Summerbreak

Four weeks of summer gone, eight weeks to go… what have you done with your summer?

Ah, it's good old summertime; there's just something special about summer… its freedom baby. Just the chance to open up your windows in your house and breathe in the fresh air after a long, cold winter feels freeing. Who doesn't enjoy driving in a car on a warm summer day with the windows down and a breeze blowing in, putting your feet up on the dashboard and going through a tasty freeze and getting ice cream… What kinds of things do you think about when you hear the word summer?

How many of you have made some plans on doing something extra special this summer during your break? How many of you are trying to make the big bucks and have gotten a job for the summer? And how many of you have just spent a lot of time catching up on your sleep? Summer is kind of a deceiving time; it seems like there is going to be all this time to enjoy but before you know it it's gone… did you know that you actually only have about 7 or 8 weekends left before all the fun stops and school starts up again. And normally you get back and the teachers will ask you a question…

What did you do on your summer break? So, I'd like to speak to you about your Summer Break… and how despite the fact that you don't have the pressures of school and other responsibilities –you simply cannot afford to take a break from the spiritual part of your life.

Yes, it's a time when you don't have to be up before 7 and you don't have to be in bed before 11:00 - you don't have the teachers hassling you or the coaches telling you to run another lap…you have more freedom to take the time that is always taken up by something else to really enjoy your life. And hopefully you will use some of it maybe even most of it to really begin to grow in your faith. This time of year, when things seem so green and warm and growing, I'd like to challenge you to also grow your faith. God is aware of the seasons… He created them; so how about we use this summer to really ground ourselves in His word and get prepared for the opportunities that we are going to be given to share our faith when we get back to the grindstone. For a lot of you – you've been out of school for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Let me ask you; what have you done with your summer break so far?

What goals do you have? There is a saying that goes… if you don't aim for anything you'll be guaranteed to hit it every time. My point here is to get you to aim at something; to challenge you to want more and challenge yourself to take this awesome gift of time and not just wander about aimlessly doing nothing but instead have something to show for it. Wouldn't it be amazing if you were able to look back at the summer of 08 and say that this was the time when you really grew in God, that you did something worthy like laying a firm foundation in your faith? That you spent time seeking Him, and asking Him what He might have for you to do now and in your future.

We serve a God who desires to spend time with you…He looks forward to you whispering His name in prayer… singing (even if you have a bad voice) His praises; and opening up His Word and applying it to your life. Ask yourself the question…What is it that God wants you to do?

God desires to use your life to advance His Kingdom; we are to be people of destiny- we are called to use our lives to make an eternal difference in other people's lives and not just our own. Did you ever stop and think that if you don't do what you are called to do in your generation; that you will not only affect your eternity but others' too? There are people who are going to come into your life that only you will have the opportunity to contact with; we need to remember that even though its summer and the pressures might be off; we still have to give an account for our time to the one who created all things. We really don't get the privilege of completely just kicking back and chilling. If we don't stay focused and tuned in to the time that we are given we can get so easily distracted; and that is not only dangerous to us but those around us too. Not too long ago I spoke to you about your endgame; where it is that you are going to end up someday.

You have to keep in mind that there will always be distractions. Especially, as you decide to grow closer to God and begin to seek Him out – there will be people, jobs, family, and relationships that will try to draw you away and distract you from all your intentions.

Even in yourself there will be distractions; you will find that when you decide to think on and read God's Word that is when you're mind will begin to wander. You're going to start thinking all of a sudden of how it is that you really need to start making more money, and how that new Batman movie is going to rock and….even…Wow, I really stink – and need a bath.

You will have to fight distractions…It's going to take a lot of work… you have to ask yourself if you're up to it. Remember the parable of the seed falling on the ground with the weeds…Mark 4:19 (message) says the seed in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard and nothing comes of it.

Please don't let that be you!

So when you are asked at the end of the summer in some writing class about what you did this summer – what is it that you will write?

Hopefully, you'll write something important like you've grown in your faith and relationship with God.

