Deeann, Whitney and I have been overwhelmed by the loving care we see the members of this body share with one another here at Garden Ridge! When our family members come to visit, they all remark on the friendliness and spirit of joy they encounter as they worship and fellowship with the body here. It is uplifting and refreshing to the soul! It is a testimony to the Spirit of God working among His people to produce fruit. (Now don’t go letting this give you the big head!)
As a result of this type of love for one another and joy in worshiping the Lord we have seen God doing some powerful things all around us. 2008 has started off with awesome things happening as each week this year we have seen our church family grow. Thus far, in 2008, we have seen 5 new births into the Lord and 15 individuals express interest in being part of the church family here. (Let God receive the glory for this!) However, with this type of growth we need to consider how we will help people connect to the church family in ways that encourage spiritual maturation and empowerment so individuals are confident and equipped to put their talents and passions to work in ways that serve the Lord, one another, and our community.
The eldership and ministry staff have been meeting to try and organize a process for helping each member move forward in their spiritual growth so they become tools in God’s hand and ambassadors who can serve within His will, while also providing a witness that attracts many more to realize their need to live within a bond of covenant love with their Father in heaven. The goal is to make disciples—just as Jesus called His apostles to do as He prepared to ascend back to the Father. The task is to provide training, love, support, encouragement, empowerment, accountability and opportunity to grow in our understanding of God and His ways and to put our faith into practice in real ways that make an eternal difference. The process is multi-layered.
One of the things each member should realize is the importance of the various types of group encounters provided through the various classes, worship times and ministries at Garden Ridge each week. It would be ideal for each member to be involved in a time of worship with the whole church family; a time of more intensive Bible study (at least once a week); and a time of small group interaction to develop intimacy with others in the family and have accountability from some who really know what is going on in our lives each week. That is why there are Bible classes and Life Groups to participate in beyond the worship time we have together on Sunday. Each of these provides a dynamic for spiritual growth that the others cannot offer.
In addition to this, each of us must learn to exercise our faith by putting it to work in practical ways. Our talents and passions need to be employed in the work of the Kingdom so that our God is presented as real and His ways as truly beneficial in everyday living. A faith that does not work is useless (or barren—as the word James uses in James 2:20 also means) and we all know what Jesus did to the fig tree that was barren in Mark 11:13-14, don’t we? Putting our faith to work shows it is part of us and not just something we give lip service to. Our “religion” actually becomes a lifestyle; part of our character and personhood.
This is what Jesus was calling us to as He told His followers to “make disciples”. He wants us to follow Him, learn from Him, and draw others to Him as ambassadors of God, helping people see the reconciliation available to them in their relationship with God. He wants us to be intentional in the way we use our time, talents, resources and opportunities so we consistently grow in the ways of our Father in Heaven.
Most of us have already signed up for this—let the training and service continue!!!
-Scott
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Do You Have an Emotional, Intellectual, or Willful Relationship With Jesus?
What type of relationship do you have with Jesus? What type do you want to have? There are three elements one should involve in developing a covenant bond with Jesus: the emotions, the intellect, and the will. Typically, we begin with emotions, move to the intellect and finish with the will. Take a young man becoming attracted to a young woman for example. His emotions could get him into trouble if they were acted upon alone. Rushing into a relationship solely based upon emotion is a train wreck waiting to happen! The intellect should slow down the emotional response causing him to question things such as whether they are compatible, or if he is financially able to support a dating relationship, or what they will do if this should move on to something deeper. This is where some of the time element that goes into dating comes into play, so the two can get to know each other well enough to make both an emotional and intellectual decision about where their relationship should go.
However, there is a third element that must also be considered—the will! The will goes beyond the feelings of emotion and the rationale of the intellect to the very heart of commitment. The will is what one uses to decide about changes in lifestyle and the cost they are willing to pay in order to follow through on one’s decision. The will is the part that will hang in there when the emotions are not quite feeling it and the intellect is in doubt. The will is the glue that holds these other transitory elements together.
