Sinking Ship

Chapel today I think may have been one of the better ones of the year. In case you weren't there or do not attend MACU here is a little bit of a synopsis. Pretty much we all sang worship then the speaker came up and it felt like he took a hammer and from the stage he continued to throw them at me. And he didn't miss. For 20 minutes or however long Chris spoke he just continued to pound this idea into my head. The idea was simply this, just because we go to a Bible College or just because we go to church the majority of us (including me) thinks that just going through the motions is good enough. It's not. I have always said, "If being good id good enough then you'll never be great" but have never really applied that to myself. I am not sure where I heard this but I am pretty sure I heard it recently but the speaker said this, "The ship of Christianity is sinking and we are on the deck playing shuffleboard." That image really stuck with me. Last February I hear Don Wilson say, "we are no longer the home team." What he meant was Christianity is no longer the norm. In some cases it is not even what is accepted. Yet we aren't doing anything about it. We are playing shuffleboard while Christianity goes under. Being a Christian is more than going to church, class, and reading your Bible. Friends if we're not doing anything with our knowledge, or learnings then we are doing nothing for the sinking ship except playing shuffleboard.

Splinters from a Floor.

I was talking with some youth minister friends of mine over a nice dinner at Applebees. We were discussing many important topics such as the essence of life, sports. A few of the guys that I was eating with were Duke basketball fans. Well in 1992 in the Eastern Regional Final to go to the championship game Kentucky and Duke were facing off. With Kentucky up by one point Grant Hill passes the ball the length of the basketball court to Christian Laettner. Laettner dribbles once and then turns around and ends the hopes of a National Championship for the Wildcats. Well, then conversation at our table took a turn that sort of disturbed me. Apparently Duke University is selling the splinters from the floor of the basketball floor. But not the whole floor. Just the spot where Laettner drilled the epic game winner. Isn't it crazy what people find valuable these days. I find it humorous that people have a hard time giving their tithes and offerings, or their time serve but people can spend hundreds of dollars for s splinter of a basketball floor. I am not talking about a plank to the floor, I am not even talking about the ball that he shot. We are talking about a splinter of the floor for crying out loud. Or even worse instead of spending our time serving we glue ourselves to the television for the finale of Dancing with the Stars or American Idol.

In Luke 18 Jesus addresses a man that has a lot of money:

A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

¹⁹"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'^b]">[b]"

²¹"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.

²²When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

²³When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. ²⁴Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

²⁶Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"

²⁷Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."

²⁸Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"

Jesus says do not hold anything more important than me.
Think about this next question honestly with yourself. No matter how hard it is be honest. Are you the rich young ruler or are you Peter and the Disciples who left all they had and held nothing more important that Jesus?

Who? Me?

The other day our church had an fundraiser for a Mexico missions trip at Chick-fil-A. The deal was that if you brought in one of the fundraiser tickets when you paid for your meal we got a percentage of what you paid. The highlight of the night was the games that the staff at Chick-fil-A held for us. The games included a puzzle in which you team did together that put together a resemblance of the New Beginnings logo, a Milkshake eating contest and a frozen t-shirt contest. I know what you are thinking, "A frozen t-shirt contest? At a church function?" The concept was that they drenched the t-shirts in water and then put them in the freezer all night to freeze. Then the contestants that were competing in the game had to unfold the t-shirt and then put the shirt completely on. I did not know the concept of the game when they asked for volunteers.

I sat there and looked at this t-shirt and contemplated many ways as to which I was going to unfold this frozen brick. It was as hard as a rock. As I attempted to unfold this shirt I tried breathing on it to warm it up, sit on it cause for some reason someone suggested sitting on it, and I also tried brute force which I though for sure would be the best solution and would undoubtedly work.
When I sat down and looked at that t-shirt I knew for sure I couldn't do it. When I felt it and knew that I had to unfold a frozen brick I said to myself, "What's the point in even trying because I can't do it."

Sound familiar?

Do you look at ministry the same way? Do you feel like, "What's the point in even trying because I can't do it." In Paul's first letter to the Corinthians he wrote:
CHAPTER 15: ⁹For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ¹¹Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Paul who wrote a majority of the New Testament and was a key factor in the beginning of the church said, "I can't do this. Actually I should not even be called an apostle because of what I have done but with Christ I can do this. With a little help I can."

So I didn't tell you how the frozen t0shirt contest ended did I? I won but not on my own. You see my brother-in-law to be took the t-shirt when no one was looking and took it to the bathroom and ran it under some hot water so that I could unfold it with ease. Meanwhile, I pretended to sit on the frozen block of ice. So needless to say I won. What I couldn't do by self was accomplished in a way that I never even considered, all with a little bit of help.

Green Light

The other day I was sitting in my car and reached a stop light on my way to class. After hearing an emotional story on the radio I realized that I may have left my notebook at home for the class that I was about to attend. I turned to that back seat and grabbed my book bag and pulled it to the front seat only to look up and see that there were no cars in front of me with a yellow light that was going to turn red. As I slowly pulled up for the next couple hundred feet I began to think about that light. How long had the light been green? How could I have missed it?
Then I began to relate that to our faith. In those couple of seconds that light had been green I was not paying any attention. For all I could have known the president of the United States could have walked in front of my car and did the macarena and I would've never known. I wasted my time worrying about what was in my book bag rather than the task at hand. I was so worried that I missed what was important.
Friends, don't spend so much time being worried about the little things in life. In the book of Matthew Jesus talks about worrying. Jesus says don't worry about the things of your life. Look at even the birds. Don't they have food to eat? Well, aren't you a little more important than those birds? You can't add even a day to your life by worrying.
Instead, look at the creation that God has set before us. Look at the blessings he has put in our lives. Cherish the life that you have now and embrace it
In other words: Life is too short to worry about what is in the backpack. Focus on the green light.