Monthly Archives: March 2010

The Rock Church Worship Service

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Paul

Better Is One Day
Everlasting God
Change Me (?)
Desert Song
Majesty

Jeff Goodrich, an opportunity and his story

1987 high school relationship
Married in 91
Kayla in 94
Didn’t change his role of husband to daddy
2nd child in 98
Julie sufferred post-partum depression
Didn’t know how to fix her, so he reclused into his cave
Put problem onus on the lack of things
Dedicated themselves to a church, but it didn’t help
Finally talked about giving 110% to their marriage
Now he understand for better or worse,
God took them completely apart and put them back together
23 years of being with her he finally gets it
Brad Paisley’s Van
Som friends are having or have had separations for foolish reasons
Once a month at his house
No workbook
Open to all men
In a relationship or about to be in a relationship
Not a Rock exclusive gathering
Scripture-based

Jon

Reflection of us as a people that we’re about community

1 Corinthians 15:1-11
1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand,
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.
3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,
Decided to run their own show, then they covered themselves, then they blame shifted
Opposite of Genesis 3
Gen 3
Cor preaching the gospel
Concepts of “get the gospel” and “are you saved?”
First importance means back to basics
March Madness
First two weeks of practice you’re just running: line sprints, drills, passing back and forth
Have to understand the basics before you can play the game
No matter how complex you get (Kansas), you can still get wiped out by this little team from Iowa
The church is growing and getting complicated
Cliques
We tend to make things too difficult or complex
The good news is better than you think
Paul is talking to the church of Corinth
Look at people more screwed up than us
Church in Corinth arguing over gender roles and money and sexuality and etc
All this stuff that was broken in Genesis 3
Relationships start to experience conflict
Getting out way ahead of yorselves
We try to make things to complex and too hard to fix
We forget about the basics
Why does Paul say “the gospel”?
Gospel, received, stand, saved
Gospel means the good message
Always brought by a messenger
The battle has been fought on your behalf, there was victory over slavery, and you are saved
Test: say you come into a church building, and see the figurehead talkig, here’s how you live a good life, here’s three methods, using the words of Jesus a a launching point? Take the sermon on the mount, don’t be angry or list in your heart or you will be judged
Read the sermon on the mount and say I want to live like that
I can’t live up to those things
Those are definitely goals to aim for
Golden rule – noble, lovely, worth striving for, not good news
Gospel is a technical term for messenger saying you don’t have to be enslaved, you are liberated, the battle has been won
What are you standing on? Is it good news
If you think the epitome of Christian life is to live a good moral life, you’re going to miss it
If you think that’s the gospel, you haven’t heard the good news
Dos and donts are not liberating
Is our way of life about to change?
Are you going to go back to your boring Monday existence if the battle has been fought and you are not enslaved?
Talking about needing to change
There are some things in me that I can’t change
Has the liberating news gone off inside of you?
We begin to build our lives on things, on our children – thy grow up and move away…how dare they!
v. 2 in vain
To walk away with indifference means you haven’t heard the message
If we’re going to get to the heart of Genesis 3
Liberation through submission
What is liberating about this objective body of truth?
Paul did not figure out the truth, the truth figured him our (the truth happened to him), and he told us about it
He experienced the truth, it happened to him
Saved – liberated, free
Western minds have a great understanding of what freedom is defined in negative terms – free from guilt, control, manipulation, shame
Look at the scripture – freedom is being yourself
When we look at God, is He the most free person in the universe
Can’t lie, can’t contradict, can’t seduce
Modern people hear that and say God is limited
Freedom is being able to do anything as long as we don’t hurt anyone else
The bible deconstructs that: real freedom means to be everything you were designed to be
Gospel – there is a set of truth that will set you free
Built to serve Him, built to be connected with Him
Freedom is not do whatever
So many conflicts in the human heart: I want to be thin but eat cupcakes; I want to be independent but love someone
Love is a covenant relationship that limits both sides
Certain things I have to give up to make it work
To be free means to love, to live within His design
The Golden Rule, the sermon on the mount – they will crush you
The gospel will liberate you
I’m going to sacrifice myself on the battleground, shed the blood you were supposed to shed and buy you back
You’re liberated! Someone has won a battle on your behalf and declared you His people
I’ve come to give you life
Only the rich would ride a donkey
Hosanna – God save us, be our deliverer
They thought His death invalidated everything He said
God deliver us, set us free

