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Yesterday at The Rock, Kevin dropped some series Man-Bombs!  I left feeling like Chuck Norris round house kicked my man card right out of my jockstrap. It was a long, shameful, tail-between-my-leg bicycle ride home.  In all seriousness, this “The Naked Truth” series has whooped my tail!  So I wanted to share with you a few things about being a real man that I’ve been learning:

• REAL MEN make a difference, not excuses. This statement packs a huge punch, and rightfully so.  When you drop the ball, man up, accept the failure, and move forward.  When you sin, man up, confess it, and move forward.  Men, we fall into a long line of finger pointing, excuse making, whiny, little mama’s boys who ran away when the heat turned up. (Adam, Moses, David, Jonah, Judas).  Dudez… are you tough enough to remain strong in tough times?  Do you let things fall through the cracks?  Do you buckle under pressure?  Do you finish things you start?
• REAL MEN view women as meaningful pursuits, not disposable pleasures. Proverbs 18:22… nuff said!  This is a quote I stole from one of the manliest man movies EVER… James “007″ Bond!
• REAL MEN have a plan. Chicks dig dudes with a plan. Dudes in ministry LOVE to talk about casting vision and making plans for the church… but how about for your family?  Guys, do you have a plan?  Do you know where you are going in life?  Where are you leading your family?  Where are you going for date night this week?  Do you even have a date night?
• REAL MEN provide for his family. Proverbs 6:9-11.  Before God gave Adam a woman He gave Adam a J.O.B.!!!! Dudez… Put down the video game, get out of your mom’s basement, get on your bike and go get a JOB!  How can you provide for your family if you don’t have a job (1 Timothy 5:8).  If you can’t get a job b/c of the economy, see point #1.  Ladies… you can learn a lot about a guy by the way he spends his money.

Teenage Dudez… we are hitting manhood hard this week @ Katalyst.  Man up, and be there!  I challenge you.  I Dare you!

That’s it for now.  I’m going to take of my training wheels now and attempt to regain my man card.

Here’s some take aways from our final week of REBELS:

• The thing that comes to mind when you think about Jesus is the most important thing about you.
• We relate rebellion to tattoos, getting plastered on Friday nights, sleeping around, disobeying your parents, and beating the crap out of anyone that crosses your path.
• A true rebel refuses to follow a crowd that forces you to think the same way they do even if it means becoming an outcast to society.
• You want to be a rebel, then read your bible because that’s what no on is doing!
• “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.” // John 4:34
• Jesus HAD to go through Samaria.
• God was intentional about reaching the Samaritan woman.
• “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony.” // John 4:39
• Jesus overcame the cultural norm to reach the many.
• Many of us feel that we have to understand everything about the Bible or we make things complicated when all we really need to say is “COME and SEE!”

HUGE things are happening in our youth ministry.  And even BIGGER things are about to come as we jump into our next series called VISION.  We will be talking about where The Rock and Katalyst began and where we are headed as a church!  Its gonna get good!!!

Want to be a part of the Katalyst team?  Here’s a few ways you can help make an impact on the next generation of leaders:

• SNACKS – We have a dedicated team who serves our students by providing snacks and drinks.  As more students come through the doors, more bellies need fed.  And that requires more folks serving those hungry students!
• MONEY – We NEED money… and to be more honest, we need YOUR money!  Katalyst is just a few weeks away from being in our new building!!!  BUT… there are items we still need (chairs, projectors, ping pong tables, TV’s, etc).  Our goal is not to create an environment to occupy your student’s time with simply fun and games.  I am NOT a babysitter!  Our goal is to create a place where students are not ashamed to invite their friends… a place where students who would have gone to no other church will hear the Gospel!
• SMALL GROUP LEADERS – Our small group leaders truly are the spiritual leaders for our students.  Students can hear a motivating, encouraging, or convicting message, but small groups is where the message becomes personal.  Our small groups are designed for students to be honest and real about relevant issues.

Here’s why these 3 volunteer rolls are so important:  We can only handle what we are prepared for.  If (and WHEN) 50, 100, 200, 500, or 1000 students show up to Katalyst unexpectedly, some legitimate questions must be answered.  How will they all eat?  Where will they all sit?  How can we accommodate that many students?  How can we effectively minister to all of them?  To answer those questions, we need you!

Want to be a part of that?  Want to be a part of reaching students who would never go to any other church?  Want to invest in the lives of those who will be leading our future churches and businesses?  Want to impact the world through students who will become international missionaries?

