Highly Toxic

As I am reading through my Daily Bible this year, I am blown away today at the commentary from Genesis 36 about how Esau's descendants carry on the bitterness and unforgiveness of their father Esau toward Jacob and his line of descendants for thousands of years! Wow!

I have heard it said that "unforgiveness is the POISON we drink, hoping that the other person will die". Evidently it is not only the poison we drink but the poison that is passed on to our kids and on to their kids and on down the line. Scary stuff if you ask me!

Are you highly toxic? What poison have you been drinking?

Take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror and look at your kids or future kids & family today and count the costs!

My Excuse For Far Too Long

We have excuses for everything, don't we? As one of my fellow pastor's, Jason Hirsch used to say all the time. "Excuses are like rear ends. Everyone has them and they all stink."

The problem is I like to use them. They get me out of things...like taking out the trash, finishing the painting in Brianna's room, cleaning out my garage, and so many other things on the to do list. Well, maybe they really don't work after all. Janet (my wife) is really good at sniffing out lame excuses and calling me on them. I admire her drive and self-discipline.

Some of the top excuses I have used in the past in no particular order:
1. I can't go into full-time ministry, I would have to preach, and I am so afraid to speak in public.
2. I can't spend time with God today. I have way too much things to get done and not enough time.
3. I am not going to finish that now honey, i will do it later, I am way too tired. (This never works, I don't even know why I try to use it anymore.)
4. I am not going to work out today, I am too tired/lazy/sick/busy/etc.
By the way, check out David in the picture above, he has got some serious stinkin' guns!

My greatest passion in life is give my life away in such a way that I bring LIFE to everyone I come in contact with. If I were to choose my epitaph, I would want it to say, "His Life Gave Us Life" With this in mind, I truly believe that God has called me to train and mentor this next generation of pastors and specifically youth pastors, kinda like a Samuel to the David's of this next generation. I see my God-given calling is to see potential in others (maybe even potential that most others do not even see) and call it out and annoint them for their God-given position and calling.

I have had so many amazing mentors that have poured their guts into me and believed in me. People like, my mom and dad, my youth pastor,Barry Phipps, Darin Poli, Nate Ruch, Jeanne Mayo, Dan Hunter (former yp of Seven Student Ministries), Art VanZanten (my bro in-law), Sam Farina, and many many others.

With all that they have poured into me, I have felt a strong passion and calling to pour into others and speak life over them like so many have done for me. However, MY EXCUSE FOR FAR TOO LONG has been:

5. I can't mentor other youth pastors. I am young. I have nothing to offer. I am just a nobody from a small town and small church. Why would anyone want to listen to me? I don't think people would want to learn from me. What if they think I am some "cocky" pastor who thinks he knows it all? I need to get a few more years of proven ministry under my belt.

I now realize, but wish I would have realized sooner, that not only is this a God-given passion, but a God-given mandate to all Christians. I cannot afford to wait until I know more, am smarter and more wise. I am called and I must puh past all my fears and excuses and step up to the plate and go to bat. Future ministers are waiting and may just be waiting out in the fields watching the sheep. Current youth pastors may need a dose of hope and vision, because they have been wandering in the dessert and are not seeing their God-given dreams fulfilled and maybe even are having spears thrown at them. Whatever the story may be, I know my excuse for far too long have been lame and pathetic. I know that it is time for me to rise up and mentor the next generation. I know that it has been so many other's excuse for far too long as well and it is time for this generation of pastors and lay people to rise up and call out, annoint, and inspire the next generation of ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

How about you? Will you lay aside all excuses and step up to this high calling, to be a Samuel to the Davids?
Romans 15:1-6

Don't Mess!!!

And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare to EVEN POINT A FINGER? The one who died for us - who was raised to life for us! - is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture...

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing - NOTHING living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. -Romans 8:33-39 (MSG)

Thanks you Jesus for loving me this much! I can walk in confidence that nothing will get between me and Your incredible, overwhelming love! So don't mess!!!

My encouragement is to walk confidently in this same grace and love today in your own life.

For more on grace and God's love check out Judah Smith's (one of my youth pastor heros) website on grace: www.triumphofgrace.com

I Will Go

One of my new favorite songs of all-time is Desperation Band's, "I Will Go". It brings memories of my very first missions trip to Panama flooding back to my brain and my heart. Memories of passing out thousands of copies of the Book of Hope in the public schools, and memories of God imprinting my heart with a passion for missions and the lost! (these are the photos from that trip to Panama- don't laugh too hard!)

It brings memories and emotions of those moments around the altars at North Central University in Minneapolis, MN where I wason my knees crying out to God that I would go wherever He wanted to send me. I remember Him distinctly speaking to my heart that He was calling me to youth ministry and that "out of my youth ministry He would call out missionaries".

