2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
This morning as I was reading this passage, I was also thinking about why we do what we do. Youth ministry in itself can be a difficult thing. Teenagers deal with more today then ever before. Students literally face things on a daily basis that were unspeakable 50 years ago! Rape, pornography, drugs, alcohol, family crisis, the loss of a loved one, things that no one should go through even more so a young person of their age.
I was thinking about how in ministry, especially youth ministry, people around us like to focus on the negative side. This person did this, this person broke that rule, this person said this word, that person wasn't here, those people needed that. It seems like we like to point our finger alot at everyone else's failures and sins.
For myself I have always been a self motivator and I have always liked to go against the status quo.
I believe that it is very important that people acknowledge their own sin before our holy God. But I also believe we should acknowledge God when he is changing a persons life.
Not what happened in the past, not even what happened yesterday. Why? Because you can't go back and fix it. Instead look at what God is capable of and what he is doing today.
Earlier today I posted on twitter "To see a young person crying out to God through worship and prayer. Thats what its all about!" and for me that is what its all about. To see change in the lives of students and people who were once broken but now they have become new.
This is how we stay motivated. Find the small things that God is doing. Focus on the people who are changing, focus on the person who lifts their hands out of the norm. Focus on the ones who continuously come up for prayer, because their getting it, don't over look them.
Watch for the ones that had an old life but are becoming new, because Christ is changing them into a new creature, a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:16-20 MSG
16-20Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!
I love this scripture because it points out that when Christ walked this earth we looked at him and judged him, we got it all wrong and crucified him. We overlooked the messiah because we are negative people. Because our focus is in the wrong place.
Don't overlook what God is doing in your life, and in the people around you. Focus on that fresh start, focus on the ones who are a new creation. Their old life is gone and a new life has begun.
Today, don't look at others and judge them, don't be negative and look at their failures. Instead look for the positives, focus on the people who are getting it! Focus on what Christ is doing in your life and stay away from the negativity, because if we are in Christ the old life has gone and a new one has come. We have a fresh start in him, every single day!
What are you going to do with it?
Pastor Phil
onewaysm.org
philipjkeller@hotmail.com
Monday, June 11, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Worship | Monday, June 4th 2012
Malachi 1:6-7, 9-10, 14 MSG
"Isn't it true that a son honors his father and a worker his master? So if I'm your Father, where's the honor? If I'm your Master, where's the respect?" God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling you on the carpet: "You priests despise me! "You say, 'Not so! How do we despise you?' "By your shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship. "You ask, 'What do you mean, "defiling"? What's defiling about it?' "When you say, 'The altar of God is not important anymore; worship of God is no longer a priority,' that's defiling. And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you're trying to get rid of—blind and sick and crippled animals—isn't that defiling? Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator—how far do you think it will get you?" God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you.
"Get on your knees and pray that I will be gracious to you. You priests have gotten everyone in trouble. With this kind of conduct, do you think I'll pay attention to you?" God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you. "Why doesn't one of you just shut the Temple doors and lock them? Then none of you can get in and play at religion with this silly, empty-headed worship. I am not pleased. The God-of-the-Angel-Armies is not pleased. And I don't want any more of this so-called worship! Offering God Something Hand-Me-Down, Broken, or Useless "
A curse on the person who makes a big show of doing something great for me—an expensive sacrifice, say—and then at the last minute brings in something puny and worthless! I'm a great king, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, honored far and wide, and I'll not put up with it!"
This morning as I read these scriptures my heart breaks for God. Not only was these words used back in the times of Malachi but I feel their still relevant today. Our Heavenly Father, the one who spoke creation into being the one who can do anything and everything, the all powerful God of the universe, the one who sent his only son, Jesus Christ to earth and was beaten for our sins for our mistakes and was killed on the cross of calvary, that precious God is disgusted, dispised and upset at us with our worship.
