Category: Thursday Greenhouse Gathering

“Exponential: Guarded Praise”

Remember growing up, closing your eyes and being anything you wanted to be? Your imagination ran wild! You could go anywhere you wanted any time and it all started when you left your current place! Following Jesus is a lot like that! Sometimes we have dreams and set out for one destination but end up in another…what we do when we get there makes all of the difference!

Acts 16:16-40

• PRAY
  • This story starts out often as we do in our walk with Christ! It starts out with the best of intentions…but somewhere along the way the expectation of what we thought we would get to do gets derailed. For Paul & Silas it got so derailed that they ended up being stripped naked, beaten, flogged, thrown into the pit of the prison with raw sewage naked and left for sure for dead! They had everything possible thrown at them to not continue to preach the Gospel to all who would hear…but in the midst of their circumstance they started by praying! They could have given up, drown in their circumstance and lived out the “Why God?” but instead just started praying!
  • Often this is where I call the big Timeout! I would be fighting God saying “You’ve called me to reach those for You…and I can’t possibly do it in here!” The problem has never been with God…it’s that I stopped listening! Yet, that’s where faith comes in! Even when they couldn’t see it they believed they were doing what God called them to…no prison, embarrassment or punishment would stop that! I’ve heard it explained that worry is practical Atheism…to declare God with your mouth but follow a different pattern in your thought! What A Gut Buster of Truth that is…my worry is preventing me from growing in my faith & having a deeper Relationship with my Creator!
• PRAISE
  • Paul and Silas don’t just stop with Prayer…they continue with praise! And as their praise rang loud an earthquake shook the prison and set the captives free (sound familiar?). When that happened all but the jailer could praise and at his darkest moment he was about to end it all when the hope of the Gospel was shared & his entire household met Jesus and were eternally changed! The prophets of the Old Testament always sent the Praise Team in first!
  • It’s in the midst of times I don’t want to praise that I should praise the MOST! Those around me stuck in prisons of life are waiting for something, a glimmer, a pinpoint of light to shine through to show them that there is hope found in Christ alone! I’ve heard it said “Praise is just giving God His breath back”…and what better way to spend time with the Father than to praise Him for all He’s done & ever will do!

Today is your day! It’s time to leave the old things behind in the prison & step into all that God made you to be! God has been calling you out of your circumstance for a long time…and maybe it’s as simple as seeing who God’s put around you to show them who He is! Will you trust Him enough to pray & praise that all you do today will make His name famous to the ends of the earth? Can you hear those chains falling? Trust in Jesus & watch Him do something immeasurably more than you can ask imagine in you & through you!

Take Away
What prisons are you currently stuck in right now in your life?

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“Exponential: Scattered Together”

We all have that drawer in the kitchen…no matter what your socio-economic status in the US we have the drawer that is a catch all for everything…the dreaded “junk drawer”. Imagine scattering that all over the place…I think we would be blown away at what that drawer keeps for us! But isn’t so easy to find the tool you need when you spread it all out? The early Church was just the same way! It was compacted together in Jerusalem…it scattered and then the Church growth exploded! What if the areas in our life where we feel like we have it “together” the least are the areas that are our biggest potential to grow exponentially?
Ezekiel 37:15-23   Ezekiel 20:41  Acts 8:1-8,26  Rev. 7:9

• What is SCATTERED to us in CHRIST is GATHERED
  • All through out the Old Testament God has promised to bring Israel back to Him! From the scattering in the Old Testament of Israel and Judah after the death of Solomon, to the exile in Babylon, to the return from Babylon, to rebuilding the Jerusalem wall, to Christ Resurrecting to the Samaritans being reached all the way to us all being gathered together when Christ Returns again! Every time it seems those who follow Christ are scattered the most…it has brought the Church closer together than ever before!
  • I wonder if our perspective on things in our life can be the same way? I’ve grown more through my brokenness than I ever have from my “having it together”! What if the scattered parts of our life are the ones we can only rely on Jesus to fill & through that faith we are able to see our faith, relationships with others and our relationship with Christ grow the most? That’s the EXPONENTIAL life Christ has called us to!

When it’s all said and done those in Christ, though scattered through the ages, will be gather together again as one! What if living like Heaven on earth now is realizing that when I’m scattered the most is when I get to grow and be like Jesus the most?

Take Away
What is something in your life that seems scattered that is making it hard to trust God?

