Focus | Small Group Questions

This last year served as a magnifying glass in so many areas. Think about your life and how it changed. Some people who’ve been thinking about moving to another state are gone! People started to think more about the time God had given them and how they were spending it. Marriages were either strengthened or broken. People with financial issues either rose to solve those or cracked under the pressure. Life changed happened for millions of people for the better. Let me share the thesis statement for this sermon: I’m convinced that if you show me your calendar, the apps on your phone, and your bank statement I can tell you what is important to you. It seemed like a waste to leave these small group questions in a file on my computer and not share them with everyone.

Small Group Questions | Stepping out of the blur | Matthew 6:19-24

Looking back, the last year helped many people to re-evaluate the focus of their life. This last year served as a magnifying glass in so many areas. In some areas it was also an accelerant for things already taking place in our lives. Think about your life and how it changed in certain areas. The last year helped many to really evaluate the focus of their lives. In some cases, relationships were restored, finances were taken under control and time management improved. In other cases it was just the opposite. Neal made this statement: I’m convinced that if you show me your calendar, the apps on your phone, and your bank statement I can tell you what is important to you. Let’s study these questions together and learn about our focus. 

1) This last year served as a magnifying glass in so many areas. Think about your life and how it changed. Share one area of your life that changed for the better because the pandemic required you to slow down and adjust your focus. 

2) Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Solomon shares a variety of ways that we spend our time here on earth. Looking at this list, what is one area you need to focus your time on right now? Read Matthew 5:23-24 to talk about rebuilding relationships. 

3) Solomon teaches us about eternity and the beauty in life (read Ecclesiastes 3:9-14). How will you use your time to best honor God in this world? Think about how you can adjust your schedule to focus on spiritual growth. 

4) Read Leviticus 11:45 and 1 Peter 1:16. God instructs us to be holy because He is holy. What is a good definition of holiness? Think about how you can use the apps in your life to live a holy life.  

5) Read Joel 2:12, Proverbs 3:5-6, and Galatians 5:19-23. Open your phone and check your screen time. Go around the group and share how much you’ve been on your phone today and this week. Does your screen time honor the Lord?

6) In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught us about our relationship to money (read Matthew 6:19-24). We have to ask ourselves this question: Do I value my bank account more than God? How are you doing at loving God more than money? 

7) Our relationship to money is an important relationship to keep an eye on. How has this sermon, and these questions, helped you to think about money in a new light? Take some time to review your spending and see where your money is going.  

Close your time in prayer

Confessions of a Pastor: I judge

We've currently been studying the book of Romans at my church and I preached a few weeks ago on Romans 2:1-16. At the beginning of chapter 2 Paul writes this:

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Romans 2:1

As I studied for this sermon I stumbled upon a psychology term called projection. The people Paul is addressing were passing judgment on others to make themselves feel better. Paul uncovers a common human shortcoming, namely our tendency to be critical of everybody except ourselves. Think about it, we have a keen ability to point out in others the faults we see in ourselves in ourselves. We expose the shortcomings of others while concealing our own similar shortcomings. This tendency was made popular in 20th century psychology by Freud and is called “projection”, but we see that Paul described it centuries before.

It reminds me of an encounter that occurred between the king of Israel and the prophet Nathan in the Old Testament. Nathan came to King David and shared a short story about a rich man and a poor man. The rich man had a huge farm and tons of livestock, but the poor man had only one little sheep and this sheep was like a member of the family to him. The rich man had a guest in town, but he didn’t want to turn any of his cows into hamburger so he went to the poor man and forcefully took his only sheep for his guest’s dinner. David burned with anger and instantly condemned the man. Then Nathan extended a pointed finger at David’s chest and revealed to him that he, David, was the rich man in the story. You see, David committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed her husband to cover up his sin, but he was so very quick to judge the other man in the fictional story.