For me, my worship is precious, because for me, my life and the worship I show to God through it is the only way I can truly "give back" to God for all he's done for me. I could really take these scriptures on bring out the frustrations I have and i believe God has with churches today, with our style, with our rituals and religious ideas but I won't. Because for me this is all about God and I. Am I truly worshipping God and is it worthy of what he desires? I believe our lives should worship God but I also believe that during our times of worship, if that's at a church or in your private times that God expects something from us. I believe he wants us to be very REAL with him, not religious, not stuck in a tradition but brutally and severely honest with him. I believe he wants us to thank him, plead with him, petition him and ask for forgiveness everytime we come before him.
I believe that God doesn't want us to take our worship for granted. But I feel like in the church world, we do just that. Are we really giving God our all? Are we giving him the best we have or just the left overs or the things that are easy. That is what they were doing in the book of Malachi. Offering the sick and crippled animals as a sacrifice to God. God doesn't want sloppy worship, he doesn't want empty headed worship, he wants real, passionate worship from us. Something from the heart. Something that doesn't take memorization, something that is true and meaningful.
My challenge for you today is this; think about your worship and ask yourself am I pleasing God with real worship that is heart-felt or am I upsetting God like in Malachi with empty-headed worship, with sloppy worship? No matter what your answer is, evaluate yourself first before anyone else and make the necessary changes to your worship. Maybe you should pray more or sing louder, maybe you should start lifting your hands in worship, maybe you need to change your style or stop a tradition. Whatever you feel lead to start doing or change, make sure your worship is fresh, so when God looks down on your worship, he smiles, he is excited. With that comes blessings and answers in your life.
"Isn't it true that a son honors his father and a worker his master? So if I'm your Father, where's the honor? If I'm your Master, where's the respect?" God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling you on the carpet: "You priests despise me! "You say, 'Not so! How do we despise you?' "By your shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship. "You ask, 'What do you mean, "defiling"? What's defiling about it?' "When you say, 'The altar of God is not important anymore; worship of God is no longer a priority,' that's defiling. And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you're trying to get rid of—blind and sick and crippled animals—isn't that defiling? Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator—how far do you think it will get you?" God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you.
"Get on your knees and pray that I will be gracious to you. You priests have gotten everyone in trouble. With this kind of conduct, do you think I'll pay attention to you?" God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you. "Why doesn't one of you just shut the Temple doors and lock them? Then none of you can get in and play at religion with this silly, empty-headed worship. I am not pleased. The God-of-the-Angel-Armies is not pleased. And I don't want any more of this so-called worship! Offering God Something Hand-Me-Down, Broken, or Useless "
A curse on the person who makes a big show of doing something great for me—an expensive sacrifice, say—and then at the last minute brings in something puny and worthless! I'm a great king, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, honored far and wide, and I'll not put up with it!"
This morning as I read these scriptures my heart breaks for God. Not only was these words used back in the times of Malachi but I feel their still relevant today. Our Heavenly Father, the one who spoke creation into being the one who can do anything and everything, the all powerful God of the universe, the one who sent his only son, Jesus Christ to earth and was beaten for our sins for our mistakes and was killed on the cross of calvary, that precious God is disgusted, dispised and upset at us with our worship.
For me, my worship is precious, because for me, my life and the worship I show to God through it is the only way I can truly "give back" to God for all he's done for me. I could really take these scriptures on bring out the frustrations I have and i believe God has with churches today, with our style, with our rituals and religious ideas but I won't. Because for me this is all about God and I. Am I truly worshipping God and is it worthy of what he desires? I believe our lives should worship God but I also believe that during our times of worship, if that's at a church or in your private times that God expects something from us. I believe he wants us to be very REAL with him, not religious, not stuck in a tradition but brutally and severely honest with him. I believe he wants us to thank him, plead with him, petition him and ask for forgiveness everytime we come before him.
I believe that God doesn't want us to take our worship for granted. But I feel like in the church world, we do just that. Are we really giving God our all? Are we giving him the best we have or just the left overs or the things that are easy. That is what they were doing in the book of Malachi. Offering the sick and crippled animals as a sacrifice to God. God doesn't want sloppy worship, he doesn't want empty headed worship, he wants real, passionate worship from us. Something from the heart. Something that doesn't take memorization, something that is true and meaningful.
