Saturday, February 6, 2016

February 7, 2016

"You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind; and you are to love your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27

Super Bowl 50 will be played tonight in the San Francisco Bay Area. You know you are old when they hang half a hundred on the Super Bowl designation and you remember a time when there was no Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl has endured over 50 NFL seasons because it show cases greatness and people admire greatness. This evening the two greatest teams for this season in their respective conferences will go head-to-head with a world-wide audience looking on.

What the NFL fears the most is a "so what" Super Bowl, one where millions of fans turn off their TV's in the third quarter saying, "So what? I have better things to do."

When football is played at the highest level on the largest stage, good won't be good enough! I expect the greatest effort possible from the greatest players on the greatest teams to create a great game.

Once the whistle blows tonight and the ball is kicked off to the receiving team, the NFL, the team owners, the TV network, the game sponsors, the coaches and millions of fan will expect an "all in" effort from every player. The only way to greatness is to play with their heart, their soul, their strength and their mind fully committed to every snap of the ball. Good enough isn't good enough for the Super Bowl!

In the Great Commandment quoted about, God is laying out the same expectations for those who make the claim of loving Him. He has called His people, THE CHURCH, who gather in local churches to love Him and serve Him with an "all in" effort. God calls His people to have their heart, their soul, their strength and their mind fully committed to Him every day, every way for every "play".

The worst thing that can happen for God's Church is for people to look at a church or look at the Faith and say "So What?" That's exactly what happens when Christians and churches are willing to justify themselves and say, "We're good enough."

At FredWes we want to love people to life. That demands that each of us be "all in" with ALL or heart and ALL our soul and ALL our strength and ALL our mind. We want to make those who look at the church and say "So what?" to be able to look at your life and at my life and at FredWes and SEE WHAT!

That's our "Super Goal" on Super Bowl Sunday and beyond!

February 6, 2016

But he wanted to justify himself…….” Luke 10:27

I was an average basketball player but I wanted to be good.

I was a good baseball player but I wanted to be great.

I won the Senior Club Championship and was named Golfer of the Year at Pendleton Golf Club this year, so I must be pretty good. I think I could be very good if I had the time to practice and play more often but I will never be great.

If someone would have offered me the chance to be great in any of these sports I would accepted that offer in a heartbeat.

But the lawyer in this story illustrates that perhaps the greatest enemy to being great is being good.

Jesus was offering this man a chance at greatest but he just wanted to justify himself. In other words, he just wanted to feel good about himself and look good in the eyes of others. So he missed out on his offer of greatness.

Goodness can be comfortable but greatness requires you to stretch beyond your comfort zone. To be great you must be all in, as in “love God with ALL your heart, and ALL your soul, and ALL your strength and ALL your mind.”

You can’t be great if you try to justify half-heartedness.

You can’t be great if you try to justify offering some of your soul.

You can’t be great if you try to justify investing most of your strength.

You can’t be great if you try to justify having a preoccupied mind.

You must be willing to be all in if you want God to bring out His greatness in you!

And to make sure you recognize it here’s what greatness looks like:

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ Luke 10:30-35

If you want to be great, He’s good for it!