Monday, May 26, 2008

Blue Notes

Sunday's message was on Bouncing Back from a Breakdown:
  1. Build a Dream Team
    • Surround yourself with people that you know are leaders
    • When everyone in your life is a taker, it will wear you out. Having leaders in your life will lift you up.
    • There's an epidemic of isolationism and loneliness, hand in hand with epidemic of depression
    • The wrong crowd will corrupt a good person. Leaders will change the life of a teachable person.
    • Standing with Leaders Helps Me...
    A. Hear God
          • Christians go through seasons of hearing and not hearing from God.
          • Sometimes you need others to hear with you / for you and confirm
    B. Remain Encouraged
          • Being around people with similar calls, similar, goals, similar ambitions encourages your spirit
    C. Bear Burdens
          • Every great blessing of God comes with responsibility, many times greater than our ability to bear on our own.
          • Marriage and parenting are hard so that we will seek God's help and others' help.
    • How do we even make friends anymore? The Church was designed to foster relationships with God and with others.
      • Growth groups
      • Ministry teams - Serving together, working in the trenches builds bonds like nothing else in life.
  2. Get Myself Ready
    • Numbers 11:17c - "Tell the people to get ready for tomorrow." Sometimes, the big act of faith is just to get ready for another day.
    • When you're jobless and depressed, that's when God says, "Let's work on your resume today."
    • Listen for God. Be prepared when you enter your time with God (e.g., Bible, highlighter, pen, notebook). "God, I know you're going to talk to me. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but when you do, I'll be ready."
    • "I really believe God's working on Tony 2.0 right now. He's had me make change after change. I almost went from PC to Mac; that's how bad things have gotten."
    • Get dressed, shower, and shave. Get ready for the day.
    • Set your sights on God. There is a tomorrow.
  3. Speak Faithfully
    • Speak in faith based on the promises God's given you.
    • Say it to yourself and others.
    • Psalm 6:9 - "The Lord has heard my cry for help; the Lord will answer my prayer."
  4. Trust God's Ability
    • Too often we overestimate our problem and underestimate God's ability.
    • God is smarter than me.
    • Just because you can't see a way out doesn't mean there isn't one.
    • We seek solutions more than we seek God.
    • The times when problems arise are when we need to seek God.
  5. Trust God's Timing
    • Numbers 11:23 - "God answered Moses, 'So, you you think I can't take care of you? You'll see soon enough whether what I say happens for you or not.'"
    • "Soon enough" doesn't mean "when I want."
    • Your whole life doesn't unfold the day you're born. You're whole life unfolds over your whole life.
  • Numbers 11:31b - "The quail were about three feet deep on the ground, and there were quail a day's walk in any direction."
    • God's plan is always bigger than we can possibly imagine.

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