The church is much larger than we all realize. In this message we look beyond the holy Christian church into the church that spans the living and the dead. Listen as Pastor Derrick shares what it means to be part of the communion of saints.
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Man sometimes life can just stink! I mean you plan and prepare and have everything all lined up and then WHAM! out of nowhere your day just goes down hill and I mean quick! It’s tempting in these moment to just throw in the towel and give up. It’s easy to just let that feeling of defeat overwhelm you. But what should you do when it’s all but over? Continue reading
In week 4 of our series titled One Foundation, Pastor Derrick shared what it means to wait. No one likes to wait especially when we don’t know exactly what the outcome of our waiting will be. But how we wait matters. Listen as we learn what it means to wait well.
If you know me at all, you would probably say that I don’t always fit the norm. I tend to walk to the beat of a different drum. I don’t like to do things just because they’ve always been done that way. It’s been said that I don’t fit the normal mold. I’ve been told that I tend to think outside the box. Some have even said that with me the box doesn’t exist. All this is to say that I’m unique, and sometimes unique can be distracting but other times unique is a really good thing. Continue reading
How do people outside the church see those in the church? Unfortunately we don’t always give a good demonstration of what the church is supposed to be. We fail to contend for the faith we confess. This week listen as Pastor Derrick shares the importance of the content of our faith.
If you know anything about photography, then you’ll know that a filter is a cover or lens through which you see things. A filter can be used to make a picture have a desired warmth, color hue, or tone. Filters can alter the way we see things. Filters can be used to make differences appear, well more different.
Our daily lives have filters as well. Often we use filters and don’t even know it. Unlike camera filters, the ones we use in our day-to-day lives aren’t as easily removed. All too often we use them and we don’t even understand what purpose they serve. Filters can be good but, if we don’t know their purpose, they can be useless at best and harmful at worst.
And if this wasn’t bad enough, we tend to pull out these filters in the church as well. The church however is a place where these filters really should not be present. The Apostle Paul teaches in Galatians 3:27-28,
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free,
there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
You see it’s easy for us to point out our differences. It’s easy to see someone who looks different and focus on that. Our world is riddled with division and difference. But not just the world, the same division is also finding its way into the church. We focus on things like color, gender, nation of origin just to name a few. We bite and pick each other apart just because we’re not all exactly the same.
But the message of the gospel is that no matter our starting point the end can be the same in Christ. When we surrender our lives to the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection, then all of those colors – genders – nationalities – and other things that divide us fade away. You see the gospel isn’t about where you start but who gets you to the end. Salvation isn’t dependent on what you bring to the table but it’s dependent on what Jesus did for you. A life that’s completely surrendered to Jesus knows little of these divisions because, as Paul says, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
The point of our lives is the person and work of Christ. When we clothe ourselves in the life of Jesus that’s what people see in us and that’s what we see in others. To be a follower of Jesus in a way means that we live a life with #nofilters.
Today try to look around you with clear eyes. Lose the filter of racial divisions. Lose the filter of prejudice and injustice. Lose the filter of hatred and disgust. It’s when these filters are gone that we can see with the eyes of love that God placed in our heads. No this doesn’t mean that we are all physically the same. Nor does it mean that all of our decisions are ok. It just means that when it comes to salvation and the message of the gospel there’s no room for these ridiculous filters.
So let’s live the life of grace that Jesus lived for us. Let’s live a life of #nofilters.
Sometimes life seems like you just can’t keep your head above water. The demands of life keep crashing in like the tide hitting the beach. It seems like when we just get ahead a little bit that another wave is pushing right behind the last one. As I write this post I’m still trying to figure out the reason behind daylight savings. I was sitting in the office and realized that one clock wasn’t changed. And yep that’s the clock we were using to determine the length of our conversation. Needless to say a frantic pace ensued as soon as we determined that we were a whole 60 minutes off! Continue reading
This week we look at verse two of the hymn “The Church’s One Foundation.” In this verse, we see how God’s work did more than just save you and me. It was enough to save all people. The church is much larger than what we see on Sunday mornings. It’s vast and it spans space and time. Listen as Pastor Derrick shares the wonders of the Christian Church.
Throughout Lent this year we’re looking at something we do in church all the time. We’re dissecting it and looking at it from different angles to see all that God wants us to know. We’re looking at communion.
Now at face value it seems pretty simple actually. On the surface, it’s just bread and wine. The bread in many cases is dry and the wine isn’t really of the greatest quality but that’s not the point. The point of communion isn’t the pastor, the wine, the bread, whether you use a small plastic cup or a large gold-plated one. It’s not about red vs. white wine. It’s not about whether you stand or kneel. It’s about something happening that you can’t even really see. It’s about the word, the promise that’s connected to the bread and wine.
This week we look at communion through an old testament story known where Israel was complaining about being hungry so God fed them with bread from heaven. Each day they received just enough for that day. They couldn’t vacuum seal it or put it in a storage bag. Only take today what you can eat today.
Now look at communion for a minute. We don’t come up here hungry for food. And if you do, you’re likely going to leave still hungry! There’s not enough bread there to fill even the smallest of bellies. You don’t come to get your thirst quenched because that tiny sip of wine really isn’t going to do a whole lot for a parched tongue. No we come because we have a different hunger that needs fed. We have a different thirst that needs quenched. Like the Israelites, we can’t take extra for tomorrow. We can’t pack some in a baggie or freeze it for tomorrow. Just take what you need for today.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells us he’s the bread of life. He’s the bread of life that we receive when we eat this bread and drink this cup remembering what it means. It’s a celebration. It’s a memorial of what Jesus did on the cross. Communion is about Jesus’ work done for you and me. Jesus as bread of life is a reminder that even our daily needs are taken care of by the God who sent his son to die for you.
Each Wednesday through Lent, the goal is to write a little poem that brings the promise of God with the reality that this promise was fulfilled in Jesus. Here’s the poem for this week.
We gather here this Lenten eve, our souls some truth to find
Onto the cross we all must cleave, with faith some say is blind.
We see tonight God’s people old, they whine for drink and food.
God will provide is what they’re told, but will it taste so good?
They grumble that they should have died, with in their place of woe.
They think their fearless leader lied, they should have told him NO!
But God was faithful to them still, They would not starve and die
For each new day it was his will, to give them food. But why?
Each morning when they did awake, upon the ground they’d see
Some bread that fell they need not bake, and take just what’s for thee.
This bread they found would point us to, our savior’s pain and strife.
His body broken all for you, is called the bread of life.
Now at the altar when we stand, and take this bread and wine
It is his body in our hand, upon which we now dine.
All this he did to give us hope, our sins he did forgive
And snatch us from the downward slope, eternal life to give.
Remember the last time you tried to get that perfect picture? Maybe it was a beautiful landscape shot. Perhaps it was a picture of your kids who just never seem to stand still. Maybe it was a picture of you and your significant other. Who or what the subject is really doesn’t matter. The point is the picture is about to be ruined! Someone #photobombs the picture.
