Come As You Are: How Christ Can Move You From Good to Great
March 3 CAYA Notes: Moving From Good to Great: living an Extraordinary Life in Christ
Alfred Street Baptist Church: http://www.cayaservice.com
A. Check your crew / boo: qualities to look for in the people around you on the road to EXTRAORDINARY
1) Passion. What are they passionate about? If they’re passionate about nothing, then that’s what they’re about – nothing!
2) What are they like when they are angry? We are to be angry but not sin, and not go to sleep angry with someone. How a person acts in anger is who they really are and where their heart is(Ephesians 4:26)
B. Christians are not supposed to be mediocre. It is a sin!
1) Daniel 6 à”Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.
2) Matthew 5:14-16 à 14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
3) We are required to be extraordinary so that God will be glorified on earth because the work we have done is in His name and people will see it and recognize God in it and worship Him for it.
4) Extraordinary does NOT mean have wealth, power, prestige. Extraordinary is beyond average. What are the average characteristics of people? Fake, insecure, looking for satisfaction in all the wrong places, COMPLACENT, uninspired. Extraordinary, therefore, is NOT THAT.
a. 1 Peter 2:9 “but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, A PECULIAR PEOPLE…” we are supposed to be distinguishable from people who do not know and follow Jesus. You can’t be anointed and fit in.
C. How to be Extraordinary
1) Develop the Discipline of Prayer: Acts 9: 11 àSaul had been a murderer of Jews, but God saved Him and changed his name to Paul and made him an anointed servant of Christ. The Lord told His servant Ananias to trust and accept Paul, and His proof to Ananias that Paul was now a brother was the fact that Paul was “praying.” It doesn’t matter if we’re all the way right or not, as long as we’re praying, we are on the right track and it is a tale-tell sign that Christ has made a change in us. DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HOUSE IN THE MORNING WITHOUT PRAYING. Prayer is not a firehose for emergencies only. It is your lifeline. Set aside specific time to talk to God.
2) Strengthen your emotional regulation. We fall into sin and mistakes when there is no pause between feelings and actions. Ephesians 5:26 à be angry and sin not. Learn to be disrespected and say nothing. You may feel your anger is justified, but God judges the person who wronged you AND you for the way you respond to it.
3) Be discriminating about who you allow into your inner circle. Everybody in your crowd aint in your corner! Criteria for the people around you:
a. Does God speak to me through them? No? Not in the inner circle.
b. Does this person cover me or challenge me? People who are cool with your sin and won’t call you out on it are not your friends! They do not want you to grow so they don’t have to grow, either. Everyone can keep sinning together and justifying it.
c. Does God speak to THEM? If they don’t have an active prayer life with God, not interested in having one, they should not be in the inner circle. They ought to at least be able to identify wrong behavior, even if they are still struggling in it.
4) Define the agenda for your life. Nehemiah 6: 1-4 Everyone has an agenda for you and force it onto you and judge you based on how well you’re living it out. Make sure you, in connection with and direction from God, set your own agenda for your life. Never underestimate the power of envy! B/C if you’re trying, people will hate you because you are a mirror to them of what they failed at doing.
a. Use the “Pareto Principle”: GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT! The Devil wants you to focus on doing “good” things, because it will keep you too busy to do the great things you’ve been called to do, while lulling you into a feeling of security because some good is being done. If you have to make sacrifices in your agenda, cut out the “good” things, refocus on what will be the most fruitful and have the greatest impact.
5) Live with Courage & Faith: Most people lament the ideal, and don’t deal with the real. Admit to yourself where you are in life. Admit your flaws, the areas where you are struggling, admit your weakness. Then have faith that there is something greater that you have been called to. STOP CALLING IT LOVE WHEN IT’S LUST. STOP SAYING “HE’S GOOD,” WHEN YOU KNOW HE ISN’T. STOP SAYING “SHE’S GOOD,” WHEN YOU KNOW SHE’S JUST BETTER THAN YOU HAD BEFORE, BUT ISN’T ALL YOU DESERVE. At your core you should know, “when I give God my best, He will not let me fail.”
6) COMPLETELY SURRENDER TO GOD à John 15: 4-8. Whatever area of my life is unsurrendered to God is an area of my life that is UNINHABITED BY GOD! He does not dwell in your mess. And that is your weak spot that the Devil will attack. If your sex life / sexuality is not completely surrendered to the will of God, that is where you will be attacked. If your ego is not surrended, that is where you will be attacked. Surrender every part of your life!
a. We run from God, not knowing that God is chasing us because He is trying to SAVE us!
b. God does three things to get you to surrender your life to Him:
i. He will BLESS you beyond measure, beyond what you deserve, so you know it is not your works that got you to where you are and you’ll be so grateful you’ll want to live a life that pleases Him.
ii. He will BLOCK from you things meant to cause you harm. You shouldn’t have walked away from that accident, you should’ve been locked up, you should’ve been fired, you should’ve been pregnant, you should’ve contracted AIDS, whatever danger you put yourself in, God blocked it so that you would know it was Him and nothing you did, and you would be so grateful that you would surrender your life completely to Him.
iii. He will BREAK you down. Sometimes you have to start losing things. You have to hit rock bottom to realize that He is the rock at the bottom upon which you can always rest. He will break your relationships to free you from people you have no business with, He will do it to save your life.
c. Signs you have surrendered:
i. You’ll be disturbed by people who haven’t surrendered their life. Mediocrity will bother you, sin will bother you and you won’t want to be around it.
ii. The people who haven’t surrendered their lives to God will be bothered by YOU. You will annoy them, because you are no longer on the same path.
iii. This is your maturation point à when you realize you CANT do the things you used to do anymore because your SOUL is at stake. YOU’RE LIVING FOR SOMETHING AND SOMEONE GREATER!