More Than Friends Part 1 (Example #1)

Example #1:  Your child hurts my child

What are we going to do when our children hurt one another?  This is a sensitive subject isn’t it?  We love our children, we defend our children, we protect our children, so when my little angel gets hurt by your little terror then it can get really complicated.

What are you going to do?  We might gossip to the other parents and say something like, “Be sure to watch your children around that “one” over there.  We might attack and say something like, “You need to do a better job of watching your children!”  We might suppress and become bitter so every time we see them we think to ourselves, “Yep, there they go doing a horrible job of parenting!”  When we are doing this we are telling ourselves God didn’t want this to happen and I need to do something to fix it!  But what if we were more than friends then the gospel will shape our relationships with one another and we can:

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More Than Friends Part 1

When we trust in Jesus’ work on the cross we become sons and daughters who are adopted into God’s family.  Therefore, the relationships we have with one another is more than friendship.  It is more than a way to meet new people or have someone to hang out with on the weekends.  So much so that there is a supernatural quality to our relationships with one another, but sometimes those relationships can still be difficult.  Consider a few of these possibilities:

  • How many times have you been hanging out with someone from North Village Church, and there is someone in the group that you really rubs you the wrong way.  You can’t explain it, but you are actually thinking about what other group of friends you could hang out with so you can avoid that person.
  • How many times have you been in a conversation with someone and they talk to you about something that is really difficult?  You empathize with them, but the best you can come up with is something like, “That sucks and I will be praying for you.”  Inside you are wishing that you could have said something more meaningful.
  •  What do you do when you have a friend that seems to always have the same problem.  You know every time they go down this road it is going to end up in the same place.  You are thinking to yourself, “How come they can’t change?”  But you never say anything because you are afraid you are going to hurt their feelings.
  •  How many times have we been trying to talk to someone, but they keep playing with their phone, checking email, checking updates, and texting, and it feels like what ever is going on in that phone is more important than having a conversation with you.
  •  Or, how many times do you show up at church on Sunday and you see everyone talking to everyone, and inside you are wondering, “How come nobody is talking to me?”  Why does it look like everyone else is so friendly, but nobody is friendly with me?”

Scripture teaches us because of our faith in Jesus there is a quality to our relationships with one another.  Below are 4 characteristics that shapes our relationships with one another.  Take a moment and consider how they might apply to your relationships.

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Vision of North Village Church

Vision:  See every, man, woman, and child in Greater Austin experience the life transforming power of Jesus Christ.

How is that going to happen?

Partner with churches throughout greater Austin:  We partnered with Acts 29 and Hill Country Bible Church to total 30+ churches in greater Austin.

Partner with churches in our geographical area:  We partner with churches in North Central Austin like Hope Chapel, Glad Tidings, and Grace Covenant to see one another be successful for God’s Kingdom.

Personally live on mission with Jesus:  We take personal ownership of the vision by:

  • Connecting with Jesus
  • Connecting with North Village Church Family
  • Connecting with the Community
  • Connecting Others with Jesus
Link

We are going through a series called Invite and Invest at North Village Church.  Throughout the 4-week series we are answering “Why” we have these values as a church, and we are asking people to come up and share “How” how they are living out the vision of North Village Church.

Click HERE to listen

Jesus as a baby or as a warrior?

It seems like around the holidays Jesus is just reduced to a rosy cheek little baby in a nativity scene.  However, Jesus isn’t just a baby in a manger, but He is also our warrior.

He is our warrior because we constantly live in a world of opposition against God. When you turn on the television it doesn’t speak of His glory.  No, the news comes on and tells us the world is falling apart and then a commercial comes on and tells us we need their product or we are never going to be able to make it in life.  When we put on our clothes they don’t affirm that we are beautiful, and created in the image of God.  No, they reveal our little bits and nibbles that we need to cover.  When we eat a meal the food doesn’t declare the provision of His hands.  We feel anxious about how many carbs, sugars, and how badly we want to eat that Snickers.  When we go to work do we gather in the conference rooms and praise Him for the ability to create, manage, sell, teach, teach, organize?  No, we carry the weight and responsibility to financially provide for ourselves.  When our children come home from school they don’t walk in the door singing of His glory.  No, they sing of their glory.  They beckon for their snack, sit in their Dora chair, and sit to watch their favorite cartoon.  Every day we walk into a world that is openly opposing God.

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Discouraged By Sin?

Sin can be discouraging sometimes because it reminds us of our imperfections.  We will say things to ourselves like, “Why do you keep showing up in my life!”  We might respond by thinking we need to “try harder” or we might go in the opposite direction and tell ourselves we need to just “give up.”  Don’t you just feel like giving up sometimes?

Sin is discouraging, and really apart from the Gospel it is devastating, however, through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross there is a joy that is often overlooked.  Consider how the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are involved in in the sin that we see in our lives and hopefully you might see a glimpse of the joy that is poured out on us through the Gospel.

