This is the Place for you!

Last week we heard Pastor Dale speak about being Ready and what that means, and some areas of our lives that we need to ready… Our Hearts, Our Minds, Our Bodies and Our Souls. The week before we heard Pastor Justin speak about how God uses our Relationships, Rulers, Hardships, His Word to accomplish His plan. The week before that you heard me speak about being a Christmas star here and how your life has the ability to draw others to Jesus. Today I am truly just going to add yet another facet to all of these messages.

Wk 1 - Great Commandment:

Wk 2 - What God uses to Accomplish His Plan

God uses our Relationships

God uses out Rulers

God uses our Hardships

God uses His Word

God has a plan for you

Wk 3 - Ready or Not?

Ready your heart

Ready your Minds

Ready your Bodies

Ready your Souls

When the Pastors met just recently we identified where God is at work in each of us and we believe in the life of Calvary Community Church. It amazes me how God works. I know He does this often, yet in my little any brain I still tend to forget. Each of our messages hit toward what we believe the vision for Calvary in 2021 will be but then as we discussed the focus become clearer, with each of us as Pastors adding a different facet of the same vision.

Now let me say that as an associate Pastor I am and always will be under the leadership of the Senior Pastor. That being said our senior pastor is not one to ignore the spirits leading in any of the associate pastors God has called here at Calvary. But I want to make sure I paint this picture correctly....

Pastor bill here is what I want to brand (lol my word not his) for Calvary 2021.

In 2021, our Goal is to build a stronger relationship with God. Everything else will fall into place.

Pastor Melanie

Matthew 22:37–40 NLT

Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Pastor Justin

Psalm 1 NLT

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do. But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Pastor Dale

Psalm 46:10 NLT

“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”

Pastor Melanie

Psalm 40:1–3 NLT

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the Lord.

There is a theme that runs through all of these scriptures, In my head it is about Being Rooted and in someways returning to our Roots.

If We, focus on building a stronger relationship with God (Matthew 22:37-39 , Psalm 1:1-2, Psalm 46:10). Everything Else will fall into place (Psalm 1:3-4, Psalm 40:1-3 )

I have to be honest with you in my mind as I put together this message I kept hearing the Rocky Theme Song (from the first Rocky)

Trying hard now it's so hard now trying hard now Getting strong now won't be long now getting strong now

Today I want to focus on one of the primary ways God give us here at Calvary to do this. It is not by any means the only way, but it most certainly is one of the Primary ways. I also believe that it is how we learn to allow God to:

Live out the Great Commandment

Address issues and challenges in our Relationships, address and deal with our Hardships, Get into God’s Word

How we learn to and constantly Ready our Hearts, Minds, Bodies, and Souls

Anyone want to guess what ministry that is.......Celebrate Recovery

God has given us a prescription in the verses we have here from each of the Pastors. We are blessed also because Celebrate Recovery puts some order and action steps we can take to work these verse and our Calvary 2021 vision into our lives. Each part of Celebrate Recovery is aimed to do the following:

What will you gain from Celebrate Recovery?

Acknowledge who God is

If you want to know more about who God is and what His love can mean in your life, this is the place for you

Identify those areas of your life that need to be more focused on Him

Notice: This isn’t just about addiction, or bad habits. If you want to find areas of your life that need to be stronger in relationship to God, this is the place for you.

Teach you to identify and seek good counsel

If you want to learn what good counsel looks like, not just accept any and all counsel… this is the place for you

Give you a group of like minded people to hang out with (even if virtually)

If you want a group of people who, while not perfect as non of us are, have their feet pointed in the same direction as you… this is the place for you

Teach you to apply Gods word into your life

If you want to start reading God’s word and finding ways to apply it to your live… this is the place for you

If you struggle with being ready for any of the areas that Pastor Dale spoke about and want to find ways to be ready

this is the place for you

If you want God to be able to use your relationships, hardships, struggles with what is going on in the world

this is the place for you

I will not tell you that Celebrate Recovery is easy because while God has and always makes the first move. He invites us to return to Him and reminds us that His love is constant. The second move is yours. We need to be willing to change.

In order for any of us to change we first have to truly count the cost. What is the cost you would face if you choose to commit to Celebrate Recovery every Wednesday night for 1 yr. If you want everything God has for you I truly believe that every single person benefits in their relationship with God and others by spending 1 yr in Celebrate Recovery.

Why wouldn’t you come to Celebrate Recovery?

Part of the problem is that any kind of change is a huge challenge for us.

