Monday morning bullets

Here are some "bullets" from yesterday's message.

• " If you always tell the truth you never have to remember what you said.”
• Truth is an essential element of worship.
• If we say God is good and holy then the best way to worship Him is with honest truth.
• Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.-John 8:32
• Freedom means we have the opportunity to love God/love people.
• Freedom means we can explore the character of God without fear of rejection.
• Freedom means we can explore who we are without fear that what we find will be insignificant.
• Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
• Jesus IS truth. If truth is insignificant then Jesus is insignificant. That is not the case so truth must be a significant part of our lives today.

Just a few points from the message that I thought I would share here.

Family

Today I am struck from all sides by the importance of family. It started this morning when my wife reminded me that tomorrow is going to be a fun "family" day. We have both intentionally blocked out tomorrow so that we can all do something together as a family. Then on my way to the office I left messages for two people out in the mid-west that we consider to be a part of our "family". I was then working on my sermon for Sunday and received a phone call from a friend letting me know that they will not make it to Bible study tonight because they have had a crazy week and need to spend some "family" time together.

There are so many families that are satisfied with just cruising along and slowly drift away from each other. It is encouraging to see families that are making intentional moves towards each other. It's not always easy and I know I'm not always the best at it but having a family is so special we all need to constantly ask ourselves..."what moves am I making towards my family?" How many, different, way have I told my spouse I love her/him? How many times has my child/children had my undivided attention lately?

I am constantly trying my best to improve as a pastor. I am always trying to learn new things. I always want to grow as a leader and a pastor. But if my family crumbles then ministry will instantly seem very empty. Please pray for your family and mine that we will all be intentional about building strong families.

Duffy Robbins

Last week Logan, Randy, and I had the opportunity to sit in on an all day workshop led by Duffy Robbins. The whole idea of our time together was to answer the question..."How do we more effectively communicate the gospel?" While Duffy was specifically referring to speaker with youth, much of what he said pertained to adults as well. Here are some bullet points I took from the conference.

• who you are is more important than what you say
• profanity tends to shut people down
• "My heart was filled with love, my eyes with tears, my mouth with arguments"-John Wesley
• It's not what we say but what they hear.
• The more concrete the illustration the more weight it carries.
• Repetition can be a good thing.
• The average American watches 21.8 seconds of a 30 second ad online.

Natalie pics

I just wanted to add a couple of Natalie pics to my blog before Allison put them on her's...teeheehee...

FIA

Wow! What a day we had yesterday! God did so many cool things as we reached out to the community yesterday. As you saw in my previous post we had many jobs to do at the ballpark and everyone tackled them with energy and excitement. God supplied people who were willing to cover the nursery so others could work. God provided cold drinks for everyone at just the right time. God allowed us to make some connections with some of the coaches from the ballpark. God worked out a minor problem we had with some of the paint. God made sure we had plenty of supplies. God helped people connect with each other in a new way that they had not been able to do on Sunday mornings previously. God supplied plenty of great attitudes all the way around and showed us what He can accomplish by allowing us to follow Him as a group.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who participated in the ballpark clean up yesterday. Thank you for allowing God to work through you to make an impact on this community. Thank you for being the church outside of the "church" walls. Thank you for just being you.

Faith in Action

I am excited about this Sunday. As a church we are going next door to the city ballparks and cleaning them up the best we can. We are going to rake, pick up trash, paint over graffiti, clean bathrooms, and whatever else we can think of. The goal is to love our community with God's unconditional love. We're not trying to get people to recognize what a "good" church we are. We're not trying to convince people they are going to hell. We are simply trying to love the community around us. If we can't impact the place right next to us then how in the world can we expect to impact someone far off?



If you are a member of WJACC here are a few tasks and supplies we need.

Task-blow out leaves and debris from under the stands and from around each structure (concession stands, etc.) rake and bag
Tools needed: blowers (most likely gas powered), rakes
Task-paint bleachers, picnic tables, graffiti marks, etc.
Tools needed: paint brushes/rollers, paint pans
Task-clean bathrooms
Tools needed: sponges, rags, paper towels, brooms
Task-brush and paint parking pylons
Tools needed: wire brushes, paint brushes/rollers, paint pans
Task-pick up trash around park
Tools needed: hands

If you can help with any of these tasks and/or have any supplies that we can use please feel free to let me know.
This is going to be a great day of working as a body to reach into the community. Thank you to everyone who has already responded and is excited too.

forgiveness

Lately I have had more than one person ask me about Christ's forgiveness. It seems like some really struggle with whether or not they are forgiven for acts of sin committed after they believe in Jesus as their savior. What follows is the response I gave to one person recently.

At the core of Christ’s forgiveness is the issue of “identity”. In I Corinthians 6:9-11 the Apostle Paul is talking to the church at Corinth-the believers. As he describes those who “will not inherit the kingdom of God” he is reminding them that they are no longer these things. They are “new creatures” (II Corinthians 5:17) with new identities. They are no longer defined by their sin but rather are cleaned up and made right with God (vs.11). Then Paul spends the rest of the chapter encouraging them to “flee from sexual immorality” (vs. 18) and “honor God with your body” (vs. 20). In other words, act like who you are-let your actions/deeds fall in line with your identity in Christ.

Now you also mentioned Christ dying once for all sin (Romans 6:10; Hebrews 7:27). Hebrews 10:10 tells us that by His will “we have been made holy (pure, clean) through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Once you are made clean that cleansing lasts. At the time of Christ’s sacrifice all of our sins were future sins. Yet His sacrifice was sufficient to cover even these. There is nothing that I can see in scripture that tells me that sin I commit after knowing Christ is not covered by that same sacrifice.
The Apostle Paul spends a great deal of time encouraging the believers to leave sinful acts and grasp their true identity in Christ. He does this with the knowledge that even he struggles against sinful desires (Romans 7:15). As Paul tries to do what is good and right he knows that he can not fix himself but can only find his freedom in Christ (Romans 7:24-8:2).

I know this is a lot all at once but there are a few more scriptures that come to mind.

If you feel there is something in your life to confess to God then as you do so He is faithful and just to forgive (I John 1:9).

What does God do with that sin when He forgives? He forgets it. (Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:12 and 10:17)

When does God forgive? Right now. (II Corinthians 6:2)

I do not see anywhere in scripture where someone successfully “cleansed” themselves. If this were possible then verses like Galatians 2:21 would not exist or at the very least mean nothing.

I know this is not an exhaustive statement on Christ's forgiveness but it is a starting point. My prayer is that more and more people will experience the freedom that is available in Christ Jesus...not to gain a "license to sin" but in order to live the abundant life Christ freely offers (John 10:10).