Update on What Is Happening in My Life...

First, I want to apologize for being a terrible blogger recently. Life has been extremely crazy busy recently. With all that has been going on the blogging has been cut back.

I just want to give an update on some amazing happenings. First of all, Torin is over two months old and he is growing like crazy. I love this amazing little guy...what an amazing blessing.

This past weekend, I finished up my tenure after just over a year at Union Station. It has been an amazing honor and a joy serving at the Union Station location, I love the ministry teams I served shoulder to shoulder with at Union Station and the people I had the opportunity to be in community with each weekend.

With this being my last weekend, I also had the amazing opportunity to preach all three services at Union. My message (posted below) is a part of our current series Prison from the book of Philippians. I preached out of Philippians 2.

Kingstowne Update: We have an incredible team that is coming together for the Kingstowne launch at the Kingstowne 16 theaters. This weekend, Sunday, January 18 we will be doing the first of our 3 pre-launch meetings and run throughs before our official public launch on February 8th. I am so excited...I have been ordering a bunch of equipment and getting things ready for NCC's fifth location. I am so excited about the opportunity of going into the Kingstowne area to serve.

Finally, I want to express my excitement about my favorite football team. This weekend, they place in the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens. GO STEELERS!!!

Here is my message from this past weekend...
Prison: Humility
Philippians 2


Reframe the series: This week we continue the Prison series as we will be going through the book of Philippians and looking at this letter that Paul wrote to the church of Philippi while shackled up and imprisoned and we are going to look at his circumstances where he was at but also look at his actions and how he dealt with the prison he found himself in.

Not many of us have ever experienced a physical prison of a cell with bars and cinder block walls or in Paul’s case a cave with shackle and chains, but I would say most, if not all of us have experienced emotional, spiritual or circumstantial prisons.

This morning, we are going to specifically take look at Philippians Chapter 2 and take a look at Paul’s attitude while he was in that prison…an attitude that while he was in chains allowed him to live free.

Before, we dive into Chapter 2 I want to share this story that I read the other day…

Setup the message with this Story: One day a sage came to a King for an interview. The sage had to wait for a long time because the King was very busy. Finally, the King said he could come in.

When the sage entered the hall, the first thing he did was to take off his hat and bow to the King. Immediately the King took off his crown and bowed to the sage. The ministers and others who were around the King asked, "What are you doing? He took off his hat because he is an ordinary man. But you are the King. Why should you have to take off your crown?"

The King said to his ministers, "You fools, do you think I wish to remain inferior to an ordinary man? He is humble and modest. His humility is a peerless virtue'. He showed his respect to me. If I did not take off my crown, then I would be showing less humility than an ordinary man, and I would be defeated by him. If I am the King, I should be better than everybody in everything. That is why I took off my crown and bowed to him!”

I share that story because I want to share with you about humility as it is reflected in Paul’s attitude and as he points out to the church of Philippi in this letter of how Christ lived out his life.

Here are the questions I want to ask us this weekend: No matter what position or circumstance we are in how do we respond to those around us? How will we respond when things around aren’t going the way we planned them?

There are several types of prisons we find ourselves in…self imposed prisons or those prisons we find ourselves that others place us in. I find one of the keys that help us to break out of those prisons is humility.

I know one thing that has kept me locked in prison in my personal…it is pride. I can assure you this morning and my wife will testify of this fact, that both incompetence and pride are very evident in my life. I have to fight hard against it. Pride not only creates steel bars in our life to keep us in, but they also keep others out of our life.

The real issue here is not if pride exists in our hearts: it’s where pride exists and how pride is being expressed in our life.

As we begin to look at the words of Paul from this dark prison, this dark place…I want us to understand what the results of pride are and what humility is.

Results of pride: Creates a me mentality; bitterness; fear; lack of respect and honor for others; breeds insecurities; selfishness; arrogance; and exalting of self

Humility in the truest sense is this: Modest behavior, selflessness, and the giving of respect. Giving credit where credit is due; not unfairly glorifying one's own self.
The quality or state of being humble in spirit. Freedom from pride or arrogance. Meek in spirit, manner or appearance, not proud or haughty. Absence of vanity.


