Some Assembly Required : week 3

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

Do The Hard Things

[I am the Lion]

Proverbs 3:11-12

"My child, don't reject the Lord's discipline, and don't be upset when He corrects you. For the Lord corrects those He loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights."

Be willing to move on to the next step.

Tool : Embracing discomfort

Resist the urge to resist discomfort.

Do not despise - don't go with your natural inclination.

Just because something is unpleasant doesn't mean it's unprofitable.

Being hard doesn't automatically make it bad.

God's discipline is profitable 

1. Proof He loves you

2. It leads to a desirable outcome

You want to be disciplined in habits, body, mind, money, etc.

Deep down we respect the results of discipline.

But how do you get disciplined? By being disciplined!

In relationships there are things that are uncomfortable.

Triggers that are uncomfortable :

confrontation, conflict, correction, criticism

difficult conversations

vulnerability

being caught off guard, shame guilt

things not going our way

How are you being held back from where God wants you to go?

1. The reward of avoiding pain is remaining the same.

If you want to grow, and be a blessing to others, then you have to embrace discomfort.

"Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we'd be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we're so comfortable we're miserable. There's no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes easy. What I've found is that I'm never more alive than when I'm pushing and I'm in pain, and I'm struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there's magic." Dean Karnazes 

Proverbs 20:30 "Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart."

2. Comfort zones don't keep your life safe, they keep your life small.

You can't get strong without being sore.

Die Empty by Todd Henry

7 deadly sins of mediocrity - antidote

aimlessness - define your battles

boredom - be fiercely curious

comfort - step out of your comfort zone

delusion - know yourself

ego - be confidently adaptable

fear - find your voice

guardedness - stay connected

Mark Twain "Eat a live frog first thing every morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day." 

Brian Tracy book Eat That Frog

3. The real pain is in the anticipation

Procrastination is what's making it worse.

4. Move toward, into, and through whatever you feel like avoiding.

Two possible outcomes : 

it kills you 

OR 

it doesn't last as long, and brings transformation

Nothing can sneak up on you that you're chasing down.

Hebrews 12:11-12

Strengthen!

If you handle correction well, your reward is more correction.

Run toward what you want to run from.

5. Your thoughts and words shape your reality.

Excuses will pop up like crazy.

Proverbs 22:13 Lazy guy - "there's a lion in the streets." He came up with an unrealistic excuse.

"He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else." Benjamin Franklin

Proverbs 28:1 the righteous is as bold as a lion!

Because I know my identity in Christ, I can say, I AM THAT LION!

Some Assembly Required : week 2

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

Nosebleeds and Beestings

Tool : Alignment

Proverbs 30:32-33

"If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive." Dale Carnegie

The force of wrath leads to strife.

There is a connection between what we do and what happens.

Lack of alignment in our intentions and the outcome.

"That wasn't my intention" isn't an apology.

Your intentions don't matter.

All the world gets is our actions and behavior.

Align your intention with your impact.

No one understands your intentions, they only understand what you say.

Close the gaps between intentions and impact.

4 Steps

1. Analyze

Stop.

I want to do ________.

Isolating and identifying what you want to do in the moment.

Identify your triggers. 

Anticipate. 

Stop and take a deep breath.

If you don't think right, you can't live right.

2. Extrapolate

If I do _______, this will happen ...........

Extrapolate means play something out.

I want to understand what the outcome of that will be.

Assess.

Proverbs 4:26 - ponder the path of your feet.

Proverbs 27:12 - sees trouble coming and DUCKS.

3. Prioritize 

Where I want to go is ________.

You don't just want to be right, you want the relationship to be right.

You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar - meaning you can accomplish more by being kind than by being harsh.

4. Navigate 

What will actually get me to where I want to go?

It almost always feels the opposite.

Aesop - the sun and the tornado have an argument about who is stronger. 

The takeaway - being friendly and gentle is stronger than force and fury, every time.

More listening, less talking.

Empathize.

Think more.

Put yourself in their shoes.

It's not about how it feels, it's about getting where you want to go.

Be like Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2 He never lost sight of where He was headed.

Free from being prisoners to our feelings.

Acting without thinking will keep you from your calling.

Some Assembly Required : week 1

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

This series is going to be about relationships.

Being great at the art of relationships takes work and is a choice.

Not turn key or maintenance free.

Must not just do initial instillation but the lasting preservation!

Principle + Tool + Pitfall : Applies to ever relationship!

Start With God

Proverbs 1

Every human relationship is better when it starts with God.

Proverbs is written by Solomon. Said to be the wisest man who has ever lived.

Solomon did 1K burn offerings. God responded, ask Me for anything. Solomon asked for wisdom.

