The second greatest command tells us to love or neighbor as you love yourself. Now that sounds cool and all, but what if you don’t love yourself all that much. Then it could be rough being your neighbor or your friend, cause you might not treat them so well. We have looked at identity and who we are many times. It is a big deal how you see yourself and what your self image is. It is the number one attack of the thief. Think about it if we don’t know who we are in Jesus than we can’t do much in the battle. So what is the answer to the big riddle? You are third, but that is the coolest thing, and it only works if you follow the proper order. Lets take a look at the order: God First, which means you are in constant connection with God. You know who you are because of the relationship that you have with God. God leads you and strengthens you always. God is your source and your No. 1. So with God as your No. 1 you can serve others and be a person who shows others who Jesus is. You can love your neighbor as yourself because you know who you are because God is your No. 1. If you try to love others without loving God first it will not work. You must love God as your No. 1 to love your neighbor. So who are we and what does it mean to be third. When we are third we are saying that we love what God loves more than anything else. It means that we become the person we are suppose to be because God makes us that great person. Being third does not mean that we don’t count, it means that we count the most, because we are being used by God for great things. When we are third we lead the way in all that we do, because God is always giving us what we need to do whatever we are doing. God provides all the tools and all the knowledge to do anything. When we are third we rise to the top not because we are great, but because we being lifted up by God. You have to see that the world turns everything upside down and twist it all around. If you run after what the world says will make you happy then in the end you will only find broken dreams and sadness. Jesus put it this way to his Disciples. Mark 9:35 “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” When we become third we become first. As you look at this challenge to become third it is not an overnight event, it is a journey and it has to have a starting point. You have to use your faith in God and allow Him to lead the way. God way is the best way and when you discover that is truth you will never turn back and you will always seek to fight to live the way that He longs for you to live. Keep reading and digging into this Extreme Faith Mag. Seek who you are in Him. Become Third and you will never turn back.
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Take a look at this, right before Jesus was going to betrayed and nailed on a cross, he had dinner with His disciples. That sounds great doesn’t it spending time with the people that you love the most before the end comes. However you may be shocked to know that during this time before dinner was served He washed the feet of His disciples. Jesus the Son of God washing the feet of His disciples, is the greatest from of leadership every shown to man. Lets look at the story for John 13: 2-5 & 12-17 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. Wow that is awesome, the Son of God washing your feet. I mean we all sort of get the great mission to take on the worlds sin and defeat the thief but to wash our feet. That is pretty awesome step to go to, so that the world would know what it means to be a servant leader. We have been looking at the concept that we are third, God is first and others are second and well we are third. Powerful stuff, for us to grapple with especially when the world tells us that we are suppose to think pretty highly of ourselves. Tonight we are looking at servant leadership, and the fact that we are to love others and show them who Jesus is by being Jesus. Jesus lead people to the truth by being a servant. You can’t be a servant to others if you are always trying to take care of yourself first. Serving others and putting their needs first is a big thing and it makes the world a different place especially for the people that encounter us. So dig into this Extreme Faith Mag. and process what it is going to take for you to learn the concepts of being third. It is a great way to live and when you live that way you will lead like never before! Have you ever heard the phrase “keep your eye on the ball”… Chances are if you have ever engaged in any type of sport, you have heard this phrase. You might even have heard it in a sport that doesn’t even have ball. The phrase simply put means don’t lose sight of your goals, keep them in front of your eyes. Lets face it we have all had goals and dreams that we wanted to seem to true in our lives. What has caused those dreams to become goals, and those goals to become reality? We stayed focused on the point and in the end we achieved our goal. What happened to all the other goals, well they were forgotten and we took our eyes off the ball. So I want you to think about the challenge that we are putting before you to become third in your life. Putting God first and others second. Sounds great and it is a goal worth going after. Like any goal if we don’t keep our eyes on the ball we will not see it come true. So how do we make this goal happen? Well, we are going to break the goal down into three steps that will help all of us achieve this goal. The first part of this Goal is God becomes number one in our life, and we process everything through God. So lets take a look at the greatest commandment again. Matthew 22:37 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. So how do we keep our eye on the ball? How do we keep a vision on the end point of the first part our goal? For starters you could memorize the first part of this verse, and reference it every day. Put something in your room, that reminds you of this goal, put something in your locker that reminds you of this goal. If you want to achieve something you have to keep it in front of you. You have to see your end point, if you can’t see where you are going you probably won’t arrive. Think about the goal as you look at the verse. What does it mean for you, to love God with all of your heart? What would that look like? You have to think about it and then envision yourself doing it each day if you want to achieve the goal. Goals are important for us, if we don’t have goals that we are running after well we will end up living each day with no real purpose other than just getting what we can. You are better than that you need to have goals so that you can advance the kingdom and grow each day. We need to get out of our comfort zone and grow! What some of our XGT'ers said about 2013 and Goals for 2014What are you going for?Living large, or living small you decide but either way you will have dreams. We all have them the things that we want to see happen in our lives. If these dreams are going to come true we need to set goals and develop plans to make them happen. If we don’t then they will just remain dreams and never become reality. What is the difference between a goal and a dream? A goal has an action plan behind it. A Dream is only a fantasy waiting for action. It is a new year! 2014 has started and you have to determine what this new year will look like. You can make choices that will help you achieve your goals and you can make choices that will cause your goals to just remain dreams. We are the children of the most high King, and we are called to run after the kingdom. We are encouraged to go after goals and we are encouraged to run after dreams with purpose. The Bible puts it this way. Proverbs 21:5 says this “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” So we are to be a diligent people who follow after their plans making their dreams become reality. Psalm 34:7 says this "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Learning how to delight in God is a challenge that is worth going after. When we are with God and love what He loves then we will see that our goals and our dreams line up with the things that he has for us. When we are following God first all the things that we want also follow God. Following God must be our first love and we need everything else that we love to follow God as well. We need to strive to make this happen. As we move into a new year ask yourself what are your goals and what are you setting your mind to achieve. Right now you are in middle school, who will you be in high school, who will you be in college, who will you be when you are out of college? This is key many people think in these terms, but I am calling you to something else, I am calling you to think of who are you going to be through your whole life. Big dreams have big goals. What if your life was lived for the big dreams and not the small dreams what if your life was lived for others. So here is the challenge that we will be looking at over the next three weeks. Live your life with this goal in mind. God first Others second You third It’s a challenge worth going after. |
Cover Articles from Extreme Faith MagazineWritten and Posted by The XGT Experience Team of leaders Archives
October 2015
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