Mark 6: 7-12 Breaking the Pot

Mark 6: 7-12 Breaking the Pot

Bonsai trees are kept in small trays or pots. These pots make it easier to control growth, as well as add to the look of the tree. The pot is the place where the tree lives and it’s life is limited to the pot. Churches and Christians are limited in their life because of the ever shrinking pot in which they live.

In this passage of scripture Jesus expands His area of influence by sending out the 12 to minister in communities they would not normally travel through. Jesus was helping the disciples expand the pot. Jesus spent most of His time in the same communities and walking the same roads. By sending out the twelve He expands the number of people who will hear His teaching.

1.       The reality of the pot

a.       Personal pot

b.      The ever narrowing pot

c.       Job, family, routine, time, and age

d.      After a while you associate with and know few non-Christians

e.      Thicker walls

f.        The midlife crisis

g.       Boring and unfruitful life

2.       The Bonsai Church

a.       Victims of the narrowing pot

b.      Stronger friendships

c.       Control

d.      Age

e.      The ever narrowing pot

f.        Friendships, power, programs, and routine

g.       Limited growth and no fruit

3.       Breaking free of the pot

a.       Driving a new way home

b.      A new hobby

c.       Volunteer some of your time where you will meet new people

d.      Choose to venture outside the pot.

e.      Chuck Swindall, Bill Hybles

f.        Be willing to spend time and energy

g.       The Prayer of Jabez  1 chronicles 4:10

Jesus’ intension was not to have a limited life or a limited church. Today when you go home draw a circle and put your life in it. What you do where you go. Then ask yourself how you can expand or reach past your circle. Do not settle for life in the pot.

Psalm 1:1-3 “The Bonsai Church”

Psalm 1:1-3  “The Bonsai Church”

The promise of Psalm 1 sounds so good, so vital. Yet the reality is that many of us and many churches feel like the withered fig tree of Mark 11:13 & 14. So how do we become the tree planted by the river that is strong big and bearing fruit for God? That is a series of sermons about possibilities, discovering bearers and taking them down. But I will start with a story of trees.

My first Bonsai trees
I bought my first little sequoia tree in California and brought it to Indiana as a children’s sermon many years ago. I showed the children a seed the size of a pencil eraser and thin as a sheet of paper. Then showing them the little tree and finally a picture of General Sherman tree, the world’s largest tree and the largest living thing on earth. I tell them how they may seem little and small yet with Jesus’ help they can do great things. Then I set the pot on the edge of my desk and kept it for years.

I never thought of them as Bonsai trees, I thought of them as giant Sequoias and dreamed of seeing a grove of them in Indiana, and then Wisconsin. I would keep them until a family vacation or other event caused them to die. I did plant several outside but they never made it through the winter.

A Giant Sequoia can reach 270ft, growing at the incredible rate of 10 feet a year. The same tree can be kept in a pot on a desk and never get over a foot tall.

Then one year our son Jeremy sent Kathy a Bonsai Bougainvillea. It was amazing with its little leaves and tiny pink paper like flowers. It lasted for years before I lost the fight to keep it alive yet small.

What keeps a powerful sequoia tree small? What steals it’s potential to be the largest thing on earth and forces it to be content living in a pot on a desk? My mind wanders to the church and each person in it. What keeps us small, what steals our potential and leaves us content to live the barely alive Christian life? We all would say we want to be the vibrant tree of Psalm 1, so what holds us back.

In the coming weeks I will share how Bonsai trees are kept and how it relates to our lives in Christ.

1.       Bonsai Trees are made
a. intentional choice
b. accidental Bonsai
c. zero growth
d. not natural
e. they fight everything that God has put in them.

2.       Understanding Gods’ intention for your life and for the church.
a. bear fruit
b. Mark 11:13&14
c. God wants fruit not green leaves.
d. John 15:16 (to bear fruit.

3.       Making a choice
a. Move a Bonsai tree outside with room to grow, soil, sun, and water it will grow.
b. our present condition is not permeant.
c. the choice is not safe, there unpredictable things.
d. become more than you have dreamed.
e. be the tree planted by the river.

I Believe in You

I Believe in You

Matthew 28:16-20

 

I was watching a football game. It is first and goal. The little guy who is getting to carry the ball is facing nearly everyone on the other team and they outweigh him by 100 to 150 pounds a peace. He is not going very far after the snap. His only hope is that when he falls he will fall forward.

I our lives we often face impossible odds. The things lined up against us seem huge and we are so small. We have tried and failed so many times it feels useless to even try again. I do not even need to mention them you thinking about them already.

