Smart vs. Stupid
Smart vs. Stupid, who would win? You might want more information about the contest or about the contestants before making a prediction. Generally speaking, however, smart beats stupid every time.
Jesus doesn’t give more information as he wraps up the greatest sermon ever given. Instead, he simply states that the people who put his words into practice are smart and the ones who do not put his words into practice are stupid. Jesus of course uses the more polite version of these words, wise and foolish, but in practicality, they are the same.
Author and then pastor Randy Alcorn wrote a surprising phrase in his book “The Purity Principle” that expressed the heart of what Jesus was saying as he wrapped up the Sermon on the Mount. Alcorn was describing the wisdom of trusting God in all areas of life, but especially in regards to one’s sexuality and he says that “purity is always smart and impurity is always stupid.”
Too often, believers think of Jesus’ standards as limiting, but for unknown or unknowable reasons. The truth is, putting Jesus’ words into practice is always the smart thing to do. He has people’s best interests at heart and wants to protect us from the emotional, physical, and relationship pain that is an automatic consequence of not trusting him (putting his words into practice).
As Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 7:24-28, he explains that the smart person builds their life on his words for security against the storms of life, but the stupid person doesn’t. That life is built with no stability and when the storm comes what they built comes crashing down around them.
Are you putting Jesus’ words into practice? Be smart and spend some time praying about putting what he says into practice today.
John Riley
Jr. High Pastor
Concrete vs. Sand
One of my favorite childhood memories is that of building sandcastles with my dad at the beach. My dad would level off a large area with a shovel, build a moat and I would start running buckets of wet sand back and forth from the ocean in order to build a wall surrounding what would be a fabulous drip castle in the middle. That part was my dad’s job. He was the artist and had just the right touch to be able to create tall ornate spires high into the air. With that, the race against the mighty ocean had begun. The goal was to complete the castle before the tide rose enough to destroy our creation. Sometimes we were able to complete the castle and other times we watched in dismay as the ocean knocked it down. We acted, through laughter, that this was a tragedy, but in reality, it just meant that we got to build another castle. The joy came from spending time creating something together.
Contrast the sandcastle to the great room that my dad added to our house. I can picture him and a few of his friends pouring yards of cement, leveling it, and waiting for it to dry. The months that followed included hours of framing, nailing up sheetrock, adding a roof, stucco, and paint; the project continued for what seemed like an eternity. This was not nearly as fun as building a sandcastle and a lot more work! What followed though were 40 years of memories. In that room, I met my baby sister for the first time, spent countless holidays with family and friends, and watched my own twins take their first steps. Today, that room is still standing, and another family is building memories in the security of a strong structure.
These are sweet stories, but this is also where the analogy breaks down because both the castle built on the sand and the room built on concrete yielded beautiful, lasting memories. Yet, imagine with me what it would have been like to live in that castle on the sand. It’s simply impossible and would have been foolish to even try. Matthew 7 talks about a wise man who builds on rock as opposed to a foolish man who builds on sand. Verse 24 says, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man.” God is calling for wisdom; for obedience. Building on rock takes longer and it takes more work, but the result is worth it!
Do you ever try to race through a project; knowing that what you will yield could be so much better if you just took your time and did it the right way in the first place? This is God’s desire for us. He has given the blueprints; the guidance to obey and follow His perfect plan, that will provide a strong and lasting structure. Which foundation will you choose?
Lynette Fuson
Director of Care & Counseling
Storms
There is a movie you might have seen called "The Perfect Storm." The film tells the true story of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing vessel that was lost at sea with all hands after being caught in the Perfect Storm of 1991. A tropical cyclone is forming behind them as they venture further out to sea than normal in quest of fish. The crew decides to risk the storm to catch more fish and make money. Their unwise decision resulted in two powerful weather fronts merging and causing them to sink, even after repeated warnings from other ships to turn back. The whole crew is lost due to the captain's unwise decisions. The longer we live the more storms we encounter in life. We were never promised calm seas, but just the strength to withstand the storms when they come, and they will come. The storms Jesus talks about in Matthew 7 are symbolic of other kinds of storms in our lives. It's a symbol of chaos, negativity, trauma, difficulty, weakness, and even depression. Storm symbolism also signifies change and transition because storms are only temporary, but can have lasting effects. It could be an unexpected diagnosis or even the death of a loved one. It could be the end of a relationship or marriage with no awareness that the storm was brewing. You could be the parent of a teenager that rebels and makes decisions that change the course of their life and yours. The scenarios are endless but what does scripture teach us about the storms of life?
