Don't be like the rest of them, darling

Our last sermon series “Broke is normal. Don’t be normal. Be weird” has me still asking lots of questions even 3 weeks later. As I was perusing the aisles in Target (don’t tell my husband, j/k he already knows) I came across this journal that said, “Don’t be like the rest of them, darling.” It struck me. Was it pompous? Self-righteous? Narcissistic? Snobby? And then I thought about the series we were in- “BE WEIRD”. Then I thought about Jesus. He wasn’t normal, he wasn’t like the rest of them. He was set apart. He literally opposed culture in every way.

I think sometimes in my desire to be in the world but not of it, approachable, gracious, and loving I have lowered that standard for myself and others. How much has culture clouded my lense? How much have I succumbed to the world’s perspective? I’m not saying we should be self-righteous," judgy”, condemning Christians. I am saying, it’s okay to take a stance. It’s okay to be looked at as weird. It’s okay to not be like the rest of the world. In fact, we shouldn’t be.

Romans 12:2  “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

John 17:15-18 “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

My prayer for us is that we are not conformed to the world, but transformed by Jesus and His word. Jesus has us here to bring transformation, to bring change, to be set apart unto Him. The change starts with us. Let’s continue to be weird! Don’t be like the rest of them!

In Him,

Mindi

What Do Taxes and Prayer Have In Common?

by Sean Adams

Welcome to Tax Season 2020!

There are basically 2 groups of people when it comes to filing taxes.

Group: Get It Done! and Group: Aww Man. 

Which group are you in?

Group Get It Done!

These people are expecting a refund! They were not happy campers when the Feds released a notice that no refunds would be out until after February 15th and in some cases February 27th back in 2017. Group Get It Done typically files their taxes before the end of January and will even use their last check of the year to estimate their tax refund.

Group Aww Man!

These people know they have to pay the piper! They don't care when folks get refunds because they've collected all their money throughout the year and saved for the last few months of the prior year for their typical tax bill. Group Aww Man typically files their taxes right before the due date: this year Wednesday, April 15th.

This the way some of us identify with prayer. Don't pray because you only see prayer as a taxing burden, the loathsome tithe of time or a debt owed. That's the Aww Man Prayer Group. Don't be in that group. The Get It Done Prayer Group looks forward to prayer because they don't see this as giving, it’s receiving. Just like both groups have to spend time filing tax forms; both groups of prayers need to spend time in prayer. But one group is happy about it and the other not so much. One group knows their identity in Christ and practices prayer, the other not. One group believes the promise of Matthew 6:33 and the other not.

Look At Prayer Differently. Here's how, Keep to These 4 Tips:

Keep a Journal

Paul tells the Corinthians church he had prayed 3 times for God to remove his thorn. He kept track of his prayer requests and apparently knew when he had prayed too often for something and needed clarity on what exactly was the hold up with God. (2 Corinthians 12)

Be like Paul! Know about how long it takes to experience an answer from God for certain things. Keeping track will help you realize when you need to pray more in-depth about why you're not seeing an answer and keeping a prayer journal can help with that.

Keep it Organic

Prayer is a conversation. It's not an exercise of rote memorization of fancy sayings you heard some preacher say once and it just feels good to say it. Prayer should be transparent and personal, not gimmicky using plagiarized turns of phrase.

Prayer should be transparent and personal, not gimmicky uses of plagiarized turns of phrase.

Keep to the Word

What does the Bible say about what you want? Does the Bible blatantly say you can have that thing? Then pray the WORD. "God your word says I am healed by your stripes. So I receive that truth and ask that you heal me. Thank you for healing me!"

Keep the Joy!

When your prayer is answered, celebrate! Praise God and note it in your journal; this builds faith like nothing else. When it comes time to build yourself in your most holy faith you don't just remember the stories of victory in the Bible, you recall what God has done in your personal life.

Prayer is part of your Christian Identity. We talk to God and God leads, guides, protects, provides, and loves us. Do what Christians for thousands of years have done–pray with expectancy. Find out more about your Christian Identity and the benefits of being part of this highly exclusive club on Sundays at Cross Culture as we dive deep into our Identity in Christ.

