Today is Father’s Day, but I would like to call it “Fathering Day”. Do you know why? Just because you have children, it does not make you a father. Get your children to tell you how you did in the parenting field. It might not have gone how you thought it did. Your children have a completely different view on things.
The biggest thing in parenting is discipline. Don’t be too strict, but do not be too lax, either. There is a balance between the two. Discipline realistically. You should let your children make decisions for themselves, but teach them what they should do, first, and warn them about what is out there and what could happen should they get themselves stuck in it.

Throughout all of Paul’s letters, he tells the churches to be like Christ, however, in verses sixteen and seventeen, he tells the Corinthian church that he is their spiritual father, and that they should imitate him. He brings correction into the here and now, telling them to do as he does, not as Christ did in the past. The Bible doesn’t do the hard stuff for us; we do it. We show our children how to live by what we do. If your children see you treating your wife or husband badly, that is how they will treat their spouse. Take responsibility for your life and the actions you take.

There is a difference between instructing and fathering. Fathering requires heart. Do not only tell your children what to do, and how to live their lives. Love them. Affection is modeled. If you do not show the love you have for your children, then they will have a hard time farther down the line, when they try to show affection of their own. Speak well into your children’s lives. They want it. Be honest and real; make sure that they know that correction comes out of love.

Father’s Day is either the best day, or the worst day. Many people have horrible memories of their fathers. Many fathers out there are either missing or abusive. However, the greatest redemptive moment is when you use your mess to help someone else who is going through it. There is a point in time, and it becomes easier to forgive and forget the hurt and pain that was caused to you.

Never forget that your children are watching you, and that what you do in life will become apparent in their own lives. Be real with them. Show them that they are loved, and make sure that they never forget it.

There is a big difference between being a believer and a disciple. Most people probably don’t stop and really think about this. Most people probably picture a bearded man in sandals when the hear the word disciple. What’s more, most people probably tend to think that the end of their faith journey culminates in their belief, in their salvation moment. A lifetime spent away from God pivots upon the events of one morning, wherein a person’s heart becomes inexplicably soft—by a pointed sermon or a moment of worship or even the power withheld in the very name of Jesus himself—they respond to that altar call, confess their sins, give their life to Christ, and then for many, they’re done. Not so for the disciple.

Getting saved by Jesus is the easiest task one could ever hope to perform. One doesn’t have to accomplish anything by their own cleverness or effort. One doesn’t need to do anything period. Except surrender their pride and accept the gift. It is, after all, the Holy Spirit who is doing the saving anyway. It’s his work to his glory; not yours. Consider it this way: if salvation were the goal for humanity, if it alone was the charge of the Great Commission, then Scripture would read, “Go into all the world and save people.” Instead it reads, “make disciples of all nations.” Disciples, unlike Christians, are not born. They are made.

Concerning the passage from Matthew above, before the charge to his disciples to go make more disciples, Jesus commands the remaining eleven to go to “the mountain” in Galilee. Scholars have debated to which Galilean mountain he directed them. Some have argued that it was perhaps Mt. Carmel, where Elijah slew the false prophets of Baal. Others have suggested Mt. Table. I personally believe that it was Mt. Hermon, a coastal mountain overlooking Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus had once taken his disciples and proclaimed “I will build my church” (Matthew 16: 13-20). It is this same mountain that Peter, James, John, and Jesus ascend in Matthew 17, where the Lord appears transfigured and meets with Moses and Elijah. Mt. Hermon is, in short, a significant site to the disciples, and thus likely the one mentioned in this week’s passage.

So here Jesus takes all eleven disciples and, overlooking the pagan colony of Caesarea Philippi and all the sinners within, he commands, “Go and make disciples of all the nations.” What, then, is the difference between the saved and the disciples? For one thing, discipleship is necessarily beyond salvation. It’s the next, big step in one’s faith walk. Again, being saved is easy; becoming a disciple, on the other hand, takes work. It takes, according to this passage, first being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now, this naturally constitutes an actual physical water baptism by which one publicly and symbolically demonstrates their physical death and rebirth in Christ, but it also suggests that we are to be baptized in the name, or, in other words, immersed in the spirit of God. God has a hand in our salvation, to be sure, but He also guides us toward discipleship after He finally gets His hands on our lives.