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33 ESV
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 ESV
Sometimes storms humble us into learning new patterns of behavior or bring us into a closer walk with the Lord. Storms don't have to destroy us; they can cause us to grow. They can bring people closer together as families and communities. When trusting the Lord in difficult times, go to the promises of God. Scripture is loaded with promises that teach us about having faith in God during hard times. He tells us to not worry, to pray and He will give us peace like you can't imagine. He tells us that He is there with us, in the trenches. If you have those promises hidden in your heart already, you are prepared to stand strong in the hard times because the Holy Spirit will bring verses to mind reminding you, He is with you. We also have each other to lean on during the storms and keep us accountable. We have many resources here at church to help you as well. If you are walking through a storm, you’re not alone, we want to come alongside you.
Deb Hill
Executive Assistant
Differences Make You Better
In the garden of Eden when God created the first two humans, God did not create similar humans. Instead, he very intentionally created two humans that were VERY different. In fact, they were the most different they could be while still being called humans. Did you know that from a DNA perspective, Adam and Eve have less in common than Adam does with all other men? You see, the biggest difference between humans is not the color of our skin, our hair type, facial structure, size, or heritage; it is the difference between males and females. Yes, as far as DNA goes, you are more different from your own sibling of the opposite sex than you are from any other person of the same gender in the history of the world.
This means that God felt like it would be good (in fact, his words were “very good”) for humans to have someone very different from themselves. God could have given the first human a more similar human to build a relationship with, but he didn’t. He gave him the polar opposite in the spectrum of humanity.
This clearly shows that the way that we tend to separate ourselves into separate “races” is completely cultural and has zero basis in the physical building blocks with which we were created. Once again, from a purely genetic standpoint, you have more in common with a person of the same gender from around the world than you do with any person of the opposite gender. However, it does show us that differences make us better! Wherever the difference comes, be it cultural, linguistic, political, philosophical, demographic, socio-economic, personality, or whatever, we need different people in our lives. Differences make us better. Even theological differences within the global church make the Church of Jesus better. That is, as long as we can find unity with our differences. As soon as we start dividing and declaring people enemies because they are different, we start denying the one thing that makes us special, others.
Do you believe this? Do you believe that God has put people who are different from you in your life to make you better? I hope that you do. And if you do, then make at least one decision today to engage with someone who is different. See how God uses them to grow you and make you better.
Josh Rose
Teaching Pastor
Working Towards Unity
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. John 17:20-23
Social media has been part of my existence since high school. I first discovered MySpace (remember that?) in High School and Facebook in early 2008 during college. What started as a meager friends list and quotes has shortly turned into a friends list of 1000 people (most I really don’t know well) and a sad realization of what the online space has become over the past 10 years. At least in my experience, these online spaces seem to be fraught with contentiousness and disagreements. Everyone from acquaintances to Christian friends and family saying things online to one another that they would never say in person (at least I hope not!). Was it always this way? I don’t remember it as such. From the outside looking in, Facebook and Twitter may be the most polarized places on the planet.
Despite disagreements throughout history, Jesus has called his church to be unified. Reading the New Testament, it seems that unity in the church was just as much of an issue then as it is today. Jesus facing the end of his life on Earth prays one thing for his followers that are to come. He prays that “all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.”Jesus’ prayer illuminates his heart for his people; unity. Unity though is difficult to achieve. Mainly because Jesus is easy to get along with, but sometimes, I’m not! So, how are we going to get there?
Unity is something we have to work towards, it doesn’t just happen organically in most cases! The one who knits our hearts together in love is Christ himself who breaks down perceived barriers to create a holy family (Gal. 3:28). But, as I experience in my own family, family can be full of love and full of disagreement. So, how do we become a family that better reflects the relationship of Jesus and the Father? One of the biggest things that we could all work on? Giving each other the B.O.D.; the benefit of the doubt. If we’re going to strive towards unity, we have to fight against taking offense and being stirred towards anger based upon preferences. We have to discern what is biblical and what is preference and do the hard work of striving towards unity (and it is work!). This isn’t to say that we stay in situations that are abusive, manipulative, or unhealthy, but it is to say that as much as it depends on us, we give others the benefit of the doubt and we hand over anxiety, anger, and frustration to God first before others.
