CrossTrainers

Date: May 26th 2010

Speaker: Jerry Foster

Title: God Built – “Powerful Punks”

We’ve been learning that God is in control over devastating loss, assignments, broken hopes, prolonged waiting,

Today we learn that God is in control over people

Proverbs 21:1 God is turning the hearts of the leaders. This includes presidents, school board members, military dictators, everyone who rules anywhere.

God guides and directs each of them.

With Proverbs 21 in mind, that God can change the hearts and minds of leaders, think about what is going on in our world, about frustration in leaders across the world

Turn to your neighbor – How does that effect the way you look at the world?

Bottom line – They (leaders around the world) serve Him even in their rebellion because they breath because He allows them to breath, they think because He allows them to think

Does God make them sin? No. But He uses their sin for His purposes.

Joseph – Pharaoh was the most powerful man on the earth. He has a dream and Joseph interprets the dream. Joseph became the co leader of Egypt. It all began with a dream, that God made him dream. He couldn’t refuse the dream. That was it, the Pharoah was smack dab in the middle of God’s plan and he didn’t even know it.

Think about it – here is the most powerful man in the world, but he has no power over this dream that troubles him so much. Steve Farrar puts it really well -”God said to the powerful king, ‘dream this you little Egyptian wuss’”

Isaiah 40:12-17 – This passage is so great when we stop to think about God’s control over the nations.

Look at Isaiah 40:17 – Look at all of the powerful nations, they are nothing, they fall under the control of a sovereign God.

Turn to your neighbor – When you look at this verse what does that do to your confidence?

When we look around the world at some of the bad things that happen it can be easy for us to fear.

But we have to remember that God is in control

This makes me want to know the God that is in control. Because if I know the God that is in control, then I am secure.

When we look at the evil and harm that is going on, we have to ask the question – can they do harm? Yes. Can they do harm to a believer without the consent of God? No.

He appoints them and then He can take them out when He wants to.

Isaiah 40:21-26

Probably what we need to do is to read these verses every morning. First the verses, then the newspaper or the news.

Back to Joseph – Why was pharoah a mighty ruler at this time? Because God put him there.

Makes you wonder, what is God up to? What ruler, dictator, evil tyrant is God already working in or about to work through

So God takes this dream, plants in his subconscious and gives it to him in the middle of the night.

He has these two dreams that just haunt him. He calls together all of his helpers and other folks who can’t do anything for him.

Then along comes Joseph. Pharaoh is about to hand over his power to Joseph. Think about it, Potipher did it, the jailer did it, everyone gave their power to Joseph.

So who was in control of this? He didn’t ask for that dream.

“God is in control of powerful people” Steve Farrar

“It’s the most comforting thing in all the world to know that there is a God who is in charge of my life” Steve Farrar

I don’t know about you guys but my human nature is alway trying do to the work to get things to work out right.

I get tired of always pushing and pushing and pushing for things to work out the way I think they should work out.

The reality is that God is in control of my life. I may think that my success is my own but it really was God.

Turn to your neighbor – How do we as believers cooperate with Him and His plan in order to enjoy the maximum benefit?

I need to work harder to stay inside the boundaries of what He is doing.

Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, when we see pain or suffering

Its not mine to question why, it is mine to be obedient and to trust Him

Let’s pray. . .

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(notes typed by PJ)

CrossTrainers

Date: May 12th 2010

Speaker: Gary Rosberg

Title: Focus on South Africa

Gary started with Trunk money videos

(I’m not sure what these had to do with the talk but they are hilarious – you can see them here Video 1, Video 2, Video 3 (the best one)

Our Time in South Africa

When they were in their early teens Peaceful and Promise became double orphans. In South Africa, when both parents die you become a double orphan.

Where we were in South Africa it wasn’t uncommon to have nine year old parenting a house hold. There were little kids and grandmothers, almost everyone in between was dying.

Even as we were teaching on purity many of these young women were on their way home to be raped by their uncles or grandfathers.

