2012 Explosion!!!

I was really thinking the other day about all that God, over the last few weeks, has put into place at Triple Crown Cowboy Church. What I mean is that we are moving to a huge facility for our Worship Experiences that will give us the opportunity for further growth and development. So many things have been given to assist us with this move and with set up, Triple Crown West will be starting in 3 weeks, The many Community Events that have come together for this year and season, and as I look at those things as well as many other things that have fallen into place, I cannot help but be thankful and excited at what is obviously God preparing our Church for what we are calling 2012 EXPLOSION!!! But we can’t just call it 2012 Explosion, we have to be the 2012 Explosion!!! We have to do everything that we can to impact our Community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I believe that many times Churches get into their comfort zones of tradition, and the comfort of well they do it this way so maybe we should and many times Church misses opportunities to reach so many who need it. Dare I say that many times the Church forgets about many because of Tradition. Maybe they don’t fit the mold of what some group has decided is the mold. Maybe they can’t help us financially enough to really place that much emphases on really trying to get them to come and hear the Good News of the Gospel. Now don’t get me wrong, there are many Churches that are dedicated to reaching any and all and they do a great job serving, I just want more to not be complacent and fall into the category of Tradition being more important than reaching, especially in todays World filled with so many who need the Gospel. Many say, we are to small, we don’t have the ability, we don’t have the resources to really impact in the way you are talking about Bro. Jerry. YES WE DO!!! If we will work together instead of being mad because another Church has come onto our turf or in our area. If we will all work together and realize that it is about ONE Church, ONE Body, then we can cause THE EXPLOSION NEEDED to impact our community and beyond for His Glory.  

Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

This Powerful verse tells us that the strength is there. The Power is there and if we come together as one Body, Nothing will ever stop the Gospel. We will be able to preach and teach the Gospel here in Frankfort, outside of Frankfort, and to the ends of the Earth. Now that would be an Explosion!

Reaching the ones who saw the animals 2 by 2 and didn’t think something might be up.

Genesis 7:13-16

¹³ That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives. ¹⁴ With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild, large and small—along with birds of every kind. ¹⁵ Two by two they came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes. ¹⁶ A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.

Noah lived in a world that was wicked and God was fed up. God called Noah to preach a message of repentance to the people in an effort to get them to return to Him and leave their wicked ways of the World but the Bible tells us that not one came. Among the millions of people in Noah’s time, Noah stood alone in his faith, and God did not forget him. But God was patient as the boat was being built.

1 Peter 3:20 New Living Translation (NLT)

²⁰ those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood.^[a]

You see, everyone was invited to enter the ark, none were refused admittance. The thing that amazes me is that laugh all you want…I could have thought myself that Noah had lost his mind…I might have been standing out there laughing along with my friends…BUT!!! When I saw the animals filing in , I would have been like. Wait a minute… hey guys, I’ll catch you later…I would have gotten up on that boat! Folks we live in a World just like that. Sure there may be more of us that have come to know Christ…but we live in a world that is so entangled in the things of the world that they too can’t see the TRUTH that is right in front of them. Many of them don’t want to see it, and many cannot see it. And those are the ones that we have to reach. but if we are to reach them, we have to understand what is required of us.
First:We have to realize that we may be the means of insuring safety to others, and be lost ourselves. Now Jerry that is silly…I have been coming to Church my whole life…I have been living pretty good you know, I even Pray before I eat…Why I even dust my bible off every once in a while and read it. I didn’t say that you didn’t do all of that but that Church doesn’t mean that you are a Child of the King.

1 Corinthians 9:27 Paul says: New Living Translation (NLT)             ²⁷ I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

You see folks…It has never been about the self-proclaimed righteousness’s  we love to use as our Crutch… Yes ,we should read our Bible and yes we should come to Church and yes we have to Pray, and yes we have to reach others…BUT WE HAVE TO CONSTANTLY TRAIN OUR BODIES TO DO RIGHT IN ALL THINGS…TO TRAIN OUR MINDS TO DO RIGHT IN ALL THINGS AND TO TRAIN OUR HEARTS TO DO RIGHT IN ALL THINGS. If we do not, we are first in danger of never reaching those that we should because of the things they see our bodies do, And then we should also fear as Paul did to maybe being disqualified ourselves.

