ECIPLESHIP for Passionate Christ-Followers

“Prayer overcomes our compassion with love in action.”

Romanita Hairston, VP of U.S. Programs, World Vision

This statement was made by Romanita Hairston, Vice President of U.S. Programs, World Vision. This statement emerged from her study of Nehemiah. When this great Old Testament leader heard of God’s people suffering hundreds of miles away, he was so overcome with compassion for them that he broke down weeping. This alone humbles me. Am I truly broken for the those suffering right around me or across the world? Nehemiah’s heart was tender, broken by the things that break God’s heart.

Things didn’t stop with compassion. So often we can feel deeply about a situation revealed to us, but that’s where it ends. Not with Nehemiah. His compassion moved him to prayer…for days. His prayer moved him to action. His compassion was overcome with love in action! He went on to accomplish the mind-blowing task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Though demolished for 100 years, the walls were rebuilt in 52 days once they started!

We are surrounded by broken walls. This morning, I was reminded of:

• Youth homelessness right in our northern suburbs of Minneapolis. Hundreds of them!
• 50% of all minority youth do not graduate from high school.
• One in five children live in poverty. By the way, youth living in poverty in Brooklyn Park has recently tripled, much of that due to the crumbled housing market, equal in scope to that of Detroit.

There are needs — broken walls — all around us. Do you see it? Do you feel anything by this? Is there some compassion in you for the blight all around us?

Now, if you feel some compassion, you are where Nehemiah was when he started his initiatives of influence. But compassion is only the starting point. By the way, our city is eager to help collaborate the passions of our people and churches to make significant changes to the “broken walls” we face.

How many opportunities do we miss because we fail to pray? We feel deeply and may erroneously feel that this is what is expected. Yes–partly. But faith without works is dead. Let us FIRST fall to our knees and ask God to sweep over us, overcoming our compassion with His love in action.

I’m psyched for this weekend!

Ken Mansfield

Ken Mansfield, former manager of Apple Records, will be with us to share his story of life transformation. He has quite a story. After living the “good life” and rubbing shoulders with the most famous of people (the Beatles, for instance), he hit rock bottom. That’s where he eventually found God. His story is compelling and powerful.

Not only that, but we’re going to have a blast on Sunday! Our gifted artists will be singing Beatles songs with redeemed lyrics. We experience music that will sound and feel like the Beatles, but will have slightly altered lyrics that have a powerful message that honors the Lord. And it will be FUN! This will be a meaningful and memorable Sunday at Edinbrook.

The gospel will be clearly presented. Every person there will know how much God loves them, how they can step into a life-changing relationship with Him, and be given a clear opportunity to do just that.

So here’s what we STILL NEED YOU TO DO TODAY:

• 

  Ken Mansfield and Paul McCartney in prime time.

  Pray! Ask God to unleash His Holy Spirit upon us in mighty measure. Ask God to do that on you as you prepare to casually minister and reach out to others this weekend.

• Invite! For everyone you meet today, invite them to come. We need to have the worship center packed out twice.
• Engage! We need you at church on Sunday. Whether guests come with you or not, be there and be ready to reach out to people you do not know. Interact. Welcome. Smile. Be nice. Help people find where they need to be. Assist our guests to receive a free cup of coffee from Edinbrew. Sit with someone who feels uncomfortable in our building for the first time. Make a connection with a new guest. Engage! We need you “in the game!”

See you tomorrow. I believe we’re going to see a great harvest!

Our church has been praying a simple, but powerful prayer this week:

“Lord, do what you want in me so you can do what you want through me.”

When you think about it, this is a fairly powerful prayer. We’re inviting God to do whatever He wants in us. Do you know what that means?

• God will reveal the other gods in your life.
• God will show us where we’re selfish, worldly, uncaring, boneheaded, bitter, or ambivalent.
• God is given the invitation to change our orientation in life from something that is respectable to something that is radical.
• God will  show us where we need to make some hard choices…and where we need to go on a long journey of change and transformation.

That’s for starters!

This is also a good prayer because we must always start with what’s inside of us. We cannot wait until we’re perfect to be used of God, but neither can we be inattentive to who we really are. There are two fallacies at work among Christians today:

1. I need to get Me all together before God can use me. This may be a nice sentiment, but it’s also a great excuse to never do anything for God.
2. I need to try harder to serve God somehow–and when I do, it will make up for who I’m not. Nice try, but no go. In fact, we CANNOT serve God without our service being for all the right motives. We then only have a shell of something, but nothing of true substance. After all, 1 Corinthians 3 states that God will test the quality of each person’s work. And some of it will come to nothing…it will burned up like wood or chaff.

We must BE before we can DO. That’s why Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness before He began His earthly ministry. That’s why David, in Psalm 51, after confessing his guilt, stated, “THEN will I teach transgressors Thy ways and sinners will be converted to Thee.” The ancient king realized that he must be pure in his heart in order to used for God’s Kingdom.

Vital to our usability for God is the availability of our hearts, mind and wills. It isn’t even as much where we are as the direction we’re moving. We can’t be moving away from God and still be used of God. We cannot be moving at a distance in parallel to God and be used of God. We must be running to God and walking with God to be used by God.

