SELF SERVICE

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Remember when Marty McFly went back to 1955 and there was the little gas station scene where all the attendants came out to serve the car? They started washing the windows, filling the tires, pumping the gas and checking under the hood.

Full service!

Those days are surely gone. The gas was a lot cheaper and the service a whole lot better. Doesn’t make a lick of sense does it?

No it doesn’t. Cause now were a “self-service” lot.

Self-serve gas, self-serve on-line purchases, self-serve insurance, the list goes on and on.

The trouble is we have become far too GOOD at "SELF-SERVE"; in fact we have “serving ourselves” down pat. We have since the time of Paul.

2 Timothy 3:2

For people will be lovers of self…

Yet GOD calls us to live differently. He calls us to serving others before “serving ourselves.”

1 Corinthians 10:24

Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.

At the root of most of our sins and disobedience is selfishness. Our flesh cries out for satisfaction constantly and it is that selfish, self-serving sinful nature that leads us into trouble and consequences. For selfish desires often open the doors to things like lust, gluttony, and irresponsibility. Make no mistake selfishness is the straightest path to sin!

It is why the LORD put loving ourselves last in the cue of daily priorities!

Matthew 26:37-39

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus knew we already had that “love of self” down to a science, but He also knew the danger of that self love. It is why He made such a point of reprioritizing our passions for us.

Love GOD.

Love others.

Love you.

You do realize that if we would embrace this simple line up (GOD, others, me), then we would no longer need to be so “self-serving”. How do I know?

GOD makes it clear.

Matthew 6:31-33

…relax, (don’t) be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.

You see that?

When we shift our focus from self-service to FULL-SERVICE to GOD and others, then GOD promises to take care and serve us in return!

So shift your service today. Make GOD and others the priority and watch the glorious ways GOD will LOVE and SERVE you!

I love you all!

Have a blessed weekend!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

ME? AFRAID?

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Hebrews 13:6

…we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

Can we?

Or maybe the better question is do we?

Do we really take this scripture, this WORD from GOD Himself seriously? Do we approach life, relationships and challenges fearlessly knowing GOD has our back and our front to boot?

I know I don’t.

I know I have had some real bouts with fear in my day.

Fear I couldn't tie my shoes from the shaking of withdrawal.

Fear of failing at whatever I pursued after being fired from a job cutting vegetables.

Fear I am being evaluated. Fear of disapproval.

Fear is gripping, relentless and has incredibly bad timing. And there is no question, fear is real and fear is “tool one” in the enemy’s tool bag.

Why?

Fear opens the door for so much “other lovely stuff”.

Comparisons.

Jealousy.

Anxiety.

Anger. Just to name a few.

But GOD WIRED us to be impervious to fear! Don't think so? Think again.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

POWER! LOVE! SELF-CONTROL!

Almost daily people parade into my office at both FREEDOM and the JEREMIAH TREE beset by problems rooted in fear. Fears caused by poverty, homelessness, compulsion and loss; fears that pile on top of one another like a twisted set of dysfunctional Lego’s or worse yet a JENGA tower waiting to collapse.

But I want to encourage them and you today! Don’t allow FEAR to fault your future! Instead take GOD at His Word and believe!

Isaiah 41:10

FEAR NOT, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Psalm 23:4

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will FEAR NO evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

And these are just 2 of the numerous exhortations from GOD for us to be fearless!

Let's do this today.

Let's take GOD at His Word and draw upon that POWER and LOVE that GOD infused within us and put those fears to flight!

1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear…

Joshua 1:9

Remember...be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid, because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

I love you all!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

FUTILE THIEVERY

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

John 10:10

A (THE) thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy…

Is that ever true!

Yesterday must have been marked “steal” day with big red letters on the enemy’s calendar of chaos and destruction.

He “stole” an opportunity for a brother to progress at the REFUGE by infusing an attitude of ingratitude causing him to be expelled.

He “stole” the home of a mom and her boy by convincing her that a toke from a pipe meant more than shelter and a meal for her son.

He “stole” from the coffers of several ministries through the manipulation and guile of one who is vexed with his lies.

He did his best to “steal” the recovery of a friend by lacing a relationship with contention, strife and anger.