Jim Collins, author the book from Good to Great, a book that many business, professionals and church leaders have read, notes from his research of companies that took the leap from Good to Greatness that their CEOs share two specific character qualities.

The first was no surprise, these professional men and women possessed incredible professional will – they were driven. But the second trait these leaders had in common wasn’t something these researchers expected to find: Those driven leaders were self-effacing and modest.

When Collins interviewed the people who worked for these leaders, he says they “continually used words like, quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated, did not believe their own clippings and so forth” to describe them.

Humility makes good people great.

I believe it is humility that will free us from many of life’s prisons. If we are to experience freedom through humility we must start with looking at Christ’s example for each of us.

Let us start out by reading Philippians 2:1-11

Paul’s opening statement in Philippians chapter 2, is this “If you have any encouragement from being untied with Christ,” I think we need to slow down and remember how Jesus has encouraged and lifted us up during our times of struggles in the past, We also need to make a point of telling our story to others so they can be encouraged as well.

Paul was setting this up for following the life and example of Christ

It was Christ who set the pattern for us as He humbled himself and became nothing for us. Christ had an attitude of self-sacrificing humility and love for others.


As we look at these essentials of living free from our prison, it is all about making the right choices to have right and proper attitude.


1. Elevating Others - Phil 2:3-4 (NIV) “…in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

The first 11 verses gives us a great example how not fall into the trap of having pecking orders. That we must maintain the heart of a servant and be willing to place value on others and put them first.

We read throughout Philippians chapter 2 - Paul’s concern for others, even though he is the one in prison, he is the one suffering and yet he has such a genuine concern for other people.

With Timothy and Epaphroditus, Lets jump down in Chapter 2 to verse 19-30 we see how he was lifting them up for the church in Philippi. Paul could have had insecurities about sending the church of Philippi these two guys, what would happened if they like them better than Paul.

Instead, Paul put value on these two men, he believed in them, he elevates them into authority to influence and to speak into lives. We can see that he had honor respect for them.

Paul also looked out for the team, not just for himself, to him it was all about the team. There is nothing like serving with people who looks out for the greater good of the team, rather than their own interests. This is one of the many reasons why I enjoying coming to work everyday, because I love the people the team I work with everyday. I also love the ministry team I get to stand next to every weekend here at Union and soon at Kingstowne, we could not do what we do each weekend without our ministry teams.

If you’re anything like me, you compare yourself to others and look for opportunities to claim greater importance than them.

Here we have this guy Paul…he had a great resume, he was an educated man, he was on top of his profession, he they had football in those days he would have been the team captain, we was polished…however not once did he build himself up, instead he built up others. Not once did he claim a greater importance than the two men he was lifting up.

Another thing I observe about Paul, he had such a deep concern for others even above his own welfare.

In my opinion, a true measure of a great leader is having a deep and genuine concern for those that they lead.

This is another of the many reasons why I really enjoy serving at NCC because I have a lead pastor and a boss in Pastor Mark who not only leads with humility, but he has a deep concern for all of us on staff.

You want to get far in life be concerned with the needs of others, care about people, love others as yourself. Allow Paul to be an example to you, but more importantly let us always go back to the example of Christ of what means to live a selfless life in verses 6-11

2. Exalting Christ - Phil 2:12-18 (NIV)

With true humility in our life we take ourselves out of the position of control and put back in the hands of Christ, we are truly able to exalt Christ as our Lord and allow him to have control.

We bow our hearts to Christ in obedience and with wholehearted devotion, to know Him and to make Him known…EXALTING CHRIST TO A HIGHER PLACE WITH OUR LIFE.

Let us look at verses 12-18

Look at this little passage for a second where it says, “When we are able to obey the word of the Lord and to work out our salvation with fear trembling…”

I want to speak this for a moment and clarify, to work out our salvation is not an attempt to earn one’s own salvation by works, but to the expression of one’s salvation in spiritual growth and development. Our salvation expresses itself in an ongoing process in which we have as Christ followers have an active involvement.

I believe a great expression of working out our salvation is through serving. Serving is the supreme act of Exalting Christ. As we serve it is a response to God’s work in our lives.

