Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Money Talks

We're opening up a new series of messages this weekend called Money Talks.  Money is an intense and controversial topic in the church for a couple of reasons.

1.  A lot of preachers are scared stupid to talk about money.

2.  A lot of Christians get hyper-offended when their pastor preaches about money.

Let me answer those concerns here and now.

1. I'm not scared to talk about money. Not even a little bit.  Jesus taught more about money than He taught about heaven and hell…COMBINED! If Jesus wasn't afraid to give people the unvarnished truth about money, than neither am I.

2. If Biblical teaching about money offends you, then that's not my problem. It's yours.  Over the next two weeks, you'll hear what the Bible says about money with great clarity. This truth can set you free…or it can offend you. You get to choose.  My calling is simply to preach God's truth.

This series will hit hard.  But we'll also have some fun. When God's people put Him first in their finances, it's amazing how much fun they can have with money! When we put ourselves first in our finances, it's amazing how quickly we get stressed out about money!

It's gonna be a fun weekend at ACC!  Can't wait to see God set some people free!

H1N1 Clinic

Nicki and I took our boys to the H1N1 vaccination clinic at Ryan's school this week.  The entire experience was somewhat surreal.

The line for the vaccine was incredibly long. I've never experienced this in my life.  Whenever our kids are vaccinated, it always involves a simple trip to the doctor.  Make an appointment, go to the doctor, get the vaccine, go home.  Simple.

This was different.  The scarcity of the vaccine coupled with the hysteria surrounding H1N1 made for a long line.  The vaccine was dispensed, not by our doctor, but by the Clermont County Health Department. It was weird.

And it was thought-provoking.

People in our country are losing their minds about this new flu.  And I don't mean to minimize the fact that this flu can be dangerous.  It has killed a lot of people.  But this is new territory for most of us, so we overreact.

What if we lived in the third-world, where each year people die by the millions from diseases like malaria, dysentery, cholera, whooping cough, and tetanus?

When is the last time we freaked out about one of these diseases in America? We don't, because we are blessed to have vaccines and quality medical care at our fingertips.

The trip to this vaccine clinic gave me a minuscule glimpse of what life is like for the majority of people in our world.

Sobering stuff.

Our Freedoms

Do you realize that tens of thousands of Christians are killed every year…simply because they are Christians?  Did you know that more people were killed for their faith in the 20th century than in the previous 19 centuries combined?

It's easy to forget this truth in America.  Everyday, we enjoy freedoms that are inconceivable to many believers around the world.  We can claim the name of Christ without fearing for our lives. We can gather to worship in plain view instead of meeting in secret.

As Christ-followers in America, this should prompt us to do several things…

1. Thank God. We are blessed beyond measure, and we don't thank Him enough for that.

2. Use our freedom to advance the cause of Christ. Too often our enormous freedom breeds apathy instead of action.

3. Thank the men and women who have served our country to ensure that we continue to enjoy these freedoms.  In honor of Veteran's Day and in gratitude for everything they have given us…find a veteran today and say, "thank you."

The American church is in a unique position in the world.  We have more money, more resources, and more freedom than any other believers on this planet. That should cause us to live with immense gratitude and and intense urgency.

Blisters

I played bass guitar in our worship band on Sunday.  I used to play bass every week, but as our worship band has grown, I've been able to transition out of the band and focus solely on preaching. (A move for which I am very grateful!)

But I still fill in from time to time when a band member is out of town, needs a break, etc.  I jumped in on bass Sunday when Dane, our regular bassist, was out of town.  And I'm wearing the blister to prove it.

When I was playing bass weekly, I didn't get blisters. But now that I rarely play anymore, the callouses on my fingers are gone…hence a rather painful blister.  The blister is a reminder that, although I know how to play a guitar, I rarely do it anymore.

We cause ourselves an incredible amount of avoidable pain when we know how to do something, but we rarely do it.

We know that reading our Bible consistently is how we discover God's will for our lives…but we allow busyness to overtake us and we rarely crack open our Bible.

We know that serving is a requirement of following Jesus…but we allow ourselves to buy into our culture's belief that being served is way better than serving.

We know that our kids desperately need uniterrupted time with us…but we convince ourselves that we're just too tired from a long day at work to play with the kids.  We'll do it tomorrow…but tomorrow rarely comes.

We understand that God needs to be first in our finances…but with the shape that the economy is in, we convince ourselves that a tithe is just too much to ask.

When we know what God has called us to do and we ignore that calling, we shouldn't be surprised when something painful happens in our lives.

That happens when you know how to do something, but you rarely do it.

