I am learning that when it comes to monday-wednesdsay, if I don’t blog before 8am – it doesn’t happen!

I spoke at Crash on Sunday night, as a part of our series, “The Elephants Among Us”. I was WIPED OUT when I got home. Felt like an athlete who left it all on the field. But really felt the Holy Spirit and got pretty fired up, which apparently some people enjoy seeing.

Some nuggets from the talk based on Nehemiah 1-6…
-Sometimes the place where we find ourselves relationally leaves us hopeless and we decide to settle and live below.
-There was one elephant in Exodus 18; here in Nehemiah, that elephant has become fertile and is reproducing like a cat…there are baby elephants everywhere.
-We are going to talk about hope tonight, and not hope in a presidential candidate or a science-fiction super hero.
-Tonight you get the chance to become the hero.
-Big Idea: Hopeful people call hopeless people into an impossible task.
-When you are hopeless, you can’t imagine any task, much less an impossible one – but that very task may be the exit out of hopelessness that you need.
-An impossible task is something, when completed, that can only be explained by the movement of God.
-God often moves when someone get a burden for their people.
-Who are “your people”?
-I have nothing to say – and I say it regularly.
-We should learn from the Balloon Boy madness – get all the information first. SHUT UP and listen.
-I hate group projects…I romanticize my reasoning with academic excellence, scholarships, minimum GPAs, that kind of mumbo jumbo…
-But the real issue is that I am arrogant, prideful, and think I am better than everyone else. I refuse to surrender control and trust anyone. That’s too risky. So I just depend on myself.
-You can’t become whole on your own and you can’t become hopeful alone either.
-Hope is opposed. There are some people that don’t want you to hope again. Your hopeful living indicts them and they are convicted by it. You will be opposed.
-The church is not buildings, a campus, services, or bible studies. The church is people who strap on swords, who stand in the gap for you, who defend you when you are defenseless. That’s what the church is and that’s why you should be a part of it.
-Is there anything going on here – in our lives, in my life, in your life – where God’s involvement is the only explanation? Is this because we have no impossible task?
Questions:
-Who is your Nehemiah? OR Who needs you to be a Nehemiah in their life?
-What is your wall? (that common impossible task you can come together around)

If you were there on Sunday night, throw down your thoughts in the comments – I would love to dialogue with you.