Easter Monday

Welcome back to FCA I hope you enjoyed your Easter weekend. I was on vacation so I know I did. Anyway since Easter is kind of a big deal for us Christians I figured why not have an Easter Monday service. Hopefully we all know about Easter and its meaning. You could call Easter the great trade. I remember in elementary school always trading items in my lunch for other better items. Of course the idea was to trade up. For example if you had carrots you would try to get something like pudding and if you did man you scored. We learn trading at an early age. Now this concept stays with us through our entire life. When we get older we start trading cash for something you want or need. Hopefully before you make that purchase you ask yourself “is it worth it?” For those of you who drive these high gas prices you may seriously be asking yourself “is it worth it?” Now what happens when you have nothing of value to trade? What do you do then? The message of the Gospel is a message of love; it’s a message of grace. See we don’t have to clean up before coming to God; he loves us just as we are. And we can come to him with all our brokenness all our sin. And he takes it…all of it. And he exchanges it for righteousness. See Jesus who was without sin, who knew no sin, took on every sin, every sinful thought, and every sinful action, which would ever take place, so that in him we could become right with God. He made the exchange. See the cross was a symbol of shame and death, but through Christ, death and resurrection becomes a symbol of hope. Today we have a beautiful picture of an exchange that took place. It’s a picture of Jesus on the cross taking on all the sin of the world. And in return we received grace, love and mercy. My prayer is that when we see the cross on a wall, or on a necklace, as a piece of jewelry that we look at it as much more than that.  That we look at it as everything God wants to communicate to us, through the message of the cross.

As we look today, there are 3 messages that are being proclaimed from the cross. The first is that God, HE LOVES YOU. He loves you completely, just the way you are. He demonstrates that love for us. In Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”God didn’t just say “I love you.” He proved it. He sent his son for you. See we are limited by our capacity to love. The world has shown us a different kind of love. That says I’ll love you as long as you love me, but the moment you don’t treat me fairly or right, I’m going to stop loving you. And somehow we take that image of love and we pin it on the idea of how God loves us. And that limits our relationship with him; the bible says that he loves us with an EVERLASTING love. There is nothing you can do to make God love you, there is nothing you can do to make him love you more or make him love you less. And get this there is nothing you can do to make him STOP loving you. The first message of the cross is that he loves you. The second message is that we stand forgiven today; we are cleansed because Jesus paid the price for us. Jesus was perfect, he knew no sin, yet he took on the world’s sin, so that we could become right with God. Jesus paid the price so that we could be forgiven. The third thing that we learn from the cross is that God wants to have a relationship with us. It’s why Jesus did all that he did. It’s not about religion, it’s not about coming to a church on Sunday, it’s about walking with God, knowing him and being known by him, it’s about the relationship. Several important things happened when Jesus died. The first is that the curtain, the veil in the holy of holies was ripped in 2. It separated the place where God came down and talked with a priest. The moment that Jesus died, that curtain ripped from the top to the bottom, that was God’s way of saying no longer will your relationship be with me through some priest one time a year. I want to have a relationship with you. Some of Jesus’ last words on the cross were “it is finished.” And in the original language it’s pronounced totalisté.

Totalisté and it would be used by 4 different types of people. This means that it meant 4 different things back in the time. It would be used by a priest, and it would mean that the sacrifice has been offered. Totalisté. It is also seen in historical documents as an accounting term, and it means that the debt has been fully paid. Totalisté. The phrase was also used by conquering kings and rulers. Caesar would use that phrase and hold up the scepter as his conquering army came back into town and he would say ‘TOTALISTÉ!” The enemy has been defeated! And it was also used by a servant that would look to his master and it would mean that the task is now complete. Totalisté. And when Jesus said that word on the cross, it meant all of that, for each of us today. So what is our response to that, what is our response to the cross today. You were given a little note card upon entering here, if not then raise your hand and we’ll get you one. Let me suggest a few things that we can bring to the cross today, first our sin because it was taken care of there, all of us today could bring our gratitude to the cross, maybe you have a loved one or friend that needs Jesus and they need this grace and redemption, maybe put their name on that paper and bring it to the cross today. We’re going to pray and then you’re welcome to come to the front and nail your card to the cross. This is where I’m going to end the typed version; I hope you enjoyed reading this. My prayer for you is that even if you can’t come to our meeting and nail your concern to the cross, I pray that you lift up that concern to God.

Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that’s for Christ!