The 11 disciples felt that way, only 3 years of being taught by Jesus and Jesus tells them to go into all the world and make disciples. A truly daunting task. Yet Jesus believed in them. No backup plan and no second string. Jesus believed in them and they changed the world.

 

1.      Defeat will come
a. bad habits, an addiction, or some other sin
b. Physical illness, disability, financial troubles, relationships
c. a little guy asked to carry the ball into 1000’s of pound of hostile beef.
d.in our life, in our church, in our community, even in our nation

God believes in you
a. 1 John 3:1-3 (NIV2011)
¹  See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
²  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
³  All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

2.     
a. Bart Star
b. John 3:16 John 3:16 (NIV2011)
¹⁶  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
c. go into all the world

3.      Victory will come
a. you may not be able to run 90 yards maybe all you can do is fall forward

b. phil3:13 Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV2011)
¹³  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
¹⁴  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
c. Romans 8:31 Romans 8:31 (NIV2011)
³¹  What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

 

d. God is able

e. Romans 14:4 Romans 14:4 (NIV2011)
⁴  Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

 

f. Heb 7:25 Hebrews 7:25 (NIV2011)
²⁵  Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

 

g. Phil 1:6Philippians 1:6 (NIV2011)
⁶  being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

 

h. 2 Tim 1:12 2 Timothy 1:12 (NIV2011)
¹²  That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

 

4. God believes in you and I believe in you
a. you can change your life and overcome things that hold you back

b. we can change our church and make it grow and carry out the work of God.

c. dare to try, dare to face impossible odds, dare to fall forward. For Jesus believes in you.

 

Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV2011)
¹⁶  Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
¹⁷  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
¹⁸  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
¹⁹  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
²⁰  and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Philippians 3:4-14 “What is your story”

Philippians 3:4-14  “What is your story”

Often we look at the Bible, read a book, or hear a story of salvation on the radio. Peter, James and John called to follow Jesus by the sea shore, Zacchaeus up his tree, or Matthew at the tax table. Martian Luther was struck in the head by a bolt of lightning. Our story seems to pale and boring to share. Yet it is our story of Jesus that has the most power. At Ticatie Mission, a little church in near the Mexican border the pastor would get up and point a finger at someone and ask for their testimony. They would have to get up and tell their story of Jesus.

Girls in the pool during a thunder storm

A man on the side of the road (family issues)

The woman and the offering

The man who always knew Jesus

The navy seal under a gun boat that just exploded

All stories of Jesus have some things in common. They are amazing stories of grace, and you have one too. I invite you to listen to Paul’s story, outline your own and discover the grace God has given you.

1.       I am not ok
a. Vs 5-6 Paul had all the right stuff
b. The road to Damascus vs 9:1-6
c. you mean I am not ok
d. Romans 3:23
e. How, what, where, when, who, of when you realized you needed Jesus.

2.       Scales feel off my eyes
a. vs 9:17&18
b. Lord Jesus forgive me a sinner

3.       Living for Him
a. Vs 3:7-11 Living for Jesus

b. I leave my best behind so I can hold onto Jesus

c. rock climbing rescue (I can’t hold on any longer) I have to trust the rope.

 

What’s your story of Jesus; perhaps it starts long long ago. Or maybe it has just started today. Perhaps your somewhere in the middle. Write your story down, it is one of the most powerful things in the world. Your story could just change someone eternity.

1 Corinthians 9:19-27

1Corinthians 9:19-27

While I served as an intern at a 1500 member church in Glendora California, I worked for Fulton Lytle. As we talked about ministry Fulton asked me “whose agenda are you on.” I did not understand the question at first. He explained that we all have agendas, agendas for friendships, relationships, work, church, and life. An agenda with goals from which we base our actions and our view of success. I have an agenda, you have an agenda, the people we meet have an agenda, the church has an agenda, and God has an agenda. Paul had an agenda which he shares with us.

1.      So that by all means I might save some
a. That none should perish but all have eternal life 2 peter 3:9
b. Our account and the Lord Jesus suggest evangelism
c. Why do we want to win people to Jesus?
d. Have less work, more people to support the budget, keep the church going
e. getting a good return for God?
f. that people are dying and will face everlasting judgment?
g. To see God bless and change lives?

2.      Whose agenda are we on?
a. in worship, in fellowship, in activates?
b. do we look at our church from an outsiders view?
c. Greet people at the front door?
d. have information where they can find it?
e. Look for them and greet them first then our friends

3.      Other centered
a. Salvation Army Leader,  “Others”
b. from self-focus to other focus.
c. get excited about Jesus working in their lives
d. Jesus is the answer, but what is the question?
e. get to know people, their lives, their interest, their needs
f. learn their questions

4.      Who’s agenda have you been on?
a. your agenda?

b. your employers
c. The people around you?
d. or God’s agenda?
e. Today you can start living with God’s agenda.

