Listen to and watch the sermons from this year’s Winter Workshop in San Francisco! The theme for 2014 is For God’s Honor!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Discipline that Comes from Devotion – Chris Broom

DISCIPLINE THAT COMES FROM DEVOTION
Chris Broom
  • It’s been 2,000 years since the world has been evangelized in one generation
  • The goal we will focus on is: our relationship with God
  • Change alone is not enough – it must be for the honor of God
  • The title of this sermon comes from Andrew Smellie
Psalm 5:1-3
  • David was disciplined!
  • David prayed in the morning – not in the afternoon!
  • Even in a tough year, you can feel great because you learn from God
  • A difficult year can be well spent to prepare you for the next one!
  • Take some time and reflect on what you have learned
Mark 1:35
  • Jesus woke up so early to pray that it was still dark!
  • Jesus had an incredible discipline
  • What time do you get up in the morning?
  • Do you get up that early because you want to go to work?
  • Do you give yourself the time you need to be devoted to God?
  • Do you love God so much that you would never start a day without God?
“The great people of the earth today, are people who pray.  I don‘t mean people who talk about prayer, or those … I mean those who actually take time to pray.  They have not time – it must be taken from something else.  That something else must be very important… But less important than prayer….”
— S.D. Elliott
(1) DEVOTION
Psalm 63:1
  • If you know the times of the day where you struggle to put God first
  • You must attack those times of the day head on
  • Singing to God, singing hymns to your Father in heaven who loves you
  • Melodies sooth your soul – sing to God to soothe your soul
  • Pray about your anxiety, say it aloud in prayer
  • Read scriptures out loud to yourself in prayer that address your heart
  • If you don’t feel guarded, protected, and at peace, you have not prayed enough
  • This does not mean that the answer comes right away
  • But it sinks in your heart that God has the answer and will reveal it in his time
  • Answers come not by effort, but by spirit
  • Would you pray to God even if you knew you wouldn’t get anything you’d ask for?
  • Or, are you just talking to God because you want something?
  • Or, are you praying to God because you love him and want to talk to him?
  • Have the time with God you need just because you LOVE him!
  • This is the devotion that will change your heart and your life and make it pleasing to God
(2) DISCIPLINE
You can’t be a disciple without discipline
Daniel prayed three times a day
Acts 3:1
  • Time of prayer was 3 in the afternoon
  • Plug back in whenever you need more POWER!
Notes
  • How is your prayer life?
  • Is it disciplined?
  • Do you even know what you are praying about?
Proverbs 21:1
  • It is a proverb about irrigation, why?
  • In the holy land, it is pretty dry
  • To get the water to get it to go where you want to go – dig a ditch
  • This proverb applies to everyone – even the King!
  • God will direct the heart of man wherever he pleases!
  • Pray this prayer!
  • This is what we read in the book of Acts as people follow the spirit
  • This is what we read in John 3:8
Notes
  • What’s hindering you tonight?
  • This is the time to be open about the hits
  • This is the time to clear out our hearts
  • What is your dream?
  • What is your dream that you prayed to God and thanked him for already answering it?
  • Have you embraced the race that God has marked out for you?
  • Are you putting on the full armor of God and praying in all occasions
“The devil’s sole job to get us to not pray….” — Samuel Chapman

