STUFF: Trash Message Highlights

We are in 2^nd week of STUFF….seeing what we can learn about life from everyday stuff.  Here’s what I know about trash:

 If you don’t take it out, it piles up and starts to stink.

·         The longer you wait, the nastier the job becomes!

Life is kinda the same way….we all have ‘trash’ in our lives that really doesn’t belong. We need to be willing to take out our trash otherwise it piles up and starts to stink! And…the longer we wait, the nastier and harder the job becomes!

The first step in taking out the trash is to look at the trash container! (trash can/us).

Take a LOOK

 With God

Psalms 139:23-24

 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

With yourself
With others

Take out a LOAD

Tell God you’re sorry

I John 1:9

But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.

Tell others you’re sorry

Make the change

Repeat the process a LOT!

 It’s a lifelong job

  When trash piles up we get used to it

Because we aren’t perfect, trash tends to pile up in our lives pretty quickly. Getting rid of it is something we need to do a lot.

Don’t let the trash in your life pile up……we can become pretty comfortable with stuff in our lives that other people recognize as stuff that doesn’t belong.

 

Thought for the Week 

EVERY day is TRASH day

Inside My Weekend

Friday
½ day in the office: Financial Meeting, Meeting with Construction Company
Lunch with my son and Beef O Bradys (wings)
Finished getting the pool ready to open
Went to dinner and the mall
Bought the final items needed for Baby Grace's room at Target

Home

Saturday
T-Ball game at 9:00
At the church at 10:00 to meet with the tent company
Set up tent, chairs and prepped sound for Sunday

Home at 2:30 to rest

Went to the Chapmans for dinner (great Chicken Josh)

Home early...watched a movie with the wife (made of honor)

In bed early

Sunday
Up Early
Left for the church at 7:30

Made sure everything wzas ready and in order for groundbraking service

Groundbreaking service at 10:30

Lunch at the church

Clean up and break down 3 Hours

Home and in the pool with Colin at 3:30

Made dinner at 6:00 for Colin and Ron (Summer is shopping)

Watched Stars Wars "Return of the Jedi"

In Bed Early

STUFF: Toothpaste Message Highlights

Tonight, we are kicking off a new series called STUFF. 

We’re going to take a look at some common, household stuff and see what we can learn from it. To get us started, we are going to see what we can learn about life from my arch-enemy…THE TOOTHPASTE TUBE!

 Toothbrush Illustration:  

Mouths are like a toothpaste tube

What comes out can never be put back in

If you’ve ever tried to put toothpaste back in the tube, you find out pretty quickly that it’s impossible. The same is true with our words…once they are out, they can’t be taken back.

• Saying words you shouldn’t
• making promises you can’t keep
• exaggerating
• bragging
• lying
• gossiping
• etc.

 Once the toothpaste is out…our words are out...then you’ll have to clean up the mess.

Same is true with our words….and cleaning up the mess our mouths make is always more work than controlling our mouths to start with 

• James 1:19
• Proverbs 15:1
• Matthew 5:37

 Thought for the Week

Does my MOUTH make a MESS?

PARENTS: Check out this email from Ron Luce

Friends, Something exciting happened to my family a few weeks ago. We got a call from the editors over at Charisma Magazine. They wanted to run a feature story on my family because of the parenting book we just published called ReCreate!

My wife, Katie, and I wrote ReCreate to share stories of how we made it a priority to raise Godly children and build a Christ-centered culture in the home (Charity, my middle daughter, even helped write the teen version!). It turns out that the editors at Charisma were just amazed to see all three kids in one family absolutely in love with God and pursuing them with their lives. A lot of families in ministry really struggle when it comes to their children, and they wanted to find out how we did it.

I don’t think we did anything special. It’s all in the book, but we always prayed for our kids and with our kids. And I really think the kids are doing so well because of Katie—she’s just amazing. But really what it came down to was a decision to put our kids first. After God and our marriage, our kids have been our top priority, even before ministry. That’s been the guiding principle for us as parents, and we’ve had to fight very hard to keep that focus. It wasn’t always easy, but it was worth it!

Please pray for this article! We really hope that this story in Charisma and the book itself is an encouragement and blessing to all of the families that read it. The article will be in the March issue.

Until then, you can watch some videos we recorded for each chapter in the book and order a copy online if you’re interested.

Consumed by the Call

Ron Luce

Founder and President

Youtube

We risk a lot when we give our kids an Internet connection. In my own home, I treat every media type with great responsibility, because I know the power it has to influence me, my wife and my son.

But the Internet is a special case because in an instant, students can take it anywhere—from the most innocent children’s game to the most vile adult content. That’s why YouTube is especially dangerous. It’s incredibly popular, and it bridges the gap between innocent and insidious, making it so easy for pure intentions to wander into temptations and sin.

A new study by the Parent’s Television Council proved just that. It found that explicit content is many times only one click away from children. Even sample searches on YouTube for child-friendly topics like “Miley Cyrus” led to offensive content, and many blatantly pornographic videos did not require any form of age verification. In other words, your kids can—and probably already have—gone on YouTube to watch a perfectly innocent video, and without even trying, they were exposed to much more than you wanted them to see.

We cannot be stand-offish about what our kids are doing online. It is a cultural battleground and we too often let them wander right into the middle of it! Here are a few steps you can take to protect your teens:

Talk with your teens about the dangers of the Internet.
Teach them to “run at first glance” if they ever come across something questionable, even if they weren’t looking for it.
Keep computers in open, public places, like the living room. This is the easiest and best way to protect your entire family because it keeps everyone accountable.
Use an internet filtering service like safeeyes
Build open relationships with your teens by spending quality time with them every day.

And please pray with me for God’s protection and blessing over our young people and children.

Dating. Boundaries Message Highlights

Boundary #1

The Person must be born again.

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

The word “Yoke” means to be bound together in comment to one another.  When two animals are yoked together and one turns left the other has to turn left.  It is critical that you walk with people that are going in the same direction.

Boundary #2 

The person must have the same commitment to sexual purity.  

Ephesians 5:3

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people.

They must have had this commitment before you showed up…not because you showed up.

Boundary #3

The Person must respect you. 

Does this person treat you with dignity, purity, honor, and respect?  If not move on!

4 Ways to avoid sexual Temptation

1. Avoid the places of Temptation: Romans 13:14

·         If you are around friends that tempt you – Get new friends

·         If certain movies arouse temptation – Change what you watch

·         Don’t be alone – Stay in public

2. Purpose to remain pure: Daniel 1:8

·         You must decide upfront to remain pure

 3. Hold yourself accountable to someone

4. Hide God’s word in your heart

Inside My Weekend

Friday
½ day in the office
½ day meeting with engineer and architect
Went to dinner with family at cracker barrel
Rented a video game (hot wheels racing)
Watched History Channel
Bed

Saturday
Slept In
Worked on Finances
Cleaned up the Jeep
Went to dinner with Family to Friends House (the Cuellar’s)
Stopped in at Toys R Us in Melbourne
Home Late

Sunday
Up Early
Prepared Pastor’s Final Message for Presentation
Burned DVD’s for Adults and Students that were baptized
Worship – AWESOME!
Lunch at Ruby Tuesday’s
Afternoon nap (30 minutes)
Took our son (Colin) to a birthday party
Popped in on our high school lifegroup
Watched the Superbowl at the Romer’s
Bed