Unexpected Events Part 2

Last time we read about how King Jehoshaphat faced an unexpected event in his life and how we can apply that to our lives. This time we will continue from where we left off.

Jehoshaphat and the people had gathered together and now we will take a look at Jehoshaphat's prayer. We will look at the first few verses of his prayer and see how we can apply that to our lives.

5 Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD before the new court, 6 and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You. 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ? 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'
2nd Chronicles 20:5-9

I enjoy reading the different prayers that are recorded in the Bible. We get to see how others called out to God in their situations. It also helps us to develop a prayer vocabulary. Though we don't just want to recite words over and over from memory with no thought behind what we are saying, we can use the words of the prayers that are in the Bible to teach us how to pray.

In verse 6 we are seeing how great God is. This is always a good place to start when we are facing a tough time. When we are in the midst of a fearful situation it is encouraging if we reflect on how great God is. Though we don't want to deny the reality of our problem, sometimes we can make the mistake of magnifying the problem over God.  But Jehoshaphat starts out: and he said, "O LORD, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens ? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations ? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.
Notice, he hasn't mentioned his problem yet. He is just ackowledging who God is right now.

In verse 7 he begins to tell of some of the ways God had come through in the past: 7 "Did You not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever ?
When we are in the midst of a challenge and not sure of what to do, it is a good idea to reflect on ways that God has come through for you in the past. Often when we are in a challenge all we can think about is the past. So we need to remind ourselves of how God has been faithful to us in the past. One way to help you remember is to keep a notebook. When the challenge comes and all you can think about is your problem, you can go back to your notebook to remind yourself of what God has done for you in the past.

In verse 9 the prayer is basically saying that if anything were to happen to them, they would cry out God in their distress and God would hear them and deliver them. 8 "They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary there for Your name, saying, 9 'Should evil come upon us, the sword, or judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your name is in this house ) and cry to You in our distress, and You will hear and deliver us.'
They are an example to what we should do. Should anything come upon us, we will: Go to God, cry out to Him, and He will hear us and deliver us.

So we see from this prayer:
1. Let's magnify our God above our problem.
2. Let's remind ourselves how great our God is.
3.Let's remind ourselves of ways God has come through for us in the past.
4.Go to God with our problem.
5. He will hear us.
6. He not only will hear us, but He will deliver us.

Troy

Unexpected Events

All of us have experienced unexpected events. Sometimes they are positive, such as when you receive that unexpected check in the mail, a promotion at work, a pay increase. Sometimes they are negative. You get told you have lost your job, and unexpected illness, an unexpected tragedy. The list could go on and on in either category.

There is a story in the Old Testament that I have always thought was a good text to learn from when we experience negative unexpected events in life. I have preached on this text many times. Instead of writing out a whole sermon I think I will just take a few verses at a time and present the chapter in different parts.

In 2nd Chronicles we find these words: 1 Now it came about after this that the sons of Moab and the sons of Ammon, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat. 2 Then some came and reported to Jehoshaphat, saying, "A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, out of Aram and behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar (that is Engedi )." 3 Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 So Judah gathered together to seek help from the LORD ; they even came from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.  2nd Chronicles 20:1-3

Jehoshaphat, who was king at the time, woke up and probably expected a day like any other day. But he is told in verse 2 that a great multitude is coming against him. This is what I referenced earlier. You start your day like any other day and then you get the news. Some unexpected event has come up. It's not good news. How do we respond? What do we do?

Notice that at the beginning of verse3 that Jehoshaphat was afraid. I find it comforting that a great king was afraid. So many of us try to put on a brave face and act like there is nothing wrong. Or we can have others try to make us ashamed for being afraid, but fear is a natural reaction. I think it's ok to be afraid as long as we don't get paralyzed by our fear and remain fearful.

Jehoshaphat didn't let his fear paralyze him. We are told that in the midst of his fear he turned his attention to seek the LORD. Do you know what our natural human reaction is? We try to fix the problem on our own. Think back to how many times in our lives when you or I have experienced unexpected bad news that our first option was to try and fix the problem on our own? Probably the majority of the time. But the Bible is showing us that our first option can and should be to seek the LORD. We should go to God to see what He wants us to do. I also see in this passage that since Jehoshaphat went to seek the LORD as to what to do, that means that God wants us to go to Him. It also implies that He will give us direction if we humble ourselves and go to Him.