By the way, being used by God is what we were made for. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them,” Ephesians 2:10.

“Lord, do what you want in me so you can do what you want through me.”

We have been challenged to fast this week. Most of the time, a fast means we choose to forgo food for a time. After all, we depend upon food for so many things — strength, comfort, happiness, enjoyment, escape, sustenance, and more. For a brief time, fasting directs us to find these things in God alone. It is a difficult and sometimes painful discipline, but one that inevitably produces things of value in us. I have found that it opens my eyes to some subtle realities in my life — things that I need to realign with God’s best plan.

If you haven’t fasted yet this week, there’s still time! Just do it!!!

So here’s what’s really cool about our fasts this week. Our fast can result in another person’s food. This coming Sunday, we will receive the monies you saved by fasting this week and send that money to Africa. Those who are starving in Kenya, Somalia, and now Ethiopia will have food because you fasted! Everyone wins!

Remember to bring your fast-money to church this Sunday. We get to see what a little discipline coupled with generosity will do for the suffering people half a world away.

Your fast, their food.

Very nice.

The story of Achan in Joshua chapter 7 is a little sobering. His private sin led to a public humiliation by the entire nation of Israel. By slipping a few banned items into his tent, He sentenced Israel to defeat at the hands of a small city named Ai. When the confident victors from Jericho are found running for their lives from a small village, Joshua and the leaders fell on their faces to seek God’s face. Achan’s private sin, not only prevented God’s people from success, but resulted in humiliation and a God-dishonoring defeat.

• 36 families lost their fathers.
• All the momentum of crossing the Jordan and Jericho’s victory instantly vanished.
• The quivering fearful people of Canaan gained hope that they could defeat God’s people.
• The strong and faithful people of Israel became filled with fear…their hearts “became like water.”
• Everyone suffered because of one person’s sin.

DON’T BE THAT PERSON.

Can one person living in sin prevent the rest of us from experiencing success? It did here! For us today, let’s not find out. Make sure you’re not the person living in sin.

Achan was drawn away from God by:

• Secrets. He took something he wanted and thought hiding it would keep it private. It never does…
• Disobedience. He did something he KNEW was prohibited, but he did it anyway. He threw caution to the wind and thought he could slip through unnoticed by God.
• Compromise. His desires were drawn toward these material things — gold, silver, and some beautiful things from Shinar. This STUFF had captured his heart and turned his allegiance away from being a sold out follower of God.
• Double life. He was still a soldier in God’s army tying to look like everyone else, but he was living a secret life on the side. In his own tent, he was a heathen.

DON’T BE THAT PERSON.

One person living in sin DOES affect all the rest of the Body. As 1 Corinthians states, “If one member  suffers, all suffer with it.”

Let’s ALL be consecrated to the Lord this week. Give Him your everything — your secrets, disobedience, compromises, and double life.

DON’T BE THAT PERSON…

Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Jesus also taught about the Kingdom over and over in so many different ways — “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who finds a treasure in a field, like a mustard seed so small that grows so big, like a vineyard owner who sends his son to the hired servants only have him killed.”

Even though the Kingdom is explained in so many powerful ways, it always refers to the very same thing. The Kingdom of Heaven (Kingdom of God, too) is the place where God reigns!

Contrary to popular opinion in Jesus day, the Kingdom is primarily one that is unseen with human eyes, but ever-so-real in the hearts of people. The Kingdom IS where God is King.

That’s why our season of consecration this week is so important. We need to make sure that our kingdom is not fictional, assumed, or partial. Instead, we want to be sure that God is truly in full reign of our lives.

David needed reassessment of his life, at times, just as we do. I have always been inspired by His prayer, “Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life,” Psalm 139:24.

“Lord, do what you want in me so you can do what you want through me.”

“May your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

We are challenged to fast this week for at least one day.

Fasting is a powerful discipline that is often overlooked, forgotten, and misunderstood. So let’s get a quick review of what this rare discipline is all about.

The word “fast” in Hebrew literally means “to cover the mouth.” As it is used in the Old Testament, it means to cover the mouth so you don’t put anything in it. It is possible to fast for 40 days or more. Jesus did this in the wilderness in preparation for His earthly ministry. Most fasts are not that long, however.

• Fasting is a discipline usually used when there is a sense of desperation for God’s intervention. When the tribe of Benjamin slaughtered 40,000 Israelites, the mourners all fasted in order to seek the Lord’s help in their perplexity and sorrow (Judges 20).
• Fasting is a way to find a breakthrough in your life, or to find special direction from God. Nehemiah, when informed of the desperate struggle of those still living in Jerusalem, fasted and prayed for days as he requested God’s favor, direction, and intervention.
• Fasting demonstrates your seriousness to God as you prepare for what He has next for you. Esther fasted, along with her maids, when she was preparing to confront King Artaxerxes about the proclamation to slaughter the Jews. She denied herself of pleasure as she prepared to even die for the cause of God’s people.

Fasting usually means that you refrain from food for a time. It is a painful discipline that requires you to deny yourself. We often rely on food for our sustenance, pleasure, and even our comfort. When we fast, however, we seek only the Lord for all of this and more.