Promise and Peaceful were a couple of gals that I meant last time but didn’t get to really talk with them. This time I spent 2 hours talking through the six secrets with these two gals to see how these principles work in their cultural context. They were absolutely captivated by this time.

Promise and Peaceful have been a part of iThemba which means “place of hope.” 29 kids living in this program, all of them double orphans. They have been rescued from the streets and orphanages. This isn’t a foster home or orphanage. They are a family. When they turn 18 they aren’t booted out, they still come home to iThemba for Christmas and holidays even after they leave to be on their own.

Acts 1:8
When we were in SA recently I spent time with the CEO of iThemba and told him that he inspired me with this verse. This guy was the CEO of Focus on the Family Africa for 30 years. He decided to come home to his Jerusalem to start iThemba to focus on AIDS orphans.

Pastors -
Gary showed pictures from his time in Africa. Specifically talking about the Pastor’s conference that America’s Family Coaches presented.
Turn to your neighbor – Turn to a guy next to you and pray for the pastors and leaders of South Africa, this change isn’t going to come through public policy it is the turning of hearts.

Families –
We hosted the Great Marriage Experience at a church in Capetown that only held 700 people. When we got there there were people standing in the street with signs that said, “Sold out, no more room.” The guy we were with had them take the signs down and we packed the place out! Pray for us as we work to resource the pastors of this conference.
We then went to host the conference in Durban and packed out the church with 2400 people.
Turn to your neighbor – Turn to the guy next to you and pray for these families that attended these conference. That they would be a light to their communities and that they would remain strong in Christ.

Angus Buchan -
This guy is a farmer who has been anointed by God. He had a men’s conference on his farm and had 150,000 guys last time. This time 350,000 guys were on his farm field this time and we got to go! It is like a Christian woodstock, they go there for three days, camp out, grill. Tens of thousands of guys came to Christ during this event.

Turn to your neighbor – Turn to the guy next to you and pray for the men of South Africa. They are seeing what we saw with Promise Keepers and we know that this country and this continent will only be changed with the hearts of the men are changed.

iThemba -

www.focusonithemba.org

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(notes typed by PJ)

CrossTrainers

Date: March 31th 2010

Speaker: Mike Swaim

Title: God Built – Chapter 1: Strangely and Slowly; God is Working

The story of Joseph – An overview

This book deals with how men are forged

I’ve studied the life of Joseph up and down over the years but I’ve never spent this much time thinking about Joseph as I have over the last couple of days.

If you are going to be coming over the next few weeks or months you should be reading through Genesis 36-50.

If you read Genesis 36-50 each week through this study you would understand how to move from being a victim to being a victor

2 concepts on typology:

1. When you read the Old Testament you can see different types in scripture that represent different things that we experience or see in Christ. Many people look at Egypt as a type that represents “the world.” God had told Isaac not to go to Egypt when things got tough but instead to stay in the land and wait for God to provide. Keep the understanding that when we read about Egypt we are looking at mans solution for problems.

2. Joseph represents a type of Jesus. We see many things of Jesus in Joseph.

Foundations

We need to look at Luke 6:46-49

Jesus talks about people being on a solid foundation being those who are DOING the sayings of Jesus.

Even though Joseph was doing God’s plans there were still floods that came. He didn’t have sin that was creating these things, it was a flood that God had brought into his life.

From Victim to Victor

How many of you would like to go through what Joseph went through?

He was sold into slavery. He was a stranger in a strange land. He was sent to prison for something he didn’t deserve.

Lets look at Joseph’s life from the end, looking back

How old did he live? 110 years

How old was he when Pharaoh took him out of prison and put him in charge of Egypt? 30

He faced adversity from ages 17 or so to 30.

Sometimes we need to understand that our trails are for a season and are to produce something better.

If Joseph’s grew up in today’s world his story would have been a great episode of Oprah!

He came from a really dysfunctional family.