We must get out of His way so that He may do so, however. One must never underestimate the power of his own will. As C.S. Lewis once suggested, the spirit of God “cannot ravish. He can only woo.” So if the God of Heaven, who merely spoke the cosmos into existence, can approach the door of your spirit but cannot (or rather, will not) force His way through, then we can conclude that a man’s will is a strangely powerful thing. So to become a disciple, finally, we must allow God to take our hand and lead us deeper into Himself. Once this happens, we’ll begin to feel convicted about our sin. We’ll begin to actually want to spend time in prayer, in worship, and in the Word. Getting saved, you see, cleanses our spirit but doesn’t change our bad habits or attitudes. Going deeper into God’s teachings and truths is what ultimately transforms our lives from believers to disciples. We begin to talk differently, act differently. We begin, in short, to live our faith as well as believe it.

A challenge facing Christianity today is that we have a great many Christians and too few disciples. We need more disciples in the kingdom, more Christians walking out, not just believing in, their faith. If the original eleven disciples multiplied and, in time, transformed the the Roman Empire from a land of unrestrained paganism to the site of the early Church, how much more of an impact will a kingdom of disciples have today? Certainly have we more than eleven disciples at the present moment. Our focus, then, as a Church should be to foster a community of discipleship, and not belief only.

There are three different layers to this miracle. The first layer is provision. The couple at this particular wedding ran out of wine. You don’t want to run out of wine at a Jewish wedding. It’s not good. Jewish weddings last for days, and the people feast on wine and good food. If you run out of wine, you will be looked down upon, as poor and lowly, but when you invite Jesus to your party, or your life, you will always be provided for. He doesn’t go half-way, either. He created the best wine from dirty water. With Jesus, you will always have the best of the best.

The second layer of this miracle is obedience. The servants had no idea what filling pots with dirty water would do. Still, they did what Jesus told them to. When your plans fall apart, do what Jesus says- even though it is hard, and all it feels like you’re doing is carry dirty water. The servants had to carry 180 gallon pots to the river and back. They did this when Jesus told them to. They did not ask why, they just did it. All Jesus asks of us is to carry a burden, not give up, and do something crazy. The Bible does not say when the water turned into wine, but we know that when the servant dipped the cup into the pot, it was water, and somewhere in the middle of his obedient walk to the master of the banquet, it turned into the best wine. If God can get us involved in our miracles then they will stick.

The third layer of this miracle is that we are the pots- God wants to cleanse us and fill us with something priceless. The substance inside of the pots started out as dirty water from the river, and wound up as wine, the best wine. God wants to do that in our lives. he wants to take all that is in our hearts and make it better, clean it up and make it beautiful. You don’t even know when your water turns to wine but it happens. Somewhere in the walk of being obedient, a miracle happens.

This is a hard story to read, especially for those of us who are “Make it happen” people. It is almost too easy to look at this story and get angry with Jesus; how could he not tell Mary to get up and help her sister who is obviously working so hard? It is natural to feel more for poor Martha, who is running around doing all these things to make sure Jesus is comfortable in her home. The answer is a matter of perspective.

Perspective is a matter of the heart. Both good and bad experiences in life can alter our perspective of the world around us. Good experiences make the world seem bright. You feel like you can do anything. God is easy to trust and His people are easy to get along with. Yet, in the same way, bad expereinces make life hard, dark, and unfair. Suddenly, God is far away and uncaring and His people make you angry. Church is like a washingmachine. You get tossed up against people of different makes and colors, and if you heart perspective is in the negative, these people will make you angry.

Perspective has a lasting effect and can alter the course of your life. Take, for example, the spies who scouted the Promise Land when Moses was leading the people of Israel verses the spies who scouted the Promised Land when Joshua was leading.Both groups saw the same thing, but the first group spoke negatively of what they saw. Their perspective was one of defeat. They said it could not be done, so they never conquored the land. However, Joshua’s spies came back with a positive look on the situation. They knew God was with them. They said it could be done. And it was. Joshua led the people in taking the land. They had the Heavenly perspective.

Heaven’s perspective is the true reality. But how can that be right? What we see around us is reality, right? Wrong! God’s perspective, though contradictory to the world’s and baffeling to the human mind, is the true reality. God sees that it can be done. God sees the good in the moment. God sees the oppurtunity. And so can we if we allow ourselves to be aligned with God’s will. God’s will is written in His word. We align ourselves with it by studying His word. When we do this, suddenly the circumstances of the world stop effecting our perspective. Suddenly, we see things thorugh the Heavenly perspective; God’s true reality.

