Category: Messages (Page 5 of 43)

Chosen

January 4, 2023 / / 0 Comments

There’s an old saying that says you can choose your friends not your family, but that’s not totally correct. There’s one way you can choose people to be in your family. It’s called adoption. Now before you close this article give me a second. I’m not marketing for an adoption clinic. I’m just using it as an illustration for you. Adoption is about being chosen!

Ok so have you ever had one of those friends in your life that made you wonder what you were thinking? Ha yeah so have I! But they were there for a reason. Now family is a different story. For most of us, we didn’t have a say in the family that surrounds us. But it doesn’t change the fact that they are family.

I have great respect for those who adopt! I think it’s a pretty cool thing. Actually I’ve told my wife that it’s something I would not be totally opposed to (most days).

Now adopting a child from the foster system isn’t the only kind of choosing that we need to focus on. There’s another way of being chosen that is immensely important!

There’s a passage in the Bible that talks about God choosing us. Think about that. Out of everyone in the world throughout all of history, God knows you enough to choose you. That’s a pretty massive thing if you think about it.

Just like out of all the kids in the system that one you took home is super special, so are you! Now before we realized that we were chosen we kind of just went through the motions. We didn’t know what it meant to be part of this new family. Sure we had the name but we really didn’t like the rules and all the boundaries set up for us. We thought we’d be better off living free from all of these ridiculous rules!

But what if the rules and the boundaries and the name actually were there for a better purpose than just managing our bad behavior? What if that person who chose us, set up those boundaries because they knew something we didn’t know? What if all of those things we thought were overbearing rules were actually setting up a system for us to thrive in life?

Just like an adoptive parent sets boundaries and rules for the children they welcome into their home, so also God sets up boundaries for us as his children. But one day the goal is that we’ll see that all these rules were actually there to create the best environment for us to be able to succeed and thrive in life.

Instead of bucking the system and running from the rules, maybe…just maybe…we can take a minute and try to see what good these rules are meant to bring us.

Three Words To Help You Be Thankful

November 28, 2022 / / 0 Comments

This year for Thanksgiving we did something a little different. Instead of looking at the normal bible verses, we dove into a psalm. You know one of those passages that looks like a poem and acts like a poem but sometimes doesn’t feel very much like a poem?

We all know that we have things in our life for which we can and should be thankful. From the family that surrounds us and the friends who challenge us to the house in which we live and the car we are able to drive – there are things all around us for which we can be thankful! And if we’re being truly honest, we are probably not as thankful as we should be nor as often as we should be.

Enter the three words of Thanksgiving. And no we’re not doing one of those cheesy thanks-living kind of deals either. These are three words that actually help us see the world around us with a more thankful heart. If you’d rather listen to this one, you’re welcome to scroll to the bottom to grab the link to hear this message instead of reading it.

Joy is where we start. If you begin your thanksgiving with joy, you won’t regret it! Psalm 100 starts by telling us to make a joyful noise. This isn’t about happiness. It’s not about our circumstances but it’s despite our circumstance. Our happenings can not determine our level of joy! Joy is more a way of looking at life. It’s about character. It’s about watching for God to show up, not focusing on the days when I felt alone. Regardless of my circumstances, I know God is still present. That’s what joy is all about.

The second word for Thanksgiving is gladness. Since gladness isn’t something we talk about all that often in our daily lives, another way to look at it is to burst out in laughter. Could you imagine a life where you just found so much enjoyment that you simply crack up in random spouts of laughter. When we have great gladness in our hearts and we live with joy and exuberant laughter, we can’t help but find something for which to be thankful.

Finally, our thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without leaning on God. It’s all about dependence. When we truly find ourselves dependent on God and not taking matters into our own hands, worrying continuously about the struggles in our lives, wonder if anyone will love us, fret over whether or not we will make it through this terrible situation – then we’ll be able to see life through a different lens. When we lean on God and rely on him to provide for us, thanksgiving comes naturally.

The three words that should guide us in how to be thankful: joy, laughter and leaning. When we have these three things working together in our lives then thanksgiving will be all around us. It will change our perspective and help us see the wonders of how great we already are blessed in spite of the troubles we face.

Be thankful! Find joy! Laugh out loud. Lean on Jesus.

A Lutheran Psalm?

November 22, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Now there really isn’t such a thing and that’s something of which I am fully aware. But if a Lutheran were around in the Old Testament, I’m pretty sure this is something they would have written.

