Tim Chambers – an uprising of the soul

It has always been the struggle of every great movement of God to keep from turning Inward. As a Pastor I’m always striving to keep the church externally focused. One thing I have noticed is that if you make the choice as a church to reach the unreached you will be attacked by the Me-vangelists out there. They were there in the days of Jesus (Pharisees). They constantantly berated Jesus for his desire to reach those far from Him. Even though Jesus “clearly” declared His mission to seek and to save those who were lost very few churches succeed at accomplishing His “clearly” stated mission. He also said that He came to help the sick not the healthy.

I fear that in todays church, Christians have made themselves the focus and priority. In turn we have a lot of ME- vangelists running around. People who say the church is for just the believer. They attack anyone who has a passion for the lost. I am a firm believer that the church is for everyone. I believe you can design a service that reaches the reached and the unreached. My son Jordan said last night during our 1st Wednesday, (which included a spontaneous conga line, jump on that one critics) that he has come to the conclusion that if you want to get people to respond just tell them the truth. (can’t wait to see the ME-vangelist comment on that) Jesus taught that it is the truth that will set you free.

King David had a Me-vangelist in his life. Her name was Michal, his wife. One day as David was returning to the city with the Ark of the Lord he broke out in celebration and danced unto the Lord. Because his wife thought this was something that kings shouldn’t do she dressed down her husband for worshipping God as a commoner. I love how David responds in 2 Samuel 6:21&22, ” I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes”.  I love that!!!

There will always be those who are critical. The only thing you can do is make sure you’re not one of them. In verse 23 of the same passage we are told that the daughter of Saul, Michal, had no children to the day of her death.

So here is an amazing truth, the critical bear no fruit!!!!

I have always believed that you never know who you’re impacting. What you may think is insignificant God can make magnificent. 19 years ago God brought a guy into my life by the name of Buddy Cremeans. Although he grew up in a christian home he was far from God. As a young Youth Pastor God laid it on my heart to reach out to him. And as they say the rest is HiStory! By that I mean God’s story.

This past Sunday I had the honor of having Pastor Buddy Cremeans speak at Shore Fellowship. He finished our One Prayer 2009 series by reminding us that God Is More. When you think you have God figured out, He Is More than you can ask our think. I am so proud of who Buddy has become. Not only does he Pastor a great Church, Northway Church, but he has an amazing family. His wife Debbie stands with him in ministry and his children, Devin and Natalie have an incredible love for God. Way to go God. I love how God can turn a life around. I could have never imagined how God is using them today. Keep up the great work, Buddy.

This past week at Shore Fellowship has been redifining. I remember as a kid going to an amusement park called, Cedarpoint. What I love about the park is their Coasters. They have some of the best coasters in the world. Never did I imagine how much those things reflect the way life can be. One minute your up in the clouds and the next you’ve been brought back to reality through the circumstances of life.

This past week we lost 2 wonderful people in our midst. One of them was George Ammon and just yesterday we Celebrated the life of Gabby Guenther. She was an energetic, artistic, fun loving 15 year old that had her whole life in front of her. But in God’s divine wisdom He allowed Gabby to come home to Him this past week. Although we are sad we have already seen the impact that has come from this tragic loss. As of today we have seen around 25 people come to Christ and scores of relationships restored.

So often in times like this people get mad. But as Pastor Steve said at the funeral yesterday, “Don’t get mad at God get mad at the one who brought death into this world. Satan. God is the Author of Life”. Because Gabby knew Christ, she will live forever. Remember to keep the family in prayer. And never forget that God is God in the the good times and the bad. As a matter of fact it is in the toughest times we see Him more clearly.

Something I noticed in my studies this past week was what happened when Jesus spoke. When He approached someone who was demon possesed the evil spirit would call Him the Son of God and Jesus would command them to “shut up”. And they would. But when Jesus would heal someone and then command them to not tell anyone, they would go out and tell everyone.

Conclusion: There is no one like our God and when He does something amazing in someones life they can not contain it. They have to tell everyone. Just my thoughts, what do you think?

In Tony Morgan’s new book, KILLING COCKROACHES, I was convicted about how often I let the urgent things in life grab me by the flippin nose and drag me around. I love the insight that he brings and the way he chose to go with quick hitting, short chapters. They are short enough I don’t find myself chasing the urgent before I finish. In a culture that desperately needs to hear a clear and compeling meesage about Christ on pg. 26&27, Tony challenges us to develop a service that bears fruit. He says that we should have 3 things;

1) A relevant topic – if you are answering questions that no one is asking you are missing it.