We learn how to tell the difference between our own thoughts and what God is actually trying to say to us by experience. Though we may not get it right 100% of the time, we can learn how to tell when it is God speaking to us and giving us direction.

So in those unexpected events let's remember:
1. Unexpected events happen to everyone
2. It is ok to have that initial fear.
3. Let's seek God in the midst of our fear.
4. God desires for us to go to Him.
5. God will give us direction.

Troy

Give People A Chance

Many years ago one of my mentors, Pastor Hollis told me,"If people won't allow you to fail, they won't let you succeed." He was speaking in terms of ministry. He was trying to say that your congregation has to allow you to make mistakes so that you can learn and eventually succeed in what you are doing. I believe that principle works for any area of life. We have to let people be free to make mistakes and not feel that that is the limit of their potential or become close minded to their ability just because they make a mistake.

 We often judge a persons ability based on their mistakes. I find that fascinating. Why do we expect perfection from people when we aren't perfect ourselves?Why do we feel superior to others when they fail in a certain area of life that we seem to have a good hold on? Why do we want others to extend grace to us and be understanding toward us when we make mistakes, but we don't want  to extend that same grace to others or be as understanding to others when they make mistakes? Isn't it a double standard? Didn't Jesus say something about treating others the way we want to be treated?

I'm not saying that we shouldn't use wisdom. If someone isn't gifted in a certain area we need to try and direct them into an area where they are gifted. I'm also not talking about the issue of forgiveness right now. Or for example, someone borrowing money from you and time after time they never pay you back. Then you wonder should you loan money to them again.I'm simply saying that we need to give people a chance and see their potential.

Many years ago when I got the opportunity to start playing with some of the best musicians around, I didn't play perfectly, but they encouraged me, they saw my potential. With their understanding and patience they helped me to grow into a better musician.

When we read the gospels we see the disciples continually messing up, but instead of giving up on them, Jesus kept believing in them and teaching them. In fact, if you and I were to think about it, hasn't Jesus done the same with us? Even though we may gifted or talented in certain areas, Jesus has been patient with us as we have developed our talents. Maybe we should do the same to others.

Finally, let me add that if you have a talent or gift in a area but it seems like you keep failing at it, don't give up. Continue to develop your talent and gift. At some point you will see the fruit of your efforts and persistence.

Troy

Broken Promises and Broken Resolutions

How many of us have ever had someone make a promise to us, only to have them break it? How did it make you feel? How many of us have made a promise to someone, only to break it? How about New Years resolutions? How many New Years resolutions have we started, only to break them within a month?

 What about a promise to God or a resolution to be more committed to God? How many of us have made a promise to God, or made a resolution to be more committed to God in someway, only to not come through on what we said we would do? How did it make you feel? Did you get that little thought in your head that told you were no good, that you let God down? Maybe you made a promise to God in someway hoping it would keep something bad from happening to you. But, even though you tried really hard you couldn't keep your end of the promise, and now you fear that what you feared would happen to you, will happen to you.

Though making a promise to God is noble, often it's not required. In fact, the promises we make to God are things that even though they are good, they can often be things that God would never ask us to make a promise about.

Another challenge when we make a promise to God is that often we try to fulfill it with our own self-will. You see, our self-will can only take us so far, but when we are empowered by God's Spirit, the action we were hoping to start or stop will be accomplished.

Though making a promise to God sounds very religious, often it produces results that we don't desire. If we don't keep the promise we will feel guilty. We will begin to feel that we are not good enough for God. We may feel that the spiritual life is not for us. On the other hand, if we keep the promise, this can lead to feelings of self righteousness. When we start going down that road, we begin to think we are accomplishing the action we desired in our own power and strength. So we begin to trust in ourselves and our strength more than God's power and strength.

Well if you have ever made a promise to God, only to break it, or made a resolution to do more for God only to not do it, I have good news for you. God still loves you. He loved you before you made the promise.  He loved you while you made the promise, and He still loves you after you break the promise.

