Joel Young Blog.com

This morning I preached on a theme that presents itself in the book of Deuteronomy. I know, I know…not the most exciting book in all of the Bible, but this lesson is a good one. You see, in Deuteronomy God is preparing his people to cross the Jordan River and enter the promise land. He tells them, through Moses, that they will take possession of the land by driving out the nations that currently reside there, but here’s the kicker. He doesn’t give them a pre-game pep talk about how capable they are to crush their foes. Instead, he tells them that the nations they will be dispossessing are “greater and mightier” than they are.

God doesn’t do this in an effort to scare them or even tear them down. He does it to help them realize this calling is something they cannot fulfill alone. They will be waging war with great nations in fortified cities, but it doesn’t matter that they aren’t able to conquer them by their own power…because it’s God power that matters. He had a plan to bless the nation, therefore his power was a part of that plan.

You see, no matter what we do there are going to be things in life that God calls us to that are “greater and mightier” than we are. These are thing we can’t do by ourselves, but rather require us to rely on God’s power for a victory. If we measure the attainable by our ability the bar will stay rather low. But, when we align with the perfect will of God and lean back as we step forward, relying on him as our source of capability, we will see success over things “greater and mightier” than ourselves.

DISCLAIMER: No, this post is not just about weather…sorry.

If you live in Cincinnati, or anywhere in the midwest for that matter, you know that the weather has been brutal the last couple weeks. It’s been in the nineties every day and even climbed above one hundred degrees a few times. The heat index has been dangerously high, but the worst part about it all was the humidity. It has been downright unbearable to even be outside lately. A local weather man hit the nail right on the head when he called this level of humidity “oppressive” a few weeks ago. It has not only effected what we do every day, but how we do it.

Then, this week happens. The temperatures are basically the same, but the atmosphere is much different. Suddenly being outside is enjoyable again, and we find ourselves ending each day listening to the crickets with the windows down and the breeze blowing through our house. So, what changed? It wasn’t a drastic shift in temperature that changed the atmosphere, it was a drastic change in humidity. When the “oppressive” humidity cleared out the temperature was actually quite enjoyable.

Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking that we need to change the “temperature” in our life to actually enjoy it. We think we need a new job, a new house, a new car, new friends, or a new family. We think that if these things changed then our world would be much more enjoyable, but what we don’t realize is that often times it’s not the current “temperature” that is making us miserable, it’s the “humidity” that fills the air of our life. You can view “humidity” in several different ways. It could be your attitude, your outlook, your demeanor, or your perspective, but no matter what it is we have to realize that there are things in our life that we can change that will make the current “temperature” of your life a lot more enjoyable.

Maybe we need to quit watching the thermometer and start watching the hygrometer.

Last week, as we have many times this summer, my wife and I looked out our front window and talked about landscaping plans for our neglected outdoor space. Just about a year ago we bought a “fixer-upper” and have done extensive work to get the interior of the house to where we want it. However, the outside of the house is a different story. You see, the previous owners never planted a shrub, bush, or flower in their fifty years of residence, and needless to say we need to do some landscaping.

Even though it’s a necessity here’s why I HATE landscaping projects. They are expensive, time consuming, grueling, and its back breaking work. Not to mention it’s been 90+ degrees and humid as the rain forest for the last couple months here in Cincinnati. This factor, and my hatred for such projects, aside we are still planning on getting some things done before fall. So, we have been brainstorming about everything we will need to do and the materials we will need to buy to complete the project succesfully.

We talked about getting plants from friends and family to cut down on costs, borrowing a rototiller to prepare the soil and, most importantly, how to make this new landscaping LOW MAINTENANCE. We don’t want to be pulling weeds every weekend from here to eternity. So, we decided that we needed to invest in a good weed barrier to put over the soil that would prevent weeds from growing up through our landscaping. Then my wife commented that her dad once told her old newspaper worked great as a weed barrier and had the same effect as the fancy covering you buy at Home Depot.

I’ll admit, I scoffed, and even laughed, at the idea when she first presented it. I mean, come on….newspaper couldn’t work as well as the stuff manufactured specifically for this purpose…could it? I mean it’s just newspaper…right?

We haven’t put this into action yet, but the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve realized that my perception of something puts no limits on it’s usefullness. My preference to use something other than newspaper didn’t make it the right choice, it just made it my preference. I thought it was a downright foolish idea at first, but who made me the “knower of all things”?

I don’t have one specific point to make with this illustration, but the concept can take you a long way. My hope is not to give a green light to every foolish ideas that live inside your head, but rather to broaden your perspective on the possibilities that exist in this world. Realize that most innovate ideas start out as foolish ideas, which means our world progresses through the actions of fools. I know, pretty deep for a story about old newspaper, but you’ll never know if, or how, your perspective is holding you back until you step out of it. Something every leader in every context should contemplate.

