The Losses of Lawsuits

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ...I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? 1 Corinthians 6:1,5

Caution: Your witness is at risk. If you are not careful, then every time you try to talk about God you will actually turn people away from Him because of the way you live.

We need to set up guardrails on our lives to keep from entering those danger areas where we lose our witness, where our lives for Christ are tarnished because we are really living life for ourselves.

One area we need to especially guard is in the area of lawsuits. This is truly countercultural, because our nation is so suit-happy that justice is often turned upside-down as people chase after perceived slights and wrongs, really just embarrassing themselves and our whole nation.

Lawsuits are especially terrible when one believer sues another believer. The Church is a family and it dishonors the family when two siblings can't get along, bringing their spat publicly before an unbelieving judge to decide between them.

It makes me think of Jerry Springer, where families regularly air their dirty laundry and little spats and fickle arguments before a national audience. Never do these families resolve anything by doing this. Instead, these families are embarrassing themselves! They are bringing shame upon shame to their family name!

This is what it is like if we bring lawsuits against one another! What witness do we have left if we do this to one another? None!

Instead, we must choose to be thankful and to pursue peace with one another. If we will maintain thankfulness, then we will not cross over into the bitter selfishness that leads to lawsuits.

Let us be thankful and at peace with one another at all costs. And if for some reason we must argue our case, then let us turn to the wise believers among us to determine justice. This is a family matter. Let it stay within the family and not ruin the witness of the Church of God.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Please forgive us for ruining Your name by suing one another and bickering with our brothers and sisters before the eyes of the world! Restore real justice and righteousness to Your Church, and start with me as I choose to prefer being wronged, lest I lose my witness for You.

Amen

The Promise of the Presence of the Power of the Holy Spirit

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free-and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13

Think with me about the relationships you have with other people in the body of Christ. How strong are those relationships? What is the focus of those relationships and where do they fall on your priority list?

How many people within your church are there with whom you have a conflict? If they walked in the room, you would feel uncomfortable. Can you think of them?

Hear me now-no matter what our experience is with relationships in the body of Christ-no matter the conflicts, no matter how uncool some of us might be, no matter what-we are one body and we need to start acting like it.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth to address an issue of unity there. Much like now, this was not an isolated problem found in only one church. In fact, Paul addressed similar issues in nearly all of his letters.

The problem was that there were Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free people, and the mindsets behind these divisions were deeply rooted in the people. All these groups and classes of people came together to church. Free people looked down on slaves. Slaves didn't know how to live with freedom in Christ. And Jews and Gentiles had to come together from completely different worlds.

Paul gave them one message to help clear up all the confusion: You are one body. It does not matter who you have been or how the world classifies you, when you believe in Jesus then you become part of His one body, unified and united with all other believers throughout the whole world.

We hear the same message today and it requires us to lay down all of our own agendas, our own preferences, our own way of thinking, so that we can serve and bless one another, helping one another become the part of the body that God created them to be. It requires us to honor one another for who God made them to be, allowing them to contribute what God has given them in a God-honoring way.

Like it or not, we are one body, and we need to start acting like it.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

Thank You for dying for me! I know that I am a unique part of Your body, but I choose to lay down my own rights so that I can serve my fellow believers. Please help me to unify Your body!

Amen

Women Drivers

And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. 1 Corinthians 15:49

Do you know what one of the most important traits parents need today is? Courage.

I want to speak some new, fresh courage into your life as parents, so let me share the story of one really courageous mom-the mother of Moses. Let me set the scene for you,

because things were really bad.

First of all, the Pharaoh of Egypt was afraid of Israel, so he made life miserable for them by enslaving them under cruel, rigorous labor. Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, he ordered the Hebrew midwives to kill all the boys they delivered, but let the girls live.

Well, here's the beginning of the courage, because the midwives feared God more than Pharaoh and refused to obey him. God blessed them for that faithfulness, giving them their own homes and families. We need to start here, too, to have the courage to say to the rulers of the culture that surrounds us, We're not going there. We're not getting pulled down. God will bless us for that; you can claim it as a promise.

So then comes, Jochebed, Moses' mom, who sees Moses and says, I'm going to be courageous like those midwives. As all the other mothers around her lost their children or gave them away to death, she said, No way; I'm holding on. And because of her faith, just as God blessed the midwives, God also blessed Jochebed by saving Moses and giving him to her until he was weaned.