Paul

Hosanna

Anything Goes – Laguna Beach High School

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A delightful production of Cole Porter’s musical stone soup (nearly every song in the 1986 version that everyone does is from a different Cole Porter musical; the original Anything Goes is called the Beaumont version and is very rarely done), the kids of Laguna Beach High School do a fantastic job with a high school arts budget (even if it is a south Orange County high school arts budget).

Laura grew up learning a lot about boats and apparently the running lights were backwards – the green light is supposed to indicate the starboard (right) side of the ship and the red light is supposed to indicate the port (left) side of the ship. Of course this really doesn’t affect the caliber of the production, but it’s a great conversation piece!

Between Egypt And The Promised Land – The Rock Church Worship Service

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Paul

Hosana
Your Grace Is Enough
Jesus, Your Love Has No Bounds
Jesus I Owe Everything To You
I Receive

Jon

Between Egypt And The Promised Land
Government is killing Christians
Hebrews 1 God is speaking through Jesus
Not only is He superior to the universe, but also to the angels
Chapter 2 He is crowned with glory and honor
He is our High Priest
Didn’t lose His humanity
Nothing we experience, He hasn’t gone through
First 6 verses – superior to Moses
He is the builder of the house of God
Hebrews 3:7-19
Quotes Psalm 95
Jesus pulled us out of slavery
In this in-between time in our faith
Need to be a part of a community
Christianity is not a lome ranger religion
Coming into a new community
How do we do life together?
How does exhortation apply?
The tendancy of the human heart to harden
Painting a picture of wilderness
Dry desolate desert, not mountain/forest playground
Even Jesus went to the wilderness
Jesus had to learn how to build reliance on God
Psalm 95 represented Sabbath to the Jewish Christian
Entering into rest as they enter Sabbath on a weeky basis
Wilderness should not be settling down place
Not just physically but spiritually
God sends Moses their savior who brings them a whole new way of life
New plague every week, faith is going to be “hopping”
Pillar of fire, through the Red Sea
They celebrate
They go into the wilderness excited to tackle life in God’s Name
And He disappears
Mission trip cycle #1
We’re going to Uganda! Woohoo
We see God doing great things and then we realize how hard the work and the hunger and the thirst
Cycle #2 grumbling and complaining
Today if your hear His voice, do not harden your hearts
Exodus 17
Gather before Moses and complain
God isn’t meeting our expectations so it’s your [Moses'] fault
Does He take pleasure in our suffering?
Blame shift
It can’t be my fault that I’m unhappy (or the devil’s?)
Moses replies: Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test God?
Nobody likes to question God, to commit treason by betraying your trust in Him
Don’t drift from the faith so I’m going to show you what happens when you drift
People (present) as losing possessions and family members
God’s not meeting me timetable
Is He really involved in my daily life?
Don’t let your hearts grow hard
Children of Israel didn’t get into the promised land because they didn’t trust Him
They gave up trusting God
This person is bringing misery into my life
A hard heart demands things from God
When’s it going to be my turn?
What about me?
Most of our lives are going to be spent in the wilderness
If you look at history you see a common thing to spend life in the wilderness
Validating or discouraging, don’t end up like these people, don’t harden your hearts
While you’re living in this place, don’t put roots into it
We put a great deal of value on safety and comfort – we pray to it all the time
All of these things we sink our hearts in can make us happy – but what about the deepest needs of the human heart?
Relationships, friends, family, money, success – these things are not designed to fill the human heart
Doesn’t matter how many people warn you that nothing is up there – we have to learn it for ourselves
Every family passes away
Every body, every face is breaking down
Nothing on this earth is everlasting
Christianity is about joining a family
We’ve got all kinds of people in this family
A job is a great and tremendous blessing, but it can’t define you
’38 Special?
I was given this and now it’s taken away – what do I do with my faith?
Don’t sink your roots into these things
I need to be me, you need to be you, we need to be we
We begin to romanticize the past – slavery of sin wasn’t so bad
Wilderness experiences will far outweigh any other experience
Talk to those who have gone before you and they will agree
It’s hard to beleve in God when we think He’s not doing what we expect Him to do
Then when people start to do what we don’t think they should, our hearts flip out
Where do you run to?
The tendancy is to harden, become indifferent and demand
Isolation from the community
When you’re isolated the last thing you want to do is sing a bunch of songs about how good Jesus is
We aren’t any better than the Israelites
We’ve got the whole story and we still re-enact it in 3-D
You’re going to get cynical and pull away
The church can’t hurt you – people can
Don’t lump that into the building or the institution
This community is trying to live life together, trying to figure it all out
Hebrews 4:14-16
14 Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
15 For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.
16 Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.
The writer seems schizophrenic
There’s only one road, only one mediator – Jesus Christ
If you come to Him, you will receive mercy and grace
Do not harden your hearts, exhort, exhort || incredible amount of grace and mercy
Hebrews 2:13 exhort as long as it is today
Encourage one another daily
Make sure to wrap it in grace
Proverbs 1:5, 12:15, 11:14, 15:22, 10:24-25

