HOW FULL DO YOU WANT TO BE?

In 2 Kings chapter 4 we read the story of the widow who is deeply in debt and the creditors are about to come and sell her only two children into slavery in order to pay her debt. In desperation she cries out to Elisha about her situation. We’ll let scripture tell the rest of the story:

2 Kings 2:4-7 “Elisha asked her, "What can I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil." Then he said, "Go and borrow empty containers from everyone—from all your neighbors. Do not get just a few. Then go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour oil into all these containers. Set the full ones to one side." So she left. After she had shut the door behind her and her sons, they kept bringing her containers, and she kept pouring. When they were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another container." But he replied, "There aren't any more." Then the oil stopped. She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest."

Now I want us to stop for a second and think about a couple of things here.

First, the woman said she had nothing except a jar of oil. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been down and out before, but I’ve never been so down and out that all I had was some Crisco. I’ve lived paycheck to paycheck, and had to rob Peter to pay Paul, and have had to humble myself and go to Dad and Mom and ask for some help, but I’ve never been so broke that all I had of any worth was one jar of oil. Now the oil here was valuable as it could be used for a variety of things, but one jar was not going to get anyone very far….or was it?

You see, no matter how little you or I have, if it is given for use by God, if it is offered up for the Lord, if we are willing to let go of what we have for Him and for the sake of the gospel, God will take it and multiply it and expand it far beyond what we could ever imagine.

Another thing we see is that she had to pour out the oil from her container into the other containers. God wants us to pour our lives into the lives of those around us. God wants us to give away our most valuable asset we have to those around us. No, I’m not talking about your house, your car, your 401K, or your computer…I’m talking about yourself. Your experience in walking with the Lord, your knowledge of the Word of God, your spiritual depth…He wants you to give it to others. The church is not to be a holy huddle, but an ambulance with a spiritual emergency kit to take to a lost and dying world. We are to be a lean, mean disciple making machine!

And lastly, notice that the widow told her son in the end:

"Bring me another container." But he replied, "There aren't any more." Then the oil stopped.

I think that often the reason we don’t see more of the Lord working in and around us, the reason we don’t have revival in our homes and in our churches and in our country, and the reason we don’t see the lost coming to Jesus all around us is that we are satisfied with far less than all.

Jesus doesn’t want much from you and I. Only all. Everything.

The oil flowed until they ran out of containers. What if they had held back a container or two? You know, the one they got from Grandma the last time they saw her…or that one that was special because it was from the widow’s childhood…or maybe the one that was won as a prize for the best oil at the county fair…or that one that is the collectible one - you know it’s worth a lot on eBay as long as it has never been used.

You see, we have all sorts of excuses as to why we don’t bring Jesus all of us. We like to have a little control here and there. We have our pet sins. We have no problem giving God a certain portion of our live, a certain amount of our time, a certain (10 %) amount of our money, but we feel free to do with the rest what we want.

And because we do not give all of our containers to God, we do not get all the oil that we could have.

When it comes down to it, we get all of Jesus that we really want. We get as much revival as we desire.

How much do you and I really want to see a mighty move of God across this land? How badly do we really want to see our loved ones come to know Jesus? How serious are we when it comes to our relationship with the Lord? The real question we must ask, is how full do we want to be? How full of Jesus do we want to be?

Are you, and I ready to give all of containers to God? Are willing to allow Him to fill them up completely with Him? Are we willing to say, “This is all I have Lord…and all I have is Yours.”?

Well, I cannot answer for you…but for me…well, I gotta go know. I think I have a few more containers in my closet that I need to find.

Pastor Dave

Unashamed

A few weeks ago I was in our local Christian Book store (Crosspointe Christian Books and Gifts, find them here: http://www.crosspointebooks.com/), and I came across this book by Robby Gallaty:



To be honest, the first thing I noticed about it was that it carried the following recomendation by David Platt, the author of "Radical". "I wholeheartedly recommend this pastor and this book to you." Now the book "Radical" has had, for lack of a better word, a radical affect on my life. So I thought, if David Platt recommends not only the book, but the pastor, maybe this is worth checking out.

So I bought the book. I took the book home. I put the book on the shelf. The book stayed there. I forgot about the book.

