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Five Confirmations of God’s Will

Posted on January 31, 2015 by johnmarkum

“They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says’–when the LORD has not spoken.”
Ezekiel 22:28

We all want to know God’s will: for our lives, vocations, families, hardships, and relationships. Aside from what the Bible directly tells us though, how do we know what God’s will is for us? I mean, the Bible didn’t tell me which college to go to, that my wife’s name would be “Tiffany”, what to name my kids, or that I was suppose to plant a new church in Silicon Valley. How do you know for sure when God is telling you to do something? How do I know? How does anyone know? How can you know?!

Here are five quick principles to seeking confirmation regarding something you feel God is leading you toward:

Consistent with Scripture. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My word shall not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) God doesn’t contradict what He’s already said. If what you’re considering to be “God’s will” goes against the grain with what God’s word clearly says, reconsider your direction. God’s will is always according to His word.
Affirmation from others. God’s will for your life may not be popular with everyone you know. That’s not what I’m saying. What I am saying, is that God strategically places people in our life to help us see our blind-spots. If all the people you trust spiritually are shaking their heads, there’s a strong chance you’re attempting to move outside of God’s will. In Matthew 18, while talking about confronting a brother or sister in Christ regarding a sin issue, Jesus adds, “..so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’” God confirms His will through fellow Christ-followers. If there is an obvious lack of such, reconsider your direction.
Clear direction. Proverbs 3:6, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” God makes His will clear to us as we submit to His leadership. If your way seems very murky and unclear, it’s likely that God is not in it. And please note – there’s a substantial difference between clear and easy. Just because you know what God wants you to do, does not mean it won’t be a massive uphill battle.
Motives in check. You must constantly be asking yourself the hard questions of understanding your own biases. I can convince myself that God has spoken or willed something over my life, when in reality “the Lord has not spoken” for me to pursue that. Much of the trouble we get ourselves into is for this very reason: we want something so bad that we convince ourselves that God wants it for us. This is why #2 is so important. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked – who can understand it?” This is why you can’t “follow your heart”… you must learn to “lead your heart.” Acknowledge your biases. Do what God actually wants you to do, and one day your heart will thank you.
Faith is relationship-oriented, not task-oriented. Don’t you just wish sometimes, that God would drop a scroll from the Heavens containing specific, personal instructions for our individual lives and scenarios? I know I have. So why doesn’t God do that? From what I read in Scripture, God is far more interested in us knowing HIM, than in knowing His will. Don’t get me wrong – He wants us to know His will. But His much greater desire is that we draw closer to Him… and we find His will in the process. God is far more interested in who we are becoming than in what we are doing.

I’m going to say with a high degree of confidence that if you have none or few of these going for you, you’re out of God’s will. Or if you’re trying to manipulate the reality that you’re missing these five things, you should probably focus on #4 and #5.

However, if all five seem to be coming together in almost supernatural ways – you’ll know. You begin to realize that God seems to almost be doing it without you! You still have a part to play, and there may be a great deal of work to do on your part. But you realize that His will is sitting right in front of you. That’s when you know you’re on to something! May you find the pure and perfect will of God in your life – and may you more so find and know Him more personally and intimately than ever.

Blessings,
Pastor John

How I Preach: Outlines

Posted on January 27, 2015 by johnmarkum

This is the first of what I hope to be many posts I make which will share how I preach for the benefit of others learning the craft of Bible teaching and sermon delivery – an art that, though old (even ancient) is never outdated, and yet must grow and evolve from preacher to preacher, culture to culture, and even with various points in time.

If you’ve ever heard or watched me preach more than a few times, it’s very likely that you’ve made some observations about my preaching style and the cadence, or flow, of my preaching. That’s not just practiced familiarity. It’s deliberate planning. People process information in a consistent pattern. So understanding how they do so should be important for any communicator – especially a preacher.

I’ll note right upfront, that my preaching style is intended for more than information sharing. I preach with the goal of being a catalyst to life-change. I’ve written elsewhere about expository vs. topical preaching, which you can read here. But regardless of the way I organize my message around Scripture, or whether my message has 2 points or 10, 99% of my preaching follows the pattern I’ll lay out in a moment.

I’ll also note that my preaching has been heavily influenced from several great communicators including James McDonald, Rick Warren, Steven Furtick, and especially Andy Stanley. But it would be unjust for me to share this without giving a nod of appreciation to two key people who heavily influenced my life, let alone my preaching. It was my father, Jesse Markum – a very talented speaker and preacher, to say the least – who first taught me how to preach and speak in public. I was 10-18 years old learning the art of preaching from him. I was extremely fortunate for his guidance in this foundational area of my life and ministry. Also, one of my many mentors, the great Dr. Mel Brown, whom I worked for at Edgewood for 4 years. My preaching ability and repertoire could quickly be summed up in what these two men alone taught me.

At any rate, do you want to know the secret sauce to my preaching? It’s really simple, and once you understand it you’ll see it in virtually all of my preaching.

Here it is:
Every point I preach, in every message I give, has precisely four supporting sub-points. No more. No less. Ever. And each one serves a separate but vital function from that of it’s other sub-points. Those four sub-points always follow this rhythm:

A) Interpretation: Answers the questions – “What did the verse/passage say?” “What does it mean?” “What context shapes it’s meaning?” The simplest and first part to any good preaching point… You can’t preach Biblically in my opinion without this part.
B) Illustration: Answers the questions – “What does this look like?” “What example do we have today?” I often tell stories here, because that was Jesus’ favorite way to make a point stick. I also leverage videos and sometimes props to add emphasis to a good illustration. Some consider illustrations to be filler in a message. I consider it vital to the next sub-point working properly.
C) Application: Answers the questions – “So what do I do with this?” “How do I take this to work tomorrow morning?” This is the payload that the entire point is suppose to deliver. I try to keep this simple enough to be a tweet. Without this, you’ve delivered information without transformation which creates stagnation and frustration. #Selah
D) Exhortation: Answers the questions – “Why should I do that?” “What will be the payoff to doing this?” “What motivation is there for me?” All good preaching leads to this: a place where you call people to action or a point of decision.

If you look at any preaching outline I’ve ever dropped after a Sunday, you’ll see each of my “C” sub-points and know – that’s the application. Preaching this way creates a predictable but powerful cadence to my preaching. Do you do any preaching? Give this a try. You’ll like it,…

Blessings,
Pastor John

My Goals for 2015

Posted on January 21, 2015 by johnmarkum

Every year, most people set some goals they would like to achieve for that year. I’m a few weeks late into 2015, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t set some high goals for what I’m working toward. Many of these goals are related to our young church plant, but all of these things are very personal goals of mine for the year. If you’re trying to think of some guidelines for setting your own goals this year, see my other post here. Continue reading “My Goals for 2015”