Category: Messages (Page 6 of 43)

Where do you find your rhythm?

January 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments
Great Skills You Can Learn from Drumming - Jessica Peresta- The Domestic Musician

We all have rhythm. No, not the ability to play drums or keep a beat even, but we all have a rhythm. Rhythm is all around us and it’s part of our day to day lives in so many places that we often overlook it. I mean right now, you’re probably reading this with some form of rhythm to your pace. Your heart is even beating to a rhythm (I hope it is!).

Rhythm is all around us as well. There’s rhythm in the sunrise and sunset. There is rhythm in the way the feet hit the treadmill in the gym. There’s rhythm to your breathing. Seasons follow a rhythmic pattern. Everything about life is based off of a healthy rhythm.

As we kick off a new year together here on the blog, I wanted to spend a few minutes discussing healthy rhythms. I really think rhythms are the biggest struggle many of us have in life. Whether you’re struggling with weight or finance management, relationships or body image, productivity or worship attendance they all revolve around rhythm. And there’s one rhythm that sets them all up properly.

If you look at the world around you and especially at the way the world was formed. As a follower of Jesus, I believe that God formed all of this in the way it describes in Genesis 1. That part of the Bible lays out what we call the 7 days of creation. In those days of creation, God sets a whole series of rhythms or patterns for the world. From tides to sunrise/sunset to seasons to even the way he speaks and things happen, it all follows a rhythm. Nothing was made in creation that didn’t involve God speaking. Even before he created man, God said let us make man in our image. There was a rhythm to how it all happened.

But the problem is, we live in a world of solo drummers. We don’t like to march to someone else’s drumbeat. We like to be creative and come up with our own rhythms. I’m a huge advocate for consistency and patterns.

Heck look around the world right now as people are crying for a return to normal. They’re not looking for normal! They’re looking for rhythm. Our rhythm of life was disrupted nearly 2 years ago and we haven’t found a sustainable rhythm yet. What we call normal is really a comfortable and sustainable pace with which we can walk, talk and live our lives. We haven’t had that for a while now and we long to have it back again.

But it goes a little deeper than just waking and sleeping at the same time everyday, which is of tremendous benefit in and of itself! There is a deeper rhythm that must be established to really have things moving in the right direction and to establish a sustainable pace for productivity, health, wellness, relationships and all aspects of life to truly flourish.

Below is a message I gave to kick off the New Year at Living Word Galena. In this message I’ll dig a little into the idea of the rhythms around us and how they can help us stay in rhythm. I’ll also give a couple of tools we have here to help keep us in rhythm.

A Different Perspective

December 20, 2021 / / 0 Comments

This year for the season leading up to Christmas, a time churches call Advent, we’ve been focusing on the events of the first Christmas from the perspective of those who would have been there. I know that this takes some conjecture and a little creativity but we stayed as close to the text of the Bible as possible. The portions that are made of some level of conjecture are less than relevant to the topic at hand.

Each of these messages was simply intended to make us slow down as we run rampant this time of year. We focused on Zechariah. He was Mary’s uncle. He really doesn’t play much of a role in the events on Christmas morning but his story is impactful as we set the stage for what’s about to happen. His lesson was one of pure grace. He was invited into an epic journey and even though he didn’t believe it right away, he experienced what amazing grace felt like in real time.

Then we moved to Mary. She’s well known for so many reasons. As we looked at her part of the journey, we saw just how God has a tendency to interrupt our humdrum lives. We have a statement around church, Men plan but God laughs. Well in this case, she planned a wedding with Joseph then starting a family, but God had other plans. He wanted her to have a child and obediently go where he told her to go.

The third character of the nativity story was Joseph. He’s an unsung hero. No lines to speak. No role beyond the first few chapters of the account of Jesus’ birth. He didn’t want to shame Mary even though he thought she was guilty of something awful. His is a story of being so close to God that he was able to let God lead him off the script of his planned life and into an amazing future as the earthly dad of the son of God.

Week four was the shepherds. They’re on the scene shortly after the birth of Jesus but really don’t have a lot to offer. Their part of the story is more what God did through them and for them than what they did for Jesus. The real important part of their story is who they were or in this case who they weren’t. Not important. Not popular. Not socially acceptable even really. Yet God chose them as the first audience to the birth of His only Son.

Below are the messages cut from these services. I pray you are able to see Christmas through a new set of lenses as you peak into the manger from the perspective of one of these characters.

