That Is The Problem

Good Morning,

This is a conversation I had with my teenagers during Bible class Sunday Morning.

ME-“Why do we have announcements on Sunday morning?”
TEEN-“So everyone can know what’s going on.”
ME-“Why do we always take up the collection after the Lord’s Supper?”
TEEN-“It says in the Bible to take up a collection and it’s a convenient time to do it.”
ME-“What is significant about the resurrection of Jesus Christ?”

You might think that I haven’t put up the complete conversation but I have. The answer to the final question was a deafening and heartbreaking silence. I will give the teens the benefit of the doubt and say that maybe they were afraid to speak up for fear of giving what they consider a wrong answer but I don’t think that accounts for all of the silence. I also don’t put the blame on the teenagers for the silence. I place the blame solely on the shoulder of us as adults.

We have done a great job teaching our children and teens about the traditions of “church” but we have lost the message of what Church really is. Church isn’t the building, or even the things we do in the building, Church is the body and bride of Jesus Christ. Church isn’t about making announcements or when we take up the collection Church is about being the embodiment of Jesus Christ here on Earth.

So what do I do about the silence? How do I become part of the solution to the problem? These questions have been in my mind all week and I think I have found the answer. I have to show them who Jesus is and what he wants from us. It may sound simple but I am a simple guy and I believe that when you break down most problems that most of the solutions are pretty simple. The answer is simple the implementation is where it gets a bit tricky. How do you show Jesus and make him real to teenagers? The simplest way is to show them Jesus in scripture but even that becomes difficult because there is so much there.

I have decided to work through the “I AM” statements in the Gospel of John. What better way to get to know Jesus than by looking at the statements he made about himself. I plan on blogging the experience and I hope you will come along for the ride.

I ended the silence by saying “You see that is the problem.” And I stand by that statement. It is a problem when teenagers can’t tell you the significance of the risen Christ but it’s not just their problem it’s our problem too. Let’s claim responsibility and become part of the solution. I love you all and I thank you for reading this. Please pray for my teenagers and myself as we attempt to know and love God and his Son Jesus Christ.

Be Strong and Courageous,

Paul

Not My Will

Good Morning Everyone,

Matthew 26:42
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

How many times have you read or listened to this passage? I would dare say that you are not considered to be a preacher if you have not preached at least one sermon on this passage. This is such an intimate time between God and his son Jesus Christ and we are so blessed to be able to read and listen to these words. Have you ever really thought about what was being said between Jesus and his Father? Have you ever considered what was going on in the mid of Christ as he asked his Father to take the cup away from him? I’ve thought about these things and from where I stand it boils down to Jesus doing whatever needs to be done even though it was going to be difficult for him.

It was about 2:00AM this morning and Emma began crying. I’m not sure what was bothering her. Maybe she had a bad dream, maybe she didn’t eat enough of her snack at bedtime or maybe she just wanted to be held. This was the second night that Emma decided she needed to be up at 2:00AM so April asked me to see if I get her calmed down and back to sleep. I got up and went into Emma’s room and picked her up and began to rock her in the rocking chair. Before I knew it 45 minutes had passed and were both asleep there in the rocking chair, I had WON, or so I thought. I laid Emma back down and almost immediately she started to cry. I went back into our bedroom and I told April to turn down the monitor and just let her cry because if we keep giving into these late nights they will become a habit. It took her a few minutes but Emma finally cried herself out and slept until nearly 7:00AM this morning.

I tell you that story to share with you that my understanding of the garden is very different today than it was yesterday. I understood that Jesus was crying out to his Father for help and that Jesus was being mature enough to do what needed to be done regardless of the suffering he would suffer. I understood academically that Jesus, the son, made a request of God, the Father, said the Father said no. I now understand academically and I am beginning to understand emotionally what happened in the garden.

My little girl was crying out to me that she didn’t want to be in her bed, she wanted to be in her Daddy’s arms. My little girl was saying she wanted the comfort of her parents and I had to tell her no because it was the right thing to do. Even though it hurt me more than I can express I knew I had to allow her to go through something so she can grow up and mature into a young lady. God’s love for us and for Jesus is shown through God allowing his son go through something painful because it’s what had to be done.

Is there something in your life that you are putting off because dealing with it is painful? Are you refusing to mature because it might be difficult? Today you can be reassured that God understands what you are going through. God’s only son cried out in the garden begging him to take the cup from him and God still did what needed to be done which was saying no to his only son. I love you all and I hope you are all blessed this morning.

Be Strong and Courageous,

Paul

They Really Do Care!