And this song brings me to my knees again today as I listen to it on my iTunes as I work in my office on our 2009 missions trips. I have HUGE dreams to bring 150+ of our students with us on local and foreign missions trips this year alone! I simply cry out, "Here I am God! Send me!" I simply want to be used by Him and I truly want to live with passion and reckless abondon to give students every opportunity to GO and every opportunity to hear God's call for their life, and every opportunity to LIVE mission. Check out the song on youtube. It may just become your life song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90P9c9K-nxo

LYRICS (a few lines)
"I Will Go"
Desperation Band

You’re calling out, “who will go?”

I will go. I will live the life. I’ll give it all for Jesus Christ.
I’ll tell the world that You are God.
I will go. Hear my battle cry. Give me wings so I can fly
and tell the world that You are God.

Here am I, here am I, I will give all that is mine.
Here am I, here am I, Jesus come and spend my life.

I will go. I will live the life.
I’ll give it all for Jesus Christ. I’ll tell the world that You are God.
I will go. Hear my battle cry.
Give me wings so I can fly and tell the world that You are God

Family Traditions

I am realizing now more than ever just how amazing and wonderful family traditions are.

Some of my favorites from the Brown fam are, fondue every new year (or whenever we can fit it in around all of our busy holiday schedule now that we are older). The Brown bro's re-enactment of the Christmas story (with Dan as Mary:-), Matt as Joeseph and Tim as the baby Jesus, and me as the narrator). Or, going to Grandma and Grandpa Brown's house in Evansville, MN every thanksgiving with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins packed into their small kitchen and fighting for grandma Brown's famous fruit salad and amazing mashed potatoes and gravy! And hopefully our new family tradition from this year was my all-time favorite cornhole tourney. Yes...I am the undefeated champion from our weekend together at the cabin!

With all these traditions and memories in my heart from growing up until now, I am now wondering what traditions we will start as a family. Not just for the holidays, but all throughout the year and while Brianna is growing up and Brown baby #2 (still not sure, but hopefully we will find out tomorrow). What will they remember when they are my age? What will be most near and dear to their hearts? What will they want to pass on to their families?

I want to be the best dad possible and I want to be creative and I want to be a family that has fun and celebrates together! I want to put more time and creativity and efforts into my family and Janet and Bri than I do into my ministry! I want to be the kind of dad that spends TIME with my kids that they will forever remember and never want to stop the "tradition". I want to create moments and life change in my marriage. I want Janet to feel more valued than I am currently showing. I want her to feel like she get s the best of me and not the leftovers. I want Brianna to see her daddy as her #1 fan and cheerleader. I want her to know that she comes as my first ministry and not as sloppy seconds.

With this in mind I think traditions are a key part of that and I need help. I heard some pretty creative and simple ideas today at lunch with our staff, but I would love to hear other ideas and traditions for making memories as a dad and husband. What are some traditions that you did growing up? What are your most memorable and special? Which ones had the most impact?

I just simply want to be the BEST dad and husband that I can be.

One Night

Some Came Merely for a Freebie…and
Left with the Greatest Free Gift Ever Offered

Some came for the free stuff, and there was plenty of it…computers, surround sound systems, iPods and tons of gift cards. Some showed up for the tunes, and hip hop artist Kaboose and The Spark delivered in resounding fashion with music that made the junior high and high schoolers jump, dance and sway. Some were there for the huge, colorful inflatables, blissfully bouncing until they had no bounce left. Some arrived to release their pent-up energy by taking sledgehammers to an old car, piano and television. Some entered the gates for the chance to win $15,000 by making a series of basketball shots. Some came for the free pizza and soda. Some might have even been there to worship God.
It really didn’t matter why they came. The only thing that mattered was that they were there. At church. On a Wednesday night. Twelve hundred of them. Suddenly, leaders at Kenosha First Assembly of God Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin, had an awesome opportunity, privilege and responsibility all wrapped up into one. Well over 1,000 junior high and high school students, many of whom had not set foot in a church in their entire life, represented a captive audience for a presentation of the gospel. Some of the kids might have been hearing that message for the first time.
Once the music died down, the lights stopped flashing and the last freebie was handed out, Pastor Jon Brown stepped onto the stage. After encouraging kids to be respectful and give him their undivided attention for a few minutes, he began by comparing a high-definition television with a BWHOJ (black-and-white hunk of junk). He explained to the students that if they believe the lie that the party life is the HD life, then they’re getting ripped off. The real HD life is the one that can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ.
“If you only knew,” he pleaded from the stage, “that there is something better out there – life in HD – full and in living color. Maybe some of us think we’re living the HD life, but deep down inside we feel empty, broken and hopeless. Satan’s lie is that you don’t need God…that you can do it on your own. But you’re getting ripped off. The real HD life comes to you for free. All you have to do is take it.”
***
page 1 of article written by Timm Boyle
(for more on this story: www.ag.org )

