Promise Church

Waitaminnit!!  Do you mean that we’re supposed to grow up!?

Years ago I was preaching and heard myself talk about maturity in our lives.  I said that my little girl has a floating seat for the swimming pool, and she kicks and splashes around like nobody’s business.  But she is not mature enough to leave alone for even one moment because she’s not developed enough to know what to do if her floaty seat flips upside down.  God knows where each of us stand in our spiritual growth, and won’t allow more than we can handle.

Maybe that’s a good reason why somebody’s cry of, “Why can’t I win the lottery?” or “Why can’t I get that promotion?” or “Why can’t I have this or that happen,” seem to go unanswered.  Maybe it’s not unanswered at all.  Maybe you’re just not ready for that kind of thing in your life and God’s keeping it out of your reach so you don’t hurt yourself and others.  I don’t know.

But one thing I do know is this: years don’t mean maturity in the family of God.  Don’t misread that; there’s nothing I know of that can replace time and experience.  Time and experience only mature a person if they allow healthy change to come into their lives.

Have you ever met someone who expected you to follow what they said because they were older than you?  There’s a lot to be said for experience but I’ll tell you what: There are some people who may have BEEN here before, but they’re not GOING where I want to go!

The bitter person who expects you to react the same way she does to a circumstance.  The one who’s been hurt and instead of dealing with it, found a way to cover it up in his life.  The man who says, “Hold it in and use it for fuel.”  The woman who says, “Let it out and don’t carry that.”

Okay ok ok ok!!  People, step up to the Throne with your stomach empty, your spirit full, and your bible open.  Let God bring you UP to your next level of spiritual maturity.  You just may be the next leader He’s been grooming!  There’s only one way to find out.

Habits of the Heart is this chapter’s title.

Did you know the big decisions you have to make are almost always already made before you get to them?  That doesn’t mean that no matter what you decide things will be what they will be.  No!  God’s gift of free will is yours to exercise.  What it means is this: you already have formed the priorities you treasure in your heart, and when it comes time to choose, you will go with what’s really important to you.

If you have a habit of eating chocolate every time it’s available, why would you be shocked that your fruits and vegetables go bad in the ‘fridge?  If you have a habit of telling little tiny won’t-hurt-anyone lies to make your life easier, why would it surprise you when someone who really knows you doesn’t trust you with the important things?

Daily Bible reading, Prayer, Fasting, Serving.  Think about it!  When you have trained yourself through self-discipline what you know to be valuable, when the time comes to choose, the choice is already there!  Do I go ahead and complete my 3-day fast, or do I go out with my friends and eat, and God will just understand?  I promise, when you’ve developed a habit of the heart, the decision isn’t really that difficult.

Converting Adversity from Foe to Friend.  One of this chapter’s secrets — and this is not a spoiler because if you read that chapter you see there is a lot more than just this diamond of a point — is on page 154.

“…Ryan converted adversity form foe to freind – he just kept showing up.”

That’s paramount!  The Bible promises that when we resist the devil he will flee from us.  Sooner or later by standing strong in our faith, the enemy wears down.  He gets tired!  And he runs away!  Yes, in this case the one who runs away comes to fight another day, but we have a secret weapon: That which he meant for evil, God turns to good!

But only if we stay in there.  I would hate to have God turn evil into a great reward, and have somebody else pick up my prize because I sat down 10 yards from the victory.

Pastor Sergio sets in the first paragraph the attitude of the rest of the book.  This is what we’ve seen, but this is where we’re going!

Ever since we’ve known the De La Mora family, we have seen Pastor Sergio edify his wife.  He only speaks highly of her.  Here, in writing, for posterity, he tells us what a winner he is married to.  A willing heart to follow the call of God to go to a new area, to do a new thing, and to bring the family alongside the vision.

That last one is the biggie.

Pastor Karen and I sat down with the kids recently and talked about some of the life-steps we are going through as a family together, and where we’re headed.  Alissa’s faith expanded as she told us, “How dare the devil stand against us! God has His hand on us so obviously!  We’re not just going to make it through, we’re coming out way on top!”  Christopher’s faith expanded too as he said, “I am so proud of you for standing so strong in your faith while things don’t look like they’re going like we want them sometimes!”

Listen.  What voices do those you’ve spoken into use?  Do they have a willing heart?  Check your own heart and set the pace for those following you.  They’re there.

Last week I was at the church doing some more of the construction on our build-out, and I was talking with another man there.  We were talking about speaking faithful words, you know: “God is faithful.  I’m above and not beneath.  Things look promising!”

Then I said, “What if a man has been praying, begging God to show him his place in the Body of Christ?  ‘Dear God,’ he might say. ‘All I know is auto mechanics, and that’s not a gift you can use in the church!  We don’t even have a bus ministry!’ And he hears a small voice in his heart say to ask people how they’re doing, and if somebody’s car needs work just bless them.

“Now fast forward to Sunday when a church member is frustrated because she barely made it to church because her car is running so badly.  Our friend hands her a church bulletin as she walks through the door, and he hears that still small voice telling him to ask her how she’s doing. ‘I’m blessed beyond measure!’ she responds.  He presses, ‘Is there anything you need prayer or help with today?’ but she holds up the facade of perfection, looks down her nose at him and says, ‘I told you My God supplies all my needs and I am blessed!’

“She goes into church without having her automobile prayer answered.  He goes into church wondering if he just thought that whole thing up and God wasn’t speaking to his spirit.  The church is not helped.”

