Sticky Statements

This past Sunday was wildly, insanely good...can I get an uh-huh? From the kick-off with Schizophrenic Love to the landing where we asked God to sift our hearts to help us to be satisfied in Him alone...God was at work. I love seeing Him move in big ways through His church.

We have a phrase that we use here in the office at church: Sticky Statement. A sticky statement is a phrase or sentence that captures a big idea in a way that makes a huge concept tangible and relative...example from the past: direction not intention determines destination.

So a Sticky Statement from this past Sunday that I've been ruminating on:
- The promise of sin is that we can find satisfaction apart from God

Doesn't this sentence say so much? Think about any sin you struggle with and boil it down to its root. It all comes down to trying to find satisfaction in something or someone other than God.

Imagine you are in a large field, and across that field is a lamppost. You stare intently at the lamppost and take a step. With eyes unwavering off of the goal, stride by stride, you are closer and closer to the destination. With laser-like focus you stare down the lamppost until the finish line. You have reached the lamppost.

Now imagine looking at the lamppost, then putting on a blindfold, spinning around 7 times and then setting out to find the lamppost. Pretty hard to do! Wouldn't it be easier just to keep your eyes on the goal and keep walking toward it?

But don't we do this with faith...we take our eyes off of Christ and pursue whatever our hearts desire, and only when we come up empty (again!) do we run back. What if we never took our eyes off the prize? What if we said, I will not be satisfied by anyone or anything except the living water of Jesus Christ. What if we didn't settle for anything less than the abundance of life that Jesus promised?

What if we really believed that we are really loved by God the way that He says He loves us? This week's memory verse is Romans 5:8...For God demonstrates His love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He alone will satisfy us. So why are we so prone to be content with anything less than Himself?

Aren't you glad God doesn't love like we do? Our love wavers. His love never fails. Our love is conditional. His love never ends. When we have this perspective how could we ever want anything less than what He offers?

Let's pray this week to be forever changed by the love of God...and to turn it around and give that love away to a world that needs to know the love of Jesus.