From the message this past weekend, we wanted to "zoom in" on the portion about humility.  A number of people have asked for the list of nine questions presented, and so we've pulled an excerpt from the manuscript for you here.

Enjoy!

Getting low before the Lord is the first and most important part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It’s a theme that’s emphasized in the Bible over and over again. Jesus himself was humble. Humility is a fruit of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul told the Ephesians to “be completely humble and gentle.” (Ephesians 4:2)  The Apostle James said, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4:10) The Apostle Peter said, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand...” (I Peter 5:6)

Humbling yourself, getting low before the Lord, is so critical to the life of the believer and, at the same time, so thoroughly counter-cultural that a lot of people who profess to follow Christ don’t know the first thing about it.

There’s an old book by Jeremy Taylor, written in the fifteenth century, which talks about the practice of humility. Even though it is more than four hundred years old, it’s some of the most practical advice I’ve ever read on the subject. Taylor offers nine suggestions. I give them to you here in the form of a question. I’d encourage you to get this list, take a question a day and ask God to search your heart.

Here are the questions:

1. Do you think better of yourself because you’re better at something than someone else?

2. Do you understand that humility is not about criticizing yourself, or wearing ragged clothes or behaving like a doormat?

3. If you want to be humble and you know you’re unworthy than why are you angry when others agree with you?

4. Do you do good things in secret, hidden from the eyes of others?  You have to resist the desire to be recognized, the urge to call attention to yourself. You have to be content to go without praise. If you determine to do good things in secret, if you ask God to release you from the need for praise and recognition, this one thing alone will enable you to avoid being upset every time someone slights you or undervalues you.

5. Do you often go fishing for praise or compliments from others?

6. Do you actively resist pride? Some people spend their time dreaming of greatness. They are driven by their fantasies of wealth, power and recognition. Taylor says that all of this is nothing but the fumes of pride exposing their heart’s true wishes.

7. Do you take an active part in the praising of others?

8. Do you compare yourself with other people? Taylor says that you should never compare yourself with others unless it is to advance your impression of them and lower your impression of yourself.

9. Do you regularly try to excuse all your mistakes?

(questions from Devotional Classics, Foster and Smith, pgs. 269-272.)

From my message this weekend, I mentioned that I'd share more on hearing God's voice.  So, here is a practical summary of the sources and principals of hearing God's voice from me.  Enjoy!

- Mark

Hearing God’s Voice

Sources and Principles

The 4 Wells of Guidance

Scripture teaches that God speaks to us through 4 main sources.

1. The Bible
   • Primary source of guidance (95% of all the guidance we get comes from the Book). Gohere first!
   • God breathed and represents God’s thoughts on the vast majority of things that touchour lives (II Timothy 3:16)
   • Foundational—all other sources of guidance should be tested using the filter ofScripture (Acts 17:11—Bereans).
2. The Counsel of Godly People
   • There are numerous verses in Scripture that encourage us to get counsel from godlypeople. God often speaks through the counsel of others (Proverbs 15:22)
   • God often uses those around us to speak into our lives (Exodus 18).
3. The Inner Voice of the Spirit
   • Jesus called the Holy Spirit our “Counselor” (John 14:16, 26). It stands to reason thatwe can expect him to counsel us.
   • The Bible refers to the Spirit as the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, knowledge andcounsel (Isaiah 11:2).
   • The Bible says that the Spirit lives within us and that He reveals things to us (ICorinthians 2:9-12).
   • The Bible indicates that God’s voice is often a gentle whisper (I Kings 19:12).
4. The Supernatural
   • The word “supernatural” is unfortunate because God speaking to us in any way issupernatural (i.e. The Bible, the inner voice of the Spirit).
   • This represents a very small percentage of the way God guides us.
   • Supernatural means of guidance would include:
     • Words of wisdom and knowledge (I Corinthians 12:8-9)
     • Prophetic words (I Corinthians 12:10)
     • Dreams and visions (Acts 2:17 plus various Scripture)
     • Angelic appearances (195 references to angels in Scripture)

Things I’ve learned about the Voice of God

Principle #1 - When I am listening for the Lord's voice, I am listening for spontaneous thoughts.