Now if God is wanting to bring about some change in your lifestyle, I'm not encouraging you not to do it. By all means get closer to God, do what you feel God is asking of you. But what I am trying to tell you, is that you don't have to make a promise. As I mentioned earlier, often a promise can set us up for failure. Instead, ask God to empower you to be able to do what He has laid upon your heart. That's right, that desire to get closer to God in some way is from Him. You didn't come up with the idea on your own, He put the idea in you. The problem is that we try to accomplish it in our own strength instead of His.

 What we need to remember is that our standing with God is not based upon our keeping our promise to Him, but in Him keeping His promise to us. His Word shows us that He remains faithful to His Word.

 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
                                        2 Timothy 2:13


Troy

What Does God Want From Me? (Phase One)

Lately I have been reading a wonderful book by James Bryan Smith entitled,"The Good And Beautiful God". It is part of a three book series on spiritual formation. In the book he states that, "Our thinking about life with God inevitably confronts us with this crucial question: What does God want from me?"

I bet that if we polled 100 people and asked them that question, I bet we would get a broad range of answers. But I think that there would be a thought that would be consistent in all of the answers. James Bryan Smith says,"If you ask the average person, What must you do to get God to like, favor and bless you? the answer would be clear and consistent: Well, I think I would have to go to church, read my Bible, give some money, serve on committees and serve the needy. Oh, and God does not want me to sin-or at least keep it at a minimum."

It sounds reasonable doesn't it? In fact, all of the things mentioned are good things to do. I think the answer if I were to try to simplify it has two phases. What is mentioned above is phase two. What we do is we try to do phase two without phase one. Have you ever had to assemble something? Well then you know the frustration when you try to put something together without reading the directions and it doesn't turn out right. You try and try to make it work, but it doesn't. To you, it just makes sense that you would put it together the way you did. But, after all the frustration, you finally go back and read the directions and you notice you missed a step.

Before we look at phase one let me just say something about sin. God isn't a kill joy. God isn't out to make our lives unenjoyable. God doesn't want us to sin because it harms us. He is actually looking out for us. If you were honest enough to examine your life, you would admit that not much good comes out of sinning.

When we try to live our lives for Jesus, if we focus on phase two without phase one we will get frustrated just as in the example of assembling something. So what is phase one? To know Him and love Him.

The Westminister Larger Catechism, written in 1648, opens with a question and an answer:
Question: What is the chief and highest end of man?
Answer: Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.

What I love about that statement is to fully enjoy God forever. Most of us don't think of fully enjoying God. If we aren't in love with God and fully enjoying Him then how can we enjoy church, the Bible, serving others, etc...? You see, it's the classic example of phase two without phase one. You will feel obligated to do phase two instead of, desiring to do phase two. I remember not enjoying going to High School. I would skip school very often. But every now and then there would be a class or a teacher that I enjoyed very much. Guess what? Because I enjoyed that class I couldn't wait to get to that class. In your spiritual life, if you try to do phase two without phase one, usually you will get frustrated, then you will stop trying, or think there is nothing to God.

Now if we stop trying to do the things that we think that God wants us to do this leads us to believe- that God is mad at us. We believe He's mad because we aren't doing what we know we should do. Then what can happen is that we try again, except this time we do it out of guilt. Guess what? Having guilt as a motivator never leads to lasting change. So after we try the guilt route, we get frustrated again and quit again. Which leads us to think that God is mad at us again.You can imagine what this thought process leads to: Whenever something doesn't go good in our lives we think God is punishing us.

What if God isn't mad at you? What if He loves us irregardless of our religious performance? Wouldn't this lead to "delighting" in Him? If God loves me regardless of my performance, then my response is to love Him.

His love for me first led me to love Him. That then led me to want to do phase two.To quote James Bryan Smith again," The narrative that God loves us and longs for us to love Him in return provides a genuine and lasting incentive to change."

1 John 4:10-11 are two verses that bring this thought out:

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

The Message which is a paraphrase of the Bible puts it like this:

10 This is the kind of love we are talking about - not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. 11 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other.

You see, our love for God does not determine His love for us. God loves us first. In fact Jesus went to the cross and was willing to die for us before we loved Him.

7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man ; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
                                           Romans 5:7-8

This verse from Romans shows us again God not only loving us first, but being willing to die for us before we were "cleaned up" and loving Him.

