Compass Points

Sermon - "David's Anointing" - 1 Samuel 16:1-13

Series - After God's Own Heart

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Sermon - "In the King's Court" - 1 Samuel 16:14-23

Series - After God's Own Heart

Listen by clicking the box or download the mp3 here.

Beauty pageants - you either love them or hate them.  For many, they are seen as the ultimate in objectification of women, as winners are judged based on shallow things like how they look in a swimsuit or an evening gown.  For others, they are seen as a pathway to success for young ladies who benefit from scholarships and the exposure that pageants bring.  

They always provide entertaining news.  Who could ever forget 2007 Miss Teen South Carolina’s response to this question? “Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map, why do you think this is?”  Her reply is a YouTube moment. “I personally believe, that U.S. Americans, are unable to do so, because uh, some, people out there, in our nation don’t have maps.  And uh…I believe that our education like such as in South Africa, and the Iraq, everywhere like such as…and, I believe they should uh, our education over here, in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.”  Miss California 2009 Carrie Prejean made news when she stood up for traditional marriage during a question from a judge during the 2009 Miss USA pageant.  Many believe that her conservative view caused her to lose the pageant.

However you feel about pageants, our hope is that we would never choose our leaders based on the same criteria that we choose a beauty queen.  The day that our presidential candidates have a swimsuit competition is the day I officially leave the country!  Believe it or not, there are some sociologists who have done studies to determine if a perception of beauty has something to do with how people vote. 

This should not surprise us as history is full of illustrations of people picking their leaders for their looks.  As we begin walking through the life of David, we see that in God’s eyes, suitable leadership may actually not be the biggest, strongest, or most experienced.  God is much less worried about the appearances of a person’s exterior and much more concerned with the content of their heart.  Israel had tried this before with Saul.  He was a buff, handsome devil, but he turned out to be a despicable fellow.  When the prophet Samuel came to Jesse’s home to look for a king, he looked at the oldest, most culturally suitable sons first.  The runt of the family didn’t even get invited to the interview because somebody had to stay with the sheep.  Yet it was this kid that God would choose to be the shepherd of the nation of Israel.

There is much to be learned from God’s choice of David the shepherd.  He was the most unlikely candidate, yet he was the best candidate.  His resume was not lengthy nor did he have the best references.  What he did have was a heart that was closely in tune with the Almighty. 

If you’re looking for greatness in this life, the best place to look is not in line with all the other power-seekers.  The best place to be is quietly tending to the flock God has trusted to your care.  Taking the time to let God nurture and shape your heart so that it looks like His.  If you can leave this life and God can say that you were a man or woman after His own heart, it is safe to say that you found greatness.  You may have never been anything but a lowly shepherd, but in God’s eyes, you were exactly what He was looking for.

In Christ,

Pastor Brian

Sermon - "Holiness"

Series - Building Blocks of Effective Churches

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The other day I saw a cartoon which featured a Lego™ building block sitting in a chair beside a round Tinkertoy™.  They were apparently “married” to one another and they were sitting across from a marriage counselor.  One block had a bubble above his head that said, “We want to build something incredible together.”  The other block at that point chimes, “But we just can’t seem to connect.” 

That cartoon made me think about our current sermon series.  I think all of us want to be effective at “building something incredible.”  We want to be effective at building incredible careers.  We want to be effective at building incredible families.  We want to be effective at building incredible churches.  I’ve never met a real Christian who wants their church to be ineffective.  No true disciple would be satisfied for non-Christians to remain that way.  For some reason, our churches often seem to come up short of effective.  Over the last few weeks, we have considered various issues that can make us more effective.  We must do things like spread the work, understand our purpose, be equipped, and be enthusiastic.  Take away any of those things and our effectiveness will be diminished.  There is one thing, however, that can completely undermine any of these building blocks, a lack of holiness.  A lack of holiness makes us like our married blocks – we want to do something, but we can’t seem to connect.

One of the biggest reasons that churches are ineffective is that they are so often filled with people whose hands, eyes, feet, mind, mouths, etc. are dirty.  It is not saying that they are filled with non-Christians, but Christians today are having a much more difficult time staying clean.