• Great Grandfather – Abraham: He had a child with his handmaid. Lied to a king to save is own hide, Twice!
• Father – Jacob: Steals his brother’s birthright. That was a big deal! He felt entitled, he was a deceiver and a thief. He got deceived by his uncle Laban and ended up with the wrong wife. He finally got the “right” wife but found out that she couldn’t have kids. This kicked off a tug of war between Jacob’s two wives and their maid servants. Joseph had a bunch of brothers with four different moms and one dad.
• Brothers: Eventually his brother’s try to kill him, but instead sell him into slavery. They make up a story to deceive their dad.

But Joseph is on his way to Egypt – 300 miles. Probably took about 10 to 20 days. He gets to Egypt, doesn’t speak the language.

Genesis 37:28, Genesis 39:1-4

The Lord was WITH Joseph.

BUT!!

Then Potiphar’s wife gets him thrown in prison.

In both of these situations he could have said, “If I hadn’t grown up in this dysfunctional family this wouldn’t be happening”

He could have been looked at what was going on and blamed those around him

We have a tendency to do this. What we need to do is to look around and say, “God what are you doing here?” instead of blaming our circumstances on everyone else.

Adversity comes. Not necessarily because you have sinned.

God was with him

God prospered him

The principles of God are true through out scripture regardless of when they are revealed.

Proverbs 3:3-4

If I love you regardless of what you do to me then I will find favor.

What is the word of God that was given to Joseph? There will come a day when your brothers and father will bow down to you.

What is the love of God to Joseph? He was with him. Regardless of what happens with anyone else, God was with Joseph.

What is the key to moving from moving from victim to victor? FORGIVENESS

I believe that forgiveness for Joseph started on the way to Egypt. I believe this because we see that Joseph won favor in Potiphar’s house. He wouldn’t have won that favor if he hadn’t forgiven his brothers and refocused his attention on God, he wouldn’t have been walking in love and wouldn’t have found favor.

HOMEWORK: Read Genesis 36-50 once a week as we go through this study.

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(notes typed by PJ)

The NEW CrossTrainers teaching series based on God Build by Steve Farrar starts on March 31.

Our world is in desperate need of bold, passionate men of integrity. Yet such men aren’t born, they’re built, shaped and formed by God to enrich their families, church, and community. But what does this process look like? And how do we get started?

The answers are found in the story of Joseph, a humble shepherd who overcame tremendous odds to become an influential leader. It’s here we discover the process that creates true men of God, where He works

Providentially, supplying everything we need in our journey
Strangely, often in ways that we won’t understand
Slowly, building our patience and trust

God Built explores the defining spiritual process that makes men of God. You’ll uncover the Biblical pattern for growth, gain insights into common frustrations and difficulties, and get equipped for the journey ahead.

Surrender yourself to Him. And become a man that’s built to last.

CrossTrainers

Date: March 24th 2010

Speaker: Bob Stouffer

Title: God and Time

Psalm 90:4

This week Bob closed out the book “Infinite Impact” by Stu Webber.

He began with the riddle from The Hobbit

What is it?  TIME!

Bob wasn’t planning on doing this message but God took him on an about face to look at God’s perspective on time.

The question was asked, “What is God’s perspective on time?”  Bob asked us to discuss this, deeply, not on a surface level.  We were to discuss what we know is doctrinally true about God and time.

God is Eternal

God alone is eternal, believers in Jesus Christ will experience “everlasting” life but we are not ETERNAL beings like God

Dr. Wayne Grudem, in his book Systematic Theology, defines God’s eternality as follows:

“God has not beginning, end, or succession of moments in His own being, and He sees all time equally vividly, yet God sees events in time and acts in time” (Grudem p. 168)

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit — All three persons, dwell as one ETERNALLY

“…Time does not change God, it has no effect on His being…” (Grudem p. 169)

Jesus was fully human when on this earth, but, since He was fully God, time did not change His divine nature.  Time contstrained His human essence, but His divine nature was not changed.