I am not saying, by any means that you can become unsaved…I am simply stating that we too can become so entangled in the Church things and the doing that we never started our relationship with Christ. I mean, Matthew 7:22-23 says:

²² On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ ²³ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

So if we are going to reach those that we are to reach…we have to make sure that our walk and our eternity is secure.

Second, We have to be able to persevere.

I saw a quote the other day that said By Perseverance the snail reached the ark. I mean I can just see this little guy and his gal wheeling  along…and wheeling along… and wheeling along…all while being passed by those who are bigger and faster, stronger and sleeker…yet in the end, because of their perseverance, they made it to the ark. We don’t know how far the snail or any of the animals traveled, or what perils they encountered to hinder them along the way. Her only surviving testimony is: “I answered the call and I persevered until I reached the ark.” Isn’t it the same for us today? God gives us a task that may look impossible to accomplish. We are to persevere until it is accomplished. Sometimes inch by inch. Perseverance means to go on purposefully or stubbornly in spite of opposition, the demanding, or the warning. Difficulties do come and our faithfulness to the task will be tested. Pure determination and persistence are not always enough. As God strengthens and empowers us, and we persevere on the path He has laid out before us, we WILL succeed. If we give up and quit, we will never reach the goal. How many would hail the little snail as a hero or a role model? Not many. They are not often in the spotlight, except to emphasize how slow they are. They may not be the “fastest” or the “most popular,” but yet they will get there because they don’t give up. Anything placed in their path, they will climb over or around it. God doesn’t ask us to “be the best,” He is only looking for our obedience and faithfulness. Noah was obedient and Faithful and was found righteous in God’s sight. He did not give up…He was 600 years old when the floods came and yet he put up with the hard labor of a project this size and he put up with the mocking and the ridicule from the people for a very long time and he still would Preach the message of repentance. He never gave up until God Told him and his family to get in the Boat. I’m 40 and can’t do that kind of stuff… Many of us give up on what God wants us to do because we look at what we are capable of instead of what God is capable of.  Or we will allow a little talk behind our back or a little ridicule to keep us from doing God’s Work. If we are going to reach them…we have to be able to persevere. Philippians 4:13“I can do ALL things through Christ who strengths me.” If we are going to reach these people we have to realize that. Now if we are going to reach them we have to realize this next very important thing… We can’t Shut the Door…

The Bible does not say that Noah closed the door of the Ark. It says that when the time came God closed the door. I can see Noah standing there in the door of the ark watching the last few animals climbing onto this massive boat. I imagine that Noah was looking out across the many people who were standing out there…I would think that maybe he saw some of the men who helped him build the boat out there, and maybe his son’s wives family, maybe some of his neighbors, and some young mothers watching their children playing, and maybe some of the older men leaning on their staffs… I believe that God knew that no matter how righteous or how obedient Noah was that when it came to Noah having to shut the door, he would not be able to. So God when the time came shut the door to the Ark.

There is another door open today: John 10:9 Jesus says I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.

Rev. 3:8 says: I know your works: behold I set before you an open door: and no man can shut it.

Rev. 3:20 says: Behold I stand at the door and knock: If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to  him and will sup with him and he with me.

There is indeed another door open to all today. That door is Jesus and many will see the door and walk away from it…But one thing is for sure. One day, God will once again close the door and many will have missed the Boat. Don’t be one that sees the Gospel right before their eyes and have heard it in their ears, and sees our world today and doesn’t think…HMMM something might be up.

Spontaneous Commitment to Christ.

WOW!!! What an unbelievable night this past Thursday night at Triple Crown. I have heard of other Churches doing something similar to what we did this past Thursday, but I don’t even think that I was prepared for what happened. First let me back up and share this from the beginning. Having decided to follow Christ, I challenged everyone to be honest with themselves as to what is the level of our commitment? In other words, what does it mean to “take up our Cross and follow Him”. I would like to suggest that we have three choices in our level of commitment.

