Joel Young Blog.com

This morning I was reading Romans 5 and the words leaped off the page as I read them.

Romans 5
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

According to Paul, there is a cycle to suffering. When we suffer it isn’t for nothing. It is a cycle that will lead to character and eventually hope, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Something I have to continually train myself to do is to view suffering from the perspective of what it will become. In Christ, suffering is never what it seems to be in the moment. Rather, it is maturity, character, encouragement, life, and hope that has yet to blossom. But the question remains: will you be able to give it the time to grow into that?

Give your suffering some perspective and time, and, in Christ, it will turn into something much more valuable.

It’s been really challenging, exciting, and frustrating for me to study the life of John the Baptizer for the last couple weeks of sermons at Horizon. There is so much about his life that I need to mimic, and so much of his attitude that I need to absorb. The humility that he lived with seems unprecedented in so many ways, but the way God worked through that humble attitude is undeniable. Even from the perspective of his biggest critics.

So, here’s what I’ve been praying for over the last month as I prepared to preach these messages.

“God, decrease my ability so that it becomes impossible for me to do anything without you. Keep me from relying on my talent, and force me to rely solely on your Spirit to communicate your message.”

Admittedly, this has been a pretty tough corner for me to turn. You see, nearly everything I have done in my life has relied heavily on talent. Everything that I do comes very naturally to me. If I don’t seem to have a talent or knack for something, then I quit doing it. That way the things I do can be done very well with, if necessary, very little effort. I’m not advocating this philosophy for life, but simply stating a realization that this is how I have operated for over twenty-six years. And yes, even in the last seven years of my ministry.

Public speaking comes naturally to me, and preaching is as natural for me as swimming is for a fish. But, as with many of the other things I do I have spent a large amount of time concentrating on increasing my ability in order to increase my effectiveness; when all along I should have been doing the opposite.

The mark of God’s ability to use a person is not that person’s talent, but their ability to rely on Him. I will become a more capable and effective preacher for the Kingdom of God when my abilities have decreased to the point that I simply cannot complete the task without being full of God’s grace and Spirit. If I’m full of myself there’s no room left for God, but where there is an absence of ego there is room for God to work.

So, are there areas of your life where you need to decrease your ability?

Our personalities make us all very susceptible to certain tendencies. The things that drive us in a positive direction can sometimes cross left of center and veer right into the path of something that can very easily destroy us.

For me, I have a very focused personality, and if I’m not careful I can become too focused on something and forget about EVERYTHING else. I also have a very addictive personality. When I get involved something I get involved with everything that I have. Because of my personality it’s hard for me to do anything half way. That doesn’t mean that I need to change. It just means that I need to be aware.

Because I know what my personal tendencies are I keep myself in constant check. I make sure I’m committing to things that are worth my time and effort. I only focus on things that are worthwhile and beneficial. Otherwise, I would end up in some dark places.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a pastor, CEO of a company, or a soccer mom, we all have personal tendencies that we need to keep in check. These things may be easy to see for some of us, but for others they are hiding in plain view as positive things, but when left unchecked can cause a lot of destruction in our lives.

Here’s my challenge to you. Get to know yourself and keep yourself in check. Your life will have much more of an impact if you can.

I’m just now coming off one of those weekends that serves as a good reminder of exactly what God has called me to do, and why I continually try to do it.

I saw people step out of their situations to generously give to people in need.

I saw churches unite under the mission of The Church for greater effectiveness.

I saw the Gospel change people’s lives and perspectives.

I saw people worship God with all they have.

I realize that not every pastor gets to see these things happen every week or even in their lifetime, and that I am incredibly blessed. It’s a blessing that God can fill my heart as I serve him because as my friend Mike reminded all of us at Horizon on Sunday, “He doesn’t owe it to me!”

Joy is a blessing, not a right!

A devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the capital city of Port-au-Prince in Haiti Jan. 12. Haiti is the poorest nation in this hemisphere and is not at all equipped to deal with this devastation. No one yet knows how many people have been killed, injured, or displaced by this earthquake, but early estimates are staggering.

As I watched people react to this tragedy via facebook and twitter the most prevelant question that surfaced was, “What can I do?”

Here’s something we can all do, and something our church will be doing IMMEDIATELY along-side one of our sister churches, the Amelia Church of Christ, where their Preaching Minister, Mike Edimisten, has a direct relationship with the missionaries at the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission.

THIS SUNDAY we will be collecting four very specific food items:

Peanut butter
Beans
Rice
Spam or Treet

We will be sending the food to the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission as soon as shipping lanes are reopened. Again, please note that we are only collecting these four basic items. The missionaries have told us that this is what they need.

The need is urgent, and we will be shipping the items ASAP, so please bring your food donation this Sunday.