He prowled around all day robbing and pilfering joy, peace, contentment, possibilities, and hope. The day was laced with story after story, text after text, and post after post; an onslaught of looting like I haven’t seen in a while. He even did his best to pick the lock of MY joy by convincing me to waste my time on another “selfishness and sulk” episode rather than sticking to my service calling. One to which I am returning today!

Romans 12:12

…Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

Yet while he is relentless in his filching ways, we ALL must remind ourselves that while GOD acknowledges his robbing ways, GOD also confirms his thievery has no lasting impact.

Psalm 16:8-10

I always remember that the Lord is with me.

He is here, close by my side,

so NOTHING can defeat me.

9 So my heart and soul will be very happy.

Even my body will live in safety,

10 because you will not leave me…

The truth is the enemy can do his BEST to discourage and rob us of everything. Yet as hard as he works, as much as he steals and as good as he is at his craft, one thing he can’t take; GOD’s love for us!

Romans 8:38-39

I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not death, life, angels, or ruling spirits. I am sure that nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us or nothing below us—nothing in the whole created world—will ever be able to separate us from the love God has shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That is something that is protected from all destruction and pilfering. And that is what will sustain us even when everything else is ransacked or stolen.

Therefore if you sense that the enemy is lurking around your neck of the woods today trying to steal your happiness, your joy, your peace, or your hope remember he can never steal what is really important...

GOD’s love for you.

Not today. Not ever.

1 John 4:16

So we know the love that God has for us, and we TRUST that love.

God is love. Everyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them

I love you all!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

DEEDS vs CREEDS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

As a Pastor I get lots of opportunities to “talk”. You know what I mean right? In counseling sessions in front of a group or in one on one’s I get plenty of times to “talk the talk”; offer some suggestions, provide a little direction, maybe even fleck it all with a scripture or two. Truth be told (and many of you who have suffered my "long-windedness" know), I can flat out talk.

But like the cliché says, “Talk is cheap”.

That brings me to this question this morning…

“Do your actions agree with your words? Are you merely talking the talk or are you walking it too?

As believers and followers of Christ we are called to action and are not confined to just “good” words. If our lives don’t reflect our speech, we are missing the mark and missing the point.

I will be the first to admit my actions and my words sometimes don’t line up. Either my actions are a poor reflection of what I speak into others or worse yet my words are dismal reflection of the job to which I am called. Either way when the talk and the walk don't align, it sends the wrong message to those around me.

Martin Luther King said it this way:

“One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves. On the one hand, we proudly profess certain sublime and noble principles, but on the other hand, we sadly practice the very antithesis of these principles. How often are our lives characterized by a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds!”

I love that last line don’t you?

Lives focused more on “creeds” than “deeds”. That "speaks" volumes doesn't it?

Jesus shares an awesome story about “doing and saying”.

Matthew 21:28-31

28 “But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 The son answered,‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. 30 Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But hedidn’t go.

31 “Which of the two obeyed his father?”

They replied, “The first.”

What mattered was NOT what was said because actions failed to follow. The first son, even though he swung and missed with his words, he made it up with his actions. It confirms this little passage from James.

James 2:24

You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith [through works of obedience as well as by what he believes].

So will you join me today and pay a little more close attention to what we are doing rather that what we are saying; maybe work hard to make sure they both align?

GOD will be pleased when we do!

In others words let's lean on one more cliché and let's walk the talk.

I love you all!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

BLESSING BLOCKER

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Ever feel blocked from GOD?

I have had some moments like that of late. Trouble is I know it is like that old break up line from the movies, “It’s not you (GOD) it’s me”.

Yes it is true.

My old selfishness and narcissistic side will decide to pop up from time to time and set up a road block between GOD and me.

Charles Stanley refers to times like this as when we “dam up the grace of GOD with our attitudes, pride and selfish choices.”

That ever happen with you?

Dam up the grace flow?

Maybe you have created a clog of bitterness.

Maybe a resentment restriction is causing the problem.

Maybe a pesky sin is plugging things up.

Whatever the cause, the effect is the same, we block our blessings. How do I know it's us and not GOD? Pretty simple...