I’ve spent an enormous amount of time studying spiritual gifts and the role they play in the church over the last month or so. Not only was this research for a series of sermons I was going to preach, but this is a subject that holds a great deal of interest for me. Growing up in a movement that didn’t focus on these gifts, miraculous or otherwise, with great regularity I have lived most of my life wondering what they were, who got them, and how they were meant to be used. I’ve always known what my theology was regarding spiritual gifts, but as my buddy Mike pointed out so well in this post, that doesn’t mean that I had it all figured out correctly.

Then, a couple days ago I read this post from Ed Stetzer that I believe addresses one of the many hang-ups that people have when it comes to their spiritual giftedness. If you have time, read Ed’s post first.

No Such Thing as “the Gift of Evangelism” by: Ed Stetzer

Here’s where I’m at. What most of us need to understand better is not our spiritual gifts, but our spiritual responsibilities. Many will use their lack of talent or ability to excuse themselves from an area of spiritual, and biblical, responsibility. We trick ourselves into thinking that if we’re not great at something, that God never intended for us to do it. As Ed points out evangelism is one of the areas that most frequently receives this response, but it’s not an optional area of involvement reserved for the talented and gifted. Evangelism is an area of responsibility for every believer that we cannot opt out of.

How ’bout some others? What about serving the poor, giving generously, loving others, praying fervently, constantly being in God’s Word? These things aren’t just for the spiritual elite or people who are really good at doing them. They’re biblically mandated responsibilities that should exist in the life of every believer.

Understanding and using our spiritual gifts is not only good, it’s also biblical. But, we should be leaning on our gifts to help us live out the responsibilities God has placed on our lives and not as an excuse to run away from them.

This morning as I continued to read through the book of Deuteronomy I noticed something in a way that I never had before. As God, through Moses, relays his promise to the Israelite people give them the promise land he continually uses one phrase to describe these nations that currently occupy the land. He says that they are, “nations greater and mightier than yourselves.” Over and over again God drives home the indisputable fact that these nations to be conquered and driven out by the Israelites are far greater and mightier than they are.

For some, this might seem like a negative reality, but I believe this is meant to bring great comfort to God’s people. It was meant to remind them that they are not going to be fighting with their power, but rather the power of their mighty God. It was meant to help them understand that they couldn’t do this on their own, and that their reliance on God in everything was paramount to their survival.

Many of you are facing things that are “greater and mightier than yourselves” today. Maybe you’re even discouraged by the fact that you can’t conquer these things on your own. Maybe it’s broken your will to continue and has you on the verge of giving up. Either way, you need to be reminded of the same thing that the Israelites needed reminded of. If you’re acting in the will of the Father, it doesn’t matter if you’re up against an enemy, situation, or circumstance that is greater and mightier than yourself. The God you serve is above all powers, and he’s got you covered.

My family has decided that we’re going to take a beach vacation this year. Even though I’m really looking forward to it the trip going to the beach isn’t that big of a deal for me. I’ve been there many times before in my life. But, to my two year old son, Reed, going to the beach is a HUGE deal. He’s never been to the beach, and I sometimes think he spends all day thinking about what it will be like when we finally arrive.

Yesterday, my wife and the boys spent all day shopping for some of the things a vacation like this will require. Things like swimming trunks, sandals, water shoes, etc. When they got home Reed proudly displayed his beach swag in the living room, and his prize purchase was a small pair of blue sandals. He wore them around the house until he went to bed, and put them on first thing this morning as well.

As he was watching his usual morning cartoon lineup I noticed that he was kicked back on the couch with his feet propped up on a pillow (bearing his blue sandals of course), hands behind his head, and his eyes closed. I thought this was a strange method for watching cartoons so I inquired of my son, “Reed, what are you doing?” And he very calmly replied (without opening his eyes), “I’m at the beach.”

I looked at my wife, who was sitting next to me, and we had a good laugh, but then I became jealous. He was living the beach lifestyle, and he didn’t even need to be at the beach to do it. For all I know he could have been feeling the breeze on his face, and listening to the waves crash on the shores until I disturbed him with my silly question.

The ability to enjoy life no matter where we’re at is something that often escapes us as we become older, “wiser”, and more mature. So, my goal for today is to get to that beach…before we take our vacation. I hope you’ll do the same.