When is the last time you trusted God to move forward even when it meant you were being scattered to the desert?

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Exponential: Ordinary Reach

I remember it like it was yesterday…I walked into my 3^rd Grade Teacher Mrs. Harmon’s class and say the only difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the “extra”! That was a pivotal year for me and honestly that phrase has resonated with me throughout my life! Here’s the thing though…in my mindset of extraordinary I often beat myself up because I don’t feel that the ordinary is making a difference. One of the most freeing things a relationship with Christ has given me is that I just have to be me & trust Jesus to do what only He can do! He alone can take the ordinary and turn it into Extraordinary! So, what does our ordinary do in us?

Acts 4:1-22

• Develops Our CALLING (Acts 4:1-4)
  • It’s easy for us to look at the religious leaders and see they weren’t living out their calling! Jesus has just risen from the dead, the Church is starting to grow and all of the power they had been promised is slipping away from these fishermen who just proclaimed Jesus name to a lame man to help him walk! Often our ordinary day in day out can leave us feeling as if we have not accomplished anything…but our calling is what makes every moment worth fighting for! When you find the very thing you were made to do (as Peter and John does) it’s impossible not to live it out! The Religious leaders are stuck in the Power of Position…Peter and John are stuck in living out their calling!
• Develops Our CHARACTER (Acts 4:5-12)
  • Peter and John are standing there in front of the Religious Elite of the day! This is a scene they would have both known…the very scene Jesus walked through on His way to the Cross! This is a true test of character for Peter and John! Will they still claim Jesus name or will they stop? In the midst of our ordinary day the memories of an unpleasant outcome of our past can be a stumbling block for us to make an impact in the future! We often think…it’s just getting to work on time, what difference does it make? The difference it makes is the consistency of your character to yourself and those around you! When you have consistent character (though it seems ordinary) you will be surprised how much of an exponential impact that makes on the Christian and Non-Christian!
• Develops our CONNECTIONS (Acts 3:13-22)
  • Peter and John are standing in front of the Religious people, who are looking to keep them quiet, and the people who witnessed this miracle are praising God for who He is! So, the people that Peter and John are trying to reach are actually reached by them when they aren’t in front of them! Their ordinary day to pray turned into the Church almost doubling! How many times was the connection not made with the lame man? How many times were the connections not fully realized from Peter and John…yet on this ordinary day there were many added to the Church & many rejoice God!

When we understand that our “ordinary” is something that can accumulate into Connections that build the Kingdom of God it’s easier for us to see that our ordinary has more impact than we think! When we see that God works through the ordinary to bring about the exponential it makes us see that every second, every interaction matters for Eternity! We may never show up on a list, or have our own Wikipedia page…but the “ordinary days” we live out will make a larger impact than the position of those pages any day!

Take Away
How do you typically respond when you are passionate about something?

What seems the most ordinary to you? Calling? Character? Connection? How is God using that to work the exponential in your life? Which seems to not be working at all?

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Exponential: Beautiful Partnership

Every year (and now even in Real Time) the Forbes Top 20 Richest People in the World are released! Upon first glance it looks like one person has amassed all of that alone; however, the bigger picture isn’t just one person who is doing it all…it’s a partnership with people (you will see this as the same company(ies) are represented by multiple people in the list). And if we’re honest that’s how we are supposed to live this life…in partnership with each other! So how does living in partnership play out in walking with Christ?

