Preaching | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Jun 19, 2009 | Uncategorized

Apr 27

Posted by Josh

Yesterday (4-26) I had the awesome privilege of being a room host at our Regional Teens Involved.  If you are not familiar with Teens Involved it is a competition that is hosted by Word Of Life (if you are not familiar with them then that can be another blog) anyway at this competition teens can compete in 23 different categories.  Yesterday I hosted the instrumental room which was a riot for me because I know very little about music.  What I was so impressed with was the quality of teens that were in this competition. I had the wonderful opportunity to pray with every teen before they performed and to chat with them briefly and wow.  We hear so much bout our teens doing bad things and this and that but these teens wanted to be there.  These teens wanted to give what they had to the Lord.  Specifically I remember one young lady playing her violin and I was nearly moved to tears.  My heart was encouraged being with those teens.

My heart was also encouraged as I had the opportunity to hear two young men preach.  These young men are special to me as I have had the opportunity to be a part of their life and have even lead one of them to Christ.  It was so awesome to hear them clearly lay out the gospel and clearly give a plan of salvation.  It was neat to hear that they had taken my advice.  Though I am saddened to not be their Youth Pastor anymore do to my recent resignation (thats another blog), I am excited to see them live for the Lord.  Both these guys and many others hold a special place in my heart more so then they or anyone else will probably ever know.  Guys if you read this you did an awesome job and I am so proud of you,

Teens are the church of now and into the future and it is a joy to see them serve.  I would encourage you if you are involved in a church what are you passing on to those that are below you.  Look for someone to get involved with and pass the things of God on to them.

My Thoughts, Spiritual Application, Uncategorized

Talents | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Jun 18, 2009 | Uncategorized

Apr 27

Posted by Josh

Yesterday (4-26) I had the awesome privilege of being a room host at our Regional Teens Involved.  If you are not familiar with Teens Involved it is a competition that is hosted by Word Of Life (if you are not familiar with them then that can be another blog) anyway at this competition teens can compete in 23 different categories.  Yesterday I hosted the instrumental room which was a riot for me because I know very little about music.  What I was so impressed with was the quality of teens that were in this competition. I had the wonderful opportunity to pray with every teen before they performed and to chat with them briefly and wow.  We hear so much bout our teens doing bad things and this and that but these teens wanted to be there.  These teens wanted to give what they had to the Lord.  Specifically I remember one young lady playing her violin and I was nearly moved to tears.  My heart was encouraged being with those teens.

My heart was also encouraged as I had the opportunity to hear two young men preach.  These young men are special to me as I have had the opportunity to be a part of their life and have even lead one of them to Christ.  It was so awesome to hear them clearly lay out the gospel and clearly give a plan of salvation.  It was neat to hear that they had taken my advice.  Though I am saddened to not be their Youth Pastor anymore do to my recent resignation (thats another blog), I am excited to see them live for the Lord.  Both these guys and many others hold a special place in my heart more so then they or anyone else will probably ever know.  Guys if you read this you did an awesome job and I am so proud of you,

Teens are the church of now and into the future and it is a joy to see them serve.  I would encourage you if you are involved in a church what are you passing on to those that are below you.  Look for someone to get involved with and pass the things of God on to them.

My Thoughts, Spiritual Application, Uncategorized

Rick Warren | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Jun 18, 2009 | Uncategorized

Recently I listened to an interview with Rick Warren and whether you like his stuff or not he had some good things to say in the interview.  In this interview he commented on many things.  For instance he spoke on stages they try to take people through at Saddleback.  They were first to “Know Christ”,Then to Love Christ’s family, then to grow in Christ, then to serve Christ, finally to share Christ.  This is a process that they attempt to take people through.  I enjoyed what he had to say about this because it seems in many churches their is not a process, or even a plan for that matter.  It seems more like a somewhat organized Chaos with no real plan.  On top of that when asked to put their plan into words most churches can not primarily because they do not have a plan.  This can be and is counter intuitive to many churches.  If the people do not know where they are going or where they are being lead then “aren’t they following blindly”.

Really what impressed me most was Warren’s comments on discipleship.  Warren spoke that Saddleback was built on a series of five covenants.  The first is their entry point “Come and See” he said there is no commitment to “Come and See” the only thing you have to do is show up.  You can sit wherever you want, you don’t have to sing any songs you are not forced to say anything you just come and see.  Warren was quick to point out that Jesus never left the people there.  

“From “Come and See” Jesus would take them through consistent steps.  During this time Jesus is constantly turning up the heat.   As they begin to follow Him Jesus begins to say things like You’re my disciple if…He redefines commitment.  ”You’re my disciple if you love on another.”  ”You’re my disciple if you bear fruit.”  ”You’re my disciple if you take up your cross, deny yourself,  and follow Me.”  And on and on Jesus is turning up the heat.”

