I have had the privilege over the last few weeks of inciting a group of people to do some crazy, subversive things.  In fact, we’re all conspiring together to celebrate Christmas differently this year.  Our plan is aggressive, but viable, and the wheels have already been turning to return the JOY of Christmas, the celebration of the Presence of God, to the hearts of people in the Pittsburgh metro area.  What are you doing differently this Christmas?

You can listen to the messages from this series by clicking here.

We just finished week #2 of our Dirty Little Secrets message series at ICC.  It’s based on one specific secret, that we’re all created with a need and desire for relationships but we all suck at making them work.  That’s how God created us, to live, grow, and thrive in the context of relationships.  This series is all about sharing some of the “dirty little secrets” to help us make our relationships work. 

Yesterday’s topic was marriage, titled “Fairy Tales are for Children (not your love life).”  The love we hear about in fairy tales, movies, and pop songs is all about infatuation, but God-pleasing love (the kind required to make marriage work) is hard work.

Here are some resources to help:

• Movie – Fireproof
• Book – The Love Dare (Kendrick & Kendrick)
• Book – The Five Love Languages (Chapman)
• Book – Sheet Music (Leman)
• Book – Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts (Parrott)

I am enjoying our current series, “No Ordinary Joe,” learning lessons from the life of Joseph.  Today I pointed out a few lessons that we can learn from Joe about dealing with disappointment.  I hope it was as helpful for the other people there today as it has been for me getting ready to preach it. 

We all have to deal with disappointment from time to time, but most of us suck at handling it well.  We learn from the life of Joseph that, just because we’re going through a disappointing situation, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t at work in our lives.  You can listen to today’s message by downloading it here.

First of all, Sundays are my favorite days of the week.  Yesterday, we had a decent crowd (57) at ICC in spite of a bunch of folks out for the weekend.  The “Catalytic One” (my dad, Lamar Duke, and our Catalytic Pastor) preached for us and talked about “A Lifestyle of Generosity.”  The band did a great job — started off the day with a pretty sweet version of “Give a Little Bit.”  It was a good one all around.

On top of the “good exhausted” feeling of coming off of Sunday, Mondays are great because Monday night is Date Night around here.  Amber and I didn’t really date at all before we got married.  We “hung out” a lot.  Spent a lot of time with friends.  But not much dating before or after we got married for the first couple of years.  We really made Date Night a priority when we moved to Pittsburgh and it’s been awesome.

Why date night?  Because as life gets (and stays) busy, it’s amazing how easy it is to go all week and not have much — or any — meaningful, one-on-one conversation with each other.  Marriage is work. 

Hey married guys out there — get off it and put together a Date Night.  You have to take the lead.  Give your wife a couple of days notice, pay for a babysitter, and take her out on a date.  Just the two of you.  You’ll be amazed…

That being said, after the last 2 weeks at Iron City I can’t imagine devoting my life to anything else. We’ve had a couple dozen new people at ICC for our services and a pretty decent number at our vision meeting this afternoon.

I just know that God is working to “release” many of them (and a bunch of us regulars) from the junk that is holding them back. Addictions, destructive habits, and negative attitudes are all in play.

The last two weeks have been great – the music has been kicking, the energy level has been off the charts, our people have been over the top – but I have an intense feeling that we’re entering into one of those “only God” seasons of ministry.

Transforming the Pittsburgh metro area with the love of Jesus… Only God could do that!

To begin with, we had an extra large group of folks on board planning and preparing for today.  Then this morning, setup went great and the place looked unbelievable.  We got together like we always do after setup and talked for a few minutes and prayed, then something crazy happened…

People started showing up.  And just kept coming.  When they stopped coming we had 27 first time guests and 76 total people in attendance!  That broke our high attendance by almost 50%!  The extra people in the house definitely added to the energy level.   I had a blast!

Brandon, Bob, and Ben (the Killer B’s) rocked the house, musically, and I got to kick off our new “Release” message series.  The message today was called “Power to Rise” and dealt with realizing those things that are holding us back (addictions, destructive habits, negative attitudes, etc.) and enlisting the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to help us gain our release.  It felt like the message really connected and people seemed to track with what I was talking about.

After today, I’m more encouraged than ever to keep pushing and charging forward towards our goal: to see the Pittsburgh metro area transformed by the love of Jesus.  Thank you Jesus for kicking death in the teeth and walking out of that tomb on the first Easter!  And thank you now for calling me and all the folks at ICC to be a part of your mission in the world!

Then yesterday it hit 68 degrees and beautiful blue skies.  Now it’s been raining all day and it’s back down to 37 (and dropping). 

Not to mention that it’s hard to know what to wear out of the house at any given moment, this is a good illustration for what we talked about on Sunday.

I talked about how Caleb was a man of “Uncommon Courage.”  He was courageous enough to have faith in God’s promises in spite of facing giants and walled cities.  I mentioned that it wasn’t because he was delusional that he believed the Israelites could take the land.  He was realistic about the obstacles in front of him, but he chose to look realistically at the circumstances in light of God’s promises.

Too often I think that we — in spite of our relationship to the King of the universe — allow ourselves to be swayed by our circumstances, which change like the weather around here. 

We claim to believe and have faith in God’s promises to be with us no matter what, to give us life to the full, to make sure we have our daily bread, to provide wave after wave of grace and forgiveness, and (insert your favorite of God’s promises here). 

And then the weather changes…. Life happens…. Something unforeseen goes wrong…. ”Downsizing”… The doctor gives us the bad news… He or she leaves…. That loved one dies unexpectedly…. and BOOM! 

Suddenly all we can see are the circumstances (the weather) and we forget that God’s promises overshadow life’s situations.  Nothing that happens on this earth leaves God scratching His head. 

I’ll say it again: COURAGE IS DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO THE SIZE OF YOUR GOD — BIG GOD = BIG COURAGE!  No matter what the weather’s looking like in your life today, God is big enough and loves you enough to follow through on His promises.  Take courage!

In the Heroes series I’m excited because we’re looking back at some of the Old Testament “heroes of the faith” and examining the character attributes that God brought out in them to make an impact on the world.  The tagline is “Ordinary People.  Extraordinary Impact.”  I believe that’s what God wants to do in and through each of us if we’ll allow it.

Today I talked about how Caleb was a man who exhibited “Uncommon Courage” to have faith in God’s promises, to face down giants, to stand in the face of opposition, and to remain faithful through unjust suffering.  I love preaching through the stories of the Bible.  There is something about the narrative that just really connects with me and, in turn, with the people I’m sharing with.

Praise God for an awesome day @ ICC!

I never saw the man in concert (that I know of) or heard him speaking beyond his music, but here’s a great short video if you have about 10 minutes:

http://theravingsofarunningrev.blogspot.com/2008/02/short-sermon-from-rich-mullins.html

I especially love this line:

Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.   – Rich Mullins

I am stoked about our new series, “Family Ties.”  We’re spending three weeks looking at what scripture has to say about relationships in the family. 

We kicked off yesterday a little differently than what I’ve seen from a lot of churches.  Often, people who aren’t married aren’t included in this type of message series.  I think on a larger scale that in many churches the issues that singles face are rarely addressed with any level of seriousness. 

We talked about living single at length yesterday in a message called “Single in Limbo.”  The limbo aspect of singleness involves challenges, pressures and frustrations that the rest of society doesn’t necessarily deal with and I think God has a lot to say about it.  Here’s the link if you want to download the message: http://www.ironcitychurch.com/downloads.html

Good stuff.