I spent the last two days substitute teaching for my wife, LaRissa. Subbing facilitates church planting in two ways. One, it helps supplement our income so that the needs of my family do not become a burden on the church plant. Very important. I would say, if you as a church planter, are not willing to consider the possibility of serving bivocationally to further the resources of the plant, you need to take a long, hard look at the call to plant.
Second, subbing gets me connected with kids, their parents, teachers, and administrators at the schools to give me one more connection point in the community. Subbing has given me the opportunity to have at least some beginning conversations with people about the plant.
Okay, so that's the reason for subbing. But what I really want to say is how much I have enjoyed subbing. Not at all what I expected. I thought I would be able to get through it and do a pretty good job at it, but really had no anticipation of enjoying it. But I am loving it. Okay, I said it.
LaRissa's class has been a joy over the last day and a half. Yeah, they can be rowdy. And, yeah, there are a couple of little boys who are real stinkers. But they are really a sweet class, and I just love seeing their little faces light up when you do something as simple as give them a "knuckle bump" for a job well done. (I've got to say, my wife is a phenomenal teacher, because her class was so easy to handle.) I have a real heart for the little boys who are stinkers. They want so badly to please you. You can just see that there is a battle going on inside of them. They want to please, but there is this energy inside that just has to come out. They will either make some of the most incredible lion-chaser, CEOs, or pastors in the world, or they will wind up in prison somewhere. The influence of some really good teachers will probably make a lot of difference.
Sure, some days I think applying the board of education to a kid would really help them out, and some days I am totally worn out. But, overall, I have surprised myself at how much I have liked it.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Chase the Lion - Part 2: Overcoming Your Fears
The following message is from The Crossroads Community Church message series "Chase the Lion." The messages are inspired by and adapted from the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and the accompanying messages by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.
Alright, well, obviously, today we are talking about fears, overcoming your fears. Now, remember, we are in a new series called “Chase the Lion,” and it’s based on this passage in the Old Testament about a guy named Benaiah whose story is found in 2 Samuel 23:20-23:
Remember, last week, I said that day probably seemed to Benaiah like a very bad day. But just a couple of verses later, the Bible tells us that King David made Benaiah the captain of his bodyguard. What better qualification for being a body-guard than saying, “One snowy day, I chased a lion into a pit, jumped into the pit with the lion and killed it." So, what seemed like a horrible, no-good, very bad day to Benaiah becomes the source of what God wants to do in his life in the future. And that’s what this series is all about. It’s about how God wants to use the biggest chal-lenges in your life to bring about the incredible, awesome, amazing life that he has in store for you.
During this seven-week series, we are exploring seven lion chasing skills: defying odds, facing fears, overcoming adversity, embracing uncertainty, taking risks, seizing opportunities, and looking foolish. So, today we’re going to look at overcoming your fears. It is so easy to read about a lion encounter that happened three thousand years ago and totally underestimate the fear factor. I’m sure there were nights Benaiah woke up for the rest of his life in a cold sweat because of dreaming about that lion. Sure, he killed the lion. But not before it scared the living daylights out of him. He was inches away from thirty bared teeth. He was in a dark, confined space on slippery ground with a 500 pound lion that was faster, more agile, more sure-footed, stronger, and could see better than him. I don’t think he ever forgot the smell of the lion’s bloody breath. And the sound of the roar had to echo in his mind’s ear forever!
I don’t care how battle-tested or battle-scarred you are. I don’t care how crazy or courageous you are. You don’t come face-to-face with a five-hundred pound lion without experiencing sheer terror or pure fear! But one thing sets lion chasers apart. They don’t run away from the things that scare them! Normal people don’t chase lions, but lion chasers aren’t normal. Lion chasers chase their fears!
God wants you to be a lion-chaser, to chase your fears. Look at 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Fear will keep you sidelined in life. You will miss out on the incredible adventure of the life that God has called you to if you allow fear to dictate what you do or do not do in life
.
So, how do you overcome the fears in your life? Three things: First, you unlearn your fears. Psychologists believe that we are born with only two fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Every other fear is learned. We learn our fears through our experiences, things that happen to us, through what we are taught, through what other people say to us. All the other fears in our life are learned. Now, here’s the good news. If our
fears are learned, they can also be unlearned.
Unfortunately, unlearning something is twice as hard as learning it. It’s like missing your exit on the interstate. You have to drive all the way to the next exit and double back just to get to where you needed to be. You wind up going twice as far to get to the right place.
To overcome the fears in our lives, we have to unlearn some things in life. Some of the things we believe, some of the hangups we have, some of the things that cause fear and anxiety in our lives are wrong, and we have to unlearn them to overcome our fears. For instance if you have been taught to believe that you aren’t a success, then you probably aren’t going to take risks in life. So, you have to unlearn some things about yourself. Check out Romans 12:1:
A large chunk of Jesus’ teaching was about helping people to unlearn what they had been taught. Look at Matthew 5:21-22: “You have heard that it was said … But I tell you…” Jesus is saying, “What you have heard is wrong. Now let me give it to you the right way.” Jesus comes into our lives and he reprograms our old ways of seeing things, our old fears about life.
