Biggest Loser series coming soon!

Yesterday was an awesome day!  I love it when we have a baptism as part of the service!  I look forward to the days where we are having them every week!

 

Well, we have finished up with our series on Praying Like Jesus and if you missed one of the sermons, you can always go to our church website and listen to them there.  Starting this week we will be kicking off our series, The BIGGEST Loser.  For the next 4 weeks we will be diving into 4 different parables about the end times that Jesus used which all have one thing in common: each had a biggest loser.  Here is a brief outline of what to expect for the month of May.  I would encourage you to read ahead on these parables.

 

Matthew 25:1-13 – Parable of the Ten Virgins

Luke 12:16-21 – Parable of the Rich Fool

Matthew 25:31-46 – Parable of the Sheep and the Goats

Luke 16:19-31 – Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus

 

As I briefly mentioned this past Sunday, this series has 2 parts.  The first part is the serious side of this series as I believe each of us will be challenged over the next month to examine ourselves.  I pray that God will speak to each one of us and reveal the areas of our lives that don’t align to the life he has called us to and that we will have the courage to obediently follow Jesus Christ with our whole hearts and not just with parts of it.  The second aspect of this series is a fun side.  The reality television show “The Biggest Loser” is a weight loss competition among a number of individuals in which they work toward and celebrate the shedding of extra pounds.  Our challenge will not be nearly as organized as the TV show, but I do want to offer a friendly competition to anyone who would like to participate.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to lose or shed those extra pounds.  We will have an official weigh in this coming Sunday (May 5^th) before and after service for anyone who wants to join in.  Then, over the month of May, you are to work out, eat healthy, and support others who have signed up.  At the end of the challenge (May 26^th), those participating will once again weigh in, and I’ll be giving away an award for to the person who can lose the highest percentage of body weight.

 

Everyone is invited to join in.  You do not have to be overweight to participate.  This is a friendly competition, and we want to encourage one another through it.  If you have a local gym you go to… great.  If you like to jog… awesome. 

 

Ladies, Asia and I have invited a friend of ours (Kelly) to come lead Zumba here at the church (in the gym) each Saturday, starting this weekend (May 4^th) from 9:30am-11am.  Zumba is a form of aerobics that hit the scene in 2001 and is now the world’s largest organized fitness program.  In case you are worried, let me assure you that the movements and music will be appropriate.  With Zumba being such a popular event, I encourage you to invite a friend to come and join in with you.  And don’t forget to invite them to church as well.  

 

 

Wrapping our minds around it

I mentioned this in the sermon yesterday, but I thought it would be good to revisit.

 

As I read God’s word and allow it to speak truth into my life, sometimes I discover that my truth (how I am living my daily life, what I believe, or how I had interacted with others) does not match God’s truth.  In those instances where God’s truth and our actions do not align, we need to submit what we think is true/best to what God has declared what is true/best.  This, however, is not an easy task. 

 

No one likes to submit.  At times, it seems like rebellion is wired into our DNA.  But the fact remains, we need to submit to God’s truth.  This is where prayer comes in.  Submitting to God’s truth should not be a daily process that we loath.  It should be a place that we can find joy and fulfillment.  It comes through the process of our minds being renewed and transformed.  It may take me a few times at praying the same thing, over and over, to wrap our head around it, but that’s okay.

 

When we look at Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he goes off and prays specifically “not what I will, but what you will.”  Something I never really noticed before is that he does this 3 times.  He prays, comes back to find everyone sleeping, and goes – as Mark 14:39 “Once more he went away and prayed the same thing.”

 

Jesus does this 3 times.  Why would Jesus pray the same prayer 3 times?  Was he trying to change God’s mind and he didn’t like the answer God gave him the first 2 times?  No, Jesus knew exactly what was about to happen.  He knew exactly what God’s will was.  He knew everything that was about to transpire and he prays 3 times for God’s will, not his to be done, and I think he had to pray 3 times because it was in his prayers that Jesus was mentally and spiritually working it out. 

 

As we pray, I think it very appropriate and acceptable that when we come to God, we come to him honestly, and respectfully, laying our hearts out before him.  And when we do that, we aren’t seeking to change God’s mind, but we are working things out.  When we pray, I believe that God can and sometime does change things around us, but I believe that most of the time, when we pray, God changes us.

 

A couple of verses to check out…

 

Philippians 2:12 tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works within us.

