06/07 MOB Planning Meeting

Yesterday we had our annual planning meeting at Chestnut Hill Coffee Company. We did some dreaming for our department for the next year as well as some tangible planning. Our meeting was great but I'm tiered today. It's draining to be thinking creatively for hours. My brain is more tangible, linear and practical. I'm ready to tackle our action items but fellow team members, Matthew and Dan, would have loved to continue to think of how we can improve our department. Our department has a good mix of personalities that work together well. If we didn't have the dreamers the tangible people wouldn't be able to make the dreams a reality.

I went to Liberti Church (http://www.liberti.org/) today with Bethany and Janine. Steve Huber preached an excellent sermon on fear. I felt like he was preaching to an audience of one... me. The rest of this entry is taken from my sermon notes- I hope they make sense and bless you as they did me.

Five things about Fear

1. Fear can cause sin
-The text was Genesis 20. Abraham pretended that Sarah was his sister because he was afraid of the king.
-Being a workaholic & being lazy are both sins. There is fear in failing so we work too hard or because we fear failing we don’t try at all.

2. Fear is close to worship
-What we fear is what we will worship. I want people to approve of me and I work hard to protect my reputation. These are two idols in my life.
-If we fear God we will worship Him. Check out Psalm 130:3-6 & 111:10

3. What we fear shapes us
-I won’t be able to truly love people if I fear what they think of me.
-Isaiah 51:12&13 “I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor?”
-What if we fear God & let him mold us? We would find real joy, real love and real peace
-God blessed Abraham in spite of his fears.

4. To heal our fear we must look to God & His love
-Are we ready for great liberation?
-We must look to Jesus, who died for us & rose again.
-We must look at our fears in the reality & in the face of Jesus.

5. God wants us to grow by meditating on His promises
-Let God speak to us in his word
-We often don't do what we should with God's promises. For example: Steve gave his 2 year old daughter a beautiful pearl necklace, worth about $20. She thanked her dad for it but didn't realize the value of the bracelet. She lost it 5 minutes later. This is how we treat God’s promises. We thank Him for them but then loose sight of them soon after.
-We will always find what we look for the hardest. If we want to be bitter or judgmental, we will find material. Look for God’s promises and they will be found.