Good Morning Everyone,

Do you ever have those “Aha!” moments in your life? God blesses me with more than my share of those moments because of the work I get to do with teens. It never ceases to amaze me when I see a teenager understand what God wants them to do in their lives. It never ceases to cut deep when my teens say something that hits me Right Square in the middle of my own complacency. Wednesday night was one of these moments for me.

Wednesday night I had two teenagers in my class. Circumstances were that some of the teens had to be out and, I understand that this is going to happen from time to time, but I was still a little sad that there were not more teens there. I was upset for a lot of reasons, probably the biggest reason I was upset was because we were beginning a new series on the book of Colossians. I decided I would go ahead and start the series with sharing some background as to how the letter was written and some of the themes in the book, I also decided we would only look at the greeting and thanksgiving portion of the letter.

Paul states that since the day he heard about the Colossians that he has not stopped praying for them (Col. 1:9a). One of the questions I asked the two that were there that evening was “Do you know of anyone who prays for you daily?” and the answer they both gave took my breath away they both said “You pray for us every day Paul.” It was a great moment! I knew in that moment that they knew I really cared about them. These are two that were still relatively young youth group members when I got here and two that had a good relationship with the previous youth minister (whom I also have a good relationship with) so I knew that when I got here three years ago that these two might be hard to win over.

As great as that moment it was it also served as a reminder to me to pray for the people I love every day. I need to work at it and get better at it, which is a pretty good definition of the Christian life in general. Today I will lave you with Paul’s word in Colossians and I hope they have the same effect on you that they had on me. I love you all!

Colossians 1:3-14
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our[c] behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Be Strong and Courageous,
Paul

Change The World

Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well this morning. I’m sorry to say that I faltered on my three times a week blogging last week. Part of the reason I faltered was that I thinking very intently about what I wanted to write. I hope the wait was worth it for all of you today.

In 1996 a movie came out called “A Time To Kill” which was based on the John Grisham novel of the same name. In the movie Matthew McConaughey plays a lawyer by the name of Jake Brigance who is charged with defending Samuel L. Jackson’s character Carl Lee Bailey who is accused of killing a man who raped his daughter. In the movie Donald Sutherland plays Jake’s mentor and friend Lucien Wilbanks, a lawyer who has been disbarred because of his behavior. In one of my favorite scenes in this movie Jake goes to visit Lucien for some advice on defending Carl Lee and Lucien reminds Jake of what he told him when he began training him as a lawyer by saying…

“I can not promise you riches. What I can offer you the chance to save the world one case at a time.”

I love this line because it shows the man’s passion for the law and for changing the world for the better. Believe it or not Donald Sutherland was reflecting Christ in his admonition to Jake. Jesus said it this way.

Matthew 28:18-20
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus was telling his disciples to change the world one soul at a time. In that admonition to his disciples he never promises them riches but he encourages them to go out and change the world. The admonition is the same for us today. When people ask me why I am a youth minister I tell them that I want the opportunity to save the world one teen at a time. People might think this is just Paul being overly optimistic but really when people are working with teenagers they are changing the world.

You might think that teenagers are not listening to you, and sometimes they may not be, but by simple virtue of the fact they are at an activity the world is different. When we have church camps in the summer the world is changed because these teenagers are being exposed to ideas they have never heard before and being challenged to live a life better than the status quo. The same can be said for adults to an extent. When an adult chooses to come to a worship service then their life is different, they may choose to ignore what they hear but by simply hearing what is said the world is a different place.

I challenge you to change the world today! Do what Jesus was telling his disciples to do and share his message with the world around you. I hope you are all blessed today. I know you have all blessed me.

Be Strong and Courageous,
Paul

Doing Something Good Without Realizing It

Doing Something Good Without Realizing It

Good Morning Everyone,

When I was 17 years old my Mom who suffers with Multiple Sclerosis, my Dad and I all decided to make a trip out to the farm. Most of the time Mom lived a pretty normal life but on this particular trip to the farm Mom was recovering from an attack from her MS. My Dad was pulling our travel trailer up to the farm with the suburban and I was following my Dad in my pickup. We were driving through Houston during traffic, which was stressful enough, but to make matters worse, Dad was pulling a trailer and trying to look after Mom. So there we are on I-45 and I see my Dad put his blinker on to change lanes and no one was letting him over. I was a few car lengths behind and could get over easily so I got over and then made my way up to my Dad and blocked for him. When we got to where we were going my Dad took me aside and told me how proud he was of me for blocking traffic for him and that he was impressed because he knew that he had not taught me how to block. I didn’t realize I had done something good until my Dad told me and I have to say it was a good feeling.

