A Lesson For The Peacher

This evening I preached for a very good friend of mine who was celebrating his 19th year of Pastoring. The Lord place on my heart to share from a famous passage of scripture Psalm 23:4 needless to say the Lord blessed. After the service one of the members that I'm please to pastor came up to me and said "You didn't preach that like that a home (referring to the first time I preached the sermon @Bethel) after a brief pause prayerfully considering how I was going to respond the Holy Spirit said "You weren't the same person you were when I first gave it to you"!

Here are a few things that ran through my spirit...

First: the preacher has grown since the first time

Second: the listener has grown since the first time

Third: the word has been manifested or grown since the first time

I later began to appreciate that statement more and more as the evening ran on.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

Matthew 5:18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

1 Peter 1:25 but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

Psalm 111:8 They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness.

Psalm 119:89 Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.

Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

Isaiah 55:11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 59:21 "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever," says the LORD.

Jeremiah 44:29 "'This will be the sign to you that I will punish you in this place,' declares the LORD, 'so that you will know that my threats of harm against you will surely stand.'This evening I preached for a very good friend of mine who was celebrating his 19th year of Pastoring. The Lord place on my heart to share from a famous passage of scripture Psalm 23:4 needless to say the Lord blessed. After the service one of the members that I'm please to pastor came up to me and said "You didn't preach that like that a home (referring to the first time I preached the sermon @Bethel) after a brief pause prayerfully considering how I was going to respond the Holy Spirit said "You weren't the same person you were when I first gave it to you"!

Here are a few things that ran through my spirit...

First: the preacher has grown since the first time

Second: the listener has grown since the first time

Third: the word has been manifested or grown since the first time

I later began to appreciate that statement more and more as the evening ran on.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

Matthew 5:18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

1 Peter 1:25 but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.

Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

Psalm 111:8 They are steadfast for ever and ever, done in faithfulness and uprightness.

Psalm 119:89 Your word, O LORD, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.

Isaiah 46:10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.

Isaiah 55:11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 59:21 "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever," says the LORD.

Jeremiah 44:29 "'This will be the sign to you that I will punish you in this place,' declares the LORD, 'so that you will know that my threats of harm against you will surely stand.'

This is my 300th Blog Quit Celebrating Others Chaos

I was catching up on some current event reading and came across an article entitled “Tiger Wood’s free fall continues”. I thought wow! Then my thought cleared through the garbage and the trash we have been fed through the media and thought what is about seeing people lives crash or spiral out of control that people are so intrigued with? Why is it entertaining to see people fall, fumble and stumble? Why is bad news good news? Why are we so captivated in others chaos? Why is ones mishaps and misfortunes the media’s message again and again? Has society become a community of carnivores? Have we reverted back to the Roman coliseum and are entertained by people being thrown to the lions as we sit back eating our popcorn laughing entertaining ourselves at the expense of others. Our insatiable (okay I had to look up how to spell the word but you have to admit it work…lol) insatiable appetite to see others cry, fail, get kicked off, fight, fuss, back-stable, lie, cheat and risk everything as consumed us.

I miss when the nightly news was good news, movies had good endings, heros where the norm, comedy was funny, families were firm, people where happy and good meant good. We have a responsibility to our children and grandchildren to not allow them to become immune to other’s pain. The enemy’s attack on America is for us to laugh at other pain, misery, mistakes and failures. Let’s raise the standard back to caring about each others feelings, emotion and lives we shouldn’t get all warm and fuzzy when we think about those who are hurting or heartbroken.

Romans 12:9-21 (NIV)

9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.

11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The LORD is our Righteousness

Jehovah-Tsidkenu means “The LORD is our Righteousness”! WE are commanded to walk in the paths of righteousness and to offer the sacrifices of righteousness, putting our trust in the Lord. God understand that our best is but as dirty, filthy & foul rags BUT He sent Jesus the Righteous One to die for OUR UN-Righteousness and because of HIS WORK we are declared innocent, justified & acquitted of all wrong. I declare today that YOU and I are cleansed in the blood of the Lamb & clothed with the white robe of the righteousness of Him who is Jehovah-Tsidkenu, Jehovah-Jesus. Amen!

