The Pizza Maker

So what does God, Pizza, and our lives have in common?

This was the question that was answered last night for Ignite Student Ministries at Spring Creek Assembly in Edmond Oklahoma. Pastor Phil Freeman asked me to preach for him while he was at camp with some of the students. I was surprised when I showed up last night because the Ignite Students showed up in force. Even though Pastor Phil and some of the student were gone, the students who didn't go to champ showed up. There were what looked to be about 35 to 40 students! Thats Awesome!!!

Well anyways, I just wanted to thank Pastor Phil for allowing me to preach. Check out the sermon below.

“Pizza Maker”

Jeremiah 18:1-6

How many of you have ever made your own pizza from scratch?

How many think making your own pizza is ordering from Pizza Hut, Dominos, or Mazzios and having it delivered?

What are some of your favorite ingredients?

Pepperoni, Sausage, Hamburger, Cheese, Extra Cheese, Anchovies?

There are tons of different ingredients that we like on our pizzas. Some people love Pepperoni, while others hate Anchovies. So when we get to make our own pizza’s we put what we like on them.

Tonight we are going to look at how God, Pizza, and our lives fit together.

Think about this for a second, if God wanted a pizza what would he want on it?

If you were the pizza God was making, what would be the ingredients he would want you to have?

While your thinking about that, please stand and lets read tonight’s scripture out loud together.

Jeremiah 18:1-6 (Pizza Revision) 

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Go down to the Pizza Maker, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the Pizza Makers Restaurant, and I saw him making some pizza. But the dough he was shaping for the crust became to thin and ripped; so the Pizza Maker started over and formed the dough into another crust, shaping it as seemed best to him. 

Then the word of the LORD came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this Pizza Maker does with the pizza?” declares the LORD. “Like the Pizza ingredients in the hand of the Pizza Maker, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 

God told Jeremiah to go down to the potter’s house so that he could reveal a message to Jeremiah. But due to tonight’s Pizza theme we are changing things up a little.

God’s power over his creatures is represented by the Pizza Maker. God announced that the Pizza Maker and the Pizza illustrated His relationship to His people. That’s why He sent Jeremiah to watch the Pizza Maker working. While Jeremiah is watching everything, God comes to him with two things:

1. God has the authority, and power, to form His creation as he sees fit. He can dispose of it if he wants to, and it would be crazy for us to argue about it. It would be just like a pizza that fights with the pizza maker.

2. The second thing is that God always goes by fixed rules of justice and His goodness. When God judges, it is because of sin; but a sincere faith in Jesus will prevent the punishment.

You see in Jeremiah’s time, God promised that he would bless the Israelites, but because of the evil they were doing He would reconsider the good He had intended and instead bring judgement on them. But, because of God’s goodness, He decided that if the Israelites turned from evil and asked for forgiveness, then He would not punish them the way he planned. Now your going to have to go and read the rest of the Book of Jeremiah to find out what happened to them.

Lets see how God and pizza to apply this to our lives. If you look at a pizza, there are four basic layers. There is the Crust, pizza sauce, cheese, and the toppings.

Our lives are represented by the pizza crust. As we start to grow older, we get rolled out. We learn and experience all kinds of things. One thing that happens is that we all fall at some point or another. We end up sinning by doing bad things such as lying, stealing, treating our parents badly, or by breaking any of the other10 Commandments. This causes us as dough to become to thin and rip. At that the point where we sin, God the Pizza Maker makes a choice. He either chooses to throw us away or rebuild us. If we don’t accept Jesus as our Lord God and Savior then when our time comes to be Judged, God will look at us and say, (Matthew 7:23) ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

But if we accept Jesus into our hearts as our personal Lord God and Savior, then we will be reborn and God will reshape us into the Crust.

Once we’ve accepted Jesus, we have the Pizza sauce poured all over us. The Pizza sauce like the Blood of Jesus that covers up all of our sin, which is all of the mistakes that we’ve made.

Ephesians 1:7 (Message) 

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! 

Because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, if we ask God for forgiveness from when we messed up, we don’t have to face the punishment for it. It goes even further than that,
Psalm 103:12 (NLT) says,
He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

That means that when we ask for forgiveness, God no longer associates us with the sin or the bad things that we have done.