Last week I was on vacation, and I saw the book on my shelf of "books I want to read", and decided to give it a go.

All I can say is "WOW!" Just in case you didn't get that let me say it again: "WOW!"

Robby has taken his messages from the book of 2 Timothy and turned them into chapters for this book, and although most read 2 Timothy from the perspective of Paul writing to Timothy as a pastor, Robby takes this and makes it applicable to anyone who calls themselves a Christ follower.

Reading the short biography of the author in this book goes along way to appreciating the content of the book. You realize that Robby did not grow up with a spiritual "silver spoon" in his mouth. He lived a hard life...and then lived a redeemed life. The contents are not dry knowledge...it is the stuff you find that has been lived out and put into practice by the author.

If you are a pastor...you need to read this book. If you are a Bible teacher...you need to read this book. If you are a believer in Christ...you need to read this book.

Very few books have moved me to tears...but by the end of the chapter, as Robby is talking about finishing well and the Apostle Paul, I was crying, crying tears and crying out to God that I might finish well. I have been convicted by the words in this book and the teaching of Robby Gallaty. It has inspired me to crank up the ministry that God has given me, so much so, that I am considering taking some of my sermons and attempting to put them into book form...you can pray for me about that, ok. It has motivated me to dig deeper into the Word of God. It has caused me to refocus my energy and my attention to those things that have eternal value. It has reminded me that to run the race that has been set before me and to offer my life up as an offering to the Lord, poured out in ministry all for His glory!

There is much more I could say about this book, but let me just sum it up in three words: Buy this book! Ok, let me sum it up in six words: Buy this book! Read this book! Ok, nope. Let's try nine words: Buy this book! Read this book! Live this book! No, that's not it either. Hmmm...ok, let's try twelve words: Buy this book! Read this book! Live this book! Share this book! Yeah, that works. Twelve words.

In fact, I'm so pumped about this book that I want to give one away.. Yep, I will give one of these away to anyone who comments on any of the blog postings this month. (And no, I haven't forgotten the "Think" book giveaway...the winner will be announced tomorrow).

The only "negative" thing I have to say is that the book does have some errors that a good proofreader should have caught. At least my printing did. But that is a minor quibble...nothing that would cause you to misundertand what Robby was trying to get across in the pages of this book.

You can check out the church that Robby pastors here: http://www.brainerdbaptist.org/index.php

Taking a radical stand for Christ,
Pastor Dave

CRITICS, COMPLIMENTS AND ELISHA

I’ve been reading 2 Kings over the last couple of days, and right at the beginning something jumped out at me. As Elijah is getting ready to go home to be with the Lord, he tells Elisha that he should leave him (Elijah) at this time. As Elijah is going forward, he tells Elisha to stay put and not to follow him any longer.

This is not a one time statement from Elijah. It happens several times.

2 Kings 2:1-2 “The time had come for the LORD to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal, and Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; the LORD is sending me on to Bethel." Elisha responds in verse 2: “But Elisha replied, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

Once again in 2 Kings 2:4 Elijah instructs Elisha to stay behind while he (Elijah) goes on where the Lord has instructed him: “Elijah said to him, "Elisha, stay here; the LORD is sending me to Jericho." And in verse 4 we see the answer of Elisha, the same as before: “But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

A third time (2 Kings 2:6) Elijah tells Elisha: 6 Elijah said to him, "Stay here; the LORD is sending me to the Jordan." And the response from Elisha? You guessed it, the same as before. Here is the response of Elisha from verse 6: “But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

Three times Elijah tells Elisha not to go with him. Three times Elisha responds with “I will not leave you.”

Now, Elisha knew where Elijah was heading. If you read, you will know that Elisha knew that Elijah was going home to be with the Lord. We find this in verse 3 of the same chapter: “Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, "Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?"
He said, "Yes, I know. Be quiet."

He knew where Elijah was going, and although he also knew that he could not follow him all the way to glory, he was determined to follow him as far as he could…he was determined to see him off. Even when the sons of the prophets were basically telling Elisha, “Hey, you DO KNOW what is happening here right? Why go any further? He told them to be quiet…in other words, “Don’t distract me. I know where Elijah is going, and I know what is going to happen, and I will follow him to the end.”

