My Confession

sorry it has been a while since i last posted. i feel like i have been running around like crazy lately.

with that, that is just an excuse i know. and im sorry for that. i have come to realize in the past few days that i am not as great as i thought i was. the past few weeks have been super humbling. i know i am great at a lot of things. i can run a service, i can make videos, i can make people laugh, i can help people out and listen when people have a problem. these things among many other things.

there are TONS of things i need to work on for myself. not just to better myself but to allow other people to help me better get along with me. i know i am a sarcastic person. thats just who i am. dry, short, witty humor. i just dont know how to turn it off sometimes. and it hurts people. adults and students. i am not patient with certain people. some people get on my nerves way easier than others. and my first reaction is to be sarcastic with them and belittle them. thats not right. i am not organized. because i am not, and i dont focus on the details of certain things, it leaves others in the dust picking up after my mistakes. im not okay with that. i know for sure i can be a lot nicer and literally show Christ's love to people. i have been slacking on that. my prayer life is, in my opinion, is awful. i know that is just Satan trying to deter me from from communicating with God. to the point where i fall asleep while others are praying. that kills me. i love my job. but i feel that i can do so much better and give more passion to what i already am doing.

i want God to use me in the most useful way possible. i want to show other people God's love for them through my actions and words. i want to be more of a light that represents who Jesus is.

this is my prayer. i would appreciate it if you kept these things in your prayers as well.

Peter: Stepping Out

Here are my message notes for Tuesday night from DELTA X.

Delta x Tuesday night

Story about me stepping out of my comfort zone. • Trying my first hamburger at a underwear show

Review of the last two nights. • Jonah_going south running away from God. Why are we running? • Moses- west, why would you choose me? Who am I? Who is God?
Tonight we are talking about East, about Peter and walking on water, and how it took a huge step of faith

So:
• Jonah - rebelling against God and running away • Moses- calling to do something and coming up with excuses • Peter- finally stepping out once we get called
The story of Jesus and Peter walking on water happens immediately after Jesus fed the 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish.
Read Matthew 14:22-24
Peter steps onto the water.

Do you notice something?
• Jesus after being around people. Giving a sermon, feeding thousands of people, after an amazing miracle
• Jesus sends the disciples away so he can get alone time on the mountainside and pray.
• Even in his busy schedule, spending time with God is a priority for Jesus

In order to have a strong faith you have to pray • Quiet times • If it was was important to Jesus, it should be important to you • How will you ever have faith you need to read the bible and pray?
So he sent out his disciples on a boat to go ahead of Him
Can you imagine what they thought?
• Ok ya, we will go on the boat ahead... • How are you getting there? • Do you have a boat?
• Oh ya for sure, for sure, we are going. • You will catch up? How... Ok we will go

Read Matthew 14:25-27
Sometimes we don't even recognize Jesus in times we are scared. • The disciples, even though they have spent much time with Jesus, don't recognize
him in the storm • Sometimes we don't recognize the Lord in our storms • The disciples say they were terrified! • Jesus calls out to them immediately telling him that he is here!

Read Matthew 14:28-33
They don't believe him, Peter calls out to him saying, "if it's you Jesus, let me come out to you."
Isn't it funny?
• They just saw Jesus feed 5000 people, and they don't believe that he is even walking on water?
• Isn't it funny how we say we believe in Jesus, but sometimes look at jesus' words and don't really believe them either?
Or at least our actions show that we do not believe
Have you ever really thought about how big peters
faith was?
• They were on a lake. Lakes don't really get like "sea storms" these are dessert people • I'm sure they were pooping their pants if it was a true storm • Being on the boat was scary enough, let alone stepping out on stormy water
Ever thought why was it Peter who got to do it?
• It's because he asked Matthew 7:7-8 You ask God to give you strong faith, you read, you pray about it, God will give it to you
You ask God to help you to step out in faith, he will give you opportunities to do so. You will just need step up to it
• When we pray for courage, does God give us courage or does he give us opportunities to be courageous.
• When we ask for patience, does God give us patience or does he give us opportunities to be patient.