My challenge for you today is this; think about your worship and ask yourself am I pleasing God with real worship that is heart-felt or am I upsetting God like in Malachi with empty-headed worship, with sloppy worship? No matter what your answer is, evaluate yourself first before anyone else and make the necessary changes to your worship. Maybe you should pray more or sing louder, maybe you should start lifting your hands in worship, maybe you need to change your style or stop a tradition. Whatever you feel lead to start doing or change, make sure your worship is fresh, so when God looks down on your worship, he smiles, he is excited. With that comes blessings and answers in your life.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Trusting God
This morning I want to talk about trusting God.
Trust is a really hard thing to obtain in todays culture. In the business world or in our
own personal relationships, trust is not an easy thing we just do or allow.
When I was growing up it didn't take me very long to learn to listen and trust my parents.
In fact there was a few times that I didn't listen to them and I had to reap what I sowed.
After that I learned that I should probably trust my parents and when they gave me advice they were only looking out for my best interest.
As a nation, church and as an individual we have fallen away from trusting God with our lives.
We need to realize that God has only the best for us in mind. He is just looking out for our best interest. He is our heavenly father and we are his children.
At times, we try to do our own thing and God politely allows us to. Sometimes we learn the hard way, by falling, by getting hurt and by messing everything up! Then God waits, he waits for us to realize if we just did it his way, if we would of just listened and followed his plan for our life, things would be so much easier.
I believe this has also happened in our country. I believe we were once a nation and in God we trusted, but now we've tried to do our own thing, we've tried make up our own rules and we've went our own way.
Today I pray that our country would wake up and see that we have fallen, that we should of listened to our father God.
Today I pray that you would realize that. You may have fallen but God still loves you, theres still time for you to turn this thing around. But we must first start with Trust!
Trust him, trust his ways, trust his plan and trust our father who sees and knows everything.
Just like my parents knew when I was a child, God knows whats best for you, he knows what decisions are good for you and which ones are bad. And he wants to help guide you down the right path, the least painful path.
Trust God. He loves you and he wants the best for you.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.
If you have time today, listen to the song "Walk by faith" by Jeremy Camp its an oldie but a goodie!
Pastor Phil
Trust is a really hard thing to obtain in todays culture. In the business world or in our
own personal relationships, trust is not an easy thing we just do or allow.
When I was growing up it didn't take me very long to learn to listen and trust my parents.
In fact there was a few times that I didn't listen to them and I had to reap what I sowed.
After that I learned that I should probably trust my parents and when they gave me advice they were only looking out for my best interest.
As a nation, church and as an individual we have fallen away from trusting God with our lives.
We need to realize that God has only the best for us in mind. He is just looking out for our best interest. He is our heavenly father and we are his children.
At times, we try to do our own thing and God politely allows us to. Sometimes we learn the hard way, by falling, by getting hurt and by messing everything up! Then God waits, he waits for us to realize if we just did it his way, if we would of just listened and followed his plan for our life, things would be so much easier.
I believe this has also happened in our country. I believe we were once a nation and in God we trusted, but now we've tried to do our own thing, we've tried make up our own rules and we've went our own way.
Today I pray that our country would wake up and see that we have fallen, that we should of listened to our father God.
Today I pray that you would realize that. You may have fallen but God still loves you, theres still time for you to turn this thing around. But we must first start with Trust!
Trust him, trust his ways, trust his plan and trust our father who sees and knows everything.
Just like my parents knew when I was a child, God knows whats best for you, he knows what decisions are good for you and which ones are bad. And he wants to help guide you down the right path, the least painful path.
Trust God. He loves you and he wants the best for you.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.
If you have time today, listen to the song "Walk by faith" by Jeremy Camp its an oldie but a goodie!
Pastor Phil
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