Archive for the ‘Sunday Recap’ Category

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’

Jesus was 40 days hungry. In his state of hunger the devil pays him a visit and tempts him.

“If you are the Son of God then…”

The tempter’s words are really important. He says “if you are the Son of God…” He could have said “if you are the Messiah” or “if you are the divine one.” He says “if you are the Son of God.”

That’s important because just a few verses earlier in Matthew we read these words:

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Notice how the tempter operates: he immediately questions Jesus’ identity. IF you really are God’s son then prove it.

Temptation begins first with our identity being questioned. Our identity comes from who God says we are. Identity isn’t something earned but something given to us by God.

Identity

When Paul writes to the Ephesians he spends the first three chapters of a four chapter letter telling them who they are in Jesus. In that three chapter span of the letter he never once commands them to do anything. He simply reminds them who God says they are. They are, Paul says,

blessed (1:3), chosen (1:4), graced (1:6), redeemed (1:7), included in Christ (1:13), made alive (2:5), raised up (2:6), brought near (2:13), members of God’s household (2:19)

We think we have to earn it but we can’t and we don’t need to. God says that this is who we are.

It’s a temptation of identity. Temptation happens as we don’t trust who God says we are.

Trust

And, temptations happens as we don’t trust that God is who He says He is. The temptation facing Jesus in the desert was a testing of provision. Was God really capable of providing or was He on His own? Could the God whose spirit led him out into that wilderness be trusted?

The tempter is suggesting that God can’t be trusted. The argument goes, if you are the son of God and if God is well pleased with you then why are you hungry? Why are you suffering? The God who leaves you hungry must not be who God says He is and can’t be trusted.

Shortcutting Suffering

Ultimately, temptation is shortcutting suffering. It’s an opportunity to take the easy way out.

We often think of temptation as being tempted to do something ‘bad.’ That’s not necessarily the case. The tempter doesn’t tempt Jesus to do something that’s bad. He tempts him to make bread. What’s wrong with that? On the surface, nothing. It’s how the bread is produced that makes the difference.

Jesus is ultimately going to produce the bread of life but when He does it is going to cost Him something. It is going to cost His life because He is going to be the bread that is given.

What the tempter is saying to him is to produce bread in the easiest way possible. Short cut suffering, short cut obedience, short cut commitment. Don’t obey the father to get these things, do what you feel like doing to get these things.

Temptation is usually to get something good but to get it in a way that excludes suffering by taking the easy road – a road that is not in obedience to the Father but to our own flesh. For example:

It’s not a bad thing to want to provide for yourself and for your family. The temptation is how to get those things. We’re tempted to steal work that is not our own and claim it as ours, manipulate processes for our self promotion, underpay employees underneath us to bolster our departments bottom line. It’s fine to want to receive money to provide for our family – that is not a bad thing – but how we get there makes all the difference.

The tempter holds up a picture of something good and says ‘look this is a good thing. Now get it in the fastest possible way. Get it in the way you won’t cost you anything.’

In our weakened state as our identity and trust is questioned and we’re drawn toward immediate gratification, we will not be able to resist temptation. In our own power we won’t be able to do it. But, thanks be to God, we don’t have to.

Jesus doesn’t avoid suffering. He doesn’t avoid temptation. He meets it head on. He defeats it. He took the powers of death and evil, nailed them to the cross, took them to the grave and left them there. He is victorious.

We have a God living in us more powerful than even death itself.

A recap of last week’s discussion. Listen online or download and listen whenever you’d like. Or, subscribe to our podcast and receive each week’s teaching automatically via iTunes.

John tells us that Jesus knows 3 things that night:

1. His time to leave was soon
2. Someone who would betray Him was in the room
3. All of the power and authority in the world was His

Knowing those 3 things, what did He do? He put on the clothes of a slave, bent down, grabbed a basin of water and a towel and began to wash the feet of his followers.

Peter tries to stop Jesus. He thinks he can clean himself up. Jesus insists ‘unless I wash you, you can have no part with me.’ Relationship with Jesus – sharing Jesus’ life – begins in our willingness to be cleansed where we are most dirty.

After Jesus had finished washing the disciples’ feet he returned to his place at the table with his disciples. He had some words for them. Essentially, He said ‘you are to do for others what I have just done to you.’ Out of the cleansing they had received He invited them to be cleansing agents in the world.

