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Patterns-5

February/07/ 2016
Patterns
Part 5
Pattern for Ministry

1. A problem

Nehemiah 1:1 “In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. 3 They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”

2. A person

3. A passion

Nehemiah 1:4 “When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.”

Nehemiah 2:5 Nehemiah said “send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.”

Passion without motion is just emotion.

4. A Plan

Nehemiah 2:4-6 “It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. 7 I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests.”

Proverbs 21:5 “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.”

5. A price

Nehemiah 4:1-3 “When Sanballat heard we were rebuilding the wall, he was very angry, even furious. He made fun of the Jewish people. 2 He said to his friends and those with power in Samaria, “What are these weak Jews doing? Will they rebuild the wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Can they finish it in one day? Can they bring stones back to life from piles of trash and ashes?”

Theodore Roosevelt “There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.”


6. A payoff

Nehemiah 6:15-16 “So on October 2 the wall was finished—just fifty-two days after we had begun. 16 When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done with the help of our God.”

1. There is a problem:

People in our city without Jesus.

Over the past year LGC has grown by 27%

Average Growth Rates for growing churches:
Good Growth: 6 - 8% per year
Excellent Growth: 9 - 11% per year
Outstanding Growth: 12 - 15% per year
Incredible Growth: 16 - 20% per year

Beginning on March 27 offer 3 Sunday worship experiences

2. There is a person:

You and me. We can do something to reach the people of this city.

3. We have a passion:

We believe the that “The fire that burns within us can change the world around us.”

4. We have a plan:

New service times 9, 10:25 and 11:50.

5. The plan has a price:

6. There will be a payoff:



Patterns-4

January/31/ 2016
Patterns
Part 4
The Pattern for Purpose

Psalm 139:13 “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Psalm 139:13-16 MSG “Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;       you formed me in my mother's womb.    I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!       Body and soul, I am marvelously made!       I worship in adoration—what a creation!    You know me inside and out,       you know every bone in my body;    You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,       how I was sculpted from nothing into something.    Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;       all the stages of my life were spread out before you,    The days of my life all prepared       before I'd even lived one day.”

Job 10:8 “Your hands shaped me and made me.”

Isaiah 43:21 “the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.”

Ephesians 2:10  “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Spiritual Gifts

Spiritual Gifts = a supernatural ability given to all Christians to do God’s work on earth.

1 Corinthians 12:1 “Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.”

I Corinthians 14:1 “Eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit.”
I Peter 4:10 “God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”

Heart

Proverbs 27:19 “As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person”

Proverbs 24:5 “The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out.

3 quick questions you can ask to help understand what God has put in your heart.

1. Who do you love serving?

2. What needs do you love meeting?

3. What challenges or causes do you love conquering?

Colossians 3:23 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters”

Abilities

How do I discover my natural abilities?

1. Where do I naturally excel?

2. What do others say that I am good at?

Personality

I Corinthians 12:6 (Phillips) “God works through different people in different ways, but it’s the same God who achieves His purpose through them all.”

Jeremiah 1:5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart”

Experiences

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

Romans 12:1 MSG “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”











Patterns-3

January/24/ 2016

Patterns
Part 3
Growth Patterns

Ephesians 4:11-14 “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”

Hebrews 6:1 “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a] and of faith in God”

2 Peter 3:18 " …you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

God’s pattern for Spiritual Growth.

1. Training

a. Study God's word.

John 8:31-32 "If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free!"

b. Spend time in prayer.

Mark 1:35 "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place where He prayed."

c. Surrender old habits that are slowing your growth.

Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

d. Surround yourself with others who are growing.


Hebrews 10:24-25 “ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

2. Testing

Testing always precedes promotion.

James 1:2-4 “ Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

3. Timing

God is not worried about how fast we grow, what He really cares about is how strong we grow!

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

3. Trusting

2 Peter 1:5-8 (NCV) “Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge; 6 and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; 7 and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love. 8 If all these things are in you and are growing, they will help you to be useful and productive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Patterns-2

January/17/ 2016
Patterns
Part 2
The Pattern for Freedom

Romans 7:19-24 “19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. … 21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am!”

Addiction = anything that controls your life.

2 Peter 2:19 “A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”

The Pattern of Addiction

  1. Denial

2. Delay

3. Defense

4. Dependence

Romans 8:9 “But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you.”

The pattern for Freedom

1. Recognize

Psalm 32: 3-5 LB “ There was a time when I wouldn’t admit what a sinner I was.[a] But my dishonesty made me miserable and filled my days with frustration. 4 All day and all night your hand was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water on a sunny day 5 until I finally admitted all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them. I said to myself, “I will confess them to the Lord.” And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone. 6 Now I say that each believer should confess his sins to God when he is aware of them, while there is time to be forgiven. Judgment will not touch him[b] if he does.”

Proverbs 28:13 NCV “if you hide your sin you will not succeed but if you confess and reject it you will receive mercy.”

2. Repent

James 4:8-10 “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. 9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”


James 5:16 “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

3. Remove

Proverbs 23:31-32 “Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! 32 In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.”

4. Replace

Ephesians 5:18 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,”

5. Rely

Galatians 5:16-25 “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit…”

Patterns

January/10/ 2016
Patterns:
Part 1
Predictable Patterns

Romans 7:18-24 “And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[d] I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. 21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power[e] within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am!”

James 1:14-15 “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

The pattern of temptation.

1. Desire
verse 14 “temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away

2. Deception

verse 14b “temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.”

3. Disobedience

verse 15 “these desires give birth to sinful actions”

4. Death

verse 15b “when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

Romans 7:24-25 “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

verse 25 “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord”

Ephesians 4:22 “Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

The pattern of freedom:

  1. Break free from the old patterns

Ephesians 4:22 “throw off your old sinful nature and former way of life.”

Word for the year: FREEDOM

Scripture: Psalm 119:45 “I will walk in freedom, for I have devoted myself to your commandments.”

Thought: True freedom is not doing what I want, it’s doing what God wants

Statement: On the other side of fear is freedom

2. With God’s help, start some new patterns

Ephesians 4:23 “instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”

Key thought: Old living won't bring new life