Steve Murrell's Blog, page 28

Humility of the Heart

No matter how many times I’ve read the Bible, whenever I study it, new things emerge that I’ve never noticed before. This happened to me recently while studying Deuteronomy 8.

What hit me was not the “what” of the passage but rather the “why.”

After God explained to Israel “what” he had done for them—lead them through the wilderness and feed them with bread from heaven—he explained “why” he did what he did.

God’s “why” was captured in two words: heart and humility.

Three Perennial Problems the Worshiper Has

A few weeks ago, my son William preached a sermon during our Nashville office devotions on the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” and the texts it was based on—Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4.

Together these texts teach us about the nature of God and the nature of worship. In exploring the lyrics of this great hymn, William identifies three problems we all have as worshipers:

The problem of space and time: Can we sing this song here and now?The problem of humanity and divinity: Can we (sinful humans) sing this song?The problem of worship and mission: How can everyone sing this song?

Whenever we sing the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy,” we are reminding ourselves that this is true in every time and every place. We are reminding ourselves that unholy people can join in this song because of the atoning work of Jesus. And we are reminding ourselves that the goal of mission is for everyone in every nation to sing this song.

How Do We Reach the Nations?

I will never forget how Deborah and I were received when we moved to the Philippines as cross-cultural missionaries.

Filipinos greeted us with unearned kindness, graciousness, and curiosity. They accepted us into their lives and families, and they forgave us when we accidentally did culturally insensitive things. Though we came to share the gospel, we were equally pulled in to this country by their hospitality.

As I travel the world and visit different cultures, and when I encounter internationals in my home city, I always try to treat others the way that I was treated as a foreigner. I do it not just because it is what I experienced but because the Bible says much about the treatment of foreigners. One example: “. . .treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, you shall love him as yourself. . .” (Leviticus 19:33–34).

Today, I want to talk about what I believe is a mandate for Every Nation churches: to reach international students. With international students, we have the potential to share the gospel and plant churches all over the world without ever leaving our local campuses.

Here’s how we can do that:

Pray for international studentsBefriend international studentsInclude them in our livesServe their needs

What Is Positional Leadership?

Consensus leadership happens when a team of individuals works together to collectively make a decision. Positional leadership happens when a leader has a certain hierarchical position that allows him or her to make quick, unilateral decisions.

Many of you have very likely experienced the frustration of having a leader offer too much consensus leadership and not enough positional leadership—and vice versa. The truth is that all leaders need to be able to do both.

But today, using Ezekiel 33:1–7, we’re going to talk about positional leadership specifically and why we need it.

Spiritual leaders are positional leaders—much like the watchmen we see in Ezekiel. We have been put on a wall to stand guard, watch, and call people to action.

From that position, we are often able to see the whole picture, giving us a unique level of wisdom. With that wisdom, we should exhibit the following things:

HumilityConfidencePatience

If God has called you to be a spiritual watchman, my encouragement is to lead with humility, confidence, and patience.

Ukraine Update

It’s been more than a week since the Russian army invaded Ukraine, creating a humanitarian and refugee crisis that the world is watching with sadness, dismay, and fear.

In the midst of the terrible news that we are seeing day by day, I have been so proud to hear how our churches in Ukraine and Poland have mobilized to help refugees fleeing danger.

I have received many requests from Every Nation leaders around the world who want to know how they can help. So today, I want to focus solely on our leaders in that region—how they are doing, what they are doing, and how we can stand with them.

Yesterday, I recorded a conversation with Pastor Igor Ivanyshin in Lviv, Ukraine; Pastor Oleg Savchak in Ternopil, Ukraine; and Pastor Przemek Sielatycki in Krakow, Poland, so that you could hear directly from them.

Through this crisis, we’re seeing many different kinds of leadership: political leadership, military leadership, etc. But men and women like Przemek, Igor, and Oleg are providing much-needed spiritual leadership in the worst of times.

I am praying Psalm 23 for my Ukrainian friends: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

My prayer is that the people of Ukraine would feel God’s presence. As our leaders are ministering, I pray that people would not just see it as the kindness of humans, but the love of God in the midst of dark circumstances.

Joseph: The Power of Forgiveness

Most people can probably identify a time in their lives when they felt that a dream or calling wasn’t happening—or at least wasn’t rolling out the way that they thought it would.

What do we do when our dream doesn’t seem to be happening? Do we respond by thinking that we must have gotten it wrong? Or do we trust that God is working everything together for a bigger plan that we can’t yet understand?

No one understands these frustrations more than Joseph. As a young man, Joseph had several dreams that, ultimately, God would fulfill much later than he expected. But there were many, many years of enduring not just the wait but pain, injustice, and hardship.

There are many lessons in the story of Joseph that I will mention today: calling, integrity, delayed authority, and more. But I want to focus on one crucial piece to the trajectory of Joseph’s family: the power of forgiveness. In the wait, injustice, pain, and hardship, God was working something out in Joseph so that he could eventually forgive his family and ultimately, be used to redeem them.

Jacob: The Process of Change

How does a person change? Are we doomed to be whoever we are at our most sinful moment? Is change really possible? Is real change instant or gradual or both?

The Bible gives us an answer to these questions through the dramatic story of Jacob.

Jacob was a serial liar who did whatever it took to get what he wanted. He stole his brother’s birthright and blessing through lies and manipulation. His name even meant “supplanter.”

Yet we also know that Jacob goes on to receive a new identity from God with a new name—“Israel.”

Q: What happened to change Jacob from “supplanter” to the one God used to establish the nation of Israel?

A: An encounter with God.

Isaac: The Reward of Patience

Many of us have longstanding seemingly unanswered prayers and unfulfilled visions. Others experience a sense of calling that always feels a few more years away.

What are we supposed to do as we wait on the Lord to answer prayers, fulfill his promises, and activate his purpose for our lives?

Thinking about the story of Abraham and Sarah waiting on Isaac for twenty-five years, I can imagine that they had many questions. Did they hear God wrong? Was he really going to give them a child? Did they hear him right, but he didn’t deliver on the promise? Did he change his mind?

In today’s message, I want to look at the story of Abraham’s son and daughter-in-law—Isaac and Rebekah—in Genesis 25:20–21 and talk about the power of patience and the dangers of impatience.

Abraham: The Call to Go

For many people, January is a time to declutter and reorganize for the new year. We look at this as an opportunity to “reset” and begin a new year without the distraction that clutter brings to our lives.

This is a great idea and not just for our offices, our cars, or our homes. This is a great concept to apply to our lives. What are we doing with our time each day? How are our schedules being filled? Each one of us has a call from God, and that call on our lives should determine how we use our time.

In the context of decluttering and focusing on God’s call on our lives, we’re going to look at Genesis 12:1–4. When we think about calling or ordering our lives around the call of God, there are a few lessons that we can learn from Abraham.

Four Postures of Leadership

As we walk into the new year, I have a sobering message about the spiritual warfare that we face. It won’t surprise any of you to hear me say that the Christian life is a fight. Whether you’re a new believer or you have been walking with God for a long time, you have likely experienced spiritual warfare.

During a recent reading of Ephesians, I noticed four distinct actions or postures that God asks us to take in spiritual warfare:

SitBowWalkStand

Though our journey starts with God “seating us in the heavenly places,” it quickly moves to our response. Walking in faith often leads to a fight, but God tells us to stand firm. More on what that means in today’s message.