1. We can decide to put Christ first in our lives some of the time
2. We can decide to put Christ first in our lives most of the time
3. We can decide to put Christ first in our lives all of the time.

If we look at the Story of Peter’s life, we can see where he managed to cover all 3 of these in his walk with Christ, as I would think many of us have as well.

²¹ From then on Jesus^[j]began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.

 ²² But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him^[k]for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!”

 ²³Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

 ²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me.

In this Scripture, Peter is rebuking  Jesus because Jesus told his disciples that he (Jesus) must suffer and die. At this point in his life, Peter wanted comfortable Christianity to follow. He loved Jesus and wanted only the nice things associated with Christianity – for example he liked the miracles Jesus performed He loved Jesus’ beautiful teachings (such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon in the Plain) and being around Jesus as his follower.

These all fit Peter’s theology – but the Cross didn’t.

Today we can be like Peter at this time of his life, and have a Christian life and a Worldly life. Come to Church and sing loud and leave and live however we want. How often do we fear being thought of as too fanatical by our friends and neighbors? Are their times when we are ashamed of being a Christian? Careful now, because Jesus said in Mk 8:38 “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
This is a great example of following some of the time.

Then there is the time in Peter’s walk that he was telling Jesus I will never leave you Lord. I will follow you even if I have to die with you.

³³Peter declared, “Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.”³⁴Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me.”³⁵ “No!” Peter insisted. “Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” And all the other disciples vowed the same.

Peter so was going to carry his cross all of the time, no matter what but as many of us do, when it comes to crunch time, we fall just short. Our intentions are real, our Spirit is strong, but our flesh is weak, as was Peter’s. We see later on that Peter did Deny Him 3 times in that courtyard.

“Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the words Jesus had spoken; ‘Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times’. And he went outside and wept bitterly” (Mt. 26:74&75)

Then in the book of Acts we see a totally different Peter. He was bold to preach the risen Lord, even before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin. When they threatened to beat him and made threats, he replied:

“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have heard” (Acts 4:19)
HE WAS CARRYING HIS CROSS ALL OF THE TIME!!!

This brings me back to Thursday night. A night of great music, as always, and a night of Commitment. It is hard to say that we are committed to follow Christ when many have never followed His very first command after receiving Christ: Luke 3:3 New Living Translation

³ Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven.

Our invitation was an open opportunity to come forward to be Baptised. No one other than the Church Leadership knew. The Church provided shorts, shirts, and towels for all that wanted to be Baptised that never had, and those who realized they were not carrying their Cross all the time as a time to recommit, and to show they had. The rest was amazing five Baptised, 2 others committed as well. I have to say I have never been a part of a Service like this before. God is so Amazing!!!

I’m Gonna Pray For Real This Time

I posted on Facebook the other day a question, which was:

Why do people Pray for something that they don’t really want, when He knows our thoughts anyway? So Pray in Faith, IF you really want it and are willing to take the steps needed to receive it.

Many people Pray and we should have a dedicated Prayer life that is totally focused on God. But I find, while counseling couples, many times they will say to me: Pastor Jerry, I Pray for God to heal my marriage and I Pray for God to Bless me and my family, but it just seems that He isn’t helping this situation. I love to ask the question are you Praying for real? Of course I get the duh look. So I then explain. First and foremost we have to realize that we can’t fix each other. All we can fix is ourselves with God’s help. So if you are Praying for God to fix your spouse and yet you are not asking God to simply fix you…You are missing the point. 2nd, If you are Praying for God to fix your relationship and you aren’t ready to do your part to fix your relationship, then you aren’t Praying for real, because you really don’t want God to fix your relationship. I hear people tell me all the time: Pastor Jerry, I Prayed for God to help my situation so I am just waiting on God. This is so wrong. Don’t get me wrong, We do many times have to be patient because God’s time and my time are usually in conflict, but maybe God’s is waiting to answer your Prayer untill you do your part, and if you think that it is to just Pray then you missed it;

Many people Pray to be seen, Pray to be heard, Pray eloquent Prayers so that some man can think of how Spiritual we are. But when we Pray we should Pray for an audience of 1. It is all about Him. A great example of this is found in the book of Luke 18:10-14
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you
that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this
tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven,
but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’
I tell you this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself with be
exalted.”

