Paul

Grateful Ones
Our God Saves
Revelation Song
(I Will Live To Love You, I'll Trust In You/You Alone)

Jon

We need a hard road not a smooth road
Life doesn’t go the way you thought it would
Life doesn’t meet your expectations, how do you keep moving forward
What do you trust in? Where do I put my trust?

Lori

Will be stepping down from Children’s Ministry in January
Not leaving the church, just need to put family first

Jon

Jeremiah 17:5-8
It’s hard not to trust other people
It’s easy to trust the things we’re good at
If you put your trust in yourself, in something that fails, your heart will harden and turn away from God
It’s wounds
When the heart gets wounded it tends to protect itself, to harden itself
Something to plug into, to get life from
The shrub in the desert is waiting for something to rescue it
We’ve all felt that sense of waiting for a rescue
What are you drawing life from?
Where can we turn to in order to get life?
Career doesn’t provide life (it ebbs and flows), spouse isn’t designed to, kids grow up and leave
If people really know us they might not love us
Do we trust Him with friendships?
You are cursed if you put your trust in something that isn’t designed to provide life
Curses are shaped like words
We setup idols in our hearts – in order to have contentment and peace
What happens when the idol is being pleased – the idol will grow and bless you
We all set standards – ours, parental, society’s
The moment you come up short, the idol will curse you with words
You are a failure
Our identities are wrapped up in our career, our kids
The moment our child fails….
The moment our children misbehave in public
Get your kid under control
The idol rises up and curses you
Difficult to protect our reputation
We will gossip, slander, say things about others in order to protect it
Repay evil with evil instead of turning the other cheek
Lie: God can’t be trusted with our feelings
Permeates and pounds on the human heart and we wind up with a …
Viktor Frankl
Jewish psychologist
1938 – taken into Auschwitz
“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way” (Man’s Search for Meaning).
Psalm 42:5
Soul = identity
Set aside …
Why are you so downcast, self?
Put your faith into trusting and loving God
Jeremiah 17:7-8
the Lord – Yaweh – God who saves
Human heart planted by water
God is living water
Not giving into fear
No anxiety
God takes care of life’s details
THESE are the things that are important
How do we determine where your root system is going down?
What do you worry about the most?
Where do you go to get joy? Where does your heart go to renew your passion?
What does your heart gaze at?
Your roots might be going into a relationship, your spouse, your children
Run into the achievement ring
Where does your mind go?
When you identify these things, are they cursing you or blessing you?
Floods don’t nourish a desert
Waddi’s, flash floods
When is that thing going to come along that I need + God, not God alone
Prosperity will come along and it will be the worst thing that happened to you
Your roots will go into it and become an idol that if you don’t feed it, it will crush you
What happens to a human heart that draws life from God
They will be blessed but won’t sink their hearts into it
I’m going to praise You no matter what
Talk to your soul and remind it how valuable God is to us
Jesus Christ thirsted so that we wouldn’t have to
He learned what it was to thirst
Ephisians 3:14-19
What are you rejoicing in tonight?
Pure and simple fact that Jesus gave up everything to provide for us?
We must go and bear fruit
If you need life, derive it from the fruit
This is what it means to have His heart connected to mine
Holy Spirit – show me those areas in my life that I’m sinking my heart into…

Paul

Come, Now Is The Time To Worship (waltz)
Holy One (lindy)

Announcements

Paul

'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus – PD
Our Great God
No One But Jesus

Rob & Jill – Westside Pregnancy Clinic

Jon

Let’s talk about anger, what makes Jesus angry
Mark 3:1-6
Not angry with frustration, angry with grief
Observations
1. Jesus is not angry at how this affects Him personally
2. Most of our anger arises out of how it affects us
Angry at human injustice
3. Doesn’t carry it with Him (to use tomorrow at the lunch table), doesn’t stew over it
Amos 5:21-24
Divine anger, not human anger – not like the anger at home
Amos 8:4-6
Ignoring the needy
God will provide – He will see and He will respond
Using another human being is the worst sin…
What disturbs you more: a God who sees injustice and does nothing or a God who sees what’s happening and responds.
Human life is more important than the Sabbath.
5. His anger leads to healing and restoration.
6. What does your anger lead to?
Teachers trailed Paul and imposed rules
Galations 5:1-12
Live in freedom, not yoked in slavery
I want to do something about injustice
Don’t tell other people that the blood of Jesus hasn’t cleansed you enough…
When you walk into a church and they say you can’t wear a hat inside, when religious leaders heap rules on their congregation, He gets angry
An elder’s daughter got pregnant at 16
Elder said, “You made a mistake at 16, you’re not welcome anymore, you’re an embarrassment to your parents”
Woman from the congregation gave her a real choice: move in with me
The number one response for Christians in America: hates gays
Not loves people…hates
Shane Claiborne, “Irresistible Revolution” – I remember hearing about an old comic strip back in the days of St. Ed’s. Two guys are talking to each other, and one of them says he has a question for God. He wants to ask why God allows all of this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. And his friend says, “Well, why don’t you ask?” The fellow shakes his head and says he is scared. When his friend asks why, he mutters, “I’m scared God will ask me the same question.” Over and over, when I ask God why all these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, “You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my feet.”
Jesus angry at the Temple
Missing point of life on Earth / this is a house of prayer, not a house of profit
Act with a single eye, respond
What is rising up inside of me?