7 Ledership Tips From Coach Phil Jackson

I have always been a fan of Phil Jackson as a coach. I have always admired his style and cool, calm collected nature as a coach. He seems to know exactly when to sit, stand, call a timeout and maximize the productivity of his team. Phil will go down as one of the best coaches of all-time in any sport. It appears as though he just coached his last game, according to Phil Jackson, ”All my hopes and aspirations are, this is the final game that I’ll coach.” He will exit with 11 Championships and not other professional coach will come close to that.

There is a lot to be learned about leadership from Phil Jackson’s coaching career and coaching style. 7 Leadership Lessons From Phil Jackson’s Coaching Career:

• 1. Willingness To Coach The Best: Phil was willing to coach the best and show the best how to sin championships with a supporting cast. He was able to win championships with Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal & Kobe Bryant. He’s not scared of leading the best and great leaders want the best on their team.
• 2. Win Without The Coach: Phil was able to prepare his teams in a manner that allowed them to believe in themselves and get it done without his direct supervision. He taught his team how to play through long stretches without timeouts or his direct interaction. He taught his players how to be great leaders and confident thinkers rather than just executors. Great leaders prepare teams to perform at a high-level, even in their absence.
• 3. Mastered The 3-Peat: Phil was able to 3-Peat several times with several teams. He not only won championships, but he did it again and again and again. He 3-peated 3 times and the one time he didn’t 3-Peat he repeated. He even said it in his closing press conference today that the thrill of chasing the “3-Peat” is always a great challenge. Great leaders don’t want their teams to win, but rather win again and again.
• 4. Masterful At Creating A Culture Of Winning: Creating a culture of winning comes with extreme give-and-take, strategy, encouragement and believing in those that you lead. It requires taking the best basketball players on the globe and meshing them role players and players with quirky personalities like Dennis Rodman and Ron Artest. He created cultures that made all players valuable and maximized potential in everyone. He creates a culture of focused chemistry. The number one priority in coaching and leading is to create a strong culture by developing leadership, empowerment, communication, authentic care for others, relationships, trust, and motivation.
• 5. Cool, Calm and Collected: Phil Jackson was one of the most cool, calm and collected coaches in the game. He would sit on the sidelines as cool as the other side of the pillow. He always remained cool under pressure, which translated to his team taking on that same persona. Teams feed off of their leader, if their leader demonstrates a “we got this” mentality, it’s destined to rub off on the players.
• 6. He Knows When It’s His Time: Phil is going to retire into the sunset of Montana and relax. He stated that he has had a good 20 year run of coaching and now it’s time to give some of the younger coaches an opportunity. Some leaders don’t know when their time has passed and they make it rough on an entire organization.
• 7. Great At Selling His Leadership Style To Players: Phil’s style and triangle offense was not an easy sell. He was able to elevate the importance of his unique style of coaching and offense to a place of relevance that the best players to ever play the game such as Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant bought into it. If a leader has a style worth buying, team members will gladly buy it. Phil Jackson never tried to be someone else, take it or leave it the “Zen Master” was the “Zen Master.”

Great leaders are more focussed with making those around them great. Phil Jackson was a great coach and a great leader. Kobe Bryant says it best in this quote, “He’s absolutely brilliant in bringing a group together to accomplish one common goal.”

Why The Church Stops Growing

God is into church growth, however. It’s our mission as believers to produce disciples and our model example of the first century church was a growing church, so outside the God factor, there are usually reasons for stagnation in a church. Because the church is an organization made up of people, these reasons are often similar to those you may find true as to why growth stalls in the life of an organization also.

In my experience, the reasons are for getting stuck and/or halting growth include:

You get comfortable…It’s okay to be comfortable, but when you hang out there too long, it can be dangerous, because you stop trying new things to spur growth and excitement.

You quit dreaming…Dreams inspire, challenge, and grow people and organizations. You’ll never dream bigger than the dreams God has for you or your church.

You stop taking risks…You can’t succeed at anything without a measure of risk. Playing it safe never grows anything. The call of God always involves risk-taking.

You start maintaining…When you fall into the mode of protecting what you have, you’ll be less likely to encourage growth for fear of losing ground.

You fail to walk by faith...Especially for the church…we are a faith-based organization. If you aren’t walking by faith in what you are doing…it’s impossible to please God. (That’s Biblical…look it up!)

Obviously there is so much more to this issue and to each one of these answers. These are general responses and there are specific issues with every church or organization. Hopefully thinking through each of these as a paradigm for brainstorming may help trigger thoughts towards actions which can spur future growth.