To do that – this summer you need to spend your extra time on ….

Reading God's word for instructions and direction.

There are times when we are driving and get lost. At that time we need to take a look at a map and see where we went wrong and plan on how to get back on the right road. Truthfully, if we drove around not knowing where we are going as much as we do in our lives we would never make it home.

Psalm 119:59; in the message… When I took a long, careful look at your ways, I got my feet back on the trail you blazed.

If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times. You have to read the bible every day… make a point of it – spend some of your valuable summer time on it. You won't be disappointed in the long run.

Spend some time in quiet… not just when you're sleeping but when you're awake. When you turn off the noise in your life you will be able to hear what God is saying to you. The devil has a plan to keep us so distracted by noise that we miss all that God is saying to us… in 1 Kings 19:8-13 Elijah is on Mount Horeb and God appears - not in the storm, not in the wind, not in the earthquake…but in a gentle whisper. How often are you able to hear a whisper?

We have to be willing to fight the enemy and not just give up.

In the book Fuzzy Memories by Jack Handey he writes… There used to be a bully who would demand my lunch money every day and since I was smaller I would give it to him…then one day I decided to fight back so I started to take Karate lessons… but then I found out I had to start paying the karate instructor five dollars a lesson so I just went back to paying the bully instead.

There are way too many Christians who feel it's easier to pay the bully than to learn how to defeat the enemy.

 Spend time worshipping God and Praising Him for all He's done for you.

There is an amazing thing that happens when we begin to declare Gods' greatness in our lives… He starts to declare the greatness that can be done in our life.

I grow stronger in my faith every time I use my horrible voice to tell him that I love Him.

Spend some time with us in CYM or if you are listening via the podcast or reading on MySpace -  get involved in a small group… get involved in an area where you can be built up in your faith by likeminded believers. Join a smaller group; the big church calls it fellowship… we call it hanging out… whatever…just come do it – It does a body good….When you begin to see that you are not traveling this road alone it encourages and uplifts us to do even more.

Community is good; to make it successfully you will need the help and encouragement of others around you. And it should be true community where no one feels as if they aren't welcome or unaccepted.

Take some time to envision where your life is really going to end up. You cannot be careless in your pursuit of God, there's a responsibility about seeking after God and following Him to the place He wants you to go. Arriving there safely will be the result of not getting distracted with the other things that are offered up to us in life.

Lastly, don't try to do a thousand things mediocre but work on the few things that God's called you to do and do them brilliantly.

When you put God first… all the other things will fall into place. If you put something else first - God falls out of place.

So, where are you this summer break…as far as weeks left; we have about 4 down and 8 to go … what will you do with what's left? I beg of you to make it count where it counts.

Take Me To Your Leader

Alien or Earthling, Jesus was an alien, how about you?
Chances are you've seen a movie or two about aliens in your life as you've gotten older. Alien, E.T., Mars Attacks, Independence Day, Star Wars, Star Trek, X- Files, Signs… ….to name just a few. You could have even seen Sesame Streets' Yip Yip aliens when you were a kid. All these movies or shows investigate the possibility that extraterrestrial life forms exist. For some reason Hollywood seems to be quite fascinated with the idea of aliens, Martians, and extraterrestrials. Years ago someone mentioned to me when I became a Christian that aliens exist in the bible. That intrigued me so I checked it out and you know what, to my amazement I found out that they were right. There are scripture verses to support that…Psalm 146:9 The Lord watches over the aliens and sustains the fatherless and the widow but He frustrates the ways of the wicked. Interesting… God cares about aliens – little green men?  - As much as he does orphans and widows.What is an alien? The definition is a foreigner or a person who has been estranged or excluded. What is it that makes aliens different?

They look different.

They act different.

They talk different.

They are from a different world

And just like E. T. ...If you take them away from their world, they long to go back to it.

Some of you out there might believe that these aliens really do exist OR you may just be thinking that they are created by some guy on a Hollywood back lot.