Let’s strive together for unity, allowing God to work deeply within us as we lay ourselves down in humility and value others above ourselves (Phil. 2:3-4). There’s so much work to be done and yet, it is by our unity that Jesus says others will know Him. We strive towards unity, in-person, online, and everywhere we’re present so that we may represent the triune God who is in Himself perfect unity.
Seth Redden
HS Pastor
Praying as a Family
The older I’ve gotten the harder it’s been to make real friends. When I was younger it was far easier. Two of my grade school best friends, Jonathan and Trevor, I met while in kindergarten, with the simple opening question: “Do you want to be my friend?” With that simple opener, we became fast and close childhood friends, despite tremendous differences in our personalities and interests.
However, the older I got the more my friends were built around the things that we had in common: common hobbies, passions, and interests. Altogether, these things built a self-selected pool of individuals who had a common comfort zone. In Junior High and High School, my friends had similar interests in bands, sports, and hobbies. That’s the way we often make friends in the world; through a common comfort zone.
Christ calls us to make a different set of relationships. These relationships are built between people with tremendous differences of personality, cultures, and passions. We can even see this reflected in the sort of people Jesus selected as his disciples. Levi, the tax collector sellout, is in the same circle as Simon, the religious extremist zealot. And yet, though Levi, Simon, and the other ten disciples, have tremendous differences, they are all gathered around a common person: Christ. What gave Christ the tremendous ability to unite these different people? The answer is, at least in part, found in what Christ does at the very beginning of this passage in verse 12: “he went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”
Before he entered the tension of the twelve men he had assembled, Christ spent an abundant amount of time with his Father. This reveals the secret of the people of God: they are gathered and united together by prayer. Prayer is the only way that we can hope to connect a group of people who are totally different from one another: in culture, in personality, in interests, in backgrounds, and in giftedness. Because time spent in prayer is time spent with the Father, and from being one with the Father in prayer, we can experience what it’s like to be one with one another (John 17:21).
As a church, we engage with a monthly night of prayer, the first Wednesday of each month at 6:30PM. We have such an opportunity tonight! We would love to see you there and experience together the power of prayer to unite our church family.
Ryan Lunde
Young Adults Pastor
Motley Crew
There is a story about baseball player statistics becoming a huge deal in building teams that changed the way teams function still today. The story became a book and movie called “Moneyball”. Essentially the general manager and some scouts saw players based on non-traditional values or statistics and they built a team that ended performing really well. They didn’t pick players based on home runs, miles per hour of pitches, or other normal stats. They looked for things like how often someone got on base, which made a big difference without as much fanfare. No one would have believed it or guessed that this new style would change the almost 100-year-old player scouting system, but it did. Jesus scouted a little differently as well.
Jesus selected fishermen (long hours, probably smelly), political activists (yes those were a thing back then), and tax collectors (I can’t believe either), to be a team of disciple-makers that would change the way people connected with God. Jesus did not go after the people I would have picked first. He did pick however a group of men with who he would share life with, invest in, and grow. Jesus created space for them to come alongside him to learn how to rely on God for life. He created a seat at his table for them to come and be fed and in turn help others. He picked men who maybe at first glance looked like a motley crew of individuals, but would end up becoming a tight-knit family.
In a way, the church is kind of like that motley crew Jesus picked a couple of thousand years ago. Some of us are related, some of us work together, maybe we went to school together, we have a wide range of backgrounds and a lot of different skills and abilities. BUT we have Jesus, we are connected with him learning and growing to be the people he has called us to be. I think he is calling us to do the same. To call people to him and to create space for people to meet him during the normal everyday stuff we do. They might not be people we would think to pick, but I am sure God can do something amazing if we intentionally create room for his Spirit to work in the people around us. Here is the challenge: will you pray for God to bring you some people to disciple and will you create some space in your life for them? Maybe you are in need of someone to come along beside you, please let me know if we can help.
Pastor Jeremy Johnson
Family Pastor
The Twelve
I love that Jesus, the son of God, went to a mountain to pray all night before choosing the twelve apostles. This was a very important team he was assembling to help Him spread the gospel. Isn’t it interesting that they are listed individually with a little information about some of them?
"Apostle" means messenger or ambassador, he who is sent. These twelve men had the greatest privilege of any other human being; they walked in the presence of God incarnate for three years and learned his teachings.
