Yesterday morning at Wildwood, I preached a sermon (together with Dr. Mike Strauss) about the reasonableness of believing that God really exists. I am now posting this sermon audio on my blog for you to either listen to (for the first time) or for you to share with a friend.
To listen to this audio online, use the imbedded media player below:
To download the audio to listen to later, click on the link below:
This past Sunday, I had the privilege of kicking off a new series at Wildwood called “FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions about Christianity.” This week, we began the series by looking at Luke 15:1-10. In case you missed the message and wanted to listen to it . . . or if you heard the message and want to share it with others — I have posted it here for you to listen to. Additionally, below the audio, I have posted the two videos I showed as a part of the message on Sunday: Wildwood’s own Kristin Cheng’s testimony, and the illustrative video “Who’s Your One?” from the Hills Church. I hope this combo of media is encouraging to you in your walk with God.
To listen to the sermon online use the media player below:
To download the sermon audio click on this link: FAQ part 1
Kristen Cheng’s testimony:
Who’s Your One?:
It is Saturday night at 6:55 PM. 15 hours from now I will take the stage at Wildwood Community Church to preach a message that centers around the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a beautiful message . . . not the presentation, but the message itself. You know the story:
You know the story right?
As I sit here tonight though, I wonder how much I actually believe this story I have so often told. I ask that question because:
Do you ever have these feelings? Do you ever wonder how much you actually believe the Gospel? After all, if I really believed it, would I still feel so wishy washy? After 25 years of walking with God, you’d think I would have new problems, but sometimes I feel like I just keep replaying the old ones, like reruns on late night television. Do you ever feel like this?
Well, if you can relate to any of this . . . you, like me, need to hear the message of the Gospel again and again. The Gospel is at the center of all we are, because at the center of the Gospel is Jesus Himself, our all in all. We do not graduate past the Gospel, it is a course we are always enrolled in.
The fact that we still struggle is evidence for the relevance of the Gospel, not encouragement for us to “move on” to other things. You and I need Jesus Christ. We need His life. We need His death. We need His resurrection. And guess what? He has wrapped all that up and gives it to us again and again and again. 1 Corinthians 15:57 tells us, “But thanks be to God who gives us (again and again in an ongoing way) the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The great news of the Gospel is that we don’t just need it to enter into a relationship with God, we continue to live in its glorious economy. So, to those who are far from Christ AND those who have been following Him for years, the Gospel is equally relevant. All of us need to be reminded of the great truths we so often forget about who Jesus really is. All of us need to continually believe the truth of the Gospel message, because in this life sometimes our feelings can mislead us. We must live by faith and not by sight or even feel.
So, tomorrow morning I am going to step into the pulpit still dependent upon the Gospel. In my struggles, I understand the depth of the Gospel all the more. If I were perfect in behavior, unwavering in belief, mentally beyond parallel, then I would not need a Savior. But in my weakness, I turn to Him who gives me strength.
Are you going to a worship service in the morning? I hope so. If you are in the OKC area, I hope you come to Wildwood. I would love the chance to worship with you this week. Not to celebrate our goodness, but His. Not to celebrate our faithfulness, but His. Not to celebrate our wisdom, but His. We all need the Gospel. Because at the center of the Gospel is Jesus Himself.
This Sunday will be the 8th and final installment in the Lego Church series. It has been a joy to walk through the book of 1 Corinthians with you on Sunday mornings at Wildwood over the past two months. I hope you will join us this Sunday as we dive into 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 . . . and see a blessed hope we have in the Christian life regarding our future. Because He lives, we live also! Please make plans to join us at Wildwood in either our 9:30 or 10:50 worship services.
The outline of the past 8 weeks:
We live in a “what have you done for me lately” culture. In the NBA, Vinny Del Negro led the Clippers to their most successful two year run in franchise history . . . but after an early playoff exit this past season, he was fired. George H.W. Bush was a hero during the first Desert Storm, but was not reelected two years later due to concerns about the economy. Over the past decade Apple has changed the music, computer, and wireless telephone industry, yet today, Wall Street analysts are wondering about Apple’s ability to innovate. As a people, do we really have THAT short a memory? All signs point to “yes.”
Sadly, this reality impacts our Christian lives and attitudes toward God as well. Something goes well and we praise God for His faithfulness, yet one week later when a storm hits, we mutter “how could He . . . ?” I am impacted by this phenomenon as well. Always living in the moment or looking ahead to the next big thing, I often forget to pause and say “thank you” for gifts already given.