I Love My Church Videos

For the past two weeks, ACC has heard some amazing stories of lives that have been changed through our church.  As Brian said yesterday, our staff hears these kinds of stories all the time. But we wanted you to have a chance to experience some of these stories, too.

If you missed a week (or if you just want to experience the stories again), all the videos from this two-week series are on our website.

I Love My Church – Week 1

I Love My Church – Week 2

I know he wouldn't want me to do this, but I want to publicly thank Josh Young, our Creative & Communications Minister.  Josh spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 hours on these videos.  The end results speak for themselves.

Josh told me, "These videos are my sermon. I'm approaching the project like I'm preaching these two weeks."

These videos preached a powerful message. That's for sure.

Letting Go of What People Think

Craig Groeschel took the gloves off and beat me to a pulp with a recent blog post.  I'm sharing the post here in its entirety.  A must-read for pastors, church leaders, and anyone who has people-pleasing tendencies.

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Becoming obsessed with what people think about you is the fastest way to forget what God thinks about you.

My mom taught me the common truth, “You can’t please everyone.”

From my observation, ministers seem to be more vulnerable to people-pleasing than most professions.

In reality, we should be the most resolved of all not to live for the applause of men but the approval of God.

• Don’t let anyone talk you out of following God’s voice.
• Don’t let anyone’s criticism distract you from your passion.
• Don’t long for affirmation before you move forward.

Say what God prompts you to say. Go where God leads you to go. Do what God puts on your heart.

Let go of living for people.  Become obsessed with living for God.

He's Got It

I've been doing some preliminary study for the first message in this year's Christmas series.  (I'm going on record right now…this will be the most awesome, amazing Christmas EVER at ACC!)

In the first message, I'm going to unpack several Old Testament prophecies about Jesus.  If you don't think that sounds exciting, then you'd better be there so we can prove you wrong.

One thought really struck me as I was studying today:  He's got it.

It is amazing to consider how God choreographed the coming of His Son…all the way down to the smallest detail.  The coming of Christ was prophesied thousands of years in advance…and the details in those prophecies are mind-boggling.

This same God that arranged all of history to pave the way for His Son is in control of my life.  He's not worried about the things that worry me.  He's not wringing His hands, wondering how things will turn out.  He already knows.  It's under His control.

He's got it.

I just need to quit trying to take it back from Him. That's essentially what worry is.  It's trying to take something out of God's control and place it under my control…which is incredibly stupid.

All of us would do well to remember this simple truth.

He's got it.

Take a breath.  Let it go.  If you try to control it, it will produce anxiety.  If you allow God to control it, it will produce peace.

He's got it.

What Did You Do While You Had The Flu?

I'm glad you asked. I was grounded for 6 days by the swine flu. 

During that time span, I…

• Watched several seasons of Everybody Loves Raymond. Funniest show ever.
• Spent much time on Facebook. I discovered that even when you're sick and have nothing to do, Facebook is still a time waster.
• Listened to a lot of sermons. I had a backlog of messages I wanted to listen to from several different speakers.  Mission accomplished. I've said it before and I'll say it again.  With the technology available at our fingertips, it is borderline sinful if we don't listen to a variety of different preachers. It's way too easy to do…and way too beneficial to ignore.
• Read lots of blogs.
• Watched a couple of movies.  I'm not a big movie guy.  Normally I wouldn't watch two movies in six months, let alone six days.
• Surfed random topics on Wikipedia.  Very random.
• Watched every game of the World Series. Still pulling for the Phillies!  Hope they beat the Evil Empire.
• Dropped in on a church via their webcast on Sunday morning. Cool to see the whole service happen live.  But I'm not sure if the live chat that accompanied the message was a help or a hindrance.

Not a bad way to spend some time.  It would have seemed like a vacation…if I didn't feel like I was on my deathbed. :o)

I Love My Church – Week 1

I missed church on Sunday.  That doesn't happen often, but apparently pastors aren't immune to the flu.  That would be nice, though.  Maybe I'll take that up with God at the next meeting. :o)

Brian Morrissey filled in for me by preaching on pretty short notice.  I just listened to his message on our podcast.  He knocked it out of the park! His message blew me away.

Josh Young nailed it when he told me, "There might be a reason you were sick this weekend…so Brian could preach." I don't disagree.

You can hear the message and see all the videos from Sunday on our website.  It was an amazing day.

I Love My Church – Week 1

Keep It Simple

The word "simple" has been heard a lot at ACC lately.  Our new vision is very simple.

Connecting, Growing, Serving.

There's nothing complicated about that…which is exactly the point. When it comes to vision, simple is memorable and doable.  Complicated is forgettable and unattainable.

This comic illustrates simplicity from a corporate perspective.

Successful corporations understand simplicity.  So do successful churches.