Acts Sunday Morning

Pastor Booker

Matthew 5:14

"You are the light of the world..." 

Let our light shine in SUCH A WAY. Not just any way, don't just follow the crowd. A specific way. 

It's hard to set people free in JESUS when we're struggling with our own personal freedom. We have the weight of the things we're carrying. These issues are on the forefront of our thought process, and so we have a hard time serving Him. Our first thought should be JESUS, not the trials we're going through. 

The battle we are engaging in is a battle of the mind, because our mind is not saved yet. We have the same memories and insecurities that we did before. Our mind is still, in many ways, the same mind that we had before. (Basically, it's a Battle of Wits. Don't go up against a Sicilian.) 

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is; His good, pleasing, and perfect will. 

What is the difference between saying you can "test and approve" His will instead of "learn to know" His will? Because NLT says that you will learn to know it, but I think that's much different than the one that I memorized (above). Mine is more like we have to discover it, but NLT sounds more like God will teach it to us. I think both have an element of truth... We can't figure it out without Him. 

Ephesians 4:22

1 Corinthians 2:14

In 2:16, it's saying we have the ABILITY to receive truth. We cannot misinterpret this when it says we have the mind of Christ. 

What is your first thought about who you are? Because it should be that you are a child of God. That He loves you, and it's amazing. 

All of us, if we are accepted into the family, are Godly. We are of God, we are His children. Just like an earthly family, the way we act cannot change our acceptance in the family. We might not ACT like we are part of it, but it doesn't change who we are. That is something that can't be taken from us. 

Bondage is any area of our life that is out of control. Any behavior or sin in your life that you cannot stop. Where there's bondage, there needs to be freedom. 

Matthew 3:7

John the Baptist speaking. "Bear fruit in keeping with repentance." 

***note to self, look up lexical considerations on the term "repentance" and "repent". The Greek word metanoeo seems to have some discrepancies in differences of how it's translated, and just from looking at Google it looks like it may not be entirely correct. 

In this life, constantly renew your mind, that you would be able to live out the things He's called you to. 

Acts Sunday, February 15

The Urgency of Evangelism

Jeremy

Matthew 25:14-30

Context: Matthew 24, where JESUS is talking about the signs of the end of the age. Verse 42: you don't know what time the Lord is coming. 

Note: look up the answer to the question of why Yahweh is not used in the New Testament (or just inquire if it is or not) 

Are you living your life in expectation of Christ's return? 

Revelation 22:20, He's coming quickly! How does John respond? Amen. Let it be. Come Lord Jesus. 

In our country we're so comfortable, we think we know the right answers, and we know it so well, that we are just on auto response. But what about our heart? Not the mind answer, but your heart. Proverbs Ch. 4 says guard your heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 

JESUS says it is not what goes into a man that defiles him- it's what comes out of a man. 

Whatever our heart is truly about, it will be known because it will be seen in how we live our life. 

A tidal wave is coming, and some people have been building a sandcastle on the shore. Instead of preparing for his kingdom, we've been preparing for ours. Our heart will betray us. 

Be watchful and pray, lest you fall into temptation. 

^^^Does "fall into temptation" mean to succumb to it, and sin? Why shouldn't it just say fall into sin? Temptation is not wrong, but giving into it is. I wonder why it uses that diction as opposed to using the term sin. 

Matthew Ch. 25:14 =

Three points to get out of this parable. 

1. We have been entrusted with something, the kingdom of God. 

2 Corinthians 5:18

We are ambassadors for Christ 

What are we doing with what He has entrusted to us? We've been given this commission, and if tomorrow is not guaranteed, how are we spending today? 

We need to start storing up treasures in heaven. 

2. At some point, we'll stand before JESUS and give an account of what we've done. 

Ezekiel 33:8-9

Oh man. 

Well that's intense. 

Are we proclaiming the truth or did we bury it? Beneath football and our house and our car- how could we? Why would we do that? 

We have a responsibility to all who have been entrusted to us. 

3. There is an unequal joy in sharing the Gospel. 

Do you think about standing before JESUS, and Him saying "well done"? 

***well done, well done, im GONNA chase You Lord, im GONNA show the world Your love. I'll run, I'll run, im gonna run this race to hear You say well done.

We live in a world that is broken and hopeless and we have a message of ETERNAL life. We don't have silver and we don't have gold but what we do have we give to you. 

The most lasting thing we could ever do is tell others about JESUS. 

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:17)

Acts Sunday

Acts Sunday, February 8

Troy {Bolton}

Psalm 103

There are five things stated that we should bless the Lord for, but we will focus on the fact that God forgives all your iniquities. 

