Category: Devotion

Praying for Breakthrough

Psalm 5


1 Listen, Yahweh, to my passionate prayer! Can’t you hear my groaning? 2Don’t you hear how I’m crying out to you? My King and my God, consider my every word, for I am calling out to you.

Call out to God

3At each and every sunrise you will hear my voice as I prepare my sacrifice of prayer to you. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on the altar and wait for your fire to fall upon my heart.
Making It Right

Surrender your life to God

4 I know that you, God, are never pleased with lawlessness,
and evil ones will never be invited into your house. 5 Boasters collapse, unable to survive your scrutiny, for your hatred of evildoers is clear. 6 You will make an end of all those who lie. How you hate their hypocrisy and despise all who love violence! Multitude of Mercy

Surrender your battle to God

7 But I know that you will welcome me into your house, for I am covered by your covenant of mercy and love. So I come to your sanctuary with deepest awe to bow in worship and adore you.

Thank God for His mercy and love

8 Yahweh, lead me in the pathways of your pleasure just like you promised me you would, or else my enemies will conquer me.
Smooth out your road in front of me, straight and level, so that I will know where to walk.

Ask God to guide every step you take today

9Their words are unreliable. Destruction is in their hearts,
drawing people into their darkness with their speeches.
They are smooth-tongued deceivers, flattering with their words.
10 Declare them guilty, O God! Let their own schemes be their downfall! Let the guilt of their sins collapse on top of them, for they rebel against you.

Give God the people who hurt you

11 But let them all be glad, those who turn aside to hide themselves in you. May they keep shouting for joy forever! Overshadow them in your presence as they sing and rejoice. Then every lover of your name will burst forth with endless joy. 12Lord, how wonderfully you bless the righteous. Your favor wraps around each one and covers them under your canopy of kindness and joy.

Thank God for His favor on your life

More Ways to Connect:
• Find a Small Group – www.cityhills.com/groups
• Attend Next Steps – www.cityhills.com/nextsteps
• Make a Difference at #ServeDay21 – www.cityhills.com/serve
• Join us at City Hills on Sundays – 8:30am / 10:00am / 11:30am

God is Building a Home

You’re no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You’re no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

Ephesians 2:19-21 (The Message)

Do You Know Your Rights?

So, you are not foreigners or guests, but rather you are the children of the city of the holy ones, with all the rights as family members of the household of God. 20 You are rising like the perfectly fitted stones of the temple; and your lives have been built up together upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets, and best of all, you are connected to the Head Cornerstone of the building, the Anointed One, Jesus Christ himself! 21 This entire building is under construction and is continually growing under his supervision until it rises up completed as the holy temple of the Lord himself.

Ephesians 2:19-21

Pray This Over Your Life

1 Praise the LORD!
How joyful are those who fear the LORD
and delight in obeying his commands.
2 Their children will be successful everywhere;
an entire generation of godly people will be blessed.
3 They themselves will be wealthy,
and their good deeds will last forever.
4 Light shines in the darkness for the godly.
They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.
5 Good comes to those who lend money generously
and conduct their business fairly.
6 Such people will not be overcome by evil.
Those who are righteous will be long remembered.
7 They do not fear bad news;
they confidently trust the LORD to care for them.
8 They are confident and fearless
and can face their foes triumphantly.
9 They share freely and give generously to those in need.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.
They will have influence and honor.
10 The wicked will see this and be infuriated.
They will grind their teeth in anger;
they will slink away, their hopes thwarted.

Psalm 112 (NLT)

One in Christ

So don’t forget that you were not born as Jews and were uncircumcised (circumcision itself is just a work of man’s hands); you had none of the Jewish covenants and laws; you were foreigners to Israel’s incredible heritage; you were without the covenants and prophetic promises of the Messiah, the promised hope, and without God. 13 Yet look at you now! Everything is new! Although you were once distant and far away from God, now you have been brought delightfully close to him through the sacred blood of Jesus—you have actually been united to Christ! 14 Our reconciling “Peace” is Jesus! He has made Jew and non-Jew one in Christ. By dying as our sacrifice, he has broken down every wall of prejudice that separated us and has now made us equal through our union with Christ. 15 Ethnic hatred has been dissolved by the crucifixion of his precious body on the cross. The legal code that stood condemning every one of us has now been repealed by his command. His triune essence has made peace between us by starting over—forming one new race of humanity, Jews and non-Jews fused together in himself! 16 Two have now become one, and we live restored to God and reconciled in the body of Christ. Through his crucifixion, hatred died. 17 For the Messiah has come to preach this sweet message of peace to you,[l] the ones who were distant, and to those who are near. 18 And now, because we are united to Christ, we both have equal and direct access in the realm of the Holy Spirit to come before the Father!