Proverbs 1:3

A manual for living.

Learning what is just and right and fair.

No matter how much we've learned there's always something more to learn!

Proverbs 1:7 Start with God!

#lifehacks = optimizing + efficiency

Matthew 6:33

5 Ultra Simple Ways To Start With God 

1. Every Day

A new day begins and you start with prayer, Bible, devotional.

God gets the first and best in every scenario.

What you start with shapes who you are that day. 

**Every day is a stranger, and you only get one shot at a first impression!**

There's no rollover minutes when it comes to new mercies.

Lamentation 3:23

2. Every Dollar

Proverbs 3:9

Give first and best 10% - tithing

Where your treasure is your heart will be also. If you give to the kingdom first, there your heart will be also.

3. Every Decision

Consult God, first!

Proverbs 3:4-6 favor with God and man 

Trust the Lord completely!

4. Every Disagreement

What does God want me to say?

5. Every Difficulty

Rush in to seek God!

Proverbs 17:3

*WE is always better than me!**

The real life change happens during the week, in the trenches.

Bars + Battles : a sampling of teachers

Wade Joye : The Art of Sampling

A song can take you back and bring you back to a certain moment.
Music strengthens the pathways in our brains that stores memories and emotions.
When Jesus spoke He recited the Psalms.
John 15:23-25 Jesus is talking about Psalm 35:19
The presence of God is not a place for us to bypass our emotions.
How to claim to God's word when life gets messy.
The Psalms can be a soundtrack for our doubt, guilt, and suffering.

Chetwyn Pete : soundtrack for doubt

Psalm 37:23-24

Maybe you're in a season of doubt.

Don't compromise.

Don't dismiss the process and doubt the promise God has on your life.

Satan can't order your steps, but he can keep you from taking one.

The steps of a good man are ordered by God.

Jonathan Josephs : soundtrack for guilt

Psalm 51:1-2

David wrote these words when he felt guilt for sleeping with Bathsheba and having her husband killed.

David goes into a posture of worship.

If we don't carry our guilt to God, we will carry our guilt into shame.

I made a mistake to I am a mistake.

We end up hiding from our source of love and grace that we need to wash away guilt.

God is not intimidated by our guilt.

Larry Brey : soundtrack for suffering

Psalm 118:8

chastened severely (it's like repeating - double portion of pain)

The Last Supper

Matthew 26:30 the last thing they did was sing a song

Psalm 113-118 was Jewish tradition at this supper.

Psalm 118 is what they sang before He went to the cross.

David wrote it as he was surrounded, but knew he was protected.

vs 5 + 6 The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid.

There is a type of suffering that wants to squeeze and suffocate you.

There is a depth of suffering that cannot be expressed in word, but only sound.

Because He died, we get to live.

vs 22 the cornerstone - feeling rejection.

What they have rejected, God says I have selected!

Bars + Battles : Steven Furtick

Why Am I Anxious?

Psalm 139:17-23

David is focusing on external factors then the shift comes in vs23

From dealing with enemies to dealing with the inner-me.

David is about to take responsibility for his own anxiety.

"Search ME"

7 point test answering the question why am I anxious?

1. Intake

What hope do we have for peace if we don't have a place for it.

Before I can train what I let in, I have to track what I let in.

2. Imbalance

Be balanced in what you give weight to.

Sometimes we give too much weight to the wrong words, and not enough to the right words.

When someone doesn't like you, some times it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

You are worrying about something that God has already worked out.

3. Indecision

Set a d-day and make 3 decisions. 

Do it or don't.

Opportunity for anxiety = options.

4. Integrity.

This only works if you're not living like a hypocrite.

The word integrity means whole.

All one person, all the time.

No being a 3 different me's...which mask to wear?

It's hard to ask God to bless a life that's foundation is cracked.

Remain unchanged with every encounter.

I want to be the real me. The called, chosen, real me.

5. Intention

Reduce anxiety by shifting my aim or plan.

Think about others.

Why didn't she speak to me? You should be asking, why didn't I speak to her?

Get out of the center and see things from God's point of view!

6. Imagination

Reclaim your imagination!

Take back your most valuable asset.

Take back the place in you that used to be playful!

Get back your child-like faith!

The devil wants to take the place that used to be your playground into a battleground!

7. Isolation

Right in the middle of the word anxious is the letter I. 

Too often we are self-consumed.

I is in the middle of the word, but it ends with us.

A reminder that you're not the only one.

Father, show me the ways I'm thinking that are preventing Your peace from flooding my life. Amen.

Bars + Battles : Steven Furtick

Cutting Corners

We're looking at the life of David throughout this series.

Psalm 57:2
"I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me."

