talk_is_cheap

Allow me to introduce you to my new favorite book, "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller.

"My most recent faith struggle is not one of intellect. I don't really do that anymore. Sooner or later you just figure out there are some guys who don't believe in God and they can prove He doesn't exist, and some other guys who do believe in God and they can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago and now it's about who is smarter, and honestly I don't care. I don't believe I will ever walk away from God for intellectual reasons. Who knows anything anyway? If I walk away from Him, and please pray that I never do, I will walk away for social reasons, identity reasons, deep emotional reasons, the same reasons that any of us do anything.

My friend Julie Canlis from Seattle has this beautiful mother named Rachel who is small and petite and always remembers my name when I come for a visit. One morning I was sitting at the counter in the kitchen talking to Rachel about love and marriage, and she was gleaming about her husband a little, and I told her in one of those rare moments of vulnerability that I was scared to get married because I thought my wife might fall out of love with me, suddenly, after seeing a movie or reading a book or seeing me naked. You never know what might trigger these things. Rachel looked at me through the steam that was coming off her coffee and said, very wisely and comfortingly, that when a relationship is right, it is no more possible to wake up and want out of the marriage than it is to wake up and stop believing in God. What is, is what is, she said.

And that's when I realized that believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is like making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon."

Faith (in God), is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon. The "something" that happens to us takes many forms. For a lot of people it looks like this:

Somebody you know, who isn't a total schmoe, invites you to church.

You go. It's not totally lame like you thought; in fact, you're intrigued.

You come back and amazingly nobody's twisting your arm.

You listen to Mark's messages and you swear you've been followed.

The dramas pull you out of your seat and you're one of the drama characters. Your heart gets ambushed by the music--heck maybe even at a point of weakness all your defenses slip out from beneath you and you actually SING along with a worship song--but just on the choruses!

All these weird coincidences happen to youover time a landslide of God-stuff falls on top of you and before you can say "Napoleon Dynamite" you--YOU--this reasonable, normal, level-headed person NOW BELIEVE that this mythical-fairy-tale-like God that you've kept politely on a shelf all these years is indeed real. Voila!--faith is something that happened to you. You didn't go looking for it near as much as It found you!

And now based on your newfound belief, you pray this little prayer where you talk to this invisible Godyou ask Him to forgive you and to lead your life. You don't understand it all, but you know what you believeand you now believe in this invisible God that you can't hear.

And now the second part of our statement comes true: it's something you decide upon. So based on all these things that happened to you, you decide to make God the real legit God in your life.

And wherever you are when you finally breakdown and pray that prayer is sooooo cool! It's like you're in this warm, safe, fuzzy-bunny cocoon, and on the one hand you're in touch with your life and your sinyuck! And on the other side is this awesomely huge, loving God who sprinkles that magic janitor dust over all your sin & makes it go away, and you have the strongest sense that He wants to be your heavenly Father for ever. And you are right. You're not crazy.

But then, something happens. You leave that fuzzy-bunny cocoon where you prayed that prayer; that is, you walk out of the church you walk out of your friend's house and back into the world.

And it's cool for a while. You know you're different now. But life keeps happening. Stuff keeps coming up. You were really patient for the first 48 hours after you became a Christ follower--you were more understanding with your kids and your spouse, you weren't muttering those embarrassing words under your breath when the idiot took your turn at the 4-way stop. But now it's like the medicine is wearing off. You need a booster shot, or something. Maybe the prayer didn't take!

My buddy Donald Miller writes,

"Early on, I made the mistake of wanting spiritual feelings to endure and remain romantic. Like a new couple expecting to always feel in love, I operated my faith thinking God and I were going to walk around smelling flowers. When this didn't happen, I became confused."

And perhaps a long time ago, before people like you, me and Donald Miller had times of wavering faith, just perhaps, there were others who felt the same. Because we find statements like this in God's Word:

"But you must continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly. Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News." Col 1:23

Verses like this make me realize that it takes a certain amount of trust, to enter into a relationship with God.