Now, we need to personalize this story, because this is a real mom and her real baby. It's not some flannelgraph story stuck up on the board of some Sunday school classroom. It's real, as real as you and me. And if we'll make it real in our hearts, then the courage we see in the story can become ours, too.

I'm telling you what, this mom here refuses to give in. She says, Enough. My child is not going down with this Egyptian way of life and culture. My kid is going to grow up to know the Lord. My kid is going to be taught the ways of the Lord.

Listen, we need some courageous moms and dads like this in our culture who stand up and say, My kids belong to Jesus; there is no way I'm losing them to the world. I will establish guardrails that keep my kids on the right path. They will love Jesus all their days, period.

I'm telling you, it can happen. You do not have to lose your children to the world. Don't let it happen. Decide now to be courageous.

Prayer Lord God,

Thank You that I can trust You as I step out in courage and faith against all the culture around me! With You as my great big help, I determine today that my children will love You all their lives!

Amen

Good Grief

And He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.' 2 Corinthians 12:9

I remember when our oldest child, Mitch, was born, he was born blue. He came out with the cord wrapped around him. And as soon as Mitch came out, they grabbed him and about sixteen specialists raced into the room, people that I didn't even know were there. They were pumping his little chest and trying to get him to start breathing. And finally one of the docs leans over and looks at me and says, Hey, are you the dad? I said yes. And he said, Well, you ought to come over here and speak to him, because you're the only voice he'll recognize.

So I walked over there and I'm telling him, Breathe, baby. And I realized that God is like that. In the midst of your grief, grief so intense that you don't even know if you can breathe again, His voice is right there, speaking over you, My grace is sufficient for you!

Well, praise God, Mitch came home. We were so thrilled to have him. But five months later he's sick again. Like way sick. His whole little lungs and chest would just sort of cave in with every breath. We raced him back to Children's and into this oxygen tank he went for three days and three nights. I was scared to death.

In fact, the family that we shared the room with lost their child to the very same thing that our child had. It rocked us to our core, and I cried out as many of you haven't-Lord remove this. Take this. Give it to me. Don't give it to him.

Our grief in that moment was more than we thought we could handle. But I can tell you that it was that moment of the unbroken presence of the Lord that our faith as a family was catapulted, and our church was birthed out of pain and grief and out of really feeling a loss of control, leading us to completely trust in Jesus.

I remember years later, Mitch was fine and healthy and doing good, but then Bon got sick. My wife gets sick. First they thought it was MS, then something else, and they're scaring us to death, but then the final news came: It was ovarian cancer at off the charts levels.

Making a very long story short, God has completely healed my wife, but here's our testimony of God's grace in our grief: Our family has been forever bonded together during these times God has allowed, proving that His grace is sufficient and teaching us things that we never would have learned otherwise.

All of you have had grief and pain. Let God's grace come in today and create something good out of the grief.

Prayer Lord God,

I cry out to You that my grief really hurts! I honestly don't know how much more I can bear, but I put my trust in You and ask that You use this to create something beautiful and wonderful for Your glory.

Amen

Recommitment

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because...He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.' Luke 4:18

Here is a list of the devil's greatest weapons against marriage: Broken hearts, imprisoned lives, and eyes that fail to see reality.

None of us plan to get divorced when we are standing at the altar to be wed. This tells me that, under normal circumstances, we would choose to stay married for the rest of our lives. Why is it, then, that so many people get divorced? The answer is that these weapons sneak into our hearts and pervert our will until we make choices we would never normally make. For example, broken hearts never completely mend with time. Instead, they become like infected wounds that, though they are not bleeding anymore, still painfully hurt every time they are touched. So when our spouse does something that remotely hits that sore spot, we react out of pain-not from what our spouse did, but from what someone else once did that broke our heart. This reaction often causes more pain and begins to divide our marriage, and soon we wonder how we are ever going to feel the love again when all we feel is hurt.

Or consider a life imprisoned by pornography, drugs, or alcohol. You can try with all your might to remain faithful to your spouse, but your addiction leads you to do things you hate. You know the destruction your habits are causing, but you don't know how to get free. These issues lead to our last one-eyes that fail to see reality. Broken hearts and captive lives communicate certain devastating lies-He doesn't love me. Our marriage is hopeless. These are not the truth, but they are things that people say out of pain and desperation. He does love you, but he's captive and needs help. She does love you, but her heart is broken and she needs you to be her hero right now and not deepen the wounds by abandoning her.