You know where to find me: matt@rockc3.com

Here’s just a few Judo chops I took in the face from yesterday’s service:

• People of Walmart
• “Even when my kook-o-meter goes off, I still reserve a space for the possibility that the person might be the real deal.”
• “There’s a reason John didn’t fit into the organized civilized religion of his day.  And that’s because God didn’t either.”
• “Giving yourself to Jesus turns your heart into a place where the Spirit of God roams around wild!”
• “Your best act of rebellion is for YOU to rebel against YOU!”
• “How many battles could you and I both win if we simply learned how to say ‘NO’ to ourselves?”
• John 3:30
• 1 Corinthians 9:27
• GOD USES FOLKS WHO STRUGGLE!
• “There is no such thing as a follower of Jesus who doesn’t struggle.”
• “Our struggles/circumstances don’t change the character of God.”
• “Sometimes heroes like John the Baptist get beheaded.”
• “You want a Christianity that is nothing but easy and shallow. Watch some TV preacher and send him a check. It’s fake faith, but you’ll feel blessed.”

KEEP YOUR FORKS!!! Its about to get crazy!

Last night was the most AMAZING Katalyst EVER!  And the best part is… God aint through with us yet!

Here’s what some folks said:

Youth group was firein – nate dorman

Katalyst was flippin intense…holy wow! Next wed night 7pm. If your a student, you NEED to be there! – andrew wade

My goal for the next week… get as many students to Katalyst as possible! Lord don’t let me shut up about your love! – hunter lowes

I wish I wasn’t too old for Katalyst – Johnny Calhoun

Last night was one of those times where you just KNEW that God was in the middle of doing something HUGE!  I can’t wait to hear how students bring the hot sauce to their schools & homes!  The best part may have been watching Alex take down Klock with a guillotine!  EPIC!!! Not to mention the 3 first time students and 2 new volunteer leaders!!!  That gets me PUMPED!  Grab your forks!

“Do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

// Numbers 14:9

As of yesterday, September 15, 2009, I have stopped  playing World of Warcraft.  Hi, my name is Matt Brown and I am a WoW addict… phew… I finally got that off my chest!

Right now, you may be wondering why this is such a huge deal.  Let me show you:

I started playing World of Warcraft on January 12, 2005… 2005… 2005!!!  Do you get that?!  That’s almost FIVE years ago!  Let me add this.  When WoW first hit the stores, it cost $60.  Tack on to that two expansion packs at $40 a pop.  (for the non math folks, that’s $140 just to buy the game)   Add to that the $15 per month cost to play the game ($15/mo X 57 mo = $855).  Add those two costs together and  you get:  NINE HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE SMACKERS!!! I have invested almost a thousand dollars into a video game.

Let me show you something else:

WoW has a built in timer that logs your the number of hours you have played.  In other words, if I played for 5 hours today, and 2 hours tomorrow, and 4 hours the next day, I would have a cumulative time of 11 hours played.  If you notice, on ONE… just ONE of my characters, I played SIXTY-SEVEN days total.  And I had 4 other characters.  The total number of days played for all my characters was almost 120 days played. To help put that into perspective, if you started playing right now, you would have to play for 4 months straight with no breaks to eat, sleep, or pee!  That’s 4 straight months of my life that I can never get back.

All that to say, I have invested A LOT of time and A LOT of money into World of Warcraft.  I hope that helps you to see why this is such a HUGE breakthrough for me.

Here’s why I did it…

Ever have Has God ever asked you to give up something?  Ever have God press His Almighty finger on one certain area of disobedience in your life?  Ever feel the weight and pressure due to the inward battle between selfishness and holiness?

Well I have…

And it is not very fun…

And WoW just happened to be that one area of my life.

The truth is only 2 things last forever:  God & His Word and People’s Souls.  I have invested all that time & money and have NOTHING to show for it.  All my characters… GONE!  All the fake digital money I made… GONE!  All the phat loot… GONE!  All the high scores & achievements… GONE!  And now I have the choice… I can invest my time in and money towards things that can be deleted… OR… I can invest my life in the things that are eternal.

Here’s some other truths that influenced my decision:

• Life is just a vapor (James 4:14) and the one thing we canNOT do in heaven is evangelize!
• We are in a war zone.  People are on there way to hell.  There’s no time to play games!
• Where we invest our time and money reveals our true passions.  (Matthew 6:21)
• “If the enemy can’t destroy you, he’ll distract you.  Distraction = doing an incredible job at an insignificant activity.”  – Steven Furtick
• “How can a man get a word from the Lord when he hasn’t taken care of his wife?”  – Marilynn Blackaby
• “Following Jesus is all about doing the next thing that you already know He has led you to do.” – Kevin Childs
• How can I do the next thing God has planned if I haven’t been obedient with the first?

