Archive for June, 2010

Randomness from the weekend…

- Played some golf in the HEAT on Friday. Summer golf = great rates & hot weather
- Ate at man heaven Friday night: Texas de Brazil = all-you-can-eat meat
- Handyman on Saturday. I do not like house chores.
- Starla and I went to see Grown Ups Saturday afternoon. It was a typical movie for that genre.
- Hung out with some friends Saturday evening and started watching Book of Eli again – this time from the new perspective – it definitely changes the entire movie.
- When it is this hot in Vegas, hitting the pool is a must. Thankfully we have several friends with pools.
- We finished our The Big I series at GP on Sunday.
- I learned a ton about idolatry during this series. Very informative.
- This is one of those series I hope we grasp the depth of what we talked about.
- Some of the message thoughts:

Underneath every sin is the reality that we chose ______ over God in that moment.
It is impossible to understand our hearts if we do not discern the idols that influence and shape them.
The question is not whether we have idols but how are we freed from their control.
Questions that help us identify our idols: What do I think about? How do I spend my money? What controls my heart?
The tough questions uncover the counterfeit gods that often capture our hearts.
Idolatry is not just about disobeying God. It is setting our hearts on anything other than God.
Idols are replaced through joyful repentance.
Repentance: turning from our sin and idols to God
Joyful: seeing the beauty of the gospel which helps us see the ugliness of our sin
The only way to replace idols is when Jesus becomes more attractive to us than our sin.
Guilt and fear based repentance causes me to hate me. Joy based repentance causes me to hate my sin – which nailed Jesus to a cross.
Replacing idols is a lifelong battle. It is a process.
The way to replace idols is to get God’s truth in you.

- This series challenged us to really ask whether Jesus is enough for us or whether we cling to other idols for our value.
- We have really been pushing the envelope in some recent series to think deeply about following Jesus.
- Our band led a more scaled back acoustic approach. We even had a cello!
- Scaled back is good on occasion.
- We have had several guests in recent weeks.
- This time of the year we always lose some solid families to military assignments and gain some as well.
- It is cool to see some families who were sent somewhere else our first few years who are now back in Vegas on re-assignment and re-connecting with Grace Point.
- Relaxed in the pool Sunday afternoon! Needed that.
- Last full week of work for a while. Vacations and travel coming over the next month.
- Summers are tough in the desert but we are maintaining some solid Sundays.

Ready for 110 today!! Thank God for air conditioning.

I took Ragan and Zac camping in Pine Valley, UT on Friday & Saturday. We had a blast. Eating junk food, hiking, catching fish, and just hanging out. I really enjoyed my time with my two youngest children. Pine Valley is an awesome place to camp and just a couple of hours out of Vegas. The temperature was perfect and we even managed to stay relatively warm in the tent. I do have to admit that sleeping on a half deflated air mattress with a squirmy 8-year-old and a snuggly 10-year-old is not exactly my interpretation of a great night’s sleep.

Sunday was a good day at GP. I taught on the story of Jacob and how God strips our idols in order to bless us. Some of the highlights from the message:

- Idols are more commonplace in our lives than we tend to admit.
- Idols can’t simply be removed. They must be replaced by the true God.
- Jacob’s life was marked by deception, getting caught, being afraid, running away, and manipulating his way through life.
- Our search for value in the wrong places can become our most difficult idol to overcome.
- Idols leave you lonely and afraid.
- Circumstances changed between Bethel and Jacob’s return but one thing did not: Jacob’s heart.
- Jacob’s face-to-face with God marked the end of his effort to run and find meaning in anything outside of God.
- A fight with God is a fight for the soul.
- God confronts us for who we are – a fight over our own sinfulness.
- God cripples Jacob at his point of greatest strength not to maim him but to bless him.
- Jacob had to come face-to-face with who he was (what is your name).
- God refuses to allow us stay where we are – He takes us to where He wants us to be.
- Knowing your identity in God through Christ is the first step to purging your heart of idols.
- When we come face-to-face with God, our lives are never the same.
- Jacob walked with the limp of grace.
- Jacob must die so that Israel might live.

We also celebrated Communion together which is always a special time at the church.

We took the kids to see Toy Story 3 on Sunday afternoon. It was a great movie and we had a good time. I felt like this movie represented the end of an era. The first Toy Story came out in 1995 followed by #2 in 1999. I remember taking my oldest daughter Kayleigh to see Toy Story 2 when she was just 3 years old. It was one of her first movies. So it was kind of cool to now see the final one with all three of my kids. Pixar went after the heart strings and overall the movie was really good. My kids love these movies and admittedly the movies are as good for adults as they are for kids. They keep me engaged even now.

Summer is officially here with all the good and bad. Lots of heat and lots of swimming in the future weeks.

