As a Christian, have you ever felt stereotyped?  Do you see the “I’m against EVERYTHING” people on TV, invoking the name of God while hating everyone else?

So many of those who attract the most attention seem to have a dominant message: BAD NEWS.

At Keystone, we are joining so many churches in an effort to change our message.  It’s a RETURN to the GOOD NEWS, the GREAT NEWS in the Bible called “the gospel.”

The GOOD NEWS is summarized as this:

The crucified and risen Jesus Christ is Lord!

1 Corinthians 15:3-6

• It’s important to BELIEVE this GOOD NEWS.
• It’s vital to meditate/marinate on this GOOD NEWS.
• This GOOD NEWS should shape our BELIEFS & worldview.
• The GOOD NEWS is that Jesus is our SAVIOR… taking our sins upon himself.

Jesus is NO LESS than our SAVIOR… but he’s much, much more!

The GOSPEL/GOOD NEWS calls Jesus our LORD (Christ).

Romans 10:15 says

How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!

The bible is CLEAR: Jesus is our SAVIOR and our LORD!

Once we receive new life in Christ, it’s time to put on our GOSPEL SHOES!

Don’t confuse this: You don’t put on your SHOES without the GOOD NEWS!

• You can’t balance the scales between your good/bad deeds.
• You can’t work your way into favor with God
• Works-based religion leads to UTTER EXHAUSTION or COMPLETE PRIDE.

Good deeds are the RESULT of a relationship with God, not a WAY TO  a relationship with God!

So, let’s get with it – GOOD NEWS / GOOD SHOES!!!

*This post is a summary of my weekend talk… check it out HERE:

I’m not sure exactly when I picked up this nugget of truth, but it has made a major difference in my life: Do the HARDEST task FIRST.

Your DESIRES can become the greatest enemy to your success.  If you only do those tasks that fulfill you emotionally, you are DOOMED.  Life is filled with actions that we would rather put off.

There is an easy explanation for this BEAT DOWN: It is our BROKEN WORLD!  Check it out:

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…

Genesis 3:17-19, ESV

Work is HARD… You can’t escape it!  Stop pursuing those things that ONLY bring you pleasure… The purpose-filled life is paved with DISCIPLINE! One could define discipline as DOING THE HARD THING FIRST!

Do you want to know the hardest work you’ll ever do? Check this out:

Paul said to Timothy:

As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

2 Tim. 4:5 ESV

The HARD WORK of bringing others to Jesus is something that many of us would rather do LAST… NOT FIRST.

Do we really believe that Jesus is the hope for all creation?  Do we really taste the joy of our salvation?  If we did, wouldn’t we want others to experience it as well?

Evangelism is HARD WORK.  At Keystone, we do this work FIRST.  It is followed with a strengthening of the believer (hard work as well… but most people love learning and applying the scriptures to themselves).

Too many churches are content to grow primarily through EXCHANGE GROWTH (transferring other believers from other churches) or GENERATIONAL GROWTH (having babies and almost conversions happen in the kids ministries).

Join us as we passionately follow Jesus in his MAJOR RENOVATION PROJECT to ‘Make ALL THINGS new (Rev. 21:5)!’

This weekend we are launching a new series, KICKS. I am convinced that if you really invest in these messages, OTHERS will thank you!

You see, we are ADDICTED to LIFE-CHANGE at Keystone Church! We just can’t get enough of it.

It is SO SATISFYING to hear the stories of lives impacted by Jesus, marriages healed, and families united. Yet, in order to experience so much transformation… it requires massive investment! It’s HARD WORK to change the world!

Here are some tangible ways we give LIFE-CHANGE a priority place at Keystone:

1. We pray about it. Prayer reveals your passion. God will honor your prayers, if they align with his passions!
2. We talk about it. Each staff meeting we remind ourselves of the people and their stories.
3. We beg God for it. If we are running out of new life-change stories, WE BEG GOD to trust us with his broken people… We will pray as a staff for more opportunities to help others.
4. We plan for it. Each service includes a FILTER for the unchurched or de-churched. We don’t assume biblical knowledge of basic characters, for example. We lay out bridges (songs, jokes, videos, illustrations, etc.) to bring the good news of Christ to interested ears. We also have strategic ‘harvest weekends’ that mobilize the church for evangelism.
5. We anticipate it. We believe that many will be spontaneously baptized, so we have everything ready for them. We are not SHOCKED when God moves… we are BLOWN AWAY!
6. We fund it. Mailers, Community-wide events, Street Teams, and many more strategies are funded for life-change. We put our money where our mouths are!
7. We empower it. This one is HUGE. We have many things at Keystone designed only for believers (community groups, men’s/women’s groups, communion gatherings, etc.). By doing this, we are empowering evangelism through TRAINING, ENCOURAGEMENT, PRAYER, SCRIPTURE, etc.
8. We evaluate it. We hold ourselves accountable at a staff level to a 1/10 ratio. In other words, for every 10 people you see in the lobby on a weekend… at least 1 of them has been baptized this past year. This is not a biblical mandate, but we believe it honors the biblical mandate of Matthew 28.

How can you EMPOWER life-change on a personal level?