Psalm 46 is pretty well known for many reasons. It has some very familiar parts to it. From the refuge and strength section to the ever famous be still and know that I am God line, this psalm is packed with some pretty powerful hidden gems!

As we start looking at this psalm, we need to start with the stage notes for this psalm. That’s what I call the details given in the heading of a psalm. It starts with some details that help us understand what this psalm is all about. Here are the details: For the choirmaster to the sons of Korah according to the alamoth, a song. So the first and last parts are simple to understand. I mean a song for the choirmaster is pretty self explanatory. But what about this whole sons of Korah and alamoth bit?

If you do a little bible exercise, you’ll see that the sons of Korah were responsible for the music in the temple. It’s like they were the temple musicians or what we today call the praise team. Don’t shoot the messenger here just read the books of Chronicles and you’ll see for yourself. Then there’s this whole alamoth thing.

Here’s where we learn a little bit about how to understand the Bible. It’s something called principles of interpretation. In this case the best rule of thumb is to let the verses we do understand help us with the ones we can’t. So again back in the books of Chronicles there is a reference to the alamoth as being an instrument. Some scholars have said it was probably something stringed. The image I tend to get is of a very early version of a crude guitar of sorts. So there you have it. This psalm is a song that was used in worship by a group of people called the sons of Korah and played on a special instrument, just like our modern praise teams.

Now for the meat of the psalm. There are a couple key thoughts that we should look at. First there’s the idea of refuge and strength. This is super cool because the psalmist tells us of some pretty nasty circumstances. It seems as if he’s pretty much describing what we call tornados, earthquakes and hurricanes. In the face of these horrific catastrophic events, the psalmist says the he knows something that changes how we react to them. He won’t be afraid because he knows that God is always around. He’s right there in the middle of the tornado. He’s riding the waves of the hurricane. He’s holding the ground firm in the shakiness of the earthquake.

As the psalmist continues, we move from devastation to provision. The very things that should have brought fear and peril are now turned to strength and sustenance. Instead of things falling apart and the world crashing to bits, here we see God bringing rest and peace upon the earth. The powers of the world are warring with one another but all God does is open his mouth and the world melts into a situation of pure calm.

As the psalm, aka song for worship, comes to a close we’re reminded of this amazing phrase to be still. But I think we might have heard this phrase with less power than probably should be there. If we look at this verse within the context of the whole psalm, it’s less calming a baby with a quiet lullaby. Rather, this is a direct command to stop. Rest. Calm. Let God be God. It’s a powerful statement. It’s God taking the lead and telling us to sit down and back off. You can hear his voice raise and get stronger.

You see the psalm here is a reminder that God is always with us which means we don’t have to fear. But we still do. We let the world around us dictate how we live and what we think and how we act. So God has to stop us in our tracks. He raises his voice and tells us to knock it off and be still.

There you have it. A praise song from the Old Testament reminding us of God’s power and might and provision. And a strong reminder that God will put us in our place whenever needed to let him do his role as God.

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

August 30, 2022 / / 0 Comments

The life of the person who claims to follow Jesus should be encompassed by love. Instead we make it about rules, attendance, offerings, and so many other secondary items that are important but not the main thing. Throughout the Bible, we’re told to love. We’re called to love God and love neighbor. So if we’re called to love so often, why do we instead focus so heavily on rules and even in some cases uniformity?

To put it short, it’s way easier. It’s far less messy to just attend, give offerings, and make everyone follow a set pattern for worship than it is to actually practice love for one another. Loving someone isn’t something that’s emotion charged rather it’s relationally bound. We have weakened love to something we can fall into and out of like it’s a boat on the water. We throw love away when it’s challenging and walk away when we just don’t want to put in the hard effort. But love is relationally bound. That means if we’re going to love someone, we’re not there just for the feels. We’re in it because of a bond we have with the other person.

This love is so much more broad than a marriage relationship, but most certainly applies there. The love talked about in the Bible is about all relationships for those who claim to be in Christ. It’s about the marriages, friendship, brotherhoods, coworkers, neighbors, workout partners, colleagues…all of them!

Throughout the book of Hebrews we’re brought face to face with men and women who lived their lives by faith in God. They believed that God was there for them and that he had their best interests at heart. They also lived knowing that the struggles and pains we face in life were there to help us grow in the discipline of following in faith. The men and women of God in Hebrews 11 remind us that even though life was hard and often nearly impossible, they relied on the work that God said he would do for, in and through them.