Saturday, January 11, 2014

OPENING
Mike Underhill

Romans 2:5-7
  • Don’t be stubborn, repent
  • Seek glory, honor, and immortality
  • Seek for God’s glory and honor
Goals for 2014
  • We can only accomplish world evangelism if we pray like Jesus
  • We call every disciple to refocus on their relationship with God
  • Praying for the message to spread rapidly and for our conviction to spread it
  • Full-time ministry is devoted to prayer and ministry of the word, and raising up new leaders devoted to prayer and ministry of the word as well
  • Expectation for everyone to be fruitful even baby Christians
  • Mature disciples must lead baby disciples to being fruitful
  • Faith is key as we build the church
  • MERCY Day, Toy Drive, National Blood Drive
  • Sending disciples to the EMC and Santiago, Chile Conference
  • Praying for the impossible prayers that only God can answer
  • Am I stamping everything with the honor of God in 2014?
PRAYERS FOR OTHER CHURCHES
Ryan Casarez
Corinthians 11:24
  • We’ve planted churches all over the world
  • Paul was thinking about and praying for all of the churches
  • We ought not be selfish in our prayers
  • We ought not be selfish about even our own ministries (especially for our glory)
  • We need to petition God for the movement around the world
FINANCIAL PRAYER
Dave Fergot
Notes
  • Dave has been tempted to live the California Dream in his heart
  • Now God has not blessed his efforts to find a job
  • Why? Because God wants to know that Dave is willing to give up everything for him
  • After God checks your hearts, knows you love him, he will bless your life
PRAYER FOR BAPTISMS
Aaron Viscichini
Luke 11:1-4: Pray for the kingdom to grow (“come”) & God’s will to be done
1 Timothy 2:4: God will is for all men to be saved & come to a knowledge of truth
Mark 11:24: Believe & you will receive
Notes
  • Farmer producing apples
  • What does the farmer care more about?
  • How many seeds are in an apple, or how many apples are in a seed?
  • Pray everyday for people studying the Bible
  • Do you even know who is studying in your ministry?  In San Jose, In Berkeley…
  • Pray everyday to share your faith!
  • Are you reaching out to the lost every, single day?
  • If you’re married… if you’re single professional… if you’re campus… if you’re a teen…
  • Are you finding a way to reach out no matter where you are or what you’re doing!
  • If you’re not doing these things, it’s because you’re not praying for these things!
  • Pray for baptisms!  Pray to be involved in fruitful labor!
  • Be a seed that has the power to produce many apples!
  • To God be the glory!
ANSWERED PRAYERS
John Zamora
Jeremiah 29:11-13
  • Do we really believe that God is here to prosper?
  • If we believe that, then God will say no sometimes!
  • Sometimes God will say no, sometimes will say yes (but wait), sometimes he will say yes right away
  • You never know how God will answer your prayer – but he always answers
  • Sometimes God says Yes, but the answer is not in the way you expected or you desired
  • Sometimes God is waiting for us to ask, and when we finally do, he says, “I thought you’d never ask!”
  • 2 Corinthians 12:9 (thorn in flesh)
DEVOTIONAL LIFE
Gary Ochs
Psalm 104:1-4
  • Are you zealous and fired up? Or, going through the motions?
  • Are you “fired up” or “on fire”? Real or fake? Temporary or permanent?
  • Are we playing church or devoted to God?
Psalm 19:7-11
  • How dependant am I on the word of God?
  • Story about Jason having a seizure on the bus
  • He needed something sweet in his mouth
  • Are we having a spiritual seizure?
  • If you are – you need the sweet, sugary Word of God TO SAVE YOUR LIFE
PRAYER THAT TRANSFORMS
Mike Underhill
Hebrews 4:16
  • How do we approach the throne of grace? With confidence
  • We approach God WITH CONFIDENCE!
  • God does not hate you – you can have full confidence before God – and the Bible commands it
  • Be confident in your prayers!
  • Have you ever approached a throne before? NO!
  • Imagine approaching the gigantic golden throne of God with enormous statues of lions on each arm!
  • Approach it every, single day with CONFIDENCE!
  • Is this how you see your prayer life? A conversation with the King of the Universe in total confidence
  • As long as we help each other get to heaven, there’s no moving of churches in heaven!
  • Do we have the same heart for God that we have for one another?
  • Are you concerned when you’re not close to God?
Revelation 8:1-5
  • The angel comes before the Lord and out of his hand draws the prayers of the saints
  • The angel hurls the prayers down to heaven like FIRE!
  • The Fire turns the world upside down!
  • Our prayers are incense that rises up to God and makes the world smell good!
  • Our prayers fire up God! God loves when you pray!
  • Imagine that angel going before the throne of God and there are no prayers!
  • We don’t want for God to not have the pleasing aroma above the city of San Francisco
  • We want our prayers to change the face of San Francisco
Matthew 7:9-11
  • Kids have figured this one out early
  • When they want something, they know what to do: ASK FOR IT
  • If you don’t do it – what do you do now? ASK AGAIN
  • Sometimes, the kids will even be nice before they ask!
  • Mike knew that if he kept asking his dad for something, eventually his dad will give it to him