So I sit here today feeling FREE!  Like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.  I hope this inspires you to obey whatever God is asking you to do RIGHT NOW!  No matter how ridiculous it may seem.  Don’t put it off until tomorrow.  Don’t wait until the turmoil becomes unbearable.  Just be obedient and let God use you!

Today’s B90X reading assignment (1 Chronicles 1:1-9:44) left me asking myself why couldn’t all those Old Testament people  had simple names like Bob, Bill, or Matt (I’m partial towards Matt).  Instead, OT parents had to make life difficult by giving their children names like: Meonathai, Jehoiakim, Nedabiah, and Oholibamah.  I mean really… did they just draw letters out of hat and put them together in random order?!  Every once in a while you get a name like Dan or Joseph.  And if you’re lucky, you catch names that resemble some famous folks like Ophrah and Perez.

As I read through hundreds of hard-to-read names, I realized this:  There will be a day when I’m long gone.  My name will be forgotten.  No one will know who “Matthew Brown” was.  My accomplishments will be insignificant.  And if my name does somehow make it into a history book, people will probably just skim right over it.

And hat’s when it hit me!

My purpose is not to make my name famous.

Not Matt.

Not Matthew.

Not Brown.

Not even Matholemu.

My purpose is to make the name of Jesus famous!

We all want to make a name for ourselves:  Dr. Matthew J. Brown, Ph.D.,  President Brown,  Emperor Matholemu,  Matt ‘Eye Candy’ Brown.

But at the end of the day…

The only question worth answering is: What am I making of the name of Jesus?

Before you read my list, I warn you that you will probably think less of me after reading it.  So if you want to continue to think of me as a godly, upstanding, young man… then stop reading now.  Here it goes:

• I play World of Warcraft way too much… and I like it!
• I cry.
• I LOVE the movie Pride & Prejudice.
• I have a crush on Kiera Knightley.
• I have to force myself to not look at hot females.  And sometimes I’d rather just look.
• I think my iPhone makes me cooler than you.
• I like to show off my 23.5″ full 1080p HD computer monitor.
• I have to have internet filters on my computer and phone.
• I have rope light in my office.
• I buy expensive clothes and refuse to buy them from Wal-Mart, Target or Goodwill.
• I have man crushes on Brad Cooper and Steven Furtick.
• I hate reading.
• I feel obligated to put on my ‘happy face’ every Sunday morning.
• I never listen to K-Love.
• I’d rather talk to your student than you (parent).
• I wish I could have a beer.
• I like to pee outside.
• I’m not always in the mood to pray.
• I procrastinate.
• I choose my job over my family.
• I have road rage.
• I wish I was manlier.
• and finally… I said a cuss word this week.

So there it is… let the arrows fly!

But what about you?  What side of you do church people never see?  What parts of you are hidden on Sunday morning?

So this morning, I told God “I want to be GREAT!”  I want to be a GREAT leader.  A GREAT communicator.  A GREAT mentor.  a GREAT man.  A GREAT husband.  GREAT… PERIOD.

I want to be GREAT for God and His Kingdom.  And I want to leave a GREAT impact on this world.

And before you say, “but Matt, you are great and are doing so many great things” and so on… let me stop you and say that I know me. I know me better than you know me.  You know only what I choose to let you know about me. Though there are a few things I don’t intend for you to know about me that you can figure out by watching me… but that’s a different story.

Here’s the deal,  I look up to a list of heavy hitters who get  more excitement from reading scripture than playing video games.  Men who find more joy in taking out the trash for their children than any gift they could receive.  Men who fall disparately on their knees, begging to hear God’s voice.  Men who live out Ephesians 5:25!  Men who guard their integrity with all their might.  Men who truly will do anything, and i mean ANYTHING, but sin to reach one more person for Christ!

I want to be that kind of man.

I no longer want to WISH I was great.

I want to BE great!

I share this with you because I have a list of goals I am determined to accomplish.  And I invite you to join me.  It won’t be easy.  But it will be GREAT!  Here’s my list:

• Read the entire Bible in 90 days.  (Elevation Church has a reading plan called B90x)
• 100 Hundred Pushup Challenge (HundredPushups.com)
• Pray 1 hour a day each day this week. (Hunter & Alex are joining me!)
• Date my wife.
• Guard the Sabbath.
• Read 3 books this month (The Making of A Leader, Now You’re Speaking My Language, Killing Cockroaches)

Greatness is a choice.  And I choose to be great!

- matt

1. God
2. Family
3. Taco Bell/World of Warcraft/Toilet Paper/Employment – 4 way tie

I have AWESOME friends!!!

Thing is… if you added clean underwear and twitter, you’d have my list.