Count the Cost Pt.2

Each of us has had opportunities that we’ve passed up.  For some, you may even wonder, what could have been?  What would skydiving have been like?  Would I have flourished at that job, did I miss out on a great relationship?  Since we chose no, we never found out what could have been.  There are times that we get the feeling we passed up something good.

Would you believe that each day God presents each of us with opportunities to bless us, and use us to change our own life as well as others lives?  Opportunities to encourage someone, start a conversation, invite someone to church, or see miracle happen.  Often we don’t think of the opportunities God has placed before us as something we missed out on, it’s just something we chose not to do, or didn’t see.

Scripture is clear though that God is at work all around us, and ready to do amazing things, but we have to be ready, and sometimes we have to ask.  Jesus says it this way to his followers, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7, TNIV)  Jesus is not suggesting God is an ATM who just gives you all that you want on demand.  Jesus is reminding the disciples of something important, if you want something ask for it, if you want to experience something, you have to engage.  We also hear from 1 John, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15, TNIV)

Do you want to see transformation in your brother who struggles with self-confidence, and hasn’t been to church in 20 years?  Pray and ask God to transform his life in a way only God could.  Pray that God would connect your brother with people who would share their faith with him in a meaningful and relevant way.  Pray daily, and pray with confidence, that God will hear your prayer.

Do you want to grow in knowledge of God’s word, to know the bible better to help you in your life?  This may sound silly, but get out the bible and start reading it.  Talk with other Christians about passage that challenge you, or leave you with questions.

Maybe you have a passion and heart to see people come to know God who has never met him before, but you have never done a evangelism class.  Great!!!  Invite them to come with you to church.  Pray that God gives you an opportunity to tell them your story of God’s grace in your life.

I don’t want to look back on my life and think, what could have been?  Instead my prayer is that we can all look back and say WOW, look what was, look at all the powerful ways that God worked in our midst.  And think, it all just started with a little asking and doing.

 

Pastor Bill

 

Discussion Questions

1. What is one opportunity God has placed before you that you need to engage, or ask God for help and guidance in?
2. What might cause you to hesitate or pass up the opportunities God places before you?
3. Who could walk with you on the journey as you seek to ask God in prayer, and follow God in action?

Prayers that Rock

I remember learning to pray as a kid, and learning not just how you pray, but what you are supposed to pray about.  You should pray to God about “small” things, but not too small, God is busy you know, so don’t bother Him with things that are too little.  On the other hand, you should pray about “big” things to God, but not too big; I mean if everyone asked God for a million dollars or to win the lottery, what would happen?  As I continue to grow, this model of prayer just did not seem to fit with the biblical model of prayer laid out for us in the Bible.

Jesus taught His disciples to pray for daily provision (daily bread), a seemingly small prayer.  Jesus teaches the disciples that prayer can cast out demons (Matthew 17:21), and that God will give them great gifts and answers to prayer if they just ask (Matthew 7:11).  One verse on prayer that stands out to me is Matthew 21:21-22, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt…but also 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.”

I do not want to suggest God is our holy ATM, giving us all sorts of stuff if we ask right.  Instead I wonder if we ever pray like these verses suggest.  Take a moment and think about your prayers.  How many of our prayers would make heads turn if God answered them?  How many of our prayers require God’s supernatural involvement?  How many of your prayers are BIG?  I believe this is the kind of prayer Jesus is talking about.  The kind of prayer where God’s answer is so dramatic, people would not even consider giving you or another person the glory, but instead would just look and say WOW God.

Consider lifting up a prayer to God that requires an answer only God could provide, and God would get the glory and honor from.  Don’t be mistaken these prayers don’t have to be “big” in terms of money, numbers, or influence. 

A family prays for a sister dealing with cancer, praying God it is only you who could heal her, may her life be a witness to the medical staff by your healing touch.  She was healed of her cancer, and was a powerful witness to the staff at the hospital.  Her healing left doctors and specialist scratching their heads wondering, how could that happen?   But the family knew, by God’s power alone. 

Jesus makes it clear, ask whatever you want in prayer, and have faith that God will answer.  Pray big, and have faith that God will answer, and God will show up.  Pray big because God wants to show up in our lives.  Pray big because we worship a God of unlimited possibilities.

 

Pastor Bill 

Discussion Questions

1. Why do think we hesitate to pray big prayers?
2. If you had to look at your current prayers on a scale of 1 (small request) to 10 (only God could do that, it would make people’s heads turn), where do most of your prayer fall?
3. Take time to consider what might be a BIG prayer you can lift up to God for your church, your family, and your relationships.  Pray that same BIG prayer for at least 3 months, and journal about how you see God answering it.

Go Big or Go Home

Think back to all the prayers you have prayed or heard in the last week.  I had a meeting earlier this week where we took time to pray for our church and for God’s guidance.  As we prayed I had this sense of frustration in my heart; and I thought God, why am I frustrated that people are praying to you?  As the prayer continued this verse came to my head, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you…If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11, ESV)  One way you could translate this is when you pray, “Go big or go home.” 

The disciples learned about the lesson of “go big or go home” from Jesus in a story you may know well.  One day Jesus is teaching, and as the sun begins to set the disciples say to him, Jesus these people are hungry, we don’t have enough money to feed them all, and there is no grocery store near here with enough food to feed them either.  Essentially, Jesus let them try to go find a snack on their own, let them fend for themselves; there is nothing we can do to help them.  Jesus asks them to gather what they can.  Then Jesus turns 5 loaves and 2 fish into enough food so that they all eat and there are a dozen baskets of leftovers for people to take home.  Disciples asked for the people to find a snack on their own, Jesus says watch this; I will feed them till they are full, I will answer your request with something much more than you ever asked for.