Life in HD

I LOVE "old school" tv shows!!! Who doesn't love watching the old school stuff!?! Let's see if you guess some of these from the 10 second clips on the screens...
1. Fresh Prince 2. Power Rangers 3. Magic Schoolbus
4. Home Improvement 5. Saved By The Bell 6. The Jetsons 7. The Price Is Right 8. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

You may not remember this, but back in the day, back in my day, in order to get a clear picture without static or fuzz while we were watching our favorite old school shows, we would have these things called an antenna. And if you set it up just right you could get a better signal. Sometimes we would have to "ghetto rig" it with tinfoil just to get a decent picture!

As much as I love to think back to the old school days, I LOVE HD!!!
The other day we were shopping for earrings for Janet’s birthday gift and we walk in to the department store and walk right by a Sony HDNA display with a 60 inch plasma HD! It was playing Speed Racer on Blue Ray! It was hooked up to Surround Sound! Janet keeps walking towards the jewelry section of the store and I am parked right in front of the Sony HD display with drool dribbling down the corner of my mouth and I am in heaven. Janet had to call me a couple of times to leave and I am like, "Honey are you sure you don't want one of these for your birthday!?!" Yeah, that didn't go over so well!

Let's play pretend tonight and say your are walking into the new Best Buy here in town looking for a brand spakin' new TV and a Best Buy salesman approaches you to help you out in your TV buying experience. What if he took you to a new section of the store called the BWHOJ section to sell you one of those? (BWHOJ = Black and White Hunk O Junk). What if he gave his very best sales pitch? Even after that, what TV would you pick?

The 42 inch PLASMA HD EVERY SINGLE TIME!!!

There is a reason why we have a pile of old school TV’s. Because nobody wants them anymore! They are old, have a fuzzy, grainy, staticy picture with no color or washed out color.

If the salesman from Best Buy were to sell me one of these puppies for $1,500, would I be walking away with a sweet deal? NO! I would be getting ripped off! Try watching “The Hills” or the football game on one of these. It would drive you crazy!!! $1500 would be a crazy price to pay for one of these and yet…long ago, people actually paid crazy amounts of money for these TV’s. Why? Cuz they didn’t know any better. Because that was all there was. Because they had NEVER experienced High Definition

Wouldn’t that make you kind of mad & ticked off if you paid $1500 for one of these TV’s back in the day! I would be ticked!!! I would want my money back! I would feel like they took advantage of me. (Kinda like the old iPhone that you paid $500 for and then they come out with a new one that is $200!)

But you see, the people who bought these back in the day didn’t even realize they were getting ripped off. They were ignorant and happy with their BWHOJ TV. They loved the huge fake wood cabinet with pull out drawers. It was all they knew. They didn’t know any better.

What if I told you tonight that you were getting ripped off and didn’t even realize? Many of you in this room tonight don’t EVEN REALIZE that you are GETTING RIPPED OFF! And I am ticked off for you!!! It literally makes me angry inside!

You have been sold a BWHOJ life for a high price. It is the only life you know. You don’t know any better. But what if I told you there was something better out there for you. A HIGH DEFINITION life, in full and living color, a crystal clear picture, where you can see every detail come to life.

You see…Tonight…HD isn’t just about the fun, the games, the giveaways, the car smash, the graffiti. It is not even about giving away HD TV’s or the $15,000 basketball shootout. That stuff is cool. But the real reason your friend’s invited you and the real reason 200 volunteers showed up to help and we put all this work into pulling this amazing night off is because we want you to experience and learn for yourself that this HD life can be found in Jesus. So many of us were sitting right where you are sitting, we were getting ripped off as well, thinking we were living the good life, but then Jesus came into the picture and changed things for us and we have never been the same and we will never go pack to this old way of living, …this BWHOJ life!

You might be wondering, “well who is Jesus and what does have to do with me? Isn’t he some old dude with long hippie hair and a beard and a bathrobe that died a long time ago?”
Jesus wasn’t any of these We want more than this world’s got to offer
things, He IS so much more…

Hang with me for a few more minutes and I will explain…
Jesus said these words, “I have come to give life and life to the full.” Or life in HD! What he is saying here is that his whole purpose in living is to make sure every one of us, experiences and knows and has a life of full and living color. That we have life in High Definition, that we have the Fabulous Life.