But then following Him in the day-to-day living of life requires even more trust. It's seems trusting God isn't something to do one time, like registering to vote, you do it once & you're done.

Trusting God is more like votingissues come up all the time in our lives and we decide if our Holy Candidate can be trusted with it.

And this takes us to the next point in your notes:

Life always forces us to choose how much we trust God.

Let me show you just one example of what this looks like:

My primary job here at the church is the Program Director. What that means is I lead a team of people who figure out what happens from start to finish in every service that takes place in this room.

Here's where it happens . This is the programming table in our "palatial" office. And these are the people who gather with me at that table . (intro them) Those are great people and they represent some of my closest relationships. When we get around that table every Tues. morning, anything can happen!: raucous laughter, soul-level sharing, polite arguments, teasing, hard truth, wicked sarcasm, sophomoric goofiness, and teary-eyed prayers. We might play the gamee, Catch Phrase. We might rant about trivial things. We may talk about an issue that's heavy on someone's heart. The "just be yourself" dynamic of this group is a true treat and a treasure.

But that table, that ominous table is a faith-stretcher. It's a place where every week I have to vote to trust God again.

Every week we walk up to that table with a blank slate. Well it's not TOTALLY blank--we do have very detailed notes about what the speaker is going to talk about.

Here's one from Mark:

"Something about God...."

And here's one from Tony,

"Right now, I'm feeling like a no-hype kind of talk; my thoughts are pretty unvarnished. So, just kinda
feel it and lean into God as you try & guess what I'm going to talk about. And so" ;-)

Ok, so maybe we get a little more than that! But our reality is that 51 weeks out of the year, YOU are going to show up right here---and you're going to bring like 700-800 of your friends with you. No pressure! ;-)

Around this table we try to be creative.

We are determined to be pure & true to God's Word.

We try to captivate your attention.

Oh yeah--and something that's way more important than any of that stuff--we want it to be something that is totally honoring to God--we want it be a conduit that the Holy Spirit uses to touch your soul.

We want it to be something that the Holy Spirit uses to give you a new understanding about God or to challenge you to take a step forward in your relationship with Christ--

We want your seeking friends to walk out of here scratching their souls because they were undeniably touched by an invisible God that they can't hear.

Quite frankly, this weekly monumental task is beyond me and it's beyond my friends who join me around that table. It's a bigger task than we can live up to on our own. Left to our own, we could not kick out services week in, week out, year after year.

Facing this table every week forces me to choose how much I trust God. Is He just a polite impersonal God Who made sure wise words were written down in a Book? Or is my God, a personal Being who has time in His schedule to show up at program meetings every Tues. for a little church in Kokomo IN??

At that table, we believe and pray like God not only has the time, but that He wants to be there.

This crazy belief is based on a couple verses I always keep in my back pocket:

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil 4:19 kjv (elaborate on "all")

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. nasb Phil 4:13

And another truth that I live on a lot is the biblical principal that we see all through the Bible:

God is faithful to walk His people through the things He calls them to.

In the Bible, God has never been AWOL with His followers that were obedient to His leading and who stayed pure. He gets us through what He calls us to.

Now it's your turn. What is your programming table_______? What is an area in your life that is intimidating? Hard to get your arms around? Bigger than you?

A relationship that's run amok?

A spiritual block? (things just don't seem kosher w/you and God)

(everybody's favorite) Sin issue?

Take a second and write that thing in the blank. If it's something you don't want the nosey person next to you to see, then just write "rutabaga"--you know what you mean.

All right, so let's talk about what to do with that pile of stuff you just wrote in that blank.

As much as it PAINS me to be cliché and give you a 3-step process, I am afraid I'm indeed going to be cliché and give you a 3-step process:

Read Talk Do

The first thing we must always start with is Truth, which means 1. Read the Bible.

If we're going to trust God about a deal in our life, we have to know what He says about it and what He promises in regard to it.

