Where have I been all week?

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week, but literally my entire week has been spent finalizing the brand new, utterly fantastic, long-awaited, much-needed, www.nlc.tv website! It is now live and active! Feel free to check out the hottest church website in history and let us know what you think…

A return to regular blogging should occur next week!

What we should pray for: 6

6)      Do something for me (in spite of me)

Last of all, we can dare to ask Jesus to do something for us. Jesus wants to do something for us, but I believe we often stop him from doing so. Sometimes we stop him because we don’t actually believe he can do it. Other times we stop him by trying to do things ourselves before he has a chance to act without our interference. But most of the time, we stop him because we are not prepared to handle what he can truly do for us.

Jesus wants to bless us in every imaginable way. But Jesus won’t bless us if it will hurt our relationship with him. He cares a million times more about our walk with him than about how many people are in heaven because of our ministry or church. I know that is crazy, because that is not how we measure success, but that is how God works. I am not trying to start a theological war here and this is a huge generalization I know…but I believe that God will give us more money when that money will be used for his causes instead of causing us to stop relying on him for our needs. I believe he will answer our prayers only when doing so will not stop us from crying out to him and desiring a deeper, more intimate relationship with him.

It is not bad to ask for things we need. Scripture tells us to ask for victory, healing, and really all of our needs. But we must learn to ask in humility and in faith. And most of all, we must be prepared to accept Jesus’ answers with thanksgiving and praise rather than withdrawal from him until we need the next big thing he can provide.

What prayer do you wish Jesus would answer today? How will you react if he does?

What we should pray for: 5

5)      Do something through me (in spite of me)

I don’t think it is bad to ask Jesus to do something through us. Asking Jesus to be present when you speak, to teach you how to lead others, to give you an opportunity to share him with others…these are all good things. And Jesus wants to do all of them, I believe. The real issue here is the heart with which they are being asked.

I believe that Jesus deeply desires to use everyone, especially those he has placed in positions of leadership. But using us is the culmination of everything else he has done in us – ruining and breaking us, healing us, teaching us, and working before and around us. Only then, when we have submitted to his plan, when we have become completely humble, and when we have recognized that he works through us in spite of us and not because of us…only then, are we prepared for him to work through us.

Do you want God to work through you? Why? For your fame or for his glory? Maybe the best question we can ask to test ourselves today is this: if God worked through me to save thousands, how would I react? Would I say he got the credit, but really enjoy it for myself as if I did something or would my humility remain intact or even expand as I recognized how hugely powerful God is?

What we should pray for: 4

4)      Do something around me (in spite of me)

When Jesus has gone before us and worked in us, great things can happen. All too often though, we find satisfaction when those great things happen for us, to us, and through us. When we have been truly broken, we should be satisfied when greatness occurs around us.

A heart truly and completely sold out for Jesus is concerned with salvation, renewal, restoration, and revival EVERYwhere and ANYwhere, not just in our churches or the places we speak or labor. Revolutions occur when Jesus goes before us – and he might not always go where we expect or ask.  “Kingdom-minded” is a sort of church buzzword today. It is easy to say and even pretty easy to fake, but hard to really mean. One thing I love about NLC and Joshua is that we really mean it. We have learned to rejoice equally when someone at GSBC is saved as when they are saved at NLC. We have learned that we can do more working together than on our own. This idea is integral to the story of NLC so far and we have plans in the works to do even cooler and bigger things soon by joining forces to help other works of God and to show Jesus to the world together as one. The church’s greatest days are ahead, but we must learn to work together for Christ to see them in our lifetimes!

Do you get just as excited when Jesus moves in another church as when he moves where you are leading? Do you truly believe it is Jesus and his church that matter? Or are you only interested in ______ church becoming famous?

What we should pray for: 3

3)      Do something before me (in spite of me)

Once we have been shattered and reassembled, we are ready to be used by Jesus. Or are we? We like to think so, and sometimes we are. But all too often, we are so excited that we fall right back into the trap we just got out of and we begin to think the “new us” can go do it for Jesus. But we forget a crucial step: we need Jesus to go before us.

