A Day in the Life of a Lemon

• She is speaking with such passion and excitement it is amazing!
• One act of obedience at a time. She had no idea what she was getting into
• We are a bunch of “Grace Junkies” but we don’t extend it to ex-cons
• David was a murderer - but we don’t call him a murderer
• Haven’t received one single return to prison stat
• 98% employment rate
• 5 guys making over $100,000 after prison
• 70% are donors back to P.E.P. they teach these people who have been takers their whole life and have turned them into donors
• Wow had to stop taking notes and just pay attention. I’ll post notes later from my friend Everett!

Favorite part - a guy who just got out of jail 4 hours ago quoted Jesus, “those who have been forgiven much will love much!” then he said, “I have a lot of love!”

 IT! 

• How many of you have been to a church and it was dead? They didn’t have… IT
• What about going to a place where you felt God and knew they had… IT?
• Started in a two car garage students met in closet… Every week students came out of the closet
• They didn’t have the stuff that most people think we need to have a church.
• Every week people came to know God and invited their friends because they didn’t have the stuff they thought they needed… they had what they needed… The Spir-IT!
• It’s something more than just the Spirit - to say the people who don’t have it don’t have the spirit would be insulting
• New York Campus has seen %145 increase in a year - the campus he attends is the only one that has decreased = %3
• What is it? The answer is = don’t know
• God makes IT happen. We can’t create it, we can’t reproduce it, we can’t manufacture it, it can’t be taught, but it can be caught, it’s not a model, it’s not emergent, purpose driven, seeker sensitive, it is usually brought by more than one person, but usually one person can kill it 
• You could say, “IT Happens!”  but often it doesn’t
• Good news = if you don’t have it, doesn’t mean you can’t find it
• Bad news = if you have it, you may not keep it
• Acts 2:42-47 - 
  • They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Four qualities that are most often there when IT is present:

•  Laser Focus - most people today said more ministries/events is better. I believe better ministries is better.  Jim Collins asked, “what can you be the very best at?”  In order to reach people that no one is reaching, you’ll have to do things that no one else is doing.  But to do things that no one else is doing, you can’t do what everyone else is doing!  Planned abandonment!  
  • Started examining ministries. Concert ministries was just entertaining other churches people.  Don’t do 
  • Cut all but 5 things.  Worship, Small groups, kids ministry, student ministry, missions.
  • What are you doing that you need to STOP doing.
• They see opportunities where others see obstacles
  • You have everything that you need to do all that God wants you to do.
  • You don’t have what you want or what they think they need, you have what you and they need
  • What if I said you need to raise 100,000 dollars by Friday? Couldn’t do it.  What if I said you have to raise 100,000 for a shot for child otherwise they will die? YEP!  Overcome the obstacle!
  • He often provides where God doesn’t provide.  They had to see something they couldn’t see.
  • What is God trying to show you through your greatest limitation?
• They are willing to fail
  • Failure is not an option… I agree, “It’s a necessity!”
  • Peter couldn’t have done what he did if he hadn’t failed!  He failed walking on water, he failed by denying Him, but he succeeded feeding his sheep! 3,000 were saved!
  • They failed starting two campuses in Phoenix and ended up having to merge them
  • There are two steps to failure.
  • The Mule - shook of the dirt, the dirt started piling up at his feet and he started stepping up.  SHAKE IT OFF! STEP IT UP!
  • What has God called you to do that you are afraid to attempt? When are you going to do it?
• They are led by people who have IT!
  • You need to have IT for your ministry to have IT!
  • Before long ministry started to kill IT!  It became less about building his kingdom and more about building my church.  I started preaching messages that would bring people in instead of pleasing to God
  • I tried to be Rick Warren - but I’m accidental.  I tried to be Joel Osteen - but I’m not that happy!
  • When you have IT in you, it starts coming out, and other people with IT will come to you
  • We start to try to acquire the things we don’t need to have IT
  • God showed me I had became a full time pastor and a part time follower of Christ! DANG!
    • I stopped reading other books, and started just reading the Bible. I went to another country and held a baby that would probably die after I left.  I started fasting again!
    • Let God break your heart again!
    • If you read this say a prayer for Mike. A guy Craig has been ministering to for 4 years and still hasn’t accepted Christ!
  • If you don’t have it what are you going to do to get it?

WOW! Go here and buy his message if you are a church leader. It should be up here later. 

• Making and maintaining good soil is necessary to grow flowers
• What kind of soil do people need to grow
• 1 cor 3:6-9 - 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
• We have a job - to create the right soil that encourages growth
• Are you willing to get your hands dirty?
• How many sexually active drunk atheist do you have in your church?
• Does the soil your creating allow for questions and struggles?
• 1 cor 12:27 - Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 
• Matthew 9:11-13 - When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and ’sinners’?”12On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’^[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
• Who did Jesus come for? Messy, dirty people. Who should we be for? Messy, dirty people.
• Am I leading more like Jesus or the pharisees
• How do we lead with a soil that creates growth?
  • Acceptance - come like you are.  
    • create an environment that sees people for who they could be, not who they are
    • Jesus sees dirty people as who they could be, Pharisees see them as dirty
    • Acts 15:10-11, 19
    • What barriers are there to grace - acts 17 - Paul turned their idol worship to God worship
      • two questions i get asked the most: How do you feel about gays? How do you feel about other religions
    • In every culture there are barriers to grace
  • Authentic confessing community
    • James 5:16 - Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
    • We can live for real not pretending to be better than we are. 
    • If we live this way, others will begin to live this way and we will become healing agents for each other
    • What if we invite people and they never change? Then you’ll be like Jesus - he invited Judas and he never changed
  • Constant Connection to God’s Spirit
    • John 15:5 - I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
    • Romans 8:4-5 - n order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
    • It’s simple - Stay connected = spiritual growth
    • Set your watch to have an alarm go off every 60 minutes to remind you to connect with God through out the day