(sarcastic) "Oh great! Thank you for that ten cent answer to my million dollar problem! I've got a real legit deal over here entitled 'rutabaga' and you want me to read a book! How kindly intellectual of you."

I think a lot of us are guilty of forgetting what the Bible really is. Let me give you an illustration:

(coupon) Suppose I showed you this bland blank piece of paper and told you that I'd leave it on the edge of the stage after today's service and if you'd like to have it, the first one to claim it can keep it. (d'uh...) After the service it would probably still be lying there.

Now, think of your favorite place to shop: Bed Bath & Beyond, Lowes--Menards, Borders, American Eagle, etc.

Now imagine that this piece of white paper has a $400 coupon to your favorite store printed on the back and I make the same offer. How many "brothers and sister in Jesus" would get trampled by the ensuing melee?

We can view this simply as a piece of paper, or we can look closer to see that this piece a paper is actually a ticket for $400 in free goods.

In the same way we can view the Bible simply as a book to be read that adds wisdom and insight about God and life. Or we can look closer and realize that the Bible is much more--it is a coupon for an experience with God.

Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are." nlt

When it says it's "full of living power" it's telling us that this book is NOT just a book--it is a vehicle that the Holy Spirit uses to communicate with us. It's an answering machine upon which God has left volumes of messages for us to hear. There are so many times you and I wish God would call us. The fact is, He HAS called, you and I just need to check the machine.

Number 2 in your notes says Talk with Christ followers & talk with God.

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. James 5:16 nlt

In the same way the Bible is supernatural, there is just something amazing about what happens when we talk to Christ followers in a transparent, humble, vulnerable way.

Do you ever notice that when we have a deal going on in our life, especially when we walk around the church or small group, we have this weird feeling like people know. When we're being tight-lipped about struggles, we feel like we have on a mask and that we're going to be found-out.

But what's cool is that when we share with a safe person, it feels like a weight is lifted. It feels like someone shined a bright light in a dark and out-of-focus part of our life.

(tell Stephen story)

And what do you say about prayer? In this church, in all we do, this is the most important thing. We pray: about services, before services, at rehearsals, at meetings, about strategy, about church decisions, for people who are ill, people who are struggling, as a staff Thurs. am. In all ministries we pray ahead of time to know what to do, during for God to get us through it and afterward to thank Him.

Number 3 in your notes is: Do something. (I'll never be accused of being a deep theological thinker!)

Ok, here's the tough part. The key to living out our faith is NOT in the KNOWING, but it is in the DOING.

God didn't write the Bible just so we can study it for information or so that we'll be smarter people. It was written so that we would RESPOND to it, not intellectually, but in our 3-D actions.

Sometimes in our Christian world I think we get goofed on this. The most mature Christ follower is not the one who can quote the most Scripture verse and walk you through the "sticky pages" of Revelation or Old Testament history.

The most mature Christ followers are the people who's God-stained footprints track up all the places they go with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Maturity, is knowing it AND living it.

Reading the Bible or going to church without doing something based on it, is like reading the instructions for assembling particle-board furniture and then sitting back and just staring at the box.

It is so easy for me to stand here and tell you what God's Word says, easy to tell you what to do to please God, our audience of One. But talk is cheap--and talk is easy. So for you to really know what I believe, you should follow me around for a week without me knowing it.

And you will see that there are times when God is not the most important thing in my life. There are times when I am impatient and insensitive. (see Sandra) And in those times, I am the most important thing in my life.

I can read all the verses in the Bible about dieing to myself, and being a servant, and about love. But the antidote for my selfishness is not just KNOWING about self-sacrifice. The antidote is for me to put my agenda aside and see what other people in my house want to do, want to talk about. The antidote for selfishness is for me to DO acts of kindness for people without any thought of receiving things back in return.

What's your programming table?... After you read the Bible--after you talk with Christ followers--after you've prayed about it--you will have to DO somethingtake a step of faith.

