Born for Battle: Week 2 @ THE CHILL

First of all...I have not blogged all school year...yep.

Second, I have been overwhelmed by the amount of compliments on the message this morning, I definitely feel like I did not get to complete it and kinda left things unsaid that I would have loved to get a chance to say! Basically, I feel like a punched everyone for 20 minutes and then said 'have a nice day.' But, point 5 was going to bring it all together and remind everyone of how awesome God is and how God wants to use us...but God has a plan and apparently today's message was what many people needed to hear.

Third, Like I said this morning, I am done playing games...I am going to invite people to The Chill. You may ask why...because I believe that The Chill is going to change lives and that ANYONE who comes to The Chill will grow spiritually.

Fourth, I will start blogging more often because I feel that God wants me to.

So...here are the notes I promised to put on here, the verses are not attached, but will give you an idea of where I got the things I wanted to say. Thanks for reading.

Born for Battle: Week 2 ‘The Battle for Joy’

There are many reasons why we as believers never experience true joy in our lives. We so often wait for the joy of the Lord to just appear and make us feel better, but it is something that must be worked for, fought for, sought after. There are five things that I believe plague many of us and strip us of the joy that God intends for us.

#1 We are waiting for a sign.
Acts 1:10-11

If the apostles would have just stared at what God had done they would have missed out on what God wanted to do through them. We cannot get caught up on Gods past work, but instead use it to fuel our present and future successes through obedience. Could you imagine if the apostles would have just kept standing and thinking about what Jesus did with each other, would they have found joy there? I argue that they would have found temporary astonishment at what Jesus did, but the joy of their lives comes in the chapters that followed. The ministry and hardships that followed brought joy.

#2 We are looking to the future
Matthew 6:25-34

When we look to the future, we miss the present which will strip us of joy in our present situation. God wants us to LIVE in joy, not live in the thought of a joyful future. Joy is past, future and present for those who are in Christ! Thinking about upcoming events may bring temporary excitement, but not joy. Seniors, it is time to decide on college and that is important, but it doesn’t mean you should stop focusing on high school. Senioritis is the Devil in disguise for many high school students, it makes you ineffective where God has placed you in the present time. This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with The Chill, this is just fact for our lives as followers of Christ in general. There is always a next event, next trip, next adventure, but the key word is NEXT, not NOW. Focus on the ‘now’ or the next will just become the ‘now’ of tomorrow, another wasted opportunity.

#3 We try to take credit
The moment we start claiming credit for what only God can do, we begin to lose the joy that only God can give. Our lives as believers will never be joyful if our joy is wrapped up in what we have done to make Jesus more famous in our lives. We must be joyful in the fact that Jesus is more famous, not our accomplishments. My youth pastor calls it ‘making much of me, making much of Jesus.’ If we continue to focus on what God has done through us and not what he has done in and for us, we will never have a full picture of the joy he brings. John Piper had this to say about joy in God, “Believing that joy in God is a gift of God will give all the glory to God” and “Because of this fallen, sinful, hardened, rebellious, futile, dead condition of our hearts, joy in God is impossible.”
Nehemiah 8:9-11
Psalm 71:23, 86:4, 92:4, 119:111, Psalm 126:2-6
Luke 10:21

#4 We do not understand Gods Love
Galatians 5:22
Philippians 2:2
Hebrews 12:2

For some of us, the reason we do not have joy in our lives is because we do not understand the depths of our Fathers love for us. Not only did Jesus die on a cross, but he left heaven to come to Earth for 33 years. He left perfection for us, left perfect peace for us, left his throne for us, looking outside of time, God chose a tough time in history to live, he didn’t come in 2011, with all of the modern things we have now, no airplanes and resorts…Jesus traveled by donkey and boats through deserts to tell us the truth. If we can grasp a little of how much God must love us to send His only son to this world to die for us, we can begin to the live in freedom and joy.

#5 We don’t know him.
1 Peter 1:8

For the majority of your school, they simply do not know our Savior, they have an idea of what they think God may be, but they really only know a messed up version. For many of them they believe a “All Grace, no wrath” God who is like a laid back parent who sees their disobedience and thinks it is not that big of a deal. Our lost friends will never experience true joy until they know the only One who can give true joy!

In conclusion, we are all sinners and separated from a holy God, but Jesus bridged the gap, when he died and rose again, defeating hell and death…if you believe that, then fight the battle of joy daily…Christ is right there.

I praise God for all of you...I am so encouraged by you all. As The Chill continues to grow and more schools start being reached with the Gospel, we will look with astonishment at what He does...I am going to go ahead and claim the victory in our schools in Jesus' name...Amen.

I WILL GO
Chase Culbertson