Will you do the same?

It’s our question as well. Will we follow Jesus to the dirty places of the world and there take on the form of a servant in the hope that what God touches is made clean?

Scripture We Read: Luke 24:1-6, 1 Peter 1:17-9, Romans 5:6-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

The message of the cross is a strange story. Paul says that it is foolishness to those who are perishing. From the beginning of the story of redemption, God’s activity has not made a whole lot of “sense.”

In Genesis 12, God decided not to give up on humanity but to use people to redeem the world. He decided to form a nation that would show the world who God is and what He is like. So, does He decide to find some really young fertile folks who could make a lot of babies in very little time? No. God chooses to work through Abraham and Sarah – two elderly lovebirds who have never been able to conceive a child. It seems to be a foolish plan.

It doesn’t stop there. God continues to operate in the world in ways that seem crazy. He chooses the younger instead of the older, the runt of the litter instead of the stronger. He arms his people for battle with trumpets (so they can have a worship service) instead of battering rams and flaming arrows.

Then, God has a Son who was born of a virgin – how crazy is that – in Bethlehem. As He grows He teaches with supernatural power. He is always talking about a kingdom and the people his kingdom is built upon are sinners, lepers, prostitutes, the poor, the outcast, and a few high school age fisherman. He quickly finds himself at odds with the powers and principalities and winds us crucified between two criminals.

When we look at the cross we are reminded of the King who said that in His kingdom the first shall be last and the last shall be first. We’re reminded that His kingdom is about love and not power. We’re reminded that His kingdom is about how to forgive not how to control. When we look at the cross, the symbol of His kingdom, Paul says: it is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

When Jesus rose from the dead God affirmed once and for all that what seems like foolishness is the way of God.

Here we find ourselves gathered together because we believe the craziest story ever told. We’re gathered because we believe that God continues to pick you to redeem the world. We believe God chooses you to be His instrument of love and grace.

How crazy is that? It’s foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Songs We Sang
Overcome – Jeremy Camp
Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King
Jesus Paid It All – Kristian Stanfill
When I Look At The Blood - Godfrey Birtil
Christ The Lord Is Risen Today – Charles Wesley
Mighty Is The Power of The Cross – Chris Tomlin
Christ Is Risen – Matt Maher

For audio of the sermon, be sure to check out the podcast

Series – Week 2 of “Come and See”

Scripture We Read – Philippians 2:8-11; Romans 5:6-10; John 4:1-26

In John 4 we are introduced to an extreme outsider and an extreme insider. The outsider was a Samaritan woman who had experienced quite a bit of pain – she had been married 5 times. The insider was none other that Jesus – the Messiah, God’s son, who had come to save the world with a righteousness the surpassed even the most meticulous law abider.

According to culture and custom, the outsider and the insider never should have interacted. First, Jews and Samaritans do not get along well and avoid each other at all cost. Secondly, men and women in that culture did not talk publicly – especially good, law abiding men and women. But there was one similarity that dissolved their differences: he was thirsty and so was she.

His thirst was purely physical. He had been traveling and was tired and hot. Nothing sounded better than a drink of water. Her thirst, however, was much deeper. It was a thirst for what he offered – living water that welled up to eternal life. She had been masking that thirst, trying to quench it only to become more thirsty, her whole life.

We’re like that too. We’re thirsty. But instead of receiving the living water that Jesus offers we attempt to quench our thirst in all sorts of ways that only serve to make us more thirsty.

So, how is it that this eternal life is received? For the Samaritan woman it started with realizing that she was fully known. Not so she could be condemned or shunned, but so that she could be fully loved.

The Messiah is the one in whose presence you know who you really are – the good and the bad of it, the all of it, the hope in it. The Messiah is the one who shows you who you are by showing you who He is – who crosses all boundaries, breaks all rules, drops all disguises – speaking to you like someone you have known all your life, bubbling up in your life like a well that needs no dipper, so that you go back to face people you thought you could never face again, speaking to them as boldly as he spoke to you.