As we serve others, Christ is exalted through our actions. I know this so cliché, but is true, Our actions speak so much louder than our words.

As we serve, we serve in humility, with a humble heart.

I love what author Richard Foster says in his book A Celebration of Discipline, when he shares about what it means to serve. “At the cross is the sign of submission, so the towel is the sign of service. When Jesus gathered His Disciples for the Last Supper they were having trouble over who was the greatest. This was no new issue for them. “And an argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest” (Luke 9:46). Whenever there is trouble over who is the greatest there is trouble over who is the least. That is the crux of the matter for us, isn’t it? Most of us know we will never be the greatest; just don’t let us be the least.

Foster continues in his writing, “Gathered at the Passover feast the disciples were keenly aware that someone needed to wash the others’ feet. The problem was that the only people who washed feast were the least. So there they sat, feet caked with dirt. It was such a sore point that they were not even going to talk about it. No one wanted to be considered least. Then Jesus took a towel and a basin and so defined greatness.

Definition of Greatness is serving with an attitude of humility.

Paul challenges us even further, as we put skin on our faith and to begin the expression of working out our salvation to do it, “without complaining or arguing.” Why? I love how the Message Bible brings it into a greater focus… “Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I'll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You'll be living proof that I didn't go to all this work for nothing.”

So when many of you serve faithfully on the Hill, or serve your employers, or when we serve those God has placed us around we must go into with the instruction that Paul has give to all us “without complaining or arguing”.
We are called to serve where we are at…
In our workplaces;
In our community;
Husbands serve your wives, and all the wives say Amen.
Even serve within the context of church services
Too often we go to church services without actually doing serving as the Church.

How can you put what it means to serve in the church into a practical application? Well you can start by jumping into a ministry here at NCC…with our fifth location about to launch in February in Kingstowne we will have holes that need to be filled in many ministries. There is no better way to exalt Christ but by serving Him and serving His people.

As we do launch in Kingstowne, by the way next week we begin our pre launch meetings, where we begin to set up the location and start building a community with the launch team. We are going out to Kingstowne, not to let the community know how great NCC is, but we going to serve. With the amazing team that will be going to serve

We have some amazing ministries you can get involved in here at NCC at this location or any of our locations.

If you are interested in serving in any of these amazing ministries or perhaps you feel led to be a part of the launch team in Kingstowne, I would encourage you to fill out a connection card and in just a little bit when we have the opportunity to worship the Lord with our giving, you can also exalt Him through serving Him as well.

3. Experiencing joy in spite of our circumstances -
To truly experience joy we must not allow our circumstances keep down. I think too often many of us get into our circumstances

Throughout chapter two you can just hear Paul’s tone, he stays positive. He is not allowing where he is to keep him from having a greater hope for his future.

He is being an encouragement to others even with him being in a tough situation.

In verse 17, Paul makes a statement that just absolutely resonates within me, but even if I am poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. Verse 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

What an attitude Paul in spite of his circumstances. If I can be honest with you, I am not sure if that would be my response, I might have written “share in my misery people” I don’t belong here and this situation I am stink, so feel sorry for me and complain with me.
.
Instead, Paul allowed joy to shine through…

Joy is an attitude of the heart. It is easy to be happy or Paul’s case to be unhappy about where we are at…but joy goes beyond our circumstances.

Joy takes tough situations and makes them bearable. Joy helps us to walk through those tough times with our heads held high. Joy allows us to rejoice in the Lord even when we want to curse in troubles.

I firmly believe the spirit in which you do things is just as important as the things you do.

No matter where we find ourselves…whatever hardships and trouble for us, to keep the attitude of humility we must be willing to experience joy.

Joy anticipates hope! Joy looks ahead towards future. Joy knows that freedom is right around the corner.

Joy and humility goes hand in hand.

As I close out this message, I want to encourage and challenge each of you to live with the essentials of humility by Elevating Others, Exalting Christ and by Experience Joy in Spite of your Circumstances, I believe as we live out these essentials we can begin stepping out of whatever prison we find ourselves in.