What's funny is we fool ourselves--we think stuff like this:

"I am going to get serious and I'm really going to pray about this--heck, I'm going to get all my friends to pray about this, I'm going to get a concordance and look up every Scripture about this deal, and then God is going to move and put everything in place so that there is NO doubt about what I'm supposed to do. God is going to make this SO EASY for me---everything is going to just fall into place!!!"

Oh, we are silly people! If this were how it really worked, how amazing would God be to us? If God set things up for us so that it were so easy, then you and I would have no leaps of faith, only steps of logic.

If you want Sandra and I to tell you all the really amazing and impressive things God has done in our lives---if you want to hear our stories of God's faithfulness, then be ready to hear illogical stories--stories that sound stupid in the eyes of the worldstories where we said,

"All I KNOW is that God wants us to do this--and all I have to go on is what I know to be true about God and a strong sense that THIS is what God wants us to do."

To me, God seems more amazing when you find him after stepping off a cliff than stepping off a curb. Who needs a God for a curb-sized struggle anyway?

"But if you keep looking steadily into God's perfect law--the law that sets you free--and you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." James1:25 nlt

But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God--the free life!-even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action.

James 1:25 The Message

Last blank. What is God calling you to do?______________________.

How different might your life look if you followed God in it?

The reason for everything in today's talk, is NOT so that everything in your life will work better. It's NOT to make you a more well-informed Christian.

The most important reason for doing everything we talked about is to make your Holy Father smile. When we take steps or leaps of faith, we find that this fuzzy-out-of-focus God becomes more clear. When we vote daily to trust God in everything from the tiny to the gargantuan, He becomes more real to us, and this relationship with an invisible God becomes more of what our Audience of One wants it to be.

God's Word sums it up so simply.

"Obey God because you are His children..." 1 Peter 1:14 nlt

(setup Knees to the Earth from Sacred Revolution)