Songs We Sang

Our Great Savior
Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King – Gateway Worship
Mighty To Save – Hillsong
The Church’s One Foundation
How He Loves – John Mark McMillan
All Who Are Thirsty – Brenton Brown

{Be sure to check out the podcast]

Series: Week #1 of Come and See

Scripture We Read: John 1:43-51

Something about us longs to see history being made. Whether it is seeing something extraordinary in a sporting event, seeing our favorite band’s reunion tour, or gathering around the television to see the latest breaking news, we want to see it. And when we see it, we feel like we’re a part of it. And when we miss it, we don’t believe it happened because after all, seeing is believing.

This is the case for a man in the Bible named Nathaniel who encountered Jesus. And his good friend Philip comes to him and says, “We’ve found him! The one Moses and the Prophets wrote about! It’s Jesus of Nazareth!” And Nathaniel’s response to Philip: “Nazareth, nothing good comes from there!”

Philip’s response: “Come and see” as if to say, “when you see, you’ll believe.”

So Nathaniel goes and sees Jesus, and as they approach Jesus says, “Here is a true Israelite within whom there is no deceit!” And the natural response from Nathaniel, “How do you know me?” Jesus goes on to tell Nathaniel something so intimate about himself that he is turned from a skeptic to a believer: “You are the Son of God! The King of Israel!”

Then Jesus does something funny and kind of puzzling. He says to Nathaniel something like, “oh this is nothing, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Here’s what you will see: angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” In these words Jesus gives his followers a brilliant allusion to a story that was vitally important in the history of his people. He is referring to Jacob’s dream at Bethel in Genesis 28.

The way people thought about the gods in Jacob’s day was that they had little to do with the lives of humans. They lived in a different realm, had their own stuff going on, and humans generally messed things up for themselves. So people built pyramids and tall towers with staircases built to the very top with the hope that if they brought the right offering, right sacrifice, or whatever, the gods might actually listen to them and take the time to intervene in their mundane lives.

Jacob sees this sort of tower in a dream. But, it’s much larger and more unique than anything he’s seen before. The stairway he sees is higher than any stairway built by humans. Then he sees angels going up and down, and up and down the stairway. Finally, and most importantly, Jacob sees the Lord God standing right next to him. He didn’t have to make his way down the stairway to speak to God; God made his way down the stairs to speak to Jacob.

Those words of Jesus “angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man,” which at first glance seem so confusing, become clear from Jacob’s dream. Jesus is saying, “I am the stairway! Even more, I am God who has walked down into your midst.” Only this time, its not a dream, it’s God in the flesh.

So celebrate. God has drawn near. He is present in Jesus Christ. Come and see for yourself.

Songs We Sang:
Hungry – Kathryn Scott
Jesus Be The Center – Vineyard
As The Deer – Martin Nystrom
Holy, Holy, Holy – Reginald Heber

{Don’t forget to check out the podcast}

Series: Week #6 of It’s Like

Scripture We Read: Matthew 25:1-13

Jesus tells one last parable of the kingdom of heaven. It’s a story about a wedding feast. Jesus says that thekingdom of heaven will be like a wedding feast – that is really, really good news. Because wedding feasts in that day were a party. Think electric slide, chicken dance, the best food, all of your best friends and family for a week. Don’t overlook this! One of the fundamental things Jesus wants to communicate with his followers is that when he comes back to make all things new it will be like the party of all time for all time.

This wedding feast story has all of the common characters: a groom, bride, and 10 bridesmaids. The bridesmaids were at a house waiting for the groom and all of his best friends to dance their way through the village streets to come and get his bride. But, he’s late so they all fall asleep.

Finally, the groom arrives in the middle of the night to get his bride and start the wedding. But 5 of the bridesmaids are having trouble lighting their lamps because they’re running out of oil. The other 5, who brought extra, don’t want to share. So the 5 without-oil-bridesmaids go off to find a store to buy some. When they finally arrive late to the party, the host does not open the door for them. Meanwhile, the groom takes the 5 with-oil bridesmaids off to the wedding feast.

The entire parable hinges on the delayed arrival of the groom. He’s late. That means the ‘party’ is late too. Jesus’ earliest followers knew this well. They were very much expecting their Messiah to rid their homeland of the Roman occupiers and free them to live as God’s people. But he didn’t.

We know it as well. We too long for God to do great things in our midst – cure the cancer, heal the relationship, forgive the things we’ve done that we have convinced ourselves are unforgivable. But, sometimes, he hasn’t.