It may come as a surprise to have me tell you the truth; that aliens are real and they have already landed here on earth? Tonight we are going to unmask historical evidence that shows and proves that aliens DO EXIST and that they are actually right here on planet earth……you may have come into contact with them yourself and not even known it.

1 Peter 2:11 Dear friends I urge you as aliens and strangers in this world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Peter is not writing to E.T here – He is writing to Christians. Yep, those crazy Christians just like you might have suspected are the aliens. If you are a true follower of Christ then you my friend are an alien. I am going to perform my very own SETI experiment….I am going to Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Let s see if we have any real aliens out there. Which brings us to the first point about aliens…

THEY LOOK DIFFERENT

We may not have big green slimy heads with enormous eyes……or at least some of us don't; but we look different. And please dear God it's not just about our T-shirts, bracelets, or bumper stickers…. There is something inside of us that makes us different. We don't blend in as easily with the rest of the humanoids.

It's kind of like trying to fit an end piece of a puzzle into the middle. The color and size might be the same but it just won't fit no matter how hard you try to force it.

Our difference comes from the inside; which makes sense since we are to be like Christ and He himself spoke in John 17:14 saying, I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not. That means Jesus was an alien too. If Jesus was an alien then those who are His followers are all to follow suit and become alien.

Philippians 3:18-21

For as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their God is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under his control; will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

In America we become legal citizens. We claim these United States as our home. This world that we live in as true Aliens (Christians) is not our home. Our true alien planet; our home is really in Heaven. We are just passing through and while we are here there is a purpose to all of this… Our mission as aliens in this world is to take them to our leader. We are not here just to sight see like we are on a perpetual vacation – just soaking up all the native night life and seeing all the cool things and party hardy. Nope, it's about all of us taking other earthlings to meet our leader…We are to show others our great commander; our Fearless Leader, Jesus is real and amazing.  Our purpose in truth is to make this an alien Nation. If we can communicate to the earthlings that our planet is better and it's going to be so much cooler (figuratively) then we will bring many of them back with us.

But some of us aren't getting the mission…some of us don't even know how to tell the earthlings about our alien planet.

Sometimes we try to tell the people that we come into contact with that, " we are aliens" that we have green skin and misshapen bodies and heads and we speak a different language but to them on the outside we look absolutely no different than their best earthling friends. This WON"T WORK! To fulfill our mission; we need to show the earthlings that we really are different; we need to stand out. We need to keep our tinge of green and quit hiding our antenna.

We have to look different and we have to act different.

Our job as aliens is to cause some curiosity.

E.T. would light up his E.T. finger and let it shine before Elliot. WE need to let our light shine before men too. Matthew 5:16 says "let your light shine before men so that they might see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven."

Our lives should cause even those who oppose us to be curious about us.

Sometimes the people (the earthlings) that seem to be the most disgusted with us because we're alien; will be the ones who will cause us the most trouble sometimes – saying hurtful things to us or about our leader, or our manual - because they are the ones who are watching us much more closely to see how loyal we are… how authentic we are.

We're no different on that front…Aliens or earthlings alike want to see the real deal. And they want to hear realness in our words too.

People that go back and forth between two different languages – it just becomes unclear and messy…..we need to remember that if we are trying to speak both languages within one conversation – all we hear and all we get is a confusing message…. The message HAS to be spoken clearly in one dialect to be able to understand it. There are some wannabee aliens out there who are trying to do both and that won't work. The earthlings won't understand what we are trying to say because we are speaking in Alien and the aliens won't understand because we are throwing too much earthling talk in there.  Our words will have no effect at all; because they are ONLY empty words. We need to live in a way that will cause the earthlings to be curious of our world – with that will come criticism and sometimes neglect and hurtfulness but isn't it worth it when we love our leader as much as we do and we see the importance of our mission. And just like E.T. we have to be disciplined and determined to return home someday. E.T was separated from his ship but he never just sat back and went native….He was always speaking… phone home, phone home, phone home.