Back to Mary and Martha. Martha’s perspective of life was altered by her thinking. She wanted control of her world. She wanted to do everything and be involved in everything and make everything perfect. Her children were in line. Her husband did as told. She was the leading women’s minister in her church. She had it all! So, when Jesus came to town, she naturally opened her house to Him. She cleaned until her house shown. She worked hard to put together a great meal that would display her cooking proess. She made sure that everyone was comfortable in her beautiful home. Everything was in order…

…Except for Mary. Mary, her younger sister, was sitting at Jesus’ feet! To Martha, that was disgraceful! No self respecting woman of faith should ever sit at the feet of a man! She was furious! Didn’t her siste rsee her running around doing all this work? She should be helping! In an indignant huff, Martha demands that Jesus tell Mary to help her. She would show her sister how things were to be done. Service was what a woman of faith did, and Jesus would back her up on this!

But Jesus didn’t. He did something that threw Martha’s perfect order out of balance. He publically reprimands her. He tells her that Mary has chosen the right thing, and He would not take it from her. At first read, that seems really harsh. Why would He say that? That’s so mean! But, when the perspective is shifted, His true heart is revealled. He’s saying to her, “Calm down. Stop bustling about and come sit with me for a while. I want to see you.” Jesus was jealous for her company. He wanted to hang out with her, not watch her run around the house in a frenzy trying to impress Him with her order. He wanted her to let go.

You seem Mary chose to be teachable. God wants us to be teachable. Being teachable means we are open to God. We allow Him to come in and shift our hearts. He aligns us to His will. When we let go of our lives, nothing holds us back from following Him. Our pasts no longer dictate to us who we are and what we can do. Our God is a BIG GOD! He is a SUPERNATURAL GOD! He CAN DO ANYTHING! And we can do anything when we align ourselves with His will which is written in His word!

We want to go to new places. We want to go into new things with God that we have never seen before. We are all at different levels, and some of us are moving from being part time Christians to living for God full time. Some people just fit God into their lives, but they don’t understand that their lives are minute compared to the big life God has for them when they commit full time. It’s moving from dial up Christianity to permanently connected. Always in a sense and posture of alertness to God. Developing a full time sensitivity to the Spirit. Being comfortable in the Word, and being able to navigate it and apply it. Praying without ceasing instead of just when we need something.

Doing God part time fences God in and fences our lives in. It puts God in a box and says “This is where God is.” A full bold life is sensing where God is and what He is doing all the time. It is a life that doesn’t limit God’s power in our lives. One of the misconceptions we need to get rid of is the “man of God syndrome”, which is “the man of God is more in touch with God, has his prayers answered more and is more in tune with God.” It is the misconception that pastors have more access or more rights as Christians.This isn’t true.

I am on a journey to release God’s people and see them have the life that God wants to give them – a full life in Him. When you see someone break free and realize what God has for them, it is like fuel to keep you going. When people start their journey with Jesus, they have no idea who God is and no conception of right or wrong. But as we continue on the journey, we get revelations and move into a bigger and bigger life in God. It’s easy to get jaded, and just go through the motions after awhile. But when you see someone discover Jesus and come out of the messes of their lives, it is the most amazing feeling. I never want to lose that feeling that we have when we see people’s lives being changed by the hand of God.

The problem with the man of God syndrome is that we think “that is only for some people.” But one of my biggest dreams is to see the body of Christ released into full time ministry. We are never going to get too busy that we aren’t reaching out and helping people. There is so much potential inside of people – so much of God just sitting there waiting to be unlocked and released. I want to unlock the God in people. It’s not hard – you believe in people. Encouragement is a spiritual gift that we can all operate in. It isn’t a specific gift or talent. Demonstrating the love of Jesus is something we can all do.

Acts 7: The first church – Church happened at the Temple, but it didn’t stop at the Temple. If the modern church has missed anything from the first church it is this: church doesn’t stop at the Temple. In modern culture – predominantly – church is based only around the Temple. In the first church, they would come to worship and then “they would break bread house to house”. There were twelve apostles. Those in the upper room were leaders. At this point the church was over 10,000 people. So they were teaching and ordaining and raising up and releasing as fast as they could to meet the needs of a church that large. When the persecution came, they couldn’t meet in the Temple so it was only house to house – no big meetings. They started getting together in small groups, reading the Word, worshiping God and having church – no man of God needed.

Acts 7 is a message, preached by Stephen. He was one of the serving members of the church. He was one of the seven chosen to distribute food to the poor and the widows. He was out on the streets helping people, but he also seemed to know his Bible. He was taught well and preached very eloquently – how the prophets of old were pointing to Jesus as the Messiah – even though he wasn’t an apostle. The servants of the church can be as knowledgeable as the ordained. In fact, the anointing that was on Stephen was one of the most powerful in the Bible. A servant’s heart opens up the door for God to take you to the next level. Servanthood unlocks our destiny in God. We can consume God, or we can serve God and let him do something through us.

v54: The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen, but Stephen stood steadfastly, and looked to Heaven and saw the glory of God – saw Jesus. But the leaders became enraged and drug him out of the city and stoned him. Why is it that a little servant boy could be sensitive to the presence of God – see Jesus at the right hand of God – but the religious leaders couldn’t (who argued that they were ordained) couldn’t see God when He was in their midst? They stoned Stephen, but he says “Forgive them Lord,” as Jesus did on the cross. Being fenced in, locked up in fear and not reaching our potential is the greatest sin we can walk in our life. Not being prepared to forsake all, forsake our pride, forsake our reputation. We aren’t talking about being crazy or alienating the people we are trying to reach. We are talking about being a servant and letting the light of God shine through us.