As a pastor, I think this is huge.

Let me say it again, as a pastor, I think this is HUGE!

Why?

Well, simply, every pastor needs an Elisha.

We need someone who is determined to walk with us, to travel the faith journey with us, to not be deterred or sidetracked. When the end is near, and we are ready to depart, we need to know that we have poured our life into others that will continue on the work of the Lord.

Before I was a pastor I could be very critical of the pastors that I sat under. I have since found that almost every criticism that I leveled at one of my pastors in the past, has now been leveled at me. I have found many who have told me how great I was as a pastor, as a teacher and as a preacher. Unfortunately, somewhere down the road, most of those have leveled criticism at me to the point where they have left the church that I was the pastor at.

I’m not saying that you should only give your pastor glowing compliments. That would not be honest, or realistic. I’m also not saying you should not have any criticism when it comes to your pastor. As a pastor I try to turn my critics into my coaches. I try to learn from the critical comments and emails I receive. However, many times the critics main concern is that things did not go their way.

Let me speak plainly here. Your need to be careful before you lob your criticisms at your pastor, and your pastor does not necessarily need compliments. What he needs are a few good “Elisha” men. Men who will stand beside him. Men who will walk with him. Men who will say, “As the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

Ok, so there’s that.
Pastor Dave

YOU'VE GOT TO HEAR THIS!

When I was a child and we would have family over for the holidays, there were two tables set up. One was for the adults…and the other was for the kids. Of course, those of us at the kids table always wanted to sit at the adult table. We always felt marginalized at the kids table. This would become even more humiliating to us as we entered into our teenage years….how dare they make me sit at the kids table…I’m not a kid any longer…I’m 13!

As the years passed, so did the kids table, until one day I found myself at the adult table and my kids were now sitting at the kids table. As I looked at my kids, I wondered what the hurry was for. The conversation at the adult table did not seem to be nearly as entertaining as what was going on at the kids table. No one at the adult table was putting olives on the ends of their fingers! No one at the adult table was making a lake of gravy in the middle of their mountain of mashed potatoes! Or pretending that the gravy running down the side of the mountain of mashed potatoes was molten lava about to destroy the village made of cranberry sauce. And no one at the adult table was eating a turkey leg while pretending to be an ancient barbarian!

This whole idea of separation seemed to be merely for the sake of convenience for the adults. I understand there may be space issues, and such, but mostly it often seems as if the adults don’t want the kids to enter into the adult conversations that they are having…and while there is a time and place for adult conversation…it hardly seems to me that the best time and place is the holiday dinner table.

As adults, we need to spend this time when our families are together, sharing our lives with our children. Sharing our family history together. And most of all, sharing the Lord, His Word and what He has done in our lives together.

Psalm 18:3-4 expresses this: “things we have heard and known
and that our fathers have passed down to us. We must not hide them from their children, but must tell a future generation the praises of the LORD, His might, and the wonderful works He has performed.”

I come from a family of believers in Christ (on my Mothers side), and yet rarely did I hear any stories of how the Lord worked in her family. Her Dad (my grandfather), was a preacher and a pastor, and yet I don’t remember her ever sharing a sermon he preached, a revival she saw, or an answer to prayer they experienced. The results of this lack of sharing what the Lord had done resulted in a salvation experience for me that was limited to church. Church is where Christians went. Church is what Christians did. Church is where God was. There was life outside of church, and that was yours, and then there was church life and that belonged to God.

It took me years to come to the point that what I had with Jesus was not a religion but a relationship. It took me years to come to the place where I understood that my whole life was to be offered up to the Lord as an act of worship. It was years before I realized that I did not need to come back to church, but that I needed to come back to Jesus. Once I was back with Jesus, well, church took care of itself.

This year, when you gather with the family, even if you have to have a kids table and an adult table…take time to share what the Lord has done in your life. Take time to sing the praises of the Lord. Take time to tell of the wonderful works that He has done.

In fact, why wait for the holidays? Why not make it a tradition to share every day with our children something that God has done?

Excuse me now, I’ve got to go….kids come here…you’ve got to hear this, did I ever tell you about the time the Lord…….