Paul

Everlasting God
Desert Song

Announcements

Paul

Paul jumped into a “God exists” debate on the Internet.
This thing we do, this faith we wrap ourselves in really matters.
Here I Am To Worship
Your Love Never Fails
Jesus Paid It All

Jon

Making The Invisible Visible
Matthew 6:19-24
Mustard Seed Movement
Highlighting various charities – this week – Mercy’s Village
100×100 virtual plots
Awareness helps
Repent
Teshuva – return to who you really are
the fullness of who you are in God’s very image
The Messiah has arrived
Treasures on earth vs treasure on heaven
Good/single eye vs roving eye
Light vs darkness
God vs money
What is Jesus trying to communicate
Have to put on our 1st century, Jewish spectacles
Good/single eye
Lots of great scholars say this text means utter devotion to God
Passion, discipline, following Him
What does that mean?
How do the images connect?
It’s either a or b, side by side comparisons
When you leave here tonight, fly out the doors and be passionate about God
As soon as real life hits us, we don’t know if we have passion or God
The West loves black and white steps
Trying to pay mortgage, do job, love family
Ebb and flow of passion
Might be great, but right now I’m angry at God or bored reading the Bible
Guess I have an evil eye
Very frustrating way to approach our Christianity
Sin management 101
So much more to it than that…
Scripture loaded with cultural idioms
In 21st century we have cultural idioms
Why do we communicate this way? Emphasizes the point
Without perspective, we might think the Jews actually thought that cats and dogs fell from the sky
Seeing, one’s whole outlook on life, your attitude towards others
Torah, Isaiah, old testament fragments
Jesus was 100% Jewish – launching from the Old Testament
Come up with names to describe aspects of God
Jehovah Jireh – provider
When he doesn’t provide what we think we need, our faith can flicker
Perceived needs vs actual needs
We think God is up there writing out checks, yes, yes, no
Cain and Abel
God will see, not only provider
We make a proclamation of truth – He will provide, He will see, He will respond
God has a good eye
He wants to partner with people
Exodus 3:7-8
Not only provides, sees, responds; He comes down
I will walk with you into the broken parts of the world
There’ so much more than having utter devotion to God
A person with a good/single eye sees the needs around them, then acts on those needs
They need people
Proverbs 22:9 – shares his bread with the poor
Proverbs 23:6
Proverbs 28:22
Active pursuers
Tikun elam – that which has been broken
Our final destination isn’t heaven – bu a new heaven and a new earth
Our home is RIGHT HERE
We are not storing up treasures in an ethereal vault
Song about a man who sprinkles a little Jesus in his life, goes to church, doesn’t curse, goes easy inthe Coors Light
Gets to Heaven and angel day let me show you your house
End of the road, tiny shack
That’s it
That’s all the lumber you sent
What is Jesus communicating
Lots of discovery about the cultural idioms of Jesus’ day
Poor limited in resources and choices
Store up treasures in heaven = give your money to the poor
Enter into the lives of people
People last forever
Luke 4:18
People who are pushed out into the margins
God sees what everybody goes through and He steps down into it
Be a people of action
Every act of justice, every word of truth, every creation of genuine beauty, every act of self-sacrificial love, will be reaffirmed on the last day, in the new world (NT Wright).
Don’t let it be all about you…
Be single eyed, make the invisible visible, make the unseen seen
Restore the relationships around us

Jon

Mustard seed movement
Take the teachings of Jesus and apply them
Plant small and care for it
How we use our tongues, our language; power/weakness
Kingdom movement
Matthew 26:47-51
How do we respond when life doesn’t go the way we think it should go?
Do-nothingness is a display of weakness
1. On the surface Peter appears strong as an agressor
Airport lines are great places for patience
Grumbler gets louder and louder
I’m so important
Starts swinging his sword
If we honk long enough, a secret portal will open to get you to work in seconds
So easy to draw swords, throw words
Prov 18 tongue
James 1:26
Can’t do nothing, shouldn’t throw words before gathering information
James 1:19
Matthew 26:50-54
You can see Jesus picking up the ear and saying: is this what you learned from me?
Matthew 29:10-11
1 legion of angels = 6,000
Jesus is all powerful and allows Himself to be captured
Matthew 5 – beatitudes
Meek demonstrates strength under control; restraint
Eye for an eye
Someone stabs you in the back, you stab THEM in the back
v. 39
Whatever you do, don’t become the evil that is being done to you
Don’t backstab in reciprocation
What takes more strength? Meekness
Our children are listening to us
Phone calls, “private” conversations, etc
2 Corinthians 12:9
Tired of pretending
Taking of this mask…welcome to strength
Can’t control this person, I surrender
Welcome to strength, welcome to freedom, welcome to the kingdom of Heaven
Tired of always finding the answer
What can I do to help bear your burden?
Can’t strive to be weak – waking up to current reality
We are ALREADY WEAK
Are we willing to embrace that fact?
Vicious cycle
Can’t control ANYTHING
Power of community
Can’t say, sorry you’re feeling weak
Don’t just say you’ll pray for them
Where do you draw faith from? The community
If it wasn’t for that person, I never would have made it
Re-enacting what Jesus did on the cross
Be the presence of the Father
Hallelujah = Praise you God
Prayer and encouragement

Paul