The most brilliant sermon or the hippest worship experience in the world won’t do squat unless Jesus has moved ahead of us. Jesus prepares people’s hearts and minds to receive the words he is going to deliver. He orchestrates lives for just that moment when all the work he has been doing in your life converges with all he has been doing in another life. And bam! That is when real life change happens.

As Jesus builds us up and heals us, we can fall backward by thinking we are ready, or we can remember how far Jesus has brought us and let him go forward before we do. How far has Jesus brought you? Will you wait for him to go before you or do you rush ahead too soon?

What we should pray for: 2

2)      Do something in me (in spite of me)

The second prayer we need to pray again comes from a place of humility. Most of us were probably raised with the idea that we don’t wait around for handouts, we don’t beg, we just do something…we fix it…we make ourselves better. My dad never went to college, but has gone on to start and own quite a few successful businesses because he works hard, he reads a ton, he learns from others, and most of all, because he doesn’t give up. These are awesome characteristics to have in life and in business, but being raised this way makes it really hard to ask Jesus – in humility – for the second thing we need: healing.

If Jesus has wrecked us, ruined us, and broken us, we need him to put us back together. Once we have asked him to break us, and we really meant it, he will. And afterwards, it will hurt…and sometimes we will wish we had never asked in the first place. But when he heals us and puts us back together, we are ready to be used by him in a new way. We need Jesus to completely rock our world and then heal us in a whole new way we could have never imagined.

I should also mention that this does not just happen once. If we are humble and growing in Christ and doing crazy things that no one else is doing, this process will need to occur over and over and over again in our lives as Jesus chips away at flaw after flaw, each time reshaping us into someone he can use a little more. How can Jesus heal you today? Are you willing to endure the pain to come out on the other side?

What we should pray for: 1

Last week we hit up a bunch of things we usually pray for. This week, I am excited to share 6 things that Jesus has showed me we should pray for instead. May our prayers become more pleasing to him this week…

1)      Do something to me (in spite of me)

There is a theme to these 6 things. Since I am such a nice guy, I will let you in on it right away: humility. Each of these 6 prayers is followed by the phrase “in spite of me”. We are proud people. We want to do things our way in our power. Only in our most intimate moments with Christ do we even begin to truly become humble and recognize that it is him who does it and, at best, we are sometimes a tool he chooses to use. If you have been in the church world long, you know this in your head, but if you are at all like me, it doesn’t not always resonate in your heart and appear in your actions.

This is the essence of the 1^st prayer I believe we need to pray: do something to me. Naturally, we are not humble. But we must be humbled above all. We can do many great things for God without every truly knowing him and honestly giving him the credit. If I have discovered anything clearly from this situation with my wife and our unborn child it is this: I am not in control. I cannot solve this. I cannot fix anything. No amount of knowledge, understanding, or learning can make this go away or allow me to do anything to improve the situation. Even the best doctor around can only do the tests, wait, and make the best decisions he can, but he really can’t learn enough to know for sure what to do or to absolutely guarantee anything about this child or this pregnancy.

For someone like me, that sucks more than anything. I like to be in control, have a plan, and make decisions. But Jesus has shown me that I never know everything, I am often wrong, and I make bad choices all the time. Jesus has shown me that how I feel about this right now is actually good and if only I would treat everything like I knew jack about it and couldn’t do anything and begin to truly depend on him and trust him to take care of it, I would be better off and he could use me so much more easily and effectively!

As Craig Groeschel often says, God needs to “ruin us” first of all. We must be truly broken and dependent on him. Have you been absolutely wrecked by God?

What we usually ask God for: 5

4)      Do something around me (for me)

This is a prayer we let ourselves feel good about. We pray for other churches around us to see revival. We pray for the rest of our staff to find success. We pray for lives to be changed in our church and then those lives to spread the good news into even more lives. Again, these are incredible things. These are some of the best moments of ministry. In fact, these are some of the best prayers we can pray. Jesus wants all of these things to happen.