The launch of the church in Jerusalem happens because of Stephen’s message – not Peter, not John. It was Stephen’s message that brought the Persecution and the explosion of the church – His servant’s heart took the church to a whole new level. He acted with no fear, not caring about the repercussions or what people were going to think or say. That’s where God is. Being passionate about helping people. Being passionate about injustice in the world. Being passionate about what the love of Jesus and the power of God can do in people’s lives. The big life – not being trapped – is about discovering the potential in all of us and then moving forward boldly, in faith, in fast forward and allowing God to do something through us. It may just start with making a new friend. Step out. Do something crazy.

Big life. Big opportunity. Big God. It’s not about things, it’s about doing something for God.

Capacity and bigness – we are going to make this a “no small life zone”.

A lot of times I speak in such a way as to not offend people. I try to be gentle, but I won’t take that approach with this subject. Because of the Olympics coming up, I have been doing a lot of research lately into professional athletes. These people train for years and years in the hopes that they will perform and excel in a single moment. They focus their whole life on one moment. The majority of athletes will never win a medal, and many train knowing they will never win a medal. But does this stop them from training to their fullest anyway? It doesn’t stop them because most athletes in the Olympics aren’t trying to win a medal. Most athletes are just trying to perform their best – at their top capacity. They give their lives to mastering their personal best and performing at their peak. It’s intense sacrifice.

Let’s bring this into the Kingdom. Let’s think about a church or a group of people who are going to start thinking and operating and sacrificing and goal setting and performing and being disciplined in the way that these athletes do. Let’s start to think about a group of people who are going to the next level. I know that is a cliche, but it is a good one. I want us to shatter the old records. I want to obliterate the best we have done before. I want to get into the race and smash the record. I am talking about living your life in front of the record – in front of where you have been. I am talking about living your life in a totally new place.

You don’t just stumble to get there. It takes discipline, focus and sacrifice. It doesn’t come for free, and it doesn’t come cheap. So why do you want to put yourself through that? Why do you want to live your life at your peak performance? Because it’s time to get radical. I believe in sustained lifestyle, but I also know that there are seasons and times when we need to perform at a peak level. Most people are never willing to pay the price, because the sacrifice to have ever part of your body performing at peak level is immense. I am giving permission for radical behavior for anyone who wants to be radical. There are people giving their lives to the presidential race. People are donating money and time, and organizing themselves so passionately around their candidate because they believe so much. There are athletes giving up their whole lives for an Olympic moment and an Olympic dream. This level of passion is inspiring. Sometimes they make the church look lethargic and ineffective.

Passion is connected to peak performance – to generating fruit for a cause. I don’t get depressed by someone’s passion for something. Whether or not I agree with their cause, I get inspired by their passion. They are usually radical people. It starts with a little maverick streak and a sense of not wanting to go with the status quo. A sense that you want to break out, be different, and not be counted amongst the mediocre or the same as everyone else. In sports they call it the Independent Spirit.

The Kingdom is the many, but it is also the one. He left the ninety-nine to go after the one. The Kingdom is all of us, but it functions on what is going on in the individual. When what God is doing in you joins with what is going on with others, you have the church. But without a bunch of passionate people with the individual fire burning on the inside, it doesn’t work and you only have a small group that is fired up and passionate. I don’t want one small group fired up and passionate – I want the whole church fired up and passionate. Working for peak performance. Working to shatter records in how we treat others, our attitudes, our giving – all the attitudes of kingdom life. We are going to get ahead of previous levels and smash records to do radical things for the Kingdom.

I am focused on the goal. I am focused on starting a fire. I am focused on passion level increasing. It will manifest itself. Sometimes it will take some guts – you have to stand up and be radical. You have to be passionate about what you believe and be passionate for God and spreading the Kingdom. Shake up the status quo. Don’t get held up by religiosity, arbitrary parameters or other obstacles. We are doing this so we can reach people. Be passionate about it. Get on fire for God – fire makes people bold. When we get bold, God starts doing awesome things.