CollegeLife

One of Chris Tomlin’s “early” songs was “Enough”.

“All of you is more than enough for all of me”.

What does it mean to have enough in our world?

Do you ever feel like you have enough?

Specifically financially- when’s the last time you felt like you were just overwhelmed with how much you had?

If you made $2000.00 last year you are in the top 20% of people in the whole world.

Go here to see where you fit in the world.

And be thankful. I’m not saying just because we live in America life is easy.  And just because you make more than a majority of the world God is good. It doesn’t work that way.

But I know I lose perspective way too quickly.

Jesus truly is enough.

If you look back a couple of posts (community?) you will see that we are trying to major in 3 relationships.

Intimacy with God.

community with Christians

and Influence with non-Christians.

Community is a “hot” word.  What I mean by that is there are a lot of people turning toward community first and Christ second. I completely understand this trend.  We all want to be liked, no matter how introverted and shy you are, you still want to have a place where you feel accepted and known. You may not admit to it, but we all desire to share life with others.

So as we talk about Intimacy with God there are some things I would like to clarify about what I mean by “intimacy with God.” I am not referring to Jesus being your homeboy.  For you to be truly intimate with someone you must first really know them.  It seems simplistic but I think many people take this for granted with Jesus.

For example…Lets say that you and I are becoming friends.  We’ve hung out on several occasions, we’ve talked about important issues, laughed together, seen movies, been to each others houses, etc… And then after years of friendship you decide to take me to a baseball game for my birthday.  Problem. I don’t like baseball. If you KNEW me you would know this. Or lets say you even know I don’t like baseball, but every time you come around you KEEP talking about baseball. Eventually I would say you didn’t really care about me.

You see you can’t be intimate with someone you don’t know. It doesn’t matter how passionate you are, it doesn’t matter how much you want to be intimate with that person- you simply can’t be intimate with someone you don’t know.  We all know people who have posters of their “favorite band/person/entity”, they have books, cds, desktop wallpaper, memorabilia, etc.. But just because they are passionate about New Kids on the Block, doesn’t mean they are intimate with them.

The same is true of our relationship with Christ.  It is not based on passion alone. It is not based on experience alone.  It’s based first and foremost on who God is and that is revealed in scripture. Your experience and/or passion cannot trump scripture. That would be like you coming to me trying to convince me to like baseball simply because you do- that doesn’t work.  Your experience won’t change me. With people we want to be intimate with, we don’t take our experience and try to transform them, rather we allow who they are to transform us.

The same is true with Jesus- no matter how much you want God to be a certain way, who God is has been and is being revealed in scripture.

So are you intimate with Jesus or are you intimate with who you want Jesus to be?  Do you have the posters on the wall or do you have a changed life because of your “renewed mind” in Christ?

Be intimate with God today.  Read some scripture.

(side note: for any baseball lovers- i’ve seen major league, minor league, college, high school, little league, tee-ball- I just don’t get baseball. For any naysayers thinking, “You just need to go to Fenway or Wrigley or the Old Yankee stadium…” Not true- I sang then national anthem with a choir in high school on the field at Wrigley Field. Cubs vs Dodgers. Still not interested. So please don’t try to convince me baseball is fabulous, it’s just an analogy)

Feel free to add your own caption for this….

Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

Why are we hypocrites?

We have been looking at the book, UnChristian, and the first word many use to describe Christians is hypocrite. But why are we hypocritical? What makes us so different between church and life? Could it be because we so quickly forget how much better Jesus is than any other option?  We are hypocrites because in the tough moments we choose to believe that selling out Jesus is worth more than standing with Jesus.  Just like the Israelite s we have forsaken the spring of living water.  We have exchanged life for dried up, bankrupt, no life wells.

We have exchanged life for effort. Instead of accepting the life that is in Christ, we make every effort to find life in things that have nothing to offer.

We all have bad wells- popularity, success, grades, sex, partying, a new outfit, praise, respect, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc… some of us have dug down deep into these wells believing they will give us life. But ultimately we are digging wells “that cannot hold water/life”.

