EMBRACE THE PROCESS

I was recently reading a blog by a guy named Seth Godin which really captured my attention with one little statement. He was talking about how Christian leaders and churches struggle to use social networking (things like Facebook and Twitter) His reasoning really astounded me. He said it's because social networking is A PROCESS AND NOT AN EVENT! That is so, so true. God moves at His pace, in His timing, He does what He wants, when He wants. That can be stressful and frustrating to us humans who really want to know we are doing well right here and right now. I thought about this a lot. Shouldn't church leaders/Christians be better at embracing a process rather than an event? I mean, if we are followers of God and God moves in a process, shouldn't we be willing to enter into a process pretty seamlessly? Well we should but were aren't. Churches measure themselves as successful or not based off of numbers, who came to what, based off of single events. No one wants to dive into a process, we want success, we want the big time and we want it now. Few are willing to work hard, and patiently wait on God's timing to build His kingdom the way He wants. Few people are really willing to EMBRACE THE PROCESS. Especially when we can run from event to event! In sports isn't it cool when an athlete sticks it out with one team?  Then after years of build up, wins a championship with that team for that city. Instead of becoming a free agent jumping to another team for a big contract and winning a championship there in his first year? It just can't be as meaningful to jump teams and win one can it? How often do you see someone stick it out with one team though? It's becoming rare to see anyone EMBRACE THE PROCESS OF LIFE when there are events to star in everywhere! I was thinking about the bible. Ask anyone to tell you a bible story and they will talk about the events...Moses leads the people to the Promised Land! They don't talk about the 80 years those people wandered in the wilderness or the fact that Moses didn't even enter into the Promises Land. That's the process and it's not nearly as sexy. Noah builds an ark! Brought the animals in 2 by 2! Everyone knows that but did you know that it took Noah around 100 years to build the ark (He started building it at 500 years oldish, the flood waters hit when he was 600 years old! 100 years, do you think he questioned at times if he really heard right from God? Building a massive boat in the middle of dry land? 100 years of a process bring us to the event. David kills Goliath (event) then goes back to the sheep and to serve his family and King Saul (process) I could go on and on.

I really want to talk to you today about God and His supreme authority over our lives. Maybe together we can start to try to grasp even a glimpse of the bigger picture. That God moves in a process and to truly live a life in peace, in line with God we must EMBRACE THE PROCESS, AND REALIZE THAT WE ARE NOT THE EVENT! The sooner we grasp this, the sooner we move from stress and restlessness to a life showing and experiencing God's peace, love and purpose!

My Plans for God

I don't know if you're supposed to even talk about this stuff out loud or not but I have discovered something in my life I didn't know was in me. I pray constantly that God will just do with me what He will, especially as I take the stage on a Sunday to share Him with people. I am obedient to what needs spoken I get off the stage and I spend my afternoon's insecure, depressed, and discouraged. Now I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but after month's of this I thought to myself. Sam this is not ok, this pattern must stop. So I really started to pray about what exactly is going on inside me. Shouldn't kingdom work bring me life and joy? I am trying to slowly read through Romans this month and opened my bible to Romans 3 and read this...and honestly it changes the game for me, forever.

I don't know what happened to me but I felt God say, "Why do you continue to run out ahead of me?" It crushed me. I just sat at my dining room table and just broke down. All the tension, the restlessness, the rub on me is this, I go into to everything I do for God with an image in my mind of what it should look like and the problem with that is the response doesn't always look like what I think it should to my earthly eyes. Christian ministry is a process not an event and whether I like it or not I seem to still try to force God's plan. That just crushed me this week as I saw this in my life. It didn't just crush me but praying through it has brought such a peace to my heart. It's funny I just want to run my race well. I want to be awesome for the God that redeemed me! In all my passion and all my energy I guess in my mind I still was putting the Holy Spirit into my plan instead of focusing on His outcomes I was after what I thought the outcomes should be. Honestly to me they should be immediate! I didn't see it until this week as I spent another week preaching, knowing even as I spoke that I was doing His will and speaking His words for His people, then getting off the stage and not being able to get out of the building fast enough. Then spending an afternoon and evening discouraged, depressed, and insecure. Not ok Sam. The same morning I read this I drove to work listening to Matt Chandler's first sermon back since his health issues hit, and he read a verse I had heard a thousand times that just pierced into my moment...

Proverbs 16:9 In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. NIV

So true, I have a plan but in the end it's God. So this really snuck up on me. I really didn't see myself as one who cared for my own success or any of that nonsense but I feel my depression and discouragement and realized the source...I don't see what I think I should see as a result of all “MY AMAZING” efforts for God...catch that. I don't see what I need to see but you know what God is getting exactly what he wants out of it, each and every time we say yes.

There is a plan in place for your life. You have an idea of what it should be, but in the end it's God's plan not yours. It can be a truly frustrating thing if you can not get in step with God and His amazing story. A lot of times we just want to know what's next. This leaves us wondering the question all children ask there parents. Why? When my children ask this it just sets me off.  What do you mean why, it's because I'm your dad and i said so.  I think God feels this way with us too.  In the end, it's because God said so.

Today we will look at the story of a man named Stephen and I will try to show you the bigger plan which couldn't have made sense to those around him!