Acts 3:1-16

• Our PARTNERSHIPS help us GROW (Acts 3:1-5)
  • We see the start of this story with 3 very different people: Peter, a Bold Disciple who will walk on water to follow Jesus; John, the laid back reserved beloved Disciple who stayed with Jesus all the way to the Cross; and a Beggar at the Beautiful gate. This strange dynamic of different people is the setup for something miraculous about to happen! We can often think our differences in our lives are push us apart…but it’s our differences together is where dynamic for the Exponential really takes place! I wonder if we see the partners Jesus has in our lives are our greatest potential to grow!
• Our PARTNERSHIPS help us HEAL (Acts 3:6-10)
  • This is where the Miraculous happens…only through Christ Jesus! The Beggar is hoping to get through the day, Peter is boldly telling the man to do what he has never down (he was crippled since birth) and John is the one who had to have Peter stop to even talk to the man! Here is this crazy collection of different people, Jesus, through the Power of the Holy Spirit shows up and a man is healed! Peter and John have stepped up from being a part of Jesus healing people to actually getting to do it themselves! If the Beggar didn’t have friends bring him to the gate he wouldn’t have been there. If Peter had gone to pray alone, he would have walked past the Beggar. If John had been by himself, he wouldn’t have had the courage to reach out his hand though his compassion would have made him stop to speak. And yet—TOGETHER a miracle happened! I wonder if we trust that Jesus has the right partners in our lives at just the right times for the miracle to happen…or do we complain about who He has with us & keep trying to make them “Beautiful”!
• Our PARTNERSHIPS help us EVANGELIZE (Acts 3:11-16)
  • The beauty is this strange partnership opened the door up to the masses who were in the Temple to pray to hear the Gospel! The Beggar walking for the first time has to hang on to Peter & John and Peter seizes the opportunity given to him to preach the Gospel to every ear that will hear! The Beggar making up his mind that he would stop getting helped and start getting healed from the only thing that can…Jesus…set up a series of events that actually grew the Church by 2000! I wonder if we realize that the partners Jesus has in our lives will help us to grow His kingdom & grow our faith in Him!

In the end, the ONE thing that kept this Partnership together is Jesus Christ! And what a partnership is it! When we step into a relationship with Christ we get to experience Him growing our faith and His Kingdom while living the Exponential life He made us to live!

Take Away
Do you have the right partners in your life and how are you getting to spend time with them?

What are 3 things you struggle with most and how can having authentic partnerships in your life help you walk through that?

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Exponential: The Lies We Believe

Growing up one of the images I always had of the Satan (outside of Halloween) was Freddy Krueger! If you were a child of the 80s you know the fear…you couldn’t go to sleep! Yet, as we grow older the fear fades as well as the awareness that there is something out there waging war against us! We often only see Satan as the man with the red cape and pitchfork who only comes out at Halloween & scares us from time to time…and to be honest it is the biggest advantage Satan has against us today! We often live our lives like he doesn’t even exist…so how do we recognize the lies Satan has us believe?

Genesis 3:1-8   Rev. 1:14-16

• Satan the DECEIVER attacks your MIND with LIES
  • When we see Satan enter the picture as the serpent we see the first thing he attacks is the very Word of God. He never denied that God spoke…just made Eve question what God said! And with that little seed sprouted doubt in Eve to trust God!
  • We live in a world that is built on this! No matter how bad I am this person is worse…if I just make them look worse than me then I win in the end! And we continue down this vicious cycle of lies…that skews our own view of who God is & who He made us to be! Often the biggest lie we tell ourselves: You Can Have What You Want (Old school: YOLO); You’re Not Hurting Anyone; Surely God didn’t mean that when He said it!
• Satan the ACCUSER attacks your HEART with ACCUSATIONS
  • This is where we see the real action about to take place. Satan has planted the seed of doubt with Even and when she answers him we see that she questions God’s goodness! In the midst of having everything one could ever want…but one thing…Satan took the things made in the image of God & fought to destroy it
  • This can be one of the hardest struggles we battle before Christianity…and we carry in to Christianity! The attack on our heart that we will never be good enough, we deserve what we’ve got and that we can never be forgiven for what we’ve done is something that robs us of the full life Christ wants us to live! This is where our faith always stand trial and we trust God is who He says He is…or we believe we alone hold the something more! Anything other than Christ will always lead to death.
• Satan the DESTROYER attacks your WILL with PRIDE
  • Satan goes after Eve’s pride, tells her she will be like God…then Adam & Eve sin…and in their pride they think they can cover their shame! Everything that one could ever want could be found in the Garden…there was just one rule that had to be followed…and the pride that they could handle that rule is the exact thing that got Adam & Eve kicked out of the Garden!
  • This is why sin breeds more sin…lie starts to breed lie after lie…and before we know it we are so trapped in the prison of what everyone thinks we ought to be that we miss out on the life that God created us to live! The lie here is “I Got This”…the truth is Jesus already has!

For many of us the lies that Satan has us believing involve our Family, Finances, Relationships, Work, Health, Shame, Guilt…our Sin! But Christ came to set us free of our sin…to allow us to live the exponential life free from the bondage of sin! Only when we trust Christ & stay focused on Him can we win the battle to live a life free from the lies we believe about: God, Ourselves and Others!

Take Away
Have you ever doubted Satan’s existence and the warfare he rages against you?