I can just see it: • Jesus is walking on the water • Calling out to Peter • Andrew sitting next to to Peter, thinking it's him, and he is scared • Relieved it's Peter and not him that has to do it

We are to have faith that walks on water!

Which one are you in is situation?
• Jesus? Haha no • Peter? Are you stepping out in your faith like that? • Taking risks for Jesus? • Or are you one of the disciples in the boat? Watching Peter do an amazing thing.

Francis chan makes me feel like I'm not a Christian

There are so many of us who are stepping out and doing awesome things for their faith. Proclaiming and showing God's love to other people
Other people will know God's love by the way you show them love 2 reasons why people are not Christians • Because they dint know a Christian • Or because they do

So many of us are the other disciples, sitting in the boat,
watching others do amazing things for Jesus • You know what those are called? Cowards • Telling you right now, I am one of them • If Jesus told me right now, to step out onto the water, i am not sure if my faith would be
strong enough

People stepping out in faith: people in idea being baptized, and they could be killed for their faith Question is: • What have I done to step out in my faith?
Jesus also calls us faith to move mountains.

Your going to look in Hebrews 11: • It's ani all star line up • Noah • Abraham
• Isacc • Jacob • Moses • Joshua • Gideon • Samson • King David • Solomon • Daniel • Jonah • Isaiah

Get my point yet?

Compared to these men and their stories are we really stepping out in our faith?
Peter began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus
• The distractions are what made him sink
When we are driving and we are focused on the road in front
we are good.
• When we focus on the car next to us, we look that way, we startbto veer off without really knowing
Here at camp, there is not really any distractions, it's really easy to focus on god here

There are distractions everywhere
• Satan will do whatever he can to keep your focus off Jesus • You ever wonder why every time you try to read the bible, you all ofnthensudden feel
like you need to sleep? • Hownthe minute we come home from church, and there is something on the tv or
onnthe computer that happens to be on? • It's not an accident
Even though Peter got distracted and he started to sink • Jesus was there to pick him up

When we are falling and we are sinking because of all the distractions becausenwe are not focused on God

We need to call on Jesus because he will life us up When our focus is on Jesus, we are ablest step out and do amazing things

Which one are you?
• Are you Peter and stepping out in your faith? • Arenyou Peter who is stepping out in your faith and now the geech of life is tying you
up? • Or are you a disciple in the boat, watching other people do amazing things?
If you are stepping up, keep going If you are drowning, stop struggling, let it go, and let Jesus pick you up If you are still in the boat, what are you doing? Wake up, you are called to do more

Jonah: Running Away From God

So we just got back from camp. something we thought would be sweet, for those who did not get to go, to keep everyone in the loop for what we did up there, we did a series called "Navigating Through Life". The first night we went through Jonah, rebelling God. Then we did Moses and doubting God and His ability to work through you. then we talked about Peter and walking on water in stepping out in faith, then ended the week talking about Joshua and crossing the Jordan River into the Promise Land and us going back home from camp and keeping this "camp high" going, this passion for Christ when we are back home.

it truly was an amazing week.

keep an eye out over the next few days as JP and i post our message notes so you can get to experience the camp in a way also.

hope you enjoy

Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet

Jonah 1:1-3 (click HERE to read)

Ok, not the best start to any Bible story, but for legit reasons:

Assyria: Nineveh was the capitol

· One of the most feared nations

· They were brutal

· Rumored: whole nations would commit suicide, rather than deal with their torture

· Raped all women and girls

· Hang all boys

· Skin all the men, bury them in the dessert up to their necks

· Stake their tongues to the ground…all night make them listen to JUSTIN BEIBER CD’s

· Take all the heads and pile it outside the city gates

Jonah had a great reason not to want to go.

WHEN GOD CALLS US TO DO SOMETHING, ITS USUALLY GOING TO BE SOMETHING WE DON’T WANT TO DO.

· You will feel a tug on your heart, and its something that you don’t want to do

· Or it wont make sense

· But we are called to do it anyways

THE TOUGH THINGS WE FEEL GOD CALLING US TO DO WE ARE SUPPOSED TO ACT ON THEM BECAUSE WE ARE FAITHFUL TO HIM.