I think that we have resigned ourselves to snack food when God is ready to offer a feast.  Often I hear people talk about other people, other families, and other churches that God is doing something amazing in, but resign themselves to “oh that will never be me” .  We call it humility, but instead do we lack the courage and faith to pray for something bolder and greater?  Why is it always someone else?  Why can’t it be you, or your family, or your church?  Let me be clear this is not about coveting what someone else has, it’s not being greedy, but having faith that God could do something amazing in your midst.  This is about faith that says, God if it’s your will, do something greater than I could ever imagine.  So when you pray, it’s simple, go big or go home.  Pray with great faith that God can and will do something big in your midst.

 

Pastor Bill

 

Discussion Questions

1. What is one big prayer that you could pray today?
2. What is it like for you to pray a “big” prayers?  Challenging, scary, exciting?
3. What holds us back from praying big prayers?
4. Before you walk away from this note, take a moment and pray.  God if it is your will, do something amazing in my family, my life, my church.

Bird’s Eye View Pt.2

As I walked in the door to my cousin’s house to visit the other week I saw them playing a game with their daughter that I remember when I was younger.  His cute 18 month old daughter sitting on the floor playing with her Mom, and Mom said to her daughter, “How big is Emily?”  Who would then squeal and spread her arms really wide and they’d both laugh and say so big!!!  This game used to keep me amused for hours as a kid, laughing about how big I was becoming and how much my Mom and Dad loved me.  It was a fun game for a small kid to be playing.

As young kid we laughed and played along with this game, believing that we were that big, and that our parents loved us that much.  As we have grown we each have been faced with a number of circumstances and situations which make us feel, a little less big, or just downright small.  We have stress at work, busy schedules, and issues with our kids, and worries about finances, just to name a few.

As we read through scripture there is an age old practice that was used to aid during challenging times in life.  This practice was reflecting on God, and His Word.  We read in Psalm 13, “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (vs. 1)…But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” (Psalm 13:1, 5-6, TNIV)  You can hear the pain and anguish of the psalmist, crying out to God for help.  As they pray to God and reflect, there is a dramatic shift in their tone as you read verse 5 and 6.  They move from outright hurt and pain, to someone lifting a prayer of praise and thanksgiving.  So what happened, it’s simple.  How big is your God?  So BIG!!!  They had a shift in perspective because suddenly their issues grew smaller in the presence of a God as large and powerful as their God.

To be able to reflect like that on God and our situation, we have to know who it is that we are reflecting on.  We see God reveal himself to us in through the Bible, but also in our lives and in the lives of others.  Take time to read the Bible, to study, to learn about God.  Take time to listen and to hear stories from others about God’s work in their lives.  I have heard stories of God removing cancer and healing a man who was dead on the table for 90 minutes back to full health.  God’s work is not just in those “big” or “miraculous” ways, but we can see God at work through a million “small” or “common” ways in our lives too.  The next time you encounter a bump in the road or have a tough day, take a moment and ask yourself, “How big is your God?”

Pastor Bill

Discussion Questions

1. What is one thing in life right now that is making you feel small, or challenged?
2. What barriers do you have to approaching God in those moments?
3. How would live look different with a shift in your perspective?
4. Take a moment read any of these Psalms to see this at work more: 3, 13, 22, 39, 51, 130, 36, 125, 126

Watch This

You have heard the conversation between kids before.  I bet I can throw this ball over the house.  I can bend my foot up and lift it over my head.  I can run faster than you, I can jump over that puddle.  I can lift 100 lbs; well I can lift 300lbs.  The conversation just gets bigger and bigger with the kids one upping the one who came before them, and all the other kids sit around saying, “Whoa, no way you can do that?  Really?  I don’t believe it.”

In Matthew 17 the disciples are trying to heal a child that is possessed by a demon, but they are unable.  So the family brings their child to Jesus, and Jesus heals the child.  Immediately the disciples begin to speak, “Whoa Jesus, how did you do that, we couldn’t do it, so how did you do that?”  Jesus looks at them with all seriousness and says to them “if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20-21).  Last summer Amy and I planted our first garden!   I remember getting all the packets of seeds for our soon to be veggies: tomatoes, jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, basil, and cilantro.  As I got home to help plant them I took them out of the packs with disbelief…that’s it?  Our big tomato plants are going to come from this little thing?  This is what Jesus is trying to say to the disciples, if you have faith, just a little tiny bit of faith like that, you will have the ability to move mountains.  No wonder the disciples didn’t believe Jesus.  Faith that small can do something so BIG?  Are you sure?

Jesus can’t mean that we can do that, can he?  Isn’t Jesus just talking to the disciples, who were power houses of faith, of course they will be able to do stuff like that, they hung out with Jesus.  Jesus did not qualify this statement like that at all.  In fact I believe he intentionally said this as a reminder that the power, the strength, the amazing work is done by God, not us.  But do we really believe this? Even today we often think, don’t all big things of faith happen through people with BIG faith?  Isn’t it the pastor, the elders, the deacons, the lay leader’s job to do all the heavy lifting?  They are the ones who can do that stuff, not me; my faith is too small, my faith could never do anything of significance.

You might be sitting reading this thinking of all the mountains that have been a part of your life for far too long, mountains that have been crushing you, and mountains that you are unable to get rid of no matter what you have tried (and you have tried about everything).  Mountains of debt, fear, depression, broken relationships, addiction to pornography, drugs, or gossip.  But Jesus message is clear, faith the size of a mustard seed, faith that God can do it, is able to move mountains, to change the world, to change your life.  The question remains do you believe it?

Pastor Bill

Discussion Questions:

1. What mountains and obstacles are you facing in your life right now?
2. What makes it challenging to believe that mountain can be removed?
3. What would moving a mountain out of your life look like?  How would you know it was moving?