“In those days, nobody took up a cross unless the Romans were going to nail him to it. So He’s saying, “Come and die.” There’s a huge difference in commitment between “Come and see” and “Come and die.” He doesn’t say “Come and die” at the very first. He takes three years into a relationship with them. And He’s moving them.”

“Churches have not understood that commitment is sequential, systematic, and processed. And to move them from “Come and see” to “Come and die” is what Purpose Driven is all about.”

“What happens is churches tend to be one or the other. You’re either a “Come and see” church or a “Come and die” church. And the “Come and see” churches bring them in the front door and win a lot of people to Christ, but they don’t deepen them to deeper levels of maturity. The “Come and die” church doesn’t reach anybody for Christ, and they’ve got their frozen chosen that they keep taking deeper and deeper and deeper. But those people have koinitis. They’re so close no one else can break into it.”

“What a church has to do is see that “Come and see” and “Come and die” is the whole spectrum. And how do you get people from “Come and see” to “Come and die?” There are classes. There are covenants. There are commitments. There are cells. There’s coaching.”

“It’s not just one-on-one. It’s not just one to small group. It’s not just one to big crowd. There is a combination. And you have to take into account that people learn in different ways. Most churches have not built the levels of learning into discipleship.”

 So often we have no plan.  Our plan is watch this movie, read this book, take someone else through this book.  That is not really discipleship.  So often there is no process to grow someone in Christ.  They either “Come and See” and never get moved beyond that or we as them to “come and die” and they are not ready for that.  Why is it we seldom move people through a time of discipleship.  Rarely do we really take time to get to know those we are supposedly discipling so how do we really know where to start?  We really need to revolutionize how we look at discipleship and stop wasting time.  We need to strip discipleship of all of its protective gear and stop worrying about people seeing the real us and stop pretending to be something we are not and start invading peoples lives with who Jesus Christ is.  We need to be willing to stick it out for a long haul and show them whatever way it takes for them to understand who Jesus is and move them into the direction of “come and die” then we will have radical committed disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please not that the quoted text are the words of Rick Warren in the interview.  

Message | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Jun 18, 2009 | Uncategorized

It has been along time since I have posted primarily because I have been so busy.  I know that is hard to believe that I have been busy without a job but I sure I have been.  Rather than update about Mike Erre’s book (I will do that later) I thought I would just give some things that have been going on in my life.

I’ll start with the crusade we recently had.  I meet with one of our Pastors pretty regularly and I really enjoy the time I get to spend with him.  Leading up to the crusade he asked me if I would like to help with train the counselors I of course jumped at the opportunity because this is the very thing I love to do.  So I spent a few nights getting things ready and going over the training and then we trained the counselors for two evenings, to be ready for the response we were expecting during the crusade.  The Impact Macon Crusade was February 22-25 and I was there every night.  We saw God move in a remarkable way during that week we saw over 100 decisions for Christ and over 90 0n one night.  I must say I was not ready for over 90 people to respond to the gospel that night but it was wonderful.  Hey they were all counseled to.

Secondly I was asked if I could teach a book of the Bible to the youth what book would it be.  I replied I would go through the book of James and the response was “why don’t you teach it” of course I jumped at that any time I get a chance to teach some teens I am going to do it.  So on Sunday nights I am taking our Student Overflow through James.  I pray and hope they are enjoying it.  I have already taught through James so I already have the messages done, but if you know me you know I spend a great deal of time with message prep even if I have already done it before and making sure I am saying what the Lord wants me to say.

Thirdly the first week in March I started taking over the Wednesday evening teaching to the Youth.  This has been going great once again I love teaching the teens.  On Wednesdays I typically play a game with them and then we go over prayer requests and then I teach.  I desire to see both these ministries grow tremendously and I have seen God definitely working on the hearts of some of the teens that come.

Fourthly I received a call from the principal here at Atlanta school and was asked if I could come in and teach Science while the current teacher is away on maternity leave.  I accepted the position.  Which if you are a teacher you know the work that gos into lessons and so forth.  So for the next few weeks I am now a Science teacher.  I must say that teaching in the public school is a lot different then teaching in Christian School, or teaching at church, however the kids seem to like me as a teacher and some even thanked me for teaching.

Finally all of this has been happening while still sending out resumes (required for state aid) and while going through an interview process with a church that is interested me.  So yeah I have been busy but hey I like being busy.  Please pray I will be directed to the church God wants me at and that I will know it and so will the church.

Judging Others | Bad Days Better

by Josh Monda | Jun 18, 2009 | Uncategorized

Yesterday I started a little blogging series on judging so today I will continue with that series.  As stated yesterday the first thing I notice from Matthew 7:1-6 is that there is a definite command “do not judge” I also stated the greek word for judge used is (krinite) which also means to criticize.

Often times when a person has done what others feel is wrong and fallen the first reaction is to judge that person but judgment often times misses the point.  