• Spontaneous thought—Intersecting thought: You've heard of people who were washing the dishes, they're driving in the car, and all of a sudden they get this impression, thisthought cuts across their mind, "You need to pray for John, you need to pray for yourmother." It's like, "Where did that come from?" Do you know what I mean?
• Spontaneous thoughts in Prayer: I lead with my heart for the person and many times,God will drop these thoughts into my mind, or throw a picture of something up where Ican see it, or I'll feel a burning sensation here or there but I don't try to make thathappen. I just try to pay attention when something does happen.

Principle #2 - God's voice often causes a special reaction within me.

I feel this sense of excitement orconviction or joy. It's not just that there's a spontaneous thought but something inside confirms that it is God. It resonates in my spirit and I say, "Yeah, that's it. This isn't just me, this is God." There's thisconfirming "YES" in my spirit.

Principle #3 - God's voice often comes in response to a question.

Principle #4 - God's voice is often light and gentle and will be easily cut off by my analysis or self-exertion.

I have found that it easy for me to crush, to trample down the voice of God by analyzingwhat he has said, probing for every detail, or trying to interpret everything I hear instead of just takingit at face value and letting God be God. If God tells me to lay hands on and pray for somebody, I don'talways need to know why, I just need to do it and let God take care of the rest. There are times whenI've gotten something and I put my jaws in to it and started picking it apart, and analyzing it and it wasjust gone. We value being naturally supernatural. We want the voice of God to be a natural part of ourdaily lives.

Principle #5 - God's voice often has a surprising content.

It is better and often different than mythoughts. I need to say that I have found the voice of God to be much more gentle, much more loving,and compassionate than I could possibly be. That's one of the ways I know it is Him, it just seems totake me to new levels of compassion, new levels of understanding, new levels of love for people,beyond my capacity to love.

Summary: So the voice of God is this flow of spontaneous, intersecting thoughts, like impressions thatwould cross your path. Gentle, light, surprising impressions that you know could not be you. That'swhat God's voice sounds like. I also believe that God speaks through dreams, he speaks through visions;he speaks through visual impressions, even film-like impressions.

Words of Caution:

• I'm not talking about visualization. I'm not talking about you trying to stir something up. I'mnot talking about using your imagination to work up an image. We're talking about giving Godpermission to bring to our minds pictures, images, and we make sure that those things are consistentwith God's Word.
• More than that, I want to recommend to you that you share what God has given you with areal sense of humility. If God gives you a word, or an impression, if he puts a picture in your mind forsomeone, please share it with the gentleness of Jesus. I never say, "Thus saith the Lord God..." I try to let people know that I'm new at this, I'm not sure this is for them, that it doesn't always make sense tome, but this is what I see and I believe it's God.
• You also need to hear that sometimes God doesn't have anything to say. So if the Lord is notspeaking to you and you've gone through this process, and you're convinced of his affection, and youhave slowed down, and you're not crowded and you're being honest with God, and you're tuned in tospontaneity but you're still not picking anything up, well maybe God doesn't have anything to say. Youneed to know that you're okay, that you're in his will, that God is happy with you, and just relax, don'tworry about it.

© 2013 Mark Warner | vineyardop.org2

The Importance of Hearing God’s Voice

3rd Person Series

September 1-2, 2012

2 Timothy 3:15-16

Looking back

1. Has God spoken to you through the Bible? Through contemporary revelation? Through Godly counsel? How do you most often hear God’s voice?

2. Have you struggled to hear God’s voice through the Bible, contemporary revelation, or Godly counsel? Why?

Moving forward

1. What issues or decisions are you facing in your life?

2. How are you hearing the voice of God as you wrestle with these questions?

3. What obstacles do you need God’s strength to overcome to more readily hear his voice?

Do the stuff

1. Read 2 Timothy 3:12-17. Pray for the same kind of hunger for Scripture that Paul passes on to Timothy in these verses.

