3 THings That God wants for YOU

Colossians 2:1-4 (NLT)

I read these verses yesterday and really saw the heart of God speaking through Paul in Colossians.  Paul laid out a simple list of things that are God's heart for you.  You see it's not enough just to get people but God's desire is to grow people.  Here is the list and I think you will recognize the process, yes it's ours.

1. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love.

• BELONG
• Nothing says ,"you belong", like love.
• From belonging you get encouragement and develop a support system, a family

2.I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.

• BELIEVE
• God's wants YOU to confidently understand His plan.
• You'll never get it and be confidant until you read His Word.
• S.O.A.P. 
• When you are convinced of God's will for you, then you become convincing to others.

3. And I rejoice that you are living as you should and that your faith in Christ is strong.

• BECOME
• You are doing it without me, Paul says.
• The goal is to grow up into someone that doesn't need a mentor, but begins to mentor others.
• Become someone who can be an influencer for Jesus.

What are you planning?

Pro. 16:1-3 is a great read about making plans for our lives.  So many don't think of planning, they just prefer to live life and watch what happens.  I don't think that is wise.

There are 6.5 billion people on the earth, and they all have some kind of a plan if it's just what they are going to do today.

When we make plans together, the number of plans could swell to 20-25 billion plans in a 24 hr. period. We plan with our friends, spouses, kids, etc..

God has an answer to every plan.  The proverb says that God weighs our motives, even though we think our motive is fine.

When we commit our actions to the Lord and then our plans will succeed.  I know that I want my plans to succeed and so do you.

Paint a picture of the kingdom

The kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by......Matt. 25:14

I love how even in Jesus seemingly connecting words there is a message.  The Kingdom CAN be illustrated.   So much emphasis is put on the fact that God can't be seen, but the truth is that God's kingdom CAN be illustrated so that we can see it.  3 pictures are painted in Matt 25 that give us great insight into what the kingdom looks like and how it operates, and who it encompasses from the 3 parables of the chapter.

1. The kingdom can be illustrated by those who are ready and have enough oil.

• Those who look to Jesus as the source instead of men.  
• The kingdom is illustrated by those who keep their eyes on the King.

2. the kingdom can be illustrated by the servants who invest and increase what they are given.

• Using our God given gifts by investing in people and seeing them increase the kingdom for God.
• It's never about how much you have, but what you do with what you have.
• Those who do much will have more. That's the way of the kingdom.

3. The kingdom can be illustrated by those serving the least of these, the naked, the poor, the imprisoned.

• Jesus identifies w/ the broken and hurting.
• We serve Jesus when we serve the "lonely"

God sets the lonely in families, sets the prisoners free, and gives them great joy....Ps. 68:6

S.O.A.P. from Matt. 24

My S.O.A.P. verse today was Matt. 24:35
         Heaven and earth will disappear but my words will never disappear. 


After doing a little digging into what the word "disappear" means, this verse is very interesting. Jesus is giving a discourse to His disciples about the end times and what's going to happen, and they are understandably interested as we all would be.  He goes through the whole series of events about wars and rumors of wars, famine, pestilence, that will accompany the coming of the Lord.  At the end Jesus gives them this statement above in verse 35.  The word, disappear, has the implication of the passing of time, or of passing through a distance.  I thought of some of the trips we used to take to Michigan to see Mom's family.  Seemed like it took forever and that was before the days of the ipod so I just stared out the window watching the markers and signs flash past.  I think Jesus was telling the disciples not to let the events of time be the markers of their lives, but instead mark their lives by the words they heard from Jesus.  Most of us section our life by time: child, school, hi school, college, married, middle age, etc...  Don't measure your life by birthdays, that's just time with no significance.  Measure your life by what God has spoken to you.  The season of your salvation, when the H.S. drew you to Jesus and you answered the call. The season of growth, where you got in His Word and He spoke to you about life, finances, marriage, anything.  The season of service, where you began to live life for others and serve and find your place in God's plan.  Perhaps a season of leadership where you help influence and raise up the next generation of leaders.   Every time God speaks to you, it's significant.

Jesus Style Leader

Matt. 23 gives us some insight into what Jesus style leaders should do.  I'm going to go through some of them.  Using the religious leaders as a "how not to", Jesus tells His disciples they should follow their teaching but don't follow their example.  Here's what we can see a Jesus style leader(JSL) should be:

1. Jesus style leaders help to ease people's burdens.(v. 4)

• I'm there to help, so I need to be a blessing not a burden.

2. Jesus style leaders look to give, not what they get.(v.5-12)

• Not into titles, seats in the front, or respect in the crowd.
• Their humiltiy helps them be who they really are with no need to pretend.

3. Jesus style leaders continue to grow.(v. 13-15)

• They are constantly growing, and walking into new arenas that God opens to them.
• If we don't go new places, we can't take other's into new places.
• People are better off not worse after following a JSL.

4. Jesus style leaders are life-giving and not legalistic.(v. 16-22)

5. Jesus style leaders teach a holistic gospel.(v. 23-24)

• Can't pick and choose, Jesus wants to impact your whole life.

6. Jesus style leaders display an inside out work in their lives.( v. 25-28)

• Care more about the inside(heart) than the outside(look).

7.Jesus style leaders honor leaders of the past.(v. 29-31)

• Realizing we stand on the shoulders of leaders of the past.

6 Days to Create our 6 Month Future

In the beginning God spoke the earth into existence in 6 days the Bible tells us. We have a chance to speak into existence our future through corporate prayer. We are going to focus on praying those things now. God said, "Let there be light" because He was modeling how we create the future we are promised in Christ. There is power in our prayers and that's the way God has chosen for the kingdom to work. Let's commit the next 6 days to creating the next 6 months of our church future.