 

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” 

 

Ezekiel 36:26 – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

 

Psalm 51:8-12 (open your Bible and check it out)

Praying like Jesus - part 1

Sunday was such an awesome day at church.  Once again we had multiple new families visiting the church, some of which it was their second or third time.  We also kicked off a new sermon series that is focusing on John 17 – praying like Jesus.  Yesterday we started off with John 17:1-5 where Jesus prays for himself.  As we model Jesus’ prayer in our own lives, it would do us good to likewise: prayer to God as “Father,” pray that we submit to His will, and pray that we would draw near to Him. 

 

Something I was thinking about earlier today comes during the short time between Jesus being nailed to the cross and when he actually dies.  Go ahead and open your bible and read Luke 23:32-43.  In Luke’s Gospel he records the crucifixion of Jesus alongside two other criminals.  Now what is interesting is the short dialogue that Luke records for us.  As you read, you will notice one of the criminals mocks Jesus and the other one defends him.  But what is really interesting is the request that each of them has.  As you reflect on these few verses, don’t judge the criminals in your mind.  Associate with them.  Ask yourself, “which one of these criminals alongside Jesus am I most like?”

Criminal #1

-          Mocks Jesus – “hurled insults at him”

-          Said to Jesus – “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”

 

Criminal #2

-          Rebuked criminal #1

-          Says their punishment is deserved

-          Declares that Jesus has done nothing wrong

-          Asks of Jesus – “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

-          Jesus replies to him – “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 

Did you notice the difference?  One criminal demands that if Jesus is really God, then he needed to prove it and get him out of his circumstance.  If Jesus is really God, he needed to get off the cross and then remove the other two from the pain and their current reality.  The other criminal, however, doesn’t ask Jesus to remove him from his suffering, but that Jesus would ultimately take him higher.  That Jesus would save him not from his physical death, but that Jesus would give him eternal life.  And Jesus replies to this man.

 

Which of the two reflect your prayers?  Are your prayers filled with the requests for Jesus to do something or to get you around the pain and struggles of daily life?  Or do you pray in a way that asks the Father not to help you avoid the struggles of life, but to get you through them?  Do you pray in such a way that results in you drawing closer to Jesus?  Do you pray in your current circumstances that Jesus would be glorified?

 

Just some food for thought.

 

 

Big Church Words summary

Hey everyone! I hope for those of you who were on spring break, or had students on spring break this last week, were able to spend some time with your family (wherever it may have been) and friends.  I attempted to spend some extra time with my family this last week.  As most of you know, I took last week off for vacation for 2 reasons: spend some extra time with my daughters and to work on my final paper for my master’s program.  If you were wondering, no I did not get it finished, but I am well on my way.

 

This past week we finished up a sermon series titled “Big Church Words.”  I would like to give you a brief summary of the 7 big church words addressed and some of the scriptures that go with them.  If you missed any of the weeks and would like to hear that sermon, just go to www.westk.org and you can listen or download them to your podcasts.

 

7 Big Church Words:

JUSTIFICATION: process where guilty people are declared innocent.

(Romans chapters 2, 3, 7.  Also see 5:1 and 8:1)

 

SANCTIFICATION: process of having been made holy while also continually being made holy.

(Hebrews 10:10-14)

 

REDEMPTION: the act of buying back, or paying a price to return something to your possession.

(Galatians 4:5; Titus 2:14; Book of Hosea – specifically chapter 3)

 

REGENERATION: process of taking something that was dead and giving it new life.

(Ezekiel 37; Zechariah 3; John 3)

 

RECONCILIATION: Restoration of a broken relationship

(2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Ephesians 2; Colossians 1:21-23

 

ATONEMENT: satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury (the payment owed)

(John 3:17; Romans 3:23-25; 1 John 2:2 and 4:10)

 

LOVE: God is love

(Mark 12:30-33; Luke 6:32; John 14; Romans 5; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 John 4)

 

 

Upcoming – Starting this Sunday, we will be diving into 3 straight weeks of the “Prayer Warehouse: Praying like Jesus.”  That’s right, for the next 3 weeks we will be diving into John 17 as we look at Jesus’ high priestly prayer.  This will be a great series as we do a verse by verse walkthrough of John 17 and discover how we pray just like Jesus.

 

Then, starting in May, we will be going through a series called: “The Biggest Loser.”  Over the past few years, millions of viewers have been drawn to their television sets to watch this popular television show about weight-loss and drastic life change.  With summer soon approaching and many (including me) attempting to lose those extra pounds, we will be diving into 4 parables of Jesus that warn people not to be the ultimate biggest loser.  This is a series you don’t want to miss.  *Also, coinciding with this series, we will be having a friendly weight-loss competition for anyone who wants to participate.  There will be a biggest loser award for the person who loses the highest percentage of weight.  More details will be coming soon!