Turning Coal Into Diamonds

November 16, 2021 / / 0 Comments

There is an old rumor, thanks to Superman, that you could apply the right amount of pressure to a lump of coal and it would turn that dusty lump into a sparkling diamond with perfect cut lines and immense value. The problem is that scientifically speaking that’s not exactly how that would work. Turning coal into diamonds isn’t really as plausible as our famed superhero would want us to believe. That said, I think there’s a greater analogy at play here than real coal and diamonds.

Imagine for a moment doing something so awful, so atrocious, so hurtful to someone that you couldn’t even imagine seeing that person face to face. Imagine how you would feel. Consider how worthless you’d feel especially knowing how much that person cared for you and loved you. This is a story that actually is found in the Bible. Oddly enough it’s a story that many of us can relate, whether we want to or not.

The story goes like this. A man named Peter is a good friend with Jesus. He follows him around and mimics his words and actions. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery you know. Well one day Peter decides to punch Jesus in the face by telling everyone he sees that he doesn’t even know Jesus. He denies him. Flat out denies him! After all that Jesus had done for Peter, he just leaves him there with no one to help him.

But fast forward in the story and you see Jesus reach back out to Peter a week or so later. Not only does Jesus not remind Peter of his past denial, but he even gives him a job. Not a crappy job either! It was a good job. A well respected position to be sure. But what’s more is what that job entailed.

You see it was Peter’s mouth that got him in trouble by denying Jesus. And the job that Jesus has for Peter is to use his, yep you guessed it, his mouth to actually defend and speak well of Jesus. This is pretty cool stuff if you think about it.

Jesus in a way was taking the coal of Peter’s denial and lies and turning them into the most amazingly perfect diamond you would ever see. So while the myth of coal to diamonds might be debunked by science, the reality is God can turn the coal of our bad choices into something far greater than diamonds if we just trust him.

To Be Forgiven Is To Forgive

November 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

We’re doing a really cool thing at the church I serve called The Forgiving Challenge. It’s cool because it’s super simple. It’s cool because it’s outlined well and yet remains flexible to be applied to our context. It’s cool because it’s resulting in some fun stories and new relationships across the members of the church.

The idea is simple. Forgiven people forgive people. The more you realize your own need for forgiveness, the more likely you’ll be to offer that to someone else. If you’re holding a grudge or some bitterness in your heart towards someone, then you’re starving yourself of realizing the full benefit of forgiveness.

This week we spent time with the word forgive. We talked about its definition according to culture and how that is only half the picture. We discussed what forgiveness costs us and what it cost Jesus on our behalf.

Think of it this way, for you to forgive someone of a hurt they did to you, you’ll need to let a part of you die. The part of you that’s all twisted with anger and hurt needs to be let go. In our time in church we looked at the things that remind us of our sin aren’t there to make us relive our sin but to relieve us of its weight.

Take time considering those people in your life against whom you might be holding a grudge or with whom you might be holding bitterness in your heart. Sacrifice a piece of yourself by going out of your way to forgive, not necessarily because they are worth forgiving but because you didn’t earn your forgiveness. So if you’ve been forgiven and didn’t earn it, you should probably give that same forgiveness to those around you (even if they didn’t earn it in your eyes).

Couch Cushion Confessions

October 26, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever done the terrifying task of moving furniture in your home? Ok so it’s not all that terrifying but it could be! Let me explain.

In our home, we most of the time eat in the kitchen but sometimes we’ll overflow into the living room. When we have more guests into our home than can fit around the table, we’ll generally spill over into the living room and use the couch. Or at night when we’re sitting down to watch tv sometimes we’ll grab a bowl of popcorn or other snack. And this very fact is what makes moving furniture a potentially dangerous, or at minimum humbling and embarrassing task.

The food that somehow miraculously misses our mouth hole tends to make its way into the crevasses in the couch. It lodges between the cushions and sometimes even bounces (or I’m convinced crawls) under the couch into the back most corner where it’s virtually unreachable.

We can vacuum the floors and even the couch but unless we remove the cushions and use the special tools on the vacuum, we’ll leave a lot of dirt and dust and food lodged under the cushions.

This is kind of like life in this world. As followers of Jesus, we have this thing called confession. And at its core, confession is like peeling back the couch cushions and revealing what’s underneath that we refused to deal with. Confession is coming to the harsh reality that something is a miss in our life and we need to have some help dealing with it.

Look I get it. No one likes to deal with the junk under the cushions. And if we’re being honest, most of the time no one can see what’s lurking in the hidden crevasses of our lives. But not dealing with these matters, doesn’t make them go away. It’s like Jesus’ words to the church leaders of his day that they were clean on the outside and dead on the inside. He called them whitewashed tombs. Nothing living exists in a tomb. It needs to be brought into the light to find life.