 

One Mission pt. 4

                 Welcome back to FCA. If you haven’t been here these last few weeks, we’re doing a book study on Acts. And as we study this book as a group, I’ve been encouraging you to go home and read the book as well. Also as we do this study we’re beginning to see some emerging themes evolve, the first being the power and presence of Gods spirit in people’s lives. And what we’re also seeing is that the power and the presence of God are no longer for a select few, but it’s for everyone. In Acts we see that God begins to invade people’s lives. This is a very significant change, because up to this point it had been about people going to connect with God at a certain place, through priests and only at certain times, but God was like “ah” I want to change things up, I want to invade every part of your life. I want to have an intimate relationship with you, through my Spirit. And just like the early church God wants to do that through you and me. God wants to invade our lives with his power and with his presence. We’re also seeing in Acts that the power has a purpose. It’s not just for us to feel good about ourselves, to feel anointed; it’s for us to fulfill the great commission. It’s to go into the world and share the word and create disciples of all people and to fulfill what Jesus commanded us to do. Today were going to look at another theme that is emerging. It’s a very important component that the early church had in their lives that you and I must have in our lives today. In fact without this our faith is going to be ineffective. And your relationship with Jesus isn’t going to be everything that it was created, and supposed to be without this. In fact if you could take this and apply it to just about anywhere in your life and find blessing and success, whether it’s to your marriage, your job, or even a diet. Yeah were talking about commitment. We’re not talking about making commitments, that’s easy, we’re talking about keeping commitments. We’re talking about becoming people of commitment, and when we become people of commitment, spiritually that is something God can honor. That is something God can use, if I’m not committed to God and his ways, he can’t really use me like he could if I were fully committed to him.

                 Last week we saw in Act’s chapters 3&4 the church boldly proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ; thousands are coming to know him. And the spiritual leaders are getting mad the Pharisees are getting mad, and they’re coming against the people of God. What do you do when someone comes against you because of your faith in Jesus? Has that ever happened before? Where people come against you because you’re taking such a stand for the things of God. Do the people at your work or at your school even know that you’re a Christian? I believe they should. What we see in the early church was that they were bold in what they believed, and they were committed to Jesus. In Acts chapter 6 we see some problems that are going on in the church; certain groups of widows feel like they are not getting the right amount of distribution of food. And the Apostles are trying to preach the word and disciple people, and serve food, so they were like let’s choose 7 men that are full of the spirit of God and let’s let them help us out with this. And in verse 5 we see that they chose Stephen, verse 5 reads “Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit)…” and in verse 8 we also see “Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.” Now we don’t know much more about Stephen up to this point. Except that he was full of Gods power, full of the Holy Spirit. Scholars believe that he might have been saved on the day of Pentecost. This means that he was very young in his walk with Jesus, but full of God’s power and presence in his life. And he is doing these great signs and wonders, speaking boldly and then look what happens. In verse 9 he begins to argue with some spiritual leaders. In verse 10 we see that “None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke.” There is a very important message in that line there. It shows that the spirit of God gives us wisdom when we speak. When you go to speak for God it’s not just based upon what you can say, the spirit of God will speak through you. When you share your faith with others about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will speak through you.

                 Well we see that the leaders couldn’t stump Stephen and so they had to start spreading lies about him, saying that he had blasphemed against God, and against Moses. And so they seize him, and of course Stephen denies it. And he goes into this long sermon all the way into chapter 7 and at the end of chapter 7 look what happens. In verses 54-60 “The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. And he told them, "Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand!" Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.” We’re going to talk about him next week; we’re going to see his encounter with Jesus and his name change to Paul. But right here his approving and leading this charge against Stephen.  “As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He fell to his knees, shouting, "Lord, don't charge them with this sin!" And with that, he died.” What a life. What a bold life lived for what he believed in. Stephen lived a committed life and 3 things that we can see is that #1 A Committed Life: STANDS OUT in a crowd. A committed life is going to stand out its going to stand above the rest of the crowd. We understand that in our culture, we get this. We celebrate commitment in our culture, I mean if you are really committed to kick a ball, shoot a ball, and throw a ball, if you do anything with a ball we are going to pay you lots of money because we want your autograph. We celebrate commitment; nobody stands in line for average. When you and I live a life that is spiritually committed to the things of God it’s going to stand out above the crowds, you’re going to go against the flow of culture. You stand up for your beliefs and you’re going to stand out in a crowd.

                     The second thing we see is that A Committed Life: Makes the opposition ANGRY. Just like Stephen he was committed, and he made the opposition angry. Who’s your opposition? Your opposition is the enemy, you have a real enemy. Jesus talked often about our real enemy the devil. He comes to rob, kill, and destroy. We have a real enemy, and when you are committed it makes him mad. Now as long as you live a undefined life/ straddling the fence, you’re no threat to him. But the moment you decide that “I am going all out for God; I’m going to live for Jesus Christ, and give him everything I’ve got.” Just plan on a battle, plan on a fight.