We should not forget all of His benefits. Sometimes we still live a life as if we are trapped and in chains. We need to live a life completely free from sin. 

Three types of sin: iniquity, transgressions, sins. 

Iniquity derived itself from a word that means "warped, distorted, or bent" 

You can say you don't struggle with lust, but there IS something else that you bend towards. That's your iniquity. This is the inward stuff, the things we keep in secret. 

When you have something going on in your head all the time, satan uses it against you, constantly. 

The place of God's Word is the place we need to be, because if we don't then we'll never do ministry outside. 

He has not punished us according to our thought life. 

"He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our sins. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds, by His wounds we are healed." 

Transgression- from where we get our word trespass. To go beyond a limit. 

This is when pornography turns into adultery, or anger and malice turn into a fist fight. 

How far has God removed our transgressions from us? As far as the east is from the west. Infinitely. 

Verse 9

He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever. 

If God removes your sin, then He has absolutely nothing to accuse you of. 

He has not dealt with us according to our sin. 

Sin- to miss the mark. 

What's the mark? Jesus Christ. He's the standard. So we've all missed the mark. Sin is also lawlessness. 

Lamentations

It is through the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed... His mercies are new every morning. 

Romans 8:31

Passion, session 6

Session 6, Louie Giglio

February 1

Hebrews 10

We began with "it is finished", but it's closing with "it has just begun". 

Tetelestai. What's finished? The system. Sin. Shame. Self. 

One more thing is finished. Satan's power and reign is finished. 

Sitting down- a posture that indicates you are finished with the work you have to do. JESUS sits down at the right hand of God. He finished the work He came to do. 

In Acts, when Stephen was proclaiming JESUS, he was about to die and He looked up in heaven and He saw JESUS standing in heaven. He acknowledged that you have done well and have accomplished what He had for you to do. 

Jesus is seated, but He's not yet reclined. When He's REALLY finished He will put his feet on the footstool of our enemies, and He will be reclined forever and ever. Satan is done. 

The big miscalculation on the part of the enemy is that if they shut JESUS down they can shut everything down. But when Jesus was dying He was shutting THEM down. This reminds me of the chronicles of Narnia, how they thought that the death of ASLAN was such a significant and triumphant event when really He had a plan and knew that He was winning the entire time. 

He's talking about football and that's the best. He said the referee's hands went up... And they stay thereee, and they stay thereee... But yeah, laquan treadwell who plays for ole miss had a touchdown but he broke his ankle... There was so much celebration, but it was complex with the fact that he was seriously hurt. We're gonna win, but treadwell got seriously hurt... And JESUS died. It wasn't a fakeout. He died. What the enemy didn't fully understand was, they weren't killing JESUS, Jesus was killing them. Something did die that day, and it was the reign of satan. At the end of the story JESUS sat down, and in the final chapter He's going to recline and the enemies will be made His footstool and all will be completed. 

Even after a snake is dead, you can still get snakebit by the fangs. And that's the enemy. Satan is dead but we can still step on his mouth and get the poison of his fangs. How creepy is that? He's dead, but he's still talking. We don't understand that he's dead. "He roars around like a lion, seeking someone to devour". He's making us think that he has more power over us than we have over him. But he doesn't. His days are numbered. 

***greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city*** 

Treadwell didn't get the touchdown. 

Upon further review, the ball didn't break the plane of the endzone. Auburn recovered the ball. Upon further review... The enemy did not make it into the endzone. He did not score the final score. Upon further review, TETELESTAI. 

Passion Session 5, You Are Awful

Session 5, Matt Chandler 

Sweet Jesus Christ my sanity

Sweet Jesus Christ my clarity 

Bread of heaven broken for me

Cup of salvation held out to drink 

Romans 

You are awful, you are a hypocrite, you ARE a sinner; but look at how awesome God is. Let go of yourself and stay gazing at the Lord. 

He's talking about people living a duplicitous life, teaching the Bible but struggling with doubt and questions. 

Get your eyes off yourself. You're not awesome. You're not greater. The greater you think you are, the more enslaved you are to your perceived greatness. 

Acts 19 

"here's my handkerchief, go touch somebody with it" -matt Chandler 

I'm perplexed, but not crushed. 

Four things about God that will anger your soul. 

Romans 11:33-36

Paul, captivated in the Holy Ghost, pins these verses. 

1. God's transcendent wealth

All power and wealth and all economics belong to Him. 

Deuteronomy 10:14 

The heaven of heavens, not just heaven, belongs to God. His riches are VAST beyond all measure. As far as there is... It's God's. 