But, like we have seen, these good things can also be dangerous. These good prayers can seem to be for others, but really be for us. Confession time: sometimes I want the rest of our staff to find success because of what it can do for me. As NLC grows, it makes me look good. I genuinely want them to succeed, but it sure doesn’t hurt that their success helps me too! I want kingdom growth. I love to see other churches grow. But I love it even more when NLC grows the most and they grow a little than NLC does.

You are probably thinking I am a jerk. That’s because I am. I am not saying I focus on these things or I don’t mean what I pray for or anything like that. I am just saying these little thoughts creep in sometimes. In our selfishness and pride, it is so easy to let prayers for others become prayers for me. We must constantly be on the lookout against praying for our own self-promotion and gain.

If we genuinely hope to see a revival sweep New England and all of America, it has to be about Jesus. We must learn to be equally overjoyed when Jesus saves someone in Alabama or Alaska or across the street from us as when he saves them wherever we lead and serve. It must not matter if they were saved spectacularly or quietly, at a Baptist church or a Pentecostal one, live or on video. It must only matter that Jesus saved someone.

Stay tuned next week for “what we should pray for” (starting on Sunday)!

Things we usually ask God for: 4

3)      Do something because of me (for me)

This one is a little less obvious, but if you read between the lines of your own prayers, you will probably find (as I did), that often we ask God to do something because of me. For example, my wife and I moved across the country, trusting that Jesus had called us to Next Level for a divine purpose. We gave up a lot to get here. Truthfully, we are still sacrificing to be here. We gave up a nice condo, my wife’s great job, our family and friends, and a lot more to come here. This is the good stuff.

But now that we are here, I catch myself sometimes as God to do something great through me as if I have earned it by moving here. It is easy to act like God owes me success or fame or fortune because I trusted him. As I write that, all I can think is that it doesn’t even make any sense. How can my small sacrifice even compare a little with all the things he has done for me? How can I compare my moving across the country with Jesus suffering and death for all of humanity? I really don’t know.

But somehow, I sometimes feel entitled. I pray like God owes me something. I pray like I should be acknowledged for all that I have done – which, in comparison with what he has done, is very, very, very little. I pray like I deserve anything. Maybe this one is just me, but I have a feeling it is not…At times, don’t we all feel like we have given up a lot or suffered enough or been through so much, and God should just give us a break or bless us richly or something? I know I do.

Things we usually God for: 3

2)      Do something through me (for me)

As pastors and leaders, prayer #2 gets almost as much airtime as #1. Some examples: “God, use me today.” “Speak through me.” “Show me _______ (insert big decision here).” You get the idea. Almost every pastor I have ever met has a deep, driving, passionate desire to be used by God. This is probably one of the primary reasons you are in ministry at all (I am pretty sure it wasn’t the late night phone calls or those early weeks where you took no paycheck so you can rent the school again the following Sunday).

Those prayers I mentioned are prayed with good intent behind them, but they are still about me. I think it is possible to ask God to speak through you and to mean it. But I also think, over time, it becomes more difficult. It is only human to begin to believe you have something to do with it. After all, you are funny, you are a pretty decent public speaker, and it is you who people keep coming up to and giving the credit to. In most churches, especially if they are growing, people credit the pastors even more than God. As that happens, I think we can fall into a trap of asking God do things through us, but really intending to have him do it for us. After all, a growing church means the pastor’s prestige, paycheck, and power all increase – and who doesn’t like that?

We must make sure our pride does not allow us to take credit for what God is doing. We must make certain that our pride does not transform our genuine prayers for God to move through us into prayers for us to be lifted up through what God does. Here is the question I think you should ask to test yourself: who is getting the glory for what God is doing? Deep down, you probably know that God is the one doing it in spite of you, but are you enjoying the chance to take a little credit for it for yourself?