The text for the sermon this morning (Luke 4:14-5:11) includes three challenging stories. In the first one (4:16-30), Jesus is in His hometown and goes to the synagogue to proclaim God’s year of Jubilee. However, because the townspeople can only see Him as Joseph’s son (V. 22) instead of God’s Son (as has been emphasized consistently throughout our study of Luke), they wind up seeking to kill Him by the time He finishes teaching them (V. 28-29). This is a story of emotion! The townspeople who watched Jesus grow up are excited about His message of Jubilee, however, once He begins challenging their intellect and will, they let their emotions drive them to seek to destroy Him.
This is followed by a story of intellect (Luke 4:31-43)—the healing of the demon possessed man in the synagogue! In this account, the people let their emotions cause them to marvel at the authority and power in Jesus’ teaching (V. 32, 36) to the point that they search for Him when He withdraws to a lonely place. They then want Him to stay with them so they can learn more (V. 42). These people are searching and hungry to be with Jesus, but we are not told of any of them changing their lifestyle to follow Him!
That is where the third story comes in (Luke 5:1-11)—where Jesus teaches from Simon’s boat and then takes them out fishing. Simon has already encountered Jesus when He healed his mother-in-law (4:38-39). He has heard Him teach and witnessed a miraculous catch of fish. It moves him to confess he is a sinful man (5:8) and to feel unworthy to be with Him, however, when Jesus offers to make him a fisher of men he leaves everything to follow Him (5:10-11). This is a decision of the will to change his lifestyle and take on new commitment, even at great cost!
So, which story best describes your walk with Jesus? Are you in an emotion-level relationship in which you bounce all over the place, based upon the feelings of the day? Or, are you in an intellectual-level relationship in which you are searching to know more so you can figure Him out? You long to be with Him, but not to the point of making commitment or changing lifestyle. What He wants you to reach is a will-level relationship so you will live sold out to Him and pay the price to walk with Him, whatever it takes! He wants your heart in a bond of covenant! Are you willing to surrender this to Him?
-Scott
However, there is a third element that must also be considered—the will! The will goes beyond the feelings of emotion and the rationale of the intellect to the very heart of commitment. The will is what one uses to decide about changes in lifestyle and the cost they are willing to pay in order to follow through on one’s decision. The will is the part that will hang in there when the emotions are not quite feeling it and the intellect is in doubt. The will is the glue that holds these other transitory elements together.
The text for the sermon this morning (Luke 4:14-5:11) includes three challenging stories. In the first one (4:16-30), Jesus is in His hometown and goes to the synagogue to proclaim God’s year of Jubilee. However, because the townspeople can only see Him as Joseph’s son (V. 22) instead of God’s Son (as has been emphasized consistently throughout our study of Luke), they wind up seeking to kill Him by the time He finishes teaching them (V. 28-29). This is a story of emotion! The townspeople who watched Jesus grow up are excited about His message of Jubilee, however, once He begins challenging their intellect and will, they let their emotions drive them to seek to destroy Him.
This is followed by a story of intellect (Luke 4:31-43)—the healing of the demon possessed man in the synagogue! In this account, the people let their emotions cause them to marvel at the authority and power in Jesus’ teaching (V. 32, 36) to the point that they search for Him when He withdraws to a lonely place. They then want Him to stay with them so they can learn more (V. 42). These people are searching and hungry to be with Jesus, but we are not told of any of them changing their lifestyle to follow Him!
That is where the third story comes in (Luke 5:1-11)—where Jesus teaches from Simon’s boat and then takes them out fishing. Simon has already encountered Jesus when He healed his mother-in-law (4:38-39). He has heard Him teach and witnessed a miraculous catch of fish. It moves him to confess he is a sinful man (5:8) and to feel unworthy to be with Him, however, when Jesus offers to make him a fisher of men he leaves everything to follow Him (5:10-11). This is a decision of the will to change his lifestyle and take on new commitment, even at great cost!
