Foundation Class

Tuesday night we kicked off a new 6 month course at LifeChurch Called Foundations. This class looks at eleven core truths or biblical doctrines to build ones life on. Foundation of any building determines both its size and strength and the same is true with our lives. A life built on a false or faulty foundation will never reach the height that God intends for it to reach.

LifeChurch is on a journey & a mission to ‘raise, train, empower and release a generation of leaders’. Its not a one or two year program. Its a lifetime investment. We want to build strong, oak tree type leaders not pretty mushroom leaders.

Colossians 2:7 says “Plant your roots in Christ and let Him be the foundation for your life”(CEV)

Topics:

• The Bible
• God
• Jesus
• Holy Spirit
• Creation
• Salvation
• Sanctification
• Good & Evil
• The Afterlife
• The Church
• The Second Coming

The less the better

John 3:30

He must increase, but I must decrease. New American Standard Bible (©1995)

He must become more important, but I must become less important.” International Standard Version (©2008)

He must increase in importance, while I must decrease in importance. GOD’S WORD® Translation (©1995)

He has to become greater while I become less. Bible in Basic English

He must grow greater, but I must grow less. Weymouth New Testament 

 

What an amazing attitude from John. More of Jesus and less of me. I think the smaller we become the more room God has to work. It makes sense, because it is so not about us. We pray all the time for God to use us but we don’t give him time and space in our lives then our prayers is just a waste of time. My goal today is to decrease!!

Stop Being Normal

You can not be a follower of Jesus and stay normal.

“When anyone is joined to Christ he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come”.  2 CORINTHIANS 5:17  

The dead old, boring, gutless, purposeless, normal you is GONE! You are now a new person, fueled by the power of Christ in you. Someone is going to take notice of the change and say ‘Something has happended to you. You are not the same person you used to be. If your boss at work doesn’t know that you are a Christian you are probably not. You are new person. You are now radical and willing to do whatever it takes to live for Jesus and follow him, to love God and love people.

It takes guts to follow Christ. Jesus said “If you want to follow me take up your cross and come follow me”. You can’t follow Jesus and still live normally. Cefas was a normal, everyday fisherman. But when Jesus called Cephas to leave everything and  follow him, he did and he was not the same again. First his name was changed to Simon Peter. He never went to any preaching school but when he spoke on the day of Pentecost 3000 people gave their lives to Christ. Now thats not normal for a fisherman!!

Paul was a normal Pharisee doing what normal Pharisees do. But when he encountered God, he wasn’t the same again. He reached the Gentile world with the gospel. Again You can’t follow Jesus and continue to live life normally. You can’t love with the same normal love you loved people before you found Jesus. 

People who follow Christ Are not Normal. The Bible calls them ‘Perculiar people’

Normal people are ‘average’ people who do average work and produce average results. No one is inspired with ‘average’. Tell me someone who is well known because he/she was average. Show me a monument of an average leader.

Normal people don’t inspire others

Normal people don’t make incredible leaders

Normal People don’t change the world

Normal people don’t take risks

Normal people don’t face fears

Normal people die with a lot of regrets.

 Step up another level today and live above normal.

……. Exerpts from a message I preached while in Samoa two weeks ago……

Sent to Represent

2 Cor. 5:20. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, …….”

I have been meditating on this verse for a while now. ‘Ambassador for Christ’

We are called to be representatives of Jesus Christ

Let’s ask ourselves today “How WELL are we doing?

How WELL are we representing Christ?

Do we say what’s in his heart? Do we speak for ourselves and try to argue our own opinion or do we say and speak the truth of God’s Word .   

Are we doing what he did and wanting us to do? As good ambassadors do we report back to him and check with him to make sure that we are on the same page with God or we do what we think is best to gain popularity and please people.

Is our agenda different from that of Christ’s

How about the way we conduct ourselves both privately and publicly. Have you checked lately how Jesus conducted himself, even when things turned ugly for him. He maintained godly composure. He even asked God to ‘forgive them for they do not know what they do….’

Remember as ambassadors for Christ ‘We are sent to Represent”

Do WELL today!!