2. Pray for one another, seeking to hear God’s voice through:a. The Bible – daily readings and reading Scripture togetherb. Contemporary revelation – per John 5:19-20: seeking to discern what the Father is doing in each other’s lives. Godly counsel – opening your mind to learn from the wisdom and experience of one another

3. Commit to continuing to bring one another to God as you read the Bible and seek to hear God’s voice throughout the week.

4. Pray (or sing) the words of the song Full Attention by Jeremy Riddle:

May Your voice be louder

May Your voice be clearer

Than all the others

May Your face be dearer

May Your words be sweeter

Than all the others

Than all the others in my life

Please keep my eyes fixed on You

Please root my heart so deep in You

Keep me abiding, keep me abiding

Keep me abiding that I may bear fruit

May Your presence be truer

May Your presence be nearer

Than all the others

May Your light shine brighter

May Your love move deeper

Than all the others

Than all the others in my life

Please keep my eyes fixed on You

Please root my heart so deep in You

Keep me abiding, keep me abiding

Keep me abiding that I may bear fruit

Learning to Move in the Power of the Holy Spirit

3rd Person Series

August 11-12, 2012

John 14

Looking back

1. Have you experienced the Holy Spirit come alongside you? What about as advocate and teacher? Share your experience.

2. Have one of the three umbrellas hindered the work of the Holy Spirit in you?

• Theological: denying the work of the Spirit on theological grounds
• Worldview: denying the work of the Spirit based on our understanding of how the world works
• Self-image: belief that I am not worthy for the Spirit to work through me

Moving forward

1. Sometimes the Holy Spirit seems mysterious and hard to understand. What other characteristics do we see in Jesus' life that are also true of the Spirit? How do these add to our understanding of the way the Spirit moves in the world?

2. What steps can we take to close the umbrellas that hinder the outpouring of the Spirit in our lives? How can we keep these umbrellas closed?

Some suggestions:

• Theological: one argument against bad theology is good practice. Look for ways to join in the work of the Spirit this week.
• Worldview: commit to reading a Gospel in the next week to deepen your understanding of how Jesus viewed the world
• Self-image: list out some of the half-truths you have believed (ex. Half-truth: "I don't know what I'm doing." Truth: Jesus knows what he is doing through you.)

Do the stuff

1. Pray for insight into the character of the Spirit. Pray for discernment to see how the Spirit is working in your life and the lives of those around you. Pray for release to join in that work.

2. We cannot keep the umbrellas closed by our own strength; pray that God would help you to see the umbrellas that our hindering the outpouring of the Spirit in your life. Pray that He will begin to close them and keep them closed that His Spirit might flow freely.

3. Pray for opportunities to “sing in the rain.”

The Spirit and Healing

August 4-5, 2012

3rd Person Series

Acts 3:1-10

Looking Back

1. Has God miraculously healed you in the past? Someone close to you?

2. Have you experienced a time when you did not understand what God was doing and did not feel anything but made the choice to have faith anyway?

3. Have you felt like you had to pray the right kind of prayer or be a particular kind of person to pray for someone’s healing? Do you still feel that way?

Moving forward

4. What does it mean to “choose faith”?

5. What kind of prayers should we pray if we follow Peter’s example in Acts 3:6?

Do the stuff

Pray for healing now.

• For release from thinking we need formulas for people to be healed
• For belief that God truly wants to use you
• For the strength and will to choose faith
• For openness to becoming “God's axe”—allowing God to do His work in the world through you
• For the freedom to let go of the clutch and engage the engine

Begin to pray for healing of specific issues in one another's bodies, hearts, and minds.

The Baptism in the Holy Spirit

July 28-29, 2012

3rd Person Series

Acts 1:6-8; 2:1-21

Getting Started

1. How should the followers of Jesus respond to the cultural obsession with the end times (i.e. The Mayan calendar)?

Going Deeper

2. What can the followers of Jesus expect God to do between the resurrection of Jesus (the beginning of the end) and his second coming (the end of the end)?

