God doesn’t live in your mail box

Sounds strange right? 

It’s just 2 days until we have the grand opening for Chandler Life Church. I’m looking back at the last year and remembering some of the major internal hurdles I’ve had to overcome. One of the biggest has been trust and faith in God. Some may think pastors are immune to doubt and unbelief, but let me assure you we are not.

We picked up from everything we had ever known and moved to a brand new community in hopes to start a brand new church. Seemed easy when I was planning it all out a year ago. Sure, I knew it would have moments of discomfort but I was a pro, a seasoned ministry veteran lol. Boy was I in for a surprise!

Don’t get me wrong we are having the most fun we have ever had. Our family is closer than ever, my faith in God is at an all time high. Bu,t wow, have we been stretched spiritually, soulishly and financially. Its the latter that I want to talk about today. You see every dream has a financial price tag. I grew up quoting “His will His bill.”  Or “He gives provision for the vision.”  These are all true and I can tell you God has met our needs big time!

But the title of this blog is, God doesn’t live in your mail box. I’ll never forget it. We were in a bad spot financially and I had picked up this habit of racing to our mail box and the post office box daily. I knew exactly when the mail was delivered because I was sure there was a check in the mail that was going to meet our church’s need. I had been doing this for weeks when one day I was walking out to the mail box I heard the Holy Spirit whisper “I am not limited to meeting your need through a mail box.”

I was confronted with the ugly truth that I wasn’t really trusting God-I was living nervous and stressed out. It gets worse. I don’t know if this has happened to other pastors but the Holy Spirit quoted me from a message I had taught 6 months earlier. I heard myself say “God doesn’t ask us to do hard things to prove we are able but to show He is able!”  Then I heard the Holy Spirit say “Do you still believe?”

What a humbling moment! I want to encourage any person reading this. To any one who has a dream, to anyone out there that is attempting to build something new, to anyone in the middle of the battle YOU CAN TRUST GOD! Not only can you trust Him but He will meet your needs! After Lazarus died, Jesus asked Mary and Martha if they still believed. He is still asking us that question. Do you believe? He’s bigger than how you think He will meet the need. Let Him do His thing!

Here is a verse that will encourage you to let God do His thing.The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way? (Proverbs 20:24 NLT)

Whats so hard about planting a church.

 

I often get asked what the hardest part about church planting is. Honestly, it has taken me quite some time to articulate the answer to that question. The truth is we are very new into the process, but I can say emphatically this is the hardest thing I have ever attempted to do!

If I were to narrow it down to the hardest part I would have to say that for me it’s been being willing to walk out God’s process for me. That sounds pretty vague so let me explain a little further. After talking to probably 25 different church planters I have come to realize that everyone has a different story. Every church plant has been different.

The temptation is to find out what worked for someone else and simply copy it. Obviously it wouldn’t work, but the temptation is there nonetheless. In this process that God is helping me through, I have had to admit to myself that I don’t know exactly what I am doing! I know how to lead, I know how to preach, and I know how to do church, but I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this journey is all new to me. One of the hardest things for a leader to do is admit they don’t know what they are doing. Leaders like to pretend they know all and are the smartest person in the room. I will say that admitting I don’t know it all was incredibly freeing and caused me to seek God in a way that I hadn’t before. I understand the verse that states lean not on your own understanding so much better now.

Another temptation in ministry is to define success based on visible results. Is the church growing? How big is your staff? How many does your state-of-the-art facility seat? None of these things are bad and are often good indicators of success. But with where I am at right now I have had to redefine success. We have a small but incredible team. Our house seats about 30, and we are renting it. I have learned that real success in ministry and in life is not always in those numbers.

If you were to apply the definition of success that I first listed to most of our Bible heroes, they would have been complete failures. Jeremiah preached a message of repentance for 40 years and no one repented. The truth is in God’s eyes success is simple obedience! Learning this simple truth has helped me be more comfortable with the challenges that have come our way. We have added to our team and had people leave our team.

Life has ups and downs, and we can’t always control every circumstance. But one thing remains the same: We have the choice to obey or disobey. Better to go down swinging at what God told you to do than not to swing at all.

 

This might be painful!

I was working on a few things for our church the other day, and I came to a sudden realization. I was using all Apple products. This may not be alarming to you. In fact, you may be thinking, “Why wouldn’t you be?” But anyone who knows me knows I have never been that guy. In fact, I always made fun of the cult-like following that Apple seems to enjoy. When they made those Mac v. PC commercials, I would be irritated to no end. I even almost posted about it on Facebook from my iPhone.

The Lord used this moment to teach me a painful lesson. The Holy Spirit might handle you with kid gloves, but he seems to like to use steel-toed boots on me! He revealed the hypocrisy within me. I was reminded of Luke 7. To paraphrase the scripture, it says stop looking at others and start dealing with your own stuff. Humanity is a walking contradiction full of hypocrisy. I’ll give a few examples in our culture that will hit close to home.

We get angry about how the government is in debt, but many of us have embraced debt as a way of life. We make fun of people who schedule their lives around a video game, yet we will rearrange our own schedules to make sure we don’t miss our favorite football team and get angry at the preacher for calling us out for skipping church to watch it. We shout at the homosexual, but are addicted to pornography or watch raunchy TV shows. And none of these things even go near our hypocrisy in our church life.

I’ll let God deal with you on those and not me. Here is my point: Jesus knew that our tendency is to focus on other people’s failings while minimizing our own. I am guilty! There is beauty in embracing your brokenness and asking God to help you.

Aren’t you tired of playing the church game? I remember talking to a man who had the courage to tell me about his moral failure. He started giving me the patented answers as to how he would change. You know the ones that are on our New Year’s resolution list every year. “I need to read my Bible more and pray more.” Sound familiar? I asked this man a very simple question. I honestly didn’t expect the impact it would have on him and myself. The question was simply this. Why? Why should you read your Bible and pray more? Pursuing change without an open relationship with Jesus simply produces frustration and failure. What if you worked up the courage to ask God to reveal where you have fallen into hypocrisy? I guarantee it’s there!

What would happen in your life if you started being open with God and honest with yourself? As we read on in Luke 7, Jesus says this type of behavior qualifies us to help others with the specks in their eyes. The reason is your heart is different. It’s not you lording your holiness over others but showing an authenticity that is often lacking in our world today. We all need Jesus. What I am astounded by is God knows about my issues and loves me anyway. His grace empowers us for long term change! As a good friend of mine has recently been telling his church and myself, “Be you.”

Words That Define

There are some common phrases that can be heard in my house. Here are Two. I’m Hungry and I am very powerful. The first one has zero spiritual attachment my kids seem to simply always be hungry lol. But  the other statement is a direct result of words that matter in our house. My son likes to give me a hug/choke me out. as he is trying to hug/choke me I always tell him that he is very powerful. He now believes this about himself, even to the point of telling strangers at the grocery store how powerful he is. His mom really appreciates that.

If I could pass on anything it would be to tell you to ask yourself what are some words that define your house, your marriage, your children and your life. I determined long ago that my house would be a house of peace, love and generosity. We add to those words through the years, but the point is what are the words that define. The culture of your house will be created by someone. It might as well be you!

Many focus on what they don’t want. We have to go a different direction and choose what we do want. Not wanting something in our life doesn’t bring change. Focusing on Words that define will change the spirit of your home or workplace.

Here is a little challenge pick an area and make a small list of words that define. believe they are true in your life and it will come to pass.