Whenever the king consulted them in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, he found them ten times more capable than any of the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.

How do you handle life when you find yourself in a difficult spot?  Remember names like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?  Yes, these were the young men God saved in a dramatic way.  When Daniel survived a night with famished lions and when the Triple Threat (no, not Lebron, Wade and Bosh) survived the fiery furnace, no one could deny the power of God!

What’s their history?  What’s the back-story?  All four of these young men were Israelites. They had been taken into bondage by King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.  He had instructed his assistants to search through the Israelites and find the best looking, smartest and most capable young men.  I guess you could say it was one of the first drafts.  Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were among those chosen.

Although they were chosen because of their appearance and intelligence, there was something still different about them. In fact, they were found ten times more capable than any of the king’s consultants.  That’s undeniable influence!  Don’t forget that these guys were in very difficult circumstances.  But even in a place they desperately didn’t want to be – they flourished.

The thing that so greatly set them apart from everyone else was their character.   Here are a couple of important things to remember about character:

1. Character is more than talk.  Action is the real indicator of character.
2. Talent is a gift, but character is a choice.
3. Talent will only carry you as far as your character can sustain you.

God wants to give you incredible influence in the world you live.  You have a great opportunity to demonstrate God’s favor on your life no matter what circumstance you find yourself.  Whether in captivity, in a den of lions or a fiery furnace, God will demonstrate His power in your life when you demonstrate character that can be trusted.

“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.  But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first.” 

Why? That’s a powerful word that we rarely give much thought.

It is a question of motives.  When someone asks, “Why are you doing that?” They basically want to know what your motive or reason for doing that specific task really is.

I teach at our church that God wants us to be life-long followers of Jesus.  It’s actually the mission behind everything we do.  In fact, that statement answers “Why” to everything we do as a church.

Why do we worship on Sundays?
We want to build life-long followers of Jesus. 
Why do we place a high emphasis on discipleship and small groups?
We want to build life-long followers of Jesus.
Why do we serve those in our church family?
We want to build life-long followers of Jesus.
Why do we demonstrate the love of God to our city?
We want to build life-long followers of Jesus.

Those words are not simply our mantra, they are our motive.  They are our “WHY”.

But here come a few more “why” questions:

Why do you follow Jesus?
Why are you a Christian?
Why do you use the Bible as your guide for living?
Why do you apply Scripture to your life?
Why do you follow the commands of God in your personal and professional life?
Why do you live with integrity and purity?

I’m not sure how you would answer, but here are a few answers that come to my mind.

I want to go to heaven. (And I don’t want to go to hell!)
I want the blessings of God in my life. (He can’t bless disobedience.)
It’s all I know to do. (My parents taught me to follow Jesus as a child.)
It’s the right thing to do.

Those have all been motivators to my decision to be a life-long follower.  For so long, however, something was strangely missing.  I was doing the right things, worshipping in the right way, following the list of do’s and don’ts to the letter.  But it was never quite enough.  I could never get it right all of the time.  I had my good moments, but I also had my bad.  And I never seemed to live “good enough”.

The Holy Spirit really began to speak to my heart and I really believe God began asking me “WHY”.  Why are you following Me? Why are you keeping this list of do’s and don’ts?  Why are you fulfilled in your life with Me?

I quickly began to discover the WHY was the problem.

I wasn’t following Jesus because I was overwhelmed by His love and grace.  I wasn’t following Him because I simply wanted to spend time with Him as a friend that sticks closer than a brother.  Like the Pharisees, my life was all ritual and no relationship.  All style and no substance.

Right now, maybe you are trying to make some major changes in your life.  Most of us are this time of year.  Please understand that real change doesn’t come from just trying to get rid of the bad things in our lives.  They are only expelled when something greater, more wonderful, more glorious captures our hearts and crowds them out.

My prayer for you, as it is for my own life, is that we would experience the love of God in a new and powerful way. Not just His love for us, but our love for Him.  I pray that His magnificent grace would fill our hearts and out of love and devotion for Him, we would choose to live with integrity and purity.  Out of devotion, may we choose to worship, study and pray as a way to demonstrate our love for Him and not as a way to prove we are followers of Jesus or because we will feel guilty if we don’t.

