[Matt 4:23-25]
How much thought have you given lately to the building and expanding of God’s Kingdom. Let me go further than that. When was the last time you gave any thought to the kingdom of God? What is the kingdom of God? It is something that we have most likely read about but have we never defined what exactly it is? How can you build and expand something you do not know how define or identify?
I have been pondering these questions a lot lately. How would I define the kingdom of God? I would define it simply as the rule and reign of God in Heaven and on earth. Every place the rule and reign of God are celebrated and acknowledged is part of His every expanding kingdom.
What do I mean by the word expand? The word expand can mean to become widely opened or enlarged and to increase in number or scope of. God’s kingdom can be expanded in an individual’s heart as God rules more territory and reigns supreme in more places. God’s kingdom can advance as one sinner after another come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. His kingdom can advance as communities, counties, and even countries submit to Him and submit to His rule and reign. This has happened quiet effectively in places like South Korea. God’s kingdom can expand as churches grow and as new churches are planted around the globe.
God is passionate about the expansion of His kingdom. We tragically are more often passionate about the building of our own personal kingdoms with our possessions, power, and promotion of our own glory. Churches sadly do the same thing seeking to exalt their name more than the name that is above every other name. [Phil 2:9] We want the credit and glory for things in our church that go to God alone. I am ashamed I have been caught up in this same sinful attitude more times than I can count.
Jesus told us in [Matt 6:33] to seek the Kingdom of God first. Not second, third, fourth, or tenth. First! Part of this means we must desire this first. We desire all sorts of things but do we desire God’s kingdom or put another way the rule and reign of God in our own hearts and upon the hearts of those around us first and foremost? Sadly the desire for God’s kingdom has dropped way down the list for far too many of God’s children.
Not only should we desire the kingdom but we should also plot to see it advance. We plot our financial futures, our next career move, how to gain any advantage over our opponents in athletic competition but very little plotting is going on in the minds and hearts of believers about how to advance the kingdom. Many people with strategic titles brainstorm events and catchy phrases which most often accomplish little and amounts to little more than shuffling papers around on a desk in their effectiveness. There are some who plot to really make a difference.
I love what I heard one pastor say at a conference once. He commented, “We are not trying to start a church. We are trying to start a movement!” Guess who gets the credit for that? God and many pastors don’t like that. They have a great ego built around the great attendance at their churches. They do not understand that when a person is focused on seeking and plotting for the advancement of God’s Kingdom, God gets the glory and His servants are left in the shadows where we ought to be. It was never about us making a name for ourselves. It has always been about and will be about for all eternity exalting the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has delivered me from the need to be biggest church, to have my name remembered, or to be prominent. I just want to be involved in whatever part of God’s plan He has appointed me in whatever field He chooses to set me to labor for Him. That helps me remember that His kingdom is bigger than me and it is bigger than the church I serve. His kingdom is global and encompasses millions of other believers. It is arrogant to think that our churches and our agendas are the focal points of our lives. How easy it is to get tunnel vision and miss the bigger picture. Advancing God’s kingdom should be the thing that captures our hearts and moves us to action and devotion.
How I pray that we get a greater vision for living than simply to attend church or see our churches increase in attendance. I am all for churches growing but I am more for God’s kingdom being advanced around the world. That might mean as a pastor I forsake church growth in the traditional sense as I continually challenge people to lay their lives down for the kingdom and leave our church to be a part of planting churches elsewhere. That means that every dollar that is given sacrificially to our church does not have to stay in our church but can be given back to communities and other countries. That means that I may have to completely surrender some of the brightest, most devoted, and most generous people in our church to leave go somewhere else to expand God’s kingdom.