God loves you for who you are but loves you too much to leave you where you are. Share on X

Confession is coming to Jesus in the mess of our lives and letting him have his way with us. Here’s the deal you don’t need to have it all together to come to Jesus but when you do come to Jesus you better expect to end up being changed.

A Tarnished Record

October 18, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Imagine for a second a beautiful bride slowly progressing down the aisle to meet her groom. Her hair is perfectly done up with curls that swirl down her head like waves rolling on the ocean coast. Her makeup is done to perfection. The bouquet is gently held in her hands. But the dress, it’s something to behold. It’s a crisp and clean white. Long to the ground. It’s cut straight to fit her well but modestly designed at the same time. The train of the dress glides across the floor as she makes her way to her groom.

Then out of no where in a sudden movement, a 4 year old boy darts from his chair to give the bride a hug. He reaches out and grabs her dress before anyone can catch him. This would be a cute and loving moment if he hadn’t been eating a cheese coated snack that left his hands more orange than a pumpkin. Those hands grabbed the front of the bride’s dress transforming the perfectly fitted, white wedding gown into a canvas for this little guys finger painting.

Could you imagine! Now that scenario never happened, at least not that I’m aware. But imagine the horror on the bride’s face or the embarrassment the child’s mother would feel. Consider how terrifyingly awful that moment would be for all involved.

And as awful as that moment is, we live in a very similar situation nearly every day. As Christians, we are called to live a life worthy of the calling of Christ. We’re called to a high standard. We are commanded to be perfect, just like Jesus was perfect. Just like that pretty white dress was perfect. But just like that imaginary story, we’ve trashed the perfection God gave us. He doesn’t lower the bar or excuse our behavior. He doesn’t say everything is ok. He doesn’t say Well, they’re just sinners so I shouldn’t expect anything more than this. No, God demands perfect.

This week we look at the bible word – sin. It’s a word that describes anything that misses the benchmark of perfect. It’s the word that shows what happens when we put our dirty, grimy, selfish finger prints all over the perfect image in which God created us.

Look, I get it, no one likes to be shown they are wrong. No one likes to admit they are wrong, to themselves much less to other people. As we consider the stains we’ve made on life, it’s important to admit our fallenness. It’s critical to lay our cards out on the table of life and be honest when our actions don’t match our confession.

And when we do, be ready for a truly amazing change to occur. Be ready for your life to completely change trajectory, because when we admit our sins we gain admission to God’s freedom. We’ll look more at the action of admitting or confessing our flaws next week but for now revel in the glory of forgiveness gained by Jesus on your behalf.

I Am An Awful Person & So Are You

October 13, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Let’s be honest. We suck at life. I mean really. We go out of our way to prove ourselves right. We shut people out who disagree with us. We shut people down who do or say things that don’t line up with our views. When someone challenges us, we remove them from our circle of friends. We just flat suck at being human sometimes.

And to make matters worse – it’s not ok! No matter what someone tells you when you apologize, it is NOT ok! It never has been and never will be. If someone tells you they are sorry for doing something wrong or acting like a turd, don’t tell them it’s ok. They hurt you and hurting you isn’t ok.

A really big word in the life of the church is forgiveness. Forgiveness isn’t an excuse to do bad again. Forgiveness is not the license to give yourself a pass on bad behavior just because you’re not perfect. Forgiveness is the removal of our wrongs. Forgiveness is the wiping clean of the slate of our lives.

This month we started a 40 Day Journey called the Forgiving Challenge. Throughout these 40 days we’ll discover what forgiveness is, why it’s important, what we need forgiveness for, and what we’re supposed to do now that we’ve been forgiven. But it all starts with an honest assessment…

I am an awful person.

You can’t say those words about other people. When you hear me say those words you’re welcome to agree but the Bible is clear that we can’t go poking at someone else’s issues before we deal with our own.

Our first stop in this 40 day journey is to take an honest look in the mirror and seriously recognize our flaws and failures. Where have you gone wrong? What have you done that has offended someone else? What have you neglected to do that you said you would do? How have you let others down? Just pause for a minute to recognize that you’re not perfect. We all know that we’re not perfect but unfortunately we often act like we are.

Below is the message that kicked off this 40 Day journey of recognizing and practicing forgiveness. We’d love for you to walk with us through this challenge to give up on the failures and embrace a life of forgiveness.

When Truth Challenges

October 6, 2021 / / 0 Comments

As a product of the generation known as GenX, I know the struggles with absolute truth versus relative truth. The idea that what’s right for you isn’t right for me. And in some cases that’s right. There are somethings in life that are just not for everyone and that are very relative. But there are other things that are historically, across time and space to be considered truth. Some things are established as truth for the proper ordering of civilization and prosperity. Some things are intended to be in place for a very distinct purpose.