How can you, in a very practical way, unlearn your fears? My brother does schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s research. He tells me that they have discovered that people who spend thirty minutes a day doing a crossword puzzle or Sudoku or some kind of mental challenge, don’t get Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is caused by a buildup of plaque between the connections in the brain. What they have discovered is that the crossword puzzle people, their minds are constantly growing new connections, so that Alzheimer’s cannot take effect. Do you want to know how to unlearn the fears in your life? Spend thirty minutes a day in God’s word, reading, praying, meditating on it, and before you know it, your mind will be reframed around your old fears. We call it having a quiet time. It’s a habit I want you to learn to have, because it is the best way to unlearn the old fears in your life.
Now, the devil doesn’t want you to unlearn your fears. In fact, one of the greatest tools Satan has to use against us is to keep us captive to our old fears. He wants to keep you crippled and afraid and paralyzed by your fears so that you won’t chase the lions and do incredible things for God. But I want you to see what Jesus says about the Devil: John 8:44:
But, it’s not enough just to unlearn our fears. You have to use your new knowledge to face your fears. That’s the second way to overcome your fears. You’ve got to stand up to them – and conquer them. Benaiah jumps in the pit with the lion.
A few years ago, our family went on a camping trip up in Oklahoma to a place called Robber’s Cave, and we were doing a little hiking. Well, we come to this place called Devil’s Slide. And Devil’s Slide is this rock face that’s, I don’t know, about a hundred feet up at about a 45 degree angle, and it’s slick. I mean, there are very few handholds. Well, I send LaRissa and the girls on ahead, and I say, “Hey, James (who was about eight years old at the time), you want to go up it?” Well, he was pretty nervous, but he said, “Yeah!” So we take off up this thing, just kind of crawling on our hands and feet. And at some points, I’m getting kind of nervous. And I say to James, “Man, this is pretty tough, huh? This is kind of scary?” And he says, “Yeah!” But then I say, “But we can do it! We can make it! You’re awesome!” Why did I do that? Because I want my kids to learn to face their fears, to take on challenges, not to be afraid of taking risks. My kids were a little nervous when we took them to Mexico last year, but I don’t want them to back down from the big things God wants them to do in life.
Think of your fears as mental lions. If we don’t learn to chase those fears, they can keep us at bay for the rest of our lives. But as a loving Father, God helps us to unlearn the fears that keep us from living the life he wants for us. Look at 1 John 4:18: “Where God's love is, there is no fear, because God's perfect love drives out fear.” The result of love is fearlessness. As we learn how much God loves us, we can overcome the fear that paralyzes us and neutralizes our effectiveness in life.
I’ve been told, there are 365 times in the Bible that God says, “Fear not, don’t be afraid, do not tremble.” That’s one for every day of the year. Now, I just want to show you a few of those, and show you some of our common fears that God says we don’t have to be afraid of. 1 John 4:18 that we just read is actually about the fear of punishment or the fear of judgment. That’s guilt, fear derived from past failures. And God says, you don’t have to be afraid of that if you have entered into a perfect love relationship with me.
Look at the next one. Dt. 31:8: “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Fear of being alone. Some of you have that fear. You’re afraid because you feel all alone in life. Or you wonder, what if I never find the right person? What if my spouse dies? What if I lose my family? And God says, “You don’t ever have to be afraid of being alone, because I will never leave you.”
1 Chronicles 22:13: “Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and coura-geous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” The fear of failure. What if I don’t get a good job? What if I get laid off? What if I don’t live up to everyone’s expectations of me? What if I try and don’t succeed? The fear of failure cripples a lot of people. A lot of people wind up not attempting anything big in life because they are afraid of what will happen if they fail. So they wind up sitting on the sidelines in life. So, God gives a promise for that.
Isaiah 44:8: “Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Have I not proclaimed from ages past what my purposes are for you? You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one!” This is a big one right now, fear for the future? What about my finances? What about my job? What about gas prices? What about the economy? What about my house payment, my grocery bill, my retirement account? Listen, I am not fearful about the future, and I’m a guy who left a better paying job to start a new church, so why am I not afraid? Because God is in control, and it’s all working out according to his plan.
Face your fears. Listen, for some of you, the best thing that could happen to you is for your fear to become reality. Because then you would discover that it is not the end of the world. You can get through it. You can face up to it, and it’s not the end of the world.
God wants us to face our fears. The Bible says that the Devil is like a roaring lion constantly looking for someone to devour. And how are we supposed to handle the Devil? Look at Jas. 4:7: “Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.” God doesn’t want us to run away from the enemy, to run away from our fears. He wants to raise up a generation of lion chasers who don’t just run away from evil, but who put the enemy to flight. Face your fears.
But there’s one more key component missing for us to really be able to overcome our fears. You have to have faith instead of fears. You see, faith is the opposite of fear, believing in God and depending on God whatever the circumstances that we may face in life. You can’t face up to the things that scare you most in life without the power and strength that come from dependence on God. Psalm 46:1-2 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” If God is your refuge and strength, what do you have to fear? Listen, if you believe that God is absolutely in control, that nothing, absolutely nothing in life can happen to you unless God allows it, and if you believe that God loves you more than anyone else in all the world, then what do you have to fear? When each of my kids were little, I would throw them up in the air and catch them. Now, that was scary at first, but they came to learn that I would always catch them and they came to love it.