	< back to GodStuff page talk is cheap morgan young 2.6.05 click here for the accompanying handout Allow me to introduce you to my new favorite book, "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller. (pg 103-104) "My most recent faith struggle is not one of intellect. I don't really do that anymore. Sooner or later you just figure out there are some guys who don't believe in God and they can prove He doesn't exist, and some other guys who do believe in God and they can prove He does exist, and the argument stopped being about God a long time ago and now it's about who is smarter, and honestly I don't care. I don't believe I will ever walk away from God for intellectual reasons. Who knows anything anyway? If I walk away from Him, and please pray that I never do, I will walk away for social reasons, identity reasons, deep emotional reasons, the same reasons that any of us do anything. My friend Julie Canlis from Seattle has this beautiful mother named Rachel who is small and petite and always remembers my name when I come for a visit. One morning I was sitting at the counter in the kitchen talking to Rachel about love and marriage, and she was gleaming about her husband a little, and I told her in one of those rare moments of vulnerability that I was scared to get married because I thought my wife might fall out of love with me, suddenly, after seeing a movie or reading a book or seeing me naked. You never know what might trigger these things. Rachel looked at me through the steam that was coming off her coffee and said, very wisely and comfortingly, that when a relationship is right, it is no more possible to wake up and want out of the marriage than it is to wake up and stop believing in God. What is, is what is, she said. And that's when I realized that believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is like making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon." Faith (in God), is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon. The "something" that happens to us takes many forms. For a lot of people it looks like this: Somebody you know, who isn't a total schmoe, invites you to church. You go. It's not totally lame like you thought; in fact, you're intrigued. You come back and amazingly nobody's twisting your arm. You listen to Mark's messages and you swear you've been followed. The dramas pull you out of your seat and you're one of the drama characters. Your heart gets ambushed by the music--heck maybe even at a point of weakness all your defenses slip out from beneath you and you actually SING along with a worship song--but just on the choruses! All these weird coincidences happen to youover time a landslide of God-stuff falls on top of you and before you can say "Napoleon Dynamite" you--YOU--this reasonable, normal, level-headed person NOW BELIEVE that this mythical-fairy-tale-like God that you've kept politely on a shelf all these years is indeed real. Voila!--faith is something that happened to you. You didn't go looking for it near as much as It found you! And now based on your newfound belief, you pray this little prayer where you talk to this invisible Godyou ask Him to forgive you and to lead your life. You don't understand it all, but you know what you believeand you now believe in this invisible God that you can't hear. And now the second part of our statement comes true: it's something you decide upon. So based on all these things that happened to you, you decide to make God the real legit God in your life. And wherever you are when you finally breakdown and pray that prayer is sooooo cool! It's like you're in this warm, safe, fuzzy-bunny cocoon, and on the one hand you're in touch with your life and your sinyuck! And on the other side is this awesomely huge, loving God who sprinkles that magic janitor dust over all your sin & makes it go away, and you have the strongest sense that He wants to be your heavenly Father for ever. And you are right. You're not crazy. But then, something happens. You leave that fuzzy-bunny cocoon where you prayed that prayer; that is, you walk out of the church you walk out of your friend's house and back into the world. And it's cool for a while. You know you're different now. But life keeps happening. Stuff keeps coming up. You were really patient for the first 48 hours after you became a Christ follower--you were more understanding with your kids and your spouse, you weren't muttering those embarrassing words under your breath when the idiot took your turn at the 4-way stop. But now it's like the medicine is wearing off. You need a booster shot, or something. Maybe the prayer didn't take! My buddy Donald Miller writes, "Early on, I made the mistake of wanting spiritual feelings to endure and remain romantic. Like a new couple expecting to always feel in love, I operated my faith thinking God and I were going to walk around smelling flowers. When this didn't happen, I became confused." And perhaps a long time ago, before people like you, me and Donald Miller had times of wavering faith, just perhaps, there were others who felt the same. Because we find statements like this in God's Word: "But you must continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly. Don't drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News." Col 1:23 Verses like this make me realize that it takes a certain amount of trust, to enter into a relationship with God. But then following Him in the day-to-day living of life requires even more trust. It's seems trusting God isn't something to do one time, like registering to vote, you do it once & you're done. Trusting God is more like votingissues come up all the time in our lives and we decide if our Holy Candidate can be trusted with it. And this takes us to the next point in your notes: Life always forces us to choose how much we trust God. Let me show you just one example of what this looks like: My primary job here at the church is the Program Director. What that means is I lead a