What are some ways the enemy tries to lie to you and your family?

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What Would Jesus Undo “I Am The Resurrection and The Life”

Take Away:
What are some of the spiritual doubts you wrestle with? Have you overcome these doubts? Why or why not?

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“What Would Jesus Undo: I Am The Light of The World”

We’ve all been afraid of the dark at some point in life! Sometimes it was a night light, a trusted friend, a hall light or even glow in the dark stickers…and wasn’t it AMAZING that a little bit of light brought a whole lot of hope? And the reason we experience fear from such a young age is that we were never made to walk in darkness but in light! So, what does the Bible say about walking in the light?

Take Away:
What does God’s grace mean to you and how has it illuminated your life?

What darkness might you be in the midst of right now? How could Jesus help illuminate your darkness?

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“What Would Jesus Undo: I Am The Good Shepherd”

We can all say we’ve experienced it…at times we’ve even been it! We’ve all had a time where we had someone use us more for their benefit and it lead to our detriment. Often these are the closest of friends to us & then something changes—an event, an argument, a next step and POOF their gone. Only in the aftermath can we see the destruction it not only caused us but to those around us. That’s exactly what God saw in humanity…so He made a way through Jesus! If you’ve ever read John 10:1-17 you will see that when Jesus says “I AM the Good Shepherd” it is in direct response to Ezekiel 34. So how do we see the difference in the Good Shepherd and the Bad Shepherd.

Ezekiel 34

• Bad Shepherds FEED THEMSELVES
  • Here we see that the leaders of Israel eat first instead of eating last. They make sure their needs are provided for before they ever measure the condition of those they lead.
  • If we look at today’s world it’s often easy to see where we make sure our needs are provided for before we take action on behalf of others…but as Christians that’s where faith comes in! Faith knows Who provides > my present circumstance and isn’t selfish about the idea of service to others for the Gospel sake.
• Bad Shepherds STEAL FROM THE CHURCH
  • Israel is in this time where the Priests and the Levites are taking advantage of them (remember Jesus flipping tables in the Temple). Instead of honoring the sacrifices and offerings they are consuming them…so they are stealing not just from God but from God’s people!
  • Many times we think of this in the Church as someone stealing money from the Church in some way, shape or form; however, robbing God’s people of His blessing can come through sitting on the sidelines at Church each week & not sharing the gifts God has given you with others. Stealing from the Church doesn’t just have to be with money…it can be from time, effort and willingness to reach the ends of the earth with the Gospel.
• Bad Shepherds SCATTER
  • Israel is in captivity when Ezekiel writes this warning! They are scattered throughout the provinces as slaves of the Babylon for 70 years! Ezekiel is reminding Israel of the Hope of returning to the Promised Land and shares God’s Word to them!
  • This is what is the biggest growing pain of the Church today is that it gets scattered but not planted! Many follow a man over Christ and when they do they are marching back into captivity instead of the freedom Christ died for them to walk in! This is where we can see where the Bad Shepherd shows up the most…and hurts the most!
• The Good Shepherd PROTECTS, CORRECTS and DIRECTS
  • As we see at the end of Ezekiel 34 we see exactly who Jesus is as the Shepherd and how God will send Him to protect the flock from the wild animals, correct the flock when is goes astray and direct the flock into abundant life instead of certain death!

Take Away

How have you experienced the challenges of being like a sheep?

How do you know when God is guiding you?

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“What Would Jesus Undo: I Am The Vine”

We all have that green thumb in the family! It feels like everything they touch grows…specifically in the garden! I’ve had the privilege of seeing grandparents have that green thumb in their lifetime. See the sowing & reaping season was always interesting to me and their response the same… “we work hard but the result is up to Jesus”! As I’ve grown older and deeper in my walk with Christ those words I’ve carried with me as a reminder that it isn’t the fruit but the connection that’s most important! Jesus is teaching to a crowd in John 15 about something that would be familiar to them! But what about us? How does The Vine matter to us today and why did Jesus chose it?