Are you ADDICTED to life change? Don’t answer too quickly….

You might be INTERESTED in life-change. When Christmas or Easter come along, you might invite a friend to church. In the pie of your life, you give LIFE-CHANGE a good slice, a delicious bite. You might even cry when others tell their stories of life-change.

Life change may knock on your door a couple times a year, and that’s great… when you’re INTERESTED in life-change.

You might be SUPPORTIVE of life-change. You aren’t against it. You say a prayer for the kids at camp and are glad to be part of a church that supports some orphanages in Haiti. It’s easy to smile when you think of your church, because you know marriages are saved and people are rescued from hell on a regular basis.

Yet, life-change is not flowing THROUGH you. You support it from a distance, but are rarely part of it.

You might be AGAINST life-change. This one is hard. I don’t meet many believers who will openly admit their animosity toward life-change. Yet, there are signs. Believe me, there are signs that you are negatively bent toward life-change.

• Are you cynical at all the hands raised to accept Christ during a life-change service?
• Do you resist participating in compassion offerings because you’re not sure it’s really making a difference?
• Are you in favor of shutting down life-change ministries during a budget crunch?
• Are you more interested in preserving consumer-oriented ministries like the Wednesday night meal or pottery classes?
• Do you passionately argue over the color of the carpet in the church, while you can’t even muster the passion to invite a friend to church?

You’re against life-change… and sadly, you’re against God.

Genesis 12
Matthew 28:19-20
Acts 8:4
Acts 9:20

Recently I read a comment that said something like this: ‘We christians need to stop focusing on our nation and instead focus on the Kingdom of God.’ I’m convinced that this person is suffering from EITHER/OR syndrome!

• EITHER you are focusing on our nation, OR you are focusing on the Kingdom of God.
• EITHER you are listening to secular music, OR you are listening to sacred music.
• EITHER you are preaching verse by verse & book by book, OR you are a sell-out well-dressed heretic.
• EITHER you are interested in evangelism, OR you are interested in discipleship.
• EITHER you love hymns, OR you love Hillsong United.

You get the picture?

Statements like this are often crafted with the purest intentions. Many of us swim in a culture that trains us to resist the murky waters of GREY. We long for certainty, believing that our moral clarity provides a clear path toward holiness. Yet, it’s not always that easy!

The apostle Paul couldn’t imagine a world of smart phones, texting, and a connected community. There is no possible way the human authors could construct a bible that gave black & white instructions for all possible avenues of sin. The bible is not an encyclopedia for life, or a MANUAL for morality! It is his WORD… living, breathing… ALIVE!

That’s why God swims with us in the GREY waters of decision. There are things that aren’t explicitly laid out in the bible… we desperately need his HOLY SPIRIT and a commitment to the Word of God in our hearts to train us to live as Jesus would live in the uncertain areas of life. These curiosities throw us into a greater dependence on God and propels us to pray like never before.

Don’t get me wrong… God gives us black & white rules and clear guidelines for life:

• EITHER you love God, OR you love money.
• EITHER you are generous, OR you are greedy.
• EITHER you love justice, OR you are oppressive.
• EITHER Jesus is the son of God, OR he is a liar.
• EITHER the resurrection really happened, OR Christianity is a mirage.
• EITHER you are cheating on your spouse, OR you are faithful!

My cry is this: Be careful drawing black and white when God is waiting for you in the grey. Allow some nuance. Open your heart to other possible interpretations. Watch out for the EITHER/OR syndrome!

WHAT ABOUT THOSE RED SHOES, HUH?

I made a big hooplah about those shoes this Easter. Was I being narcissistic? Was I being superficial? I’ll let you decide!

Actually, they served as a METAPHOR for Easter… My MANTRA:
“RED IS IN… RED IS SIN!” (try saying it real fast 5 times & you’ll get it).

What was I up to?

“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
I will make them as white as wool.
(Isaiah 1:18 NLT)

I was trying leverage humor to open the door for life change. I have written an article about the use of humor & creativity in preaching that I will post later this week.

Some people LOVED the shoes. They asked me where I bought them (http://www.zappos.com/adidas-running-climacool-ride-red-metallic-silver-running-white). They were especially a hit with the kids! That’s worth it.

Some people HATED the shoes. I knew they would. No one was rude, but they were gentle in their joking! I didn’t mind it at all. Many were friends who have come to expect something shocking… They give me a hard time, and I always have fun with them. Anyone that would be seriously, angrily turned off by the shoes probably won’t like Keystone anyway.

I leveraged the extreme emotions to unlock honesty. I said at one point, “If I was trying to be cool, I wouldn’t have worn these RED shoes! I know I lost 1/3 of you the minute you saw them!” The place erupted in laughter!

The MAIN MOMENT came at the end… We rounded the message with the message RED IS SIN.

You see, the blood of Jesus TRUMPS our sinful, cursed blood.
HIS RED transforms OUR RED.

And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said,“Each of you drink from it, for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.
(Matthew 26:27,28.)

The result? Hopefully, a CLEAR, RELEVANT, and inescapably BIBLICAL presentation of the good news found in Christ.

How can we take common, everyday things and present Jesus to our friends?
Let’s get CREATIVE!