The Meeting of the Minds

[Slide # 1]

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Message Series: Set or Reset

Message Title: Meeting of the Minds

Message Goal: Hello Christ’s following break covenant with bad ideas.

Rom 11.29 AMP

For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]

[Slide #2]

Scripture says that God’s grace is constant towards us!

God’s gifts and calling to us are irrevocable because God doesn’t change his mind...so no one else can change His mind either!

God can be stubborn because God is always correct!

▻God isn’t going to change His mind concerning us...

God is not going to decide suddenly to take our gifts away...if we chose to continually walk away that’s on us...however, God isn’t going to stop loving us or calling us.

This is why WE need to repent...because God cannot!

ref: Samson in Judges 16

[Slide # 3]

God calls us to repent...(not merely apologize) and turn so that we can again align ourselves with purpose and life...

How should we live knowing fully that as long as we have breath and life in us we can chose God because He hasn’t turned his back on us

What’s holding us up? A better deal?

[Slide # 4]

Luke 15 Revisited

• The youngest son KNEW that he could go home, even if only as a servant...
• The father was looking for him to get back on track (Why?)

• The oldest son DIDN’T understand the true nature of his father’s love...

✓Youngest would work to show his love and respect.

✓Oldest son worked to earn love and respect

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[Slide #5]

Repentance = breaking a covenantal agreement with a bad ideas...

The human mind and will are so strong that God Almighty honors them!

We have to change our minds...and God will help us...because God will never change His mind.

Look @ oldest son: (Luke 15:20-30)

But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

“He’s your favorite!”

He sees this as transactional and not relational...

[Slide # 6]

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

[Slide # 7]

Joshua 7:12 NIV

12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.

Challenge: Don’t give up on your call just because the enemy has convince you that God has given up on you!

• Respond to sin that God has shown you by asking for help resisting it
• Commit yourself to understand God’s way of doing things (studying about Him)
• Slow up in the fast lanes...Pedal up in the narrow lanes!
• Learn to appreciate God’s grace without abusing it.www.folmadison.org

180 Degree Turn

[Slide #1]

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Teaching Series: Set or Reset

Message Title: 180º Turn

Lesson Text: Luke 15:11-24

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[Slide #2]

Repentance = metanoia (after/behind ones mind)

Repentance (metanoia) = After thought rather than Former thought. A change of consciousness.

Repentance = New perception ➙ New reality ➙ New rules of conduct

If you separate out “sorrow” or “emotion” from repentance, what do you have?

Repentance = Correction. Radical turn.

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[Slide #3]

☛A 180º Turn (Surrender): A 180º from self-love, self-trust, self-promoting, self-interest filled lifestyle to a self-committed (God-empowered) surrender to God.

With a 180º change...you turn your back on something!

Who will it be?

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[Slide #4]

The Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15:11-24)

¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. ²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate. 

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[Slide #5]

Luke 15 is the Chapter of Lost things:

1. Lost Sheep (naturally)
2. Lost Coin (accidentally)
3. Lost Son (purposefully)

Luke 15:10 (New International Version) 

⁸ “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

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[Slide #6]

Voices in head of the youngest son (Voices in our own heads...)

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• “You’re out here by yourself...” (pity)
• “Ain’t nobody looking out for you...” (neglect)
• “Yeah, your father & brother are old-school...all they want to do is work. You’re young...you deserve to ‘taste’ the good life...” (undisciplined)
• “When the old man dies...he’s gonna leave the business to Jr. and Jr. ain’t going to do you write. At the risk of insulting your father...jump the gun and get what’s yours right now...” (Premeditating a strategy based upon inaccurate information. No accountability)
• “No...go buy yourself some friends, some love, some comfort, some identity, some manhood, a good life!!” (The anticipated upgrade is a backslidden condition called demotion, demoralization & defamation of our own character to stoop to buy identity and love when you have it.)

*The money runs out...and so do the buddies, lovers and fans.

• “Oooooh, you messed up! You can’t go home now...everyone will say they told you so!” (entrapment...you can’t recover...you can only hide)

☛The son remembered the last time he was loved. (He hadn’t recognized love because he wanted comfort and recognition rather than discipline and servanthood). That love was from his father.

[Slide #7]

Voices in his heart... (True repentance begins with God’s voice of truth)

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• “You’re already a slave...be a slave to someone who honors you and will never take advantage of you.”
• “You’ve broken fellowship with God and with your father! Admit it and throw yourself on the mercy of both.”

Reality...

• The father was looking for him & ran to him
• The father didn’t allow the boy to finish his speech...he knew what that world would do to a young talented man...which is why he tried to protect him from that cruel world.
• The father knew that repentance is saying “I’m sorry” it is “being sorry, hence being changed” and making necessary changes to live out that new reality.
• The father threw a party for the party-boy!!!!!!

[Slide #8]

Challenge & Next New Steps:

• What are the voices in your head telling you about your life?
• What is the voice of the Spirit saying in your heart?
• What will you turn your back on today to live in the Presence of God?
• Denounce your allegiance to a mindset that enslaves and demeans you by coaxing you to live in a manner that defames the image of God within you.
• Do a 180º turn on the empty, unfruitful living! There is no substitute for the robe and ring and feast that you are turning our back on.

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www.folmadison.org

Regaining Confidence in our Confident Confidant Pt. 2

*Here are passages that relate to Revelations chapter 2. The church at Ephesus lost it's first love...a passion for God and people. God is jealous when something else takes His place in our lives. Take a look at these passages.

Pastor Alex

Bible Passages re: God’s Jealousy

1. Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
2. Exodus 34:14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
3. Deuteronomy 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
4. Deuteronomy 5:9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
5. Deuteronomy 6:15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
6. Deuteronomy 32:21 They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
7. Joshua 24:19 Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins.
8. Nahum 1:2 [ The Lord’s Anger Against Nineveh ] The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies.
9. Acts 7:9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him

Regaining Confidence in our Confident Confidant

Series Set-up:

• All out in this season (2013)
• We’re missing the mark
• Sin = Missing the mark
• Our lives are so strategic to God...God’s call to us is so poignant... Life’s greatest fulfilled is in answering that call...regardless of the cost!
• “No one should be more joyous than the saints/people of God” {I want this back}

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? (Galatians 5.7)

Favorite childhood responses: “No!” & “I don’t know...”

⤳ Parents: We wanted children to think thru actions and answers so that a better way could be chosen.

John Maxwell ~ Paul saw life as a race to be run; a battle to be won; a trust to be kept. 

⤳ I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.  (John 10. 10)

• God has major, abundant plans for your life; better than you’ve ever dreamed

⤳ Life is precious! A life with purpose is sweet; Life with purpose and a Just God to fulfill that purpose is irresistible

1

We often miss the Promised Land (a place promised, provided and prepared by God for our fellowship and collaboration) for a Land of Promises (...give me that God and I promise...I’ll be satisfied...i’ll be good...I’ll be prayerful...I’ll be thankful...I’ll be effective)

Sermon Set-up

Book of Hebrews:

• Christianity spread throughout Mediterranean world
• Written around early 60s to Roman Christians
• Roman had about 1 million people (40K-60K were Jewish)
• Suspicion and persecuted had broken out against Christians & Jews
• By the time Hebrews was written (unknown author), the spiritual climate had waned terribly. Some were leaving the Christian faith
• This book is written as a pastoral response to struggling people to encourage both obedience and endurance.
• Hebrews lays out what God has spoken about and through His Son
• Jesus was an example of enduring faith during his suffering and is our Heavenly support as Lord of Universe.
• Our perseverance in the faith will be only as strong as our understanding of Who Jesus is and what he has accomplished for our benefit.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Message Series: Hit The Reset Button: Getting Back on Track 

Message Title: Regaining Confidence in our Confident Confidant

Message Bible Verses: Hebrews 10.22-25; 35-39

Message Goal: Stir followers of Jesus to great works of faith,  compassion & service.

Let’s draw near. Let’s hold fast. Let’s Consider others & stirs them up! 

✢Week One: What Got You Off Track?

Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no vision, the people perish..."

⤳(Loss of Vision) Not just Lack of Vision ...everyone has vision...Inappropriate vision:

• Looking Back: "No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Luke 9:62

• Israel’s exodus’s twists/ “We should’s stayed in Egypt!/Pillars

• Looking At What Others Have: (Never satisfied & always comparing) 

• 1 Kings 8 Israel wants a king like the other nations

➥Comparing always breeds dissatisfaction.  Always!

➥Lack of appreciation

• Looking At Circumstances: 2 King 6.16

• Not Keeping our eyes on Jesus (Peter on the water Matt 14)
• Looking to Jesus as an example of the faith (Heb 12.2)

➥What you look at or look for...determines what you will see.

➥Samson looked a backstabbing opportunist and saw a wife?

⤳ Loss of Passion = Passive (non-reactive) ➙ Passé

Synonyms: acquiescent, nonresistant, resigned, tolerant, tolerating, unresistant, yielding

Part A. Becoming Casual about God

• The Lord instructs us to have disciplines because it is not natural to worship due the self-absorptive nature of humans.

• I don’t not miss my strict legalistic past, however, what I gleaned what that God was not to be taken for granted.

Part B) Becoming Casual About People

• Only parable about a person being in hell depicted a wealthy person who was unconcerned about someone who God was concerned about. 

⤳ Loss of Accountability = Loss of shareholders/Investors

• Find a fruitful person...examine their circle of influence
• If fruitful person has bad circle...they’re slumming and what you think is fruit or success is only a mere shadow of who they can be.

• Find an unfruitful person...examine their circle of influence
• If an unfruitful person has a really good circle...then they are trampling valuables in the mud and living a very sad life that life-givings can’t lift them.

⤳ Loss of Self-control = Lack of moral judgment and license to kill vision

• A person who won’t maintain self-control cannot properly be led by the Spirit

• Sloppy living becomes en-vogue and grace becomes “Whiteout” rather than “Auto Spell-Check”

• We become dull to God, Who, is the Only One Who assures the success of His great plan for our lives.

Challenge/Next Step:

• Get your mojo back by learning to fix your eyes on Jesus. Scripture study, fellowship, and service are 3 of the best ways to get a clear picture of Who Jesus really is. Make a commitment to all 3 in this season. Start with a commitment to one of these this week and keep building.

Now You See Me...Now You Don't (Epiphany Sunday 2013)

Epiphany Sunday Jan 6, 2013

Sermon Title: Now You See...Now You Don’t

Bible Text: Matt 2.1-3; Matt 3:16-17

The Wise Men

When Jesus was born in the village of Bethlehem in Judea, Herod was king. During this time some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and said, “Where is the child born to be king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard about this, he was worried, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem. Matthew 2.1-3

Jesus’ Baptism

16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:  And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:16-17

*Definition of Epiphany/East v. West Celebration. Age of Celebration

Epiphany isn’t accomplished via introspection, self-improvement or even astute study. Epiphany is a revelation from God. A God-shown light on something that had been hidden or obscure. The only thing you can do is stand near the Light so that you can see what is unveiled by the Light.

☞Remembering the Epiphany reminds us that we also have been sought out. God has come looking for us through His Word and Sacraments. Through these He has revealed His Son to us personally, so that through faith we know Jesus to be the mighty God, the Savior of the world; and we believe Him to be our God and our Savior. But God condescended to us hence incorporating the willing ones into his Body/Family.

☞The whole of God is now available for every human being who wants him.

• ☞Epiphany as a literary style: moving from ignorance to insight....In a spiritual sense it is moving from human oblivion and denial to Holy transformation

• Epiphanies come in order to display what has been hidden. We are to draw conclusions from the Epiphanies and determine what God is saying to us.... We are then to act accordingly.

• Epiphanies build trust ( reliance upon the nature of...) by demonstrating the Father’s good nature.

• God want us to see His so that we can understand Him & obey Him.

Why Epiphany is difficult: Peter had one re: Jesus and was praised for his insight. As soon as he turned around---- Jesus rebuked him for telling Him that He wouldn’t die. Peter had to understand who Jesus was and what that meant. The Son of Man came to give His life for many. (Matt 16; Mark 8; Luke 4)

*The key that Peter did really “get” it was that Jesus told him that the Father had revealed this to him....What did people do with that revelation?

 Once you try to see Jesus for your own purposes........he’ll shake you. Herod didn’t find Him. (Matt 16:13-24) [NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON’T!]

...It’s why Herod couldn’t find him...

☞ Epiphany came with a cost! It comes with a cost. It’s worth every expense!!

Hagar: I see the God who sees me Gen 16:13-15

Challenge: Ask God for the Epiphany that will put your life and soul on track with His greater good.

Call to the table: We celebrate what they didn’t at the first passover. We are sought after...We are seen...Hence no longer invisible. 

www.folmadison.org

Greater Wealth

[Slide #1]

Legacy: A gift by will, especially of money or other personal property: A bequest. 2) Something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past 

A legacy that is shared is even sweeter because it keeps us accountable:

• We’re reminded that it is not from/for us.
• We’re chosen for a purpose
• God’s gifts are given for a purpose

Israel’s great sin was they didn’t hear (hearken) God’s heart as he explained their heritage to them. They created a parallel reality that allowed them to justify their blessings. 

• (It is easier to believe that undeserving creatures deserve God’s blessings than it is to believe that a perfect God would chose to leave us a legacy!”)

• We are so duped by the enemy that we believe that God calls fun sin. Actually, the only things that are true sins are the things which destroy our shared legacy with God.