Pastor Dave

BORING!!!

"Church is boring...it is sooooooo booorrriiiinnnnggg!" I remember saying those words as a teenager many, many times. I also remember when we would have week long revivals, which is how I learned how long eternity was, by my teenage calculations, having to go to church every single night seemed to last for an eternity. We went to church every Sunday morning and Sunday night, which explains the fascination I have today with the tv show "Bonanza". You see, every Monday morning during the first recess at school the guys would get together and talk about "Bonanza"...and Hoss and Little Joe, and Pa Cartwright...and I had nothing to contribute, because I had to go to church on Sunday nights, and that is when Bonanza came on. My response was always a depressing sounding, "I didn't get to see it...I had to go to church."

I could not think of any worse punishment than having to sit on a hard wooden pew (anyone remember those?), and listen to some "old" guy go on and on about stuff that I felt had no application to me or to my life at the time. This is why I know God has a sense of humor...because you fast forward several years and here I am...the "old" guy that other people listen to now.

Of course, my opinion of church has changed over the years as well. I not only enjoy, but look forward to meeting and worshiping with my brothers and sisters every chance I get! I love to hear preachers and teachers break open the Word of God and how it is active and living and breathing! I no longer see church as something I HAVE to go to, now I see it as something I GET to go to!

For some reading this, maybe you still find church boring. Don't feel bad...I get it. As I grew from childhood to my teenage years and into adulthood, nothing much changed...I still found church boring. But what I have learned through the years is that it is not church that is boring...it is us. God (and His Word) are magnificent, spectacular, awesome, and more exciting than we can imagine...but we settle for so much less and because we do, church becomes boring.

This week I ran across some principles that if you will apply them to your life, I believe you will leave "boring" church behind you, and enter into a worship service and time of teaching, preaching and learning that will not only change your life, but change the life of your church. My thanks and appreciation go out to Greg Laurie for these nine listener principles.

1. Support your pastor with prayer before and after the message.
2. Bring your Bible.
3. If you know the Scripture passage in advance, read it and become familiar with it.
4. Prepare your heart with prayer to accept God's Word and that you would be open to its truth.
5. Look for ways that you will use the key Scripture or ideas in your life in the next week.
6. Seek to hear the truth for your life, not someone else's life.
7. Listen carefully and think how you would share this message with someone else. Could you summarize the message clearly?
8. Take careful notes. Don't assume you will remember everything that is said. Also, write down the scripture reerences to look up later.
9. Trust God for the results in your life.

Doing what I can to eliminate boring church services forever,
Pastor Dave

ALL

Acts 5:12 "The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people, and ALL THE BELIEVERS used to meet togethr in Solomon's Colonnade." (Emphasis added)

All. Three letters. One simple word. So why do we have such a problem with it?
I know, you're thinking that we don't have a problem with it, but as a pastor it is my experience that we do have a problem with this word.

If you don't believe me, take a look at your church. When was the last time ALL the members were there? When was the last time ALL the members came together for a Bible study? Now some might say that since their church is of a large size that they have several different services so there is no way that all of the members could be there at once...but even so, when was the last time on one Sunday that all the members showed up even if it was spread over all of the services?

In this country we tend to take attending worship services as not a big deal. Yeah, we go if we want, but if not, no bigee....it will be there next week.

But the early church was not like that. Take a look at how serious they took meeting together:

Acts 1:14 "They ALL JOINED TOGETHER CONSTANTLY in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers."

Acts 2:1 "When the day of Pentecost came, THEY WERE ALL TOGETHER in one place."

Acts 2:42 "THEY DEVOTED THEMSELVES to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer."

Acts 2:46 "EVERY DAY THEY CONTINUED TO MEET together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts"

Have we forgotten this in our country, in our culture?

I hear from Christians all the time how they want revival, and I do believe that when revival comes, then God's people will want to come together to worship...on the other hand, until God's people are committed to meeting together to worship I don't believe revival will be here.