Even when we know — when we know — that a change, a move, a journey to a new moral and ethical climate would be good for us, we resist this course of action.

Resistance: It’s part of the psychology of change. “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy,” wrote the French writer Anatole France, “for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another.”

We fear loosing what we will have to leave behind. We don’t feel like it. Lets be honest, Control, rebellion, controversy, the thought that we are right, the sin that we are engaged in, all of these can be fun. We don’t want to give it up.

Another barrier is fear of the unknown.

To do an about-face and head in a whole new direction — which is, at heart, what we will be faced with to put all of our focus on having a stronger relationship with God— is a truly daunting proposition. We have to wonder: Am I really going to enjoy living a life of simplicity after years of maxing out my credit card? Am I ever going to feel any heart-pounding excitement if I focus on service projects instead of slot machines? Will I be less of a Christian if I love someone who thinks, believes, behaves differently than me? Will I be less of a Christian if I stop judging others for what they do? for who they voted for? What will it look like for me to stop and take off my glasses and truly examine what I believe?

Let me give you some information about what Celebrate recovery is:

Based on the Bible

Forward looking

Emphasizes Personal responsibility

Emphasizes spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ

Uses Biblical Truth that we need each other in order to grow spiritually and emotionally

Celebrate Recovery give us practical action steps, each based on Scripture:

Walk thru the twelve step slides

Celebrate Recovery 12 Steps and Biblical Comparisons

1. We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Romans 7:18 NIV

Want to know more about what a sinful nature is? Want to understand why no matter how hard you try to love and be respectful toward someone you can’t? Want to understand why no matter how hard you try to stick with a goal you can’t do it?

2. We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:13 NIV Want to know what God is going to do as you walk this journey? Want to understand more about combat the fact that you can’t change?

3. We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your  spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1 NIV

What does this mean? What does this look like? Is this once and done? What does my body have to do with all of this anyway?

4. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. Lamentations 3:40 NIV Want to know where you are bound, what is holding you back? Want to know the areas of your life that you may be blind to that are hurting your relationships?

5. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16a NIV Ut ohhh, you never said anything about having to tell someone else? Why in the world would I have to do this? There is no way this could be of benefit to me?

6. We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10 NIV Here we go back to Pastor Dale’s Message, READY FOR What? We have looked at everything but now are you really ready to let it go? Have you counted the cost?

7. We humbly asked Him to remove all our shortcomings.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 NIV Just what does this all mean? Think that God can’t take your stuff or that your sin or past is way to dark for God to clean up…

8. We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:31 NIV Not me I dont hurt others, I am the one that gets hurt…

Why do I have to make amends it was like 20 years ago

But they deserved it

9. We made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24 NIV

10. We continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! 1 Corinthians 10:12

Yikes this one gets me everytime I read it. If there is anyone who has been listening today and do not think that Celebrate Recovery is for you it is for those other people… I challenge you to get around this verse.

11. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us, and power to carry that out.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 3:16a NIV How do we have Gods word in us? What does prayer look like, what does meditation look like, again how can I have a stronger relationship with God?

12. Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to others and practice these principles in all our affairs.

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore them gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1 NIV

This is really the why… we do all of the above so that we can be the Christmas star and encourage others to develop their relationship with God. I want to point out something here also those… it doesn’t say bash them, condemn them, ridicule them.... but restore them gently… what does that mean.... it means you love them as yourself.... you love them and keep your walk and relationship with God your main focus. Because how will they know that God still loves them if we rejected them… I am not saying that you consider what they are doing as being right, but I am saying that convincing them it is wrong is not our jobs. We are the first and sometimes the only Jesus someone will see. How can they think that the creator of the universe loves them if his followers don't. How can they think that their sins are forgiven if they are only accepted if they change. How can they know that they are fearfully and wonderfully made, if they, just like each one of us when we enter into this relationship with God, are not good enough just because they are a child of God.

It is not our job to tell someone else what needs to be cleaned up in their lives… our job is to develop our relationship with God with all our Heart, Soul, Minds, and Bodies, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

I pray I never forget the first time I read these steps.... it was like I had been sitting in the dark and someone turned on a flood light. I knew the steps, I knew the scriptures, never had I put the two together and when they did it set off a chain of events that God used to create the person you see before you today, because I am not the same. Each and every one of these steps is completely focused on developing a stronger relationship with God as you learn about what he has to say and what his definition of forgiveness and love is… then apply that to loving others as ourselves and completing the Great Commandment.

Our Goal is to build a stronger relationship with God. Everything else will fall into place.