Matthew 6:19-21, “19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Treasures On Earth Are Powerful:  Verses 19-20

• Earthly treasures are DISORIENTING.  How do you know when you have enough? It isn’t wicked to get a house, get a car, get a cup of coffee, but how do you know when you have enough?  How do you know when you are being greedy? How do you know when you are being wise with money?  How do you know when you are being generous? How do you know the difference between storing up treasures on earth, and being wise to save for the day you are older? How do you know?
• Earthly treasures are DISRUPTIVE.  You will change jobs, changes houses, change cities because you will convince yourself that you need more earthly treasures.
• Earthly treasures will breed DISCONTENT.  How many times have you been going through life, feeling okay about yourself, and then you go to someone’s house and you see their television, house, car, pictures, and you think to yourself, “What have I been doing with my life?” You immediately feel horrible about yourself.  10-minutes ago you felt great, you thought about going to your high school reunion, but now you are in such a place of despair you can’t imagine getting out of bed.
• Earthly treasures are DECEPTIVE.  When you get them they promise they are going to make everything better, and they never last. Pretty soon they end up on Craigslist with every other earthly treasure, and on the hunt for a new earthly treasure.

Do you know the greatest treasure we could ever imagine?  He is the visible of the invisible God. He is Lord over all. He is the second person of the trinity. He is eternally connected to the Father and the Spirit, and yet He lays all of His heavenly treasure aside to come and take on flesh.  His name is Jesus.

He was born in a manger. He born into poverty. He was despised and rejected, He was stripped naked of all His earthly possessions, and spiritually stripped from the Father and the Spirit when He willingly lays down His life at the cross, and He went through all of it for you.

While you were yet sinners, while you were yet enemies storing up treasures on earth and He completely gives His life for you because He is deeply committed to you.

He’s is the only One that will last, and He invites you to turn to Him and find the greatest treasure you could ever imagine.

Ephesians 3:2-3, “2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.”

In verses 2-3 the Apostle Paul is going to refer to our relationship with God as a “Mystery.” Now when we hear the word “Mystery” it sounds like we are watching one of those mystery shows on Dateline.

The whole time you are trying to figure out the motive, murderer, the mystery, but in verse 3 when you see the word “Mystery” in the original language it isn’t about discovering the answer on your own, but that the mystery is so mysterious that God must reveal Himself and make Himself known.

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John 13:1, “1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

This means the cross is coming, and Jesus is wanting to take these last few moments to press into His closest friends about the most important things.

It is as if He is saying, “You have heard Me teach, you have seen miraculous healings, you have seen crowds gathered, but Jesus wants to make sure they are focused on the most important things. Look at verse 2:

John 13:2, “2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,”

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Ecclesiastes:10:10, “If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success.”

We all see areas where we need to grow, or areas where we are deficient, but we don’t know how to improve those areas. A “Yearly Planning Retreat” is to help you with the, “How?”

In John 5, Jesus explains that He knew exactly what He came to do and He was working toward that end.  We all know it is important to work, but we end up working IN our life instead of ON our life. We end up spending our week working really hard on mowing the yard, making dinner, cleaning clothes, but we don’t take time to work on our life where we reflect, pray, and plan.

This retreat is going to be vital to help us thrive in this new life we have been given in Jesus.  Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, “If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength.” Therefore, we want to use this time to “sharpen our edges” so that we can enjoy the full life we have been freely given in Jesus.

My hope and prayer is that the power of God would resonate in our hearts so that we all might have a vision for our life that brings great joy to our soul and greater glory to our Savior!

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Our heritage at North Village Church is connected to a vision to saturate Greater Austin with local churches that exist to see every man, woman, and child have an opportunity to experience the life transforming power through faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

Our hope is that in our life time we will see the spiritual landscape of Greater Austin transformed by the gospel so that more of our gifts and talents are being directed toward His glory.

But, many will ask, “Why start so many churches in one area?”  It is because many times new churches are simply taking people from other churches.  It doesn’t really expand the kingdom, but more so shuffles the chairs.  Therefore, these new churches are deeply dependent on God’s power to ignite new life in the people of greater Austin, and by God’s grace we will see new churches coming out of those communities.

On Sunday morning we watch our musicians stand up here, play songs, and they make it look so easy.  Sometimes I watch them play and I get so jealous.  I wish I could just walk up here and play an instrument like they play an instrument, but it’s not like they started playing that instrument this morning at 10am. It is has been worked into their life over and over.

They started practicing this morning at 9am to make last minute tweaks. Then, they had practice on Tuesday evening to practice playing the song together. There is also the prep work Luke sends out weeks in advance over charts, chords, and lyrics.

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In May 2014 we challenged our church family to make a pledge over 18-months and give $30,000 to start a new church in Greater Austin.  By August 2014, (Less than 3-months) the North Village Church family has already given (In hand) over $27,000.  Isn’t that amazing!

Right now, we are partnering with 5 other local churches who have committed a combined total of $170,000 to starting this new church.  We are currently interviewing potential church planters so that we can see a new church birthed in our city by August 2016.