When someone has messed up as we all do shouldn’t this be a time for compassion towards that person.  This should be a time of reaching out to the person and making an offer to love on that person and to pull them in even closer, not push them further and further away.  This is a time to speak kind words of them not bite and tear them down with destructive talk.  (Ephesians 4:30-32)

We should take time to show loving compassion for those who have come short why?  Well we realize that we too have come short so many times and in many cases much worse then the one we are judging.

Then why is it that people so often and so quickly move to judging and criticizing?  Not only that why is that so often these are the what we might call “Strong Christians”.  There are several reason why this takes place and let me say as I state these this was me and probably still is to a certain extent.  

1.  When we judge or criticize another person it boosts our self-image.  When we tear someone else down it makes us seem better at least that is how we see it, somehow we are better then that other person.  It inflates our pride, ego, and our own self image.

2.  We enjoy criticism.  Think of all the successful talk shows, movies, and so forth that are based primarily on this issue we love to hear and share bad news and others shortcomings.

3.  When we judge and criticize it makes us feel as if somehow our own life is better than the person that failed.

4.  When we judge and criticize it helps us justify ourselves and all the shortcomings that we have.  We begin to rationalize our own failures because we can point out failures in other people.

5.  Judgment and criticism we think is a sign of strength.  When we criticize someone else we believe it just once again proves our narrow minded beliefs by the other persons failure to live up to that standard.

6.  Judgment and Criticism gives us a chance for hurt and revenge.  We feel that somehow that person that we are judging and being critical of deserves it.  Our reasoning go’s like this “if he hurt me, he deserves to be hurt.”  So we look for ways to hurt them.

I am going to close with reasons why we should not be so fast to judge and criticize.

1.  We never know all of the circumstance and all of the facts.  What happened and why it happened are never really known.  So often there are all kinds of things that have taken place behind the scenes that are not seen by others.  Think about just these relationships Children and parents, wives and husbands, employer and employee, friend and friend, in all these relationships things happen behind closed doors so often.  In addition to that things are seldom remembered and when they are remembered the facts are messed up.  Usually the person that does the talking does not reveal the true fact but many times reveals only the fact that make them look good.  The one that is in a hurry to tell others the problem is the one that seeks self-justification.  The one that desires to be silent is the one who is caring and compassionate.  The spirit of silence is silent because it does not desire hurt for others.

2.  The second reason we should not be so quick to criticize and judge is that all people it does not matter who you are or what your position is come short, all fall, and all fail.  In addition to that we all sin (1 John 1:8, 10).  No one at any time is ever exempt from sin.  When we are quick to bring out the whip of judgment and criticism we have a big problem; we have forgotten that we are also sinners.  It is only when we acknowledge our own condition that we act with care and compassion to those that fall short.  We must realize though they may be failing now we failed before and we will fail again.  Sin is a cycle that is continuous and no one is exempt it started in the beginning when Adam and Eve ate of the tree and it will not end until Jesus returns.  Those that believe in Christ have His righteousness imputed upon them and we are dependent upon that (2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:8-16).  We must always be seeking after God’s forgiveness and forgetting those things that are behind us.

I want to make it clear that I am not saying that we have a license to go out and sin all we want neither is our sin just excused.  We are not to continue in sin, not by being quick to judge and criticize nor by doing evil.  We all have weaknesses and shortcomings the person that really knows God is the one who is constantly seeking God.  ”And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

3.  Everything that there is to know about a person is never known.  How then can we judge and criticize?  Think about all the things that mold us into who we are.  Think about our parents what are they like, how were we treated for the 18 years we lived at home.  What did our fathers or mothers teach us?  What kid of friends did we have or do we have?  There are many factors that influence the person that may be failing.  Do we know what it is influencing them?  What kind of genes has this person inherited?  Are the loving, shy, strict, arrogant, strong, fiery?  There is so much that influences the human life that only Go can know a person well enough to judge him.  We can really never know someone well enough to pass judgment on them.

4.  Judging others usurps God’s authority.  When someone is critical and judges of another they are saying they have the right and are worthy to be the judge over other lives.  They are in essence claiming the right to be God, which is absolutely ridiculous.  Yet I believe most people including myself have laid claim to the right at one time or another, and some claim the right o exercise a judgmental critical spirit all the time. 

Lets not forget what the Scripture says “Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master [God] he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (brackets added by me) (Romans 14:4, James 4:11-12)

Tomorrow I will look at verse 2 and how it is made very clear that we will be judged with the same judgement or criticism we use and we will be judged with the same measurement.

Let me also make it clear that this series is not talking about specific occasions when value judgments must be made, nor is it speaking of the careful discrimination that has to be made at times, finally it is not speaking of the moral judgment that we at times have to make either.  It is speaking of the harsh judgmental, and often critical spirit that has invaded our churches and our lives at times.