  • Every child has the same faith with his parents
  • God will eventually give you everything you want if you keep asking
  • If we are evil and give gifts, you better believe that God will give us gifts
  • We must be RADICAL in our prayers to God
  • The place where we begin to change the bay area is when we’re on our knees praying for the Bay Area
Acts 12:1-12
  • God’s church is under attack
  • As disciples, Satan is unleashing the hounds of hell to pull the church down
  • We must ask: what do we do?
  • How do we fight?
  • It is a kingdom of darkness fighting against a kingdom of life
Revelation 12:7-9, 12
  • Satan has been thrown from heaven and landed on the earth
  • He is filled with fury for the saints and the church of God on earth
  • There is nothing that ticks Satan off more than a mission team
  • As a disciple, we are in a spiritual battle
  • This is NOT an earthly battle – Satan is coming after us
  • You are a target for takedown so that you will have no impact on this city
  • Do you know the enemy? Can you even see him? Unfortunately, no.
  • Your physical talents mean nothing in the eyes of Satan
  • It doesn’t matter how old you are, how mature you are, how many people you’ve helped
  • The only way to fight Satan is through the spiritual warfare of prayer
  • You lost the battle when you start relying on physical things
  • You lost as soon as you start focusing on people
  • Are you focusing on people right now?
  • Satan’s goal: get us to rely on ourselves just one more year!
  • We must fight a spiritual enemy with a spiritual weapon
Ephesians 6:10-13
  • We can only win with the full armor of God
  • With every piece of the armor in place
  • Putting that armor on every, single day
  • Keeping the armor on throughout the battle
  • Do you walk naked onto the battlefield full of confidence that you will win?
  • Do you start your day off naked spiritually?
  • Do you think you can just have your quiet time at night?
  • After awhile your heart will get so hard, you will need spiritual resuscitation
  • God answers when we pray!
  • We must pray earnestly!
  • When we are under attack – we BETTER be praying!
  • Biggest lesson from 2013: we need to pray when we are under attack
  • Going beyond the boundaries, being out of control
  • If you run away from God in the morning, what do you expect him to do during the day?
  • You cannot be more passionate about evangelizing than you are about prayer
  • Mike wants to imitate Paul’s prayer life
  • Paul prays about everything, a common theme: the spiritual growth of the disciples!
Notes from Bruce Almighty
  • He ends up dying because he is so ticked at God
  • Of course, God is Morgan Freeman
  • Morgan Freeman admonishes Jim Carey to pray about what he really wants
  • Jim Carey starts to pray for spiritual growth and for those he loves to be happy
  • Prayer is not just going through the list
  • False – prayer is praying from the heart for other people to spiritually grow
  • This is what Paul did in the Bible
  • Let’s make sure that we’re not going naked into the battle against the most powerful enemy ever
  • Liking people is not enough to get them to heaven
  • Let’s pray fervently, desperately, without boundaries!
  • Are you willing to have radical prayers?
PRAY FOR EACH OTHER
Chris Broom
James 5:13-14
  • Is anyone of you in trouble?
  • Is anyone of you happy?
  • Is anyone of you sick?
  • What do you do in these situations? Pray in FAITH!
  • Confess your sins, and pray for one another so that you may be healed
  • Believe it.
  • We are in this together – God will heal us through our unity and prayer for one another
James 5:15-20
  • Chris got to see the Lone Survivor
  • It’s about 4 Navy Seals who were dropped into Afghanistan to kill a notorious Taliban leader
  • We are in a spiritual war
  • Anything less, and you are out to lunch
  • The world around us is clueless spiritually
  • We are on a mission to seek and save (not to seek and kill)
  • There will be things that go wrong
  • These guys fought to the end and for each other
  • “We’re not shooting to save ourselves, we’re shooting to save our brothers”
  • The Seals are tight, how much more tight should we be as disciples?
  • Are we sharing our faith? Are we active in the mission?
  • The answer is always prayer.
Notes
  • How is your prayer life?
  • How is the prayer life of your ministry?
  • The ministry with no prayer is the ministry with no power
  • What stops us from praying?
Daniel 6:1-5
  • Am I upright or uptight?
  • What stops us from praying?
  • Answer: Corruption or negligence
  • Corruption: lack of love, lack of mercy, competitive heart, distrust, sin, lack of openness, lack of forgiveness, lack of faith
  • Negligence: distraction, procrastination, or wrong priorities
  • Prayer is a discipline that needs cultivation and devotion to become a strong skill in our lives
  • If you don’t like doing it, it’s probably because you haven’t done it in awhile
  • The more you eat, the more you want to eat
  • The more you pray, the more you want to pray
  • Apart from God we can do nothing!
  • God will not act apart from the prayers of the saints
  • God will wait for the men who call out to do his will
  • Deal with the corruption and negligence – throw off everything that hinders and the sin that destroys