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which JESUS Christ does not call 'Mine'". 

If you are a painter, you are not creating new color. If you are a writer, you are not creating new language. If you are in construction, you can only build what you can afford to build. God's wealth doesn't work like that. He can build whatever He wants from nothing whenever He wants. If He wanted a new color, He could have it. Don't think of the creation as crowded; there was absolutely nothing until God said something. The universe is expanding in every direction. God's wealth is transcendent. He's never in a panic, wondering how to get you through college, worried about what job you'll get... When we understand that, we can have peace. Look at the birds. Just rest in His wealth and security. 

2. He is sovereign in His knowing. 

God knows every word of every language and every paragraph in every book in every library ever written ever. He knows ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. People try to pit science against faith and the overarching matter is that there is overlap that cannot be denied. 

The wisdom of this world is folly in the eyes of God... Let no one boast in man because all truth is yours, and you are Christ's and Christ is of God. 

The Word of God is inerrant. 

I'm not smart enough to argue with scientists, but I can wait until they figure out the things we already know (like that we came from one origin, one man and one woman) 

God knows EVERYTHING that's going on at the microlevel in the universe. My science classes blew my mind enough- I can't comprehend, can't fathom how He could know simultaneously every moment of mitosis and muscle contraction and brain synapse that occurs. AND everything macro, every star exploding and every planet turning. Not only this but every event that has ever occurred that started another event that started another event and how this situation led to another situation and every event that ever occurred in history EVER. 

It's okay to say that you don't know. 

3. How inscrutable are His ways. 

When men in the Bible try to bring God under scrutiny, they become terrified. When Job kinda shakes his fist at God for what's happened, God answers him.. Quite snarkily. Job 38:2... Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge? 

Romans 9:20

Who are we to answer back to God? 

Romans 11:44

Who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has been His counselor? 

We have to see Him for who He is. He can be trusted for who He is. 

It's not that there won't be a mess, it's that He's there amidst it. He is for us, not against us. He is with us. 

Trying to give to God is like getting an allowance from your father and then buying Him a present with it. He is none the richer. 

He owes you NOTHING. which makes His gracious giving to us unbelievable. He owes us nothing and He has granted us everything. There is freedom there, we get to just chase Him and love Him and marvel in His generosity. 

4. God's glorious self-regard 

God wants to bless you and give to you. But there's something underneath all that generosity that we need to anchor in on- psalm 23:1. The motivation behind all that He does is for "HIS NAME'S SAKE". Everything is for the renown of HIS NAME. Everything is for the glory of God. 

Two reasons God being for God is such a big deal:

1. Since God is for God, all the commands in Scripture are not about taking from me but are about leading me into something better, into life 

He is about the praise of His glorious grace 

Singing is great but if it doesn't roll past singing to the creator of singing then it's wasted. 

Same with art. 

Art is great. But if art doesn't roll past itself to show the Creator of art Himself, the almighty painter of the world who can create colors and gives us the beauty of His creation, then it is for NAUGHT. Art with a lack of focus on His glory is useless. 

2. If God is about God, then it's not about me. 

The more life is about you, the more anxious frustrated combative you'll be. You will not be peaceful, everything is personal when it's about you. When it's not about you, you get to just breathe. 

Our Daddy rejoices in our baby steps :) we're walking, and He is overjoyed! By the grace of Christ, God does not love some future version of you. He doesn't just love you, he likes you! 

Passion Session 4, Temptation

Session 4, Ben Stuart 

This is a strategy session. How do we struggle well? If feels like we're in a war sometimes because we are in a war. The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil. 

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.

Spirituality for those in Christ is one movement with two parts. Flee youthful lusts. There are ways of thinking and living that can't be a part of our lives with Jesus. Theologians call this sanctification, the process of being made holy. 

Mortification: we have to kill some of our old habits 

Vivication: bringing to life some things in our relationships and spiritual life

What God knows 

What God does 

What we do in response 

1. He knows you and your will and your tendencies 

James 1:13

Each person is tempted when he's lured by his own desires 

What you think about will be what you care about, and what you care about, you will chase. 

We all struggle. James says we are lured and enticed by our own desires. It's the height of ignorance to say we don't struggle. How does the devil get to you? Become a student of yourself. Watch your life and your doctrine closely. Know the lies you'll believe. Know the dangerous places you can fall. You'll save both yourself and those who look to you for guidance. 

"I watch and I pray that I don't enter into temptation." 

Eliminate the moment. Eliminate the temptation. 

Two steps and a slide. 