Instead of fear, we have faith. Check out 1 Peter 3:14-15: “‘Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” You don’t have to be driven by fear like everybody else. No matter what is going on, stock market tanking, banks going under, elections and politics, grocery prices going up, jobs going away. We don’t have to fear what they fear. Because Christ is Lord. You set apart Christ as Lord in your heart, you say, Jesus you are in control no matter what, you understand that he is in charge, and suddenly there’s not a lot left to be afraid of in life.
Look with me at Romans 8:15: “So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family —calling him ‘Father, dear Father.’” When my kids are scared, they come running to their Daddy. They want me to put my arms around them, to protect them. They bury their head in my chest. They believe that everything is okay so long as they are with their Daddy. They believe that Daddy can fight off whatever it is that they have to be afraid of. With God as our Father, we don’t have to be afraid. We can depend on him for whatever we may come against in life.
So, don’t run from your fears. Don’t let fears paralyze you in life and keep you from living the kind of life you were made for. Don’t let mental lions keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer. The greatest experiences will often double as the scariest experiences. The defining moments will often double as the scariest decisions. Just imagine if you had been able to sit down with Benaiah at the end of his life, and you were to ask him what were the greatest moments in his life. What do you think he would say? Then imagine you asked him what were the scariest moments of his life. What do you think he would say? I can see Benaiah’s grandchildren crawling up in his lap and saying, “Grandpa, tell us about the lion again.” Here’s my advice to you: live your life in a way that is worth telling stories about. Quit running and start chasing!
Now, I want you to read together with me today as our confession, Psalm 91:
Alright, well, obviously, today we are talking about fears, overcoming your fears. Now, remember, we are in a new series called “Chase the Lion,” and it’s based on this passage in the Old Testament about a guy named Benaiah whose story is found in 2 Samuel 23:20-23:
“He chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it.”
Remember, last week, I said that day probably seemed to Benaiah like a very bad day. But just a couple of verses later, the Bible tells us that King David made Benaiah the captain of his bodyguard. What better qualification for being a body-guard than saying, “One snowy day, I chased a lion into a pit, jumped into the pit with the lion and killed it." So, what seemed like a horrible, no-good, very bad day to Benaiah becomes the source of what God wants to do in his life in the future. And that’s what this series is all about. It’s about how God wants to use the biggest chal-lenges in your life to bring about the incredible, awesome, amazing life that he has in store for you.
During this seven-week series, we are exploring seven lion chasing skills: defying odds, facing fears, overcoming adversity, embracing uncertainty, taking risks, seizing opportunities, and looking foolish. So, today we’re going to look at overcoming your fears. It is so easy to read about a lion encounter that happened three thousand years ago and totally underestimate the fear factor. I’m sure there were nights Benaiah woke up for the rest of his life in a cold sweat because of dreaming about that lion. Sure, he killed the lion. But not before it scared the living daylights out of him. He was inches away from thirty bared teeth. He was in a dark, confined space on slippery ground with a 500 pound lion that was faster, more agile, more sure-footed, stronger, and could see better than him. I don’t think he ever forgot the smell of the lion’s bloody breath. And the sound of the roar had to echo in his mind’s ear forever!
I don’t care how battle-tested or battle-scarred you are. I don’t care how crazy or courageous you are. You don’t come face-to-face with a five-hundred pound lion without experiencing sheer terror or pure fear! But one thing sets lion chasers apart. They don’t run away from the things that scare them! Normal people don’t chase lions, but lion chasers aren’t normal. Lion chasers chase their fears!
God wants you to be a lion-chaser, to chase your fears. Look at 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” Fear will keep you sidelined in life. You will miss out on the incredible adventure of the life that God has called you to if you allow fear to dictate what you do or do not do in life
.
So, how do you overcome the fears in your life? Three things: First, you unlearn your fears. Psychologists believe that we are born with only two fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Every other fear is learned. We learn our fears through our experiences, things that happen to us, through what we are taught, through what other people say to us. All the other fears in our life are learned. Now, here’s the good news. If our
fears are learned, they can also be unlearned.
Unfortunately, unlearning something is twice as hard as learning it. It’s like missing your exit on the interstate. You have to drive all the way to the next exit and double back just to get to where you needed to be. You wind up going twice as far to get to the right place.
To overcome the fears in our lives, we have to unlearn some things in life. Some of the things we believe, some of the hangups we have, some of the things that cause fear and anxiety in our lives are wrong, and we have to unlearn them to overcome our fears. For instance if you have been taught to believe that you aren’t a success, then you probably aren’t going to take risks in life. So, you have to unlearn some things about yourself. Check out Romans 12:1:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”So, how do you do that? You do that by allowing your mind to be reframed by the teachings of the Bible. Irrational fears and misconceptions keep us from being the person God wants us to be, so we have to unlearn those old patterns, those old ways of thinking, those fears that keep us down in life. We have to allow the word of God and the teachings of Jesus to reframe the fears in our lives.
A large chunk of Jesus’ teaching was about helping people to unlearn what they had been taught. Look at Matthew 5:21-22: “You have heard that it was said … But I tell you…” Jesus is saying, “What you have heard is wrong. Now let me give it to you the right way.” Jesus comes into our lives and he reprograms our old ways of seeing things, our old fears about life.
