Sunday's Spark Notes

We continued our series, Vision 2015, this week. Wesley’s message was all about obedience. Getting nervous?

Let’s look at Acts 7:54-8:1 and Acts 9:1-22

Acts 7 we see Stephen addressing the Sanhedrin (Jewish leaders-ruling class), calling them out for rebelling like their forefathers, killing messengers that God sent (including JESUS!), and idolizing the temple rather than focusing on worshipping God. The Sanhedrin were enraged (didn’t see that coming) and they stoned Stephen to death. We are then introduced to Saul of Tarsus, who approved of Stephen’s death.

Let’s fast forward to Acts 9. Jesus knocks Saul off his horse while riding to Damascus and says “you’re done doing what you’ve been doing. Now you’re going to get with what I’ve been doing.” Whoa (talk about subtle). Saul also loses his sight during this encounter. We are then introduced to a man name Ananias. Jesus tells Ananias to go find Saul, heal him, clothe him, board him, and help Saul regain his strength. WHAT?! The Lord wants Ananias to help the man who tried to wipe out followers of Jesus. Christians. Genocide. Ananias. Saul. Obedience.

Ananias obeyed The Lord (not without reservation). By verse 22 we see Saul proclaiming Jesus’ name! How does this happen? Saul is killing Christians and then 3 days later he is proclaiming Jesus’ name!? Again, how does this happen? The obedience of the people of God.

Saul was able to see how God’s people lived, loved, and opened their arms to the worst kind of sinner. That kind of love is transforming. Because of Ananias’ obedience to God we see the transformation from Saul to Paul. Ananias’ obedience was much more than just caring for a sick man.

Wesley stressed that our obedience in the hands of a sovereign God can change the world.  Obedience looks a lot like us opening our arms to those we wouldn’t normally “roll” with- the worst kind of sinner. I know it is uncomfortable, but if we don’t engage the darkest of sinners, we are not being obedient. There is a group of people dying because the Church is too lazy to engage those around us. Surrendering to God’s Lordship like that can go global!

So, one question remains.  How does God get His people to obey Him?

God gets His people to obey Him by casting a vision of what He will do with our obedience.  Obey God and He will use that obedience to do amazing things in the lives around us, just like He used the obedience of Stephen and Ananias to shape Saul into the man who wrote the majority of the New Testament.

Sunday's Spark Notes

Last week we started off the New Year by spending the month of January revealing how we believe God has called us to continue fulfilling our churches vision in 2015, things that are important to our church because they are important in the scriptures. It’s called… wait for it… Vision 2015! Catchy, right? Straight to the point, the way I like it!

Last week we talked about church membership and how important it is to be plugged into a local body of believers where we can pull together our resources to further God’s Kingdom here on Earth. To have community and accountability as we wait for Jesus’ second coming.

 

Yesterday we talked about prayer (Luke 11:1-13). What if we’ve been praying all wrong?! Then how do we pray if we have been praying all wrong? Luke 11 tells us how.

In Luke 11:1 have you ever noticed how odd it is that Jesus’ disciples wanted Jesus to show them how to pray. These are men who have been raised to KNOW the first five books of the Bible by heart. This was their schooling, it wasn’t an extracurricular class. Prayer is something they should know a little bit about. Who am I kidding? They should know A LOT about prayer. If their confidence in prayer was shaken because they heard and saw Jesus pray, shouldn’t we take a second look into our prayers and how we are praying?

Luke 11:2-4 Jesus shows us how to pray. Yep. You got it! It’s the Lord ’s Prayer. Prayer is supposed to be theocentric. God centered. Not me and my stuff. Let’s dissect verses 2-4. This is going to be fun!

 

² And He said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
(Your Glory- May Your kingdom come- May You be made much of!)
³ Give us each day our daily bread,
(Give me everything I need today to hallow Your name- rather than running back to my sinful desires!)
⁴ and forgive us our sins,
(God forgives sins for His namesake- that men will worship Him for His goodness!) 
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
(When we forgive those who have wronged us- who gets the credit/glory? GOD! He empowers us to forgive those who have wronged us!)
And lead us not into temptation.”
(We model Christ when we abstain from our temptations-gossiping, social media, neglecting marriages, lust, greed, etc- Who gets the credit from us abstaining from our temptations? GOD!)

