Monday
Building The Father’s House
Read Luke 15:11-32
Then he said, "There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, 'Father, I want right now what's coming to me.' "So the father divided the property between them. It wasn't long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. "That brought him to his senses. He said, 'All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I'm going back to my father. I'll say to him, Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.' He got right up and went home to his father. "When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: 'Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned before you; I don't deserve to be called your son ever again.' "But the father wasn't listening. He was calling to the servants, 'Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We're going to feast! We're going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!' And they began to have a wonderful time. "All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day's work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, 'Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.' "The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn't listen. The son said, 'Look how many years I've stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!' "His father said, 'Son, you don't understand. You're with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he's alive! He was lost, and he's found!'"(The Message)
What will this year look like at Open Door Church? It is back to the vision and back to the basics we started on. I believe that God is taking us back to the future. I believe that there are things in our past experience that we have forgotten or let them go into disrepair. God is calling us to remember and renew them and take them farther in our day. Like the movie “Back To The Future” we need to go back and reorder the life that God is giving us so we have the future God wants us to have.
Tuesday
Embrace The Uncomfortable
Read John 3:16, Acts
We are called to embrace the world. Jesus died for the world not just a few good people. Jesus did not die just for Americans but all men. (John 3:16) God has called us to love all people despite their differences. So many times we allow race, social status and friends to influence us concerning people. Jesus even said to love our enemies. If all we do is to love those that agree with us then how are we different from the world? In the story of “The Father’s House” (Luke 15) The Older son lived in the house with the father but did not have the father’s heart. He was religious: He demanded performance instead of love and demanded law instead of giving grace. I believe that everyone has had glimpses of God, but do they recognize it and if they do what do they do with what they see. I know there have been times that I have caught a glimpse of where God is working or was working and I looked at the circumstances and said I did not want a part of that because it made me uncomfortable and we as sons and daughters cannot do that. The Father’s House has to embrace that which is uncomfortable. Change is uncomfortable but change is part of life. The thing is that when Jesus was preparing to leave the earth He told us that He was going to send us a helper, a comforter if you will. You need comfort because you are being made uncomfortable. No one moves without being uncomfortable. We are here to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. We have to embrace those we have thought unclean – the prodigal came from a pig pen – unclean by the cultures standards – (Acts 10-11) Peter took the religious with him because of what the others would say about him embracing that which was unclean. Are you ready and willing to embrace and kiss a pig? God is calling us to some uncomfortable places, with people that will make us uncomfortable, and with ideas that are foreign to us. Are we willing to love the people God will bring across our path? Are we willing to listen to them with the ears of the Holy Spirit to give them the wisdom of God? God says he will give what we need when we need it. Let’s go to the world with God and look for a Kingdom adventure.
Wednesday
Identity Empowerment
Read John 1:12; Acts 1:8
Many people are going through an identity crisis in their lives. They need to know the love that heals, transforms, and brings us into our God created destinies when we realize who we are. When we do not know who we are or what our purpose in life is it is like a person who has amnesia. We are wandering around searching for fulfillment in any place or with any person that we think can fill the bill. The thing is that, that is exactly what the enemy wants is for us to remain nameless.
Jesus gave us back our identity and empowered us and we are to empower people by giving them identity. That is what the father did when the son returned home. He showed him his identity as a son. We are to empower people to live the God life. People are empowered by the Spirit of God making them alive. (John 1:12; Acts 1:8) The seed of God is in you and the seed of God is released through you. We are called to release the power of God in the earth. That is what Jesus did on the Mount of Transfiguration – you would see the Kingdom come in power. We must release the power that is in us but first we must know who we are in Christ Jesus. We must learn to not move out of emotion or intellect but out of the Spirit. There is God power inside you and we must learn how to release the power in us to manifest his Kingdom to a world that needs to see the God way.
Thursday
Equipped For The Kingdom
Read Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 John 1:1-3
True five-fold ministry prepares the people to serve in the Kingdom. We are not to prepare people to die but to prepare them to live the God life. We are not equipping people to win people to Jesus or to be good, but to live the power of the God life. Jesus wants us to live in the Kingdom. He has given us gifts and callings. We must receive them and learn to grow in them to benefit ourselves and others. We are teaching people to know, to be known and to make known. We are not gathers but senders and to send we must equip. We must give you an opportunity to know and grow in the things of the Kingdom. (Ephesians 4:11-13) Apostles, is a military term – to take the territory and to teach people the ways of the new kingdom. God said he would make us His witnesses. A witness is just giving testimony to what he has seen, heard and experienced. (1 John 1:1-3) We have to teach people to live out of the equipment of the Kingdom that we use in everyday life.
God tells Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea so that the waters will come back upon the Egyptians. Now, I know that God wanted to do that, and He could have just made it happen, but God chooses to use people in partnership with Him to accomplish His work. Here is a saying to drive home my point: "God alone can save the world, but God can't save the world alone." God has chosen to use us! Won't you jump in and be a part of what He wants to do in and through you?
Friday
Exaltation Brings Intimacy
Read Acts 15:16-18
Worship means “to give honor, homage, reverence, respect, adoration, praise, or glory to a superior being.” God demands worship because He and He alone is worthy of it. He is the only being that truly deserves worship. He requests that we acknowledge His greatness, His power and His glory. We are to worship God and He is looking for worshipers. Praise and worship will take us from the place of power to the place of living the life of God. Worship and exaltation takes us from the earth to the realm of heaven. It takes us from our focus on earth to heaven. Many times we get so caught up in our circumstances that we can see no peace and have no rest. When we get into a place of worship and exaltation of God we forget about our circumstances, changing our circumstances does not give us peace or rest, it is peace and rest that changes our circumstances. The work of God takes place in an atmosphere of worship and praise. We are to establish a house of praise that brings us into intimate relationship with God. We become like what we worship, when you examine your life or you look in the mirror what do you look like?
The Weekender
God Experience
Read John 14:15-20; Read John 17:3
We owe people an experience with God. True life is found in the presence of God. We have no life without him. He wants us to be with Him where He is at. You were created to be with God. Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us so we could be with Him where He is at. God wants us to know Him. I believe all of us have had glimpses of God throughout our life time and did not realize it. (John Wimber, Billy Graham, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, God is calling kings to dream again to seek out God men to interpret the dreams. God does not want us to give people just head knowledge about God, but an experience with God that will give a heart revelation to bring transformation. Life is found in His Presence. Eternal life is all about being in the presence of God. We have seen in small ways the presence of God (John Wimber, Billy Graham, Denzel Washington, Pastor Fox) God will not leave himself without a witness. We are called to give the world knowledge of this God that they perceive. (Acts 17:23) Paul said I am going to proclaim this God you have named unknown. We are here to make him known.
Ask leaders and people how they see the Kingdom? Let’s dream together and then put it into vision and live it out in reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment