Pentecost = the Birthday of The Church, But Where Is The Guest of Honor?

“...God is concerned about the spiritual, physical, and social dimensions of our being. The whole gospel is truly good news for the poor, and it is the foundation for a social revolution that has the power to change the world. And if this was Jesus’ mission, it is also the mission of all who claim to follow Him. It is my mission, it is your mission, and it is the mission of the Church.”  (Excerpt from Hole in Our Gospel by Rich Stearns, World Vision CEO)

“We have shrunk Jesus to the size where He can save our soul but now don’t believe He can change the world.” ---Anonymous

Pentecost = the Birthday of The Church, but Where Is The Guest of Honor?

Acts 1:6-8; Isaiah 61

What is the Good News?

• The arrival of the Kingdom and rule of God 

• It has been inaugurated by the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and empowerment of the Church via Jesus Christ Himself

Genesis-Malachi ~ Story Overview (God’s Partnership with Humanity)

• God goes first. No one is called to God.
• God establishes partnership 
• God endorses partnership
• Sin emerges and interrupts the partnership, dulls senses, creates a “self-help” consciousness
• Noah
• Abraham
• Jacob
• Moses
• Tabernacle
• Judges and Kings
• David’s Family Lineage
• Major & Minor Prophets
• 400 years of silence
• Messiah
• Holy Spirit
• Church
• We have become God’s chosen and betrothed people.

Will we...are we self-indulgent enough...to repeat the same sins as Israel?

Greatest Strength of the Church: It’s Mission; it’s God; it’s Power; It’s Witness

Greatest Weakness of the Church: It’s comfort; Its self-absorption & self-reliance; its fairytale understanding of Scripture; Its oblivion to its mission.

It’s taken millennia to move from Eden to Calvary; from Sinai to Pentecost in the Upper Room in Jerusalem. In 2000 years we have moved from cutting edge world-changers to egocentric money-changers who are addicted to status quo! #Geeisms

I must repent to the people of God:

• I talk more clearly about the call to membership than I do discipleship
• The Church is God’s vehicle for training, empowering and releasing His solution; The Church is not the Solution...Christ and His message are!

➢Pics...

• Jackie Hunt:
• Jacquesha Hunt:
• Kaleem Caire:
• Kim Barovich:
• Autumn Swain
• Terry Crawford
• Gloria Zeller
• Antony Ward
• Michael Johnson:
• Door Creek Church: Boomerangs
• Andy Anderson and Chris Rudolph
• Grace Episcopal Church:
• Renee Daniels: 
• Roxanne & Team:
• Brian & Tracey & Team:
• Alexandra Gee-Lewis:
• Lexi Gee
• Terryence & Kira:
• Xians in Thailand who did make-up and hair for prostitutes
• Countless others

Building this church is a test!

• This is a test of our faith!!
• This is a test to help us know what we are capable of doing via Christ’s power.

Opportunities:

• Pray walks
• Cookouts for neighbors 
• Meals to elderly
• Mentoring
• Tutoring
• Hospice concerts
• Emergency shelter for homeless families and women escaping domestic violence
• Detonating the self-loathing soul-bomb that exploding and imploding with our marginalized youth and teaching them their beauty and worth.

• Pimps know how to find the weak and defenseless and make profit from them
• Gang leaders know how to spot loneliness and talent and make profit from them
• Drug dealers know how to find the afflicted and easily addicted and make profit from them

• Liquor stores know how to spot hurting neighborhoods and make profit from them and Where is the Church?

• Prisons and corrupt systems know how to find 3 grade boys who can’t read....

• What do we see when we look outside?
• Something or someone to avoid?
• Something to redeem?
• Someone who needs hope?

Why the gardens? Why the SMCCC? Why the extra classrooms?

Because the King has come and he’s about the liberate the prisoners and they need somewhere to go and something to do after their release?

It’s the birthday of the Church and we need to grow up and act our age and not our show size! 

Come to the party! Invite others! No one wants to party alone...especially God.

A Compelling God in Goshen (Series: Go!)

☞Pastor Ford’s phone calls to me during inclement weather “carry-on” and how that felt to me. God is calling us to carry on...not in His stead...but with him.

Premise: God’s call to GO! is really a call to come...to Him.

• God is calling the Church to join Him in changing the world (High Calling)

• If the people of God merely go to church without becoming the Church and functioning like the Church...it has no power (ability to accomplish a task), authority (the right to exercise the power to accomplish the task) or purpose (true reason for being via acting out of one’s intended design.)

Much of what we call Church today isn’t recognized as Church by Christ!

• What God offers the true followers of Christ is power. When it isn’t use to liberate and support others it becomes manipulation and control. (Manipulation is when you power serves yourself and/or suppresses others when it within your power to free others.)...Enemy loves victimization because it keeps us drunk & needy. (2 vests)

• What God offers the church is authority. When it is not used to speak against evil systems and evil deeds, it becomes apathy. (Apathy is when you look the other way when it is within your power to do something to positively change the outcome.).....the needy are mere heart check-ups for the church!!!

• What God offers the church is purpose. When it isn’t used to further the dreams of God, it becomes perversion. (Perversion is when something isn’t used for it’s intended & productive design and it become harmful and distracting.) Partners

☞Jesus Appears in John 20:19:

●Walked-thru doors ●Peace! ●Showed hands ●Peace 2x ●Sends them ●Breathes 

☞ “Don’t Hold To Me!”

☞Goshen (GO!): Laying the Theological Framework of Going with God (Adieu)

(God speaks of Goshen:)Exodus 8:22-23 "'But on that day I will deal differently with the land of Goshen, where my people live; no swarms of flies will be there, so that you will know that I, the Lord, am in this land. 23 I will make a distinction between my people and your people. This miraculous sign will occur tomorrow.'" (NIV)

Goshen Background:

• Inhabited by Hebrews after Joseph resettled family there
• N.E. Nile Delta area ~ good place for grazing animals. A working community for those who build storage cities: Rameses and Pithom
• Rameses II, the most strategic and military might in the world was thwarted by the faith of women.
• Moses’ mom; the 2 midwives (Shiphrah and Puah); pharaoh’s daughter (foster mom) 

****Application****

• Was Goshen a staging place when God needed to change people’s mind so that they could embrace their covenantal relationship with God & change the world.
• One God
• “God sees and cares for us.”
• God is really with us and remembers the Covenant!

• Israel left Egypt from here when they entered the wilderness. When times got hard...they wanted to return to here!!!

• We can’t get trapped in *Goshen. (Why are churches...and the world...are dying.?)
• God claimed that he would make a *difference between Israel and Egypt.
• Goshen is not merely *geographical...Neither is Canaan!

☞ The difference is to let Pharaoh know that God is in the Lord or better translated:

“I am YAHWEH in the midst of the land!” James Buckner

☞ Goshen was the wrong safe house! Only GOing with God is a safe house

• We have to leave familiar miracles in order to experience God’s fresh ones. We can’t keep returning to the site of the miracle. We have to pursue God’s miraculous purpose in the world.

• Jesus met them in a familiar place (Galilee) to send them to a very unfamiliar place (World).

• Christ came that the Glory of God might be revealed
• We are called to Go! & share that Glory~ carry it.

➢Why did first century church grow? 

●Compelling community ●Outreach to the world’s outcast ●Sharing God’s reality everywhere they traveled●They served & healed the world’s pain...

➢ The people who wanted to return to Egypt ignored their responsibility to live in a way that produced the Messiah in the world.

Challenge/Next Steps/Application

➢Our faith will be measured by our “Go!”

Closing:

➢With the Exodus...God didn’t merely hear their cry. He heard and remembered His covenant. (*God’s promise wasn’t merely to end slavery...it was to end slavery in order to fulfill the Covenant with Abraham)

• God didn’t save us for ourselves ~ but for something better...Partnership!!

• When we make Salvation that personal, we’ve idolized and trinketized God’s gift

• God designed you with Himself and the lost in mind. You are a chosen vessel

 “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’“Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel [urge & constrain] them to come in, so that my house will be full. ” Luke 14.22-23

Are you compelling witness?

The Payoff: Hush Money (Matt 28:5-15 NIV) Sunday, April 14

[Slide #1]

Message: The Payoff: Hush Money (Matt 28:5-15 NIV)

Series: The Resurrection Report: What Eyewitnesses Said They Saw.

****

[Slide #2]

Application, Challenge & Next Steps:

*Thrust of sermon is that satan still tries to bribe us be silent about the full truth of what we believe about Jesus’ power! He believes that if we’re silent...the resurrection will lose some of its power...in a way, he’s right!

▻I want the guards story to become our story. I want his conviction to become ours. We can give the bribery $$$ back!

*****

[Slide #3]

▻Judas...they world’s most notorious traitor...somehow knew that he deserved death more than reward for what he’d done.

• Before harming himself...he returned the money
• He thought he could live with himself with the blood money...
• He refused to die with himself with the blood money...

• ▻We try to keep the bribery $$$ and still worship Jesus!

****

[Slide #4]

▻What’s your price?

What did the system offer you to keep silent about what you know about Jesus?

• Prestige?
• Popularity?
• Comfort?
• Normalcy?
• Safety?

▻Perhaps we aren’t silent about Jesus’ resurrection...but we’re silent...or indifferent...about our own resurrection.

*****

[Slide #5]

The call from God today isn’t to punish us for our comprise and our hush money

The call of God today is to enjoy the power of His Son’s Resurrection and to become a part of the Kingdom that God has established.... His Son Jesus is the Sovereign Ruler over that Kingdom.

Stop being silent!

▻Stop being silent about your faith, your healing, your miracles, your dreams, your call. (Pray for boldness)

▻Stop being silent out of lack of information (Get into God’s word)

▻Stop being silent out of fear. Accept Jesus’ resurrection power into your life. (Pray with someone)

*****

Revolutionary Ambassadors!

[Slide #1]

“In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell, Author

****************

[Slide #2]

“Nothing beats a lie like the truth!” Big Mama, Grandmother

*****************

Introduction to Sermon..... (Jesus sets the record straight)

Being lied on wasn’t a new experience for Jesus

[Slide #3]

Message Title: Revolutionary Ambassadors!

Message Series: The Resurrection Report

Message Goal: To help believers to grasp their sentness 

*****************

✔In Matt 28 Jesus sends his followers out as Ambassadors to a hostile world and fully expects them to complete their tasks.

✔What is so significant about what Jesus is saying and doing?

✔Jesus restored meaning to the lives of the men and women who thought they’d lost purpose after Jesus’ arrest, conviction and execution.

• We’ve lost this. Families and churches should preach this. (Our secret weapon)
• My personal story and the sense of purpose, importance and honor I felt!
• How man kids that God has a plan for them? How many adults??

Jesus’ resurrection was true and that truth on human lips created a movement on Earth that carries weight and momentum to this day.

How the disciples attended his appearance, according to the appointment

• They went into Galilee, a long journey to go for one sight of Christ, but it was worth while. 

(Now was the time that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, 1 Cor. 15:6.)

That they worshipped him;

• Some doubted

Christ now is sending them out as his ambassadors, and here gives them their credible tools.

In opening this great charter, we may observe two things:

✔Jesus received himself from the Father. Being about to authorize his apostles, if any ask by what authority he doeth it, and who gave him that authority, here he tells us. 

✔The commission he gives to those whom he sent forth; Go ye therefore. This commission is given.

✔Go, and fear not, have I not sent you? Go, and make a business of this work. 

• As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, to excite them to fly (Deut. 32:11), so Christ stirs up his disciples, to disperse themselves over all the world. (2.) 

How far his commission is extended; to all nations. Go, and disciples all nations. 

Secondly, That salvation by Christ should be offered to all. 

Thirdly, The kingdoms of the world should become Christ’s kingdoms, and their kings the church’s nursing-fathers.

*Commission: Authorize someone. Authority is entrusted. Business is delegated.

• We were sent by God
• God was already at work
• We don’t work for God...we work from God.

[Slide #3]

Challenge/Next Steps:

• Commit yourself to becoming a Christ follower if you have not done so

• Ask God to help you believe that He has a great purpose for your life

• Acknowledge your doubt and commit to studying God’s word so that you will have the power to overcome doubt with proof and faith

• Receive prayer to overcome the emotional barriers, guilt, fear and deception that keep you from your sentness

• Go! Be a light.

Pardon Me! (Easter 2013)

[Slide #1] Acts 3:14-16 (CEV)

14 You rejected Jesus, who was holy and good. You asked for a murderer to be set free, 15 and you killed the one who leads people to life. But God raised him from death, and all of us can tell you what he has done. 16 You see this man, and you know him. He put his faith in the name of Jesus and was made strong. Faith in Jesus made this man completely well while everyone was watching.

****

• Jesus’ resurrection is a HUGE deal. Apostles preached it!
• It, along with Creative, were documentable proofs of God’s power and splendor
• Resurrection underscores Jesus’ ability to pardon us

Resurrection should be an occasion for reflection, assessment & decision for action.

[Slide #2] Message Title: Pardon Me!

Message Text: Micah 7:17-19

Message Goal: Motivate us to demonstrate the resurrection with our lives

[Slide #3] What is a Pardon?
A pardon is a method through which an executive authority legally forgives someone for a crime, and reinstates rights lost post-conviction. 

Clemency is the term for the action taken by the president in a pardon.  Acts of clemency include the president's power to pardon, commute (reduce sentence) and give respite (short term action of delaying sentencing to buy time.) and remission (act of releasing from a legal obligation to pay something back).

****

Many leaders pardon on their way out to avoid the backlash of public opinion. Jesus pardons as he ascends to the throne so that he can have fellowship with us...

Famous Presidential Pardons
Bill Clinton pardoned Patty Hearst. George H.W. Bush pardoned Caspar Weinberger, a man convicted for an illegal arms sale with Iran. Gerald Ford's pardon of President Nixon for the Watergate scandal. Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam draft dodgers. 

• A Pardoning Official does not pay any cost, serve any sentence or accept any culpability of the individual being pardoned. It’s usually a political move.
• Jesus fully satisfies the Father’s justice; demonstrates the Father’s love; Model’s the Father’s wisdom; Extends power to those being pardoned; Fully reinstates individuals granting them the right to be called free, redeemed, blameless & heirs.

[Slide #4] We were (Romans 3): Sinners (Lacking fortitude to obey God); Ungodly (Lacking character to be like God); Enemies (Lacking peace with God); Powerless (Lacking power to save ourselves)

****

Jesus’ resurrection was a reversal of everything laid on Jesus and on us!

Jesus was finished judicially, politically, spiritually, physically. He was done!

Religion, law, God, man and death had all seemed to have their way with him. He was wiped away!!

No power on Earth could rescue or reinstate him...

• Accused of blasphemy...God raised him and called him Son.
• Accused of sedition...God raised him as King (Savior & Lord)
• Hanged as a curse...God raised his as the savior of the cursed

[Slide #5] Resurrection is determined forever. It is a historic reality! What is in question is what will you do in light of it?

****

Robben Island:

[Slide #6] Challenges/Next Steps: Evaluate

• Evaluate God’s gift of love to you: The cost of the giver and the unworthiness of recipient
• Evaluate to the state of your spiritual life and where you need to be right now
• Evaluate the status of your Pardon and ask yourself if you know liberty
• Decide today to pray with someone for your pardon or for a reinstatement of your rights since your pardon

“Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities.You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:17-19)www.folmadison.org

Message Title: A Rich Inheritance

[Slide #]

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Message Title: A Rich Inheritance  

Message Series: Shared Legacy~Getting What’s Coming To Us

Message Goal: Motivate believers to claim their inheritance

What is our inheritance in Jesus?

****

[Slide #2]

➢Salvation: Being saved

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4.12)

Saved From:

Saved from the power of darkness (our enemy)

Saved from ourselves (evil desires and limited mindset)

Saved For:

Saved for God’s pleasure (relationship)

Saved for God’s purpose (bringing others in relationship with God)

Saved for God’s plan (restoring order in the universe)

****

[Slide #3]

➢Justification: Forgiven and made upright and in right standing with God

Luke 18:13-15

New International Version (NIV)

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner. 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

*Wealthy friend example

*College admission example

****

[Slide #4]

➢Deliverance: Being Rescued (Breaking the enemy’s power from influencing our influence)

Hebrews 2:13-15 New International Version (NIV)

13 And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says,“Here am I, and the children God has given me.” 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power(E) of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Liberty & Freedom: Maintaining our deliverance

Liberty: The Opportunity, Avenues, availability To Accomplish. Having Permission To Do Something.

Freedom: The Inward Fortitude, Faith, Confidence, Security To Pursue Your Avenues And Opportunities. *Self Determining. Being Able To Assert Inexplicable Spontaneity Or Self As Possessed Of So-Called Free-Will. (*Webster)

►Jesus grants us liberty. We must choose to be liberated. (Freedom). Freedom is the application of liberty!

****

[Slide #5]

➢We become heirs~1st rule of heirdom is sharing what’s been given to you. 

1. Romans 8:17 And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.

1. Galatians 3:29 And if you belong to Christ [are in Him Who is Abraham’s Seed], then you are Abraham’s offspring and [spiritual] heirs according to promise.

1. Ephesians 2:3 Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind.

****

[Slide #6]

Challenges/Next Steps:

• Pray with someone today if you haven’t surrendered your life to Jesus Christ...or if you aren’t sure if you have

• Commit to studying God’s inheritance to us (God’s word) and the life of Christ. (Wednesday nights)

• Ask God to show you how to have confidence in your inheritance.

• Learn how to share your inheritance with others.

Message Title: A Rich Inheritance (Pt. 2): God’s Spirit

[Slide #1]

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Message Title: A Rich Inheritance (Pt. 2): God’s Spirit 

Message Series: Shared Legacy~Getting What’s Coming To Us

Message Goal: Motivate believers to claim their inheritance

****

[Slide #2]

Question: What’s so rich about our inheritance?

****

[Slide #3]

Galatians 3:13-14 (The Message)

13-14 Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it.

Galatians 3:13-14 New International Version (NIV)

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.

****

[Slide #4]

Galatians 3:2; Joel 2:28; John 20:22; Acts 2:33 (Promises of the Spirit)

I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? Galatians 3:2

“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Joel 2:28

And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:22

Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. Acts 2:33

****

[Slide #5]

What Does God’s Spirit Grant Us?

• God’s nature

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1.3

• God’s power

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8.11 (NIV)

• God’s authority

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—John 1:12 (NIV)

****

[Slide #6]

God’s Nature + Power + Authority = Servanthood

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[Slide #7]

Challenging thought:

John 10:10 (NKJV)

10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

• Jesus came to give us life the way that God Almighty has it.
• Jesus wants us to live the way God does
• Jesus wants those who don’t know God’s love to know God’s love

What steps will you agree to take today to make sure that the spirit has free rein in your life today?