Dear Andy,

It’s your high school graduation day, and there is so much ahead of you.  The girls that you once considered to be your mortal enemies in life, well, those same girls have caught your eye and you wonder now how in the world you can get their attention.  The awkwardness you felt as a sixth grader, being the low kid on the totem pole of the life of adolescence, has now changed as you’ve gotten bigger, stronger, and your voice has changed.  I’ve been thinking a lot about you lately – I’ve come in to your room as you have slept and knelt beside you, praying for your precious heart to love Jesus more than I ever have or ever could.  I’ve prayed for your protection.  I’ve prayed that you would be a world-changer for the kingdom of God.  And I’ve prayed for myself, that I would be modeling to you a clear and unmistakable picture of what God is like.  You and I both know that I am not perfect – far from it – but my heart is truly burdened that you would follow with your whole being the Savior who I follow.  My soul aches that as you continue to grow…that these would be qualities you’d desire over any others:

1. Glorify God with your life, that you would honor Him who died and rose for you in the way you live, how you relate to people, how you play, how you grow.  Unfortunately, you are surrounded by people whose walk does not match their talk.  My passion for you is that your faith in and love for Christ would permeate EVERY area of your life – your thoughts, the media you consume, how you compete in athletics, how you study with integrity, that God would be first in everything you say and do.
2. Have a Thankful Heart.  Everything you have is a gift from God.  You are supremely blessed with good health, a solid home, and loving people around you.  All of the gifts that you have are from God, not you.  His grace is all over you.  Recognize that.  Never recover from that.  And be thankful for it.
3. Make Good Choices.  The road is broad that will lead to your destruction, and the road that leads to life is narrow. I have sought as your dad to teach you to make right decisions when given the opportunity.  Sooner than you think the world will be seeking to welcome you into it clutches.  Make all your decisions – what you listen to, what you watch, who you choose as close friends, who you marry, how you spend your time, what you do vocationally – on the basis of God’s unchanging Word. Don’t trust your changing feelings as a gauge to discover and do what seems right. Instead, study and follow God’s Word so that you can choose to do what is right in His eyes for your good.
4. Love people with grace and compassion.  You have such a heart for people.  From birth you’ve always been about others.  You love your friends and your family so much.  Jesus was a friend to the friendless.  He was sympathetic, kind, and merciful to people.  In that way you’re very much like Jesus.  Be that person, Andyboy.  Do that and God will bless your life.
5. Live with humility.  Always show humility. Don’t ever believe that your talents, gifts, abilities, successes and achievements come from you. If anyone deserves a pat on the back for those things, it’s not you. Don’t ever allow yourself to be full of self-centered pride.  Don’t be puffed up by your own self-importance.  God cares more about building your character than he does your pride.
6. Live with self-control.  This is so huge.  The world will tell you how to behave sexually, how to treat material things, how to treat the people around you.  Don’t buy what they are trying to sell you.  Please God with how you conduct yourself. Be a young man of dignity and control.  There is nothing attractive to God about people who live life out of control.  Piggy-backing on that one…
7. Live with sexual purity.  You get one shot at this area of your life.  Protect it with your life.  Your mom and me went into our marriage as virgins and neither of us have ever regretted this. Don’t buy the lies that there are no rules. Stand firm on this Andy because there will be opportunity for compromise and the result will always be regret. Decide now to live what you know to be true – trust and believe that God has your best interest in mind and he wants you to experience the joy of sex in the context of your life-long marital commitment to one woman. You won’t regret it!
8. Maintain a sense of modesty and treat others with that same modesty.  This world has completely rejected the concept of modesty.  Carefully honor God with what you say, how you act, how you dress, and where you allow your eyes to wander.  Remember that in God’s eyes, treating people, particularly young ladies, with dignity as fellow bearers of the image of God is a virtue that honors Him.
9. Trust God with your life.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says it better than I ever could:  “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding.  In all of your ways acknowledge him, and He will make your path straight.”

My prayer for you is that as you navigate this one life you’ve been given by God that your passion would be to reflect the image of Jesus to the world around you.  That when I look at your life, as you mature, that I could look at your mom and say, “Honey, there goes our little boy.  And He’s incredible – he looks just like Jesus!”

I Love You Kiddo,

Dad

Thinking about this issue a lot over the past week, and then having the honor of teaching about it from James 1:13-25 this past Sunday at DC, led me to write a poem.  Yes, a poem. Don’t really know what came over me but it just kind of came out.

Here’s hoping you hear the heart behind what I wrote and shared.  :

Temptation

What is it about me that falls time and again

That struggles so very greatly to run away from sin?

Why do I run back to the things that promise life

But only end up delivering pain, hurt and strife.

