Last Weeks Sermon Outline

Read the blog below of an explanation, but you only have a sermon outline this week.

Power of the Gospel

Graphic Images Right

War, Famine, Death

What right do they have being associated with a sermon on the Power of the Gospel?

I’ll get back to that later.

Romans 1:16-17:

16For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

How many of you believe that verse?

Let me ask again.

Why isn’t this church full then?

Why haven’t we told everyone we know?

If we truly believe that the gospel is the power of God for Salvation, why aren’t we bursting at the seams with this knowledge?

It is either because we don’t believe it, or we believe that we are incapable somehow.

We think that we don’t know enough

That God could never use us

Etc.

But hear this-

Jesus Rose from the Dead!!!

And the Spirit who Rose Him lives in Us!!!

If this is True ten we are more than empowered, more than self actualized, we are more than capable.

See the verse tells us that the Gospel is Power for Salvation- but whose power? Ours? No, it is the Power if God.

Another thing we need to know is what the Gospel is.

Created, Fallen, Redeemed

Jesus Defeated Death.

Addiction

Anger

Pain

Depression

Lust

Inadequacy

Abuse

Gambling

List Goes On

If this is true why haven’t we told everyone? If God has truly rescued us all, and most of all those in this room, why are we silent?

Family

Friends

Co-Workers

Strangers

The Reality is we don’t believe it. Or we do but we are ashamed.

We are afraid of what the world may think.

We are afraid of what our friends and family may think.

We would much rather just come to church, get our 2 hours of spirituality in, and go about our life like we are no different than anyone else.

We are told not to be ashamed in 2Tim 2:15 –

Don’t be ashamed of me or of the gospel for which I am in chains

Paul over and over warns us not to be ashamed of this Jesus.

Because we don’t believe the gospel whole heartedly or because we are ashamed, we have 2 problems

1. We don’t tell people

a. 2 Problems

i. No One hears

1. We all heard through someone

ii. We are not obeying Jesus

1. Told to make disciples

2. Must be faithful in all the commands

2. We don’t live like Christians

a. Don’t have risen lives

i. We don’t believe we can conquer sin

ii. We don’t have Joy

b. Sin still rules us

i. We feel trapped by it

ii. We feel Powerless

iii. Self Mutilation

c. Unbelieving world sees our hypocrisy

i. Don’t spread any seed

ii. We have nothing to offer them

iii. Just another Church

1. Youth events

2. Luncheons

3. Getaways

iv. We look like any other club

1. We want your money and time

We need to know that the Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation.

Not an old philosophy

Not about making us better people

Not about morality

Not a feel good solution to our problems

It is a living God

The Power if the Gospel is Jesus Christ

It is a relationship with the Creator- with our Creator

This is what we have

This what we have to offer

This is the answer to the slide show we just saw

Want to end war?

Famine?

Greed?

It is all in the Gospel

Like the song said it ill make a weak man mighty and make a mighty man fall.

When we truly believe the Gospel and carry it with us, it ill change the world

Martin Luther King Jr

Abolitionists

Let us believe this and then go and tell others.

There is one more thing I think we need to realize when we read this verse in our programs.

God has no partiality.

The Power of the Gospel is for Both the Jew and the Greek.

It is for everyone

Far too often I believe we discount a person or sub culture as too far gone

I was that too far gone person

Hardcore Shows

Hard Sub Culture very hard to break into

Distrusting

Anti-Religious

I was burned Out

They need to hear too
Reality is that they are anti religious because they have seen only the Hypocrisy. They have seen our unbelief and shame

Let us bring them the Power of God

Why do I mention all this today?

We are starting a church plant in 1 week, and if we don’t have this down, then we will never get off the ground.

What are we offering people if not the power of Salvation?

No One too far to experience change

Northampton is like the hardcore scene

I was one who was too far gone

So were most of you

We need to know that the Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation

That it is Power

That it is Gods

That it is for everyone.

If we truly believe that the Gospel is the Power of God, how selfish of us to keep it to ourselves. How selfish of us to be ashamed.

There is a person in your life right now who needs to hear this.

