D.B. Lewis will be preaching this week! On August 9th I will be kicking off a new message series which will carry us to the fall. I am grateful that I did not need to preach the last two weeks because it gave me opportunity to catch up on some administrative work.
Unfortunately, I was only able to accomplish half of what I intended. On one hand I am a little overwhelmed, don’t worry the world will not come to an end. But when I look at my pile of things that I need to get done I am more and more thankful for the cross of Jesus.
I have list of things that need to get accomplished before the fall kick-off on September 13th. However, my list seems to grow rather than shrink. I continue to say things like, “fall can’t come unless ‘X’ gets done.” No matter how much try to explain to the calendar that September 13th can not come until I accomplish this list of jobs, September 13th will still arrive on schedule.
When I look at my long list of tasks, I am reminded of how unfinished I am and that Jesus meets me here. Jesus meets me in my unfinished-ness, in my incompleteness. Jesus meets me in my imperfection. I am grateful that it is Jesus who I trust for my perfection, because if it were left to me there would be a list of uncompleted tasks, and I know that he will complete the work that he began in me. Philippians 1:3-6
Today I started studying for a message series on the book of Revelation. We will begin this series on October 4th. This is an incredible book of hope and healing. It is the only book in the Bible that claims that those who read it will be blessed.
Unfortunately this book is most often ignored or perverted because of the imagery that is used. This is a grave tragedy because this letter was written to those who are suffering. In the first chapter alone Jesus is given these titles:
Who is, and who was, and who is to come
The faithful witness
The firstborn from the dead
The ruler of the kings of the earth
The Alpha and Omega
The Almighty
The First and Last
The Living One
Jesus is identified as loving and freeing people from their sin. Jesus has made his people to be a Kingdom of priests to serve God. Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades.
Anybody that is suffering, anybody who needs hope will be comforted by this book and seeing as the faithful witness, the Almighty, the First and the Last, the Living One, the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Yesterday I finished up a sermon series on the book of Acts. This is an incredible book about what God will do through ordinary people who are simply willing to let go of their insecurities, trust that God is working through them with Holy Spirit, and go. But in reality this sermon series reaches back to last October.
Last fall we started with the story of Creation and the rebellion of Adam and Eve. In Genesis 3:15 God gave the promise that He would reconcile the world through Eve’s offspring. We watched as this seed blossomed into a family, which turned into a nation, and culminated in Jesus Christ. In Exodus we saw the birth of a nation; in Acts we read about the birth of a church and an invitation to be part of an eternal Kingdom.
There is certainly a great value to see the entire picture of the Bible. It is fascinating to see that everything points to Jesus – everything. The Old Testament prophets preached that Jesus was coming, and now we get to preach what Jesus accomplished through his death, burial, and resurrection. Everything points to Jesus.
What an incredible journey! There have been a lot of “a-ha” moments for me. I hope that there have been those moments for others.
I am looking forward for the next two weeks as we are having two guest preachers preach, Lance Anderson will be preaching on July 21st and D.B. Lewis will be preaching on August 2nd. We will begin a new series called “Thirst” on August 9th. I am grateful for these two gentlemen because it will give me a chance to catch up on some visitation and housekeeping items so that we can run more efficiently. However, this afternoon I am headed to the golf course with my father-in-law!
This is a short excerpt from a blog by Chuck Warnock. I thought it was interesting enough to share.
A friend of mine challenged me today by asking, “What are the elements of sustainable ministry?” Dennis then pointed to the Ojibwa tribe of Native Americans, who considered the impact of their decision-making on the next seven generations.
When churches think about sustaining ministry for seven generations, the question is no longer, “What do I like? But rather, “What is God leading us to do that will resonate for the next 175 years in this community?”
Recently my wife (Jamie) and I were given tickets to the Astoria Music Festival. It was a wonderful night and we were blessed to attend. One of the performers was a cellist by the name of Sergey Antonov. Now, I do not know anything about the symphony. In fact, I couldn’t make sense out of the program and was lost during the entire performance. But the one thing I do know is that Antonov is good! Antonov simply did not play the music, the music came from his heart and you see his passion on stage. The music was an expression of his soul.
While he was playing I looked at his biography and this guy was bred to play the cello. He was the youngest cellist to win a gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. In one sense I wondered why this guy came to our little coast town. I am sure that the grandeur of Astoria paled in comparison to what he was accustom. It would be as if Michael Jordan showed up to play at a high school basketball game, Tiger Woods at your local putt-putt, or as if Jesus showed up at church.
Antonov played and I was truly grateful for the experience, I was truly glad for a night away. But then I thought how sad. How many people drove by the Liberty Theatre on that summer night and never even knew that a super star of the symphony was playing in there midst? How many people drive past our churches on Sunday morning and never realize that Jesus is being glorified.
There is certainly a great value to see the entire picture of the Bible. It is fascinating to see that everything points to Jesus – everything. The Old Testament prophets preached that Jesus was coming, and now we get to preach what Jesus accomplished through his death, burial, and resurrection. Everything points to Jesus. 