Joel Young Blog.com

“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.

I’ll let this video be my Christmas sign off post to you all. It’s one of my favorite comedians trying to explain some of the weird holiday traditions we have, and how they are really a long way from what they should really be about.

Merry Christmas.

After a short, and planned, break from recording and posting sermons Horizon’s sermon podcast is back up and running. As always, you can use the link on my sidebar to get to the sermons page of our website or for now just CLICK HERE.

I really enjoyed preaching the sermons that wrapped up our series on Malachi. If you’re looking to listen to a few select sermons you missed during our down time, that’s where I would go.

I ran across a quote while I was doing some sermon writing and studying this week that I thought was worth sharing. Check it…

“The most destructive element in the human mind is fear.” -Dorothy Thompson

Not knowing who Dorothy Thompson was off the top of my head lead me to do some digging. What I found proved that she knew a thing or two about fear. Dorothy was an American journalist who spent much of her career in central Europe. in 1931 she actually sat down and interviewed Adolf Hitler. She later wrote a book book based on that interview called I Saw Hitler. After her book was published, and no doubt because of the content of the book and other related publications, she earned the dubious distinction of being he first American journalist to be kicked out of Germany. The German government considered her work to be “offensive”. In 1939 TIME magazine named her one of the two most influential women in America, alongside Eleanor Roosevelt , for her journalistic work.

You talk about staring fear in the face and speaking out against tyranny in a way that could have ended your life, and you’re talking about the career of Dorothy Thompson. It is amazing to think about the perspective on the emotion of fear that she must have had.

Then I think about the lives that most of us live. Fear is an emotion that most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about or interacting with. Or so one would think. You see, even though we may never stand face to face with the kind of fear that Dorothy Thompson did in her day most of us live with the constant presence of a self-induced fear. We worry about what our actions or proclamations to the world might say about us. We worry about how our actions might affect others opinions of us, and for most of us all it does is lead us to complacent inactivity.

This week I’m preaching on the “Miraculous Conception of Jesus” at Horizon. One of the key aspects of this story is the fact that Jesus’ adopted father, Joseph, almost allowed his fear to keep him from accepting who Jesus really was.

I don’t want to preach my whole sermon right here on my blog, for those of you that will be at Horizon, but let me ask you to do this. Think about the fear in your life that is keeping you from accepting who Jesus is. Think about the fear that is standing in your way of REALLY following him, REALLY giving him your life, REALLY making him your source of strength. Think about the fear that might be paralyzing your faith and squelching your passion, and very purposefully CRUSH IT!

Let me just preface this post by saying that my blog is where I try to be as open and honest as I can be about the state of the church in hopes of helping those who make up the church to as strong as possible. This is an issue at my church and many other churches. Don’t get a big head and think this is JUST about you because it’s not. If you are convicted by what I’m about to say, that should be a sign that something needs to change in your life. You can either be a part of the problem or a part of the revolution.

Since I’ve thoroughly confused everyone let me start out with a simple question.

Should the busyness of your life dictate the level of your involvement in the church?

Most of us would probably say, “No,” but I believe that in our modern world there is no one thing that is more of an obstacle for the church than busyness. Why do I believe that? Because that’s what the lives of so many church goers proclaim. Our actions say, “I’ll be at church, unless I have something really pressing to get done.” Or, “I’m a part of the church until something, that is a higher priority in my life, pulls me away.” In essence that’s what we are saying when we allow our busyness to dictate our commitment to the church. “I think that (fill in the blank) is more important.”

It may sound like I’ve got a chip on my shoulder about this, and that’s probably because I do. Jesus Christ DIED A BRUTAL AND PAINFUL DEATH for the church. He didn’t die for your school/education, he didn’t die for your job, he didn’t die for your hobbies, he died for the church. Why? Because it’s that important…it’s that MUCH more important than all the other things we give priority in our life. It’s mission is that important to the salvation of the world, and every second that we allow our busyness to lessen our commitment to Christ’s Church we are demonstrating how little we believe in Her. I’m not saying nothing else should be important to you in your life I’m just asking you to consider a different perspective of importance…God’s perspective.