                The third and final thing we see from Stephen is A Committed Life: Has eternal IMPACT. We all want our life to count don’t we? We want it to matter that we’ve been here. We only live once and we want it to make sense. Everybody wants their life to count, but let me tell you that nothing is going to matter more than the spiritual legacy that you leave behind. Nothing else is going to matter. You can make lots of money and pass it on to your children, and your grandchildren, but let me tell you when you die they’re going to spend it all. It’s going to be gone right? It may take them a while, it may take them a day but it’s going to be gone. But you build a spiritual legacy, you build the kingdom of God in peoples’ lives, you lay a foundation where people get to know God and get to walk with God. Man that never ends that’s got an eternal impact that keeps going. The early church lived with this in mind. They were Kingdom builders. Their commitment to Jesus Christ laid the foundation for faith to spread throughout the known world. It’s because of them that we are here today. So let me ask you what are you committed to? Are you committed to God? If so, what impact will you leave on the generations to come? If not then why not start committing yourself today? Why not begin living today committed to sharing the love of God to your friends and family? Today is a great day to do that. Thanks again for reading hope you enjoyed this week’s lesson. Next week is Easter so we will be taking a little break from Acts, but you still won’t want to miss out.

Remember there is only 1Way2Live and that’s for Jesus!

One Mission pt. 3

            Welcome back to FCA, were in a series called One Mission and were studying the book of Acts. It’s an amazing book, and I’m challenging you that as were studying the book of Acts to be reading the book of Acts, because there is so much we can learn on our own. One important view were going to get today from Acts chapters 3&4, is how the early church lived, their perspective, the way they viewed life, and the way they approached God. Their faith not only shaped who they were but how God was going to work through them. Their outlook on life, their outlook on God, I believe we’ve got to have to live our lives today. Here’s what it is they lived every day with a sense of EXPECTANCY they lived with this sense that God was going to move miraculously in their lives that day. They believed that God and his power were going to be in their lives, that day. They lived every day with this expectancy. The question for us today is; are you living your life today with a sense of expectancy? Do you believe that God wants to move in your life? See I am concerned that so many of us here are living so far below where God has intended us to live as his children. He’s given us his spirit, and he wants us to live in a powerful way. Are you living with that sense of Expectancy? Expectancy is really a beautiful thing. But sometimes there are some roadblocks when it comes to our expectancy for God to do something. Some of us think you know there are 6 billion people in the world does God really care about my needs? Should I really expect something from him? Or maybe you’re new in your faith and you don’t know what to expect from God.  You don’t even know what to ask of him. Or maybe you’ve expected something from God in the past, and he just hasn’t seen it through like you thought he would, and so you’re thinking I’m not going to ask God this, I’m not going to expect this of God, because last time he didn’t come through. Or maybe you’re thinking that my ask of God is so big there is no way I’m even going to ask because I don’t know that God can come through on that. And here is what I want to say to you, in our finite brain we only think about the possible. That’s the problem we only think of the natural possibilities, what God thinks about is the impossible. See we as followers of Christ do the possible, while God does the impossible. We do the natural, and God does the super natural. And that is what’s beautiful in the book of Acts is that they not only believed in the supernatural, they expected the supernatural. In Acts chapter 3 we see that in verse 1 which is a great story, “Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o'clock prayer service. As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money. Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, "Look at us!" The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. But Peter said, "I don't have any silver or gold for you. But I'll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,* get up and* walk!" Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man's feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.” This man had been lame from birth, he never walked, never danced, never ran, and had been set by this gate everyday to beg for money, and he was probably expecting when Peter and John said “look at us” to get something from them. But what he got was so far beyond anything he expected. What he expected was something natural, what God wanted to give him was something supernatural. He was living with the wrong sense of expectancy. But what I want to focus on today is the expectancy of Peter and John what did they expect?