“…the passing of time does not add to or detract from God’s knowledge: He knows all things past, present and future..” (Grudem p. 169)

God has NEVER ceased to exist

He alone can say, “I AM” !

“The fact that God never began to exist can also be concluded from the fact that God created all things and that He Himself is an immaterial Spirit” (Grudem p. 169)

GOD IS IMMATERIAL SPIRIT.

“Before God created the Universe, there was no ‘time’ at leas not the sense of succession of moments one after another.  Therefore, when God created the universe, He also created time.” (Grudem p. 169)

God views the past as vividly as the present and as vividly as the future.

Psalm 90:4 shows that God views a thousand years as yesterday.

“… all of past history is viewed by God with great clarity and vividness: all of time since the creation is to God as if it just happened” (Grudem p. 170)

“..any one day seems to God to be present in his consciousness forever” (Grudem p. 170)

“..in God’s perspective any extremely long period of time is as if it just happened.  And any very short period of time (such as one day) seems to God to last forever..” (Grudem p. 170)

God is Timeless

“.. God is Timeless..” (Grudem p. 170)

“..God created time and is Lord over time..” (Grudem p. 171)

“..Thus God somehow know stands above time and is able to see it all as present in His consciousness.” (Grudem p. 171)

Some theologians “have objected that God cannot be ‘timelessly eternal’ in the sens described aboe, because the moment He creates something, He is acting in time and therefore He must exist in time.” (Grudem p. 172)

God uses time for His own purposes (Grudem p. 172)

God uses time to display His glory (Grudem p. 172)

“..as God’s peopl we will experience the fullness of joy in God’s presence for all eternity – not in the sense that we will no longer experience time, but in the sense that our lives will go on forever.” (Grudem p. 173)

This thing – time -all things devours – but this thing – time – DOES NOT DEVOUR GOD!!

Makes your head hurt doesn’t it?  Our heads should hurt when we are attempting to discover new truths about God.  We are told to love the Lord our God with all of our MINDS.

According to Bob, the best sentence in Stu’s book appears on page 3.

“..God is the lor of our entire timelines.  At the same ‘moment’ He hovers over our present, He also walks in our past and goes before our futures.” (Webber, Infiniate Impact p.3)

Bob closed with the following:

CS Lewis once said, “The future is somethign which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”

Bob’s timeline started in August of 1958

How will  your earthly timeline end?  When will your earthly timeline end?

How will we use our lives?  In his book, Stu Weber point out that the decisions we make about how we live our lives “shapes our destiny and the interlocking destinies of many, many other people” (Webber,  p. xix)

I want my life to count for something!

I want to make the Infinate Impact of which Stu Weber wrote about.

I want to share the sentement of Mr. Kenneth P. Bowles “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid broadside, throughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow, what a ride!’”

Flame on!!

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(pj quoting Bob’s notes for Crosstrainers 3/24/2010)

CrossTrainers

Date: March 17th 2010

Speaker: Mike Swaim

Title: Trail Markers

Mike started by asking every guy to pray for 2 military couples that will be coming to the Military Marriage Conference as they get in their cars after CT.

Erecting a Marker as a Remembrance: 1 Samuel 7

1 Samuel 7:3 The children of Israel had been worshiping other gods. God said that if you put away the symbols of the foreign gods and remember who the God of the universe is God will deliever them.

There are plenty of foreign “gods” in our world today. There are probably a few guys here who need to lay down their “god” and receive deliverance.

1 Samuel 7:10 – How many shots were fired? How many shots were fired? NONE!

1 Samuel 7:11 – What happened here? Bloodbath! The philistines were their enemy, who is your enemy? The devil. What does a fight against satan look like when the Lord fights for you? Bloodbath.

1 Samuel 7:12 – What did Samuel do after the battle, he set up a marker.

What markers are in your life?

“Last week I heard about a marker in the life of my friend Bob Stouffer. He was awarded the Excellence in Education Award at Drake. Upon receiving his award, Bob referenced a marker in his life, coming to Christ at age 36.” (Read the full acceptance speech here on Bob’s March 10, 2010 blog post.)