Once we’ve accepted Jesus, and we have had the Pizza sauce added to our lives, then we get the Holy Spirit that is added on top. Listen to what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit in…John 14:26

John 14:26 

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 

Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit to help us in our daily lives, to teach us the things we need to know, to empower us, and so that we can also be filled with the Holy Spirit and be able to use the Gifts the Holy Spirit has to give us.

Once we have a good crust that has been reshaped by God, have the Pizza sauce from Jesus, and have plenty of cheese from the Holy Spirit… Then we receive the toppings. The toppings of the pizza are like a training program. This is where we become devoted learners and followers of Jesus as the Holy Spirit starts to teach us.

While God adds the toppings to our lives, we start learning all kinds of things.

We learn how to study our Bibles, how we should act, we learn about Prayer, how we should live, how we should serve, how we should give, we learn how to tell others about Jesus, and we learn so much more. This is also how we get to know God on a much deeper level.

Jeremiah 29:11 

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

God wants you to succeed in life, and He wants the very best for you. But in order for that to happen you have to submit to God as the Maker and Creator of your life. You have to allow Him to shape and mold you into the person He wants you to become.

If you allow God to shape and mold you, like a Pizza Maker makes a pizza, then your life will change. You will see God in a way you might not have seen before, and you’ll learn about things you never knew before. When you submit to God and allow Him to take control of your life then you will see things and go places that you never thought were possible. And if you submit to God, and let him shape and mold you, then he will call you to do something Extraordinary with your life.

Leadership Principals From the Life of Moses: Leadership Devotional

Have you ever been asked to do something that you lacked the confidence to do because of something that stood in your way?


If you have, your not alone. God called Moses to free the Israelites from their misery in Egypt. After God called Moses, he immediately started asking questions to avoid what he was being asked to do. "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" "What if they don't believe me, or listen to me and say, 'The Lord didn't appear to you?'"


Each time Moses asked a question God answered him. When God answered, he taught Moses exactly what to say so he could do what God was asking of him and the Israelites would listen to him.


Lets look at what happens in Exodus 4:10-17:

Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” 

The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” 

But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.” 

Then the LORD’S anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it.”

Now we see in verse 10 what Moses' real excuse is. Moses was not eloquent, and he was slow of speech and tongue. Some Bible scholars tend to think that Moses has a speech impediment. What I think it comes down to is that Moses was embarrassed by his inability to speak well in public, and was afraid that he would fail at the task God had given him.


I don't know about you, but I know exactly how Moses felt at that time. When I was in second grade my mom noticed that I couldn't read, so she had me tested. We found out that I have a learning disability called Dyslexia. In fact we were told that I had the worst case of Dyslexia the state of Oklahoma had seen up to that point. Because of my Dyslexia, I had to repeat second grade, attend special LAB classes to help me learn to read. Needles to say, I hated reading and had not confidence to read out loud.


I had to tell you that so I could tell you this story. You know how teachers love to ask their students to stand up and read in front of the entire class? Well, in third grade my teacher asked me to do just that. She wanted me to come to her podium at the front of the class and read from our book. At first, I just ignored her hoping that she would call on someone else, but that didn't work. So, she called me to read again. This time I asked, "Didn't you skip over the girl in front of me? I think its her turn." Then my teacher got a little mad at me and told me to get to the front of the class and read. I stood up, grabbed my book, walked to the teachers podium, and started reading. After just a little amount of reading some of the kids in the class started laughing at me. Then the teacher asked me to stop, she told me that I had read the same line of text like 5 times, and on top of that I wasn't even reading the right paragraph. Let me tell you, I was embarrassed! What was even worse what that then my teacher came over and helped me read like a baby! It was mortifying! I never wanted to read in public again.


Thats how I know what Moses was feeling at the time. Even though Moses was afraid he would fail, God assured Moses that He would help him. Even with God's help, Moses still asked for God to send someone else to do it. (Thats what I was trying to do the day the teacher asked me to read out loud).


This kinda made God a little mad with Moses. So God said, "You know what, I'm still going to use you. I'll send your brother Aaron to help you. I'll tell you what to say, you'll tell it to Aaron, the Aaron will speak it as if the words were coming out of your own mouth. Not only that, but take this staff with you so that you can perform miraculous signs with it.