As the book of Hebrews closes, we see one more phase of the faith life of God’s followers. It’s what faith does to us as we live it out. We’ll call this one through faith. As we navigated through faith, we see that being in Christ means we love those around us. We’re kind to those not like us. We go out of our way to make sure people are connected not just to one another but also to the wonders of the love of God.

What’s love got to do with the life of the Christian? Well for many, unfortunately not all that much. But according to the teaching of the Bible it should be everything! Everything we do should be done out of love for God and love for our neighbor. We don’t love those around us because they’re worthy of our love but because Jesus is worthy of our loving them. It’s a really cool cycle if you think about it. God loves us when we’re unlovable, so that we can love those around us who are essentially unlovable as well.

If you’re into listen to people talk about things like this or watch a message on this very idea, check out the video below. If not, then go love someone because God is worth the love you share with them.

Are You Trapped?

April 15, 2022 / / 0 Comments

One of my biggest fears in life is being trapped and have no way out. I don’t like water because I’m a tad afraid of getting trapped below the water. I know it’s one of those irrational kind of fears, but it’s a real fear for me. I don’t care for enclosed spaces and the idea of suffocating freaks the heck out of me. I do not like to feel trapped.

But it’s not just trapped under water or in a small space that is an uncomfortable feeling for many people. The idea of being trapped in a decision or a job or a relationship or a guilty feeling or an addiction are less than appealing thoughts as well.

Imagine for a moment being held against your will. You’re forced to work and treated like something less than human. You aren’t praised for going above and beyond. You’re barely paid enough to live a decent life. You don’t make an honest wage. You’re tired. You’re scared. It’s just not a good place. The dark nights seem darker. The hot summer days feel scorchingly hot. The cold winter nights freeze you to the core. Trapped in this kind of life is a place no one wants to be.

Now imagine that into this trapped life comes someone you’ve never met. He comes in and in a powerful display of force suppresses your captor. He frees you. He takes your kidnapper and restrains him so that you can go free. But you have to make a decision.

Will you stay with your captor or will you go free?

This decision may seem like an easy one for you and me right now. It might seem like a no brainer. But it seems all too often that we tend to choose our captivity over our freedom. Even though it sucks being stuck in the bad moments and trapped in our guilt or addiction or depression, there’s something comforting about the familiar. We like to stay in situations that we know, even if they they’re bad situations.

What do you need to be freed from? What comfortable sucky situation do you keep going back to simply because it’s known to you?

We all do this, in probably more ways than we realize. But the truth of the matter is we need to be ok walking away from the things that trap us. We need to be willing to close doors that aren’t beneficial, healthy or profitable even if it means saying goodbye to someone or something that at one point was meaningful to us.

This will post on the Thursday before Easter. It’s a day that really celebrates freedom from things that trap us. The events of this day in history were a reminder to the people who follow Jesus to flee the things that trap and run toward the freeing presence of a relationship with Jesus. The bread and the wine are reminders of all that Jesus did to forgive us and set us free from the strongest captor we’ve ever encountered.

What holds you today? It’s time to let those things go and rest in the freedom that’s been won for you.

It’s Time To Let Go

April 8, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever done one of those challenges where you held a glass of water (or other beverage) out in front of you to see how long you could hold it up? The challenge is actually kind of interesting. The glass is light so you’d think it wouldn’t be a problem. The glass, even when full, weighs hardly anything in the grand scheme of things you carry daily. So this can’t be hard right?

Well as you start out, it’s easy. The glass is just there. Then the task of holding it becomes a little annoying. How long can I actually do this? And eventually the shoulder starts to tremble and the water inside shakes a little. Then finally you just have to put the glass down because your arm can’t handle it anymore.

But why? Why did the glass get so heavy? You didn’t change its mass or weight. You didn’t hang anything extra off of your arm. It’s just there. A light weight glass with 8 ounces of water and somehow after a series of minutes, the glass got heavier and heavier even though it didn’t change at all.

I think we face our problems in life the same way. We hold them for far too long. I’m a pretty big advocate for making a decision and moving forward with it. I’m a big proponent of just ripping off the bandaid and dealing with things. But some people hold their decisions for far too long. When we have a decision to make and hold off on making it, bad things happen. We become someone we never wanted to be. We get feisty and anger easily. We soon realize the weight of the decision is becoming too heavy for us to carry, so we throw it at the people closest to us. It’s like the glass of water analogy. Even though the glass didn’t change size, shape, mass or weight it still became too heavy to hold.