Ephesians 2:11-17 (The Passion Translation)

God’s Poem

We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works[b] we would do to fulfill it!

Ephesians 2:10 (The Passion Translation)

But God…

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Ephesians 2:1-9

A Leader’s Team

anonymous friends standing together at sunset in mountains

Sunday I shared about the reality that we are all leaders. God has given all of us influence. Many times we do not see ourselves this way. I believe God wants to raise our level of leadership so that we can shine bright for Christ in the city of Knoxville and beyond!

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5:14

I believe that the followers of Jesus should be the best leaders on the planet because Jesus is the greatest leader of all time!

A leadership lesson from Jesus:

I want to look at one of the biggest leadership decisions that Jesus ever made. It was such a big decision that he spent all night praying about it. As a matter of fact, this is the only time that we see Jesus staying up all night to pray. What could have been so important that he would need to pray all night about it?

“One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles. Here are their names: Simon (whom he named Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (who was called the zealot), Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him).”

Luke 6:12-16

“Very few things are as important as the team you surround yourself with.”

Jesus stayed up all night to pray before he chose his team! He took time to pray about who he was going to choose to be on his team. I have a question: “Who is on your team? Who have you choose to walk with you and help you achieve the task of leadership that God has given you. If you are a parent, you need a team of people to help lead your children. What team have you put around you at work? What team do you have around you to lead your family? You may think, I don’t know about that. Many of these tasks that you are describing are just for me. I don’t need anyone else helping me lead my family. That is simply not true. We need to be intentional about putting people around us that will help us. We can’t do it all!

MYTH: Individuals accomplish great things.
TRUTH: Teams accomplish great things.

This is something that has been hard to learn for me. I naturally am a doer and I used to feel bad to ask for others to help me. But I quickly learned that I can’t do it all. I do not have all of the leadership giftings needed to lead City Hills Church on my own as an individual. That may surprise you. You may think, “They why are you leading Brandon?” Hang with me. 🙂

If I led on my own here is an example of things that I would need to be good at on my own: I have to be a vision caster, theologian, preacher, manager, team builder, creative, writer, conflict arbitrator, musician, and counselor. I have to know everything about real estate, audio/visual, graphic design, kids students, college, adults, seniors, food serve, funerals, weddings, social media, marketing, outreach, international missions, crisis management, Human Resources, legal, web design, app development, security, and so much more! And on top of all of that I have to be an amazing husband, a great dad, a good friend, and a body builder. 🙂

No one is great at all of these things! Yet, somehow we think that if we read enough books or attend enough conferences that we will be able to do it all. I am so thankful for the team of world-class leaders that God has surrounded me with at City Hills. I know I cannot lead alone. We we are going to accomplish what God has called us to we have to surround ourselves with amazing teams.

God’s dreams for you will be determined by the strength of the TEAM around you.

God has called you to lead! Your leadership is more important than you could ever realize. However, you can’t do it all alone. We need each other. A lot of times we surround ourselves with anyone that will accept us instead of being intentional about the people we put in our inner circle of leadership. Let’s be like Jesus and be intentional about the people we place around us. Let’s take time to pray about it. If Jesus needed to pray about the leaders He was going to surround himself with you better believe you and I will need to pray about this as well.

Maybe you think: “You’re right, I need to surround myself with Godly people who will help me fulfill God’s calling on my life… but I don’t have those relationships.” This is another reason why getting in a SUMMER SMALL GROUP is so important! In a small group you will get connected with other people that can walk with you on the journey. You may even find one of the people that you feel called to invite to help you lead! You never know! If you are a parent, this is why it is UNSPEAKABLY IMPORTANT that you get your kids and teens involved with City Hills Kids and City Hills Students. We need other Godly voices on our team speaking into the lives of our kids. I am so thankful for the Next Gen leadership at City Hills and how they speak into the lives of my three kids!

If there was ever anyone who could have decided to do his calling all alone without a team it would have been Jesus.

Jesus was God in the flesh! However, he chose to change the world by surrounding himself with a hand-selected team of twelve ordinary people. 

 "Lord, I pray that you help us realize that we cannot do what you have called us to do alone.  Help us as a church family to be the most dynamic group of leaders in the City of Knoxville for Your glory!  We ask that You would give us wisdom and insight about who who surround ourselves with as we lead.  I pray you would take away the wrong relationships and bring closer the right relationships.  Help us to be on the teams of others around us helping them fulfill the calling on their lives.  We need you today Holy Spirit!  Make us into the leaders you have called us to be!  In Jesus Name!

Have an amazing day!

Don’t forget SERVE SATURDAY is this Saturday at 8:30am! No need to sign up, you can just show up at the church and we will go out to the various serve projects from there.