We were finishing up our homegroup the other night when one of the guys asked me, “How many men do you think will be in church on Sunday?”

It’s a good question. After all the Chargers play at 10am–smack dab in the middle of our service.

Not to mention, this season marks the first time in twelve years that the Chargers have won a play-off game. In addition to that they’re playing last season’s SuperBowl champion, the Indianapolis Colts.

That makes Sunday’s game extra special.

So, how many men will be at church on Sunday?

When the stakes are high men show up and the boys stay home.
When there is a duty to be done, men show up and boys stay home.
When there are lives to be saved men show up and boys stay home.
When there is evil to be confronted men show up and boys stay home.
When there are marriages to be saved men show up and boys stay home.
When there is sin to be confessed, hearts to be changed, hope to be given out, hurts to be healed, Satan to be conquered, and ground to be taken men show up and boys stay home.

How many men will be at church on Sunday?

All of them.

Does not wisdom call out?
Does not understanding raise her voice?
Proverbs 8:1

This last Sunday I talked about how the only way to develop a hope that is solid is to develop a daily dependence on God. And the way to develop that dependence is to connect with Him every day. I gave out an assignment for the next thirty one days–which I hope you are all doing–to start your day off reading one chapter in the book of proverbs.

Why did I send you to Proverbs? Well, the simple answer would be that since there are 31 days in most months, and that each chapter is short, that is the easiest reading plan. While there is something to that, the real reason is that reading the book of Proverbs imparts something that does not come naturally: wisdom.

In today’s Proverb, our Wisdoms speaks to us saying, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” Wisdom doesn’t come automatically, we have to seek it out.

The question is, are you a seeker of wisdom?

Have you ever had trouble doing the very thing that you know God wants you to do? I have.

So many times we try and try and try and fail at getting our “Christian walk” right. We know that what God wants for us and from us is right an good. As a matter of fact we really do want to do what God wants us to do. And then we find ourselves doing the exact opposite.

The mirror image to that is that we know exactly what we should not do as well. We even agree with God that certain habits, desires, and actions are just plain wrong and against God’s will. He doesn’t want us to do them and we don’t want to do them and yet every time the opportunity comes around we find ourselves doing them.

The worst part of all this is that no matter how hard we try to do the right thing, or try to avoid the wrong thing it seems like it never gets easier. We try and try and try and try and…

You get the picture.

But the problem with the problem is that what we think is the problem isn’t really the problem.

Huh?

Let me try to be more clear. The problem isn’t that we aren’t trying hard enough. First off, the harder we try the harder it seems to get. Secondly, the harder we try the more frustrated we get. Eventually we wear ourselves out completely and figure, “What’s the use?” “Why try anymore?” We give up.

The problem is not that we aren’t trying hard enough. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John 14.15)

Did you see that? The solution to our obedience problem isn’t to obey better. The solution to our obedience problem is to love Jesus!

Those who are in leadership in a church must be the most obedient Christians in their church. No church will ever rise above the level of their leadership. But the beginning of Biblical leadership is to acquire and exercise a desire to get closer and closer to God.

Developing an unquenchable desire for God is the reason we are renovating our Second Sunday meeting. The purpose of Second Sunday is being changed from leadership development into a time in which we will seek God together in prayer and worship.

You need to be there. It doesn’t matter if you think you are not a “leader” in the church. If you have a heart you need to be there. If you have a desire to know what God wants, you need to be there.

God moves when His people pray together. He moves because prayer is the most powerful display of a person’s desire to touch Him. And when a group of people join together in prayer power is released that is unexplainable.

You need to be there.

Second Sunday: January 13th 6:00pm.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been asking myself and God some pretty hard questions. We’ve gone ’round & ’round but when I boil it down to one central issue that I’ve been asking God about is: “What does it take to build a church that is doing what God wants and is experiencing God-blessed results.” In this time of reflection and prayer, God is helping me to see that there are certain attributes that are at the core of every healthy, growing church.

These attributes–or attitudes–aren’t a five-step program or a “How to do Church.” These are deep down in the very DNA of the healthiest churches. These attributes aren’t head knowledge, either. They actually determine what these churches do and how they do them. And the result is that unchurched and unbelieving men, women and children are coming to Christ in numbers and power that are so unbelievably impossible that it must be God Himself behind it all.

One of the attributes that these healthy, growing churches have engrained is an unwavering conviction that God wants to do great works through us.

Let’s face it: God loves doing miracles. Most of us would love to see God work in marvelous ways. And we wonder if He’ll ever do something spectacular in or even near our lives so we can see first hand how great God is.

But if we look at the miracles that are in the Bible, we find out that almost every time God involved a human being in the working of those great works. God can do (and has done) miracles without our involvement, but it’s very rare.

Here’s the rub: We have to make ourselves available to God. I don’t know why God has chosen to work in this way, but He has. Too often we sit around waiting for God to do the miraculous when all the while He is waiting for us to get in on the game.

We have the ability to put God off. We can put Him on hold. If we choose, we can make other things priorities. When we do we miss out on the great things God has planned. We miss out on seeing and experiencing and participating in God’s great works.

That’s a sad thing. And the biggest problem is that we never know how sad it is because we never know just what we missed out on. We never see the lives we could have touched. We never see the families that we could have healed. We never see the power of God expressed in unbelievable ways. And so we never quite realize we have missed out.

BUT…when we make ourselves available God opens doors and possibilities that we could have never imagined. This only happens when you adopt an unwavering conviction that God wants to do great works through you.