Shoutlouder

sunday revisited

// March 30th, 2009 // No Comments » // Sunday

It was the week when the Clocks went forward so always fun to see who forgets. The funniest thing had to be a number of iPhone friends who all use it as an alarm clock and changed the time before going to bed – not realising that the iPhone automatically accounts for daylight saving and so they ended up waking 2 hours earlier instead of 1!!!

Anyhow – great Sunday morning in Leeds. This was our 5th Sunday in the building and only my 3rd time preaching on the new stage. I have to say I’m still getting used to it. It feels like the lights are only 2 feet away which makes you feel like you’re preaching in the Sahara – and we still need to work on some of the lighting and sound to make it work best for the entire room. But the experience of being in a new building has been amazing! We’ve had a few people over the weeks arrive simply because they pass the building on the bus or on the way to work in a morning… talk about location, location, location.

Been preaching for the last couple of week on ‘Keeping it Burning’. We’ve entered a great season in the life of the church. Last week one of the girls got healed right in the middle of the service without any special laying on of hands. Plus we’re seeing a couple of decisions to follow Christ every week. But one thing I want to see on everyone’s agenda is the need for us to actually REACH the people in our world and not just have a happy club on a Sunday.

Leviticus 24:1-4 is one of those little nuggets of Old Testament Gold. It talks of the instructions given to Aaron to keep the lamps burning that it up the place where God’s presence resided amongst the Israelites. God’s instructions were that the lamps must be kept burning ‘continually!’ The people of Israel were to know where their God was night and day!

Jesus passed these instructions onto us when he said “you are the light of the world…” It’s our responsibility now to ’shine’ and make known the presence of God on planet earth! And this is not some day job or hobby… but we need to keep on shining continually!

We need to tend the LIGHT OF LIFE that is within us and ensure that we are shining at all times!

unpacking…

// July 18th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Inspiration, Leadership

Right now I’m trying to unpack who Jesus really is in my life. Cause here’s the thing… you can get so long down the ‘Christian’ journey that before you know it you’re living off borrowed and ‘past-its-sell-by-date’ revelation. You’re experiences of God and everything that you’ve been taught start to get neatly packed away in the storage cupboard under the stairs, half-forgotten or left for a day when you’re doing some spring cleaning and suddenly remember you had it.

We often say that a key thing for any leader is to ‘keep it fresh’… but let me throw that a bit further and say that the real key to great church leadership is to ‘keep Jesus fresh’.

Matthew 16:13-16 tells of the conversation Jesus has with his disciples over ‘who’ the people say Jesus is. The answer comes back that they think he’s Elijah or one of the prophets. But Jesus doesn’t throw a wobbly and concern himself with a PR drive to make sure the people know who he really is – his real concern is with who his disciples recognise him to be – so he asks… “But who do YOU say I am?”

It’s at this point we get Peter’s great confession of faith as he declares Jesus to be the ‘Christ, the Son of the Living God’.

So WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?

Who is Jesus right now to you? Is he the central doctrine of Christianity – or is he your personal Lord and Saviour? Is he the performer of incredible signs and wonders – or is he the one who can heal your arthritis? Is he the Kings of Kings and the Lord of Lords – or does he have the steering wheel of your life and you’re following where he’s leading…

See there is plenty of catch words and descripitive ways we can speak of Jesus – but unless there comes a transaction of revelation between heaven and your heart then they remain only adjectives of a theological faith – and not the revelation of a personal relationship with God.

So – it’s time for some unpacking – time to take Jesus out of the nice, pristine, carefully wrapped and ribboned boxes we put him in and allow him to rule and reign over our thoughts, actions and deeds.

It’s time to discover who YOU really say he is… cause right now you may need to know King Jesus, your sovereign ruler of all, or you may need to know the Prince of Peace – bringer of perfect peace in the midst of your storm. You may need to know the Healer, the Advocate, the Compassionate, the Liberator, the Saviour or the Son…

Jesus right now is your ALL in ALL… everything you ever needed, all you could ever want… so let’s not leave him between the pages of a theological dissertation or in the rhetoric of a carefully thought through message. Let’s allow the Truth himself to truly set us free! Get personal and start unpacking!