Paul says in Galatians 6:3, "If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."This Sunday, I was privileged to give the message in both services, entitled "Courage To Be Nobody." I've been gearing up for this for about four weeks. That's good for prep time and planning, but it also gives the Holy Spirit a lot of time to work on you in the process. I ended up changing the message four times in the process. The last time was this Thursday night - I would say it was then that the Spirit pulled through, giving me what I knew God really wanted me to share. Whew!
THEME: I am nobody and God is The Ultimate Somebody. When we compare ourselves to the infinite majesty and glory of God, we really don’t amount to much. Basically, today was an invitation to put OUR story aside and join God in His story.
We reviewed the story of Moses and the burning bush in Exodus 3, focusing on God laying out HIS plans for Moses and also focusing on God’s revelation of himself as I AM. It only follows that we are “i am not!”
I also spoke of the true challenge — It’s not understanding that we're nobody, but having the courage to live it out. And for that, we used the example of King Jehosaphat and the nation of Judah in 2 Chronicles 20:1-25. What we find is not so surprising. The way courage happens is simple: It's worship – surrendering all that we are to all of who God is.
Finally, our greatest example is Jesus. Jesus became small — Jesus became nobody — so that we could leave our stories behind and join as active participants in God’s story (see Philippians 2:5-11).
INSPIRATION: 1) Holy Spirit. 2) Louie Giglio’s i am not, but i know I AM. I just finished it — it’s amazing. Just makes you want to fall on your knees and give all you can to our great God. 3) I also referenced some notes I took from a message from Rick Warren, "How to Worship Instead Of Worry." 4) And the basic idea of “Courage to be Nobody” came from Josh Scott at The Church At Polaris in Columbus, Ohio. (Thanks Josh! Shoot me an email, I didn't know how to get a hold of you.)
MEXICO MISSIONS REPORT: The team on the Mexico Mission Project returned this week. In the main services, we had a video/slide show of photos from the experience promoting our Sunday School time which was a full-on report of what happened last week in Mexico.
MORE THAN A BUILDING: "Let The Walls Fall Down!" We announced today that tomorrow we're tearing down the wall separating the current auditorium and the new expansion. Our new worship center expansion will add about 150 more seats and have an official stage area (including updated technical improvements). For now, though, we still have a lot of work to do including tearing down the wall, dismantling the old stage and sound booth, re-carpeting, painting, electrical, audio/video/lighting wiring, and much, much more. We're hoping to have it done within the next four weeks. For now, we'll be meeting in our Fellowship Area. It was exciting knowing that this is the LAST TIME we'll be meeting in the auditorium as it is now.WORSHIP: Since I spoke this Sunday, RJ Chambers led worship with his sister Kaci and Cody Kauffman on drums. They did a great job. Good song choice and a heartfelt approach to the throne of God. It was a challenge, too, because we had a lot of elements to fit into the service. (Sorry, no music samples this week - but here is the mp3 recording of the message.)
Forever - Chris Tomlin
How Great Is Our God - Chris Tomlin
Who Am I? - Casting Crowns (Mark Hall)
We Fall Down - Passion
Praise Adonai - Paul Baloche