• The magical message of Advent is as humbling as it is astounding!
• God didn’t merely come to Earth to die for us...
• God didn’t merely come to Earth so we live for Him
• God didn’t merely come to Earth so that we could live in Heaven together
• God came to Earth in order to share Himself with us so that we’d share ourselves with Him and with others

God came to Earth to live out Heaven’s reality in a realm that once ousted Him.

[Slide #2]

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, ²⁵ choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. Hebrews 11:24-26 (ESV)

Sermon Title: Greater Wealth

Sermon Series: Shared Legacy

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Sermon Aim: Help redefine wealth and rethink a better strategy for acquiring it.

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Biblical Commands:

• Love your neighbor as yourself
• Love your wives as your own bodies
• Love your enemies

• We see acts of kindness today. We rarely see the Mo. Theresa acts:
• The individuals who deny they rights to access, privilege, prestige so that other may indulge in the same.

• Lady Di
• We are the world; Comic Relief; Farm Aid, etc. (they help but...)
• Line from Soul Man (C. Thomas Howell)

• What did Moses see, hear or feel that caused him to turn his back on it all?
• What is all?
• What did Jesus see?
• What is joy? How did it obscure...or better yet...downplay the ridicule of the cross?
• How did Moses calculate wealth?

[Slide #3]

Challenge/Questions/Next Steps:

• Rethink legacy for your life. Ask God for a revelation of it. (Challenge)

• What is it that God is offering you that is too large to receive on your own? What is so grandiose that God is sending people to you to help you accept it? (Question)

• Begin to undo the lies of our sworn enemy that say: “I’ve got this on my own!” (Next Steps)
• www.folmadison.org

Mary's Why (2012 Christmas Celebration Program)

[Slide #1]

Sermon Title: Mary’s Why

Sermon Theme: Shared Legacy

Aim: That believer’s will know their Why

He cares for me, his humble servant. From now on, all people will say God has blessed me. (Luke 1:48 CEV)

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⁴⁸ because he has ·shown his concern for [noticed; looked favorably on] his ·humble [lowly] servant girl [1 Sam. 1:11]. [^LFor look/^Tbehold] From now on, all ·people [^Lgenerations] will ·say that I am [call me] blessed [Ps. 138:6], (Luke 1:48 EXB)

☛ Mary’s miracle was costly and embarrassing

☛ Good News: Not only good because of what it stated, but to whom it stated!

☛ God’s fate...and plan for the world is in the hands...and wombs...of two willing women

• God sends messages to...(Luke’s account):
• Zechariah from priestly family of Abijah (Luke 1/ 1 Chronicles 24)
• One month later God sent Gabriel to Nazareth to Mary who was about 15 years old (Lk 1.26) & told her about Jesus and about Elizabeth/John (Lk 1.36)
• Mary leaves Nazareth for Galilee to see Cousin Elizabeth
• Elizabeth hears Mary’s voice and John leaps in her womb
• Elizabeth confirms God’s gift and Gabriel’s message to Mary.

[Slide #2]

Mary’s Song: (Luke 1.46-55)

• So be it
• I praise God because He cares for me and the humble
• He drags rulers from their thrones and scatters the proud
• He feeds the hungry
• He is always merciful to His people
• The made this promise to Abraham and our ancestors... (Shared Legacy!)
• This was Mary’s Why!

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[Slide #3]

What did the why cost her? 

Positioning yourself for a miracle

• Accept it’s reality...miracles defy reality and reason.
• The acceptance of God’s promise is the end of normal life!

• Accept it’s cost...it’ll make you an outcast (My grandmother’s story re: Popoff)

• Travel to nurture it...put yourself out!

• Hang with miracle magnets

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Umbilically connected with God 

• Joined together by or heavily dependent in a close relationship.

• Adjacent to or located near the navel; 

• Serving as or containing a conduit through which power is transferred, 

[Slide #4]

The umbilical cord carries nourishment from the mother to the fetus and metabolic waste from the fetus to the mother via the blood circulation. The umbilical cord enters the fetus in the center of its abdomen. The umbilical arteries carry blood from the fetus to the placenta, which delivers oxygen and NUTRIENTS to the blood. The umbilical vein then carries the oxygenated blood back to the fetus. (Beltina.org encyclopedia of health)

Because o the faith and faithfulness of Mary: “THE SON OF THE MOST HIGH WAS “UMBILICALLY”TIED TO A LOWLY JEWISH GIRL” ~ Gire from his Moments Series

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⁷⁷ You will tell his people that they can be saved when their sins are forgiven. ⁷⁸ God’s love and kindness will shine upon us like the sun that rises in the sky. ⁷⁹ On us who live in the dark shadow of death this light will shine to guide us into a life of peace. (Luke 1.77-79 CEV) ~ Zechariah to his son, John at his birth.www.folmadison.org