Following Jesus is not a commitment to rules and regulations.  Your walk with Him didn’t start with a list.  It started with His sacrifice for you and your response of devotion to Him.  Commitment to Him is a personal walk and relationship with the Son of God.  As a result of that relationship, our desire to be obedient to Him in every way possible is nothing more than an act of worship.

Experience a new love for Jesus this year.  Don’t settle for a mediocre experience with God.  Know what you want and go after it with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength.

If it is that stressful to choose between Subway and Jersey Mike’s, how much more stressful is it to make decisions that critically impact our future and our family?  Wisdom is the key.  If you want to make great choices, you must navigate with wisdom as your guide.  If you want to excel in your career or gain influence with people, your wisdom is a characteristic that people will always gravitate toward.

Read Proverbs 1.

Here are a couple of important lessons from that passage:

Verse 7 – The foundation for every decision is to honor and glorify God.

When making an important decision, you must ask the question – “What can I do in this situation that will bring the most glory to God.”

Verses 8,9 – We must build off our heritage.

There have been incredible people that have poured years of wisdom into your life.  Don’t ignore that advice.  In fact, my wall is filled with quotes, most of which came from people who spoke those things directly to me.  When someone speaks wisdom into my life and the light bulb comes on for me, I want to remember that moment.  I want to remember that wisdom.  So, I write it down and put it in a place where I am reminded of that life lesson.

If you think old = irrelevance, you are an idiot! Don’t disregard the wealth of wisdom around you, just because it may be coming from someone older than you! I don’t enjoy getting older.  I hate most things about it.  However, wisdom is a growing part of age that I love.  I do understand that with life experience comes wisdom.  What you choose to do with that wisdom is another story!

Verses 10-19 – We must pursue wisdom.

Do you surround yourself with people who are wise?  Who do you hang out with?  What relationships do you have that are helping you grow in every area of your life?   If you don’t have those relationships, seek them out!  Recently, I called a business owner and asked for a meeting.   This guy is well known in our community as a follower of Jesus, successful businessman, husband and father.  I’ve watched him for five years and every time I see Him he always seems on top of the world.  So I asked him very specific questions about balancing career and family.  He poured incredible wisdom into my life.  I would have never had that chance to grow if I had not sought out that relationship.

If your desire is to be a life-long follower of Jesus, you must also be careful who you are gaining wisdom from.  What may sound wise, may very well be disobedience to God and His Word.  God’s Word trumps advice from anyone!

You can be a “wise guy”.
Seek wisdom.
Cultivate wisdom.
Use wisdom wisely!

Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, obey my commandments.”  In other words, the greatest way for us to demonstrate our love for God is obedience.  We must be committed to His Word and simply obey what we read.  It’s not rocket science.  It really is that “SIMPLE”.

But let’s go deeper…

Read Psalm 145:8-20

I think it’s safe to say that obedience = commitment.  If you are committed to having an incredible relationship with Jesus, you want nothing more than to be obedient to Him.  If Psalm 145 does anything, it illustrates the importance of that commitment.  Do you realize how much He deserves your unconditional commitment?  We are really great at being consistently “inconsistent”.  I’m talking about the complete opposite of that type of experience. I’m talking about having unwavering commitment to your Savior.  The psalmist praises God for His goodness and for meeting every need.  However, he also makes it clear that we must walk in surrender (commitment) as life-long followers of Jesus.

Here’s the cool thing, as we make that commitment, God provides the relationships, resources and strategy necessary to to fulfill our dreams.  It’s pretty amazing how we invite Jesus into our hearts, commit ourselves to His mission and in return, He gives us the desires of OUR HEARTS!

But WAIT!  What about me?  I’ve invited Him into my heart and committed myself to Him and I have seen NOTHING happen to fulfill my desires.  Two words for you, my friend – NOT YET.  Check out verses 14 & 15.  The Lord upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down.  The eyes of all look expectantly to You and You give them their food in due season.  What in the world does “IN DUE SEASON” mean?  It simply means, “NOT YET”.  

Verse 13 reminds us that His Kingdom lasts forever and His DOMINION endures throughout all generations.  He has DOMINION over your life, over your family and thankfully, over your circumstance.  He will meet your need, He will answer your request, He will answer your questions, He will give you the desires of your heart…IN DUE SEASON.

Did you miss Part One of the series SIMPLE?
Check it out here:

However, hospitality is not what we always encounter, is it? I walked into a hospital on one occasion to visit someone from our community.  I asked the receptionist at the welcome center (note that the sign actually said, “welcome center”) if she had the room number for a certain patient.  Her response was, “Well, you can’t see him, but you can read about him.  Right there is his obituary!” And with those words, she threw an open newspaper down in front of me!  I was mortified! That my friend is, “Good Ole Fashion HOSTILITY!”  With that kind of customer service, she was better suited for scrubbing bedpans than working the welcome center!

Consider this.  When people have an encounter with you, do they feel good ole fashion hospitality or hostility?  Do you create value for the people that you come in contact with?  Do people feel that they actually matter to you? Here is an important lesson.  Customer service is not just about making a great “first impression”.  It’s about making “lasting impressions”.

When your guests or customers know that they matter to you, you’ve made a connection.  We are relational people and the connection that you have made is what will make a life-long customer.  “Come on, Anthony, that takes time!” Finally, you get it! It does take time and time is the single most effective investment that you can make in someone’s life.  When you invest time, you create value for every customer!  Value creates a lasting impression! Lasting impressions create loyal customers!

Remember, like your momma said, ‘It’s not just what you say, it’s how you say it!”  You have a choice with every encounter you make today.  You can create an opportunity to make someone’s day or you can be the subject of their next tweet or blog!

Welcome Back College Students – We saw a lot of our college students return for a new semester!  We missed you guys like crazy.  It was also great to see some new faces.  Please know that we want to be your home church away from home.  Also, keep in mind that a new semester of THE GRIND (Northpark @ NCSU) begins on Sunday, August 28 @ 7:00 pm.  Visit http://discovernorthpark.com/grind.html for specific dates, times and location.  We have one rule – don’t come along!  Bring a friend.

Living Large Series – We finished our current series, Living Large.  If you missed any of the services, check out the videos online.  Our main goal of the series was to learn what it means to be blessed and be a blessing to others.  We want to be financially free to do the will of God in our lives.  The main focus on Sunday was the fact that stewardship is not a financial issue.  It’s an issue of the heart.  Where your heart is, that’s where your treasure will be!   To help you be financially free, click here to take advantage of some tools from Dave Ramsey.

I am so proud of our church family as so many people are taking huge steps to follow Jesus in complete obedience.  You guys truly are becoming life-long followers of Jesus and I’m cheering you on!

Remember, Josh Wilson will be with us next Sunday.  Get your tickets now!  Stop procrastinating people!  Get on the ball and secure your tickets now!

G SERIES – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 // All volunteers at Northpark are ENCOURAGED to attend our first ever leadership workshop called G SERIES.  We have three goals for this day:  PRIME, PERFORM, RECOVER.  If you are a current volunteer or you are simply interested in joining an area of ministry, this day is for you!  So, put it in INK on your calendar and get ready to GROW as a LEADER!  See schedule below for more information!

9:30 – Prime:  Teaching with Pastor Anthony 
10:00 – Perform:  Breakout sessions with specific ministry areas
12:00 – Recover:  Pool party and cookout

How different is that from the way we do things in church or in our organization?  Change is inevitable.  As we often say at Northpark, the message never changes, but the method is always negotiable!   Someone once said, “If you aren’t changing, you aren’t leading.”  The world that we live in is moving so fast and we must be willing to change with it to stay connected and relevant to the needs of the people we serve!

However, we must always remember how difficult change is for some people.  We don’t want to change and leave everyone else behind!  And we certainly don’t want to execute change and be executed in the process.  Over the years, I’ve found that the most successful changes are made when vision has been effectively cast.  If people understand the reason for the change, they are more likely to get on board and help make the change successful.  Help people develop a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by a conviction that it should be.  That’s how a leader effectively communicates vision for change!

I love this quote about change:

“Times change.  God doesn’t, but times do.  We learn and grow, and the world around us shifts, and the Christian faith is alive only when it is listening, morphing, innovating, letting go of whatever has gotten in the way of Jesus and embracing whatever will help us be more and more the people God wants us to be.”