Bring it to our lives. I find that I am more likely to find fault with my children for things I struggle with myself than for issues I don’t tend to struggle with. Let me give you an example. One of my daughters is constantly saying, “I want.”  When she says this I get upset, but each time these words leave her mouth I get increasingly upset. As I’ve examined this I’ve realized the failure lies within me. My disgust with my daughter’s words is a direct reflection of my own selfishness. She hears me say, “I want a new iPhone,” “I want a new GoPro.” I am the hypocrite. I am condemning my daughter for my failure!

Its interesting that we are far quicker to judge others than we are to judge ourselves, and by doing so we condemn ourselves! So if I just leave it here basically it sounds like this, "We suck and there is nothing we can do."

But that's not it. The problem is a deep heart issue and we need to address it. The first part is to identify the issue so we can address it. This week will you take time to identify an area where you are critical of others but give yourself slack. Once you find that area take time to work on improving and being less judgmental.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matthew 7:1-2

People are (still) trustworthy

People are (still) trustworthy

I may sound old saying this, but it seems like people are becoming less trustworthy. I’m not sure if its our decreased human interaction or what. Since I’ve been feeling like this, the other day I figured I’d do a test to see if people are still trustworthy.

I had an old iPhone 4 and figured instead of just letting it be my new paperweight or allowing the kids to use it as a hockey puck I’d sell it on Craigslist. Now I love to sell on Craigslist and honestly, I love to buy too. There are some interesting people on Craigslist so I always get a kick.

I list the phone and wait… and wait… and wait… Finally I receive and email from a man interested in buying the phone. We email back and forth and the following day he calls me. I call him back and we begin talking about the phone. Now, he is basically asking me every question I’ve already given an answer to in the ad but its all good.

So he finally wants to see the buy the phone. He asks if I can meet him at the nearest Verizon store. The way my day, and week, were shaping out it was going to be at least 48 hours before I could make this happen. We talked about options, I had swim lessons. More options to meet, I had work. Finally I tried to convince him to stop by my house, see the phone, pay me, go to Verizon and if it didn’t work I’d give him his money back. His response: “My wife said I have to go to the store to make sure if works.”

We kept talking and I kept trying to convince him into my plan. I was trying to convince him to trust me. Finally I said: “I’m a pastor” but it didn’t work. I needed to change my tactic and stop asking him to trust me. I said: “Are you a trustworthy man?” He was shocked and responded: “Yes (hesitantly). Yes, I am trustworthy (with more confidence)”.

I changed the plan. I said: “How about you stop at my house, see the phone and if you like it take it to the Verizon store. If it works, come to my house and pay me.” It was a crazy idea. Actually, after I said it I was shocked. He like my idea and wanted to leave me with a check. I declined and said: “Let’s trust each other on this.”

He took the phone, I went to swim lessons. While at swim lessons he called and said it all worked and he would drop the money at my house while I was away. When I returned home I found the exact amount stuffed in an envelope with the simple words “Thank you” written on it.

So if you’re wondering if people are still trustworthy, they are.

Too Many Forms of Communication?

A few months ago I was talking with one of the Elders at my church about the many forms of communication.  We were talking about how students are bombarded with all the different ways they connect with each other.  The conversation was interested because for me there were three basic forms of communication when I was growing up:

1. Phone Calls
2. Postal Service
3. Yelling Downstairs

Most people wouldn't consider the third a real form of communication and since my family didn't have a fax machine I am going to leave that off of the list.

Now here is a list of the many different forms of communication that a high school student has access to:

1. Phone Calls
2. Postal Service
3. Fax Machine
4. Email
5. Facebook
6. Twitter
7. Text Message
8. iMessage
9. iChat
10. Facetime
11. Skype

I am sure that there are some forms I am missing (please feel free to add to the list).  Since we all know that Facebook does not just include your timeline but also messaging and chat that could add a few and Twitter also has direct messaging but it didn't seem right to bolster the list too much.