team of people who figure out what happens from start to finish in every service that takes place in this room. Here's where it happens . This is the programming table in our "palatial" office. And these are the people who gather with me at that table . (intro them) Those are great people and they represent some of my closest relationships. When we get around that table every Tues. morning, anything can happen!: raucous laughter, soul-level sharing, polite arguments, teasing, hard truth, wicked sarcasm, sophomoric goofiness, and teary-eyed prayers. We might play the gamee, Catch Phrase. We might rant about trivial things. We may talk about an issue that's heavy on someone's heart. The "just be yourself" dynamic of this group is a true treat and a treasure. But that table, that ominous table is a faith-stretcher. It's a place where every week I have to vote to trust God again. Every week we walk up to that table with a blank slate. Well it's not TOTALLY blank--we do have very detailed notes about what the speaker is going to talk about. Here's one from Mark: "Something about God...." And here's one from Tony, "Right now, I'm feeling like a no-hype kind of talk; my thoughts are pretty unvarnished. So, just kinda feel it and lean into God as you try & guess what I'm going to talk about. And so" ;-) Ok, so maybe we get a little more than that! But our reality is that 51 weeks out of the year, YOU are going to show up right here---and you're going to bring like 700-800 of your friends with you. No pressure! ;-) Around this table we try to be creative. We are determined to be pure & true to God's Word. We try to captivate your attention. Oh yeah--and something that's way more important than any of that stuff--we want it to be something that is totally honoring to God--we want it be a conduit that the Holy Spirit uses to touch your soul. We want it to be something that the Holy Spirit uses to give you a new understanding about God or to challenge you to take a step forward in your relationship with Christ-- We want your seeking friends to walk out of here scratching their souls because they were undeniably touched by an invisible God that they can't hear. Quite frankly, this weekly monumental task is beyond me and it's beyond my friends who join me around that table. It's a bigger task than we can live up to on our own. Left to our own, we could not kick out services week in, week out, year after year. Facing this table every week forces me to choose how much I trust God. Is He just a polite impersonal God Who made sure wise words were written down in a Book? Or is my God, a personal Being who has time in His schedule to show up at program meetings every Tues. for a little church in Kokomo IN?? At that table, we believe and pray like God not only has the time, but that He wants to be there. This crazy belief is based on a couple verses I always keep in my back pocket: But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Phil 4:19 kjv (elaborate on "all") I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. nasb Phil 4:13 And another truth that I live on a lot is the biblical principal that we see all through the Bible: God is faithful to walk His people through the things He calls them to. In the Bible, God has never been AWOL with His followers that were obedient to His leading and who stayed pure. He gets us through what He calls us to. Now it's your turn. What is your programming table_______? What is an area in your life that is intimidating? Hard to get your arms around? Bigger than you? A relationship that's run amok? Something at work? Financial? A spiritual block? (things just don't seem kosher w/you and God) (everybody's favorite) Sin issue? Take a second and write that thing in the blank. If it's something you don't want the nosey person next to you to see, then just write "rutabaga"--you know what you mean. All right, so let's talk about what to do with that pile of stuff you just wrote in that blank. As much as it PAINS me to be cliché and give you a 3-step process, I am afraid I'm indeed going to be cliché and give you a 3-step process: Read Talk Do The first thing we must always start with is Truth, which means 1. Read the Bible. If we're going to trust God about a deal in our life, we have to know what He says about it and what He promises in regard to it. (sarcastic) "Oh great! Thank you for that ten cent answer to my million dollar problem! I've got a real legit deal over here entitled 'rutabaga' and you want me to read a book! How kindly intellectual of you." I think a lot of us are guilty of forgetting what the Bible really is. Let me give you an illustration: (coupon) Suppose I showed you this bland blank piece of paper and told you that I'd leave it on the edge of the stage after today's service and if you'd like to have it, the first one to claim it can keep it. (d'uh...) After the service it would probably still be lying there. Now, think of your favorite place to shop: Bed Bath & Beyond, Lowes--Menards, Borders, American Eagle, etc. Now imagine that this piece of white paper has a $400 coupon to your favorite store printed on the back and I make the same offer. How many "brothers and sister in Jesus" would get trampled by the ensuing melee? We can view this simply as a piece of paper, or we can look closer to see that this piece a paper is actually a ticket for $400 in free goods. In the same way we can view the Bible simply as a book to be read that adds wisdom and insight about God and life. Or we can look closer and realize that the Bible is much more--it is a coupon for an experience with God. Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us for what we really are." nlt When it says it's "full of living power" it's telling us that this book is NOT just a book--it is a vehicle that the Holy Spirit uses to communicate with us. It's an answering machine upon which God has left volumes of messages for us to hear. There are so many times you and I wish God would call us. The fact is, He HAS called, you and I just need to check the machine. Number 2 in your notes says Talk with Christ followers & talk with God. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results. James 5:16 nlt In the same way the Bible is supernatural, there is just something amazing about what happens when we talk to Christ followers in a transparent, humble, vulnerable way. Do you ever notice that when we have a deal going on in our life, especially when we walk around the church or small group, we have this weird feeling like people know. When we're being tight-lipped about struggles, we feel like we have on a mask and that we're going to be found-out. But what's cool is that when we share with a safe person, it feels like a weight is lifted. It feels like someone shined a bright light in a dark and out-of-focus part of our life. (tell Stephen story) And what do you say about prayer? In this church, in all we do, this is the most important thing. We pray: about services, before services, at rehearsals, at meetings, about strategy, about church decisions, for people who are ill, people who are struggling, as a staff Thurs. am. In all ministries we pray ahead of time to know what to do, during for God to get us through it and afterward to thank Him. Number 3 in your notes is: Do something. (I'll never be accused of being a deep theological thinker!) Ok, here's the tough part. The key to living out our faith is NOT in the KNOWING, but it is in the DOING. God didn't write the Bible just so we can study it for information or so that we'll be smarter people. It was written so that we would RESPOND to it, not intellectually, but in our 3-D actions. Sometimes in our Christian world I think we get goofed on this. The most mature Christ follower is not the one who can quote the most Scripture verse and walk you through the "sticky pages" of Revelation or Old Testament history. The most mature Christ followers are the people who's God-stained footprints track up all the places they go with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Maturity, is knowing it AND living it. Reading the Bible or going to church without doing something based on it, is like reading the instructions for assembling particle-board furniture and then sitting back and just staring at the box. It is so easy for me to stand here and tell you what God's Word says, easy to tell you what to do to please God, our audience of One. But talk is cheap--and talk is easy. So for you to really know what I believe, you should follow me around for a week without me knowing it. And you will see that there are times when God is not the most important thing in my life. There are times when I am impatient and insensitive. (see Sandra) And in those times, I am the most important thing in my life. I can read all the verses in the Bible about dieing to myself, and being a servant, and about love. But the antidote for my selfishness is not just KNOWING about self-sacrifice. The antidote is for me to put my agenda aside and see what other people in my house want to do, want to talk about. The antidote for selfishness is for me to DO acts of kindness for people without any thought of receiving things back in return. What's your programming table?... After you read the Bible--after you talk with Christ followers--after you've prayed about it--you will have to DO somethingtake a step of faith. What's funny is we fool ourselves--we think stuff like this: "I am going to get serious and I'm really going to pray about this--heck, I'm going to get all my friends to pray about this, I'm going to get a concordance and look up every Scripture about this deal, and then God is going to move and put everything in place so that there is NO doubt about what I'm supposed to do. God is going to make this SO EASY for me---everything is going to just fall into place!!!" Oh, we are silly people! If this were how it really worked, how amazing would God be to us? If God set things up for us so that it were so easy, then you and I would have no leaps of faith, only steps of logic. If you want Sandra and I to tell you all the really amazing and impressive things God has done in our lives---if you want to hear our stories of God's faithfulness, then be ready to hear illogical stories--stories that sound stupid in the eyes of the worldstories where we said, "All I KNOW is that God wants us to do this--and all I have to go on is what I know to be true about God and a strong sense that THIS is what God wants us to do." To me, God seems more amazing when you find him after stepping off a cliff than stepping off a curb. Who needs a God for a curb-sized struggle anyway? "But if you keep looking steadily into God's perfect law--the law that sets you free--and you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." James1:25 nlt But whoever catches a glimpse of the revealed counsel of God--the free life!-even out of the corner of his eye, and sticks with it, is no distracted scatterbrain but a man or woman of action. That person will find delight and affirmation in the action. James 1:25 The Message Last blank. What is God calling you to do?______________________. How different might your life look if you followed God in it? The reason for everything in today's talk, is NOT so that everything in your life will work better. It's NOT to make you a more well-informed Christian. The most important reason for doing everything we talked about is to make your Holy Father smile. When we take steps or leaps of faith, we find that this fuzzy-out-of-focus God becomes more clear. When we vote daily to trust God in everything from the tiny to the gargantuan, He becomes more real to us, and this relationship with an invisible God becomes more of what our Audience of One wants it to be. God's Word sums it up so simply. "Obey God because you are His children..." 1 Peter 1:14 nlt (setup Knees to the Earth from Sacred Revolution) top o'page <back to GodStuff email morgan oakbrook church site