I’m enjoying this series (maybe a little too much)
When we planned this series months ago I expected it to be good, but I didn’t think I’d be enjoying it this much. Let me explain. I like talking with people and hearing stories about what God is doing in their life, but often I will hear one of the cliches we’re talking about it this series. I’ll hear things like, “I know God wants me to be happy,” or “I just need to give it to the Lord.” And while there is a nugget of truth in these cliches, at times people will use these as excuses or rationale for their behavior. I then have to, as lovingly as possible, explain why God may not want them happy or why just giving it to the Lord won’t work. Bob is speaking this weekend on this cliche, “Just give it to the Lord,” and I can tell you this message is “in his sweet spot” (to use another cliche).
I do want to mention the Relevance Conf that Eagle Brook hosted last week. In short, it was an incredible day! Over 700 people from 96 different churches and organizations gathering to get better together. The worship was phenominal, Bob’s teaching on leadership gave great advice to church leaders, and our volunteers are the best. I love it when people take the day off of work to volunteer and when I ask them why, they say they want to help the kingdom grow any way they can. Have I mentioned I love this church?
Finally, I’ll ask that you pray for the leadership of EB. This week we’re going on our yearly retreat with the church board to talk about what God may have in store for EB in the future. While we’ll have some time to just hang out and have some fun together (bocce ball, “Mafia,” and a bonfire), pray that God will speak to us, and guide our time as we look to Him for direction.
Hey Jason,
I am enjoying this message series a lot too. Bob is right on with how we have to take some responsibility for using what God has given us to act upon and not just “give it up to Him” to do. I did want to bring up a message you gave a little while back and offer perspective on this subject. The first weekend in September 2007 you gave a talk on “Life by Design” where you spoke of priorities and how sometimes our work gets too much attention and our private lives and families suffer from lack of attention. You suggested that we might take aspects of our work and give it to the Lord to deal with. Herein lies the counterpoint… Priorities. What I take from this is that we can sometimes give it up to God to do when our lives are out of balance and we can’t cover everything. Our action should be focused on those aspects of our lives that can benefit the most from our attention; and yest that does mean work as well as family, friends and church. When one dominates, maybe there are priorities within that part of our lives that we can ask God for help and leave it to him.
What do you think?