AT CAPACITY--November 20, 2011

Thanksgiving is on its way. Christmas won't be far behind. Our calendars are filling up quickly. The Christmas parties and shopping and family get togethers and church activities and special events are about to engulf our lives. All of these things--or at least most of them--are good things that enrich our lives. Yet, they also contribute to our feeling of being overloaded and unable to accomplish everything that needs to be accomplished.

In last week's lesson, we recognized the indisputable fact that we all have a limited amount of time. In view of that fact, we agreed that a good question to be asking in lieu of "What time is it?" would be the question, "How are you spending your time?" The implication of this question is that we should be spending our time doing things that honor and please God.

In this week's lesson, Andy Stanley illustrates the principle of priortizing the important things in life by using a familiar demonstration of big rocks and smaller pebbles being placed in a glass container. Most of us have seen the demonstration before. Yet, it continues to illustrate a very important point: The key to getting more productive is to prioritize.

Your priorities determine the capacity of your time. As we watched the illustration, we saw that when the big rocks are put into the jar first and then the smaller rocks representing the details of our lives are poured in, they all fit nicely into the glass container. When the smaller pebbles are given priority and placed in the container first, there is not enough room to get all the big rocks into the container.

What are the big rocks in your life? Certainly, your spouse and your kids would be considered "big rocks." Your job would be a "big rock." In order to identify all the big rocks in your life, simply ask yourself the question, "What do I view as important and who do I view as important?"

Andy makes a good point when he says, "Business destroys intimacy." We economize our relationships as we add, add, and add to our lives. For example, our relationship with our kids and our spouse will suffer if we continuously allow the demands of our job, our golf game, our hunting habits, our night out with friends, our bridge club, or any other event or combination of activities prevent us from spending quality time with our family on a regular basis. We live in a culture that seldom forces us to prioritize correctly. Unfortunately, most of us can look back a a time or season of our life when we could have done this better.

Priority determines capacity EVERY single time.

In both the Old and New Testament, we are taught to put God in the jar FIRST. Putting God first influences the priority of everything else in our lives. The Biblical equivalent of the word "priority" is really the word "seek." In Psalm 63:1, we see David committing to seek God earnestly. Psalm 119:10 makes reference to David seeking the Lord with all his heart. In Proverbs 28:5, we are told, "...those who seek the Lord understand all things." Matthew 6:33 encourages us to seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His Righteousness. This means to invite God to be the organizing principle around which everything else revolves in our lives.

Andy challenges us to accomplish this priority in a simple manner. He suggests that we give God the first few minutes of every day and that we seek His guidance in the organization and priority of our day. Since the first few minutes of our day can often set the direction and pace of our day, doesn't it make sense to spend these minutes with the Lord? Andy suggests modifying the Lord's prayer to meet our own unique personalities and experiences and to use this as a pattern for communicating with the Lord every morning. He emphasizes the need to thank God for our protection, provision, and for the pardon of our sins.

You are seeking SOMETHING first. Why not let it be God? If we re-orient our time around God's will, He will make us productive as we honor Him. As the Holiday Crunch arrives this week, let's make an effort to prioritize our lives around the will of God. Will you join your Christian brothers and sisters in the coming weeks of Holiday Cheer and Goodwill in putting God first and allowing him to re-prioritize everything else in your lives? You may experience the best Christmas season ever if you are able to truly make God your top priority.

REMEMBER--NO SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS NEXT WEEK. On December 4, we will begin looking in earnest at the Christmas Story, beginning with the story of Zechariah and the birth of John the Baptist.

The Time of our Lives--November 13, 2011

This week, I completed a new book written by Tom Brokaw called "The Time of our Lives." I found the book to be a thoughtful and provocative discussion about the changes that have occurred in our lives since the early 1950's. For example, Tom asks this question of his own parents, "How many shirts did you own in the early years of the 1950 decade?" Their answer was, "Not very many." Yet, when I look in my closet, there are so many shirts that I am not sure I could get another one in the closet, and I don't really think I am the exception to the rule. I think our lives have changed. As I was finishing this book, I also began preparing for Sunday School this week. I ran across a series by Andy Stanley called "Time". As I thought about the TIME of our lives and the general concept of TIME and considered the issue of TIME as we begin the holiday season, I concluded that it might be a good idea to take a couple of weeks to consider some Biblical guidance on this matter of TIME.