In the Gospels, Jesus heals many, many people, but what happened to those people 6 and 12 months later? Though they were healed in miraculous fashion, they continued to live life on this planet, so they continued to experience difficulties, disappointments, and even death. For instance Lazarus was raised from the dead one April, but by the next April, his life would have resumed a normal pace — which probably included disagreements with his sisters, illnesses endured and other common experiences. In the midst of his current struggles, did Lazarus stop to have a party on the one year anniversary of his resurrection? I really wonder.
Though we don’t know what Lazarus did resurrection +1 year, we do know that many who were healed did not return to give thanks to the source of their healing. In Luke 17, Jesus heals 10 lepers, but only one returned to give thanks. I think the rest just got caught up in their present lives and forgot to look back and praise God for His goodness to them.
So, today . . . I want to be like the one and not the nine.
One year ago today, my wife (Kimberly) was dying of renal failure. But God took notice of her situation, and in His sovereign plan, He saw fit to heal her through a kidney transplant from her sister (Angie). So today, I want to return and give thanks.
Of course, life this past year has not been perfect. In a Facebook/Blog/Twitter world, it is always possible to distort reality either positively or negatively. There are still questions and struggles and difficulties that we deal with (just like you). However, on this day, I do not want to have our present cause us to obscure God’s great work in the recent past. Today we want to celebrate . . . and invite you to celebrate with us.
I want our anniversary to be a spark to cause you to think about how God has been faithful to you and your family in the past. Take a moment today and thank Him, not just for His work in our lives but for His work in your life as well. Let’s not take a “what have you done for me lately” attitude toward our relationship with God. Let’s be like the one who returned and gave Him thanks, and not like the nine who forgot.
Jesus, THANK YOU.
I turn 40 one month from today. This is a big life moment for me. It makes me think of that scene from “City Slickers” (yeah that’s right . . . “City Slickers” came out 22 years ago. Today’s College Seniors were not alive when the movie was released. I am feeling old . . . ):
As you get older, though, you get to know yourself better and better. One thing I have found out about myself is that there is a distinct difference in me depending on if I am “training” for something, or not. I have had the great privilege of running in 4 marathons and 1 half marathon over the past decade. Getting ready for these races involves me eating right, exercising regularly, etc. While I am “in season” for an event, I make a lot of decisions to make reaching that goal a reality.
However, in the times of my life when I am not specifically training for an event, I have a tendency to eat too much, exercise too little, and make a whole series of small decisions that lead me to getting out of shape very quickly. This inconsistency drives some who know me crazy, but it is a reality I have to deal with in life, given my personality . . . effective when focused, but easily distracted.
I was thinking about my experiences in and out of season today as I was reflecting on the verses we are going to be looking at this Sunday morning at Wildwood in our 9:30 and 10:50 worship services. This week, we will be looking at 1 Corinthians 9:19-27. In these verses Paul talks about his singular objective in life of glorifying God and being used by Him to connect others to Christ. In making this objective a reality, Paul compares his evangelistic efforts to that of a sportsman . . . disciplined and focused; not being easily distracted or disqualified.
For me personally I need this message. I need to remember that I am always “in season” and that God desires me to live a disciplined life of purpose in His plan. This Sunday, we will be looking at these verses to see what that exactly means. I hope you can join us this week at Wildwood!
In prep for Sunday, you can do four things:
We look forward to worshipping with you this week as we explore week 5 of our current sermon series “Lego Church: Built to Be Together.” Check the video below for a further update:
Come
This past Sunday at Wildwood, I preached a message out of 1 Corinthians 6:12-20. This message was part 4 of our “Lego Church: Built to Be Together” series. If you missed the message and wanted to listen to it, or if you wanted to share it with a friend, the audio is attached below. You can either download the message or listen online via the embedded player.
Download the file here:
Listen via the online player below:
This past Sunday, we looked at 1 Corinthians 4:6-16 in our message. These verses deal with the heart of the problem of the divisions that we find in our churches . . . pride.
If you did not get a chance to hear the sermon on Sunday, or if you would like to share this message with a friend, you can do so with the audio included below. You can click the link to download the file, or you can listen online via the embedded audio player. God Bless!
Six and a half years ago God blessed Kimberly and I with a son, Joshua. Having Josh in our lives has brought many wonderful things into our home: laughter, life, and love. T-ball, take home papers, and toys.
One specific category of things that Josh has brought into our house the past few years is Legos. Thousands of them . . . literally. For most every occasion (birthday, Christmas, etc.) since 2009, Josh has gotten at least one Lego set. If you have children, perhaps you can relate to life with Legos. When the package comes home and is opened, there is a neat and easily identifiable pile of 50-300 Legos that can be assembled into something awesome — a Star Wars spaceship, a fire station, even a working diamond mine! Each package comes with scores of diverse pieces of differing colors and design that alone look odd, but together look beautiful. The secret to the Lego’s success is the “bump” – that little ridge on the top of the Lego that allows it to easily join together with other bricks according to design.