Sometimes the Purpose behind the action has to be bigger than whatever is going on.  Please read the story of Felipe.  He’s a picture of a much bigger purpose than the circumstances he went through to reach it.

I was at Christopher’s baseball game the other night and on the side of the announcer’s booth they had the years listed when the high school we were visiting had won championships.  You’ve seen that kind of thing, right?  You go to a pro sports game and they have huge banners with the years listed when they came out on top.

At that high school I noticed that they won 3 years in a row back in the ’70′s, but since then they never had a stretch more than 2 years.  Win – Win – Lose.  Win – Win – Lose.  Sigh.  I wonder if they fired their athletic director every 3 years.  I don’t know.

This chapter also makes me remember that there is more than one game in a season just like there is more than one battle in a war.  God has a plan for you and me, and it’s not so we lose the war.

I hope you look at possible setbacks from a God-type of point of view.  I believe that often there might be something we would call a retreat or even a defeat, but God is calling for a repositioning in our lives in order to set us up for our next victory!

If you were in a military troup and you were ordered to storm a particular hill, that makes sense.  But if that hill was no longer important for the ultimate victory, the senior officer might call for a totally different assignment in a totally different place.  Would you allow your inner dialogue to say, “Well we sure lost that one!”  You’d only say that if you didn’t trust your leader.

God knows how to train us.  He knows how to position us.  And He surely knows how to bring us through to victory.  Don’t give up in the middle!

Pastor Sergio knows how to grab me at the first part of each chapter.  In this one he mentions the award winning movies getting those prizes mainly because of the script writers.  Script.  Scripture.  See the same word there?

Actors may ad lib when they’re filming, but the script calls for things to move toward a specific goal in a specific way.  Personal embellishment has to advance that way or it gets cut from the movie.

The Author of Scripture wrote you a perfect part, and it’s not a Tragedy/Drama/Horror movie!  It’s a Romantic/Comedy/Adventure!  He wants us to discover our real identity in His script.

It might look bleak right now for you, or it might look like you’re center-stage doing well, the truth is that the story is still moving forward and you haven’t even reached the climax of the story yet!  No matter what script you’ve been carrying around inside of you, whatever you may have been handed by the previous generation, let the Script Editor in Heaven do a rewrite wherever the main story’s been compromised.

I promise you’ll get to the scene where it pays off — as long as you don’t quit while this Movie is still being filmed!  The Bible says it this way: “Don’t grow weary in well-doing, because the right time will come when you will receive your payoff, as long as you don’t give up in the meantime.”

Chapter 17 is titled Born To Win.  Charles L. Allen is quoted at the beginning and its great.  Read it and stop and think about it for a moment.

The first sermon that I ever repreached (meaning somebody else preached it, I took notes, got his permission, and preached it myself,) was Jentezen Franklin showing the church that once the Holy Spirit enters the picture, you can’t go before God and rip your clothes before him

All through the Bible, people would tear their clothes when they came to a situation that was unwinnable.  It was not possible to overcome.  It could not possibly be something that God could help with.  God was not big enough to help them overcome it.

See the last one?  We know God is not small, but when we declare one way or another that it’s hopeless, we’re telling God the situation is bigger than He is.  Kinda dumb, huh?

Don’t you love stories of underdogs who come out on top?  I’m one of those.  You’re one of those.  And the whole world is waiting to hear how you and I held onto our faith like a dog on a steak, and not only made it through, but plowed a row for others to make it out too!

The last step in any good 12-step program is to reach back and help somebody else make it through.  HOW can we do that if we don’t hold on tight to the Lord’s hand and get out too?  He created us to WIN with Him, not lose alone.

The Miracle of Forgiveness.  Look, I’m not trying to distill every chapter here.  I recommend you buy the book and read and reread and reread it, and mark it up with a pen and highlighter and get another one.  What I do want to do with this series of posts is digitally highlight what the chapters initially trigger for me.  And maybe spark a personal trigger for you.

The Miracle in this chapter doesn’t look like forgiving makes everything that happened disappear and pretend it never happened.  Any battle leaves scars.  Ask Jesus about His sometime.  But the scars aren’t open wounds.  Scars mean the healing has completed.  They mean the hurt happened but it didn’t kill you!

If you have a big scar somebody put on you or in you, don’t waste it!!  You can take the power away from that old wound by forgiving, and giving that forgiveness to the one who cut you to start with.

Scars show that you made it through.  I know they’re not pretty.  I know you were hurt.  We all have been there.  But scars are also a badge of honor — if you  deal with them honorably.

Don’t carry that hurt anymore.  Totally take the power away from the hurt by performing your own personal miracle and watch what God can do in your own life and the one you forgive.

Did you see the comment half way down page 111?  It says:

The greatest inheritance we as parents can leave for our children is the innate desire to make things right in our relationships.

Our kids are watching how their parents treat each other.  They are watching how the previous generation — that’s us — deals with difficulty, disagreement, all the dis’es.  Now that I write that, it almost looks like the word disease.

Weak areas will be exposed for the rest of your life.  It is NOT the best thing trying to pretend you don’t have weak areas.  It is NOT the best thing even to try not to have weak areas.  The best thing … THE best thing is to learn to DEAL with them as God reveals them.

How do you know when God is revealing a weakness?  Perhaps as soon as you’re aware of it.  God makes everything beautiful in His time, and His time is the moment He shows you.

Finish the forgiveness process.  Do what you can to make the relationship right.  It doesn’t matter who was “right.”  You’re mandate is to do everything you can to make the relationship right if you can.