Work of the Father:  Scripture teaches us the Father is powerful and majestic, but also intimately involved in our lives so that when we see sin in our lives it isn’t to discourage us, give us something to do to try to clean ourselves up to be better people, or be indifferent because we don’t care anymore, but He has gone before us to reveal to us our so that it might weaken our faith in ourselves and strengthen our faith in Him.  It means in every circumstance we experience in this life it is to draw us to Him.  It is to remind us that we can’t do it on our own and that we must trust in Him.

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European Vacation

My wife and I got to celebrate our 10 year anniversary going to London, Paris, Rome, Trier, and Luxembourg for two weeks.  It was in our 12th year of marriage, but it was amazing.  Here are some pictures and some travel tips:

Flight:  We signed up for a British Airways credit card for 100K miles for our plane tickets.  We still had to pay $300+ in taxes and random fees, but it was a huge help.

Hotel:  We both signed up for Hyatt credit card and received 4 nights at 5 star hotels and that was a huge help.  We stayed with some friends for a few nights and Pricelined a couple of nights for around $100.  We did have one scary night in an airport hotel outside of Rome, but other than that it was great!

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Judgment In Exodus

Why does God bring judgments of plagues against the Egyptians?  At first glance it looks like God is a vindictive, cruel, war monger, or a religious jihad in the Old Testament.  However, when we read Scripture and it is difficult to understand we need to position ourselves in a place of humility to seek understanding.

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Why don’t we pray?

Scripture teaches us we can turn to an eternal God and pray to Him and He hears us.  Can you believe that!  However, I have noticed in my life there are times where instead of turning to Him in prayer I try to fix things myself.  I am not sure why.  Perhaps it is pride in that I think I can do it, or perhaps it is that I don’t believe it makes a difference but I have found that instead of turning to Him in prayer I try to take care of everything on my own.  I create this world in my head where I am the hero of the story and I have to try to take care of everything and everyone.  It is exhausting.

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NVC: Year 2 Review

Below is a snapshot of all Jesus did through and in North Village Church.  Take a moment to celebrate!

Connecting with Jesus:  Jesus is paramount for all of humanity.  Our focus as a church is to lead all people to a more meaningful relationship with Jesus so that they experience life transformation.

  • 18 people experience life transformation.
  • 140 people coming at least once a month (97 Adults / 45 Children).  Last Year, 90 people coming at least once a month.
  • Studied through 1 Peter and 1 John.
  • Explored practical topics of our faith on spiritual conversations, holiness, and finances.
  • 72% of our church participates in midweek gatherings.
  • 21% of our church in spiritual coaching relationships.

Connecting with North Village Church Family:  Our faith isn’t lived out in isolation, but in the community of other Christ-followers where we are getting to know others and being known.

  • 78% of our church participates in serving opportunities.
  • 100% of our budget is from within North Village Church.
  • Provided two church prayer meetings.
  • Providing monthly lunches.
  • Partnering with 3 other local churches to pray for North Central Austin.

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Church on a budget:

The average new church will cost $100K to get started, but it doesn’t have to cost that much.  Below are a few tips to keep it affordable:

1.  Buy used equipment:  Buying used equipment is a great way to save money.  It doesn’t look as clean and the quality might not be as great, but in our economy today people would rather see a more simple set up rather than experiencing the benefits of top quality.

2.  Meet in multipurpose buildings:  We meet at a school here in Austin and our weekly rent our first year was $240.

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The Story

The whole of Scripture is really just a story about who God is, what He is doing, and how we can be a part of that story.  We are going through a series called The Story.  In the series we will cover:

The Creation:  The story starts in the beginning with a creator who is perfect, loving, beautiful, and longs to be in relationship with humanity.

The Fall:  This is the part of the story that explain why we have painful events in our world and in our hearts.

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Knowing God’s Will

Have you ever had those moments where you are wondering, “Am I in the right place?”  It could be a relationship, job, or geographic location, but I have found it is easy to question every part of our life.  Below is a quick reference to help you discern God’s will:

Scripture:  Many will debate about the reliability of Scripture.  Number of years, translations, written by people but there are a few things to keep in mind.  It is the only ancient writing that describes humanity as broken and God sacrificing Himself to secure eternal life.  Every other ancient writing describes humanity in a weakened condition and having to do something on their part to improve their condition.  Also, it is written by 40 different authors over 1500 years and it all points to faith alone in the atonement for our sin.  Therefore, many of the questions we have in life are clearly given in Scripture.

Counselors:  When we have questions about life we need to have people we can trust.  We don’t want to ask everyone, we do want to ask people who value Scripture, and sometimes God will give great wisdom and insight through other people.  After all, Scripture calls us to be spouses, friends, parents, professionals, live for Him, and try not to end up in jail.  We need some other people in our life to help us move in that direction.

Prayer:  Prayer is something we tend to only turn to when things get really bad, but prayer can be a great way to ask God, “What do you want to do with my life?  How can I live for your glory?”  You might be surprised what He reveals to you in prayer.  As a side note, we want to make sure we are looking at all three of these together.  For example, we don’t need to pray about something that doesn’t line up with Scripture.

But, what about when those things don’t answer our questions.  What happens when we look to Scripture, friends, and prayer and we still are not really sure how to respond?  Here’s the next step:

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