Picture the Timeline

“Whenever we become aware of a situation where God, who is above and beyond time, steps into time on our behalf, we ought to place a marker on the timeline, even if its only a deep scratch in our memory”

What is the significance of the marker that Joshua put up at Mizpah?

It was permanent and it was there for everyone else to see.

Do your kids and grandkids know about the markers in your life?

Some of Mike Swaim’s Markers:

• Memories of early life in Panama running around the military base
• Memory of first prayer, at 5 years old crying about going to school, sitting at a small table with Dad. Prayed to be able to go to West Point one day. 5 years old
• Memory of a church in Fort Wayne, Indiana (Emmaus Lutheran Church) at third grade. “I didn’t realize that my grandfather had planted the church, but all of my extended family was there. I remember sitting there looking at this little red candle. I thought a lot about God as I looked at that candle.” That is a marker.
• Memory of memorizing scripture in California. Trying to memorize more than the other girl in the class. Remembering
• “You can drive by my marker in Des Moines. When you drive by Rosevelt High School, under the walk way that goes over 235. That spot is where I used to live, the first house I lived in Des Moines, where I started to grow in my faith”
• I remember when I was nominated as choir director, that meant that I had to be at church on the Sunday morning when this guy gave his testimony. He said that he had met Jesus Christ that week and he had been so impacted by it that he bought a bible for every person in the church. He said, ‘I don’t know about you but if you haven’t met Jesus Christ I want to help you do that today’ On that day I came to Jesus Christ. I still have that Bible, it is a marker in my life.”

What are the markers in your life?

Turn to one guy and talk about those markers, particularly those markers of redemption in your life.

The marked doesn’t do us any good if we don’t tell someone.

The marker is only significant if you share it with succeeding generations.

How we engage the past identifies our present and shapes our future

Have you placed any markers on the time line and would succeeding generations understand their significance?

Click HERE for the Full Audio for this message.

(pj’s notes for Crosstrainers 3/17/2010)

CrossTrainers

Date:  March 10th 2010

Speaker: Jerry Foster

Title: Why are you here?

Take a look at Acts 17:24-26 notice the last phrase “the exact places where they should live”

God has chosen for you to live exactly where you are on this time line of human history.  He chose you for this time, this place.

Q: If you believe that, what does that do for you?  What are the ramifications of this?

What is amazing about this time line is that it goes on and on but we are only one little part of it.

1.  We are not accidents

Look at Psalm 139:1-16

Think about what it means that you were “knit together” by God.

David realized that God cared enough for God to “knit” him together and to be near him where ever he could go.

David’s confidence was based on the fact that he was created by God and he was special to Him.

We need this confidence as we look back on our time line.  These things are not accidents.

2.  Our place on the time line was determined by God Himself

God is sovereign over whole time line.  All the good, the bad, every experience is used by God and has a reason.

Jerry talked about when he was at his deepest part of despair, He brought someone along to bring $50 to help him out, it was just the right time on his time line.  It made a huge impact and began a change in him that only God could do.  It was one little dot on one short part of the time line of history but it was a critical point.

When we look back through our experiences we it often becomes painfully clear why God did those things to bring us to this point.

Q: When you look at your life, what evidence do you see that your life is meant for this place and this time?

Q: How do you live your life in the moment?

3.  We are called to a special purpose at a specific time in God’s sovereign design.

Look at Ephesians 2:10

We need to be constantly asking why we are at this point in the time line and what we can do to impact the time line going forward, future generations.

Each one of us is unique and designed for a purpose

We believe that we were created by God, so we can believe that God did so with a purpose, not just for now but for generations to come.

God has a design on this day, this moment, this very second.  He has a design on what is going on in your head right now.

Q: Do you believe that to be true?
Q: How would you describe your unique design
Q: What should you be doing to satisfy that purpose?

(PJ’s Notes from CrossTrainers on 3-10)

For a full audio version of this message click HERE