This week, we are going to share Andy's message titled, "Your Days Are Numbered." Andy makes the point that we are always aware of the time. We often ask the question, "What time is it?" He suggests a better question, "What am I doing with my time?" Keep in mind that your time is running out. The older you get the faster it seems to go! Andy introduces the concept by looking at some verses from Job: Job 7:6 and Job 9:25. He explains that at some point in our life, usually in our forty's, we quit thinking about how old we are and begin to think about how much time we have left. We begin to think, "If I am going to do something, I had better do it now." Andy even introduces us to the website: deathclock.com
Deathclock.com asks you to fill in some information about yourself and then purports to tell you when you will die. Here's a tip: if you choose to visit this website, be sure to consider yourself an optimist. It will make a huge difference in your predicted date of expiration.

Andy suggests that we begin to live our life with the end in mind. He refers to the words of Moses in Psalm 90. Moses spent forty years running from the Egyptian authorities in the wilderness taking care of sheep. Yet, Moses was used by God to lead His people out of slavery to the promised land that God set aside for His children. From everlasting to everlasting, we live between the bookends that God has established. Your life and my life is brief, common, quick and it is futile for us to try to create something more meaningful without seeking God's purpose for our life. Andy suggests the following prayer for each of us to begin living our life as if our life has a point to it and we are not it!

PRAYER: "Heavenly Father, teach me to number my days that I might gain a heart of wisdom and fulfill your purpose for my life."

When we begin to view our lives within the context of living between the bookends of everlasting to everlasting, we find purpose in our lives. As we approach the holiday season and begin to "deck the halls", lets pray for God to help us live a purposeful life--a life dedicated to honoring the God of the Universe.

Prayer Requests and Announcements November 6

This morning, we were made aware of a family in the Angel Tree program with multiple children who desire a basketball goal for Christmas. Since this request is somewhat outside the regular gift parameters for Angel Tree, our class agreed to finance this gift. We collected slightly more than $100 this morning for this purpose. We may need to take another collection, but it appears that we are close to being able to pay for this gift already.

Prayer Requests from this morning:

Pastor Christ Osborne--heart attack

Stephanie and Fred Matthews in the loss of her grandmother recently.

Jewel Clift--Jimmy's friend's 92 year old mom who fell and broke her pelvis.

Kathleen's mom has had several falls with difficlty in recovery and healing/ also in need of a meaningful and enjoyable job. i

Miles--Luke will be undergoing procedure to place tubes in his ears.

Tammi Collins--Mother will be undergoing knee replacement and sister is recovering from an ankle injury.

Craig's grandmother as she recovers from pneumonia.

The Woods family in their recent loss.

PRAISE: Sheryl Lowe made us aware that the mother of one of our Upward Football players for whom we have been praying after she suffered a stroke several weeks ago actually was able to attend the Upward Football Game this week. Thank you Lord!

Please keep these in your prayers this week and remember the Promise of Peace with God as the perfect gift of Christmas.

Have a great week.

Jimmy

Promise Keeper--November 6, 2011

WOW! It is hard to believe that it is November and some semblance of fall weather has actually shown up in the Brazos Valley. We have enjoyed some gorgeous weather in recent days and we are even beginning to see some fall colors--along with the browns of trees dead from the drought. As November commences, our thoughts naturally turn to Thanksgiving and then, to the Holiday Season! In our Sunday School Class, we got a jump on the Holiday Season by studying lessons during the past three weeks that actually come from the Christmas Story in the Bible. The focus of the Christmas Story that we have been studying is a little different from the focus of Christmas Stories to which most of us have been exposed in the past. These past few weeks, we have been looking at the genealogy of Jesus as presented by the apostle Matthew. Matthew himself was an outcast--a tax collector, one of the lowest of the lowest in the heirarchy of Jewish social circles. As such, many people were amazed when Jesus called this lowly, despised tax collector to follow Him. Not only did He call Matthew to follow Him, but He actually went to Matthew's home and dined with Matthew and other associates who were likely as low on the social ladder as Matthew himself. Jesus' disciples must have wondered if their leader knew what He was doing? They must have asked themselves how Jesus could invite such a degenerate to be part of His inner group? Here was a guy who paid the Roman government for the authority to take money from the Jewish citizenry virtually at his own discretion! It was almost like legalized theft. Now, Jesus was inviting him into the inner circle? What could He be thinking?

For that reason, Andy Stanley suggests that Matthew must have taken special comfort in underscoring the unlikely, undesireable, and undeserving characters whom God chose to play important roles in bringing His Son into this world. In this week's lesson, Andy Stanley points to a character that is most closely related to the name of Jesus in the long list of contributors to the linneage of Jesus. This individual caused 85 priests to be murdered! He ran around on his wife! He fathered a child out of wedlock and then took extraordinary steps to cover his sin, leading to the death of one of the king's most loyal and committed warriors!