He's talking about christian relationships that go too far past the physical boundary. At baby RUTHS we talked about boundaries- whatever boundary we set, our sin nature will cause us to go two steps and a slide past that. And it can lead to places that you never meant to go. Therefore you have to remove yourself from the situation of ever having temptation in the first place. 

James says to look downstream- if you start going this direction, where does is lead, and is that where you want to be?

If you unite yourself with desire, she's going to get pregnant and that baby is called sin. 

James 1:17 

Deception fuels temptation. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father. The deception that powers temptation is the belief that God is not a good Dad. Because we believe God and His ways won't take care of us. 

Write your full name on a piece of paper and then draw a line behind it. Then write the first word that comes to mind. 

The best defense against sin is a good offense. The best way to push away the desires of sin is to replace them with a more beautiful thing, with the majesty of God and His love. 

"The all seeing sun has never seen her match since first the world begun"

^lol. Romeo saying this about Rosalind. 

I LOVE THAT HE JUST QUOTED SHAKESPEARE. HES MY FAVE. 

But it's so accurate. Romeo was saying there was nothing better than Rosalind and he was so upset but there was, there WAS a something more beautiful. We say there is nothing more beautiful than sin but there IS. be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 

Philippians 4:8

Think about God, love God, and chase God. 

Saving private Ryan- the scene on the beach at D-Day. Two types of soldiers. One looks peaceful and serene. One looks agitated and afraid. What's the difference? The soldier that looked calm is dead. Dead people aren't conscious of the battle around them. They don't flinch at a bomb. They don't shy away from shotguns. It's the soldiers that are alive that so acutely are aware of the battle around them. Our struggle is one of our greatest assurances that we are ALIVE. We are not to wallow in it, it's an invitation to FIGHT. 

Passion Session 3, the Workers are Few

Session 3, Christine Kain (spelling?) 

If it's finished and we are the tent of God, what are doing still on earth? 

Options are okay until they're not. At some point you have to cut off the options and commit- this is it, and this is the way I am going. 

1 Kings 19:2

The text tells about Elijah, who is fleeing- because Jezebel threatens to kill him. One person. How many times have we given up on something like ministry because one person has come against us and become angry? 

We are in a fight.. We aren't on a Disney cruise ship, we're on a battleship. And not for very long. Life is but a vapor. We have better things to do in the body than send negative messages to each other. Our only enemy is the devil. 

Anyway, so in verse 13...

Elijah expresses his discontent and he is told to go back the way he came. He is told to go and anoint Elisha as the next prophet after him. 

Within two chapters, Elijah goes from the heart of hearts, to the depths of despair, and then goes to find Elisha and then Elisha drops everything to follow Elijah. 

Elisha is not out looking for a mentor, he is WORKING. God tends to work with those who are already working. 

There is one love language and it's called die to self. 

nevertheless, not my will; but thy will be done. 

1 Corinthians 15:58

Give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord... 

Matthew 5:16 

We need to be doing good works... We are between the two advents of Jesus Christ and we have an assignment. 

If we are too busy waiting for all our options and waiting for what lines up to do our work... We are being counterproductive. We are so scared of talking bout work because we don't want to work. 

Ephesians 2:8 

JESUS saved us, completely. It is finished. JESUS did it all. Tetelestai. But we're still here. In heaven it's gonna be awesome, therefore, between Him finishing it and Him coming back what are we supposed to be doing? It is not by works we are saved, BUT we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

At some point we've gotta stop talking and we've gotta start plowing. 

Matthew 9:37-38

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore then pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth workers. 

Where is the generation that says they will co-labor with God? 

Am I bringing everyone home that JESUS put me here to take home? 

Daniel 11:32

Those that know their God will perform great exploits. 

Promotions come from God, he opens doors that no man can shut. But that also means he can close doors. There's some reason that I didn't get hired at pine cove. Maybe there were just other people that needed the position more than I did. Maybe others had more to learn. I just wasn't meant to be there.

He has something else for me. 

Matthew 4 when JESUS called the disciples. The disciples were working, they weren't sitting at the coffee lounge. They were ordinary people. 

Some of us are not willing to kill our oxen and burn our plows to completely follow JESUS, no turning back. No plan B. No longer 250 things on the menu, no longer 87,000 options for drinks at starbucks, it's just JESUS. Elisha went to be a servant. That's the goal. Elisha has performed the second greatest number of miracles in the Bible after JESUS. God used him mightily. 

There are divine alignments for divine assignments. 

Is it enough to be insignificant in God's field rather than being significant in your field? 

Did we do everything He put us on this earth to do?