God can seem so wonderfully present and so painfully absent. And Jesus tells this parable about how to live in the tension of the God who is present and absent with a strong implication: how we live today matters.

If the groom was to come back today are we prepared to join the party? Have we dressed ourselves accordingly? Are we practicing today the dance of justice, jubilee, love, and mercy? It’s really difficult to party at God’s marriage feast with hatred in our hearts.

Be ready for the party today. Live today like the party is about to start.

Songs We Sang:
Agnus Dei – Third Day
Sing To The King – Candi Pearson
Breathe – MWS
Praise You With The Dance – Casting Crowns
How Deep The Father’s Love – Stuart Townsend

{Don’t forget to check out the podcast}

Yesterday (11/28/2010) we began our Advent journey that we’re calling “Birth Announcement” by hearing Isaiah’s words in chapter 8 and chapter 9. We closed our gathering with an invitation to extend the conversation throughout this week through the creation of an honest Christmas card – a card that doesn’t turn to ourselves but notices what we really long for in this life that has yet to happen as well as the mundane or magnificent ways that God has shown up in our lives.

How many times have you received a Christmas card from someone you knew well enough to know that the story they’re telling isn’t the whole truth? Maybe we’ve written some ‘it’s going to take every creative skill I have to make this year look and sound good’ Christmas cards? Or, maybe we’ve neglected to share with the people that we love the really profound ways God worked in us or through us and instead settled for a recounting of events.

The good news of Advent is that through Jesus God has done for us what we could never have done for ourselves. So we don’t have to try and fake it and we don’t have to tone down the joy. Life is born to us, in us, and through us whether the life circumstance is the best it has ever been or can’t get much worse.

As a way of recognizing God’s presence or as a prayer that longs for Him to come to us, let’s write an honest Christmas card. And, then let’s share it as a testimony with our larger church family. You can submit a card electronically by following this link.

If you were traveling, missed it, or were serving during the worship gathering and unable to participate, I would really encourage you to check out this page for a fuller description of the gathering. Sermon audio will be posted later in the week.

At LFCN, one of our commitments when we gather for worship is to not pick and choose the passages of Scripture that we study based upon personal preference. We’re committed to the entire bible regardless of whether its words encourage us or challenge us. Truth is, the bible often pokes us in the ribs as often as it wraps its arms of comfort around us.

This Sunday is a perfect example. We’re continue our series on Colossians called Your Untold Story and Pastor Troy’s message will be from Colossians 3:18-4:1 – a passage that historically has given the church fits. It has been used to oppress women (it uses that dreaded ‘s’ word – submit), justify slavery, and has been a cop out for poor parenting. And that is really too bad.

At the heart of Paul’s words in Colossians 3 is liberation, not oppression. Surprising as it might seem, Paul’s words are about how households can make visible the kingdom of God. That is a lesson that I think is really helpful today.

Our homes – whether we’re single, married, with kids, grandkids or without – should be places that make the kingdom of God visible through the way we live together. Really, the Christian home is a little church. This Sunday, we’ll consider the practical implications of such a compelling teaching.

We’ll be reading Scripture together, praying together, extending hospitality to each other, and singing songs together like:

• This Is My Father’s World
• God You Reign
• In Christ Alone

And, we’ll also be gathering around the Lord’s Table together so that we can share the meal of the Christian household – the Lord’s supper.

See you on Sunday.

This Sunday we continue our series based on the Book of Colossians called Your Untold Story. Pastor Troy’s message from Colossians 2:9-15 will be Jesus Alone and will remind us that at one point in time we all were dead because of the devastating effects of sin. But because of who Jesus is and what He has has done, we have been rescued and made alive in Christ.

One of the ways that Christians mark and live this new life is through baptism. In baptism, we bury that old way of living that leads to death and come out of the water to celebrate our new life in Christ. And, while baptism is an event that happens once in a life, it is worth remembering. This Sunday we’ll take to remember that we have been made alive in Jesus Christ.

In addition to the message and opportunity to respond, we will read Scripture, and sing songs like these together:

• Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
• Stronger
• Jesus Paid It All

Our iNFUSE Children’s Worship will focus upon Redemption. This week’s Big Idea is that we can only be redeemed because of Jesus. The verse our children will be focusing on is 1 Corinthians 7:23.

Adult, Student, and Children’s Discipleship Classes begin at 9:30.

See you Sunday.