All for Jesus!

Sometimes I see people walking through tension in life and they feel blind-sided. They see sin being exposed in their life, and their first thought is, “What is wrong in my life?”  They start to feel distant from God, and they start pushing God away.

Sometimes we push God away physically by pulling away from Sunday morning, groups, prayer, friends, and sometimes we push God away metaphorically by putting up a wall that says, “You can’t touch this part of my life.”

But, you need to know if you want to walk in a growing, vibrant, non-religious relationship with Jesus there is going to be a trajectory of tension so that you can experience the greatest life He has to offer. Look at John 7:6-8 to see why:

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On May 18th, North Village Church, is going to teach on the biblical purpose for starting new churches, and we are going to give everyone an opportunity to be involved in our $30,000 commitment.

Over the next 14 months we have partnered with 5 others churches (Who are committing $30,000 also), and this isn’t something we can do alone.  We are inviting you to prayerfully reflect on being involved financially above and beyond your financial giving.

If you have yet to partner with North Village Church financially,  this is a great time to start. If you are already giving to North Village Church, then this is a great opportunity to also be involved in what God is doing to start a new church in greater Austin.

Giving @ NVC

At North Village Church, we desire to see all people to mature in their relationship with Jesus. It is our hope to see men and women  not only experience saving faith in Jesus, but that our faith would be burrowed into our hearts and minds so that we see a church family that is bringing greater glory to Him.  Consider the words of the Apostle Paul below:

11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. 

14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

• Spiritual Gifts: Do you know your spiritual gifts? Are you functioning in your spiritual gifts so that you are building up the body of Christ?
• Equipping of the Saints: Do you love Scripture? Are you being equipped so that you can equip others? This includes friends, spouse, children, co-workers, neighbors, etc.
• Work of Service: This implies humility. We are willingly humbling ourselves to Jesus as our leader so we can point our lives and the lives of others toward Him.
• Maturity: Are you able to stand strong through faith so that you aren’t “tossed here and there” by the false teachings in our culture? Do you see yourself as a man or woman of character? This includes genuine love for God evidenced by holiness of life and personal integrity.
• Speaking Truth In Love: Are you speaking Scripture over others so that you see supernatural life change? Are you pointing your heart and the hearts of others to the gospel? Are you willing to confront lies, refute false doctrine, and have really hard conversations?
• Grow Up Into All Aspects Into Him: Are you living on mission with Jesus? Are you living incarnationally with others? Is this happening because you are resting in the gospel, and the Holy Spirit is leading you to engage His mission at your job, family, church, home, and hobby?

In March we will begin our training.  Our hope is that we will continue the training next year and provide two tracks.  If you weren’t able to get involved this year, then pray about getting involved next year!

In January I am hosting a 4-week study to take an in-depth look at Ephesians 5:25-26.

I have found one of the greatest challenges in our spiritual lives as men is leading our wives spiritually (See 1 Peter 3:7.)  Notice the last line in verse 7 teaches us that our prayers will be hindered if we neglect to love our wives, lead them, pastor them, treat them with honor, and live with them in an understanding.

I can think of no greater response to that truth in Scripture than to gather with other men and challenge one another to step into that role in a practical way.

I know we are busy.  I know we have excuses.  I know we feel pulled in a 100 different directions.  But, don’t miss the opportunity to be spiritually sharpened and respond to the call of God’s Word on your life.

Here are the details:

January 21st (Tuesday, 7pm)
January 28th (Tuesday, 7pm)
February 4th (Tuesday, 7pm)
February 11th (Tuesday, 7pm)

Church Office:  8705 Shoal Creek Blvd #207

Put it in your calendar now!

Throughout December North Village Church took some time to think critically about the Christmas songs we sing around the holidays.  These are often songs that we have heard so often, and been so commercialized that they have lost their meaning.  Below is a sample from, “Hark! The Herald Angel Sing.”

The word, “Hark” means to listen attentively.  Therefore, when we hear this song we need to ask ourselves, “Are we listening?”  It isn’t simply going through the motions of coming on a Sunday morning, reading Scripture, praying, and religious activity.  It isn’t simply going to work, parenting, and going through the holidays.  It isn’t simply going to Christmas parties, decorating the tree, and buying presents, but it is asking, “Am I listening to the message that is being herald by the angels as they sing, ‘Glory to the newborn king?”

13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

You can listen to the rest HERE.

There is a lie to expose in our culture. Do you hear it?  The lie to expose is that we blame God for our pain and suffering.  God didn’t create this pain and suffering.  Look at Genesis 1-2.  Look at the relationship between humanity and God that is being established.  I know some of us get distracted by the existence of dinosaurs and the age of the earth.  Stop looking for secret hidden codes, and look at the God that is being described in Genesis 1-2.

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Who disciples?  Col. 3:2 “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

• The eternal minded that see the big picture
• Those that are personal and have a passion to walk with others
• People who love Jesus
• Lovingly reprove those you lead, and be are teachable

How to disciple?  (Barnabas, Paul, Timothy)

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