want Psalm 133 in our team!
How about you?
GOD’S GREATEST SERMON: Judah Smith at Catalyst 2011
Exodus 33
Consider the glory of God. its implications in your life.
12 Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”
14 The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. 16 How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”
17 And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”
18 Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
Possibly the most intimate question in the OT?!
19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
21 Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Then compare that with this (John 1)
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Jesus is the glory of God.
If that’s true, you can have a SURPLUS. You have everything you will need for living, leading and loving.
—-
Did you know women have RULES. Verbally declared or not. And you are to somehow read their mind. figure out their rules – and obey them, then hey’ll feel love. And they are under no obligation to let you know the rules or that they’ve changed at any time.
On date night, there’s always a score.
And if you score high enough, you score at the end of it!
His idea of the best date night ever? Go and see a great action movie, then make love. That’s whe he feels most loved!
But she says, ‘It’s when you ask questions.’ men don’t like that, because it feels like an interrogation!
But what she’s trying to communicate is, ‘I want to KNOW you. I don’t just want to do stuff with you or for you.” And she’s right. Because marriage should be about KNOWING each other.
And Moses has known God. he’s seen him do stuff. But he’s on a roll… he asks for more.
I don’t just want your power
or your promises
or your presence with me
I want to see your GLORY. I want to know you.
And God says, ‘Well it’s a bit early in the game. I need to work something out. Don’t peek till I tell you. Then you get a glimpse – of my back!’ And he hides him. Covers him. ‘Now you ca look.
God is so radiant in glory and righteousness, and all that God is, was revealed. And that glimpse made Moses face glow in the dark for days.
Moses only got a glimpse in passing.
It was not until JESUS that God could fully answer Moses question.
That’s when Jesus showed us God’s glory.
I want to look FULLY in the face of Jesus. I don’t need what Moses saw, I’ve got JESUS. Moses wished in his day he could see what is ours.
Hebrews says Jesus is God’s greatest sermon.
1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
When Moses asked to see God’s glory, he’s asking to see his ESSENCE. What makes you GOD? And Jesus comes and he displays FULLY for us the divine radiance. You don’t have to beg for it. You don’t have to wait for goosebumps. You have all you’ll ever need, in Jesus.
All the sermons you’ll ever have to write.
Have you ever taken inventory – of yourself? And felt pretty empty and out of stuff?
Well, do I actually know what I have in Jesus.
Why do I go looking for some potion or magic potion? NOTHING can supplement what is available to us – JESUS! He’s available to you.
Jesus meets a scandalous woman at a well. A bad woman. He wants to talk to her.
Do you know who I am? I’m a Samaritan woman!
Then they have a conversation…it gets deep.
Then he says, ‘Woman – i am HE – you don’t have to wait any longer, or look any further.’
(Message version).
We don’t have to wait or look any longer.
It’s Jesus.
He IS what we need. Counsellor, Pastor, Friend, everything you’ll ever need.
God loves your city more than you do.
His name is on the line.
It’s just about Jesus
And if I come to him, he’ll do what I can’t ever do.
SINCE WHEN IS JESUS NOT ENOUGH?
Has the information age brought us to this heretical place where we have to ad, to his all sufficiency. To look further than Jesus for what we need.
Jesus has been trying to catch your eye, saying, ‘My grace is sufficient.’
You lack NOTHING.
Jesus says, ‘Come to me! Pastor, Mum, CEO, if you feel empty, like you don’t measure up. I’ll give you REST. Take his burden.’ Simple message. Come again. In honesty and humility.
YES!
All I ever needed – was you.