The fascinating phenomena of Legos is that alone, they are somewhat ugly and a nuisance. Alone, the bricks become obstacles to avoid with the vacuum cleaner or when walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Alone, they have little use. However, together, they can make most anything.
I share all this with you today, because Sunday at Wildwood we are kicking off our new series entitled “Lego Church: Built to Be Together.” This 8 part sermon series will take us through the high points of the book of 1 Corinthians. This letter, penned by the Apostle Paul in the first century to the church he helped plant in the town of Corinth, is one of the strongest extended sections of Scripture that focuses on the unity Christians have with one another in Jesus Christ. It seems that over time, the Corinthian church members had become increasingly focused on how different they were from one another . . . and had used these differences to develop wedges in the church. Some were dividing over their socio-economic class. Others were dividing over their practice of spiritual gifts. Others were dividing over their insistance on living a “free” but rebellious life. While still others were dividing over allegiances they had to particular church leaders. To this diverse group, the Apostle Paul writes and draws them back to the unity Christ purchased for them at the cross, and the big plans God has for them as they are built together in Him.
In a sense, Paul was reminding them that they were a Lego Church . . . though diverse, different, and even (dare I say) ugly on their own, they could be beautiful together. That was their design.
So, make plans to join us at Wildwood this Sunday, June 16 as we kick off our 8 week series on the book of 1 Corinthians. This week, we will be focusing on 1 Corinthians 1:10-16 and 3:3-9 as we see the cure to division arising out of allegiances toward certain human leaders. Hope you can join us this Sunday in either our 9:30 or 10:50 service.
PLUS: Check out this short video showing you another way to get your family involved as we kick off this series. Thanks!
I spent last week in Columbia, Maryland – a beautiful suburb nestled between Baltimore and Washington DC. I was attending a one week training conference helping better equip me in sharing my faith with others. Since I knew that my time in Maryland would be brief (only 5 days), I did not:
The reason I chose to live my life in Maryland last week as a visitor was because I knew my time there would be very brief.
Now, contrast my time in Columbia with my experience of moving to Norman 12 years ago. When we moved, we:
We did all these things even BEFORE we arrived. Why? Because we knew we would be here in God’s country for a while.
Now, as a theologian, I know that my stay in both Maryland AND Oklahoma is temporary and finite. Even if I live the rest of my days in Norman, my time here is still very short in comparison to eternity. How I live my life, however, varies greatly between the places I visit and the places I live.
I was thinking of this today as I read over again Jeremiah 29:1-14. In these verses Jeremiah the prophet is delivering a letter to the exiled people of Judah who had been deported to Babylon (people like Daniel, Rack, Shack, and Benny). God writes to them to let them know a blessed promise, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)”
As people living today in 2013, we are probably quite familiar with Jeremiah’s good news from 29:11. In fact, we have probably been given this verse on a graduation card, birthday card, or other well wished moment of apparent uncertainty. It is quite appropriate for us to encourage each other with this verse. However, sometimes in our use of this verse, we strip it out of its immediate context and expect God to bring us the “future we hope for” now . . . or at least very soon.
The reality is that God gave this promise to a people who would not ever see (in this life) the future they hoped for. This promise was given to the people of Judah near the beginning of their 70 years in exile in Babylon. Most of them would die in Babylon. Most of their children would die in Babylon. Only their grandchildren would benefit (in this life) from the fruit of this promise if they turned and followed God.
Jeremiah’s words (that are encouraging to us) were probably somewhat discouraging to the exiles from Judah. A contemporary false prophet during Jeremiah’s day was a man named Hananiah. He had gained popularity by proclaiming that the exile to Babylon would only last 2 years. Based on divine revelation, Jeremiah 29 actually corrects the exiles understanding, letting them know that Hananiah was wrong and that they would be in Babylon for quite a while.
Under the wrongful influence of Hananiah, the exiles from Judah were living life in Babylon like they were in Maryland (on vacation), instead of like they were in Oklahoma (living their regular life.) Jeremiah writes to encourage them to buy houses, go to the grocery store, and get a new phone number.
We live our lives, many times, on Jeremiah’s clock not Hananiah’s. In light of eternity, all suffering is short term, but in our experience, life is longer than we think. To borrow a famous phrase from Francis Schaeffer, “How shall we now live?” in light of the length of this short life?
This will be the subject of this Sunday’s sermon at Wildwood taken from Jeremiah 29:1-14 entitled “This life . . .” If you are in the OKC area this Sunday, join us at Wildwood Community Church as we look into this great (and famous) passage together.