Matthew 25:14-30 "Hows that workin for Ya"

Matthew 25:14-30 “How’s that Workin For Ya”

Every business, every person, every church function on a paradigm; A set of rule, laws and view of the world that it uses to for decisions, evaluation, and actions. Some of these paradigms are written and some are not. Some are based on facts, some on attitudes, and some are based faith. Some paradigms lead to success and wealth and others lead to failure. Today’s passage is about the paradigms of three people and their results.

Dr. Phil brings guest on his show and examines their actions and paradigms. Then he ask that important question, “And how’s that workin for ya” It is his way of getting people to self-evaluate their paradigm and its success or failure. The sad truth is that many people and many churches never evaluate their paradigms and make changes to them.

Truth number one for today, “even the best pastor and lay people will fail under a bad paradigm.” No amount of talent can overcome a bad paradigm. This is going to be a hard sermon to hear, but we need to hear it. So we will start with Dr. Phil. Look around you, all around you, front, back, sides, what do you see? What you see is the result of your paradigm for church, worship, and ministry. Now ask the question; “how’s that workin for ya?”

In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells us of three servants entrusted with some amount of wealth. The first servant sees this as an opportunity to gain wealth and favor in the masters eyes and invested it. He may lose it, but his paradigm is that what has been given to me is to be used. The second servant has a similar paradigm and invest his money as well. But the third man has a different paradigm, which causes him to bury the money in the ground.

The first person is an example of a talented person working with a good paradigm, which leads to success. The second person is an example of a less talented person with a good paradigm, which also leads to success. The third person is a person with a bad paradigm, which leads to failure.

Many churches and many people fail because of three ideas that are part of their paradigm.

1.      Cheaper is better. What is the least I can spend or give and still be good with God?

2.      Ok is good enough. What is the minimum I can do and still be called a church or a Christian?

3.      Save it for retirement. We will follow God when it’s more convenient.

 

I was out to a friend’s cabin and his son had a shooting range set up….shoot and miss.

“If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you always got!”

Now if you go back to that question of Dr. Phil, and you’re honest, you to admit your paradigm has not been working for a long time. We have been more like the person burying the talent and less like the person who sees opportunities.

I am here because you have seen the need for change, this change is not just worship style and songs, it’s the basic paradigm of ministry that must change and if it is not changed soon and changed completely then our church is just a few funerals away from closing the doors. This is the rainy day the fund is for, this is crunch time, this is the time to risk it all. There isn’t any more time for storing up or for more practice, the whistle has blown the coin tossed and it’s time to win or lose the game.

Three new attitudes

1. Only my best for God, never my leftovers.

2. Nothing is too Good for God. What does God want me to do? Now how will I get it done?
3. I will use what God has given me now.

Many churches are closing their doors, many Christians suffer in defeat, because when God invest in them and they bury the talent He takes it away.

The good news is that if we are willing to start walking in faith God will entrust us with more.

Are you willing to risk? Do you really want change? Are you willing to let go of that paradigm that has lead you to this place? If you do then God will bless you. You will be amazed at what God can do.

1 John 5:11-15 "That You May Know"

1 John 5:11-15 “That you may Know”

We live in a world of trust but if trust is broken the questions can be debilitating. Is the car on the other side of the road going to stay in their lane? Is the driver texting, drunk, or otherwise distracted? Will Social Security be there when I retire? Does my teenage looking Dr. really know how to treat my illness?

God does not want us to have a question about His love for us or our eternal security. It is with that confidence that we can truly be free. It is with that confidence that we can share our faith with people whose lives a plagued with doubts.

1.       GOD WANTS YOU TO KNOW

a.       Vs 13 so that you may know

b.      John 20:30&31

c.       1 thess 4:13

2.       HOW DO WE KNOW
a. John 3:16

b. Rom 5:8&9

c. 2 Cor 5:5-10

d. 1 Peter 1:3&4

3. LIVE BOLDLY FOR JESUS
a. Rom 12:1&2
b. Rom 1:16
c. Phil 1:6

You have information and knowledge that can change the life of a friend, change the life of a family member, or change the life of a coworker. Will you dare to live boldly for Jesus. Will you believe enough to take a risk tell someone about Jesus? “These thing have been written that you may know that you have eternal life.” And that others may know also.