David shows us again and again, the importance of serving the purpose of God.

1 Samuel 24:1-4
David is in the desert being pursued by Saul.

Maybe you're fighting right now because your purpose is so powerful that the devil feels threatened.

David cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

God didn't call me to fulfill your purpose.
All I have to do is completely commit my heart to God's purpose for me.
When you start comparing your purpose and try fulfilling other's purpose, you get frustrated.
Just serve the purpose that God has given you.

How to find your purpose? Serve.

When you serve the purpose, God will give you the promotion.

Psalm 78:70 God chose David, His servant

Guard The Promise

When you learn to live with an open hand, you will live with an open Heaven.

Quit taking partial-promises.

David was not one to cut corners.

David was not one to do things half-hearted.

Now, David cut a corner.

conscience-sticken

What you are called to, is way more important than where you came from!

When God calls you He can call you from a sheep pen smelling like dung, and bring you into destiny.

There is something more important about where you're going. It matters how you get there.

How you make money is more important than the amount you have.

Honor the Process

God can't honor the promise if you don't honor the process.

You have the right desires, but it is what you do to get it that determines if you can walk in it and keep it.

Recognize that every opportunity is not from God.

Don't retaliate.

You can get your way by being the loudest, or by pouting...but when you get there you'll have a corner of a robe instead of the whole robe God had planned for you.

God's will, God's way.

The only way God won't fulfill His purpose for you is if you don't let Him.

Bars + Battles : Steven Furtick

Setup In The Stronghold

I want you to know that God gets you!

Psalm 142:1-7

David is conflicted and he cries out to God about it.

1 Samuel 22:5 (this is the backstory)

If I don't learn to pour out my complaints in His presence, they will pour out somewhere else.

The presence of God is not a place to bypass your emotions, it's a place to process them.

It's okay to tell God, "I don't feel You, but I need You."

Fighting whats in your mind, in your mind, creates enemy territory.

You are allowed to pray aloud!

Stop closing your eyes and worrying and calling it prayer!

It's not just being emotional, it's being strategic!

Everyone has a way that they escape.

The way you escape could lead to greater captivity.

It's so important where you go, when you run.

Sometimes what you run to ends up running you.

We see that David is supposed to be king, but he's stuck in a cave. He's safe, but he's stuck.

David wasn't expecting that it would be easy to be king. He was expecting that the people God called him to serve would have his back.

David is in a stronghold looking for a support system.

There's a difference between being surrounded and feeling supported.

Who really cares?

If I couldn't provide for them, would they really care?

Does anybody really care about me?

When are they going to ask me how I'm doing?

David asks for people. God sends 400 men who are all distressed. These are the men that bring him to the throne.

There are only some things that can only come together from the moments you feel alone.

The stronghold is not a bad thing.

Declare the word of the Lord to you : do not stay in the stronghold.

The stronghold is usually the thing you run to, as a defense mechanism.

Pessimism protects you from disappointment.

If you don't expect too much from me, you won't be let down.

When you hide in that stronghold, it protects you, but it harms you.

You've gotta get out of the cave! 

David started writing Psalm 142 "behind bars" and ends Psalm 142 "writing bars."

He started with complaint and by the time he was done, he ended with praise!

Bars + Battles : Steven Furtick

The Winning Hand

Psalm 59:9-16

My God on whom I can rely.

God prepares the path before me.

"I have the upper hand."

The Wars

God is not your refuge FROM trouble. He is your refuge IN trouble.

Some of the times you think you're in trouble, but God sees it as training.

Every Goliath in your life, will go down.

Write your bars (song) before your battle.

Don't wait until things are good to praise Jesus.

David has the kind of confidence that he declares victory before battle.

Praise God for promises that are still to come.

Let's look into David's struggle to understand his strength.

1 Samuel 19

Your greatest testimonies will come from your greatest tests.

Your greatest bars will come from your greatest battles.

David is both a warrior and a worshipper.

How many times in life do you feel you're fighting some one or some thing...but the real battle is within.

Are you trying to kill something that God is trying to use in your life?

The Weapons

You have to decide which weapons to use, when.

David had an instrument, and Saul had a weapon...but maybe worship is a weapon!

God's hand was in that room.

Saul could not kill what God had crowned.

The Way

Don't fight FOR victory. Fight FROM victory.

You don't have to prove yourself.

Let God have His way!

David knew, if I can win the battle within my soul, God will fight my battle with Saul.

You can't fight fear with fear.

God You are my strength.

Stay behind your Shield!

Guest Speaker Micahn Carter

Micahn Carter - Guest Speaker at Fresh Life Church

Rock This Way : Put Them Down

Song lyrics from Fresh Life Worship : "every tragedy that you allow, all will be for Your glory and my good."

