Big Idea: For you and I to not allow anything to define our worth, our value, our identity, in short, who we are, except Christ

Not only do the important people in our lives sometimes frustrate our ability to effectively answer the question, “Who am I?” But the wider culture frustrates our ability as well. Take a look at the last 50 years and see how the roles of men, women and kids have been defined. 

1. If you were to guess, what would you say was a women’s primary role in the family during the 1950’s? House wife and nurturer
2. If you were to guess, what would you say is a woman’s role in the family today? Dual roles. Generally speaking, in our culture women are:
   1. Co-owners – breadwinner
   2. Haven’t lost the nurturer, homemaker role

                                                              i.      Stress is the major thing that identifies a wife and a mom today, because she is torn in her role.

1. Stress and pressure is on the wife – keep everyone happy, work, work, work
2. If you were to guess, what would you say primarily identified a child or a youth’s role in the home during the 1950’s? Innocence, safety,  balance

If you were to guess, what would you say often identified a child or a youth’s role today?

1. Mom and dad working, so they’re often on their own with little parental involvement. Even when parents are home, they are so engaged in what they need to do, that they often don’t provide the emotional stability that the kids need. There is more pressure on the family and that pressure often filters down to the children.
2. Besides all that, youth culture – attitudes, ideas, what’s valued, what’s accepted, today changes every 5-7 years, as opposed to what used to take decades to change in the 1950’s. This leaves our kids guessing more than ever what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s accepted. We are living in an unprecedented time of shifting culture and this makes it very difficult for our kids to effectively answer the question, “Who am I?” But it’s not just happening with kids.

1. If you were to guess, what would you say identified a man’s role in the home in the 1950”s – protector, provider
2. If you were to guess what would you say identified a man’s role in the home today?
   1. Many are not sure?
   2. What is our role?
   3. Many things are grabbing for your identity

I find it interesting. If you ask a Marine, “When did you become a Marine?” They will 9times out of 10 say, “When I finished boot camp.” But if you ask a man when he became a man, 9 times out of ten he won’t be able to tell you. The same man who knew when he became a Marine, can’t tell you when he became a man.

Read the rest of this entry »

Clip from Bourne Identity – Bourne and girl talking in a diner early in the movie

Big Idea: For you and I to not allow anyone to define our worth, our value, our identity, in short, who we are, except Christ

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Who am I”? Have you ever probed the answer to the questions, “Where do I find my identity? Where does my sense of worth or value come from? What gives me my sense of worth or takes it away? What is my purpose in life? Where do I find my belonging?” Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Who Am I?”

The most important process in building a house is the foundation – the footings. When I general contracted my house, the first thing we did was to dig a big hole and pour the footings that my house was going to be supported from. The building code specifies and requires a foundation for every house. The building inspector comes and inspects to see that you have a firm foundation before you can do any other building on your house. Your house requires a foundation in order to stand firm in the midst of all that Mother Nature throws at it. The question is, “Do you and I require a firm foundation for our lives to be built upon. Did your architect – the one who designed you, did he plan for your life to be built upon a firm foundation, so that when the storms of life came, you would be standing firm, not shaking, completely at peace, because you knew what you stood on.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, “Who am I?” It seems I’ve been asking myself that question most of my life. Read the rest of this entry »

Excerpts from John Ortberg’s Book, Everybody’s Normal Until You Get To Know Them

 In certain stores, you will find a section of merchandise available at greatly reduced prices. The tip-off is a particular tag you will see on all items in that area. Each tag carries the same words: “As is.”

This is a way of saying “These are damaged goods.” Sometimes they’re called “slightly irregular”. The store is issuing you fair warning that this is the department of “Something’s gone wrong.” You’re going to find a flaw here: a stain that won’t come out; a zipper that won’t zip; a button that won’t butt – there will be a problem.

These items are not normal. “We’re not going to tell you where the flaw is. You’ve have to look for it. “But we know it’s there. So when you find it – and you will find it – don’t come whining and sniveling to us.” Because there is a fundamental rule when dealing with merchandise in this corner of the store. No returns. No refunds. No exchanges. If you were looking for perfection, you walked down the wrong aisle. You have received fair warning. If you want this item, there is only one way to obtain it. You must take it “As is”.

When you deal with human beings, you have come to the “as is” corner of the universe. Think for a moment about someone in your life. Maybe the person you know best, love the most. That person is slightly irregular. That person comes with a little tag: There’s a flaw here. A streak of deception, a cruel tongue, a passive spirit, an out-of-control temper. I’m not going to tell you where it is, but it’s there. So when you find it – and you will – don’t be surprised. If you wanted perfection, then you walked down the wrong isle. Things around here are “As is”.

We are tempted to live under the illusion that somewhere out there are people who are normal.

  Read the rest of this entry »

A written page doesn’t make a book. A blade of grass doesn’t make a lawn, one drop of rain isn’t adequate to water the earth, one leaf doesn’t make a healthy tree, one grain of sand doesn’t make a beach, one warrior doesn’t make an army, one molecule of oxygen won’t sustain life. None of these things are bad by themselves, they’re just incomplete, small, inadequate because they were not created to stand alone. They were created for something bigger and better. Alone each of these things don’t amount to much, but when they band together something really good happens.

Today we are celebrating our fourth anniversary as a church. Four years ago this week, there wasn’t a church and then God provided the people and the means and the changed hearts and he created a new church that would be different. As a way of celebrating what God has done among us I want to contemplate the single most important reason why New Community is a church today, and I want to start that out with this line of questions.

 Why did God create you? Why did God create not just you, but all of humanity? What is God’s HIGHEST. . . purpose for you and I to experience in our lives here on earth and in our lives on the other side of eternity? I’ll give you a clue with this question. What is the one characteristic of heaven that will identify it as being heaven more than any other thing? 

You might think that its love, but it’s not. Love is a huge part of it, but it’s bigger than love. What do you think it is? Yeah, it’s community! Hence our name, New Community. Read the rest of this entry »

Quote:

Coming together is a beginning;

Keeping it together is progress;

Working together (community) is success

What is the number one thing God is trying to do in this world? What is the number one thing God is doing throughout the Bible? What is the number one thing that the church is about? What is the number one thing that God wants for you and for me you? What is it?

Is it salvation – to save people? No, though that’s a part of it. Is God’s biggest deal all about justice? No, again, that’s part of it.  Is it to create people who love well? That’s a big part of it . . . but that’s not fully it? Any other guesses? The number one goal for God is to create great community.

Four years ago this month, a launch team made up of twenty four adults and twenty children launched this church and we called it New Community. One of the questions that every new church must ask is why? Why does the world need another church?

When we launched in 2006 there were six churches in Lawton (a town of 2000); there were Twenty-two in Paw Paw (4 miles away). We had to ask ourselves the question, “Why in-the-world does this area need another church?” If there had not been an adequate answer to that question, we never would have launched.

Another question we asked ourselves was, “What makes will make us distinctive? What will make us unique?” We didn’t want to just be a rerun of some other church. We asked ourselves, “What would make this church an important contributor to the Kingdom of God?” The answer was and is community!

The distinct quality of this church is found in our name. When we launched it was about being a new kind of community, or rather, a really old kind of community that had been lost. As I look back over the first four years, I am stunned how community has been established and grown. We’ve made some incredible strides forward; many of us have grown deeply in our understanding of the significance of community in our lives. I feel like we’ve grown and I’ve grown so much. And yet at the same time, I feel like I’ve just begun in my journey to understand and to live into God’s idea of community.

As I look back, I also have to be real. This past year I and others got real tired. We trudged along just maintaining and not even doing a very good job of that. I took a month sabbatical, others took the summer off. We needed to refuel and refocus and as I’ve done that, I’ve realized how little we’ve talked about community in the past year, and how far some of our life groups have slid as a result. I see how some of our community has slowly eroded. So this morning, I want to refocus us on why community is so important to the life of every church. Community is why we’re here. We need to regain our focus on Community because there’s a lot at stake if we don’t. According to God, community is a key part of us to becoming who he created us to be.

On this idea of community, we took our cue from God. Read the rest of this entry »

Skit done by member of youth group

Jesus: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture said, streams of living water will flow from within him.

Disciple 1: Why does he always do that?

Disciple 2: Do what?

Disciple 1: You know!

Disciple 2: No. . .What?

Disciple 1: He’s always talking in hyperboles

Disciple 2. You mean parables don’t you?

Disciple 1. (said in anger) Hyperbole’s, parables, why doesn’t he just say what he means?

Disciple 2: I don’t know

(Pause)

Disciple 2: What do you think he meant?

Disciple 1: Maybe we’re supposed to ask him for  a drink?

Disciple 2: No, I did that once and he gave me a bottle of Aquafina

Disciple 2: So, what did he mean?

Disciple 1: I don’t know. (Short Pause) – Maybe he meant that we were supposed to drink a lot of water

Disciple 2: Yeah, maybe this is a test, we’re supposed to do this on faith. We’re not supposed to ask questions, we’re just supposed to drink A LOT like we’re really thirsty.

Disciple 2: (looks at small glass) What are you doing with that?

Disciple 1: I’m drinking!

Disciple 2: (laughing) That’s a little girl glass. (Deep Base Voice) This is a man sized glass, for a man sized thirst. (Drinking a lot)

Disciple 1: Do you see anything coming out of me yet?

Disciple 2: Nope. (Pause) Do you see anything coming out of me yet?

Disciple 1: Nope. I’m starting to sweat, do you think that counts?

Disciple 2: No! (Fidgeting like a little kid who needs to go to the bathroom) I need to really go. Do you think that’s what he meant by streams of living water coming out of you?

Disciple 1: No!

Disciple 2: Then what did he mean when he said, “If you are thirsty, come to me and drink, and out of you will flow streams of living water?”

Disciple 1: I don’t know.

Disciple 2: I’m not feeling so good!

Disciple 1: Yeah, you drank a lot of water.

Disciple 2: (Looking really sick, acting like he’s ready to vomit.) Vomiting

Disciple 1: (Looking at the audience, asking them) Do you think that’s what Jesus meant when he said, “Streams of living water will flow out of you?”

Disciple 2 I hope not!

Run off stage.

Message:

Jesus said, If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. And then John, the writer of this account of Jesus’ life said, by this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Generally speaking in our culture we try to take in, get more, make more, have more. We try to get better jobs so that we can make more money, so that we can buy more things and then that cycle repeats itself as often as we can in our life time, get a better job, make more money, so that we can buy more, have more, own more. That is the American Dream! It’s all about taking more in. Read the rest of this entry »

Edited from Shane Hipps’ message “From Your Belly.”

(Review of last week and recent ideas: physical birth and spiritual birth, physical thirst and spiritual thirst)

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. John 7:37-38

Last week I preached about a woman at the well and Jesus said something to her almost identical to this. What’s interesting about this is that anytime you see something repeated in scripture, especially when it’s close together, here it’s only three chapters apart, where Jesus uses the same basic metaphor and says the same basic thing, it means that it’s really important. Here Jesus is repeating himself because he wants to reemphasize his point because it’s important.

Now, the really interesting part about this is that Jesus doesn’t repeat himself exactly. Instead, he changes it ever so slightly, to reveal another layer to his teaching.

The first thing that makes this teaching of Jesus unique compared to the one we looked at last week with the Samaritan woman at the well, is that this one takes place on the last and greatest day of a very important feast or festival.

For these people, there were two major festivals that they celebrated. One was called Passover, you may have heard of it, and we celebrate it at Easter. This festival was to commemorate or celebrate when God, with 10 mighty plagues, freed the Israelites from 400 years of slavery under the mighty hand of Egypt. God brought the Israelites out of Egypt revealing His mighty power and giving the Israelites freedom where they had none. Read the rest of this entry »

8-1-10 Baptism: Are You Thirsty? (edited from Shane’s Hipp’s sermon called Stay Thirsty)

Is there anyone here who is thirsty? Why do you drink water? Because you’re thirsty, right? What makes you thirsty? It’s because your physical body is 70 percent water and it needs to have a fresh source of water all the time in order to stay healthy. We all know this, right? But what happens if we don’t have any water or enough water? We get dehydrated and eventually die is the condition persists, right? Our physical bodies need water.

A couple of weeks ago Jesus made it abundantly clear that there are two parts of our body.  We are called to be born again. We have a physical birth, but we are incomplete without being born of the Holy Spirit. We can be born physically, but we must also be born or “born again” spiritually.

 The physical body we know needs water in order to stay healthy, but what does our spiritual body need? What does it need in order to stay healthy? Is it ever thirsty? Does it have a strong desire that needs to be satisfied? If we ignore the desire of our spiritual body can we also become really unhealthy and die? These are some the questions that I’d like to look at answering today.

One day Jesus said something really unusual. He was in the temple area that was filled with people and he cried out in a loud voice,  

Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John 7:37-38 (NRSV) Read the rest of this entry »

Two weeks ago we began this series on the Holy Spirit and we asked the question, “Do you ever feel powerless?” Do you ever feel like you are powerless to change your marriage, to change the relationship between you and your spouse, and you’ve tried, but nothing seems to work? Do you ever feel powerless to change your relationship with your children, and you’ve tried, but you feel powerless to change that relationship? Do you ever feel powerless to kick an addiction, I mean, you’ve tried, but you couldn’t? Do you ever have issues with anger, where you just go off and you say things and do things that hurt people, and you’ve tried to stop, but you just feel powerless? Do you ever wish that you could change this dark broken world, but when you think about it, it’s so big that you feel powerless to change it?

Then we asked the next obvious question if you’re feeling powerless, which is, “Where does your power come from?” Because as an electrician, when someone called me and said, “I don’t have any power” I immediately knew where I would begin, I would immediately go to the power source, which is the panel in most homes. If there’s no power there, then there’s no possibility to have power anywhere in the house. If there’s power there is the possibility of having power everywhere.

Popeye drew his power from spinach; Sampson drew his power from his uncut hair, but where does your power come from? And we said, that’s not a normal question to ask people in the 21^st century. I know it’s a bit of an unusual question in our world, but do you ever feel like you don’t have enough power?

  Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we started a new series on the Holy Spirit asking the question, “Where does your power come from?” We watched a video clip of Popeye and the spinach shortage, and we said that Popeye knew where his power came from. He knew that his power came from spinach, and when he didn’t have any spinach, he became weak.  But when Popeye had spinach he became strong, and we said that Brutas or Satan is a snake in the weeds and he wants to deceive us and steal our power from us. He wants us to be powerless. 

 When I was an electrician people would call me and tell me that they didn’t have any power. Upon arriving I would go to their power panel and see if they had power there. If they did, then they could have power that would run all over their home and do all kinds of amazing things that weren’t possible without it – that weren’t possible just a hundred years earlier. If there was not power at their panel, then they were powerless and I couldn’t do a lot about that.

If there wasn’t any power coming to their panel, all I could do was to make a call to the power company and tell them that something was wrong because the people of that home didn’t have any power.

Living without the Holy Spirit inside you is like having no electricity in your house. If you have the Holy Spirit in yo Read the rest of this entry »