The interesting thing is that with all these new forms of communication it seems that our society is more disconnected with those around us.  This disconnection means that parents, youth pastors, coaches and teachers have to work all the harder to keep students engaged and feeling they are important in a world that can seem overwhelming to some.  This is where the local youth pastor needs to be able to step in, partner with parents and help out to get students into real relationships.

Kids Need Encouragement

I've been thinking a lot about encouragement lately and how important it is to our lives.  I'm not sure exactly what has spurred this in my life but it is on my mind right now so I am going to dedicate this week of blogging to encouragement.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at a winter camp and was able to take my family with me... for the most part.  The family stayed at my mom's house since Sophie was feeling a little sick and I headed down to the camp.  On the way up to the camp a cool time happened that was encouraging to my kids (at I think it was).

We were sitting at Starbucks in Barstow, CA and were about to leave.  Before we packed up I took a picture of Charity with a funny face.  It spurred me to start taking some pictures with my kids while we made funny faces and here is what we got:

Now you may be trying to get the correlation between the monkey face so bear with me real quick.  See this was a time in my life that I could herd my kids back to the car or spend some time encouraging them to be creative.  Now I am sure that their first grade teachers will not like this behavior but when they are young and we can have fun like this I want to encourage my kids to be creative.  The best thing about spending time with them like this is that I get memories that will last a lifetime as I build my relationship with them.

10 Days with the Verizon iPhone

Originally I wanted to title this post: "7 days with the Verizon iPhone" but I had seminary all week so I am stretching it out a few more days.  Now just to make it clear; I am no tech review guy; I am just a normal guy who has waited for Verizon to finally get the iPhone.  There was one point we mentioned going to AT&T but I just couldn't see going to a lesser network for a better phone.

On February 3rd 2011 I was one of the millions of people who ordered the Verizon iPhone.  Not only did I order one for myself but I also ordered one for my wife.  Now I didn't get on at 3am in the morning but I did order them around 7am.  When I ordered them I was under the impression that they would not be mailed out until February 10th.  I figured we would get them right after I left for school and then I would have to wait a week to use it; but that didn't happen.  I got a tracking number the next day telling me my iPhone was on its way!

So after having the Verizon iPhone here are some of my thoughts:

Set-up: The set-up of these phones was super easy.  We just plugged them into our Macbooks and boom! It set it all up for me.

Battery LIfe:  This is something that is important for my life.  I have been up all day today.  I was in class.  I checked email, texted people, checked email, played a game, checked in for my flight, called my wife and even did some FaceTime with her.  I still have over 50% of my battery.

FaceTime: I love FaceTime.  Its great to be able to talk to my family face to face while I am away at work or out of town.  Its nice to be able to call them up and see how they are doing.  The bummer on this is that you have to be connected to WI-FI to make it happen.

Apps: I am not that huge of an app guy.  I actually had a student I work with grab my phone and flip through it.  I could see she was disappointed at my lack of apps.  I do have apps that work for me.  I have Twitter, Southwest Airlines, some games and then a few more apps.  I am satisfied with the apps and how they work.

Calls: The reason I didn't get the AT&T iPhone is due to the massive issue of dropped calls.  I have to say that I have not dropped one call.  This phone has great reception.  There was one instance where I had mediocre service but I could still hear just fine.

Camera: The camera on this phone is so rad!  All the pics on this post are from the camera on here.  It has great picture quality and the video capability is top notch also.  If you want to see video quality, I posted a video here on youtube.

Email/Calendar: I am weird on this.  I want my gmail but I don't want my work email.  I want my work calendar but I don't want my gmail calendar.  I can have all that.  It was very easy to set up to get my personal email but not my personal calendar.  I set up my work calendar but told it not to sync work email.  Very easy!

Overall: I love the phone!  I am one of the many Verizon customers that didn't switch and I am very thankful for that choice.  I am glad that I waited for the iPhone to come to me.  Overall I am a satisfied customer.