Ok, slap me on the wrist with a ruler…I haven’t been a very faithful blogger as of late. It’s really ironic that I haven’t written much over the last month because I’ve had more thoughts racing through my mind during this time than ever before. In fact, I would dare say that there is TOO MUCH going on inside this head of mine, at times, for my own good.

As I’ve been trying to process everything internally I’ve realized this:

The faster I move internally, the more sluggish I am externally.

In other words, until I slow down and simplify what is happening inside my head, my heart, and my soul I will never be able to allow it to take action. Otherwise, my life would look like a watermelon that has been packed full of dynamite and detonated; pieces of me flying in every possible direction.

What makes life difficult is not the quest to find things to do, but deciding what things are worth your time…your efforts…your thoughts and then proceeding with ONLY those things.

Who/what is winning that battle in your life?

Who/what SHOULD be winning that battle in your life?

Last night as I mowed my yard I decided to do it without the usual presence of my ipod shuffle and some motivationally rockin’ music. I decided instead to devote the entire hour and a half to prayer for others and their work in the Kingdom. I made it my goal to NOT ask God for a single thing for myself.

I thought this would be difficult to do, but I decided to do it anyway. However, when I was done mowing I found that I had a desire to spill this prayer time over into the trimming of the yard, and then the trimming of the shrubs and trees around the yard. When it was all said and done I got in three solid hours of prayer.

Now, understand that the point of this post is not for me to tell you how great I am because I prayed for three hours last night. In fact it’s quite the opposite. I didn’t really feel like doing this, and I didn’t even think I had the steam to get through half an hour, but once I was willing to make the change by praying only for others out of concern for God’s work all over the world, and not out of my selfish ambitions, God created a desire in me to continue. I’m not saying that asking God for things is selfish, because Scripture tells us we should, but rather I’m recognizing that my prayer life, as of late, has been pretty selfish.

“God, fix this thing in MY life…bless what I’M doing…remove this obstacle in MY path…and the list goes on.”

It wasn’t wrong for me to ask those things of God, but when they are my only focus it creates a very small lens through which to view the rest of God’s work in the world. What it was really doing was creating a delusion that God was only working through me, and that attitude, whether you’re aware of it or not, is a cancer that can kill The Church faster than anything else.

If the church is ever to become a place of unity among all who claim the name of Christ and desire to preach the truth of God’s word and The Gospel we first have to be willing to make the change. Or hearts, our minds, and our intentions have to show concern for the whole body of Christ, and not just the part we exist within.

I know my heart isn’t where God needs it to be yet, but I’m ready and willing to make the change and allow him to take me to that place.

Today as I emailed a friend I noted that my spirit had somehow been lifted by the influx of great we’ve been having here in Cincinnati over the past week. I told him how the atmosphere I lived in was having a great effect on my work, my attitude, and my outlook. While I believe that this is probably true on some level for all of us, as it pertains to the weather, I believe it is most definitely true for us all as it pertains to the people we surround ourselves with.

If we’re around people who are filled with a fire for serving God, and are lit up with passion to achieve his purposes in their life, it will have a definite effect on us. On the flip side, if we’re consistently around people who are fighting God’s direction for their life we will find it hard to follow it ourselves. But, that’s not where it ends. I believe that there is a third category that is often overlooked. The category of the complacent.

If we surround ourselves with people who are comfortable with their current level of dedication and service to God then it won’t be long before we are comfortable too. The best thing we can do for each other as we pursue God and His will is to create a Holy sense of unrest. Not that we’re always unsatisfied with everything, but that with a Holy purpose we never look upon our actions as enough. That there is always something more to be done, a deeper level to dig to, and a stronger sense of purpose of be gained from pursuing a Holy God.

For the last couple months I have been trying to process why in modern times we have done so much to emphasize the separation between our worship lives and our “real” lives. It’s as though we truly believe that in some way we can contain our worship to a small segment of our existence. Not only is this absurd (at best), but it’s a vicious lie perpetrated by Satan himself.

Paul urges the church in Rome, in light of God’s mercy, to offer their bodies to Him as a spiritual act of worship. He tells the church in Corinth that their bodies are Temples in which the Spirit of God dwells. So, why do we think we can segment what portions of our lives are meant for God’s honor and worship and what portions don’t have to? The simple answer is PRIDE. We’ve created our own system that glorifies our desires and not God.

Work is worship. If you claim Christ as your savior, then anything you put your hand to bears his name. Not only does your life bear his name, but the work of your lifetime bears his name. Your Monday-through-Friday-nine-to-five-life is the same as your Sunday-worship-service-at-church-life. If you understand this fully there will be no difference between how you worship and honor God at work/home and at a church service. But for most of us, there is a vast difference. There is a line.

Join me in praying for that line to disappear from our lives this week.