If you’ve ever studied economics or sociology you know that low income, high crime areas have something in common. Dads generally are no longer in the household picture. You see what happens when dads fail to live in their role is that families start to crumble. And when families crumble, communities crumble. And when communities crumble, so also to entire civilizations. As a matter of fact, I recently read that in ever civilization that at one time was thriving and now is a shadow of itself, the downfall started by the devaluing of the family structure.

In the video below, I address the family structure. Not mom, dad, two kids and a dog kind of family but the way God intended them to function. And whether you’re a believer in the whole Jesus thing or not, if you just look at history books, sociology studies, crime statistics and economics you’ll see evidence that backs this up. A proper understanding and valuing of family is the foundation of a thriving civilization and when we lose sight of this fundamental truth, we begin the degradation of not just family values but an entire culture.

Speaking Without Thinking

September 14, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Once upon a time in a galaxy not too far from here, I would speak before I thought. My words would flow at times faster than the water over Niagara Falls. Some of those words were pretty intelligent, if I do say so myself. But others, well let’s just say not so much! And if I’m being honest, there were likely way more not so smart things than there were even half intelligent things!

But it’s not just saying dumb things that will get us in trouble. Sometimes we say hurtful things. We say unkind things. We even say untruthful things. All of these types of words can do vast harm to people we care about and ultimately can destroy a relationship.

You see words have power. Your words, once they come out of your mouth or through the inter webs on your computer or cell phone, can’t be retrieved. Once they are out there, well there’s no getting them back! You can’t apologize your way around them or talk your way past them. You just have to, in many cases, start brand new rebuilding the trust you once had. But it takes time and effort.

You see not only do words have power but the relationship from which they’re spoken carries weight as well. So what you say, how you say it and who you are to the person with whom you’re speaking all factor in to the damage done by your words (or your silence when words are most needed).

Before you hit send on that text message or facebook post. Before you reply to something someone says to you. Before you go off and spew your feelings all over someone else, hit the pause button. Ask yourself a couple of questions:

Is what I’m saying the whole truth?

Where did I get my information?

Is ruining this relationship worth getting my point across?

What do I have to gain by saying this? What could I lose?

The old adage of sticks and stones can hurt my bones but words will never hurt me couldn’t be more wrong. The damage done by our words, or lack of words, is far greater than anything inflicted by a slap on the face or punch in the gut.

The bible says in one place that our words and our tongue are like a fire burning inside us that if not handled properly can do vast damage. Words can lift up and they can tear down. Speak kindly with one another. Be silent when speaking isn’t necessary. Speak when the time is right. But when you speak, make sure what you speak is truthful, complete and said with love and respect. Be bold and courageous in your speaking when necessary. Be calm and gentle when the circumstances dictate.

Below is a message I recently gave on the power of our words. If you have a few minutes, I’d be honored for you to listen and give your thoughts.

Right Place, Wrong Reason

August 10, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever missed something right in front of you because you were looking for the wrong thing? I mean you’re standing there, looking at the shelves in the grocery store, staring right at the item you’re supposed to buy and you can’t even see it because it’s not what you had imagined in your head it was going to look like. I’ve been there more than once, sadly to say.

This week we took time to be honest with ourselves about what we’re looking for when we come to Jesus and when we go to church. Are we looking for the things that Jesus promises to give us? Or are we looking for the things that will make us feel better? Because to be honest, these are not generally the same things.

In the bible there’s a time when the people came to Jesus looking for food. Instead of feeding them in some cool and miraculous way, he told them he was going to give them something better than food. They were astounded, and stammered in disbelief. What could be better than food they thought.

Jesus told them that he was going to be more to them than mere food. He was there to be their bread of life. It seems an odd statement but when you realize what Jesus was doing it makes sense. The short version here is that Jesus was showing them that when we come to him and his church looking for him we’ll find him and we’ll have many of our others needs met or at minimum refocused. When Jesus is our focus and growing in him is our number one priority, we’ll soon realize that the things we’ve been looking for all along have left us hungry for more of the wrong thing.

It’s like eating a snickers candy bar. You eat one and you’re not hungry for carrots or a steak. You eat that sugary goodness and you’re just hungry for more sugary goodness. But if you get your fill of something good and healthy for you, you won’t be craving the things that are not going to do you any good.

Jesus is the same way. When we long for him and find our fill in him, the other things of life: physical needs, financial needs, social and relational needs, belonging needs, questions about our purpose in life – all these things get refocused when we’re in it for the right reason.

Here’s a message I gave on this idea of looking for the wrong thing in the right place.

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