Being Real 1 – Accountability

Being Real with yourself and with God.

This is the list from my message on Sunday. Our church folks have been working through this list in their lifegroups this week.

Take the challenge and rate yourself and see how authentic you are in these disciplines.

These areas are vitally important in our spiritual growth. After rating yourself, make a list of all the 1’s and the 2’s and start tackling them one by one. Find an accountability partner and ask him/her to help you, move from 1 or 2 to 3.  Its called discipleship. An accountability partner will add fuel to the process. Do it together.  You can be his or her accountability partner too. Admission is the first step to freedom in God. Don’t let that 1 or 2 hold you back from reaching your potential in God.

Rate yourself   1 – Need a lot of work,  2 – average   3 – Good

•1)      Money:

Are you a good steward of what God has given you?

Are you in debt? How bad?

Are you giving to God through tithes and offerings?

Are you giving to others in need?

 

•2)      Moral:

Are you morally pure?

Are you having sex outside of marriage?

Are you in an adulterous relationship?

Are you messing with pornography?

Websites you visit?

Email & Text messages. ?

 

•3)      Prayer

When was the last time you prayed?

Do you pray only when you are desperate or do you pray regularly?

Do you pray for other people?

 

•4)      Word of God

Do you read the Bible every day?

Do you study the scriptures?

Is it the final authority?

Do you practice its contents?

 

•5)      Devotional Time

How often do you have devotional time?

Is it a 1 minute, 5 minutes or longer?

 

•6)      Witnessing

How often do you talk to people about God?

Have you shared your testimony of how you came to the Lord with someone?

Have you led someone to the Lord recently?

 

•7)      Fellowship

How often do you fellowship with other christians?

How often do you attend life group?

 

•8)      Worship

How regular is your attendance on Sunday services?

Do you consider yourself a passionate or a passive worshipper?

 

•9)      Serve

Are you using your gifts and talents for the good of others?

How much of your time is dedicated to voluntary work?

 

•10)   Family

How much time is set aside for spouse and children?

Are you a Violent and Abusive person at home?

Do you model the love of Christ at home?

Do you teach one thing and practice the opposite?

Do you practice hospitality often?

Sunday Reflections

With great excitement I worshipped God, did a little dance with my 2 year old daughter at the front.

Did something different with our offering to encourage people to give as part of their worship not a collection. Dropped the offering containers for a box at the front. (fanx Misi)

The Servolution RAP was amazing…..wow!! those girls can rap!!! Still can’t believe that even the most introverted people can rap and rap well!! Thanks Guys, blessed with the initiative, creativity and passion to Serve. Yeah!! Servolution is coming!! 10 more days!!

Kicked off our new series at LifeChurch called RATED. During this series we will explore 4 Areas. REAL, RIGHT & RADICAL and RESCUE:

Real: where we are with God (admission)
Right: what do we do about it (repentance)
Radical: result of forgiveness – changed heart (living out christianity)
Rescue: Special Easter – evangelistic focus (Easter Sunday )

During the messages people rate themselves. 1 – poor, 2 – average, 3 – good

The purpose is to help move people from 1 & 2 to 3. Transformation – become more Christlike. Grow spiritually and deal with areas holding them back from where God wants them to be.

This inspiration for this series came after a round table talk with Bill Hybels last year when he openly shared with us the results of the REVEAL survey their church took. Got me thinking about where we are in our walk with God. I wrote down my convictions on that day.  ‘I want to be a REAL Christian who is planted in a REAL church, serving a REAL world, following the REAL Christ’

The title of my message on Sunday was ‘Getting real with God’

Must admit it wasn’t the most easiest sermon to preach.

One of our Core Values at LifeChurch is ‘Authenticity”. We want to produce Christ followers that are real not fake. Radical for God not Religious. Christ followers that are real with their struggles and issues. The good, the bad and the ugly. We do not want to produce FAKE Christians. In the time of Jesus they were called “Pharisees”.One of the main reason why people don’t come to church is because there are so many hypocrites at church.

Ok…. I better stop here. didn’t mean to preach a sermon……..

Blessings for today!!