Monday, October 26, 2015

Women’s Day

We have a tradition at our church where the women do the entire service one Sunday in October in order to help celebrate appreciation for our pastor.  I was honored to be asked to give the sermon.  The link below will take you to the video at YouTube.

Living by Grace

Friday, October 23, 2015

Be different in order to make a difference

The world we live in measures success by things like how many “followers” do you have and how many “likes” did you get.  Success values results and production.  The end result is all that counts no matter what you have to do to get there.

It’s all about the “return on investment.” and it doesn’t matter whether the investment is money, time, or talents.  We measure our success by how many came to our event, how much money we raised, or how many raised their hands to accept Christ.  My success isn’t about the results. Jesus didn’t measure the disciples success by their results. He gave them grace when they failed. He had patience with them while they were learning.

Success for the disciples (and for me) Is an internal thing, not an external thing.  It isn’t something that can be seen or measured.  It’s a matter of changing me.  It’s about my character becoming what it needs to be.  It’s about continually being conformed to the image of Christ – because that is the ultimate goal for my life.

The world would have me sacrifice my character in order to reach my goals. What Jesus wants to do is refine my character. He knows if I handle what’s going on in my life from an eternal perspective, I will be what is changed.  As I change and am different, I can then make a difference in the world around me.

Forget success based on measurable results. Success is about character transformation. Let God transform you into the person He created you to be so that you can impact the world in the way He imaged you could from the start.