• Servolution - WOW!  You guys are amazing.  We had over 35 people volunteer to demonstrate the love of Christ in a tangible way on Saturday through our Servolution outreach!  We had teams assembling backpacks/school supplies for kids in our city, serving at Interact (a battered women’s shelter) and the Christian Life Home (teen pregnancy center).   Here are some comments that I received from those we served, “I have thanked the Lord for the sweet spirit of the people of your congregation who went to Woodbridge Court Saturday and cleaned for hours!  I don’t know if you can understand how grateful we are for your willingness to do that!”  WAY TO GO NORTHPARK!
  
• Living Large – I opened my Ipad today and received this alert: “The Dow Opens 200 Points DOWN to Begin the Day”.  Everyone is freaking out about gas prices! I’m freaking out because I spent more on bottled water today than I did gas!  Why am I paying for WATER? That’s like paying for AIR!  I don’t think our Living Large series could be more applicable than right now given the current state of our economy.  I was very uncertain about this series when we started it!  Why?  Because you people (ok, we) get so freaked out about money!  Talking about it in church…well, we kind of just want to forget about it in church!  However, God’s Word is filled with insight on how we are to manage the money He has placed in our hands!  If you have missed this series, make sure you check out this series (click here).  I’ve been overwhelmed by the stories, questions and comments that have come from this series.  God knows exactly what we need at the exact time that we need it!  I encourage to keep trusting God in the area of finance.  HE CAN BE TRUSTED!!  Don’t miss next Sunday as we talk about how we can finally GET OUT OF DEBT!
  
• Discover Northpark – We had a great newcomers class last night.  The room was filled with people who were seeking more information about Northpark.  It didn’t surprise me that they showed up.  What surprised me was the excitement and zeal about jumping in and participating in what God is doing in our church family!  God is filling our church with people who are quickly becoming passionate about their relationship with Him!  They are ready to rock the world for Jesus!
  
• Volunteers – Our Northpark volunteers amaze me every single week.  You guys are amazing!  I just want to say thanks for your sacrifice!  You give and give and give and give and you honor God with the talents He has placed in your life!  A HUGE THANKS!!!
  
• Josh Wilson - We are days away from having Josh with us and I don’t want you to miss out!  There are two shows on Sunday, August 21.  Get your ticket right now! 

John Maxwell writes, “Hire the best staff you can, develop them as much as you can, and hand off everything you possibly can to them.  When you have the right staff, potential skyrockets.”

Every leader’s potential is determined by the people closest to him/her.  If those people are strong, then the leader can make a huge impact.  If they are weak, the leader can’t make the impact that they desire!

Regardless of where it is you lead, the following principles can be applied to your life.

Read 1 Chronicles 11:10-12:40.

David, an incredible leader did the following things to build a great team.

• He started building a STRONG team before he needed it.  He didn’t wait until he was king to build his team.  But notice, he didn’t just attract anyone to his team.  He attracted strong leaders/warriors.
• He attracted people with varied gifts. You don’t have to know how to do everything, but you need people on your team that do! When you put individuals together with different gifts/abilities, you can accomplish a lot together!
• He made loyalty a top priority. He demonstrated throughout his life how important loyalty was to him.  I firmly believe that you duplicate what you celebrate!  Look for people that have your back!
• He delegated responsibility based on ability.  He continually gave authority to others.  Now, delegation always entails great risk – but great leaders delegate in order to reach the highest level of leadership.  Simply remember that “delegation without definition is disaster” and “what you delegate, you must investigate!”

You can be a great leader, but you will never be a great leader alone!

How incredible would it be to have the potential to be “all things to all people”?   But let’s be honest, it’s not realistic.  As much as we try to change the world in a day, we too often fall short.  No matter how many Red Bulls you throw down or Five Hour Energy shots you take, you still are a mere human being!

While trying to be “all things to all people” most of us would settle for being “something to somebody”!   Unfortunately, the people we lead often want us to walk on water.  In our desperate attempt to not let them down, we drain ourselves physically, emotionally and spiritually.  We find ourselves cheating our families to serve those we lead.  As glamorous as Hollywood makes it appear, we simply cannot be all things to all people.

Remember, Jesus loved all men, but obeyed only His Father – not the urgency of the moment, the push of the crowd, or the whims of His disciples.   You are not a super hero!  But you can serve a super God whose powerful Holy Spirit dwells within you!  Let Him be lifted up and glorified through you as you do your best to obey Him, and Him alone!  When you do that, the possibilities are LIMITLESS!

A great verse to focus on today:  Philippians 4:13.