This week, the Christmas Story focuses on the role of David, a man described in the Bible as "a man after God's own heart." Yet, we see in this week's lesson that David was a sinner in every sense of the word, a failure as a leader, failure as a father, failure as a friend, and failure as a husband! Yet, God uses David to accomplish His Great and Wonderful Plan for the salvation of all men! Indeed, we see in 2 Samuel 7:8 that God actually promises David that He will make his name great--like the name of the greatest men on earth. God made this unconditional promise to David and he was and is faithful to deliver on His promise. Even though David sinned and his sin was great, God was willing to forgive David. David suffered the consequences of his sin, but God was willing to forgive and still honored his promise to David.

When God makes a promise, He keeps His promise! Matthew was about to tell the story of an unconditional promise sealed with blood. God would keep his promise to mankind just as He kept His promise to David. Every Christmas for the rest of your life, when you hear the "town of David," I hope you are reminded of the promise God made to David and the promise God made to you! God promised peace! The only way to have peace with God is for Him to remove sin. Jesus came to remove your sin. You can't have the Promise of Christmas until the obstacle of peace (sin) has been removed. The unconditional promise of God is that you can have peace with God. The Promise of Christmas, Peace comes when we finally embrace the Promise of the GIFT--forgiveness of sin--obstacle removed. The Promise of Christmas is Peace for all mankind. Silent Night! O, Holy Night when Christ was born!

The Unexpected Christmas--The Label Makers Week 3

As we have studied for the past two weeks, there are people all through the family tree of Jesus whom you and I would not expect to be there based on their actions, reputations, and history. As Matthew, the tax collector begins to launch into The Greatest Story Ever Told, he seems to take particular pleasure in underscoring the "R" rated members of Jesus linneage--the unlikely characters that God chose to help bring His son into the world. We have seen and will continue to see that all through history, God has chosen to distribute His grace to those who did not deserve it. In Matthew 1:1, we see yet another example. Rahab, the harlot was listed in Matthew's reiteration of the family tree of Jesus. Rahab wasn't even Jewish. She was a Cannanite woman whom Matthew reminds, had a reputation that was tainted throughout life and history. Surely, this lady of the night, this immoral Cannanite could not play an important role in God's plan? Surely, God would not choose such a character to be part of His plan to save the world?

Yet, in Joshua 2:8, when God's spies were studying the city of Jericho for the next conquest by God, we see Rahab taking these men into her house and hiding them from those who would like to kill them. We also find that the Hebrew word that Rahab used to identify God was a word for Lord that was not spoken by some and was only used in written form to refer to the God of the Universe. Rahab chose this particular term to refer to God, literally meaning "the existing one." God clearly had a plan for the conquest of Jericho so that it would be abundantly clear who should get the credit for this great victory--God. Believing and non-believing scholars alike have agreed that, for whatever reason, at the end of the day, the walls of Jericho collapsed. In the midst of the chaos that followed, God spares one family because of the faith of one Cannanite prostitute. How unlikely is that? How can we understand why God chose Rahab? Later, we find that Rahab and Salmon marry and have a baby named Boaz. Boaz eventually marries Ruth and their great grandson is actually King David of the linneage of Jesus! Rahab had a label, Rahab, the harlot. Yet, she played an important role in bringing our Savior into this world!

If the truth be told, probably most of us have a label. Sometimes labels are based on secrets, sometimes on habits, and sometimes on poor decisions. Yet, Rahab's story is much like our own story. When we think about approaching God, we realize that we all have some kind of label, Jimmy, the jerk, or Carrie, the coveter, or Larry, the luster, or Allen the addict. Yet, Jesus invited all kinds of people to follow Him while they were still wearing this label.

This Christmas season as we think about what Jesus did for each of us, let's rethink our approach to God. Instead of thinking about what I did (went to church, read the Bible, gave an offering, helped the neighbor, etc.), let's realize that God decided before the foundation of the earth to pay for the sins of all who wear labels regardless of what that label is. This Christmas, let's discard the "If I don't, then God won't" approach to God. Instead, let's approach the newborn Savior from the standpoint of the grace and mercy that He has offered to each of us. God offers each of us a new label. Lord, teach me to live my life in accordance with who YOU say that I am. Joy to the World!

The Unexpected Christmas--"An Unlikely Candidate"

In this second week of Andy Stanley's series, "The Unexpected Christmas", we see a contrast between every religion in the world and Christianity. Every religion in the world with the exception of Christianity teaches an approach to God based on "what I've done." People who bought into this teaching assumed an attitude of self-righteousness in order to justify a relationship with God. Others realized that they can never meet this standard and have distanced themselves from God. That was the story of Matthew, the tax collector. Matthew, though understood the teaching of Jesus. Mankind had access to God not based on what they had or had not done, but based entirely on what had been done for them. This was a brand new view and one which was destined to turn the world upside down. This was a new paradigm for mankind.

