3 Things About Reaching Victory

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

On your way to victory you might have to get over 3 types of people (based on 1 Samuel 1):

 #1 Rivals (v.7) - These are the people that deliberately come against you. They will do whatever they can to make your road bumpy. Solution: Ignore them.

#2 Quick Fixers (v.8) - These people might even be closer to you and unaware will try to minimise your efforts and/or try to provide 'easy steps' or 'quick fixes' to your problems. Present comfort and happiness for them seem more attractive than significance. Solution: Explain you can't let go of your goal. Delayed reward is far more important than instant gratification.

#3 Misinterpreters (v.13) - These people misinterpret your efforts and use their critical analysis to bring you down. They might say that what you are trying to achieve is based on pride rather than altruistic reason. Their misinterpretation is usually fruit of the own insecurities so don't let them put it on you. Solution: Know who you are and don't let anyone put labels on you.

Stand your ground. Press on, keep going and do not give up, your victory is right around the corner (v.27).

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6 Ways To Make Your Year Work

Many times the 'what' is easy to find (lose weight, go to the gym, increase income, come up with something life changing etc.), the 'how' however needs work and a lot of thought. Here are a few suggestions from my new year message 6 Ways To Make Your Year Work. Hope it will inspire you to be intentional and press on. Remember if you have a vision or a dream you have to protect it!

#1 - The majority is not always right - Many times people will convince themselves they cannot do something, then they will try to convince you that you can't either! Stay true to what you want and/or God has given you do to (Numbers 13:31-33). For more on this subject please read this post.

#2 - Be intentional -  When comes to our plans we need to be intentional and consistent otherwise circumstances, people, and/or familiarity can take us off track. (Numbers 14:1-7)

The verse above shows us 3 things that will try and steal your dreams:

1. Circumstances. They are the bad reports.
2. Doubters. They are the ones that carry the bad reports.
3. Familiarity. People got really familiar with their LORD. They would complain and even think that He didn't care about them anymore. They even forgot God's promises for them. Familiarity is a killer!

   
#3 -  The way you see yourself will affect your destination (Numbers 13:33). Romans 8:37 offers a solution for self image problem. 

#4 - Replace "I can't", with "How can I" (Philippians 4:13).

# 5 -  Be ready to sacrifice something you love for something you love even more. Nothing significant in life will ever happen without sacrifice. The potential of the effect is directly connected to the sacrifice you are willing to make. Sacrifice is meant to be hard and challenging. Suffering will stretch you but your world will get bigger and you will become stronger (1 Peter 5:10).

#6- Look for different behaviour, not different situation (2 Chronicles 26:5). Your situation might never change. The way you see your situation however might give you new perspective and insight of what to do and even turn a problem into profit. Make sure you seek God, he always know what to do.

This is one of the ways we shape the culture in our church.  

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Shaping Culture

Message Focused

At D7 Church we believe that our message does not start when the speaker stands up and starts talking. The message starts before people even walk through the front door. The message usually starts in the car park. When you come to one of our experiences (we refer to our services as 'experiences' because one of our goals is to build a community of people that will feel welcome, loved, valued and celebrated. Ultimately, showing Jesus as relevant and real by creating such an awesome environment that people will not be able to stay away - we want you to experience something irresistible. 

We also understand that people are message carriers. We all have a message (good or bad) to share. At D7 Church we go to extreme lengths to consistently communicate one message: "You are so valued and loved that Jesus died for you!"

People Focused

We want everyone who walks through the door to feel like they are the most important person in the room. The way we make that happen is by:

1. Focusing on the people. Even though we have a job to do, the number one focus of our team at D7 Church is the people. People are the most important part of what we do because the people are why we do what we do. It’s all about people, Jesus died for people and we are commissioned to reach out to people. It’s all about people – nothing matters more than the people.

2. Giving people an experience. The experience starts with the welcome team member, to the worship team, to the pastor then back to the welcome team again until that person leaves at the end of the service.

This is one of the ways we shape the culture in our church.  

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Can We Trust The Bible?

1 book written by 40 different authors from different backgrounds, made up of 66 books written over a period of 1500 years, in an era of no mobile phones, no texting facilities, no blogs. The authors could not facebook each other to see if everything matched up. Yet it has a definite thread of continuity that constantly runs through it from beginning to end: The Old Testament was God's promise that he would destroy death. The New Testament tell us how he did it.

Oxford Scholar Alfred Edersheim cites 400 Old Testament prophecies that point to the coming Messiah and to his life and death. Jesus perfectly fulfilled every single one of them. For 8 of these prophecies to have been fulfilled by accident would be 1 chance in 1000 x 100 billion. In other words it would be the same as covering the whole of Britain 2 feet deep in 1p coins, putting a cross in one of them, mixing it all up again, blind folding someone giving them 30 minutes to find the marked penny. Mind blowing! 

Yes we can trust the Bible! Why not give it a go today.

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Breaking The "I" Barrier - A Lesson in Humility

I once shared with our team about our responsibility in cultivating a humble heart. Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. Humility is essential and it is the key if we want to stay usable and if we want to reflect God. Here it is a little bit of what we discussed.

We are not individuals on a team trying to succeed in our area of expertise. Rather we are a part of a team trying to see how we can serve our team with our area of expertise so that the team can succeed. The world does things a certain way but we are Christians and we do things differently.We live in the world but we are not of the world (John 17:15-16)

Self Promotion vs. Humility

God favours humility and will take you much higher than your self promotion ever can. Don’t be scared that if you are humble you will lose out! God sees and He will lift you up - when the time is right! (James 4:10)

Remember God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5)

Tips to stay on track:

1. Watch your attitude
Does it need attention and self promotion? Is it seeking the kingdom first? - Think Matthew 6:33. Check your attitude towards your team and your church, is it focused on the big picture and serving the vision? Do you even know what the vision is?

2. Know why you do what you do
Why do you serve on team?, Why do you come to church?
Do you even know God? Do you have a relationship with Him?

3. Stay humble
Stay humble by watching what comes out of our mouth.
Stay humble by watching what you ponder on in your heart.

4. Follow the Son's example - Serve!
"...Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:26-28)

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