How can you, in a very practical way, unlearn your fears? My brother does schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s research. He tells me that they have discovered that people who spend thirty minutes a day doing a crossword puzzle or Sudoku or some kind of mental challenge, don’t get Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is caused by a buildup of plaque between the connections in the brain. What they have discovered is that the crossword puzzle people, their minds are constantly growing new connections, so that Alzheimer’s cannot take effect. Do you want to know how to unlearn the fears in your life? Spend thirty minutes a day in God’s word, reading, praying, meditating on it, and before you know it, your mind will be reframed around your old fears. We call it having a quiet time. It’s a habit I want you to learn to have, because it is the best way to unlearn the old fears in your life.
Now, the devil doesn’t want you to unlearn your fears. In fact, one of the greatest tools Satan has to use against us is to keep us captive to our old fears. He wants to keep you crippled and afraid and paralyzed by your fears so that you won’t chase the lions and do incredible things for God. But I want you to see what Jesus says about the Devil: John 8:44:
“He [the Devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”The Devil is a liar, and he wants to keep you believing the lies of the fears you have learned in life. You have to see your fears for what they really are, lies that the devil tells you about who you are and what you are able to do in life. Unlearn those fears.
But, it’s not enough just to unlearn our fears. You have to use your new knowledge to face your fears. That’s the second way to overcome your fears. You’ve got to stand up to them – and conquer them. Benaiah jumps in the pit with the lion.
A few years ago, our family went on a camping trip up in Oklahoma to a place called Robber’s Cave, and we were doing a little hiking. Well, we come to this place called Devil’s Slide. And Devil’s Slide is this rock face that’s, I don’t know, about a hundred feet up at about a 45 degree angle, and it’s slick. I mean, there are very few handholds. Well, I send LaRissa and the girls on ahead, and I say, “Hey, James (who was about eight years old at the time), you want to go up it?” Well, he was pretty nervous, but he said, “Yeah!” So we take off up this thing, just kind of crawling on our hands and feet. And at some points, I’m getting kind of nervous. And I say to James, “Man, this is pretty tough, huh? This is kind of scary?” And he says, “Yeah!” But then I say, “But we can do it! We can make it! You’re awesome!” Why did I do that? Because I want my kids to learn to face their fears, to take on challenges, not to be afraid of taking risks. My kids were a little nervous when we took them to Mexico last year, but I don’t want them to back down from the big things God wants them to do in life.
Think of your fears as mental lions. If we don’t learn to chase those fears, they can keep us at bay for the rest of our lives. But as a loving Father, God helps us to unlearn the fears that keep us from living the life he wants for us. Look at 1 John 4:18: “Where God's love is, there is no fear, because God's perfect love drives out fear.” The result of love is fearlessness. As we learn how much God loves us, we can overcome the fear that paralyzes us and neutralizes our effectiveness in life.
I’ve been told, there are 365 times in the Bible that God says, “Fear not, don’t be afraid, do not tremble.” That’s one for every day of the year. Now, I just want to show you a few of those, and show you some of our common fears that God says we don’t have to be afraid of. 1 John 4:18 that we just read is actually about the fear of punishment or the fear of judgment. That’s guilt, fear derived from past failures. And God says, you don’t have to be afraid of that if you have entered into a perfect love relationship with me.
Look at the next one. Dt. 31:8: “The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Fear of being alone. Some of you have that fear. You’re afraid because you feel all alone in life. Or you wonder, what if I never find the right person? What if my spouse dies? What if I lose my family? And God says, “You don’t ever have to be afraid of being alone, because I will never leave you.”
1 Chronicles 22:13: “Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong and coura-geous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” The fear of failure. What if I don’t get a good job? What if I get laid off? What if I don’t live up to everyone’s expectations of me? What if I try and don’t succeed? The fear of failure cripples a lot of people. A lot of people wind up not attempting anything big in life because they are afraid of what will happen if they fail. So they wind up sitting on the sidelines in life. So, God gives a promise for that.
Isaiah 44:8: “Do not tremble; do not be afraid. Have I not proclaimed from ages past what my purposes are for you? You are my witnesses—is there any other God? No! There is no other Rock—not one!” This is a big one right now, fear for the future? What about my finances? What about my job? What about gas prices? What about the economy? What about my house payment, my grocery bill, my retirement account? Listen, I am not fearful about the future, and I’m a guy who left a better paying job to start a new church, so why am I not afraid? Because God is in control, and it’s all working out according to his plan.
Face your fears. Listen, for some of you, the best thing that could happen to you is for your fear to become reality. Because then you would discover that it is not the end of the world. You can get through it. You can face up to it, and it’s not the end of the world.
God wants us to face our fears. The Bible says that the Devil is like a roaring lion constantly looking for someone to devour. And how are we supposed to handle the Devil? Look at Jas. 4:7: “Resist the devil, and he will run away from you.” God doesn’t want us to run away from the enemy, to run away from our fears. He wants to raise up a generation of lion chasers who don’t just run away from evil, but who put the enemy to flight. Face your fears.