Hebrews 13:5

God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,”

So what are we to do?

How are we to smash that sinful stronghold, blow up that bitterness and turn that resentment to rubble?

GOD has a way.

When we pinch off the flow of GOD’s grace and favor with our selfishness and fleshly mess, GOD offers the way to re-open the flow.

That WAY is to approach Him in repentance and humility.

Matthew 18:4

So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

James 4:10

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

1 Peter 5:6

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.

Therefore if you have got a stronghold that is “damming” you up, put aside your pride. Ask GOD to forgive you for allowing “you to get the best of you” and humbly return to Him.

The dam will burst and grace will abound again!

Acts 3:19

Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you…

I love you all!

Have a blessed weekend...

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

SUPPORT A STUMBLER

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Far too often in our culture we relish in the failures of others. When political officials and athletes blunder they can’t get off the news because we can’t stop watching. We giggle and guffaw at shows like WIPE OUT where our fellow man gets pummeled and pounded by big foamy things and dunked into vats of goo and water. It gets big ratings because we can’t stop watching others take a beating.

And while WIPEOUT is all "good" fun, it really is unhealthy to take pleasure in another’s pain. As Christians we shouldn’t support the downfall of our fellow man. Rather we are called to be supportive of one another not to savor when others sink.

Romans 14:13

So let’s stop condemning each other. Decide instead to live in such a way that you will not cause another believer to stumble and fall.

In one of my lines of work, pastoral care to the recovering, I have seen (and let’s be honest experienced) my share of “stumbles”. Some are self inflicted while others are the by-products of bad relationships and affiliations.

Yet instead of us ignoring or fueling the failures, GOD asks each of us to be supportive and encouraging to the "stumbler".

1 Thessalonians 5:11

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up...

GOD knows how tough life is and the last thing we are to be is the banana peel on the sidewalk or the monkey in the wrench for our fellow man and woman. Instead GOD says:

Hebrews 10:24

Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out…

I have heard stories of so called friends and family who instead of coming along side and supporting the recovering actually encouraging them to “give in”, “pick back up” and “go back out”.

Why in the world would that be okay? It isn't.

GOD reminds us that we are “up against it” daily and that we should be about the business of helping to keep not only ourselves but our brothers and sisters on track!

Ephesians 6

Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get…Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

So today if you see or hear of a brother and sister, who are hurting, don’t just leave them hanging or titter in their trial. Reach out and encourage them and join GOD in putting them back on their feet!

Psalm 103:6

God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet...

You may help to save a recovery!

I love you all!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney

REVERSES

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

The almighty Father will use life’s reverses to move you forward.

- Barbara Johnson

Are you like me and when you read that little quote you are “praying”it to be true? Because Lord knows I have stripped the gears of my life plenty of times by crazily and disobediently slamming my life from drive to reverse.

But Barbara is right.

In fact there is a great saying in recovery that “a setback is a setup for a comeback”.

Truth is we all we have setbacks in life to be frank they are inevitable, we have talked about that several times. However it is our response to the setbacks that “set us” apart.

Proverbs 24:16

For a righteous man (woman) may fall seven times and rise again.

How do you respond when your choices have “set you back” or reversed your momentum in your walk with Christ? How do you respond when life "shifts" unexpectedly? Stay in reverse? Keep tracking backward?

If so, then hit the brakes!

Let’s clear the console and get this day moving in the right direction!

1 John 1:9

...if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.

So that is what I am doing today. Confessing a day’s worth of nonsensical sin and gear grinding and stepping into today assured and reassured that the road ahead is the road to be taken!

Too many times we STAY in reverse; we don’t shift out of it, we stop progressing forward. But the author of Hebrews confirms the need to keep the shifter in drive!

Hebrews 10:36

…nothing (can) set you back. So don’t throw it all away now…you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan…

Progress NOT perfection is the key!

To paraphrase our old friend Joyce Meyer: “GOD doesn’t expect perfection, He expects us to continue to grow and change each day”.

In other words “move forward”, stay in drive and spend as little time in reverse as possible!

So you spent yesterday grinding away in reverse, hit the brake, confess it.

Now grab the gear shift push it into drive and let’s get moving ahead!

I love you all!

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney