Sermon Notes

We heard a great sermon today!  Good job Pastor Dave! :)

And the worship was phenominal.  They did the song "The Great I Am" that plays on the Fish a lot.  It's one thing to casually hear it on the radio and another to sing it in worship I think.  Good job all yall!  :) That's a great song and you all sang it very well!

Here is what my pastor said today:

"We often work in obedient self-justification." (Meaning we might think, if I do bad things I can make it up by doing lots of good things, which a works based rather then grace based faith. :(  We don't and can't pay back God for any bad things we do because Jesus already paid the price for them.  Amen? Amen. :)

"Rule keeping religion is full of death and condemnation." (When we think we can keep up with all the rules, that we give ourselves or others seem to, that leads to death and a lack of peace and, the biggest thing, pride.  Either we feel condemned when we don't measure up and live out the "rules" or we feel prideful when we do, both extremes God hates, because he wants us to see that our faith and salvation is not up to us, but up to Him.  Amen.)

"We sometimes want Jesus to stay behind the veil of works and the law because it can feel safer." (The law is keeping our faith and religion in our heads.  It is a logic based faith that if I do x, y, and z then I earn God's approval.  But letting God into our hearts is when we realize that God loves us just as we are, and that is sometimes too much to handle and too emotional.  Love can be harder to deal with then logic.  Logic is comfortable, but love is revealing and intimate.  Keeping God at a distance, via believing in law keeping to keep his approval, sometimes feels easier and safer.)

"Don't debate and fight with other Christians.  Focus on the glory of God." (Amen!  The focus should always be on God and what Jesus did.  We often get sidetracked by the minor theological questions of the faith, but that is a ploy from Satan to distract us from the most important part of our faith, Jesus, and to disunify us.  Because Satan knows that if we were totally unifed as Christ's body, we would be so much more powerful.  So Satan gets us to focus on our differences with other believers in what we believe rather then our faith in Jesus that we all have in common.  Amen.)

"God is not safe, but he is Good." (Not safe as in not predictable.  When things are predictable we consider them safe.  When we know what's going to happen we consider that to be safe.  But God wants us to trust him at all times.  If we knew everything the future might hold we wouldn't have to trust God so much, and that trust in God is what faith is. :)

"Christianity is not supposed to be duty, dry and hard work." (Jesus said he came that we might have LIFE and life abundant!  Our faith is meant to be full of life and vibrant!  Not a list of do's and don't that we might not feel like living out.  We are supposed to be so deeply in love with God that we love to serve him and do things for him and do what he says.  Christianity is meant to be exciting.  And it is very exciting if we are always trying to reach the lost, as Jesus commanded of us.  But when we do this, Jesus said "my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  We can reach the lost in such a way that is easy and fun.  I like to assemble goody bags with Bible tracts and candy and bracelets that I make and drop them on door steps around apt. complexes.  I consider that to be a joy and it is an easy way to witness.  I don't see it as hard work but rather it is a joy, because I have faith that God will use that to save many.  And it is a joy to do what Jesus told us, me, to do. :)

"If our goal is to be comfortable we are at odds with what God's goal for our life is." (If you think of Jesus or Paul's life, it was rarely comfortable.  Both were beaten and disrespected a ton and had very hard lives.  If we are hoping to have an easy life, and if we believe that we will, that belief might come from Satan rather then from God.  Sometimes what is easy and comfortable is from Satan and what is hard is from God, because the hard things stretch us more and help us grow.  And Jesus said "whoever wants to save his life will loose it."  The Christian walk is all about giving up your life and serving Jesus, because then and only then do we find TRUE life.  Amen. :)

May God bless you all!