Now, I’m not suggesting that being heavily involved in a local church will solve all of your problems or in itself bring about salvation, but what I am saying is that all of us who claim to be followers of Christ should have an abnormal commitment to this community called The Church. Sure, she’s not perfect, but when you are baptized into Christ you become a part of it all. If you choose not to pull your weight or be involved you are simply dead weight that the rest of the body will have to carry. If you choose to ALLOW other things to take priority over your commitment to the church it’s a choice that you make, not some you “HAVE TO DO.”

If you’re a follower of Christ make a commitment to the church for the next six months…see what happens. Make her your priority above your busyness. Dont’ just make her a priority, go out of your way for the mission of God and the church Christ established to achieve that mission. Let other people see that…let other people know that, and see what happens…see what conversations happen. I guarantee it will change your life and maybe the life of someone you know.

You may think that I’m saying all of this because I’m a pastor and more church involvement from people like you makes what I do easier, but know that this is how I would feel even if I wasn’t on staff at a church. Take away my position, title, paycheck, whatever, and I will still preach this to believers with every breath in my body.

Well, after a long week of vacation from normal work, so I could finish up some work on my “fixer-upper” of a house, I’m back to my normal self. For some reason the marathon of holidays that we run this time of year seem to take more out of us than they return. It’s easy to get beat down with it all, especially as a pastor, and not rejoice in who God is and what he has done. So here’s how I want to encourage you this week.

There is a situation currently happening with a fellow Pastor/Preacher that is rocking my world. Matt Chandler has spoken into my life in profound ways over the past few years. I have had the opportunity to meet him and hear him speak live on several occasions and there are few men who proclaim the word of God with as much passion and honesty as he does. This past week Matt found out that he has a 2″ x 1″ tumor in the frontal lobe of his brain. It has been a very sudden and very serious turn of events for him, his family, and his church.

If there is anyone who deserves to feel a little down about things right now, it’s Matt. If there’s anyone who might understandably be a little beat down by the craziness of life, it’s Matt. But, because of his passionate pursuit for God in all areas he continues to rejoice in God’s plan for this life and continual use of his life for God’s glory. I want you all to watch the video that he posted on his blog and see for yourself what true passion for God’s will looks like. Keep this in mind as you struggle to maintain this kind of attitude during the whirlwind that life creates.

“Video from Matt”

Last Sunday we wrapped up a two month look at the book of Malachi at Horizon. With this conclusion I thought I would share some of my favorite points from the pages of this prophetic book. This series turned out to be one of the most challenging to prepare sermons for, but the truth of this tiny book never failed to rock my world.

• God is STILL worthy of honor no matter what society may tell you.
• We can’t make up our own version of what it means to honor God based on any trend or any person. We have to base what it means to honor God on Scripture. What a novel idea.
• As Christians it is our job to proclaim the Gospel message to the world. But, in many ways we have let that take a back seat to other things in our churches. There is a need for some swift and immediate changes in the American church. Let’s be a part of the solution.
• God doesn’t want us to be robots programmed to be mindlessly obedient, he wants our obedience to be the result of a heart that has been transformed.
• In the end it doesn’t matter who you are or what you have accumulated, we will all stand before the great God of justice on the day of his coming. And guess what…there will be judgment, which will result in punishment and reward. ((Oh, no he didn’t. Oh, yes I did.)) Maybe we should start living like that’s the reality of our world and let it change our interaction with those who are far from God.
• I’m sure Malachi was not a wildly popular guy for communicating this message to the nation of Israel, but most of us need to stop pretending that he should have been. Proclaiming the full truth of God’s word rarely makes you popular, but it will always make you a bearer of truth.

Can’t wait to crack open a new book this Sunday at Horizon.