Maybe they are struggling with

Addiction

Anger

Abuse

Maybe it is pride

Maybe they are quietly wasting away in their depression

And we haven’t told them because we are ashamed, or we don’t want to offend them, or it is just plain hard.

How selfish of us.

See this is an eternal thing. We are called to co labor with God somehow in His creation, and part of that is making disciples of the nations, so let us go and do just that.

If we can’t do this, if we are too ashamed, or we don’t believe this then we have no business planting a church in Northampton.

What would we be offering but another club.

But we are not offering them that, we are offering them Salvation

We have 600,000 people in this Valley, 40,000 in Amherst alone, about 50,000 in NoHo

Less that 2 percent know Jesus Christ

There is a greater percentage of Alcoholics in the area than Christians. And what are we doing about it?

DO we believe that the Gospel is the Power of Salvation? Let us then go and make disciples of the Nations.

In just a second we are going to watch another slide show. I would encourage you to meditate on what was said today.

If you don’t know Jesus, this is a time to get to know him.

If you are a follower of Christ, I invite you to use this time to pray for a person in your life who needs to know the Power of the Gospel or just use this time to ask God to make His Power more real

Stigmata

Yesterday I got a nail through my foot, hence the title of today's blog. It was a really old rusty nail. I had to wait 3 hours at the ER because they ran out of tetanus shots. I eventually got one, but where they found it I don't know. Anyway, did you know that my blog is also visible through the MERCYhouse website- knowmercy.org? Well it is. Anyway, I will be trying to blog both here and on the MERCYhouse space. This blog is going to be more personal- what's going on in my life and my families, and the MERCYhouse blog is going to have more of a theological and church direction feel. I hope to blog once a week here and once a week there. I haven't been the best about one site, though, so I feel like I am going to need more discipline than I have.

One help will be that I will return to a normal schedule. For those of you who remember all the projects I had to get done, well I finished all but one wall, and that will be done tomorrow, so that should free up a ton of time for writing.

One more aside, I didn't post a sermon because I didn't write one. I have just an outline, and I kind of winged it. After much thought, I decided that I need to stop relying on my manuscript, and memorize the main points I want to talk about and use a brief outline for the rest. I got a lot of positive feedback, so although my blog suffered, I think it was for the best. You can here the sermon at knowmercy.org.


One last thing for the next few days- I am trying to get this church up to date technologically. My goal is top get rid of all the sound equipment and turn it in for a good computer with some awesome sound hardware and software. Second, I would like to in the future put my sermon outline on power point and "hide" 2 video monitors in our stage so I could not hold 8 pieces of paper- that is just a dream though.

Have a great week, and I hope to blog Saturday about our fall launch.

Blah, Blah, Blah

So I realize that the last blog is very ranty. Sorry about that. I am just having a lot of ideas right now, and kind of need to feel them out. I am at a church conference right now. It is alright- the music is terrible. It is like I am back in 1983, but worse. I am sure that the worship team has a good heart, but if I hear a "synthesizer" again I may kill them myself. Anyway, I am posting this to just let you all know that I am still working out what being "missional" means for me in Amherst, so that is why some of these next few postings will seem exceptionally rant-like in form. I figure once I get all my thoughts down I will be able to structure them accordingly and work from there.

SO just bear with me over the next few posts. I hope to have some gems in there, and my hope is we can all be sanctified by going through this process together- kind of like child birth- only messier. If you all have input I would love to hear it. I will post more soon.

New Computer

Hey, Sorry t has been so long since I have written, but it is really hard to blog when you have no PC. I also have pictures back, which you probably have guessed.

I have been thinking about a lot of things recently, the foremost- How to reach the Valley for Christ. It seems at times that this place is just to far gone, to post modern, to post- Christian. There are currently only 1.5 % of people in the Valley going to a Bible Believing Church. For comparison, China, a country that is considered Anti-Christian and "Unchurched" has about 6 % of it's population at a Bible Believing Church.

So then, how do we reach them? I guess the first question is why do I want to reach them? Why does my church care so much? Well the answer is simple, I believe in God, and what He has done for me. Any of you who knew me 4 years ago in Amherst can attest that I was a mess. God reached down and saved me, so how can I not tell everyone? I can't. God is offering life right now to so many, and they refuse it, and it breaks my heart.