Sadly, this has been going on for a long, long time. It rears it’s ugly head from time to time. J.C. Ryle ( May 10, 1816 - June 10, 1900 who was the first Anglican bishop of Liverpool) said, “For another thing, let me warn all careless members of churches…You live on year after year as if there was no battle to be fought with sin, the world, and the devil. You pass through life a smiling, laughing, gentlemanlike or ladylike person, and behave as if there was no devil, no heaven and no hell. Oh, careless churchman, or careless dissenter, careless Episcopalian, careless Presbyterian, careless Independent, careless Baptist, awake to see eternal realities in their true light! Awake and put on the armor of God! Awake and fight hard for life! Tremble, tremble and repent!”

Oh, that we might unite in the spread of the gospel, in time spent in prayer…in reaching out to the needy, in going out into the fields that are ripe for harvest, in holding up one another when we cannot walk any longer, in lifting our voices in praise and worship to God the creator of the sun and the moon, who gives us our very lives!

For too many the church is only something to do, someplace to go as long as you don’t have anything better to do.

About now, someone will cry out that all this talk of not missing church sounds like legalism. Well, maybe it is...but only in the same way that it is expected for a husband to come home to his wife each evening...only in the same way that it is expected for a skydiver to put on a parachute...only in the same way that it is for a deep sea diver to strap on an oxygen tank.

The church is not the church of one...it is the church of many. As a pastor of a small but growing church, let me cry out to you today....your church needs you! We need you when we come together, we need to worship with you, we need to study the Word with you, we need to pray with you.

I cannot help but wonder how believers in countries where they are persecuted for meeting together would perceive us, how they would look at our faith? What would believers in other countries think of us? Those followers of Christ who can only imagine meeting in a well lit building with protection from the elements and cooling and heating…and the freedom to meet and study the Word, and yet they see us coming together when it is convenient?

How will the world ever take the church serious, if the church doesn't take itself serious? How will the world ever see the need to worship Jesus if His own followers don't see the need to meet together?

Why has the word, "all" slipped from the vocabulary of most believers today?

On one hand, some will say that the answer to that question is varied one and has many layers and is tough to answer.

I don't think it is that hard to answer...I just think we don't like to look at what the answer really is.

The reason we have a problem with "all", the reason "all" has slipped from our vocabulary is because we "all" don't want take corporate worship serious. We don't want to go to church services. We just plain don't want to.

Now, this is not addressed to those who have to work when worship time arrives, or those who may be on vacation, and of course it is not addressed to those that are sick. But how many of truly HAVE to work during worship time and how many CHOOSE to work during that time? How many vacations do you really need to take that fall on Sundays? How many times have we gotten sick on Sunday morning...only to feel much better by two or three in the afternoon?

Come on people, let's at least be honest with ourselves.

Maybe you disagree with me. Maybe you think I'm way out in left field with this one...well, then prove me wrong...and show up for church services this Sunday...and every Sunday that you possibly can.

Ok, so there's that...hope to see you ALL in church on Sunday!

Pastor Dave

I'm Sorry....Really, I Am

Ok, I am really, really, really, really sorry. If the picture of the sad dog with the "sorry" sign doesn't convince you, then I don't know what will.

In all seriousness, I am very sorry that waaaaay back in August I blogged about having a drawing to increase traffic on the blog...and then I dropped the ball big time.

But, I'm back, and here are the winners of the book drawing:

Valeri

Jesi

Dan

You will need to send me your mailing address so I can mail you the book. Send your address to my email: pastor_dave2004@yahoo.com, and let me know what book you want. The books will be given out as they are requested, so the best thing is to send me your first choice, second choice and then third choice.

The books available are:

"The Last Christian" by David Gregory (a novel of the future)
"Crave" by Chris Tomlinson (wanting so much more of God)
"A Tale Of Two Sons" by John macArthur (the inside story of a father, his sons, and shocking murder)

And now, because I feel really bad about all of this, I am going to offer another book giveaway.

Check this out:



Yes, I will be giving away a copy of the new book "Think" by John Piper.



I will give this away on the first of December. All you have to do to be entered into this drawing is be a follower of the blog. That will get you one entry. After that....you will get another entry for every comment you leave. I promise, to blog more often...hopefully daily, and to not neglect the giveaway this time.

I'll be back sometime tomorrow with a new post.

Still following Jesus, one step at a time,
Pastor Dave