Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Israel was baptized through the Red Sea. They sang a song of victory and rejoiced in the grace of God. But... most of those celebrating that day did not make it home to the promised land. Why not? Pride. They began to feel entitled, and that caused them to turn attention from God to themselves.  Part of our episode today will...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Crazy Busy Book Let's turn our attention back to planning through the end of the year and preparing for an amazing 2023. Part of this is spacing out your goals to avoid being "crazy busy." That is not a compliment. Crazy busy people make unneeded sacrifices and end up not enjoying the journey nor the destinatio...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! "Denominational" Baptism. "Church of Christ" Baptism. We come up with lots of adjectives before the word baptism that are not found in Scripture. This often leads us away from the simple truth of the Gospel. It leads to labeling, party system, and sectarianism.  The temptation to implement our judgments on...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We are getting down to the last couple of months in 2022.  This is an outstanding time to evaluate the year and start working on plans for 2023. I don't like waking up in January jumping in to something new. I want to work on it, plan it, and get it set up now... so the New Year starts with excitement and structure.  A f...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! "Where's the beef? - Do you remember the old Wendy's commercials from the '80's? An older lady sees a tiny patty and asks where is the rest of it!? Sometimes people say that about grace, when referencing the preaching, teaching and Christianity they grew up with. But maybe that isn't a fair judgm...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today is wedding day for some great friends of ours: Beau Barnes and Hannah Holt. I have been asked to officiate and I'm up here at the building practicing! Right in the middle I thought - Hey I want to share this with all my friends! So, here's my wedding sermon.  First and foremost, we need much more optimism! God...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Perfect Prayer Plan I have attached a file so that you can print out the perfect prayer plan. This has been a fruitful staple in my life for a decade now. I commend it to you. All of it comes straight from the life of Jesus. Remember, #5,#6 and #7 are crucial for your own life - but also the exact things you should be praying...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! University Oaks church of Christ (October 16-19, 2022) Sunday 9:30 / 10:30 / 5:00pm.  Mon-Wed 7:30pm. Please take a moment to watch the YouTube video of the recording of "In Need" In need of grace, in need of love In need of mercy raining down from high above In need of strength, in need of peace In need of things t...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Ooh, I'm excited to talk about this today! Simon Sinek has been a help to me in many ways over the years. His work on "Always Speak Last" and "Start With Why" continue to affect the way I think and live. One of his newer books, "The Infinite Game" shares ideas that have become immediately re...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Did you know that September 21st was the 56th annual World Gratitude Day? I most certainly did not know that. I read about it. It has spiritual roots but has now been stripped of God's presence and recognition for the most part. However, it triggers the need in us all to give thanks. That is a good thing, the giving of t...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! West Aurora church of Christ (Aurora, ILL) Friday, Sept. 30th 2022 7pm Saturday, Oct. 1st, 2pm and 3pm Sunday, Oct. 2nd 9:30am and 10:30am Start Right Here (Casting Crowns) We want our coffee in the lobby We watch our worship on a screen We got a Rockstar preacher Who won't wake us from our dreams We want out blessings i...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Salvation by Grace by Matt Bassford Matt's article is accessible through the link above.  Have you had experiences like I had on the plane last week? How do you explain that Grace of God to people who question your faith in it? Have you let Romans 1-6 become a template for explaining salvation by Grace through faith? Are...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Six observations from Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32: 1) Jacob is a flawed but very faithful man. (Gen. 31:3, 41-43: 32:1-2) 2) Jacob is in a stressful and uncertain situation. (Gen. 32:3-8, 9-12) 3) God initiates this encounter for Jacob's benefit. (Gen. 32:22-24, 28, 30) 4) Jacob does not try to escape but hold...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I apologize for the cover picture. I was googling "the golden years" and this photo jumped out at me. This man is later in his life, with life still yet to live, sitting in a chair, by himself, waiting. What is he waiting for? We don't know. But it doesn't look that life stage was as exciting as he thought...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! West End Church of Christ - Bowling Green, KY www.westendchurch.com Sunday Sept. 11th - 16th 2022 Come and visit! Song:  In Jesus Name (God of Possible) I speak the name of Jesus over you In your hurting, in your sorrow I will ask my God to move I speak the name 'cause it's all that I can do In desperation, I'l...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! This is a call to every believer. God has work for you to do. That work will be personal. It is a one-on-one connection with someone in your life who needs help. God is calling us all, as a part of sound doctrine, to become a mentor (and experienced and trusted adviser). Older people, especially, and certainly parents, are ca...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I am an oversharer. I talk too much and listen too little. The issue with this is I read the reactions to that sharing and hang too much of my happiness on the response, the likes, the affirmations. There is certainly room in life to tell people things and read their feedback. But I am learning to "tell no one." I a...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Have you ever cried out "Abba Father" in prayer? It is found three times in Scripture. Jesus did it in Mark 14:36. Jesus seems to be doing it through us in Galatians 4:6. And we are all, having been adopted by God, to cry this out to the Lord in Romans 8:15.  There is this cool progression from Jesus, to Jesus in us...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Everybody knows that love is the most crucial spirit of God needed today. No one denies its's intense value. But kindness deserves some attention as well. In fact, you might categorize being kind as the way you express love in a transaction, interpersonal way. Kindness, from tiny little choices, to deep conversations, pr...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Jesus has earned the right to be first in every single thing. He should be first in our hearts every morning, the first Person we consider, and the King we seek to follow and honor and love in all that we do. To the extent that we do that, our lives are infused with purpose and peace and steeped in His amazing promises. But i...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Okay, I'm not really sure what gossip is. I think that is true for most of us. We say things like "this isn't gossip" or "this might be gossip" right before we share information about  people who are not in the room. Most of us think if we don't mean any harm then there is no harm done. Of c...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today I want to ask you about the life you are living right now. Are you happy with where you are right now? When you look at your life, do you see God, hope and purpose? And if you look back at the major events that got you where you are, what is your emotion about those things? Accepting where we are is crucial to making th...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Have you ever watched two me bubblers have a conversation? It is funny to watch. One talks about themself. Then the other one talks about themself. The cycle just goes back and forth until someone loses interest. I'm not sure why we are like that, but I've been there. What if one of us shows interest in the other pe...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Here are a few cool things coming up this month: www.balancingthechristianlife.com Check out this link to dig in on a tremendous lectureship that starts on July 28th. There are nearly 50 speakers on 5 different tracks, all devoted to helping you grow and carry out the Lord's work. I had the honor of doing the keynote add...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! What is your attitude about time? Do you understand growth is not about you doing complex, incredible things? True transformation is the result of simple, easy to do things, consistently done, and benefitted by the power of time. Time is a gift, an asset. It does things you cannot do. Your absolute best effort today cannot do...