May each of us learn to celebrate and embrace the expansion of God’s kingdom. That is what we should live for and desire, plot, and celebrate. It is a total different mind set but it is the will of God. In the end, it is all about Him. May our egos decrease and the fame of Jesus Christ increase. [Jn 3:30] It is after all, all about Him anyway and the glory of His name.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Life on the Altar
[Rom 12:1]
I had preached my heart out to a group of one hundred students and adults about trusting God and fully surrendering to His will for us no matter how frightening that might look at a youth camp in Trinity, TX last week. I was extremely tired as I made my way back to my hotel room where I sank into bed and began reading the scriptures. I was so tired I drifted off to sleep and then would wake up again to try and read some more. It was during this time that the Lord grabbed my attention.
I was challenged that I called others to give God their yes and do whatever He led them to do but the question put before was I willing to live up to my own sermon. At that point God laid a task before me so gigantic that I found myself chuckling on the inside. I thought I had God figured out in what He was doing to me. I thought it was just a big test to see if I would give my life and my yes to Him to do anything! My thought was that I would say “yes” and pass the test and this whole encounter could be put behind me.
It soon became apparent that this was no a test as I tossed and turned all night long wrestling with God’s mammoth call on my life to trust Him and to follow Him. This was real and the struggle in my soul was agonizing as I labored in prayer giving God my tentative yes and then questioning what He was really up to. I affectionately call this whole encounter with the Lord my “train wreck experience.” That was what it felt like in my heart. Finally in exhaustion both physically and spiritually I knelt at the end of my bed in that tiny hotel room and gave God as firm and clear a “yes” as I could. I laid my life on the altar. The rest of the night each time I would wake up I would ask if the Lord if that encounter had been real. I was assured that it was and slept little as I mulled over what giving the Lord my “yes” might mean.
The following morning I walked to the prayer garden nestled among the pine tree thicket at the Trinity Pines Conference Center located on the shore line of Lake Livingston. In the back of the prayer garden was a small sanctuary with rock walls and wooden benches but no roof. In front of this area was a stage and altar area which was also made out of rock. I sat on one of the benches in the cool east Texas morning pouring my soul out before the Lord like water. I withheld nothing and told Him my life was surrendered to His plans and purposes. Then I walked to the rock altar and got down on my knees and once again surrendered my life, my family, and my ministry on His altar underneath the towering pine trees and the rising sun.
In one way that was exhilarating but on the other hand it was also terrifying. Completely offering your life as a sacrifice to the Lord with no strings attached and with no safety nets to catch you other than knowing you are following His plans and His will can appear frightening. I say appear to be frightening because the reality is He promised to never leave nor forsake us even when we are called to things that are bigger than we are, more challenging than our resources and abilities, and that call us out of our comfort zones.
Kneeling before the Maker of this Universe in that rock sanctuary was refreshing. I know I did not hold anything back and now I get to spend the rest of my days backing up what I prayed. Will I go? Will I do? Will I be? Will I believe? My life offered as a living sacrifice on His altar will answer those questions.
Paul urged us to present our lives has a holy sacrifice on the altar before God which is pleasing to Him and is our act of worship. I have such a long way to go to fulfill this challenge as you do. What response is there for God’s mercy and grace poured out upon us in Jesus Christ. We did not deserve it. We cannot earn it. We surely cannot pay Him back. What we can do is give Him the ultimate worship which is our very lives, all our days, our every talent, our hopes and dreams, our families, our careers, and our bodies laid on His altar as a living sacrifice to Him. That means He can do with us what He pleases. He does not have to ask our permission to call us to do anything or to go anywhere. He is God and Master and we are His creation and loyal servants.
I urge you with Paul to lay your life down. I mean really lay it down on the altar until it is no longer you living but Him living through you. Let Him have His full way in you.
Last week when I had that encounter with the Lord in my hotel room it felt like a train wreck in my soul. I was shaken. My soul was really tested and is still being tested as I work through the long term implications of that encounter. When you lay your life on the altar you are continually reminded that your life does not belong to you anymore. It is His! He bought it and He owns us. That is the least I can give after my soul was redeemed, pardoned, delivered, and reconciled. May you and I ever live on the altar in response to His marvelous grace. May His glory be furthered with such living.