But there’s one more key component missing for us to really be able to overcome our fears. You have to have faith instead of fears. You see, faith is the opposite of fear, believing in God and depending on God whatever the circumstances that we may face in life. You can’t face up to the things that scare you most in life without the power and strength that come from dependence on God. Psalm 46:1-2 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” If God is your refuge and strength, what do you have to fear? Listen, if you believe that God is absolutely in control, that nothing, absolutely nothing in life can happen to you unless God allows it, and if you believe that God loves you more than anyone else in all the world, then what do you have to fear? When each of my kids were little, I would throw them up in the air and catch them. Now, that was scary at first, but they came to learn that I would always catch them and they came to love it.
Instead of fear, we have faith. Check out 1 Peter 3:14-15: “‘Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.’ But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” You don’t have to be driven by fear like everybody else. No matter what is going on, stock market tanking, banks going under, elections and politics, grocery prices going up, jobs going away. We don’t have to fear what they fear. Because Christ is Lord. You set apart Christ as Lord in your heart, you say, Jesus you are in control no matter what, you understand that he is in charge, and suddenly there’s not a lot left to be afraid of in life.
Look with me at Romans 8:15: “So you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family —calling him ‘Father, dear Father.’” When my kids are scared, they come running to their Daddy. They want me to put my arms around them, to protect them. They bury their head in my chest. They believe that everything is okay so long as they are with their Daddy. They believe that Daddy can fight off whatever it is that they have to be afraid of. With God as our Father, we don’t have to be afraid. We can depend on him for whatever we may come against in life.
So, don’t run from your fears. Don’t let fears paralyze you in life and keep you from living the kind of life you were made for. Don’t let mental lions keep you from experiencing everything God has to offer. The greatest experiences will often double as the scariest experiences. The defining moments will often double as the scariest decisions. Just imagine if you had been able to sit down with Benaiah at the end of his life, and you were to ask him what were the greatest moments in his life. What do you think he would say? Then imagine you asked him what were the scariest moments of his life. What do you think he would say? I can see Benaiah’s grandchildren crawling up in his lap and saying, “Grandpa, tell us about the lion again.” Here’s my advice to you: live your life in a way that is worth telling stories about. Quit running and start chasing!
Now, I want you to read together with me today as our confession, Psalm 91:
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."
3 Surely he will save me from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.
4 He will cover me with his feathers, and under his wings I will find refuge; his faithfulness will be my shield and rampart.
5 I will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at my side, ten thousand at my right hand, but it will not come near me.
8 I will only observe with my eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
9 If I make the Most High my dwelling-- even the LORD, who is my refuge--
10 then no harm will befall me, no disaster will come near my tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning me to guard me in all my ways;
12 they will lift me up in their hands, so that i will not strike my foot against a stone.
13 I will tread upon the lion and the cobra; I will trample the great lion and the serpent.
14 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Great Night
We had a totally awesome Journey Group last night. Just some really neat people getting plugged in to The Crossroads, and we have so much fun together. I found myself laughing my head off multiple times.
We are studying Mark Batterson's new book Wild Goose Chase. It is an insightful look at the workings of the Holy Spirit.
My favorite quotes from this week's chapter: "When Christianity turns into a noun, it becomes a turnoff. Christianity was always intended to be a verb ... If the twenty-first century church said less and did more, maybe we would have the same kind of impact the first century church did."
And, talking about Nehemiah and being faithful where God has placed you while you pursue the dream God has given you: "If you are faithful in Babylon, God will often bless you a thousand miles away."
We are studying Mark Batterson's new book Wild Goose Chase. It is an insightful look at the workings of the Holy Spirit.
My favorite quotes from this week's chapter: "When Christianity turns into a noun, it becomes a turnoff. Christianity was always intended to be a verb ... If the twenty-first century church said less and did more, maybe we would have the same kind of impact the first century church did."
And, talking about Nehemiah and being faithful where God has placed you while you pursue the dream God has given you: "If you are faithful in Babylon, God will often bless you a thousand miles away."
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Veterans' Day
I got to have lunch and spend the afternoon yesterday with one of our newest Veterans. It was truly an honor.
My friend is in his twenties. He was a Marine stationed in Iraq. His unit was ambushed in Falujah, rocked by an explosive device. He suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result. He is a hero.
I totally enjoyed just listening to his patriotism, sense of duty, commitment to the Marines, and his evaluation of life and service to our country.
The strength of our nation really does rest on the shoulders of young men just like this, who, without regard for political parties, elections, or anything else, do their job without complaint, risk their lives to defend us, and stand strong in a faraway land.
Today, I saw a veteran wearing his purple heart and another one wearing his Air Force uniform (each of these men were easily in their 70s). I guess today was the first Veterans' Day where I really took notice of these guys. I am definitely thankful for them. Happy Veterans Day!
My friend is in his twenties. He was a Marine stationed in Iraq. His unit was ambushed in Falujah, rocked by an explosive device. He suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result. He is a hero.
I totally enjoyed just listening to his patriotism, sense of duty, commitment to the Marines, and his evaluation of life and service to our country.
The strength of our nation really does rest on the shoulders of young men just like this, who, without regard for political parties, elections, or anything else, do their job without complaint, risk their lives to defend us, and stand strong in a faraway land.
Today, I saw a veteran wearing his purple heart and another one wearing his Air Force uniform (each of these men were easily in their 70s). I guess today was the first Veterans' Day where I really took notice of these guys. I am definitely thankful for them. Happy Veterans Day!