In this week's lesson, Matthew illustrated this concept by underscoring another surprising member of the linneage of Jesus. In Chapter One of Matthew, we see the reference to Judah and his brothers. Judah had eleven brothers. These brothers became the foundation for the fathers of Israel. In this week's lesson, we reference the story of Joseph. As you recall, Joseph is stripped of his multi-colored coat by his brothers and sold into slavery. Judah, one of the brothers that appears to be a leader of the brothers, influences the sale of Joseph to Egyptian traders. Later, Joseph becomes a great savior of his people and of all people in the midst of a great famine. He would make a perfect forefather of Jesus. However, God chose Judah.

Judah and Joseph are the only two brothers of the 12 brothers who have a story in the Bible. Judah gets one chapter in the Bible and his story goes from bad to creepy. Judah has three kids, one of whom married Tamar. The older son of Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord and died. The second son of Judah also did evil in the sight of the Lord and died. Judah promises to take care of his son's widow, for in that day and time, a widow who was not cared for by her husband's family was left destitute. Tamar, however, dresses as a temple prostitute and Judah hires her for her services. As a pledge for his payment, Tamar asks Judah for his seal and his staff. Three months later, when Judah is informed of his daughter-in-law's illegitimate pregnancy, he is prepared to enforce the Mosaic law requiring the death of such a woman. Tamar reveals to Judah her possession of the signature seal and the staff and Judah quickly changes his mind about the death penalty.

Judah became a part of the family line that brought Jesus into this world! Judah was a picture of you and me. He was a picture of someone who deserved one thing and got another. He is the picture of a person learning that God's grace is available even to people who have not made themselves available to God. Joseph gave to Judah (and all his brothers) the opposite of what they deserved. God chose Judah through whom He brought His son into this world.

Never has anyone ever been expected to come to God on the platform of their own righteousness. That has never been the plan. I'll never be at peace with God because of what I've done or what I haven't done. Throughout history, God always chose the broken. This Christmas, let's be thankful that we don't have to approach God based on what we have done or what we have not done. We get to approach God based entirely on what He did for each of us. The GIFT He sent to us is on that special night in history is an unspeakable GIFT. O, Holy Night!

THE UNEXPECTED CHRISTMAS--WEEK ONE

How many of you have taken photos at Christmas of the whole family? Such photos usually include grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, sometimes gathered around the family Christmas tree or in front of some Christmas icon. The picture represents our immediate genealogy. In our Sunday School lesson this week, Andy Stanley begins a series titled "The Unexpected Christmas."

Andy begins a study of the writing of Matthew. He reminds us that Matthew was a tax collector, considered by the Jews to be one of the lowest of the lowest in the social heirarchy of the day. This is a man who paid the Roman government for the privilege of taxing the citizens at his own established tax rate, which offered him a handsome income! Yet, Jesus chose Matthew as one of his followers--one of his disciples--one of the writers of the Bible.

Matthew's writing starts off with the genealogy of Jesus. He was writing to a Jewish audience making the case that Jesus is the Son of God--answering the question of who is Jesus ultimately related to? Matthew makes the obvious connections in Jesus' linneage, Abraham, Isaac, King David those whom God chose to carry the line of Jesus. However, he also includes some other characters who were found in the linneage of Jesus. Some of the characters underscored by Matthew were similar to him in their standing among others, some had reputations that were as odious as the reputation of Matthew the tax collector, and some of the linneage of Jesus were as unexpected, undeserving, and unrighteous as he.

Matthew spent three years with Jesus. He heard Jesus teach. He saw Him perform miracles. He saw Jesus die on a cross and he stood next to an empty tomb. As he wrote the story of Jesus, he knew that shady characters carrying baggage were the point of the story he was about to tell. Sin was the issue Jesus came to address. Jesus didn't just come for sinners. He came FROM sinners. Jesus was the light coming into a world of darkness. He represented life coming into the element of death. He was the story of forgiveness in a world of condemnation. For Matthew, this story was also his story. These shady characters from the linneage of Jesus were like his people, like his friends.

When Jesus' followers questioned his relationship with Matthew, Jesus responded in Matthew 9:12, "...It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." While this statement could have offended Matthew and his friends, Andy Stanley points out that people who are far from God know they are far from God. This was the case with Matthew. Andy says the story of Christmas is about God leaning towards those who had leaned away from God. Jesus changed the rules about who could approach God. The religious culture suggested that those who approach God must do so under the guise of what they have done. Jesus debunked this requirement for approaching God. He made it clear that we could approach God based on what HE did for us and NOT based on what we have done. The story of Christmas is about this GIFT that God gave to us. The greatest gift ever given...the Savior of the World who came from sinners, and people who could never qualify as part of Jesus' family. This Christmas, let's remember the GIFT God gave to each of us.