The longer we hold our fears, anxieties, stresses, and even decisions the heavier they become. And eventually we’ll either drop them or hurt those around us when we throw things at them.

Look I know fears are real. I know anxiety is a true fact of life and many people have a hard time processing it. I know decisions have rippling effects far beyond what we might see in the moment. But holding them will only make things worse.

So find a friend. Seriously find a friend who will be there with you through the anxiety. Maybe someone can help you see the challenge from a different perspective. Maybe they can help you come up with some coping methods to get through the hard time you’re facing.

Imagine that same glass of water in your hand. This time when you’re holding it a friend comes up to put his hand underneath yours. All of a sudden the pressure of the glass no longer affects your arm. Immediately you have relief. The same is true with our stresses and fears and anxieties we hold onto in life. When we surround ourselves with people who are willing to challenge us and hold us accountable and help us when we struggle, we’ll realize we can carry the glass longer. We’ll even be able to set the glass down over time.

If you can’t set the glass down today, find a friend who you trust to help you hold the glass. I bet you’ll thank me for it.

A Gift From My Children

February 7, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Every year, as they were growing up, my children would give me something just from them for Christmas or my birthday. These gifts ranged from socks to ties to little things to put on my desk in my office or even a tool they wanted to learn how to use. Each of them were uniquely special gifts, but each of those gifts had something in common.

When I opened these gifts in front of them, my children smiled with anticipation as they eagerly awaited my reaction. To them it was the perfect gift. To them it was something special and reminded them of me and hopefully would remind me of them. I actually still have most of the things they’ve given me through the years.

But each of those gifts were purchased the same way. Until my children were old enough to have a job and earn their own money, those gifts were purchased with my money! I know that some of these gifts were my children’s idea, but many of them were actually something my wife told them I would like. She took them to the store. She told them that daddy would like this item. She put our bank card in the card reader. She purchased them with money that we made from our jobs.

My kids then took those gifts and gave them to me as if they bought them! The audacity. The guts. How could they possibly claim that these gifts are from them when it’s obvious they didn’t buy them or even really pick them out?

Ok so I’m not really upset about this. Just using it as an illustration. It’s kind of like C.S. Lewis in his work Mere Christianity where he describes our lives in Christ. We approach God often times giving him a gift of some sort and claiming it’s from us. I mean we do this with our time and talents and even our finances. We come into worship or volunteerism and think in our minds that somehow we’re giving him something great. We put our offering in the basket thing on a Sunday and act as if we just did God a favor.

It’s like my kids giving me a gift that was purchased with my own money! Everything we have in life is a gift from God. Our time is already His. Our possessions wouldn’t be in our possession if He didn’t give them to us in some fashion. Our abilities that we use to serve others aren’t really ours. He gave us those abilities when He knit us together in our mother’s womb.

You see I love each and every one of those gifts from my kids. Not because they bought it with their own money because they didn’t. I love those gifts because of the excitement I saw in their eyes when they gave. I love those gifts because they represent my children’s love for me. The same is true with our lives given back to God. The amount isn’t the point. The style or type of gift isn’t the point. It’s the joy in our hearts and the excitement over the giving that’s the meaningful part of giving.

So give the gifts. Do it with joy. Don’t hold back. Even if you’re giving with someone else’s money. It’s more about the heart and why you’re giving than how much you give (and this isn’t just about material things either, it’s also about your time and energy and even how you invest in relationships).

Your Life Matters

January 25, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Your life matters. Yes, this is about you. The past couple of years have been pitting one person against another about whose life matters. Well the point is that life matters. The owner of life isn’t the point. The fact of life is what is vital.

I know that some will say it’s a copout to say that all life matters. But realize I did not say all lives matter. But that life matters. The life you live and the life your enemy lives – they both matter because life matters. But you don’t make your life matter because you’re a good person or a rich person or a person of a specific ethnic background. Your life matters because your life was a gift to you.

This week we focused on life issues. We talked about beginning of life issues and end of life issues. But we spent a lot of time looking at how we deal with those who don’t see matters of life the same way we see them.

It’s easy to make this whole topic of life matters something about politics or even race or age but it’s not about that at all. It’s about valuing each individual life as something special. Everyone has an opinion and everyone has seemingly their own viewpoint on this one. But the fact of the matter is all of our views are tainted with some bit of information we have coming into this. We think the concept of life matters is something about race. Or we think it’s all just a bunch of political bologna. And to a large extent that seems to be the case unfortunately.