He created a way to call his leader from a Speak and Spell – that's determination! We could learn a lot from this movie, even though he found things fun and met some really important people here NOTHING was going to stop him from accomplishing his goal. Because of his determination; they came back for him.

We too need to keep in mind that our leader is coming back for us. If we are true aliens and keep our native planet in mind we will not falter, we will make it back. Believers in Christ are aliens in this world. It is difficult for us to fit into a world that by and large is out of touch with our leader. We have different values and priorities than the world. We are aliens in a strange land and we don't and shouldn't speak the native language. We shouldn't take part and participate in all the "normal" traditions. We shouldn't fit in so easily.

Jesus didn't and we shouldn't blend in. We may feel awkward and out of touch with the surroundings. But we can accomplish our mission…hopefully each and every one of us will be asked the question, "Take us to your leader."

 

The Battle Within — Spiderman 3

Often times our most difficult struggles are not with others but within ourselves.
A message from the movie Spiderman 3.

Romans 12:21 don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good. It could be Spiderman's mantra…. His life's quote; especially in this movie.

The movie in condensed form:

Having turned to crime fighting to avenge the death of his Uncle Ben; Peter Parker faces an even more sinister enemy in Spiderman 3.

At the beginning of the movie Peter finally has the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane Watson, and his city - New York is in the throes of Spider-mania! But when a strange alien symbiote turns Spider-Man's suit black, his darkest demons come to light changing Spider-Man on the inside as well as on the outside. Peter is then soon hit on all sides and his life that was just going so perfectly begins to unravel.

First, he hears that his uncle's murderer Flint Marko has escaped. Second he has a rival photographer named Eddie Brock in the Daily Bugle's newsroom who does anything he can to take his job.

Then thirdly he is dealing with his old friend Harry Osborn who still holds him responsible for his father's -aka the Green Goblin death.

These things coming at Peter test him and show us a darker side to Spiderman. 

Out of his frustrations and trials he begins to lose everything; he is fighting all these enemies but the hardest one that he has to fight is the one that lives inside of him.

 PRIDE

Proverbs 16:18 NLT - Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall. 

Message translation - First pride and then the crash, the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

And Peter Parker falls hard. Here he is enjoying Spiderman's celebrity, while his girlfriend Mary Jane is struggling to make her way as an actress and entertainer in the big city and it isn't long before she begins to notice that Spiderman's self confidence has grown into an over confidence or cockiness. She's beginning to see a side to him that she doesn't really like.

Soon she warns Peter of the dangers and tells him that she wants to help him but Peter is already too filled with pride, believing his own press of how great he is and he thinks that he doesn't need help from anyone. He's Spiderman!!!! Soon this symbiote that has come from outer space and has  fallen to the ground attaches itself to Peter and soon all that was lurking inside of his heart is no longer hidden but instead becomes evident to all those that come into contact with him. His inside nature changes him into a different person on the outside.

A scientist tells him that this goo seems to take on the characteristics of its host. And that's happened with Peter - it amplifies his strengths but it also amplifies his desire for vengeance and power too. Peter you see had not truly gotten over his uncles death…. There was still a deep bitter root buried inside of him that was only in need of a symbiote to uncover and help it grow and very soon Peter starts to like the darker changes that he's feeling.

 First PRIDE – then……….. the DESTRUCTION.

Pride is like the yeast on all the other weaknesses that lurk inside of us; the revenge, the selfish ambition and our fits of rage. It helps all those other things that live there to grow and take over. He was losing perspective – which happens to just about everyone who starts to get tangled up with sin. They begin to blame everyone else BUT themselves. It is the fight between good and evil but what's most interesting about Spiderman 3 is that this evil lurking inside of Peter Parker is just like it is in each one of us. And it is a fight that each one of us also has to fight. We have to go to battle with our own sinful nature.