Paul

Give Us Clean Hands

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An absolutely phenomenal movie. A breath-taking, story so epic that it’s been told many times before – but never this well. It’s the epic-sized version of Up! The obvious story comparisons are Pocahontas (colors of the wind and savages) and Dances With Wolves (haven’t seen it, I’ve just read the Wikipedia summation), but the futuristic angle does a lot more by showing history repeating itself and demonstrating the evils of man.  Made me think of Watchmen with it’s hunt for a new energy source.  But it’s really about not letting anything stand in the way – doesn’t matter if it’s sentient, just cast it as a backwards savage and middle-class America will swallow it like syrup (presuming America took over the Earth and that’s went on from there – we’re here in the name of Earth, not in the name of America).

Yay Stephen Lang! I’ve loved him since he told Martin Sheen that he has no division (General Pickett in Ron Maxwell’s equally epic Gettysburg) and he is phenomenal here as the toughest, bad-assest Marine commander ever.

Sam Worthington (from the Terminator movie I never saw), Zoë Saldana (Pirates of the Caribbean 1, Center Stage, etc), Sigourney Weaver, Giovanni Ribisi – everybody does a fantastic job here.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

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A very enjoyable movie.  Lots of star power: Sean Bean as Zeus, Catherine Keener as Percy’s mom, Steve Coogan as Hades, Pierce Brosnan as the centaur Chiron, Uma Thurman as Medusa, and Joe Pantolioni as Percy’s drunken slob of a stepfather.

I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know how it compares.  I was initially confounded at the mythology being presented to me – I’m told it’s supposed to echo Percy Jackson’s confusion, but I felt a little more confused than normal and found it harder to get my bearings in the mythology of the story.  It could be that I just ask too many damn questions about the mythology up front…

Not sure how I feel about the emphasis of the three brother gods of Greece being focused on – sure it kind of matches the patriarchal society that the mythology was founded on, but Artemis, Hera and Athena were just as big on the playing field as Zeus, Hades and Poseidon were.

I like how the gods are just as petty as the mortals, they just have unfounded power to wield and the world to screw over if they’re not happy.

I was very excited with the different Greek myths that were drawn upon (obviously in the original novel) for the story.  Things like the lotus blossoms and Persephone made me giggle with glee.

Jackson’s best friend Grover (tee hee) has some of the best lines.  The CGI used on his hybrid-ness was very well done and very impressive.  As was his little dance number in the Lotus Casino.

Summary: It’s the 21st century, but the gods of Mount Olympus and assorted monsters have walked out of the pages of high school student Percy Jackson’s Greek mythology texts and into his life. And they’re not happy: Zeus’ lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Even more troubling is the sudden disappearance of Percy’s mother. As Percy finds himself caught between angry and battling gods, he and his friends embark on a cross—country adventure to catch the true lightning thief, save Percy’s mom, and unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.