Chase the Lion - Part 1: Defying Odds
Several of you have been asking for audio of my messages. We currently do not have the capacity to record our messages (working on that), so I thought I would post my messages on here for those of you who are missing some of them. Please encourage your friends to check out our messages here, also.
These messages are from our series "Chase the Lion." They are inspired by and adapted from the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and the accompanying messages by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.
I believe this message series has the potential to change your life, to change the way you see your life, your approach to life, the things you see as significant in life, and the things you give yourself for in life.
What is the biggest disappointment in your life? What has been your worst failure, your greatest challenge, your biggest fear? What are the biggest difficulties in your life, what are the things that you are most nervous about? Now, what if the life you’ve always wanted and the future God wants for you are hiding right now in the middle of those things? What if the lions in your life are the very things that God wants to use to bring about this incredible life that he has in store for you?
“Chase the Lion” is about taking on those challenges in our lives, facing them, and chasing them down to live out the life that God has for us. This whole series is based on this story in the Old Testament about a guy named Benaiah. Benaiah was one of King David’s “mighty men,” kind of like his special forces. These were the elite warriors in David’s army. There were only thirty of them.
2 Samuel 23 tells the stories of David’s mighty men, and tucked away in that chapter is Benaiah’s story. Now, you may have read this story before and never given it a second thought. No major doctrine of Scripture comes from this passage. You’ve probably never used it for a memory verse. But the important principle is about how God uses what we think are bad situations for his good. 2 Samuel 23:20-23 says,
These messages are from our series "Chase the Lion." They are inspired by and adapted from the book In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and the accompanying messages by Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.
I believe this message series has the potential to change your life, to change the way you see your life, your approach to life, the things you see as significant in life, and the things you give yourself for in life.
What is the biggest disappointment in your life? What has been your worst failure, your greatest challenge, your biggest fear? What are the biggest difficulties in your life, what are the things that you are most nervous about? Now, what if the life you’ve always wanted and the future God wants for you are hiding right now in the middle of those things? What if the lions in your life are the very things that God wants to use to bring about this incredible life that he has in store for you?
“Chase the Lion” is about taking on those challenges in our lives, facing them, and chasing them down to live out the life that God has for us. This whole series is based on this story in the Old Testament about a guy named Benaiah. Benaiah was one of King David’s “mighty men,” kind of like his special forces. These were the elite warriors in David’s army. There were only thirty of them.
2 Samuel 23 tells the stories of David’s mighty men, and tucked away in that chapter is Benaiah’s story. Now, you may have read this story before and never given it a second thought. No major doctrine of Scripture comes from this passage. You’ve probably never used it for a memory verse. But the important principle is about how God uses what we think are bad situations for his good. 2 Samuel 23:20-23 says,
“There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab's mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, armed only with a club, he killed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with it. These are some of the deeds that made Benaiah almost as famous as the Three. He was more honored than the other members of the Thirty, though he was not one of the Three. And David made him commander of his bodyguard.” 2 Samuel 23:20-23 (NLT)
Now, it’s easy to read those verses from the comfort of your living room or here in our worship center. But for Benaiah, the day he squared off with a lion in a pit on a snowy day, probably did not seem like a very good day. In fact, it probably seemed like a terrible day. But God used that in a significant way in Benaiah’s life. Now, we are going to be looking at that passage through seven different lenses: defying odds, facing your fears, reframing your problems, embracing uncertainty, taking risks, seizing opportunities, and looking foolish.
So, today, we are going to look at defying odds. Take a look at each of the stories about Benaiah. In each one, he’s not the odds on favorite. Two mighty Moabite warriors. Now, I don’t know, but I’m guessing the odds were at least two to one against Benaiah. Or how about taking on a giant Egyptian warrior when you are armed with a club and he has a big spear. Number one, Egyptian has the size advantage. Number two, I’m taking long, sharp pointy thing over a club. So, Benaiah is not the odds on favorite there. I mean, he brought a stick to a knife fight.
And then, there’s the lion. Can you just imagine? Benaiah is walking along one day bowed against the cold and the snow, when suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he spots movement. He turns and looks, and twenty yards away, there's a lion. Now, the normal human reaction when you see a lion is to do what? Run, Forrest, run! But not Benaiah. Counterintuitively, he gives a battle cry and chases the lion. And then, the lion does the least likely thing. It runs away. Benaiah gives chase, and somewhere in the pursuit, the lion slips and falls into a pit. So, what would you do then? Turn and walk away and thank God for your good luck, right? But not Benaiah. He jumps in the pit with the lion and kills the lion.
Now, the lion has several advantages over Benaiah. A fully grown lion weighs upwards of five hundred pounds. It runs at a top speed of 35 miles an hour. It has cat-like agility and reflexes, which have to give it the advantage on slippery, snowy ground. Lions can see five times better than a human with 20/20 vision, which has to help it in the dim light of a pit. Odds makers in Jerusalem probably weren’t betting on Benaiah.