I used to dream of fulfilling every sensual desire I had- and I tried to live that way. However, when I really thought about it, that is not what I wanted, what I want now. I know so many men who just want to sleep with very attractive women. They are finding their meaning in sex and sensuality. Here is the problem with that though. We are ll going to grow old and be unattractive. And so if sex is our savior, we will eventually be let down. Even if you could have sex with lots of hot young women, at your death bed would it be worth it? Well the answer a lot of guys have given in this Valley is YES, especialy among the younger men I have talked with.

But can sex with no relationship ever be fulfilling? Eventually it will suck your life away. The life of Porn stars and the super rich seems so empty. Yet everyone around me wants them. They have bought the lie that they can be forever young, independent, and happy. That all they need is a lot of money and sex with young women and some booze to loosen them up. They have been told that fame and fortune are the way to happiness, and they all want a little bit of it.

And my heart breaks. The guys objectify women, trade sex stories and wonder at the end of the day why they are sad, angry, alone. That was me just 4 years ago, and I want to give them the joy I have know. I know this is a bit of a rant, but that is the title of my blog, so promised fulfilled.

Anyway, sorry about the aside. I guess the way these broken people get reached is first prayer- so please pray for the Valley, and then initiation. One thing I want to start is an outreach to self mutilators. This has been something that has been on my heart for a while. It was easy to find help for the drugs and alcohol, but because of the shame of self mutilation, it was much harder to talk about and get over.

Now that isn't to say I wanted to harm myself after I gave my life back to God, but it was harder to work through some of the crap that I had accumulated because of the scars. I feel like there is a whole lot of hurting people who are covering their scars daily, and have no where to turn. I want them to be able top turn to the church and find peace in Jesus. I want them to be able to experience the freedom that I have had. I want them to find life everlasting, and be able to wear short sleeve shirts again.

Anyway, pray for that as well. I am preaching Sunday, so I will post my sermon soon. Until then...

Stung in the Neck

That's right. Stung in the neck. I usually don;t talk about my life per se, but I was stung in the neck yesterday and it hurt. Anyway, enough about me, let's blog.

So I have been way to busy to blog, but feel like I should anyway. I am choosing a career where words are what I do, and I sort of feel I need to work this is as a discipline. Martin Luther said he prayed 2 hours a day, except when he had a lot to do, then he prayed for three hours, and I am going to try to take the same approach here. That's not to say I will always fulfill my blogging promises, but I am going to try.

Last week we painted the church boarding house, and I wish I had pictures to show you. I looks awesome. I don;t have pictures, however, because my computer crapped the bed. I am getting a new one, but not for a few weeks, so no pictures until then. Sorry.

If any of you know me, then you know that I can get stuck in a work mode, and that is what I am in right now- what does that mean for you? It means I have nothing really profound to tell the world wide web at this moment.

We are gearing up for fall here in Amherst. We are launching 3 services, and that has a lot of work associated with it. To give you and idea of what we need to do in Amherst I thought I would tell you a little of the work projects I have.

Paint the Boarding House- over 6,000 square feet of house.
Tile the basement floors- I ripped out the old tiles because they were aquamarine and ugly, and now I have to put new stuff down
Put in new windows- We got them from Home Depot, and now IO have to install them
Get the new logo and church material ready- We need new programs, info cards, etc. with the new logo on them
Think of UMass out reach- one thing we are doing is cup give aways. The cups will have goodies in them for the freshman, but we need to order the cups, and so we need the new logo
And finally I am doing more artwork.

I am painting 3 outside pieces as well as painting a giant (4 foot by 8 foot) painting for every sermon this fall. The paintings will be tied into the sermon as another way for people to encounter God. We are doing this partly because the last time we did this- Easter- it worked out great. Outsiders have even thought we hired a professional to paint the pictures. ( I am patting my own back right now) I will have pictures up of my last series for those of you who didn't see it, as well as my new.

Well that's all for now. Maybe next week I will blow you away with my profoundity.