I’m going to suggest that every person who calls Horizon their church home bring at least $10 worth of these four items to church with them on Sunday, and, if you’re able to, please go above and beyond that number. If you will not be able to be there, but would still like to contribute you can contact me via email or phone (859.429.0646) to set up a time to drop them off before Sunday.

Let’s step up and be Jesus to the people of Haiti.

Today while searching for someones email address on their company’s website I accidentally clicked on their email address instead of copying it and my computer automatically launched my default email program, which I don’t use, to send the message. I quickly exited out and went about my normal routine of sending them an email, but what I didn’t realize was that the email program was still collecting emails from my account, and continued to do so for about 3 hours. When the process was finished I heard a beep and after figuring out what it was I saw that it had imported over 10,000 messages from my email account.

It wrinkles my brain to think that I have that many messages sitting in my email account right now, and that doesn’t even include the messages that I have deleted over the years. What’s even more mind boggling is that I have read ALL of these message. I couldn’t tell you my favorite nor do I have one that sticks out in my mind, but I’ve read them all.

Today, this week, this month, this year, this decade, and in your lifetime you will be bombarded with thousands of messages at the same time. You probably won’t remember most, or any, of them because they don’t have a lasting impact. However, there is ONE message that has a lasting impact and eternal significance. The message of Jesus Christ. Sound too cliche? Well, get over it. He died for you when you hated him and knows everything about you yet still loves you, so there. Nobody’s gonna top that offer.

Why not live in it, preach it, teach it, spread it, share it with the world in everything you do? Cut through the clutter in 2010 and give people a message to consider that really matters.

“A glass can only spill what it contains!” These are the repetitive words to one of my favorite songs. As I was giving it a listen today God hit me with a revelation at goes far beyond my own circumstances and perspective. In everything that we try to do it’s important to remember that a glass can only spill what it contains.

As a preacher, I cannot spill the Word of God out on others unless my life is filled with it.

As a leader, I cannot spill passion into the lives of others unless I have first been filled with an uncontainable fire.

As a father, I cannot spill out wisdom on my children if I have not first filled myself with Godly wisdom.

Here’s what you should be asking yourself. What do I need to be so full of that it uncontrollably spills out of my life? What should the vessel of my soul contain that would be worthy of pouring out on others? Then, fill yourself with such things.

Well, 2010 is officially underway. Our first gathering of 2010 at Horizon was very encouraging. It was great to see some new and familiar faces in the same place at the same time after the craziness of the holiday season. I love how new people always bring a fresh perspective to a familiar situation. In fact, I heard something last night that might have changed the way I view our church’s gatherings forever.

A mother and daughter worshiped with us for the first time this Sunday and after getting to know them a little we took them to our childcare area to see if the daughter would like to play back there during the service. We have toys, games, a tv, coloring books, and nearly anything else a 5 year old would want to occupy our her time. To me, it’s a “no brainer” that any kid would want to spend time here over listening to me preach. But what this little girl said in response will stay with me forever. She politely said, “I like it back here, but when God gets here I want to go out there.” What a novel concept. This five year old girl expected God to show up when she went to church, AND SHE DIDN’T WANT TO MISS IT!

Is that a stark contrast to the way you attend church?

Do you look forward to it with excitement knowing that God is going to show up?

Are you doing your part as a member of the body of Christ to make sure that people see God in the actions, gatherings, and intent of the church?

I happen to think that this little girl could teach us all a thing or two about what to expect when we encounter the church. If it’s not the norm, let’s make it the norm. If it’s not your church’s current reality, make it reality. Make sure that when your church gathers, God shows up!

If you have 30 minutes to watch, or listen, to anything today make it this. Over lunch I jumped back to catch a sermon series by Andy Stanley that I had missed originally. Let this one mess you up. Use 2010 to start gettin’ it right.

“Asking Big” by Andy Stanley

Preparing to start the new year I have become more selective about what I spend my time doing. I have stopped reading a lot of the blog and books I was reading to maximize the effectiveness of my time spent on such things. This has meant the removal of several things from my reading list, but in several cases it has meant adding something to that list. In regards to the latter I have just recently become a reader of Mark Batterson’s Blog Evotional.com and it is already proving to be a wise choice.

This morning Mark wrote about “Seven Margin Maxims”. These seven things really resonated with me. So, I made a few personal modifications and printed them out to be posted in my office. Here are seven margin maxims as Mark relays them.

1) Put Your Family First
2) Guard Your Day Off
3) Don’t Check Email During Peak Productivity Hours
4) Get Out of the Office Whenever Possible
5) Start Your Day With Devotions
6) Put Together a Stop Doing List
7) Use All Your Vacation Days

Maybe these seven don’t fit you like they fit me. So, make your own list. Hold yourself to them and be determined to create margin in your life.