But Benaiah was a guy who took on the odds. I’m a Star Wars fan. I grew up with Star Wars. The first Star Wars movie came out when I was in kindergarten, so I just love them. And my favorite character in Star Wars was Han Solo. Han Solo was a little bit of a rebel, he's pilot of the Millenium Falcon, and he's just a cool guy. Well, in The Empire Strikes Back Han Solo and his friends are in the Millenium Falcon trying to escape from Darth Vader and the Empire. And they are about to enter asteroid field. The android, C3PO, tells Han Solo, "Sir, the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 637,304 to 1 [or something like that]." Han Solo looks at C3PO and says, "Never tell me the odds," and he enters the asteroid field. That’s the kind of guy Benaiah was. He defied the odds.
And here’s the thing, God loves that. God delights in times when the odds are stacked against him. You look throughout the Bible, and God often doesn’t act until the odds are stacked against him. In fact, there are a few times in the Bible where God intentionally stacks the odds against himself before he acts. Look at Judges 7:2-3:
“The LORD said to Gideon, ‘You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength. Therefore, tell the people, “Whoever is timid or afraid may leave and go home.”’ Twenty-two thousand of them went home, leaving only ten thousand who were willing to fight.” (NLT)
Those times and situations when the odds are stacked against us are typically unpleasant. They don’t seem like fun at the time, but when the odds are stacked against us in life, when it doesn’t seem like we can make it through, when it seems like all hope is lost, those are the times when God can act in incredible ways in our lives. Most of the stories from your life that are worthwhile are probably times when the odds were against you.
The odds were against me when I told God I would be a preacher. I took a risk when I asked LaRissa to marry me. She took an even greater risk when she said yes. The odds were against LaRissa and I being able to have children. Doctors told us we probably wouln't be able to have children and that we should consider adoption, but we now have four children of our own. All those are amazing stories of God’s goodness in my life. Lion chasers are people who don’t back down when the odds are against them. They are people who see those moments as times when God can act.
So, let me just take a few minutes today to tell you how to beat the odds. First, you’ve got to seize the God-sized opportunities in life. You’ve got to see those times when the odds are stacked against you as ppportunities for God to come through in miraculous ways in life, and you’ve got to take advantage of those times. Lion-chasers know that mipossible odds set the stage for amazing miracles. Seizing those poportunities are what make our stories testimonies of what God has done in our lives. What if instead of taking on two Moabite warriors, Benaiah had gotten a buddy and they defeated two Mennonite farmers? Or what if instead of defeating a giant Egyptian with a spear, Benaiah had fought a pygmy with a water pistol? Or what if Benaiah had chased his cat into his bed on a sunny day? We certainly wouldn’t be talking about him here today. It is precisely because he seized the opportunities, even when the odds were against him, that his story is worth telling.
Here’s the principle, God’s greatest opportunities often come disguised as 500 pound lions. They are often our biggest challenges, our greatest fears, our worst failures, our biggest difficulties, our greatest disappointments. What you do when you face those lions defines your life. Listen, this is the thesis for this whole message series: Your life is defined by the lions you chase. Chase the lions in life.
There’s another guy in the Bible who took on some pretty big odds in his life. His name is David. David was a teenage boy who watched his father's sheep. His brother's had gone off to war against the Philistines. And the Philistines had this giant warrior named Goliath who was taunting the Israelites and challenging any of them to come out and fight him. And the Israelites were all cowering in fear. Well, one day, David comes to deliver supplies to the army, and he hears Goliath's challenge, and he says, "I'll take him on." His brothers say, "David, you're just a little kid. Go back home." But David is persistent, and he goes to King Saul and tells him that he wants to fight Goliath.
“But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’”
And God does just what David says he will. Here’s the thing, when you are faithful to take on the opportunities God gives to you, he gives you greater opportunities. A lot of us want God to give us great opportunities, to give us big challenges, but we aren’t responding to the challenges he has already given us.
Now, how did those situations turn into opportunity for Benaiah. He became the captain of David’s bodyguard. David is going through the stack of resumes for his bodyguard. "I graduated from the Jerusalem police academy." Nope. "Served a tour of duty against the Philistines on the Gaza Strip." Uh-uh. "I worked as a supervisor for Brinks armored chariots." Not hardly. "One snowy day, I chased a lion into a pit and killed it." That's the man.
What are you going to do when you encounter situations where the odds aren’t in your favor? Are you going to run away scared to death, or are you going to chase down those lions? Seize the God-sized opportunities in life.
Second, to beat the odds, you’ve got to spend time in prayer. Now, I’m making an assumption here, but I think it’s a reasonable assumption. I’m assuming that on the day Benaiah locked eyes with that lion, that he said a little prayer. If you are up against the odds, you’ve got to ask God to work, to do something. Now, we’re not going to spend a whole lot of time on this one. But I just wanted to take a minute to point something out, and I’ll say this about my life, and if it’s true about yours, then you apply it to yourself. I have found that my prayers often involve asking God to reduce the odds in my favor. I’m asking God to stack the deck for me in life, to make it safe and easy and comfortable for me to follow God instead of asking God to do something so big and incredible and amazing and maybe risky and scary and challenging that he gets all the glory for it. Look at Matthew 21:21:
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt … you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
The problem is, most of the time we don’t ask God to move mountains. Most of the time we ask him to reduce the size of the mountain, to make life more manageable, instead of asking God to do something really big in our lives. And what we wind up doing is we try to manage God.