3. What is the baptism in the Holy Spirit?

4. Why is the baptism in the Holy Spirit so important?

5. Describe a time when you experienced the felt presence of God. What did it feel like? What difference did it make in your life?

6. What might prevent us from experiencing the felt presence of God?

Awakening

July 21-22, 2012

3rd Person Series

Looking back:

1. Describe an experience when you found yourself excited by your involvement in Jesus' ministry.

2. Read Joel 2:28-29. Have you experienced a time when you felt excluded from receiving the power of the Holy Spirit? How do these verses contrast with the message you heard then?

Moving forward:

3. "Missions is not just for elite specialists; missions is for you if you have the Holy Spirit." What are your mission fields? How do you see God moving in those areas? Where would you like to see more of the power of the Holy Spirit breaking into your mission fields?

4. "We believe that the church is supposed to be down on the playing field and the pastors and other leaders are called to coach the church." If the church is on the playing field, then small groups can be considered practice sessions or conditioning for the competition. Just like any other skill, we must practice the skills of Christianity in "safe" settings until they become instinctive and natural.

Practice

Practice participating in the coming kingdom of God through:

• Praying for healing and deliverance in one another's lives
• Encouraging one another in the Spirit
• Listening for the voice of God in prayer for one another
• In what other ways do you feel the Spirit leading you personally and/or your group to "practice" for the field?

More Love, More Power

More love, more power, more of You in my life.

And I will worship you with all of my heart

And I will worship you with all of my mind

And I will worship you with all of my strength

For you are my Lord.

Counting the Cost

John 15:18-25

You from God’s Perspective

July 14-15, 2012

Getting Started

1. In what way(s) has the Western Church tried to renegotiate the terms or minimize the cost of discipleship?

2. Have you ever been slighted or ignored, passed over or persecuted because you are a follower of Jesus? Explain.

Going Deeper

3. How has the world (i.e. those who live in opposition to God) demonstrated their hatred for whatever belongs to God?

4. Have you ever encounter hostility because your standard is higher than the standard of those around you? How did you respond?

5. In what ways are you influenced by the mindset of unredeemed humanity?

6. How do you stand against the relentless onslaught of a culture bent on consuming itself?

Building a Spiritual Heritage for our Children

June 16-17, 2012

Parenting Series

2 Timothy 1:1-5

Getting Started

1. Assuming you’re a follower of Jesus, how was the Christian faith passed on to you?

2. How can you participate in putting another link in the chain of faith?

Going Deeper

3. What is your orientation toward life? Are you a risk-taker or have you adopted a more protective, defensive posture, driven by fear of loss?

4. What do those who are facing opposition need to be reminded of?

5. In building a spiritual heritage for their kids, why is it so important for parents to prioritize their children’s spiritual welfare above all else?

6. Why is Timothy’s story so encouraging to single parents and parents married to non-believers?

The Five Biggest Mistakes Parents Make

June 9-10, 2012

Parenting Series

Getting Started

1. Why is it so hard to raise healthy, responsible, polite, caring andhard-working kids?

Going Deeper

2. Why is it so important to allow our children to experience the Godgivenconsequences of their choices?

3. What do consistently disciplined children learn that undisciplinedchildren do not?

4. How do you know if you child has an entitlement mentality?

5. How do parents play favorites and why is it so destructive?

6. Why is a marriage-centered home healthier than a child-centeredhome?

Pint-sized Personal Trainers
May 12-13, 2012
Galatians 5:22-23

Getting Started

1. What lessons have you learned from children?

2. What quality from Paul’s list in Galatians 5:22-23 do you need the most? Why?

Going Deeper

3. How does the biblical definition of love differ from common definitions in the culture?

4. How does Satan try to rob the followers of Jesus of the infinite joy Jesus promised?

5. How can those who struggled with guilt and regret ever find peace?

6. Is there a relationship or situation in your life that requires patience, forbearance and the ability to be long-suffering? Explain.