Galatians 5:19-21 in the message says… It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time; repetitive, loveless, cheap sex, a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, frenzied joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods, magic show religion, paranoid loneliness, cutthroat competition, all consuming yet never satisfied wants, a brutal temper, an impotence to love or be loved, divided homes and divided lives, small minded and lopsided pursuits, the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival, uncontrollable addictions; and ugly parodies of community, I could go on….

Fortunately or maybe unfortunately, we don't come into contact with a symbiote that makes it so noticeable to those around us.

We are able to hide our sinful nature until those trials come upon us and they do come upon us just like it was in this movie a lot of times there isn't just one enemy fighting us but many.

We usually have some past hurt or pain that hasn't healed completely.

We usually have someone that has it out for us – someone that holds us responsible for upset in their lives.

We usually have someone who wants to get the better of us and is jealous of us.

How we handle and how we react to all those trials that are thrown at us will either make us or break us – and a lot of times how we fight it ends up hurting those that we love the most the worst.

With Peter Parker the secret lied in forgiveness just like it does with each one of us still today. When he finally decided to let unforgiveness and revenge go from his life and he instead made the choice to ask for help….he then began to fight off the symbiote of sin. Sadly though usually it takes what it took for Peter Parker; he needed to lose most everything that he cherished… and he had to come face to face with the person he had become. It was a person that he didn't want to become. But that's the thing with sin… it takes you much farther than you wanted to go and it keeps you much longer than you wanted to stay. There ARE MANY people walking around this world asking themselves "what happened to me?" Like I spoke to you in an earlier message – each of us has just as much potential as the next guy.

But what will make the difference – if you are good Spiderman or bad Spiderman will be determined with how you handle what is hidden in your heart and what side it is that you'll feed.  It was a tough fight for Peter Parker; this symbiote didn't want to come off so easily.

The thing to notice though is that it took things being changed on the inside for the outside to change. Just the opposite is true for the hypocrites of today…who seem to look like the hero Spiderman on the outside but inside of them lurks the dark, menacing black Venomous Spiderman. Sin binds to us just like this symbiote bonded to Spiderman and it is just as difficult to unravel once it gets entangled around us. And even though we call Christianity a battle – for a lot of us the toughest battle will be fought on the inside.

Paul says in Romans 7:18, 19 I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do, NO the evil I do not want to do I keep doing.

What will determine your outcome will be decided by what it is that you surrender to.

Peter treats MJ badly – knocking her to the ground at the pub and then when he is speaking to his Aunt May telling her about killing the killer of Uncle Ben Aunt May tells him "I don't think there's any jubilation about somebody's death. Your uncle wouldn't want you living one second with revenge in your heart. It's like a poison; it takes over and before you know it turns us into something ugly". In a church Peter is able to finally fight off the symbiote but right below him it finds another host – Eddie Brock who has much more vengeance hidden inside of his heart.

The battlefield is within Christians themselves and the conflict will continue until this earthly life is over, and there is an end.

Galatians 6:7, 8 Do not be deceived God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows; the one who sows to please his sinful nature from that nature will reap destruction, the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

You have the choice to either surrender to the sinful nature's plans or you can surrender to the Holy Spirit's demands.

To do it – YOU WILL HAVE TO ASK FOR HELP AND GIVE UP THE CONTROL.

 

Be A Trouble Maker

The saying goes,"Nice guys finish last."Whats true in the dating world is also true in the spiritual sense.

We are in need of some troublemakers; there's not enough of them around. A troublemaker is a person who either consciously or unconsciously causes trouble everywhere they go.

There is just something about them. Their presence shows up even before they do.

There is an air of expectancy when they are around. There's excitement!

You could never, and would never describe them as boring or just so-so,

They are what we mentioned last week in the Vision Poem; dangerously attractive to those people around them. You could even describe them as somewhat unsafe.

Why?

Because they trouble the people around them;

By definition – they agitate them, worry them and even disturb them mentally or spiritually.

They cause a physical reaction in those people that they are around, there's a tension, even bring upon the fight or flight reflex, they confuse their brains and their reactions – and they cause people to feel unbalanced and unsure of themselves and they don't know where it is that they are going.