Last week, before our services started, I was praying for the service, and I asked God to do something totally unexpected, to do something we hadn't planned for, to surprise us. And I had told our team that one of my big goals for the day was to make sure we started on time. Well, five minutes before our service is about to start, we hear this loud crash. A huge gust of wind had come along and blown the canopies that we do children's ministry under on top of the building. Fortunately, no children were under there and no one was hurt, but, needless to say, we did not get started on time. But God answered my prayer, pretty quickly. I asked God to surprise me, and He did. He just didn't surprise me the way I expected Him to surprise me, which isn't really a surprise anyways. Here's what I learned, I had expectations about the way I wanted God to surprise me. I wanted God to do something that I didn't have planned, yet I kind of planned the unplanned thing I wanted God to do. I was trying to manage God, and He made sure I didn't do that.
Here’s the great thing, God knows way better than we do what’s going on in our lives, so he doesn’t always answer in accordance with what we ask or believe or imagine him to do. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
When we bring to God situations in our lives where the odds seem stacked against us, God says, “Oh, I can do way better than that.” Here’s what happens when we pray, God gets a little bit bigger and our problems get a little bit smaller.
Now, I want to get to the third way you beat the odds, because this really is the heart of the matter. You beat the odds by changing your perspective. Listen, I’m pretty convinced that most of our problems are not circumstantial. Most of our problems are perceptual. Our problems seem really big because our God is really small. If we really had the right perspective, we wouldn’t be quite as scared of a 500 pound lion.
A.W. Tozer said, “A low view of God is the source of a hundred lesser evils, but a high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems.” If we had a big enough understanding of God, then all of a sudden ten thousand problems don’t matter any more. If your God is smaller than a 500 pound lion and you cross paths with a lion, you are going to run the other way, but if your God is bigger than a 500 pound lion, you just might chase that lion. If we really understood how powerful, how amazing, how incredible, how wise and all-knowing God really is, we wouldn’t be as scared of a 500 pound lion.
Let me show you a passage of Scripture that really is the foundational passage for being able to go after the lions in your life.
“‘My thoughts are completely different from yours,’ says the LORD. ‘And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)
Astronomers tell us that the farthest reaches of our universe, or at least as far as they are able to see, are 13.2 billion light years away. Now, light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. In the time it takes you to snap your fingers, light travels around the globe six times. Now, if you do the math, and I did because I’m a nerd like that, in a year, light travels 5.87 trillion miles, that’s a light year. So, what that means is, the furthest reaches of our universe, as far as we know, are 13.2 billion times 5.88 trillion miles away. It’s a number so big, we can’t even fathom it. And God says, “That’s about the distance between your thoughts and my thoughts.” Your best thoughts about God on your best days fall approximately 13.2 billion times 5.88 trillion miles short of just how great and how awesome and how amazing and how good God really is.
So many of our problems stem from the fact that we are trying to understand our lives and what God is doing in our lives from the limited perspective of our own finiteness. We are trying to grasp an infinite, amazing, incredible God.
Look, that’s the problem with atheism. Atheists say, I cannot fathom a universe with a god I cannot perceive, I cannot understand God, therefore he must not exist. Now, do you see, for the atheist, human understanding is the measure of all things. How arrogant? Suddenly, we have become the center of the universe, and what we are able to understand is the limits of what can or cannot be.
Listen, I am so thankful that there are times that I cannot fathom what God is doing in my life. But here’s the payoff, if we can even begin to get a tiny understanding of how big and how amazing and how powerful God really is, then all of a sudden, our 500 pound lions look like cute, furry kittens. Romans 8:31 says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?."
God doesn’t fit within the confines of our brains, and that sometimes drives us crazy, because we want a God who we can comprehend and we can control. But God is incomprehensible and uncontrollable. And we have a choice to make. We can either learn to embrace the mystery and majesty of God and celebrate what we can’t comprehend or control, or we can create God in our image. We can downsize God so we can comprehend him and control him. But you know what, if your God is no bigger than the limits of what you can understand and what you can control, then when you cross paths with the lions in life, you’re going to run away. I don’t want to run away. I want to do something crazy and amazing and incredible for God. So, thank God he blows my mind with what he is capable of doing.
In Prince Caspian, one of the books in The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis, there’s this conversation between Lucy, this little girl, and Aslan, the Christ-figure in the books. Aslan is this giant lion. And Lucy and Aslan haven’t seen each other for a year. And Lucy says, “Aslan, you’re bigger.” And Aslan says, “That’s because you’re older, little one.” She says, “Not because you are?” And Aslan says, “I am not, but every year you grow, you will find me bigger.” Every year you grow, you will find me bigger. And that’s the way it is with our relationship with God. The more we grow, the bigger he gets. Listen, chasing lions is not about some foolish act of dumb courage. It is about defying odds because we believe in a God who is bigger than we can fathom or control.
Let me tell you some ways that you can magnify God in your life. Read your bible. You read your bible and you find out things about God that you never grasped, you never understood. Worship. You praise God for who he is, and he grows in your understanding. Missions. Nothing has increased my understanding of God as great as missions. Here’s really the question: How big is your God? Is he bigger than your biggest problem? Is he bigger than your worst failure? Is he bigger than your biggest disappointment? G.K. Chesterton said, “How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos.”
Don't back down. Defy the odds. Chase the lion.
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