Randomness from the weekend…

- Nice weekend in Vegas the past few days … 80s
- Played some golf
- Watched some girls volleyball. Kayleigh is getting really good.
- Took Zac and his buddy Mark to see The Karate Kid. It was actually a very good movie. The theater was packed and people broke into applause on numerous occasions.
- Watched UFC on Saturday night. IceMan should retire. Great fighter in his day but his days are over.
- I survived watching A LOT of punching on Saturday without actually punching anyone.
- Sunday was another solid day at GP.
- It is great to see new people step up and lead in our band. Good stuff.
- The Big I is getting a lot of positive feedback.
- This series is so relevant b/c it is a subject with which we deal every day of our lives.
- I didn’t really understand the depth of idolatry until I began this series.
- This week I taught on the story of Abraham and Isaac. God taught me some fresh lessons this week from this story.
- Some of the highlights of the message:

“Acquiring your heart’s deepest desire can turn out to be the worst thing to ever happen to you”
“We will worship something or someone and without divine intervention the object of our worship will never be God”
“Seeking to find meaning and value in anything/one outside of God will eventually destroy your heart”
“Abraham’s greatest desire would eventually become his greatest heart test”
“Was Abraham trusting God because He was God or because He was a means to an end?”
“Will I trust God even when it does not make sense to do so?”
“WE will go and WORSHIP and WE will come back to you (Abraham’s faith)”
“Abraham’s test was about loving God supremely”
“God’s test was merciful”
“Will I let God be God in my life and in the lives of those around me?”
“The true sacrifice for Isaac was not the ram but the Lamb of God”
“God wants to be all that we need and this only happens through the gospel”
“You don’t realize Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have”
“God deals with the destructive idols in our lives not to wound us but to complete us”

- Usually our best series are the ones that flow from God’s work in my own life.
- My older brother Dale from West Palm Beach was at GP yesterday.
- Really enjoying the Lakers-Celtics series. Great game again last night.
- Lesson from last night’s game: a great leader still needs a support cast around him. We can’t do it alone.
- I love the more relaxed environment we have around GP during the summer. The heat creates it and we always need it.

I think that’s about it. Enjoy your week.

Devin

We began a new series last Sunday at GP on modern day idolatry. Most people think of idolatry in terms of stone statues and golden images but idolatry is actually a matter of the heart. Idolatry is placing anything or anyone over God in our lives. And the truth of the matter is that most of the things we tend to place over God in our lives are good things. They are not bad things. Most of the counterfeit gods we encounter are good things in life that we allow to become supreme things. Most of our idols are things that we love and are a natural and healthy part of our lives. We just tend to elevate them to a status that is reserved for God alone.

Take for example our children. Kids are a good thing. Children are a gift from God. We are instructed to love our kids in a God-honoring way. We are to protect them, provide for them, make them feel secure, love them as God loves us. And yet our children can easily and quickly become false gods in the sense we can elevate them to the place in life reserved for God alone. A good thing – kids – can become the supreme thing. And when that happens, we are actually damaging them in the sense we are raising them in a way different than God intends. Our good intentions can actually create damage!

Idolatry stands at the heart of our sin. Any time we choose to sin, we choose to replace God in that moment with a false god. We choose to commit idolatry of the heart. Calvin called our hearts “idol factories” in the sense that our hearts continually seek other gods instead of the true God. That’s why we must guard our hearts and seek to prioritize God in our hearts. And as we learn to prioritize God, we find the fulfillment, peace, and contentment for which we are often searching when we construct counterfeit gods.

This weekend we are going to look at an unusual story in terms of idolatry. We are going to be examining the story of Abraham and Isaac. In this story, we have a classic example of the temptation to elevate a good thing to the place of the supreme thing. We will discover in this story that the very promise of God became a potential counterfeit god in Abraham’s life. The story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is really an idol check. Was Abraham willing to trust God even when it did not make complete sense to do so or did Abraham hold so tightly to the fulfilled promise of God (a son) that he actually elevated that promise to a place reserved for God alone?

Isaac was Abraham’s ultimate idol test – his one and only son. This test prioritized God in Abraham’s life – it allowed Abraham to find the place of ultimate contentment and faith in God. It proved that Abraham ultimately trusted God and not just in God’s gift. His ultimate faith was in God alone.

This series is teaching me a lot about what idolatry looks like in my own heart and life. What I find is not always attractive for sure. Idolatry is an ongoing battle of the heart but the battle is worth fighting. It is a battle for our hearts – a place reserved for the God who declared in the first two of the ten commands: You will have no other gods before me. You will not allow any idols in your life. We were created to love, trust, and obey God. And only as we live with Him as our highest priority can we truly experience the reality of what that means.

Randomness…

- It is officially H O T in Vegas. Pool time a must.
- Played some golf – felt the heat.
- When it is this hot the best thing to do is stay indoors.
- A great weekend at GP
- Began a new series on idolatry called The Big I
- Great crowd this weekend
- Band brought it this weekend
- Set design was incredible
- The a/c was out most of the day but we survived
- Some of the message highlights:

Each culture is defined by its own set of idols.
We don’t physically bow before statues but we worship our own set of idols.
An idol is anything we love and pursue over God.
An idol is anything so essential to your life that if you lost it your life would feel worthless.
An idol receives our highest level of value.
Idols are most often good things that we turn into supreme things.
Counterfeit gods always disappoint.
An idol is the “one thing” that your heart craves above all others – where you find your value, security, and significance.
Idol test: “Life has meaning and I have worth only if I have _________ in my life.”
Idolatry is a heart issue.
“The human heart is a factory of idols” (Calvin).
The first commandment teaches that you either worship the uncreated God or some created thing (idol).
You will worship something/someone. Whatever you worship, you serve.
Underneath every sin lies idolatry – making something more important than God in that moment.
Counterfeit gods capture our love, trust, and obedience.
What has supreme value in your life?

- This series is very thought-provoking. This issue describes an ongoing battle that each of us faces regularly.
- I have my own idols and deal with the reality of my own struggles when preparing messages like these.
- We ended the service today with a declaration to God that “There is no one higher or greater than our God.”
- Looking forward to a good summer and some time off.
- Fun day with the staff tomorrow – canoeing the Colorado together.
- About to watch Lakers-Celtics

later