I’m learning that there’s this fight within me between God’s way and sin

It hits in my weakest moments when I feel like fitting in

Some call it the flesh, submission to human nature

I call it sin, it’s my own choice to do what brings me pleasure.

It started back with Adam and Eve and that serpent who deceived them.

Because of their choice to reject God we all too stand condemned.

But in the stillness one day as they talked way back when

God turned to his son Jesus and said, “You go to them.”

“I will give you strength and you will look right at them

And you will live and you will die, as the Second Adam.”

Jesus followed God’s command and did just as he said,

But three days after he breathed his last, He rose up from the dead.

Because of that, the church was born and advances to this day

And God commands us love the world in each and every way.

So here we are today facing choices good and bad

Temptation pushes us to sin and that makes Jesus sad

So what do we do when we face those choices to obey him or to turn.

It’s our decisions every day that shows God what we’ve learned.

So now, Discover Church, we look to the Bible, in James, Chapter One

To see how we can beat temptation through God’s one and only Son.

Temptation

What is it about me that falls time and again

That struggles so very greatly to run away from sin?

Why do I run back to the things that promise life

But only end up delivering pain, hurt and strife.

I’m learning that there’s this fight within me between God’s way and sin

It hits in my weakest moments when I feel like fitting in

Some call it the flesh, submission to human nature

I call it sin, it’s my own choice to do what brings me pleasure.

It started back with Adam and Eve and that serpent who deceived them.

Because of their choice to reject God we all too stand condemned.

But in the stillness one day as they talked way back when

God turned to his son Jesus and said, “You go to them.”

“I will give you strength and you will look right at them

And you will live and you will die, as the Second Adam.”

Jesus followed God’s command and did just as he said,

But three days after he breathed his last, He rose up from the dead.

Because of that, the church was born and advances to this day

And God commands us love the world in each and every way.

So here we are today facing choices good and bad

Temptation pushes us to sin and that makes Jesus sad

So what do we do when we face those choices to obey him or to turn.

It’s our decisions every day that shows God what we’ve learned.

So now, Discover Church, we look to the Bible, in James, Chapter One

To see how we can beat temptation through God’s one and only Son.

The good news is that God has provided His Son and His Spirit to help and guide us through all of the challenges that this life brings. Huge in that process is coming to grips with the principles God teaches us through His Word, the Bible. And one of the most practical, helpful books in the Bible is the Book of James. Over the course of the next 7 weeks we will be looking at many real-life challenges we all face, and what God says about how to deal with them: how to deal with trials in our lives, how to make God’s word “stick” in our lives, the relationship between what we say we believe and how we live (faith and works), how to tame our tongue, and many other very real-life issues that will prove helpful in our journey together to find and follow Jesus.

So don’t miss a week! And remember, we have TWO SERVICES now, 9:30 and 11:00a. Invite a friend!

The good news is that God has provided His Son and His Spirit to help and guide us through all of the challenges that this life brings. Huge in that process is coming to grips with the principles God teaches us through His Word, the Bible. And one of the most practical, helpful books in the Bible is the Book of James. Over the course of the next 7 weeks we will be looking at many real-life challenges we all face, and what God says about how to deal with them: how to deal with trials in our lives, how to make God’s word “stick” in our lives, the relationship between what we say we believe and how we live (faith and works), how to tame our tongue, and many other very real-life issues that will prove helpful in our journey together to find and follow Jesus.

So don’t miss a week! And remember, we have TWO SERVICES now, 9:30 and 11:00a. Invite a friend!

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (NIV)

What Worry Does:

1. Worry gives small things a big shadow.
   • “Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” Arthur Roche
2. Worry leads to unproductive places.
3. Cast all of your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 (NIV)
4. Worry draws us away from following Jesus.
   • 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Matthew 6:31-32 (NIV)

So How do we Stop Worrying?

1. Stop focusing on things you can’t control.
   • But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
2. Give God control.
   • Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)

“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” John 14:5 (NIV)

2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. John 20:3-8 (NIV)

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” John 20:24-25a (NIV)
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” John 20:25b (NIV)

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” John 20:26-28 (NIV)

“Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep us awake and moving.” Frederick Buechner

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:29-31 (NIV)

When was God at his very best?

• Was it at Creation?
• Was it when he made us?
• Was it when He gave us Jesus?
  • “…that He gave His one and only Son.” John 3:16
• Was it on Good Friday?
• Was it on Resurrection Sunday?
• Was it with Peter after Jesus’ resurrection?

Luke 15:1-2 (NIV)

1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! 3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents.

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28 (NIV)

13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14 (NLT)

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10 (NIV)

Serve by Your:

• Participation
• Partnership

“6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:6-8 (NIV)