2) A stategic theme – How do you connect the topic to the people.

3) A biblical truth – If we don’t offer biblical truth people won’t experience Jesus.

You can pick up the book on Amazon.com . (I would give you the link but wordpress won’t allow me right now) You can also learn more about Tony morgan at tonymorganlive.com. You won’t be sorry. In this book you’ll find a wealth of wisdom.

I just wanted to direct you to a great giving opportunity that starts on March 1st. You will be challenged to only drink tap water for 40 days and add up all that you saved from not buying soda, coffee, and etc… and donate it to Blood:Water Mission to provide clean drinking water to children around the world. I am seriously thinking about taking up the challenge, but I am struggling to make the commitment. I tell you what, if ten people will comment and do it with me I think you can pull me over the edge. How about it?

Truth is we all have a little too much Baal in our lives. In the Old Testament Baal was a god that was worshipped by pagens. God was forever trying to get the Isrealittes to get Baal out of their lives.

In 2 Kings 10:28, Jehu destroyed all of the ministers of Baal and as a result rid Israel of Baal worship. But the text goes on to say that Jehu still had other  issues that he was unwilling to address. It seems like when we clean up one area of our lives there is still work to be done. How are you working to get the Baal out of your life so you can worship the one true God. Come out to Shore Fellowship this week as we will deal with the Baalout that we all need.

Just thought I would let you read some of the responses we’ve gotten from last sunday:

Great touch having the different speakers reaching out to all of the specific segments of the congregation. I am so glad that my 19 and 20 year-old children were there with me to hear it all.
Psalms 51 was so powerful, I don’t ever remember reading it or hearing it like I just did.  
Thank you

Hey Tim,
Your sermon was “spot-on” and most enjoyable, not to mention most needed. 
After sitting through two of the three services, I was most impressed with
Donna’s prayer and Pastor Bill’s prayer.  With Bill touching upon the man’s
duties and his actions, and Donna so fluently putting it out there for all
women of all ages, especially the teenage years, was nothing short of
incredible.  I realized how truly blessed I am when Renee’ and I sat there
with our oldest son Jake (33yrs. old) and his wife, our middle guy Josh
(19yrs. old) with his girlfriend, and our youngest Brittany (16yrs. old) with
her boyfriend.  They all heard the same thing that Mom and Dad have been
preaching throughout the years.  But hearing it from someone outside the
family has a completely different affect.  So when Bill & Donna prayed God’s
word to us, and you came along and drove their prayers home with pure
scripture just re-enforced what its truly about.  That was certainly a GRAND
SLAM, in terms of baseball.  I’m not quite sure how you tailored a sermon to
reach 3 or 4 different generations, and squeezed it all in an hours time, but
you did and did it well!  I know our church concentrates on “seekers” and
“un-believers” but from a 55 year old guy that grew up his entire childhood
going to Sunday School, and then being saved at the age of 17 yrs. old, it was
certainly good to hear the re-enforcement along with the reminder so we can
guard the back door keep it closed on Satan.  Thanks for all you guys
do…………..

More Later

I thought I would give you a run down of the scriptures we used Sunday. When I got up to do the message all I did was read the scripture without any commentary. I broke it up into 4 sections with prayer in between the scriptures. Pastor Bill prayed for the men of our congregation the they would lead and remain pure. My wife Donna prayed for the woman and put a huge emphasis on our young ladies. Pastor Steve spent some time in prayer for our marriages and  Trevor challenged our teens and young adults through prayer to be holy. All in all it was nothing short of amazing to see the power of God work through the reading of his word. It was our message for the morning and it was powerful. Here is the list of what we did:

Judges 16:1-20

Prayer – Bill

Proverbs 5:1-14, 20-23

Proverbs 7:21-27

Prayer – Donna

Exodus 20:7

Matthew 5:27,28

1Cor. 6:15-20

1 Thess. 4:1-8

Eph. 5:1-5

Prayer – Steve/Todd

Eccl. 2:10-11

Proverbs 6:27,28

1Peter 1:16

Gal. 5:13,14; Gal. 5:22-25

Prayer – Trevor

Psalm 51:1-13

I read all the scripture and it was great to end with Psalm 51:13. It tells us that when we repent God will use our “pure” vessel to reach people for Christ. We also had people who filled out a cards indicating  they gave their lives to Christ on Sunday. That happened without us having to prompt it. The power for salvation truly is in the word of God.