They exhaust and inconvenience the people that they are around; never about making it easy on them. But they are NEVER BORING. Never dull, never ever the same old, same old.

Man, give me a troublemaker!

They are attractive. They are the troublemakers, the bad boys or bad girls.  

And we like them…And God likes them too.

Take a look at Saul who was later named Paul. Here was a man who had passion and you couldn't doubt it…. He was out to kill Christians; he would chase them down and hound them to death… There's no better prospect for God to want to have on His team; because if he could want to kill them with such passion – then he could also want to save them with such passion.

There are some troublemakers out there right now walking the streets in our cities that God can't wait to get His hands on. They have chutzpa, a drive, a willingness to put themselves out – they stay up late and get up early just to wreak havoc. They take chances and they roll the dice; and they gamble it all away at the drop of a hat. And people flock to their sides……Man, there's no better person to have on our side.

Paul began using his powers for good and not evil and he accomplished many amazing things for the Kingdom of God.

He wasn't milk toast, what that means is that he wasn't easily dominated; he wasn't' mild or ineffectual; he wasn't namby-pamby or wishy-washy. He was a bad boy. He was willing to make a few if not a lot of enemies. He didn't care if people liked him, and he didn't care if they hated him; and when he did care he did what he could to put that part of himself to death because he knew that being liked by men would be his undoing…. In Acts 17:6 in the Message the bible says Paul and Silas were described as those who were out to destroy the world and there was a great fear of them because here they were now in their neck of the woods and they were attacking everything that they all held dear.

Paul and Silas were dangerous; they were changing things and people hated change then just as much as they do now. They were upsetting the applecart. They were making people's lives all topsy-turvy and off kilter. They caused people to worry.

Last night Shelby and I were watching an episode of the Bachelorette… and this really nice looking – actually quite attractive - science teacher was on a date with the girl Deanna but even though he had the looks; it was soon pretty evident that it wasn't going to be enough; he was just a little too safe for her – There wasn't a sense of not knowing what to expect while they were together, there was not enough excitement – so she sent him packing.

There is the saying that nice guys finish last and I hate to break it to you nice guys out there but there is some truth in it; because you're not causing enough action, there won't be a reaction.

This guy was nice ….. But for him and for this romance – it was his kiss of death.

People aren't moved by niceness. If it worked corporations would have jumped on it.

Remember a few weeks back, if you stayed for the theater and watched Andy Griffith; they were trying to set up Gomer with a date that wasn't very pretty… and Andy and Barney kept describing her over and over to him as nice.

Sometimes…being nice is NOT ENOUGH. As a follower with our friends who aren't followers – we fool ourselves with the notion that if we are just nice enough that they will surely want what we have and we waste a lot of time waiting for a change and then all of a sudden a troublemaker of the world who is exciting and dangerous shows up and steals them away.

You can't change your friends by osmosis; just hanging out with them all the time will not make them become a follower.  It has to be done with their decision. And for a person to make a decision there has to be a conversation…. But sometimes we can talk, talk, and talk but still say nothing. We need to ask ourselves if what we are showing them and what we are saying to them is even eliciting a response. Action causes reaction. With Paul and Silas those troublemakers changed the world. It has been prophesied again and again that the youth in Chosen Youth Ministries were going to be world changers. I believe that with all my heart. But it won't happen unless we become a troublemaker.

To be a troublemaker – you have to have integrity.

Paul had integrity: When he wasn't following Jesus – he was the best Christian hater around those parts. And when he became a follower – he showed great integrity to save them with that same deep passion inside of him.  Integrity is a steadfast adherence to a strict code. Integrity can be dangerous – in this world where people throw around their so called Christianity; it can be unsettling to come face to face with someone who doesn't compromise and throw it all away. Paul was like that – he was dangerous!

D.L. Moody said that you can tell a person's character by what he or she does in the dark.

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would NEVER be found out.