John 15:1-17  Isaiah 5:1-7 Psalm 80:14-17

• The POSTURE of The Vine
  • The Vine is low to the ground and has a position of Humbleness! Jesus chose this example because He was foreshadowing the Cross and showing how He had humbled Himself for us all!
  • This is often the hardest part for each of us! To humble ourselves, admit that we can’t do this by our self and are in need of something that’s greater than us! But, if we will humble ourselves we will experience the complete joy Jesus came to give us!
• The UNION of The Vine and Branches
  • The Vine and the branches have to work in union together produce fruit! The Vine brings nourishment to the branches that is pruned to bring forth the most fruit! In the time that Jesus is telling this they crowd is used to the vine not bearing fruit for 3 years to make the branches strong enough to bear the fruit in the 4^th season! The buds were trimmed and pruned back to be able to support the fruit!
  • How many of us in our walk with Jesus are believing for that! We don’t like waiting for what He has for us…but what if He pruning us so that we can be able to support the fruit He is going to let us bear!
• The Branches BELONG to The Vine
  • The main reason Jesus came is so that we can be in a relationship and be adopted to the Family of God. Israel missed this point! They were so busy justifying themselves to try and be the vine to bear fruit….that they forgot that they were just supposed to belong to God!
  • I love this because there is nothing the branches can do to bear fruit unless they depend on the vine for nourishment…they just have to be the branches! Jesus did the work, prepared the way so that we can just be all that He made us to be!

 

Here is the thing…God is the gardener, Jesus is The Vine and we get to be the branches! We get to be a part of blessing others because we are connected to Him! How Great is our God!

Take Away
What false vines might you be attaching yourself to? How has that affected you?

What dead branches from your character has Jesus removed from your life?

 

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“Those People: The Manipulator”

How many of us know that person who always like to have control of your life? They always assert themselves into your life with how they would do it better…and it’s always all about them. They make you think you are really making a difference when they are really working to their own end. Manipulators aren’t always easy to spot but eventually the bending breaks and the truth comes out. We’ve all been the manipulator one way or the other in our life, but we were made for more! How do we break the power of manipulation in our lives? We have to recognize the way of the Manipulator!

Luke 7:36-50

• Manipulators FLATTER (Luke 7:36)
  • Jesus has started His public ministry turning water to wine and healing the broken. This made Him so famous in His time that He would have crowds of people following Him just to touch the hem of His robe to be healed! And now…the “cool kids” Pharisees want to be a part of the story and share in the fame. They finally invite him to one of their houses to dinner to try and flatter Him with how “holy” they are.
  • In our life we can live this way too! We have people in our life that wear all of the flash, take the perfect pictures of life and seem to have it all together…when really none of us do. The manipulators in our life like to flatter us with everything they have so that we overlook their brokenness (all while judging us for our brokenness).
• Manipulators GUILT (Luke 7:37-39)
  • Jesus knows what the people are saying while this woman is at the table. He hears the whispers and sees the looks. Yet, instead of immediately responding to the “dirty sinful woman” and calling out her sins in front of everyone…He continues to take this moment for this woman’s brokenness to be healed (and the crazy part is she was preparing Him to go to the Cross without realizing it). The Pharisees are trying to guilt Jesus into not paying attention to this woman and instead on them alone.
  • The Manipulator in our life will always try to guilt us into doing things we know aren’t the right thing. They may not necessarily be bad things, they just aren’t the best thing for us. Manipulators will often use all of the “good” they have done to rope you into to doing something bad for them…without them taking the fall for it!
• Manipulators THREAT (Luke 7:40-50)
  • Jesus tells the woman she has been forgiven of her sins and that she can go in peace. The Pharisees are appalled…because only God can forgive sins. And anyone who says they are God should be stoned to death. The story ends with Jesus breaking through the noise of the manipulators (to a former manipulator in the woman who instead lays all of that at Jesus’ feet) and setting the woman free from her shame.
  • The Manipulator in our life will threaten us with our very life. They will make us feel like we should regret every move we ever made & that each move we make to the better is a move against them. Anything that hurts their standing or doesn’t make them look better is not anything they want to be a part of…and if any one threatens that they are willing to kill relationships for!

 

The thing about the manipulator is that we’ve all been that person (and may still struggle with it); however, the Manipulator can be in the presence of God and miss out on the relationship with God (because they refuse to relinquish control). The woman in this story relinquishes control of all she has to Jesus…the Pharisees try to exercise control over Jesus. May we always relinquish control to Jesus instead of trying to control what He wants to do in our lives!

Take Away
Which of the three common tactics of manipulators are most effective on you: flattery, threats, or guilt? Why are they so effective?

Why do you think manipulative people are such a common problem for most people?

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