At the cross Jesus says the words, “It is finished!” There are a number of implications of those words, however, one of them is that Jesus is our mediator.
A mediator is a judicial word for when there is disagreement. When we are unable to resolve conflict we will bring in a mediator to fairly represent both sides. Because of our spiritual debt there is conflict between us and God and we are in need of a mediator.
May 8th, 11-6pm at Brentwood Park the community gets together to host a community festival. It includes live music, food, artists, and areas for children. Last year we were able to help out with face painting and this year we are going to run our soccer camps. It will be a lot of fun!
Yesterday our church hosted a garden fair for the community. Why? Because people love gardens and our church just wants to serve the community. It was something fun and simple. We had local vendors from organic gardens, wild flowers, artists, landscapers just come out to create awareness for their business and help educated the community about gardens. You can go to www.austingardenfair.com for more details. 
This isn’t a popular concept in our culture today, but Scripture teaches us that all of humanity is born into spiritual debt. All of us have sinned against a Holy and Righteous God. It is eternal sin against an eternal God and carries an eternal debt. Colossians 2 describes us as being spiritually dead and having a certificate of debt against us. This is a certificate for a contest that you don’t want to win and yet all of us have excelled in running up an account of spiritual debt.
In our culture today we don’t understand spiritual debt but we understand financial debt. We live in a culture that thrives on debt. 40% of all Americans spend more than they make. Most people who have the new car, new house, new gadgets, also have new letters that come in the mail each week from their debt collectors.
This Sunday we are going to host a garden fair for the neighborhood because after all who doesn’t love gardens! You can click on here for more information.
2 Corinthians 5:21, “21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
It was at the cross that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf. In that moment Jesus becomes sin, our sin. He becomes the liar, the murderer, the thief, the pedophile, the molester, the adulterer, He becomes the wickedness of sin. It isn’t His sin, it is our sin, so that through faith we might become the righteousness of God.
It is at that moment that the eternal weight of sin is laid upon Jesus and it is literally crushing Him to death. People will say, “Couldn’t have God just simply overlooked sin?” If God is so loving and powerful couldn’t He simply forgive?”
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Lucy Read is the only pre k school in AISD and this year we were able to help the kids have an Easter egg hunt. Over 400 children, over 2000 eggs, and they were gone in seconds!
The Christian life is one of celebration and one of suffering. Most of the time we split the two. We have seasons of celebration like graduating from college, getting married, having kids, getting a job and there are presents, people, parties, and it is a lot of fun.
Then we have seasons of pain and suffering like sickness, loss of job, legal problems, obstacles, and relational strife, and during those time there is an absence of celebration. We tend to want to move through the season of suffering as fast as possible so we can get back to the celebration. Who wouldn’t?
We can end up thinking the Old Testament was about keeping the 10 commandments and the New Testament was about Jesus playing with sheep and children. However, God is the same in the Old and New Testament and both are pointing to God’s work and us resting in His work.
In Exodus 20 we see the list of 10 commandments and it can look like God is just some mean boss up in heaven making us work to keep Him happy, but we forget in the previous verse it teaches us that God is the one who did the work.
In verse 2 it says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
The order here is very important to the gospel. Did God say here are some commandments and if you keep them I will deliver you? He is not saying obey me then I will save you. He is saying I have saved you, I brought you out of the land, I brought you out of the house of slavery, and now you get to obey me and experience the rest of my work.
When it comes to the Sabbath it can be really confusing. In the original language the word Sabbath means “a day to cease from work”. I remember when I was a kid that most of the stores were closed on Sunday and it forced most people from commercial activity, however, today it is more odd for a store to be closed on Sunday.
I read an article about the first train in Scotland in 1842 running on a Sunday and people from local churches protested the train. One pastor is quoting as referring to the passengers on the train as people who bought “tickets to hell” because they were riding the train on a Sunday.
It doesn’t help when we look in Scripture and see Jesus seems to ignore the Sabbath, and there are a few passages in the New Testament that seem to discourage us from observing days, weeks, or season and as a result the Sabbath can be really confusing.
I am not that good at raising money, but there are a few things I have learned from the experience:
1. Boldness. Get over the awkward feeling of asking for money. It takes money and when you start a new church it will take money outside of the church. People are going to say “no” and that is okay.
2. Make a list. Write down everyone you have ever met and start praying about how God might want to involve them in what you are doing to start a new church.
3. Craft your vision. Be able to cast your vision in 30 seconds and expand up to 20 minutes, depending on the opportunity. Work really hard on the wording and be as clear and specific as possible without being deceptive. Every church planter wants to see the Kingdom of God expanded for His glory. What makes your vision different?
Most of us ignore taking a day of rest and instead go 100mph, 7 days a week and constantly feel like there is a pressure to do more and get more accomplished. We find it difficult to sit still. We are constantly going from the moment we wake up till we fall asleep because it is hard to rest. If you are a student you could always study more, if you are a parent you could always be a better parent, if you are an employee we can always improve, our marriages could always improve and as a result we have created a culture of busy people. I thought of a few types of busy people to give us some examples:
The Hurried Person: First we have the hurried person. This person is always in a hurry. They talk real fast, they drive fast, and sometimes you will ask them why they are in such a hurry and they will say, “I am not in a hurry, I just have a lot to do.” You know you are talking to a hurried person because while you are talking to them they are always looking around or at their watch at the next thing they have to do.
What is the last thing you did out of desperation? Get to the doctor because you were desperate to get better? Go on a date because you were desperate to get away from your kids? Study because you were desperate to pass a test? Most of our desperation comes in moments because most of the time we are doing okay, but Scripture teaches us that all of humanity is desperate for God.
Here is why:
Over the next 35-days we are going to go through a spiritual journey with our church. During that time we will explore areas such as:
* Fasting / Prayer
* Scripture
* Giving
* Sabbath
* Celebration
During this time our heart will be to draw close to Jesus because we have seen that the church often times struggle with living in rhythm with Jesus. We tend to drift toward harmony and living in rhythm with our culture or drift toward hostility and living out of rhythm with everyone else. When we look to Scripture instead of seeing Jesus drift toward harmony or hostility we see Him drifting toward holiness Our heart is during these 35-days, individually and collectively, we would see us drifting toward His holiness as we live in rhythm with Him.
Stay with me now. When I first started drinking wine I started off with Oak Leaf from Wal-mart. It is $3.00 a bottle. It was convenient, it was cheap, and it tasted okay. It had become familiar and comfortable over time. When we were with friends they would always talk about wine like it was so exciting and my wife and I would just nod in agreement. We didn’t get it. What was so exciting? It was just wine.
Then one day a friend gave me a bottle of Silver Oak. If you have never had a bottle of Silver Oak it is amazing. It was smooth, bold, and full of flavor and scents and it exposed me to taste buds that I didn’t know existed, and now I know what it is like to have a really good glass of wine. Now when my friends talk about wine…I know, I have tasted and I have seen that it is good.
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