Lack of integrity = milk toast Christian. We don't seem to care or even know what integrity means anymore.  It means the state of being unimpaired, having a soundness or wholeness.

A lot of Christians aren't dangerously attractive because they have NO INTEGRITY.

To be a troublemaker you also have to be intense.

Paul was intense. He caused a response wherever he went….Paul and Silas intensely believed this intense message.  It was life and death and they believed it. I want to be intense…I choose to be. There used to be a lot of preachers way back who were mocked because of their fire and brimstone kind of preaching…telling people that they need to accept Jesus into their heart and turn from their sins to be saved and I choose to do the same. I'd rather it be intense for you today and have you either accept it or deny it than I would have you be intensely hot forever and a day. I intensely believe that the message of Jesus; Him dying for your sins and coming back to life and saving your souls is all that matters.

I am drawn to intense people. I love troublemakers….They challenge me, they may anger me from time to time BUT they definitely elicit a response. They sharpen me and frustrate me and they make you think about every decision that I make and how it will affect my outcome.

Too many people in churches today have no intensity; and the lack of a response causes NO ONE to want to visit. I want to be intense; I'd rather be labeled a train wreck because no one misses that. I'd much rather be a bad girl for the good cause, than a good girl for a bad cause. I choose to be dangerous. There are too many "happy where they are" Christians in our churches today. They are too cowardly and weak to speak up. They don't get involved in controversial topics. They don't take a stand politically. They are afraid to make waves; because if they do, then they won't be liked and then people would label them as troublemakers.

Troublemakers do all these things; because they get involved.

In chapter 17 of Acts the people of Thessalonica were unhappy with Paul and Silas being there – because they were telling the Jews, and the others who lived there that this Jesus was the Messiah that everyone was looking for. He spoke up.

How many times have you chosen to stay silent? He was sharing the Jesus who is the answer to all life's problems. Because Paul was such a troublemaker who demanded a response from the people that he came into contact with – others too became troublemakers. In fact in Acts 17:11 it's said that "they received the message with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." Our job is to reproduce more troublemakers.

This is a war and this is a call to arms….My hope is that you are or will become a troublemaker and join with me to work in His army. But it's going to cost you something to be a troublemaker – to be one you have to be willing to upset your friends; to throw them off, and shake up their world. That's hard to take for some of you. What??? Oh, you're just their friend and you aren't here to judge them or to try to convert them.

To con·vert

Means to bring over from one belief, view, or party to another.

Really????

That's interesting because I want you to understand that your friends are judging you and they are most definitely trying to convert you. So, either you're a liar and you are trying to get them saved or you are just an ineffective milk toast Christian who is afraid to put a target on your back and not be liked - because you didn't grasp the battle cry.

Because Troublemakers, bad boys and girls – they pursue others.

The bad boys and girls tend to be more assertive than nice guys when it comes to a dating relationship. They seek out those they are interested in…they work hard at it.

And as far as women go… they WANT to have a man pursue them; it's appealing.  It's breathless and exciting and it keeps it from going stale. Women look for and prefer men who seem to have purpose in life, and speak with knowledge and passionate experience. Nice guys need to learn a lesson from the bad boys… they need to allow the things that they are excited about to come out with emotion and passion – because it's really attractive. Bad boys get a lot of attention; because they pursue the girls around them that they like. They don't sit back and wait for things to happen on their own.

Christian (troublemakers) need to pursue their friends with the same purpose in their lives.

We are not allowed the privilege of keeping the seed that was planted inside our hearts… it's up to us to grow it and produce fruit and speak up, tell, and change others. Our message if we truly do believe it should make their hearts beat faster and it should raise their blood pressure, and stir them up! If you are truly saved that is why you are saved NOW. Let me end with Acts 22:14 in the NLT the God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak. You are to take His message EVERYWHERE, telling the whole world what you have seen and heard. And now, why delay? Get up and be baptized and have your sins washed away, calling on the name of the Lord.

Go out and be a troublemaker.