Did Jesus choose twelve men who were of the same political persuasion, the same societal class, career paths, or the same theology? Did he choose the most handsome, the most successful, the most charismatic, no? Jesus could have accomplished the mission on his own, but it was important that He work together as a team with these twelve, both for their sake and the sake of the work. Their unity came from their shared mission and love for Jesus.
Jesus knew the hearts of these men before he chose them just as he knows us by heart. He knew that eleven of them would become captured by his love and forgiveness and one would betray him. He gave us relatable apostles; Peter often questioned Jesus, Thomas doubted, Simon the zealot had a political agenda, and they were fishermen and tax collectors. Some of them wanted to defeat the Roman government and some didn’t. One became an example of what we really don’t want to be and some died for the cause of Christ. Even through all of their personal messiness, God saw their willingness to follow and become servants of Jesus.
There are many people who long to make a difference in God’s kingdom, but they discount themselves, saying, “I’m just a computer programmer,” or, “I’m just a stay-at-home mom.” Or they believe something in their past disqualifies them—a rough childhood, no college degree or poor choices. Church pews are filled with people who think they’re not smart enough, talented enough or adequately trained to serve God effectively.
That’s a lie. God doesn’t see anyone as useless. He didn’t make any losers or nobodies. Starting with sending his Son as a baby in a manger instead of a king in a palace, God signaled a bold new way of changing the world. The apostle Paul expresses this in 1 Corinthians 1:26-27: For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
Jesus sought you and He bought you with His precious blood. He chose us to be His disciples and make a difference for His kingdom. What is He calling you to do for Him today or this week?
Deb Hill
Executive Assistant
True & Proper Worship
Some American Christians are obsessed with showy worship. We love the lights, the fog machine, the drums -- all of it! It’s easy for us to assume that if we are caught up in a flurry of emotion then we’re close to God. We mistake how we feel in the moment for how close we are to the Spirit of God. However, when we think that way, all it results in is us chasing one emotional high after another, rather than truly following and “walking in step with the Spirit,” (Galatians 5:15).
Instead of this running after emotions, the Bible describes a people whose worship flows from their walk of obedience. Paul writes in Romans 12, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - this is your true and proper worship.”
What Paul means here is that in view of Jesus on the cross we are meant to offer our bodies and our lifestyles sacrificially to God. Paul thinks so highly of this that he calls it our “true and proper worship!" For from this baseline of obedience we are able to experience a union with God that goes beyond the moment and instead pervades our entire bodies and our whole lives!
Imagine how different our worship services would be if we gathered in genuine celebration for the work God has been doing to make us more like him! Rather than having the expectations on the band or the worship leader to drum up emotion for us -- we bank our whole worship on the work that God Himself has done and continues to do by the power of His Spirit.
This sort of worship is the worship that is expressed in response to the mighty resurrection power that God has extended to us in order to raise us from sin and death to righteousness and life - and it’s something that we can experience today if we truly present our bodies as the “living sacrifices” they were always meant to be.
Ryan Lunde
Young Adult Ministry
Searching for Worshipers
Imagine being a first-century Jew who traveled to Jerusalem for the annual Passover. You have made this journey dozens of times, but this time it just feels different. For hundreds of years the words of the prophet Zechariah have not been fulfilled: “Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he…” (Zechariah 9:9a). After the nation has waited hundreds of years, you finally see the one Zechariah anticipated, you see Jesus of Nazareth “humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech. 9:9b). He’s here! Messiah! You want to honor the king but all you have is a song, a palm branch, or your outer garment. Because He is worthy, you use what you have to worship your Messiah saying, Hosanna! “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Luke 19:40)
Whether it's first century Israel or 21st century North San Diego County, God is looking for the same excitement from people in worshiping the Messiah. In John 4:23 we see Jesus say to the woman “(t)he Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way”. He is looking for people who are willing to humble themselves and approach Him with an honest heart. The location of the worship doesn’t matter; the status of the worshiper doesn’t matter, but a right heart attitude is required. In his letter to the Romans, Paul would put it this way, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (12:1).
The Father is searching for worshipers who have the right heart. Will you join with others in the church in worshipping today whatever you may be doing? Hiking, chores, work, and school are all places where we can present our worship to God. Going back to first-century Israel, the Pharisees were among the crowd of people and were close enough to tell Jesus that he should tell the people to stop praising Him. Jesus responded by saying, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Luke 19:41). The Father will find worshipers, the only question that remains is whether it will be the rocks crying out, or us, presenting our palm branches and garments, or perhaps a song and scrubbing dishes.
Greg Hill
Faithkids