Jesus said “…and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” (John 6:35) I know that many times I am thirsty (unsatisfied with life, looking for more), and in those moments I know it is because I have forsaken the well of living water for my poor attempt at a well.

What can you do today to step away from a dried up cistern that cannot hold water, and seek the One who is life?

You don’t “dig” God. You don’t dig into the well of living water.  You die underneath it. You don’t try to contain Niagara falls or the Zambezi river- you surrender to its amazing power.  The life Jesus is offering is not a babbling brook, but an all consuming river of Life.

Die to yourself and gain life.

Last night I was meeting with some other ministers and they asked me what are some words that I wish described CollegeLife? There were lots of words- Christ centered, relevant, college led, enjoyable,but one word I said if I could use just one word to describe CollegeLife, it would be “community.”

Let’s face it, you can listen to our music on your iPod. You can even listen to Greg Pinkner and Rick Dunn, on at least two iTunes podcasts.

So, CollegeLife has to be about so much more than music-and-a-message.

It has to be about relationships.

Many times you will hear me say I want CollegeLife to be a place where we: Grow Spiritually and Connect Relationally.  I think both of these happen best in the context of relationship.

Not just relationships with others but your relationship with Christ as well.

Lets say there are 3 key relationships you should be working on:

1. Intimacy with God

2. Community with Christians

3. Influence with non-Christians.

How are you doing? Perhaps you are really strong in one and not focused at all on another?

What steps could you take this week to strengthen your relationships? CollegeLife must do the hard work of pressing into these relationships. At times it will feel awkward, it will be hard, it will be easy to ask for another sermon, you’ll want to hide yourself, you’ll want to quit, give up and say I can do it myself. You’ll convince yourself you can find community later, I’ll say “next week i’ll engage that person in a deeper conversation”,  no one wants to talk to me, all these people already have friends… And we sit in a room with everyone desiring deeper and truer community and no one taking the risk of pursuing community.

It is during these times we as a group must press harder into the Christ life and pursue dying to self.  In a world where we have to prove ourselves to be accepted, imagine a community that accepted others because we’ve been accepted. Imagine a community that accepted people that were nothing like them- it would be a great reflection of Christ accepting people that are nothing like Him!

We all want community, but it is something NO ONE can do for you.  It is something you must take part in.

What part will you play?

Fortunately there are no bench players in the game of community.  We all play a part.

In the coming days there will be more posts on the 3 key relationships and how we can grow in those.

But for now- how are you doing in real community? YOU could be the initiator of amazing, Christ like community around you!

1 John says perfect love casts out fear.

If we are

confident in the love of Christ in our lives we shouldn’t have fear. 

Fear=doubt. 

What are you fearing right now? 

How can God meet you in that place? 

This isn’t funny.

This is bad.

Jmartin- please lead this on Sunday.

When “outsiders/nonchristians” were asked…”What do you think about Christians?” The number one response was “they’re hypocrites”.  True. 

We talked tonight that it’s true.  We are hypocrites.  Everyone is.

But that’s not an excuse.  Where are you striving to not be as hypocritical?  Are you examining your life to see where you can be more authentic in your pursuit of Christ and living true to that? 

You will never live exactly as you desire, but are you making every effort to try? 

Read Matthew 23 and think about what Jesus’ words to hypocrites.  
By God’s grace may we be changed.  

Here is a glimpse of what we will be studying Sunday.

Easy to argue…but is it true?

Do you remember where you were on September 11th 2001?

I was a senior in college. I was in my apartment watching Sportscenter when my roommate ran in and told me to switch over to the news.

I didn’t understand what was happening at first. My initial thought was it was an accident, some junior pilot accidentally flew a plane into the towers. And then it came across the speakers- terrorism.

What did you do that day?

Did you pray? Did you cry? Did you even care? Did you ask questions?

Hopefully it will be a long time before terrorists attack our country again, but I am willing to bet it won’t be too long before trouble strikes in your life. It’s just the promise of Jesus- John 16:33- in this world you will have trouble.

I hope in that time you’ll only turn to Christ. I hope as we remember this day, you’ll remember that Christ is faithful and our world is in desperate need of Him.