So, which story best describes your walk with Jesus? Are you in an emotion-level relationship in which you bounce all over the place, based upon the feelings of the day? Or, are you in an intellectual-level relationship in which you are searching to know more so you can figure Him out? You long to be with Him, but not to the point of making commitment or changing lifestyle. What He wants you to reach is a will-level relationship so you will live sold out to Him and pay the price to walk with Him, whatever it takes! He wants your heart in a bond of covenant! Are you willing to surrender this to Him?
-Scott
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Tempted To Be Something You Are Not?
How far will you go to make a name for yourself? What could the devil offer you to sell out the desire God has for your life in order to make of yourself what you want? Are there things tantalizing you that will draw you away from God rather than closer to Him?
Greek mythology tells of a king named Tantalus who wanted to be more than he was. He befriended the ruler of the gods—Zeus himself—and was soon invited to take part in
the feasts and banquets that were held on Mount Olympus. Here he was able to dine on the nectar and ambrosia that was reserved as food only for the gods.
Greek mythology tells of a king named Tantalus who wanted to be more than he was. He befriended the ruler of the gods—Zeus himself—and was soon invited to take part in
the feasts and banquets that were held on Mount Olympus. Here he was able to dine on the nectar and ambrosia that was reserved as food only for the gods.
What does Tantalus do with this new found success and privilege? He decides to use his status to become popular with his friends who are mortals back on earth. Instead of showing gratitude to Zeus for blessing him with such privilege, he steals from the gods and brings their nectar and ambrosia down to humanity. This, of course, will not go unpunished!
The reaction of the gods was to destroy his kingdom and then Zeus struck him dead. However, in the Underworld Tantalus was sentenced to stand in the river of Hades with water up to his chin. Above him was a tree with clusters of delicious fruit hanging just above his head. Every time Tantalus tried to drink the water, it would recede beyond his reach and every time he reached for the fruit, it would be blown out of his reach. He was, thus, doomed to suffer hunger, thirst and unfulfilled desire forever. (This is the story from which we get the word tantalize.)
What kinds of things tantalize you? This morning we will see how the devil came to Jesus in an attempt to get Him to be something He was not. The devil said to Jesus twice, “If you are the Son of God . . .” and proceeded to try to talk Him into doing things that went against the nature or will of God (Luke 4:3, 9).
Wait a minute—isn’t Jesus the Son of God? Of course He is, but what does that mean? By turning stones to bread or jumping off the Temple He would be taking God off of the throne and putting Himself in that position! He would be providing for His own needs instead of trusting God to provide, and He would be making God serve Him by saving Him instead of Him serving God!
What the devil really wanted was for Jesus to use the things of God for His own glory and to serve Himself (much like Tantalus took the ambrosia and nectar of the gods for his own glory)! In other words, the devil tried to get Jesus to live up to the picture he had of the Son of God rather than the expectation God had! How many times do we fall into the same trap? How many times do we expect of Jesus things outside of what God expects? Hopefully, we will learn this morning to avoid the temptation to be something we are not, allowing God to sit on the throne of our heart while we trust Him to provide for us and protect us!
-Scott Jarvis
Sunday, February 3, 2008
A Call for a New Kind of Kingdom
Imagine you had access to a time machine and could travel back in history to see any event as it was happening! What would you want to see first? What event in history is so incredible, inspiring, unique and important that it would be at the top of your priority list? My thoughts went immediately to the crucifixion of Jesus. To see God in human form surrender to the evil of this world in order to overcome it would be overwhelming!
I cannot imagine the wide range of emotion I would feel! Part of me would want to do anything I could to ease His burden. Part of me would want to hug Him and look into His eyes and tell Him how sorry I am for doing the things I did that put Him on that cross! I would want to shout praise and encouragement to God for enduring the mistreatment and death of His Son! I would want to try to persuade the religious leaders and Romans to realize what they were doing so it was not in vain for even one person! And then there would be this part of me that would be angry!