I had preached my heart out to a group of one hundred students and adults about trusting God and fully surrendering to His will for us no matter how frightening that might look at a youth camp in Trinity, TX last week. I was extremely tired as I made my way back to my hotel room where I sank into bed and began reading the scriptures. I was so tired I drifted off to sleep and then would wake up again to try and read some more. It was during this time that the Lord grabbed my attention.
I was challenged that I called others to give God their yes and do whatever He led them to do but the question put before was I willing to live up to my own sermon. At that point God laid a task before me so gigantic that I found myself chuckling on the inside. I thought I had God figured out in what He was doing to me. I thought it was just a big test to see if I would give my life and my yes to Him to do anything! My thought was that I would say “yes” and pass the test and this whole encounter could be put behind me.
It soon became apparent that this was no a test as I tossed and turned all night long wrestling with God’s mammoth call on my life to trust Him and to follow Him. This was real and the struggle in my soul was agonizing as I labored in prayer giving God my tentative yes and then questioning what He was really up to. I affectionately call this whole encounter with the Lord my “train wreck experience.” That was what it felt like in my heart. Finally in exhaustion both physically and spiritually I knelt at the end of my bed in that tiny hotel room and gave God as firm and clear a “yes” as I could. I laid my life on the altar. The rest of the night each time I would wake up I would ask if the Lord if that encounter had been real. I was assured that it was and slept little as I mulled over what giving the Lord my “yes” might mean.
The following morning I walked to the prayer garden nestled among the pine tree thicket at the Trinity Pines Conference Center located on the shore line of Lake Livingston. In the back of the prayer garden was a small sanctuary with rock walls and wooden benches but no roof. In front of this area was a stage and altar area which was also made out of rock. I sat on one of the benches in the cool east Texas morning pouring my soul out before the Lord like water. I withheld nothing and told Him my life was surrendered to His plans and purposes. Then I walked to the rock altar and got down on my knees and once again surrendered my life, my family, and my ministry on His altar underneath the towering pine trees and the rising sun.
In one way that was exhilarating but on the other hand it was also terrifying. Completely offering your life as a sacrifice to the Lord with no strings attached and with no safety nets to catch you other than knowing you are following His plans and His will can appear frightening. I say appear to be frightening because the reality is He promised to never leave nor forsake us even when we are called to things that are bigger than we are, more challenging than our resources and abilities, and that call us out of our comfort zones.
Kneeling before the Maker of this Universe in that rock sanctuary was refreshing. I know I did not hold anything back and now I get to spend the rest of my days backing up what I prayed. Will I go? Will I do? Will I be? Will I believe? My life offered as a living sacrifice on His altar will answer those questions.
Paul urged us to present our lives has a holy sacrifice on the altar before God which is pleasing to Him and is our act of worship. I have such a long way to go to fulfill this challenge as you do. What response is there for God’s mercy and grace poured out upon us in Jesus Christ. We did not deserve it. We cannot earn it. We surely cannot pay Him back. What we can do is give Him the ultimate worship which is our very lives, all our days, our every talent, our hopes and dreams, our families, our careers, and our bodies laid on His altar as a living sacrifice to Him. That means He can do with us what He pleases. He does not have to ask our permission to call us to do anything or to go anywhere. He is God and Master and we are His creation and loyal servants.
I urge you with Paul to lay your life down. I mean really lay it down on the altar until it is no longer you living but Him living through you. Let Him have His full way in you.
Last week when I had that encounter with the Lord in my hotel room it felt like a train wreck in my soul. I was shaken. My soul was really tested and is still being tested as I work through the long term implications of that encounter. When you lay your life on the altar you are continually reminded that your life does not belong to you anymore. It is His! He bought it and He owns us. That is the least I can give after my soul was redeemed, pardoned, delivered, and reconciled. May you and I ever live on the altar in response to His marvelous grace. May His glory be furthered with such living.
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