You see what Moses lacked here is confidence. He had no confidence in  himself to do what God said He would help Moses do. Moses thought he would fail at Gods plans because of his difficulties. But what he didn't understand is that God's plans never fail. God ended up giving Moses confidence through his brother Aaron. God used Aaron as Moses' spokesman. When Aaron spoke to Pharaoh and to the Israelites, they know that he was speaking for Moses.


As church leaders, we must have enough confidence in ourselves to do whatever it is that God is calling us to do. After all, it is God who called us to do what we do, just like he did with Moses. We all have difficulties that stand in our way. Moses wasn't a good speaker, I'm not a good reader, and you may have other difficulties that stand in your way. But no matter what it is, God will help you through that difficult thing so that you can do what he has called you to do.


In the book "Developing the Leader Within You," John Maxwell points out that there is a large number of leaders out there that have had some sort of difficulty that they had to overcome. Franklin D. Roosevelt was in a wheelchair due to his poor health and paralysis, and he lead us through World War 2 as the President of the United States. Albert Einstein had Dyslexia and never finished school, and today he is know as one of the greatest scientists of all time. Napoleon was a very short and scrawny man that lead a huge army at the end of the French Revolution, concurred Europe, and became the Emperor of France.


These are just three out of many world leaders that had confidence and overcame their difficulties in life so they could do great things. Now think about this, God has called you to be a leader in his church and within His people. That means that he will help you to do what ever it is that He has called you to despite whatever difficulty you may face. Think about how much more you will be able to do than the greatest leaders of the world because God is with you and helping you do what he has called you do to.


This reminds me of two verses:
Philippians 4:13 (Message) "Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am."


Romans 8:31 (Message) "So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose?"

Things to think about:

1. What has God called you to do?

2. What difficulty stands in your way?

Once you've taken the time to think about those to questions, pray and ask God to help you overcome your difficulties and give you the confidence it takes to do what He has called you to do.

Storm Chasers

Last night a really good thunder storm came through Oklahoma. So I decided that I'd try to photograph the lightning. After the storm moved past where we live, my wife and I decided to go chase it to see if we could get some more lightning shots. While in the car Bethany learned about long exposure photography while she was taking pictures while I was driving.

These are the images that captured the Thunder storm, and some of Bethany's photos from when she was playing with the long exposure. Click on the photos to see a larger copy of it.

Judgment Day May 21st

Earlier today one of my students facebooked me and asked this question:

Hey Pastor Adam do you believe what some christians are saying about the bible and how it say that only the true believers know the time jesus is coming to take us back and do you think may 21 is that time?

My Answer:

No, I do not believe that only the true believers know the time Jesus is coming to take us back. Matthew 24:36 says “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” Only God knows when He is going to return to take all of us with him. Head over to http://adammclane.com/2011/05/15/billboards-false-prophets/ This pastor has a good article about your question.

I do want you to know that the whole "judgement day May 21, 2010" thing is nothing more than a pastor trying to sell his book and scare people into heaven. HE IS OUT OF LINE AND OUT OF GODS WILL IN SAYING AND DOING WHAT HE IS DOING. In fact, if you go to his website he also says that the only way to get to have a secured spot in heaven is to buy his book and pay him money. Sadly, this pastor is doing the work of the devil and trying to scare people so that he gets richer.

These kind of things happen about 2 times each decade. Look at the past 10 years: At midnight on December 31 2000 the world was suppose to end; again in 2006 when the Ancient Chines Calendar ended the world was suppose to end as well; Now May 21, 2010 is suppose to be judgement day; and 2012 the world is suppose to end because the ancient mayan calendar ends. All these things are just rumors and scare tactics.

Just remember what Matthew 24:36 says. No one knows the day or the time that Jesus is going to return. All we know in reference to Jesus return is that it will happen someday and when he does, He will come like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Therefore, nobody that has ever lived on earth, not even the angels in heaven, or satan or his demons in hell would ever know the correct time and date of Jesus return.

The important thing to take away from this is that you need to be secure enough in your own relationship with Jesus that you know Jesus as your personal Lord God and Savior because it could happen any day.

Oklahoma Sky

These photographs were taken April 22nd at the Edmond Dog Park. They represent the Oklahoma Sky as a storm rolled in. The wind was blowing in from the northwest, but the clouds were moving in from the southeast. The clouds and color looked really majestic. Take a look and let me know what you think :D

These wouldn't be dog park pictures with out a picture of Lily at the dog park.