 

There is so much more on Luke 11:1-13. I can’t fit it all into one post (I guess I could, but you probably would be sick of reading it!). I encourage you to go the REVO church website to hear more!

http://discoverrevo.com/sermons#series_38

We’ll never pray theocentric prayers unless we develop a theocentric orientation and begin to love God above all things; and when we begin to desire others to love Him as well. Here are a few passages to meditate on that may help us see the glorious reality of who God is so that we may fall in love with Him.

Isaiah 40, Psalm 84 & 86

Our city will not know Jesus unless we pray theocentric prayers for 2015. That’s how we will spark a revolution of life change through Jesus!

I remember the day I wanted to look older... but today is not that day...

Wednesday nights, like many church communities, is the night for band practice, choir practice, and/or youth group. REVO’s youth rGroup, following tradition (REVO is not a traditional church in the least), meets on Wednesday, recently the kids ministry, specifically rTheather (where I volunteer on Sundays), is working with the youth on Sunday mornings to act out the Bible stories for the little kids (Pre-5^th grade). Therefore I go to youth group on Wednesday to help them practice their lines, etc.

A wonderful REVO-family, the Marshall’s, opens their home to the teens and pre-teens and feed them every Wednesday! What amazing families we have here at REVO!

I was in mid-Manwhich bite, when a pre-teen, puffed out his chest oh so proudly and stated,

“Well I’m 12…”

Me: “I remember when I was 12… That was like 30 years ago!”

Obviously joking…

Pre-teen: “You’re 40!?”

Another teen, older therefore I thought wiser, interjected,

“You look more like 30.”

Apparently I thought wrong…

After chewing, swallowing, and digesting the previous comment at the same time my stomach was digesting my bite of Manwhich… I calmly lost it.

“WWWHHHAAATTT!?!?!?! You think I AM 30!?!?!

Not-wiser teen: “What? Are you older?

Clearly she thought I was flattered by the “low” number she threw my way. I was on the verge of crying. Not only was I mistaken (seriously mistaken I might add) for a 30 year old, that was the lowest number she could come up with… That is as young as I was going to get?! Come on!

Me: “But I am only 22…” as my eyes are desperately searching for an anti-depressant. At the same time, I am thinking about all the money I spent on Mary Kay products. The same products that make me feel like I look young (the same) and refreshed… but in reality, I age by 8 years.

Awesome.

Full-Time Ministry

This is the conversation I had with my husband a little over a week ago.

"So I am going to turn down the Buckle job and raise support full time."

"What? When did you decide this?"

"I have been unsettled about Buckle for a couple of weeks now. God keeps telling me that we should raise support."

"Okay... Love you..."

My husband, the smartest man I know, told me this breaking news as he was walking out the door to work his next to last day at American Eagle. Why he thought this was an opportune moment, I have no idea!

Wesley (my husband) was the stock lead manager at American Eagle (AE); he was offered a management position at Buckle (another clothing store) which would have given us somewhat of a feeling of financial stability. Then out of nowhere, a local church offered him a great job as the Creative Youth Pastor (kind of like a youth pastor assistant). Ironically, the church offered him the same amount we were planning on raising to be full-time at REVO (a rockin' awesome church plant here in Winston! http://www.discoverrevo.com/ check it out!).

Needless to say, we are following what God has told us to do. As of current, neither one of us have jobs and we are in the process of raising our support for a year. I am overwhelmed and surprisingly calm considering the amount of information I had to absorb and process in such a short time.

Don't worry, for all of you reading this and sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what is going to happen, are we going to live or die or be homeless? I will be the first to tell you that God will provide in the way He sees fit. We will be fine. This will be a good season and adventure in our lives. I will definitely keep you all posted about things to come and the adventures in raising support for a family of three.