Weights in the Backpack of My Soul

In John 15:5, He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

I am an achiever. It has been my identity. Hands down. I love accomplishing things, to-do lists, winning, success, getting things done, and doing it with excellence. I pride myself on work ethic, I’m driven, and passionate about anything I put my mind to. From a worldly perspective, these things are great, in fact, applauded, promoted, and reinforced through accolades, numbers, and tangible successes. 

But spiritually these things were confining me, suffocating me, and causing me to carry them around like weights in the backpack of my soul. I literally had to have a spiritual posture shift. If I was going to be doing Kingdom work it better be with Kingdom power. Zechariah 4:6 says, “ This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit’ says the LORD Almighty.” 

We can try all day to do things with our own strength, by our own might, but it will only leave us exhausted, overwhelmed, and empty. Jesus wants us to surrender it all. Let go of that tight grip we are using to try and control everything.

Jesus, King of Heaven and earth, says take residence in me. I am your home. Making me your home is how you get things done. When you don’t surrender to Him, you don’t accomplish anything.

You aren’t defined by what you do, but by who’s you are. Let’s humble ourselves before Jesus and walk in HIS Identify for us.

See you Sunday,

Mindi Winakur

Women’s & Kid’s Director

Greatneighbors.net

I had a stalker in High School and College.

With great pride and fear, I want to let you know that I had two different stalkers. Disclaimer, if you had a traumatic stalker experience I apologize. It can be a serious matter.

My stalker experience was a little lighter. I had one in high school and one in college. No, I didn’t marry one of them. I kind of stalked my wife Mindi though, but we have moved past that, jk, maybe. I cleaned off all the breathing marks in her windows. Just kidding. Back to the story at hand.

The high school stalker one was really nice but really creepy. She used to drive by my house before school and 2 times in the evening, which is funny cause I moved 4 times in high school. She asked me to every dance and would even come to every one of my baseball games. The creepy part of her would be that she would touch my arm every time I walked by her in the hallway. I didn’t know what to do, so I told her to stop and she didn’t. I went my separate way. However, I caught myself doing something funny years ago. I looked up my stalker on Facebook, so in essence, I was stalking my stalker. She found Jesus and is happily married.

Now my college stalker actually started to happen when my wife Mindi, was mad at me after we broke up the first and only time. Mindi knew there were quite of few girls who liked me at our college. Give me a break, the ratio was 7 to 1 girl to guys. My single brothers, loving Jesus is where it’s at. A Christian college is where it is at. Its how I got Mindi. Amen!

Anyhow, Mindi gave my AOL instant messenger ID to a girl who was cray cray and already stalking me. For those of you who I never got to end convos with on IM, I am so sorry. My college stalker would message me over and over. She would say things like I am watching you while I was home in CO. She knew what I was wearing that day when I was back in CA. I had to get off of AOL IM. She was scary. I found out she was my stalker when a random girl in the hallway asked me to pray for her. Guys, drive-by prayers with the opposite sex are unwise, ungodly and if you have a stalker, it fuels them. I said yes to this stalker girl and when we got done she tried to Kiss me. I screamed in a high pitch voice. I didn’t pray with another woman until I got married. The stalker got the hint one day when after her 50th call of the day on my dorm room phone(not sure who gave my number way??) led her to forget to block her number. I called the cops, the dispatch was crying laughing, and the police paid her a visit. Dueces, stalker.

What does this have to do with God, Pastor MIchael? I once heard someone say, “disobedience is like a stalker.” When you give it a little rope or don’t set the boundary right away it intrudes more in your life. When we continue to practice behaviors of disobedience to God we start to give the sins room to show up more. The only way to stop disobedience is to replace it with obedience. Jesus was never disobedient, but at any moment He could have said no to the Father’s plan. He didn’t though, He had already spent His whole life on earth practicing in the ways of obedience to the will of the Father. We can actually practice and train ourselves in obedience to the Father. It starts with putting God first in everything.

This Sunday we are going to talk about in a normal world of great disobedience how to be weird through obedience. Here are two points of GREAT NEWS when it comes to practicing obedience in our lives!

1) We always have the grace to grow.

2) Obedience makes God’s presence and plans more evident in our lives.

We all could use more of God’s presence and plans in our life.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24

See you Sunday,

Michael