But the truth is that life is not something we can determine. We have to let outside sources inform our understanding of life’s origin. We have to let the reality of the uniquenesses of the human condition help us better value lives of all shapes and sizes and points of origin.

Below is a message I gave on the value of life and why it’s so very important to have a proper understanding of ourselves before we can even have this conversation.

Healthy Relationships

January 18, 2022 / / 0 Comments

There’s a rhythm that needs to be established in the relationships we hold. There needs to be boundaries and some freedoms at the same time. But it seems in out culture today we’ve lost something important in our relationships. We’ve lost the depth in our relationships. We’ve become shallow.

We’re culture that wants our friends as long as they tell us what we want to hear, do what we want them to do, and go where we want them to go. And if we don’t get our way, then we run away or dismiss that person altogether. It’s a shame that we’ve fallen prey to the division that is happening in our world. And the worst part of this is that it’s happening in the church too, with people who claim to follow the ways of Jesus. Well that’s not Jesus’ way.

Relationships that can’t endure the hard moments demonstrate a lack of depth. Whether it’s a friendship or a dating relationship or neighbors or even a marriage, there needs to be a willingness to have hard conversations. Part of the issue we’re facing in our shallow lives today is that we can’t have hard conversations. We’d rather run than do something hard. But running has never been the plan God had for us. Running isolates and causes us to be alone.

We need to suck it up and do the hard things in life and have those hard conversations instead of cowering, running, or dismissing people with different views than we have.

Something that’s become extremely common in our lives especially as of late is isolation has become the normal. Whether it’s for health purposes or just our inability to deal with challenging circumstances, people are running away from everything and everyone that is important to them and isolating themselves. The Bible is clear that isolation is not a good thing! Not by any means is it good for a longterm strategy for life.

Sure we can back away to gather ourselves before we say something off color. We can take a little time out, so to speak, to gather our thoughts and heal a bit. But isolation is a longterm kind of thing. This is not God’s design. And frankly it is not healthy at all!

This week we talked about isolation, friendships, and how healthy relationships are critical to how we live out our faith. Some things to wrestle with as you consider your relationships.

Are you distancing yourself from someone in your life just because you don’t see things eye to eye? How can you move past that disagreement? What part of the disagreement is on you?

You see when we can claim a piece of the pie of our relationship breakdowns, we have a harder time blaming the other person. The point is that it takes two to have a problem. What part of the problem do you need to own up to?

Do you have a healthy rhythm?

January 11, 2022 / / 0 Comments

So rest isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. I’m the kind of person who needs to be doing things. Well, most of the time that’s how I would have described myself. Admittedly, something has changed in me over the past several months to help me realize who and what is truly important. Sometimes it takes a hardship or challenge to get us to that point. I’m just grateful to be in a more balanced rhythm.

As a musician, ok so nominally a musician since I rarely play anymore, I never did like the long periods of rest in a piece of music. It was during those measures of rest that I tended to get lost and daydream and would regularly forget to start playing again! But the rest is what makes the rhythm make sense. If we don’t have rests in music, it’s just a bunch of silly noise that no one really can enjoy.

The same is true in our lives. If we don’t have regular ups and downs of work and rest, we’ll just be making a bunch of noise in life. And that noise will not only be hard for everyone else to hear, it will also be harmful to us.

As we move through January, we’re focusing on rhythm and how to get our lives back into some form of healthy rhythm. As a follower of Jesus, I believe we can best find our rhythm in the way we were created. The Bible says we were created in the image of God. So if we’re in the image of God, then how did he do things?

As we look at creation, we find God working then resting to admire and enjoy what he made. I think this rhythm ebbs and flows throughout the bible. Working and resting are regular parts of life in the Bible. There’s even a day set aside by God the whole purpose of which is to give us the blessing of rest. It’s called the sabbath. That set apart sabbath day is supposed to be about resting and remembering.

The bible shows over and over that this resting is supposed to remind us that we can’t do it all. It’s supposed to point us back to the times when God has stepped in and done for us. It’s supposed to remind us of when God did what was needed at just the right time to save us from not only our problems but also from ourselves!

But what God intended for our good, we soon turned into something evil and distorted. We either abuse rest and become lazy, or we neglect rest and live out some stupid messiah complex. Sorry but we’re not supposed to be either! We’re supposed to thrive and the pace of life right now is not built for you and me to thrive in any manner of speaking.

What follows is a 20 minute or so message on this idea of rest as rhythm for life and what I learned from a life without rest. I pray that you find the real rest that you need with the ones who can care for you properly in your time of recharging.

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