We try to reason away these lies by saying, If I had known she was that kind of person, I never would have married her. Well, guess what-Jesus knew you were that kind of person and that's why He came-to heal the brokenhearted, give sight to the blind, and set the cap-

tives free, and in so doing prepare for Himself a pure and spotless bride.

We have all been part of the problem, but He came to be the solution. Whatever difficulty you are facing in your marriage right now, there is hope. Turn to Jesus today and ask Him to do in your marriage what He has promised.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

You are God and You can do all things! I need a miracle in my marriage. Please heal our broken hearts, set us free, and help us to see true reality. Please make our marriage all You desire it to be!

Amen

All Aboard

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come. 1 Corinthians 16:1-2

You've got to think things through. Have you ever heard that before?

I have, and it's amazing how much most of us need to hear it again. Because here's the deal-we can be passionate about something, but if we don't think things all the way through to a plan, then our passion will go unfulfilled. We'll get to the end of the day and it won't have gotten done.

Yes, kids, I want to play with you, but just let me finish this first. But then something else comes up, and then another thing, and then another, and you never play with the kids to show them that they're important. But what I was doing was important! Really? It was more important than your kids?

We couldn't write a tithe check this week. We had to pay our bills first. But if you hadn't financed your way into debt-buying that top of the line entertainment system, that brand new vehicle to replace the one that worked just fine, that house you wanted instead of the one you could afford-then maybe you could write that check that God requires.

We have to understand something very important. Maybe your kids are a top priority in your life. Maybe you really have a generous heart and want to give (maybe you even like it when I preach on money!). Maybe you love God more than anything else in the whole world.

But if you don't know how to plan, then the urgency of the moment will always trump your deeper passions and loves.

When you make decisions today, pause for a moment and consider what impacts those decisions will have later in life. Or even better, consider where God has called you to be in the future and determine what steps are required to get there.

Then, the next time you need to write your tithe check, respond to an opportunity to serve someone, or are called to play with your kids, you will be able to say yes because you will have prepared for it in advance.

Don't be a slave to the moment. Plan, and be prepared to live your life according to God's will on purpose.

Prayer Lord Jesus,

You have a plan for my life, and I want to do more than just stumble upon it someday; I want to purposefully live it out every day. Please help me to plan so that when Your call comes, I will be fully prepared to say yes.

Amen

The Closet Connection

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as Hit is in heaven...Amen. Matthew 6:9-13

How's your prayer life these days? Is it filled with life and life abundantly, or is it on life support?

You know, prayer is not how we think if it, like sitting on Santa's lap and giving him our wish list. No, prayer should be about God's thoughts for you, not your thoughts for Him. It should be about you coming into His presence and being overtaken, overwhelmed by His thoughts for you, filled with His dreams for you, filled for His visions for you, filled with His plans for you.

Prayer is to step you out of this world and into this eternal realm of God's purpose and destiny. It's a destiny in which you now are letting go and letting God fully take over your life, your marriage, the raising of your kids; letting Him have His way fully and completely with you.

It was about fourteen years ago that something absolutely transforming happened to my life. It actually happened in a little room that used to be off to the side in the church sanctuary, a small storage closet.

Dr. Bill Bright was the president of Campus Crusade and we had the privilege of having him come to Horizon. Between the services that weekend, Bill Bright invited me to go into that closet with him. In that small room, he looked at me and he said, Bobby, are you praying?

Wow. I'm like, Well, Bill, I pray.

He goes, No, I mean like really praying. Because, Bob, I just really sense the presence of the Lord in this church and He wants to show up and mightily move through this ministry, but He needs to have all of you. Are you praying? Are you fasting?

Long story short, I started praying. I called a small group of leaders to a forty day fast. Since that time, we've gone from two services a week to nine a week and from a fulltime staff of one or two to 152. We have a school that is packed full. Our sermons are broadcast on the radio all over the world.

All because Bill Bright taught me to pray, and to really pray. Because God is faithful and He has great big plans for Horizon, and without Him, none of these things would have happened.

God has great big plans for your life. Who knows what would start happening around you if you simply really prayed?

Prayer Lord God,

Thanks for the big plans You have for my life! I come to You today to hear from You about those plans, and whatever they are, I want them. Please come and have Your way in me and teach me to pray until Your plans become my reality.

Amen