This past Sunday evening after services we had a youth devotional at our home. One of our teens brought her little sister (4^th grader) and little brother (4 years old) with her to the devotional. All together we had 5 teens and 2 younger children as guests in our home. After the devotional we were going to eat and it was decided that the two younger children would eat with Emma in the dining room and the teens could eat wherever they chose to. I sat down in the dining room with Emma and the two younger children and before I knew it all of the teenagers were sitting in there with us. Emma and the two younger children were so excited that the “big kids” wanted to spend some time with them. The teenagers had done something really good without even realizing it and my heart was full.

Matthew 19:13-15

13 Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.14 Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” 15 When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there.

My teenagers, without knowing it, were doing exactly what the disciples couldn’t do. My teenagers were living the example that Jesus set out for them in scripture. They didn’t make a big show of it, they didn’t do it because they had to, they did it because they wanted to and that’s exactly how we should be living our lives.

Sometimes you can do something good without even realizing it, but you can also do something bad without even realizing it too. Let’s make sure we are doing good things today and let’s make sure when we make mistakes to do our best to make them right. Thank you all for the blessing you are in my life. I hope these words have blessed you today.

Be Strong and Courageous,

Paul

Seeking Out The Good of Others-9/12/11

Good Morning,

Well I only posted twice last week but the week I made my commitment to post three times a week I actually posted four so my average is intact. Last night I preached a sermon on seeking out the good of others over your own needs, I won’t put the whole thing up but I will give you the gist of it.

When the school year began a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to do something to help our teens get through their day with an encouraging message. I decided that three times a week I would send a text message to the teens with an encouraging thought to help them get through the day. Parents you can be so proud of all your teenagers, they have all responded well to receiving these text messages and have been grateful for them. One of the scriptures I shared with the teens recently was 1 Corinthians 10:24 which says…

24 Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others-1 Corinthians 10:24

I really love this passage but it has been eating at me because I haven’t really been doing the best job of seeking out good for others lately. Here are three ways that I believe might be able to help us help other people.

1. Become active in your community-Acts 2:46-47

The early church was always extremely active in their community and they were blessed for it. If you don’t believe me just look.

Acts 2:46-47

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, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

2. Care For Widows and Orphans-James 1:27

Another way we can seek out the good of others is to be aware that there are people in our world who are not as fortunate as we are. There are children out there who don’t have mothers and fathers, there are women out there whose husbands have died and they have no one to take care of them. As God’s people we have the opportunity to look after these people and help them live a better life.

James 1:27

27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

3. We Seek Out Those With Sin in Their Lives and Minister To Them-Luke 19:1-10

Probably the best thing we can do to meet the needs of someone else is to find people living in sin and minister to them. I think we hear this one and agree with it and then we just kind of forget about it. All of the community awareness and taking care of widows cannot take care of the sin problem in the lives of people. In order to help people with their sin problem then we must become involved in their lives just like Jesus did in Luke 19.

Luke 19:1-10

1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

It would have been so easy for Jesus to dismiss this sinful tax collector, some probably thought that he should have made an example of him to the people there, but that was not Jesus’ way. Instead Jesus went to the man’s house and that impacted him so much that he changed his ways. Imagine what would happen if showed Jesus to the people you are around on a daily basis through your example and through his word? Not every case would be a Zacchaeus but I believe if you shared Jesus enough times with enough people that you would eventually find someone to respond to the Gospel message.

Think about how you can help someone today. You hace all helped me and blessed me by being my friends.

Be Strong and Courageous,

Paul

Mission Field Memories

Good Morning Everyone,

As I sat at my desk this morning enjoying my Diet Dr. Pepper (I know, I know but something had to give) and enjoying a snack I was trying to think of what scripture to share with my teens via text message when I came across this one.

Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. 1 Corinthians 10:24

What a great charge from our brother Paul!! I immediately sent this as a text to my teens with the instructions to lift up Jesus to someone today. As I was texting this message to my teens I was reminded of my own teenage years and the brief weeks I spent on the mission field.

When I was 16 years old I went on my first mission trip to the small Caribbean island of Dominica. My days were spent walking up and down the hills, knocking doors, helping with VBS and sharing the Gospel message with anyone who would listen. At the end of every day our group would get together and share our experiences from the day. It wasn’t too many days into the trip when we all started using the phrase “lift up Jesus” as our battle cry.

It has been thirteen years since that first mission field experience and so many things have changed. I went to college, I began in ministry, I got married, and I even became a father. In those years I have seen and done a lot of things but I always seem to come back to those early days learning lessons on the mission field.

Today I challenge you to lift up Jesus to those around you. Don’t wait to go on a mission trip because, whether you realize it or not, you are on a mission trip every time you leave your home. I hope all of you are blessed today by these words. Thank you all for blessing me.

Be Strong and Courageous,
Paul