One More Thing

The weekend is almost here and there are a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

Have you ever applied the 5 Why's technique for getting to the bottom of something? You ask why and then four more why's that build on the previous answer. 

So, why do we worship? If the first answer is "because God commands it," try the next three why's for yourself. It might help you get you down to the bottom of what makes life meaningful.

We'll explore why we worship and look at three key elements of genuine worship as we begin a new four-week vision series called Connect

FYI

Malcolm Gladwell on "Starting Over: Many Katrina victims left New Orleans for good. What can we learn from them?"

His interest was recidivism: Were those people who came out of prison and found their entire world destroyed more likely or less likely to end up back in prison than those who could go home again? Kirk looked first at the results one year and three years after release and has since been working on an eight-year study. The results aren’t even close. Those who went home had a recidivism rate of sixty per cent. Those who couldn’t go home had a rate of forty-five per cent. They moved away. Their lives got better.

Ed Stetzer on "Life Is Eternal. Don't Have an Affair: Scripture makes it clear: we reap what we sow. For many today, this truth resounds amidst devastation"

This week, we’ve found that it’s not as simple as AshleyMadison.com would like its (former) users to think. “Life is short. Have an affair.” So they say.

One More Thing

Early Church Father, Irenaeus, on worship:

“The glory of God is a fully alive human being.”

10 Tweets on "Access" (2 Samuel 24:18-25; 1 Chronicles 29:1-19)

1/ God’s access to our hearts follows familiar pathways. One of those pathways is our money. (Mt 6:21)

2/ The road to happiness is clearly marked but seldom traveled. And that road is called generosity. (Acts 20:35)

3/  Some of you are giving, but you’re not experiencing God deeply and you’re not experiencing very much happiness. 

4/ How can I give in a way that gives God deeper access to my heart and greater joy in my heart?

5/ Giving that costs you nothing isn’t giving. 

6/ "Consecrate yourselves," give as an act of unconditional surrender. 

7/ Tim Keller: "Lord, I’ll serve you and I’ll give to you if you…,” whatever is on the other side of the “if” is your real god. 

8/ John Piper: “The giving of money for the house of God was the work of God to reveal God so that we would stand in awe of God.”

9/ Your heart will be most engaged in your giving when you are most engaged in that to which you give.

10/ Give as a response to God's grace. 2 Corinthians 8 - An Act of Grace = Giving

Last weekend's sermon on Vimeo