How could I not be angry? As I tried to soak up everything going on all around Jesus, it would get under my skin that there was a group of soldiers huddled at the foot of the cross trying to decide how to split up the belongings of Jesus (See John 19:23-25)! How could they become so calloused that they would wonder what they were going to get out of the crucifixion of the Son of God? Could they really be this self-absorbed? And then that would make me wonder how many times I had approached the cross of Jesus with my own agenda! How many times during the partaking of communion have I acknowledged that there was a man hanging on a cross (that is, after all, why we are gathered together), but I came with my own appetite to satiate and my own agenda to fulfill? How many times have I looked for what I would get out of it rather than stopping to appreciate what Jesus was doing for me?
Perhaps that is why John the Baptist, the one whose job it was to “make ready the path of the Lord”, talked the way he did when people started to come out to him to be baptized (Luke 3:7-9). Calling people a brood of vipers and questioning their motives for coming out to be baptized does not seem politically correct or religiously polite. Shouldn’t someone blow their whistle and call a foul? Shouldn’t we be concerned about offending people and running them off?
John was much more concerned with true repentance! It doesn’t matter that they are Abraham’s children (V. 8)—God can make more from the stones of the ground! It doesn’t even matter whether they were baptized if they don’t produce the good fruit they were created to bear (V. 9). How can they withhold from those in need (V. 11); exploit one another (V. 12-13); or resort to extortion and bearing false witness (V. 14) if they are truly of the Father? No wonder the axe was already “laid at the root of the trees”!
Should we be concerned about falling into the same traps? Are you here this morning wondering what you are going to get out of Bible class or the worship time? Perhaps it would be time better spent simply reflecting on what it is Jesus has done for us and marveling at the extent He would go to in order to make us right with the Father!
-Scott Jarvis
I cannot imagine the wide range of emotion I would feel! Part of me would want to do anything I could to ease His burden. Part of me would want to hug Him and look into His eyes and tell Him how sorry I am for doing the things I did that put Him on that cross! I would want to shout praise and encouragement to God for enduring the mistreatment and death of His Son! I would want to try to persuade the religious leaders and Romans to realize what they were doing so it was not in vain for even one person! And then there would be this part of me that would be angry!
How could I not be angry? As I tried to soak up everything going on all around Jesus, it would get under my skin that there was a group of soldiers huddled at the foot of the cross trying to decide how to split up the belongings of Jesus (See John 19:23-25)! How could they become so calloused that they would wonder what they were going to get out of the crucifixion of the Son of God? Could they really be this self-absorbed? And then that would make me wonder how many times I had approached the cross of Jesus with my own agenda! How many times during the partaking of communion have I acknowledged that there was a man hanging on a cross (that is, after all, why we are gathered together), but I came with my own appetite to satiate and my own agenda to fulfill? How many times have I looked for what I would get out of it rather than stopping to appreciate what Jesus was doing for me?
Perhaps that is why John the Baptist, the one whose job it was to “make ready the path of the Lord”, talked the way he did when people started to come out to him to be baptized (Luke 3:7-9). Calling people a brood of vipers and questioning their motives for coming out to be baptized does not seem politically correct or religiously polite. Shouldn’t someone blow their whistle and call a foul? Shouldn’t we be concerned about offending people and running them off?
John was much more concerned with true repentance! It doesn’t matter that they are Abraham’s children (V. 8)—God can make more from the stones of the ground! It doesn’t even matter whether they were baptized if they don’t produce the good fruit they were created to bear (V. 9). How can they withhold from those in need (V. 11); exploit one another (V. 12-13); or resort to extortion and bearing false witness (V. 14) if they are truly of the Father? No wonder the axe was already “laid at the root of the trees”!
Should we be concerned about falling into the same traps? Are you here this morning wondering what you are going to get out of Bible class or the worship time? Perhaps it would be time better spent simply reflecting on what it is Jesus has done for us and marveling at the extent He would go to in order to make us right with the Father!
-Scott Jarvis
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