Genuine Faith
James 2:14-26
May 5-6, 2012

Getting Started

1. Review 2 Corinthians 5:11-21. What’s so compelling about the love of Christ?

Going Deeper

2. Where are you on the “talking-action” continuum? Is there a large disparity between what you know and what you do? Explain.

3. Believing that a faith that doesn’t cost you anything isn’t worth anything, how costly is your faith? What does it require of you?

4. Do you respond to the truth? Is there a truth that God has been speaking to you about that you haven’t been responding to?

5. Why is it so important that good works follow our profession of faith in Jesus Christ?

Trusting God for a Miracle
April 28-29, 2012
Compelling Love Series
John 6:1-13

Getting Started

1. What part of the message spoke the most to you? Why?

2. What needs do you see around you?

3. What can you do to become more aware of the needs in your community?

Going Deeper

4. Has the Lord ever tested your friendship with him? If so, explain.

5. Having heard God’s call, have you ever been presented with an attractive alternative? If so, how did you respond?

6. Is there any area of your life where you’ve run out of resources? Any area where you feel inadequate or insufficient? Explain.

Are we trying to become a large church?

No. But growth is not optional for us as Christians. It’s a command. Matthew 28:19-20 contains Jesus’ command to “Go and make disciples.” An example is found in Acts 2:41, “…and about 3,000 were added to their number that day.” God wants everyone in greater Kansas City to be saved. As long as there are people who don’t know Christ, we should be willing and eager to grow. Our goal is to reach them all! But you need to know, this is not a church growth campaign. We’re more interested in growing the Kingdom of God regardless of where folks choose to attend church.

Are we putting facilities and buildings ahead of people?

Our approach to ministry is fully explained in the Vision Brief. New facilities are just a means to better reach into people’s lives. This project is all about people, the people who currently attend Vineyard and the people in our community who do not yet know God.

Will we become impersonal with growth?

A church’s size does not determine whether or not it is personal. In fact, only when a church is personal and relational does it grow! The connection of individuals to each other promotes intimacy. People are attracted to that. It’s not our desire to build a monument or grow for the sake of numerical growth. However, we are wholeheartedly committed to reaching the unchurched and discipling them in the faith, and we cannot do this without growing.

Our goal is to be organized in such a way that relationships continue to grow no matter our size. We’re emphasizing small groups to foster relationship, accountability, the use of spiritual gifts and the practical application of God’s Word. Every single person at the Vineyard needs an opportunity to know others and to be known. Whether we have 400 or 4,000 in our church family, we will remain committed to this goal.

If we’re a healthy church, we will grow in maturity and in size. That means there will be many people here whom you will not know personally. Studies tell us that most people only know about 67 people with any depth, no matter what the size of the church. So we don’t expect you to know everyone, or for everyone to know you. But you should know someone!

Are we more committed to beauty or functionality in the new facility?

We are not interested in building something glitzy, gaudy or extravagant. We continue to strongly value simplicity in all that we do, whether architecture, dress, verbal expressions or worship. But we desire that ourfacilities be aesthetically pleasing and approachable. We want the newly renovated building to enhance our ministry goal of making new disciples. So while our emphasis is functionality and simplicity, we want our building to be attractive as well.

That's everything you can find in the Renovation FAQ.  I wanted to break it out and cover it all in smaller bites, and I hope this has been helpful for you in undertsanding what we're doing.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Mark Warner

Lead Pastor

Vineyard Church of Overland Park

Five Myths About Giving
April 21-22, 2012
Compelling Love Series
2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Getting Started

1. Has America entered, as Business Week suggested, a new philanthropic age? Why or why not?

2. Why is giving so important to God?

Going Deeper

3. How is God’s grace connected to generosity?

4. What does it mean to give “contrary to your ability” (v. 3)?

5. What changes could you make to your lifestyle that would enable you to give more?

Five Myths about Giving (Review)

1. My giving doesn’t make a difference

2. People give generously because they’re naturally noble (v. 1)

3. People given generously only when they have the resources (v. 2)

4. People give only what they can afford to give (v. 3)

5. People give generously only when coerced (v. 5)