The Pharisee came there that day to perform to the audience. He did not come to seek God’s face. He Probably had on his nice robe and his fanciest Ornate Prayer Shawl, it probably took him a long time to get ready with all of the concern he must have had about what others would think. He gets there and walks through the crowd, I am sure, with his head held high full of Pride because of all he has done. Then he loudly Prays a Prayer that is all about I, not the I AM. It was not about God…It was so that he could have everyone else think of how great a man of God he was, when in actuality he was so far away from God and didn’t even know it. Pride will do that you know. But the scum of the earth tax collector came before God for the right reasons. He came to seek God.
The tax collector showed up because he was in trouble and he believed God could
help him. His body language revealed his sense of unworthiness; he couldn’t
walk to the front of the crowd, instead he kept his distance. He didn’t focus
on the other people there, he focused on God. He knew that it wasn’t about the other men and women…It was just about God. And he left that day Justified. In other words, right with God.

So if you are reading this and you think that you have done too much. Have made too many wrong decisions, made to many mistakes, lived a life that you’re not proud of, CONGRATULATIONS!!! you are a perfect candidate for God’s Mercy and Grace.

So before you click off of this page ask yourself this. When I click the x at the top of this page, Will I be unchanged–Religious and proud of it!

The Pharisee was so committed to his religious observance that he could be
proud by his performance. So he went home unchanged. Thousands of people attend
church Sunday after Sunday, but they leave exactly the way they come in. To
them, religious observance is something they DO, Something that the last 12 generations have done. That is the way my family did it so that is the way I do it.

God addressed the problem of superficial religion in Isaiah
29:13. The Lord says, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor
me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is
made up only of rules taught by men.” So when you close this will you be unchanged–Religious and proud of it? Or will you be Changed–Right with God and thankful for it!

Jesus said the bad guy, not the respectable, religious Pharisee went home
justified–right with God. He entered church so burdened down by his sin he
couldn’t even lift up his head. But when he cried out for the mercy of God, he
experienced the liberation of forgiveness. He hadn’t done anything to deserve
it, so he couldn’t brag about it. All he could do was to thank God for it!

In His Grip,

Jerry Glander

 

 

The Infamous 5 Count

I was thinking this morning as I was running about trying to get my day started, about how busy life seems to be. I don’t mean just me, but how it seems like so many people have lives that seem to be…feet hit the floor, run 90 miles an hour to work, shove down a lunch, rush to after work activities, rush home, rush through supper, and finally hit the brakes as hard as we can to come screeching to a halt and fall asleep…lol. SOUND FAMILIAR? It sure does to me. 

One of my great friends and I were talking on the phone this morning and he told me of a story about a mom and her young kids that were in the plaza here in Frankfort last night, weathering some storms, and the kids just took off running as hard as they could and as fast as they could away from this mother and as they ran she yelled their names and commanded that they stopped, to which they kept running…She then yelled again, calling their names demanding that they stop, at which again they kept running and kept getting further away. Then this young mother pulled out the Coup de grace of all mother discipline techniques, which is the infamous 5 Count!!!

This strikes fear into all young children across the globe, so one would have to assume that they were too far to hear the count start which is why they didn’t stop;

As Christians, many times we get so overwhelmed by our surroundings, and how busy we are and how much we have to accomplish within just a few hours…that we forget to stop for a moment to listen to what God is trying to tell us. It is like we are these young children running as fast and as hard as we can and God is starting our 5 count because He has been yelling STOP and we aren’t listening…He knows the best way to accomplish all that matters in much better ways than we do, if we will simply seek His Face and Listen to what He has to say.

In His Grip,

Jerry Glander