A prophet during that time, was called to be a messenger of God. we can say that today, ALL Christians are prophets because all of us have this call.

Every prophet/ Christian is called to do 3 things:

· ARISE

· GO

· Cry (not wah-wah cry, but go cry out God’s love to others)

Jonah AROSE, HE WENT…. But he pouted like a baby and ran the other way.

It says he went down to JOPPA, then PAID his way on a boat, to TARSHISH. If you were to look at a map, TARSHISH and Ninevah are about 2000 miles apart.

Jonah didn’t run, HE SPRINTED!

Some of us here:

1) has felt God call us to do something, but we went the other way.

· We are like, “NOPE! Not doing that God. anything else.” Ill talk to anyone else. Ill invite anyone else to church. God that is too hard. Do you even know what that will take of me?

2) some of us have not even given God a chance to even talk to us.

· Meaning, you are so not even sure. You say you are a Christian, but you don’t read His Word, you don’t talk to Him through prayer, you don’t listen to what pastors say at church.

· You are just here. A skeleton.

JUST CAUSE YOU ARE HERE AT CAMP DOESN’T MEAN YOU ARE CLOSE TO GOD.

· Some of you are sitting right here, but inside you are truly the furthest thing from God and His calling from you.

My question is:

· Why are we running? How dare us run from God? do we really think we will out run Him? Do we really inderstand who it is we are running from?

· Think about it…its like when a 2 year old trys to run away from their parents, their little steps get them no where and in 2 steps the parents pick them up.

We think that if we run far enough away, God will be able to use someone else who is better/closer for it.

· IN YOUR OPINION

· But God didn’t call them, he called you

You SEE:

· If we run the other way, God will tell somebody else to go talk to that person sitting by themselves at school, God will tell someone else to step out in faith and preach and interact with the people who you know do not know who God is.

· If we run, then we don’t have to listen or follow his rules.

But, you see, to run from God is like trying to flee from light. The only thing you wind up with is darkness.

· It's like turning in your wealth for poverty.

· It's like making an exchange of wisdom for ignorance.

· It's like turning in joy for sorrow, peace for chaos, usefulness for uselessness, fruit for leaves, reward for punishment

The trap we all fall in is:

· THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A BOAT GOING IN THE OTHER DIRECTION

· Jonah was able to find a boat going in the complete opposite direction.

· We are always capable to find excuse after excuse not to do something.

· Excuse after excuse why we shouldn’t fully follow God.

BUT AGAIN MY QUESTION IS: WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE FOOLING?

· When we think God for a fool, he will make a fool out of us…in a hard, hard way.

Jonah 1:4-11(click HERE to read)

The thing about running from God is: He will sometimes send a storm after you to catch your attention

THE STORM:

· God wasn't through with Jonah, and God was in the business of pursuing. God came after Jonah, and God had infinitely greater resources at His disposal, and so He just blew over the Mediterranean and created a storm. Remind yourself that rebellion never escapes God. Eventually God will appear to say, "you are the man, I am the GOD.”

· God may let a man go to a certain point before He steps in, but, believe me, He'll step in; and God moved in the storm.

· When the storm hit, all the men on the boat started to pray.

Isn’t that a normal thing? When things get hard, that’s when we pray.

· We have it back wards. When things get hard, what do we do? Whats the order?

· Problem, talk to your friends, text your bff, talk to your boyfriend or girlfriend, God forbid talk to your parents, talk to a pastor…oh man I did all that I guess I should pray.

· Prayer needs to be our first instinct. We need to pray first! (Nouwen text)

We are all going to encounter storms. Its going to happen. Its what you do in that storm that will make you or break you.

During storms we should not be:

· WHY IS GOD PUTTING THROUGH THIS STORM? WHY IS HE DOING THIS TO ME?

· What we should be asking is…

· WHAT DID WE DO/OR NOT DO TO CAUSE GOD TO GIVE ME THIS STORM? What am I am I not paying attention to?