While planning our trip to Africa this summer, I spoke with a trusted friend and asked him what I could possibly tell a group of Arabic Christians that would be of benefit to them.  He told me to tell them how much easier it was to be a Christian for them.  In their culture, they didn’t have access to all of the things that we have to defile us.  Their holiness was reinforced by the fires of persecution.  Our holiness is threatened by the fires of worldly passions that are so pervasive in our culture. 

The Apostle John says it like this “If we say, ‘We have fellowship with Him,’ and walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.”  In other words, it is impossible to come to church and act like everything is spiritually okay if we are giving darkness any foothold in our lives.  This is the essence of holiness.  We cannot find holiness by stumbling around in the dark.  We have to be willing to walk in the light.  The solution to our problem is not as complicated as one might think.  John goes on to say that if we confess our sins, he will cleanse us of our unrighteousness.  This is not a license to live in rebellion, but it is reassurance that the sin problem that causes our trouble is the same sin problem that Jesus died to solve.

That’s where we come in.  Walking in the light is a daily process – not something we master in a week or two.  Effective churches are filled with people who wage the war against sin every day that they live.  They confess their sins.  They give glory to God for the forgiveness of their sins.  They walk in the light as He is in the light.  They can in fact build something incredible because there is nothing that would prevent them from connecting to the very heart of the Almighty.  They lift up holy hands in prayer because indeed their hands are holy.

In Christ Alone,

Pastor Brian

Sermon - "Purpose"

Series - Building Blocks of Effective Churches

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I’ll never forget the first time I had to fire somebody.  I was just out of college and was the Director of the Boys & Girls Club.  I had an assistant director who, for the most part, was an efficient and effective employee.  I don’t recall him ever being late.  He was great with the kids.  He somehow managed to balance the role of disciplinarian and friend – a difficult task for many.  He knew the rules, followed the rules, and enforced the rules…until one day.

This particular club was close to the city pool.  It was possible to walk to the pool during summer day camp, which we frequently did.  As the assistant director, he was responsible for those trips.  He would often take the Club’s van to the pool, in the event of a discipline problem or other emergency.  The kids would walk with support staff and the he would follow in the van.  The day he lost his job, it began raining at the pool.  Instead of waiting it out, or shuttling the kids back in the van, he put ALL the kids in the van – 28 kids in a 15 passenger van!  Kids were sitting in each other’s laps, in the floor, in between the two front seats.  When he pulled in, I saw what he had done.  I immediately took him in the office, explained the problem, and asked him to clock out for the last time.

I simply couldn’t understand how somebody who seemed like a good guy and a good employee could forget everything about how we operated.  I couldn’t understand why he would jeopardize his job by jeopardizing the kids unnecessarily.  For a brief moment, he forgot the Club’s mission of providing a positive and safe place for kids and it cost him dearly.  In the high risk job of taking care of other people’s kids, there is no room for forgetting the mission.  As soon as you forget the mission, a kid gets hurt, lost, or worse.  We couldn’t afford to tolerate lapses in judgment.

As we consider effectiveness in the local church, I can’t help but think that a critical building block of effectiveness is a clear understanding of the mission to which we have been called.  We understand that this is a team effort, but the team has to understand why we are doing what we are doing.

In Mark 10, we learn that two of Jesus’ disciples, James and John, had gotten distracted from their mission.  They had walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, heard Jesus preach.  Of all the people who should have understood Jesus’ mission for them, it should have been the twelve men who followed him every step of the way.  But these two, if only for a minute, missed the mission.  The consequences they faced for forgetting the mission was the ire of the other disciples.

I fear that there may be people who worship with us every week, they hear sermons and bible studies, they come to Sunday school, but for whatever reason, they continue to miss the mission of disciple-making.  In a task as important as the Great Commission, how can we afford to take our eyes off the mission?  If we don’t all understand the mission, how will we ever be effective at accomplishing it?  And even if we understand the mission, what calamity awaits us if we take our eyes off the mission for but a moment? 

Ultimately, we are all in this as a team, and as a team, we all need to understand the goal, and how we measure progress.  We haven’t got the time to forget the mission.  Every time we do, we become less and less effective.

In Christ,

Pastor Brian