That type of love is what leads us to loving Him. That is phase one. This will eventually lead to a desire to do phase two (go to church, read the Bible, etc...).

I'll close with another quote from James Bryan Smith,"The primary thing God wants from us is not improved moral behavior (which will come), but to love God because He first loves us.

Troy

Graceland Church-Why the name Graceland?

 One of the challenges of having a new church, is thinking of a name. Names can define, or categorize you. I have always been amazed by the grace of God. I have experienced so much of His grace in my life. I want for others to experience His grace. I also have desired for people to experience the grace of God through other people. I know I have been blessed by so many other people. Grace can be hard to explain, but you know when you are experiencing it.

So I had a few different names in mind. But as I talked with people about how I thought God was building this part of His body (Church). Others thought that Graceland was the best description. The challenge? Most people think of Elvis. Surprisingly younger people didn't automatically think of Elvis.

Well since Elvis is the pink elephant(no offense to Elvis or any of his fans) I thought that we could try to find fun ways to incorporate Elvis at various times. Any suggestions?
              
Below is just a little explanation that will be on our website.

Troy



Why the name Graceland?
We did not set out to call our church by a name that is very familiar
to most people. But after putting some thought into what we desire for
people to experience at church and in life, the name makes perfect
sense.


Sadly, some people have not experienced grace when they have gone to
church or even when they have encountered people who call themselves
Christians. Though we admit we are from perfect, Graceland church
believes we should extend to others the same grace that God has
extended to us. We think church should be a "land of grace".
At Graceland church it is ok to:
Not have all the answers to life.
To be broken.
To have a past that you are not proud of.
Why is this ok? Because often these are the pathways to recognizing
God's grace and extending it to others.


So come and experience Graceland Church. Don't worry about having to
have your act together. God takes us the way we are.
Though we can't guarantee that you will see Elvis, we believe you will
experience Jesus and a group of people who have not only experienced
His grace, but who are also growing in His grace.

Graceland Church-Who We Are

For about the past two years I have been praying about starting a new church in the Quad Cities. Last summer I felt led to begin the process. Well as 2011 begins the plan is to have the first gathering Sunday April 10th, from 9:30-10:30 a.m. We are in talks right now with the Great Escape Theaters in Moline to see about renting their theater.

One of my reasons for wanting to start a new church is because I have found a lot of people who have been discouraged by what they have experienced at church, and on the other hand I have met people who feel they are not good enough for church. So the idea was that if I could be used to help people encounter God's grace they could get beyond their discouragement or their feelings of inadequacy. We desire to be a place of love, acceptance, grace and community.

So my desire was to have a church that would be a land of grace. A place where no matter where you are in life, and no matter what you have done, you will be reminded that God still loves you and has a plan for you. My desire has been to have a church where people are accepted the way they are. A place where people are free to investigate the claims of Jesus without being looked down upon. A church for people who don't necessarily attend church. A place for people who want Jesus, but not the "church culture" that has nothing to do with living for Jesus, that some well meaning people try to impose on us.

So I will keep you updated as to the progress of Graceland Church. We are in the middle of putting the website together. Below is just a short description about who we are. Below that you will find a link to a two minute video description about the type of church we want to be.

If you are interested in helping out in some way once or twice a month let me know. You can email me or inbox me. Remember NO RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE REQUIRED!!! troy.rangel@mchsi.com

We are excited about getting this church going and look forward to serving the Quad Cities.

Graceland Church was started to reach out to two groups of people - people who don’t attend church and people who go to church but have grown tired of “church as usual.”
We have found that some think church is boring, intimidating and even irrelevant to their lives.  In an attempt to combat this, Graceland Church uses biblical teaching and messages that deal with everyday challenges, hopes and heartbreaks.  We communicate these messages in ways that people are familiar with - music, movies, drama and media.
Maybe you’ve never attended church or maybe you’re just tired of church.  Maybe you’re on top of the world or maybe you’re completely broken.  Whatever your circumstance and no matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done, you matter to God and you will experience His grace and love here at Graceland Church.

http://media.preachingtoday.com/mini-movies/8784/Welcome-To-Our-Church

Troy