· What am I afraid of?

Look at verses 4 and 5 again. Go back to that.

THE SAILORS WERE SCARED TO DEATH AND WERE SUFFERING BECAUSE OF JONAH’S DECSIONS.

· When we do something, and rebel, how many people suffer because of our decisions.

· We become completely selfish, and others suffer.

NOT EVERYTIME WE REBEL AND FLEE WILL GOD PURSUE US.

· In Jonah’s case, God pursued him.

· Our God is living. He is pursuing after our love daily.

· But sometimes he does not. He lets us walk off.

Mark 10: The Rich Young Ruler (click HERE to read)

· God tells him that he needs to sell everything he has in order to follow Jesus because he knew that things and money meant everything to him.

· The man became sad, and walked away.

· JESUS LET HIM! HE DIDN’T CHASE HIM DOWN.

· What??!?! Have you ever noticed that?

Sometimes God will let us go, in hopes one day we will return to HIM.

Luke 15: Prodigal Son (click HERE to read)

· The son rebelled against his father.

· He left home will all the father has given him

· The father did not chase after the son…he let him go.

· BUT THE FATHER WAITED, HOPING FOR THE SONS RETURN.

· When child finally relized he needed his father, he returned home

· THE FATHER RAN TO HIM. WITH OPEN ARMS, AND WELCOMED HIM HOME

When we REBEL, and flee from what God has called us to do, and He lets you go. ITS NOT OVER!

· He just will be waiting for you to come to your senses and he is standing there with his arm wide open, waiting to welcome you back into a relationship with him.

TRUTH IS:

· Some of us are running right now. You have felt that God tug on your heart. And youre just ignoring it.

· Some of us are just avoiding God completely. In everything, because in your mind, if you don’t acknowledge HIM, he wont ask you to do anything that is uncomfortable.

· Some of you are doing it right. You are answering the call. Amazing! Keep doing it.

For those who are running:

· Remember who you are running from. You cant outrun HIM. If He has called you to do something, and you are disobedient, expect a storm coming your way.

· Remember He is the God of the universe. They God who created you.

· We are supposed to show God’s love to everyone, no matter how hard it is.

THE NICE THING ABOUT JONAH:

· Even though he ran, he rebelled, God pursued Him.

· He ended up going in the right direction.

· It just took a big fish to get him there.

THIS TRIP IS YOUR BIG FISH.

· You have been running long enough. You are tired. Its time to turn the right way. Towards God.

Bring Compassion...but Punish Them First

as i am getting ready for our upcoming house boating trip for the student ministries at CCV, i am looking at Jonah for one of the nights that i am speaking. Jonah is not the average Bible story. it sort of ends on a sour note.

if you read Jonah 3 (click here if you want to read it), Jonah finally goes to Nineveh to do what God has instructed him to do, which is to preach against the people there because God said he would basically destroy them because of their evil ways. but.... when you read Jonah 4 (click here if you want to read) we see that the people change their ways and God, as He does everyday for us, shows compassion on them and does not destroy them like He threatened before. JONAH IS LIVID! he was there to preach to them that God was going to bring justice on them because of their ways, his preaching worked, and they changed their ways and instead of being joyous because they will now be saved, he is angry at God for not destroying them. God calls him out. He says, "Do you have any right to be angry?" Jonah then goes and pouts in the corner. (little off topic, but some of my good friends have an amazing song song about Nineveh. The Dandelions. click here to check them out. honestly amazing.)

the thing that i see from this is how many times do we say we are "praying" for our enemies, for the people that we have a hard time with, the people who are doing "bad" in this world, and saying you want God to have COMPASSION for them when really you want God just to smite them with lightning bolts and thunder so that they will be brought to justice?

Yes our God is all powerful, and He is a just God. but He is also forgiving.

the question i have to ask is: when you are praying...are you really praying for compassion for others? or are you really praying for God for justice for your own personal preference?

its an honest question

random fact: The only basketball coach to have a losing record at the University of Kansas is Dr. James Naismith, the INVENTOR OF BASKETBALL.