But what has happened is that so many of you have this BWHOJ in the living room of your lives and you have NO CLUE that there is better waiting for you! You think you are living the good life, life in HD, but you are not. “You have something better hanging in your living room or bedroom than you have living in your heart!”

Switchfoot’s song “Meant to Live “says it this way, “We were meant to live for so much more, but we lost ourselves” Check out their music video and listen closely to the lyrics…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7l5kedckTI

Maybe were BENT and BROKEN…
“Dreaming about providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we’ve been livin with our eyes half open
Maybe we’re bent and broken, broken

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside

We want more than this world’s got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?”

We may think we are living the HD life, but deep down we feel empty, hopeless, hurt, broken we want something more. We been sold this BWHOJ life without even knowing it and we have ALL been RIPPED OFF!

The salesman who sells us this pile of lies. is someone that is very real and very alive, even though we do not see him. This rip-off salesman is Satan. In this very same chapter where Jesus said that he came to give life in HD, it says right before that, Satan comes ONLY to STEAL, KILL, & DESTROY! His whole purpose is to rip you off and destroy you!!! In another part of the Bible it ACTUALLY SAYS, “Sin is FUN…for a season, but in the end it leads to death –a death in a place called hell. Satan rips us off by only showing us the fun part, but always leaves out the part that sin leads us to death in hell FOREVER.

Another way that Jesus put it, “There is a way (of life) that seems right to us, but, in the end it leads us straight to death.”







You see…
- The lie that we have been sold is… that we don’t need God, that God has nothing to do with my life, we can do it on our own and that God is either non-existent or just sitting up there waiting to squash us if we do something wrong.
-The TRUTH is… there is a loving God created each one of us to have a very real and personal relationship with Him!

-The lie that we have been sold is… that if we do enough “good things” we maybe just might earn a GET OUT OF HELL FREE card and barely squeeze our way into heaven.
-The TRUTH is… none of us could EVER do enough good things to earn our way into heaven and there is only ONE way to get into heaven and that is through asking Jesus to forgive the wrong things you have done and wipe your slate clean and give you a fresh start and inviting Him to be a part of your life.

-The lie that we have been sold is… that living a life of doing whatever feels good, and living the party lifestyle is the HD life, the Fabulous Life and partying until we die will somehow fill the emptiness we feel inside.
-The TRUTH is… that kind of lifestyle may numb the pain and emptiness for a little while, but it will NEVER make it go away. The TRUTH is, many students and adults in this room lived that kind of life at one time, but only found life to the full, or HD LIFE in Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can give you hope and fill your emptiness, your wanting for something more!!!

-The lie that we have been sold is… that nobody cares about the hurt and the pain and rejection you are feeling right now. That you are all alone and nobody gives a RIP and you are stuck to deal with it on your own
-The TRUTH is… there is a loving God who cares and wants to HEAL your pain tonight and help hold your hand through whatever your facing. He know the pain and He loves you! The TRUTH is, this room is full of students and adults who care deeply and are willing to listen and pray with you so you don’t have to feel alone!!!

The TRUTH is…
Many of you have thought you have been living the HD life, it seems like you have been living the good life, but all along you have been getting ripped off, not even knowing that you were being lied to.

I want to introduce you to a friend of mine that performed earlier tonight. He is Hip-hop artist Kaboose. He was right in your shoes, he was getting ripped off just like you and me. He thought he was living life to the full in High Def, but deep down he was empty and hopeless, and hurt and wanting something more. I want to let him tell you his story tonight. Check this out…

KABOOSE STORY VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0pxKCCsDxU

"God's care for humanity was so great that he sent his unique Son among us, so that those who count on him might not lead a futile and failing existence, but have the undying life of God Himself."
JOHN 3:16

Kaboose explained the empty feeling in his life like a hole in his heart. It was a hole that he tried to fill with a lot of different things, even some good things like going to church cuz his mom made him, BUT, none of those things filled up the emptiness he felt inside. They worked for a time, but deep down, he realized…, WE ALL REALIZE…, that those things still leave us feeling empty and hopeless and wanting more.

Tonight we present to you HD because we want every one of you to experience life in High Definition and life to the fullest. You have some pretty amazing friends who cared enough to ask you to come and invite you here because they want to show you that life can be so much better than this BWHOJ (point to pile of TV’s). We want you, like Kaboose, like so many of us here tonight…to experience the difference that Jesus can make in your life.

The choice is yours, HD... or BWHOJ...

The coolest part about it all is that this life in HD is all yours for FREE. Just like my friend who chose the HDTV and walked off the stage with it for FREE! You too can walk out of here with the FREE gift of life to the fullest that Jesus offers to you.