As you fast this week, take the time you would normally be eating and spend it in prayer and reading God’s Word. Seek God’s face. Tell Him again today, “Lord, do what you want in me so that you can do what you want through me.” Remember, ONLY when you are consecrated to the Lord will His full and unrestrained blessing be upon you.

“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His,” 2 Chronicles 16:9.

Oh yes! Remember to figure how much money you save by not eating this week and bring that along on Sunday. We will send our fast money to Africa so those suffering there CAN eat.

Beginning today and going through next Sunday, we have declared a Season of Consecration at Edinbrook. This means:

• We are choosing to be purified for the glory of God.
• We are getting rid of those things that are keeping us from being sold out for God.
• We are seeking God’s face to do whatever he wants in us.
• We are fasting from food or something this week to seek God’s intervention in our lives.

Pray this prayer with integrity every day this week: “Lord, do what you want in me so you can do what you want through me.”

When the fresh victors from Jericho fled in the face of little Ai, the leaders realized that God had withdrawn His hand. With brokenness and fresh ferver, Joshua and his inner circle fell on their faces, weeping and in great distress. With ears wide open to God’s wisdom, they heard Him say, “Consecrate yourselves.” The people of Israel needed to get rid of anything that compromised their love and allegiance to God. Then and only then would God’s unrestrained hand of favor be placed upon them to accomplish the work God had for them.

In this season of consecration, we seek God’s face to become pure for His purposes. To God be the glory as you are consecrated to Him alone.

God doesn’t do things our way.

When the Israelites finally crossed the Jordan River, Scripture states that, “When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings who lived along the Mediterranean coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with fear because of them,” Joshua 5:1. Momentum was on their side, God’s people were on a high–powerfully motivated! All was going so well. Common sense would say, “Ride on that wave of fear oppressing the enemies and take the land! Now!” BUT–this wasn’t God’s way. Instead, God told every Israelite male to be circumcised. Instead of riding the wave of momentum, God called them to astounding trust and painful sacrifice.

God doesn’t do things our way.

Once the God-followers conquered Jericho, again with the hand of God powerfully displayed, it seemed nothing could stop them. Common sense would suggest that they quickly take Ai and go on from there. The city of Ai became a humiliating fiasco, however. There was sin in the camp and God wouldn’t overlook it. With a strain of overconfidence already seeping in (“we don’t need everyone to go up to Ai”) and a few materialistic people hiding some of the banned loot from Jericho, God’s hand of blessing was withdrawn. On Israel’s first attempt at conquering Ai, they were found running for their lives, with several losing their lives. In essence, God was saying, “It’s not just about accomplishing something great for Me, it’s about being right with Me.” Consecration, not increased military strength, was the key to taking Ai.

God doesn’t do things our way.

As we think about accomplishing God’s purposes in our world today — taking our Jericho or Ai — what is it that God is telling us to do next?

• What human plan, seemingly wise and reasonable, is God telling us to wait on in order to do things His way?
• What act of consecration or sacrifice or trust or crazy faith is God prompting us to obey first before there will ever be any visible evidence of success?
• What needs to happen inside of us before God will do anything outside of us?
• What are the next steps for Edinbrook?

Don’t miss the next two Sundays, August 21 and 28. We’re going to get to the nitty gritty of Lionhearted Follow-Through.

Just remember, God doesn’t do things our way.

What happens to us if God’s gracious hand is upon us?

In reading a portion of Nehemiah this morning, Susan and I were both taken be the repeated phrase, “the gracious hand of God was upon me.” In fact, before that ever happened, Nehemiah prayed feverishly for days that God’s hand would be upon him when he would eventually ask a favor of the king.

When God’s gracious hand was upon Nehemiah:

• God granted him favor in the eyes of those had power and authority over his life.
• Nehemiah’s selfless prayers were answered.
• He was given courage in precarious and dangerous situations.
• He was successful in garnering support and enthusiasm for His God-honoring goals.
• He accomplished great things for God.

This, of course, is only a sampling of what happened to Nehemiah when the “gracious hand of God” was upon him.

Ezra, also involved in the return of the exiles to Jerusalem, speaks often of “the gracious hand of God,” — with many of the same affects and more. Because God’s gracious hand was upon Ezra:

• The king gave him everything he asked for.
• He arrived safely in Jerusalem after a rugged and dangerous journey of hundreds of miles.
• He was encouraged.
• The help he needed for his great task was provided for unexpectedly.
• He was protected from danger and enemies intent on destroying him.

What a difference God’s hand makes! I want that…

Ezra and Nehemiah found God’s gracious hand upon them because:

• They were godly through in through.
• They lived for God’s purposes no matter what it cost them–and in fact, this very thing changed the complete the nature of life for them.
• They pleaded in prayer for God’s favor and help.
• They worshiped with selfless abandon.
• They lived with remarkable courage, trusting in the sufficiency of God to provide what they never could.

Come to think of it, why would I want to live without God’s gracious hand upon me? What a life God is waiting to give us, what a cause God is eager to have us succeed in, what an impact in our world He is waiting to wreak through us.

Find His hand…