                  

                 Here’s what we can learn today for our lives just like the early church. Number one we need to expect God’s POWER in our life. Because when Peter and John went down and grabbed the man by the hand, what were they expecting to happen? Were they expecting to grab him by the hand pick him up, and then let him fall back down? Were they expecting that? Or were they expecting that when they grabbed him by the hand and held him up that he was going to walk? They were expecting the power of God to flow through their lives, they were acting on that. “Why did they expect it?” because in Acts chapter one verse 8 Jesus said “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. “ Now that same root word in Greek is the same word that we use for dynamite so imagine that kind of power. See the fact is that they acted on the fact that the power of God was in their life. They acted on that, they stepped out in faith knowing that God was going to help them. All through the bible we see men and women that live with that expectancy that God is going to work through them. When David ran out and faced Goliath with that stone, he ran out in the name of God. He ran out with an expectancy to beat that giant talking pickle! Daniel in the lion’s den expected God to be there and close the mouths of those lions. John the Baptist he expected that there would be one coming whose sandals he could not fill. Or the lady that had trouble with her blood and the circulation of it in the crowd, and when she reached out to touch Jesus’ garment, she expected to be healed by him through his clothes. And then all through the book of Acts we read about the first church living with this sense of expectancy, and of God’s power in their lives. You know when I go home and flip up my light switch I expect the light to come on, when you put the key in the ignition of your car and turn it you expect it to start up. Unless you leave the lights on all night, then you can’t go where you need to go. The same is true for us if we’re not living with an expectancy of the power of God in our lives, we can’t be who God’s called us to be. We can expect that power in our lives because God gave us that power. God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power! When we ask God for things we need to expect his power to flow through us. And when we live with that power of God in our lives it can lead us to also expect his PRESENCE in our lives.  Now this is all based on you accepting Jesus into your life. You no longer live but now Christ lives through you. It’s his presence that is seen. If I were to go out with you today in your circle of friends, the people you do life with, the people you spend time with, if I were to ask them this question and this is a rhetorical question answer it in your mind, if I were to ask them can you tell that “blank” (insert your name there) has spent time with Jesus? How would they react? It was evident in Peter and John that they had spent time with Jesus. His presence was seen through them.  I see this as an awesome time to end. See I know that a few years ago there were people that if you were to ask them about me spending time with Jesus they would laugh, and go on and tell you about how unchristian I was. Now, I try to live my life so much like Christ that when people look at me, they go WOW what does that kid have that I don’t? And this week as we grow closer to Easter I hope that you use this time to start making it a habit to others to let them know about your walk with Christ. Thanks for reading!

One Mission pt. 2

            Last week we began a book study on the book of Acts. This book in the New Testament is a very significant book for our spiritual faith journey with Jesus. It’s a book the bridges the gap between the Gospels and the letters and apostles that go out to the church. We see in the Gospels the life of Jesus, his death and resurrection; we see that he purchased the church with his shed blood. And in the book of Acts we see that church being birthed, and being established; first among the Jews then in Palestine, then amongst the Gentiles, and then it began to sweep through the entire new world. Imagine the New Testament without the book of Acts. You go from the Gospels and Jesus’ death to some guy named Paul writing to a church in Rome. Acts is about what happened in between those two events. Today in Acts were going to look at 5 verses, of course if we can fit all of them in, these are 5 very powerful verses. In Acts chapter 2 verse 42, we see the first of the 5 versus that begin to lay down a foundation for how the church began. We read in these passages the very first church. A lot of churches have “first church of_____” out in front of their church, but this is the very first church period. The scripture is significant because it tells us a lot about how the church did life. What was important to them, and how they grew spiritually. See I’m not trying to give you a history lesson, I’m trying to help you understand that the bible is not a book of information it’s a book of transformation. It’s a book about what the spirit of God wants to change inside of us. Be asking yourself this, do I see myself in these scriptures, am I living this way? Lets go ahead and read Acts chapter 2 verses 42-47: “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord's Supper*), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity* all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.” You know we tend to look at the description of this church as like a super church. Actually this is what the normal church was, back in the day. This is an example to us of what the normal church should look like. In this part of the book of Acts we also see an incredible unity among the church. The church meaning all of those who are followers of Christ could learn from this church’s unity, and we need that today. Three traits that these churches had in common with this unity is that they had a Common Devotion. Verse 42 “All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord's Supper*), and to prayer.” The word devoted means steadfastly committed. It means that their lives were fully engaged in this, they put God first in their lives. So let me ask you this what are you devoted to? What are you steadfastly committed to?  The second quality we see here in the early church is that they had a Common Generosity look at verse 44 “They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity*” The third thing the church had in common was a Common Passion. See they came together for one goal, to know God, and to join in the fellowship of others. I can go into so much more detail, but I’m writing this after coming home from a weekend trip, and I will be honest I wanted no part in typing this up. I couldn’t focus, I was getting distracted easily and all I wanted to do was go to bed. But I have this passion to share the good news with you, and so I took a little more time, gained some focus and typed this thing out. So I’m sorry if this was not as good as maybe you anticipated it to be, but I promise next week’s will be much, much better.