I want to close out by sharing about someone I personally know who lives his life day by day with great humility. This person is my former pastor, my mentor and my friend…Pastor Mike Buckley…Pastor Mike is truly an example of someone who lives out the essentials of humility in his live.

About 10 years ago Pastor Mike lost his oldest son tragically in a fire and within a five-six year time frame he lost his father, his brother in law, his good friend and mentor, his sister and a young man that they took in their home for about a year.

Through these times in his life, he never got negative, he continued to serve people, he lived out his faith by being an amazing worshipper of God and he never once lost his joy. I had the honor to serve with him and see it first hand and all those who have ever been around Pastor Mike can tell you that he doesn’t build himself up and he would do absolutely anything to help and serve others including strangers.

Pastor Mike did not allow his circumstances and situations, while as tough they were to keep him imprisoned, instead he lives his life in complete humility.

So from my former Pastor’s example, his leadership and influence in my life, it challenges me to ask these two questions of myself…I would encourage as you go back as read chapter 2 again for yourself to ask yourself these questions as well.

When it comes to the values we live by, what will others say about us one day? Will they testify that humility characterized our lives through every situation?

I want to invite the ushers to come forward to prepare to serve communion as they come forward…I want to pray.




LET US PRAY

Nothing but the cross of Christ can give us a true attitude of humility. As we come to the foot of the cross this morning let shrink to our true size with hearts bowed before you as we acknowledge our dependence on You of Lord and make ourselves small, that you would increase and we would decrease.

As we prepare to come to the communion table strip away our pride, take away any arrogance and help our attitude be like what Paul wrote in this letter …
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Amen

Daily Caffeination 01/07/09

His Story

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.-Galatians 4:4-5

Alexander the Great, the great king of Greece, desired to rule the world. In just ten years he conquered the entire civilized world.

As he amassed all of his kingdoms, he grew concerned about the various languages and cultures of the people he was overtaking. Alexander solved his dilemma by colonizing his kingdoms. In other words, he would bring them under the culture of the Greeks.

But Alexander did not realize that he was not building the kingdom for himself; he was actually only a pawn in the big chess game of life. He was just an individual that God was moving to accomplish His purposes.

One of the ways Alexander colonized his kingdoms was by having his subjects learn the Greek language. This way, no matter where he went, he could speak the language of the land. Alexander also built vast highways and roads over all of his provinces so that he could have access to his ever-expanding kingdom.

By the time Alexander died at 33, he had actually designed a world perfect for preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ. The roads he had paved were ideal for first-century missionaries to take the gospel to the world. And the universality of the Greek language made it possible to share the gospel with people of various cultures from various lands.

Unbeknownst to him, Alexander established the language and the roadways that made spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to the masses a reality.

The Apostle Paul said, "when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son" (Galatians 4:4). God used Alexander's colonization of the world to help usher in the fullness of time.

You see, God's fingerprints are all over history. Alexander didn't realize that history is His story. God is in control.

Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries

From Pastor Mark's Blog

This is one of the many things I love about serving at National Community Church and be around people who care deeply about the things that Good cares about and their hearts break for the things that break the heart of God. NCC truly invests in the lives of people around the world.

Check out this blog post from Pastor Mark - www.evotional.com/2009/01/one-idea-50000.html

After you are done checking that out, check out www.aoneeight.org

AWESOME STUFF!!!

Daily Caffeination 01/01/09 - Happy New Year

Godly Resolutions

Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. -Romans 14:13

Many people make resolutions this time of the year. Right now, people are planning their New Year's Resolutions.

Some are going to swear off alcohol or smoking or television or overeating. Others are going to try to change wicked habits like gossip or worry or losing their temper.

Many people will try to start new habits like getting in shape physically. Health clubs love the first of the year, because people love to commit to going to the gym and working out three to five times a week.

But most of those people never follow through, because they were not serious in the first place.

There are different, more important resolutions you want to make for 2009. There are godly habits you want to start and ungodly habits you want to break.

It has been said, "A habit is like cable. We weave a thread of it every day until at last we cannot break it." That can be a good or a bad thing depending on your habits.

This New Year, make a concerted effort to develop godly habits--habits that cannot be broken and that will build others up in their love for the Lord.

Copyright © 2009 by Harvest Ministries