John 8 :1-11

"What do you say?"

How are you going to address what happens in this controversial issue...

Jesus, doesn't say anything!

Take note : keep quiet.

Vs 7 they kept demanding an answer.

Don't cast your pearls to the swine.

Just because you're right, doesn't mean you need a rock.

Yes, adultery is wrong. But just because you're right, doesn't mean you need a rock.

We are not to act like culture, we're to act like Kingdom!

The enemy wants you to pick a side so you'll divide.

Don't throw rocks, throw relief.

Whoever is qualified, whoever is perfect, throw the first rock.

Jesus is the only one qualified to throw a rock.

He asks, "where are your accusers? Do they condemn you? Neither do I."

Jesus offered her something she didn't even know she needed : He gave her relief.

Your opinion doesn't matter, but your position does.

Have an opinion, think things through, have views, but know it doesn't matter.

Jesus had an opinion, but He decided instead of speaking that opinion, He took a different stance...He stooped down and wrote.

If you won't pray about it, don't post about it.

Don't say...instead pray!

It's hard to throw a rock, when you're standing on One.

Trusting that God is in control.

God is tried, tested + true.

God will finish the good work He started.

We want final justice right now, but it's about final eternity.

You end up becoming the thing that you hate.

You've never laid eyes on anyone that did not matter to God.

God loves them.

We see through a lens of someone we don't want to identify with.

God threw a rock, so we don't have to.

Jesus was saying, that they demand judgement but He is the payment.

While you were sinners and enemies of God, I sent my Son (my Rock from Heaven) and gave eternal life that's built on the Rock.

You're going to come across situations where someone does something against you that is "wrong" and it's going to hurt.

You may have your rocks ready to throw in retaliation.

But God is telling you to put the rock down.

Love raises people back to life!

The unending grace that's given to me, is the same unending grace I need to extend to others.

God has a Rock aimed at you...it's a Rock wrapped in grace + love.

He's not mad at you, He's madly in love with you!

Chasing Huckleberries : week 4

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

Where The Wild Things Are

Declare to Go : You're never going to let me down!

"You feel out of control when you take what you feel, over what is True!"

"Look up a little bit more."

Mark 9:1-9 

1In the beginning the Word already existed.The Word was with God,and the Word was God.2He existed in the beginning with God.3God created everything through him,and nothing was created except through him.4The Word gave life to everything that was created,1:3-4 Or and nothing that was created was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything.and his life brought light to everyone.5The light shines in the darkness,and the darkness can never extinguish it.
1:5 Or and the darkness has not understood it.
6God sent a man, John the Baptist,1:6 Greek a man named John.  7to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

To chase huckleberries you have to go : where the wild things are.

This weeks H : Higher

Jesus transfigured before them.
Jesus came to earth by adding humanity, and still not losing any deity.

Peter, James + John were allowed to see Jesus' glory for a second.

Moses + Elijah were saying, "look at Jesus. It's through Jesus you get to Heaven. Don't look at us." 

John 5:39

This powerful encounter happened high up.
Go high up to get the goodness we're talking about.
The higher you climb, the more glory you'll find.

6 Takeaway Truths :

1. Little by little eventually becomes a lot!
This isn't going to be as easy as I hoped.
I'm going to be here a while.
Keep going. Consistency.
Keep moving forward. 

2. You take on the character of what you are in contact with!
After a while of huckleberry picking you'll find your hands are turning purple.
The more contact with Jesus, you start behaving differently.
Are you giving Jesus time?
May my mind be renewed as I spend time with Jesus.
May my fingertips have Bible residue on them.

3. You see more of what you stare at!
The longer you sit, the more huckleberries you see.
Once you see Him glow, you can pull that back out once you're feeling low.

4. Nothing will change your altitude like your attitude!
Do you know how much your attitude changes circumstances?
You can bring a great attitude into a bad day and find glimpses of God's Goodness.
Attitude is a better predictor of success than your IQ!
Fix issue or a growth issue.
I can still make the choice to rejoice!
When you're thankful it's impossible to have a bad attitude at the same time.

5. To go high, you've gotta get low!
You have the opportunity to choose to see being left out as a gift.
Maybe God is testing you.
Grow close to God in those moments of feeling left out.
Don't get bitter.
Don't say anything.
Choose to stay quiet.
God opposes the proud but praises the humble.

6. Don't cling to the wrong thing!
It's tempting to eat all the huckleberries on the mountain and to not come down and make pancakes or a pie for a neighbor.
We need to touch those who are afflicted by the fires of hell.
Bring what's wild to those who are in the wilderness.
Gather here, so we can scatter there!