Sunday, January 12, 2014

 For God’s Honor – Mike Underhill

Revelation 4:8-11
  • In San Francisco, we will honor God!
John 8:54, 12:27-28
  • Jesus was all about the glory and honor of God
  • God’s name will not be profaned!
  • We are here to build a church that honors God!
Isaiah 55:8-11
  • Only one way to accomplish the glory of God – preach the Word!
  • The Word of God is always upheld and accomplished
  • Even the greatest honor of man does not come close to the honor of God
  • No matter how high our ways are; God’s ways are ALWAYS higher
  • God’s ways cannot be trumped!
Isaiah 51:4-5
  • God says his justice will become a light to the nations, ALL THE NATIONS
  • When we’re on God’s side, we’re not intimidated by the world
  • God has an effect on our heart that rings glory to our lives merely because God’s glory shines on those close to him
  • With God, our problems are no big deal
Isaiah 51:6
  • The earth it’s going to wear out
  • The heavens will vanish like smoke
  • The people will die like flies
  • For God’s honor, we have to realize: creation is like nothing
  • People’s opinions are worthless
  • People’s opinions will die like flies
  • Are you so worried about what flies think?
  • Does your life revolve around flies?
  • The “Boss Fly”
  • We don’t matter – when we focus on our own honor, we focus on the honor of a dead fly
  • All the degrees, the awards, the tests – mean nothing
  • Let us die for God’s righteousness! Not for the honor of flies!
John 3:1-8
  • Nicodemus was great at pleasing people
  • Jesus cut straight to the bottom line
  • We’re not talking about physical birth! We’re talking about spiritual birth!
  • If you want to enter the Kingdom, you must be born spiritually!
  • John 3:8, the spirit gives birth to spirit! We feel this in our hearts!
  • Sometimes giving birth to disciples hurts a lot!
  • So we try to figure out another way to do it
  • But, there is no other way! Being fruitful is essential to Christianity
  • For every disciple to go out and give birth
  • Find someone to transfer the Spirit of God to
Three Things to Focus On in 2014
  1. Fruit
  2. Faith
  3. Fun
John 3:16-21
  • “Believe in God and you will be saved”
  • We get righteously indignant about this scripture when we are ultra-religious
  • Sometimes we believe “of” Jesus, but we don’t believe “in” Jesus at all
  • How can you believe “in” Jesus and not live the life he calls you to live?
  • Just because you know God’s real, doesn’t mean you are right with God
  • Without faith, what are we doing?
  • Are we just being legalistic and following rules when we don’t really believe in God?
  • People who believe in God are fired up, because they know they are not wasting time!
  • They are happy, humble, open, and real
  • If your life is still the same after coming in contact with Jesus, that’s because you don’t believe in Jesus
  • What’s the problem if your life is the same as before? You don’t believe in Jesus
John 10:10
  • God sent Jesus to give us life to the full!
  • When we are not close to God, we are being robbed of our joy by Satan
  • The world is deceived into thinking they are happy
  • The disciples can be deceived into thinking they are miserable
1 Corinthians 6:20
  • Don’t YOLO that pizza
Romans 15:5-6
  • We need to be unified in being fruitful
  • We need to be unified in being faithful
  • We need to be unified in having fun!
  • Challenge: HAVE FUN