Here’s the message from Sunday at Word of Faith Church. I changed the title to worship. I thought it came off really good, but I would love to get your feedback… even if it’s not good. I promise I won’t cry.

Here are the NOTES.

Here is the AUDIO.

One of my sessions in South Africa is about time management. Time management is somewhat odd because time really can’t be managed. It doesn’t stop. You can’t save it or waste it. Everybody gets the same amount of time each day, each week, each month.

So one of the guiding principles in time management is Pareto’s 80/20 Principle. For the most part, 20% of your week produces 80% of your results. If you can focus on that 20% (your natural strengths and talents), not only could you get more done, but you would also have extra time left over.

So trick is to get yourself in that strength zone. Anyway….

I am putting a message together for our young adult service this Thursday. I’m thinking about the theme of brokenness and how “everything is made to be broken.”

I got some clips from Garden State. Large (the main character) grows up highly medicated because he is told that he is broken. Through the course of the movie, he decides to get off his meds and for the first time really begins to feel and experience life.

Matt and his guys are also going to pull off “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls. It’s an old one, I know, but still really good.

I think I may just purposefully break some stuff too. Like a vase or something. Let me know if you have any ideas.

Here are the notes to my message on Sunday. I left it untitled because I really couldn’t think of anything appropriate… or thought provoking.

I mostly talked about the church and our charge to effect change in history and humanity.

I am preparing a message for this Sunday. I have a few components that have really caught my attention lately. I thinking about stringing them together into some kind of talk about small groups of people changing the world.

// Al Qaeda spent roughly $500,000 for the September 11th attacks which have caused an estimated $500 Billion in total economic damage. All from an organization run from caves in remote parts of the world.

// The Berlin Wall falling on November 9, 1989 was actually preceded by small protests that were never stopped by the police in the months preceding. The protesst grew and grew until eventually government officials resigned and the wall fell.

// Matthew Chapter 16 tells us that Jesus took His disciples to a region known as Caesarea Philippi. There He showed them the giant rock known as “The Gates of Death.” He told them that there would be a community of believers that would become so compelling that nothing, including “The Gates of Death,” would be able to stop it. Jesus seemed to think that the way we live can actually effect history.

So the question is, “Is church just this random, freak thing that we do just to prioritize our spirituality and feel better about everything? Or do we really believe that we are together to effect human history?”

Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

I don’t know. That’s what I’m thinking about.

Here are the notes to the message I gave a few Sundays ago called COURAGE TO BE NOBODY.

It’s based off this quote from J.D. Salinger that I love:

“I’m not afraid to compete. It’s just the opposite… I’m afraid I will compete… Just because I’m so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else’s values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn’t make it right… I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”

Here are the notes to a message I did for our young adults. We have currently been working through John Maxwell’s Million Leader Mandate material on leadership. This week the lesson was on mentoring, but we were having some trouble adapting it to this age group. The coincidence is that Bennett (my boss) is teaching a session at a pastor’s conference the same day on mentoring. So we talked through and developed some of the common myths that people have about mentoring and what it really looks like today.
Here are the 4 Myths:

1. You Have To Have A Paul.

4. You Have One Mentor For Your Entire Life.

I gave a message last night to our youth group based off the movie United 93. I actually developed a message off that story right after September 11th for my old youth group. I pulled that out, went and saw the movie and added some new thoughts. You can get a copy of the notes here.

I talked about 4 main themes from the movie:

1. The routine becomes significant. The everyday stuff we take for granted became so important.

2. Don’t leave a lot unsaid. Everybody on that plane wished they had more time to say what they wanted to say to their loved ones.

3. Random people. 40 strangers spent their last few hours together.

4. Do everything you can until you can’t do anything else.

Feel free to copy it, steal it, plagiarize it and make it better. It’s definitely a relevant subject right now with the release of the movie.

I presented a message last night to our young adult group titled “Following Jesus” based off the passage of Scripture at John 8.1-11 (The woman caught in adultery).

One of the things I talked about was the difference between believing in Jesus and following Jesus.

Believing is about WHAT you decide is the truth.  It’s mental, logical:  What does the evidence say?  Who can make the best argument?  What is true?  What is real?

Following is WHO you decide is worthy of your life.  It’s honor, worship:  Who is guiding your life?  Who do you imitate?  Engage with?  Moved by?

I believe in gravity, but it’s not worthy of my life.

I support the argument for the theory of relativity, but my life is not lived in worship to it.

I’m convinced that there are electrons and protons swirling around me in this room, but it doesn’t guide me.  My life is not moved by it.

Jesus invites us to follow Him

Here’s the message I put together for January 15th. I titled it “Coming To Life” and had one of our worship leaders put together an old song by a Christian band, The Normals, called “Coming To Life.” You can catch the lyrics here.

Here’s an excerpt from a portion where I talk about Caden:

Having a baby is a very surreal (dream-like) experience. I think anytime you experience the intersection of human life with the supernatural, it has a profound effect on you. It’s something you will always remember. You all of a sudden sense things and see things and know things that you would have never been able to pick up on before. It’s almost as if you begin to use a different set of gauges. You experience a world outside of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch. You become aware that you have other senses that no one ever told you about.

I remember my first thought…. “I can’t believe he was in her.” Not in a what-else-did-you-think-that-big-thing-in-her-stomach-was way, but being very overwhelmed with the thought that God breathed life into him. That before I had a natural glimpse of my son, God already knew him and called him and named him and put within him the potential for life.

I was suddenly aware that a new story had begun, and I was just now becoming aware of it.

Here’s the message I put together for our service on January 1st: Jesus Without Formulas.

“Maybe the gospel of Jesus, in other words, is all about our relationship with Jesus rather than about ideas. Becoming a Christian might look more like falling in love than baking cookies.”

A lot of it was inspired by Donald Miller’s book, Searching For God Knows What. So if you’ve read the book, it might sound familiar.

I spoke Sunday on Community. It turned out good. Here’s the notes.

Here are the last set of notes to my series.

Here’s the notes from my message last night.

Here are the notes from week two.

These are my notes from the first part of the Soundtrack series.