Connecting People to People and People to God

Come Home

This Sunday the sermon is from Luke 15.  I've been looking forward to preaching this message since I read The Prodigal God.  I've got no shame in my game.  I totally got the idea for this message from this excellent book.  It's also worth noting that one of the podcasts I listen to, Elevation Church actually did a series in January called Come Home and one of the messages Pastor Steven preached was from this passage.  That's a coincidence but it's affirming to hear.  I guess in the end it's all in the Bible, about Jesus Christ and for the purpose of seeing souls saved.  I guess it's no coincidence God is speaking through his scriptures and spokesmen the same messages.

The thought that keep resonating with me for this message is "COME HOME".  No matter where you are, how long you've been there, how entrenched you think you are, come home.  Our home is not there, off on a journey of self-discovery or confident in self-righteousness, our home is here, in our Father's House.  Come home.  

We're moving!

This Sunday is the last Sunday at Western Branch Lanes.  I can only look at our time at the Lanes with fond memories.  I firmly believe it was the PERFECT location for us while we were there.  God worked in a mighty way to get us into that building and I'm confident each Sunday we spent there was pleasing to God.  We've come a long way in 2 years. 

Starting Feb. 8th we'll be meeting just down the road at Park View Christian Church.  Once again God worked in a mighty way and has provided for us a great place to worship but beyond that He has provided for us a place, for the first time, to use as a ministry tool to serve the community.  That's what I'm so excited about.  I'm excited about the work going into our children's ministry, the new rooms are going to be fresh, clean and a place I want to drop off my two boys.  I know ministry to our children is going to be enhanced in every way because of this move!  Praise the Lord!

Sunday, February 8, see us at Park View at 9:00 AM you don't want to miss it!

Map/Directions

Sunday reflections

I knew today would be a different type of Sunday.  It was obvious when every time I sat down to finalize the sermon for Sunday that I had no resolution for the message.  I kept thinking it was something I wasn't saying but turns out it was some things I wanted to say that I just needed to keep out so what God needed me to say could be heard.

It was clear God wanted me to talk about The Holy Spirit.  No need to rehash the message, you can just listen to it on the podcast but I have to say this message was a change of pace.  I actually felt relieved after preaching today's message.  I wish I could explain it better but I can't.  So maybe I'll just stop trying... maybe.

Live a perfect life then God will use you

Matthew 1:1-3  The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:  Abraham was the father of Isaac; Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.  Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron,

The genealogy of Jesus has long fascinated me.  For several reasons.  The first being that often the main character of the  records in the Bible are not those in the line of Christ.  The other amazing thing is the complete misfits.  The obvious ones like David who adulterated with Bathsheba.  

Then there is Jacob, which means deceiver.  He really live up to his name.  Then God renamed him Israel which means struggles with God, but that's a good thing.  I love that idea that God renames.  When we leave our old life of death and enter into a new life of life we are new creatures and therefore we deserve a new name.  We have the ability to leave our old reputation of sin, defiance and rebellion and leave the old name and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we are made new and renamed.  Amazing.

Then there is Judah, the 4th son of the swindler Jacob.  Judah was the "good" one, that's why the inheritance got all the way down to him.  He was so good in fact he picked up his daughter-in-law thinking she was a prostitute, well she was dressed like one.  He picked her up, traded a goat for sex and got her pregnant.  He then tried to stone her but before he realized she was carrying his babies, Perez and Zerah.  Perez is in the line of Christ.  See Gen 38 for the full story.

God uses imperfect people.  

Just to avoid any confusion...

I don't want to mislead anyone.  The answer is NO, I've never done this before.  The end of January beginning of February begins the several week window that we mark our 2nd year anniversary.  After having two non public worship services we had our first public service on February 11, 2007.  This year the date will be February 8, 2009 for our 2nd anniversary Sunday.  I'm amazed at after two years so much of what I do I'm still doing for the first time.

It dawned on me yesterday as I'm pricing carpet, paint and various other things for the moderate remodel we need to do to make the move, it dawned on me that if at pretty much anytime in my week if someone asks me "Nick, have you done this before?"  I would look at them and say NOPE.

But I wouldn't sheepishly look at them.  I would confidently look at them.  Because in all the unknown of what I do being a lead pastor there is one thing that is known is that my calling from God is real and is good and that my strength lies in him.  I feel confident in the leadership I provide not because I'm a great leader in my own strength but because of His work through me.

Of course, this brings a whole new and most important responsibility to be true to my time with God.  It's so much of human nature to venture away, to explore self-sufficiency to venture out without God.  

Bible in a year

If you started today you'd only be 15 days behind in reading through the bible in a year.  You could read an extra chapter a day for a while and I'll bet you'd be caught up by March 1 or you could have an hour of power and just keep reading and make up lots of lost ground.

But my point is that if you dedicated 15-20 minutes of your day to the scriptures, the word of God, you can read through the bible this year.  Everyone has 15-20 minutes to spare, you just don't want to spare them.

I came across this online tool  that I've been using.  You select the version and the way you want to read through the bible.  FYI I am reading the New American Standard and I'm doing it chronologically.  

But he hesitated.

I'm back in Genesis for my daily time in the scriptures.  The words in Job had such excellent timing in my life, it's amazing how we call the scriptures the WORD of God and indeed God continues to speak through such an ancient text to our lives today.  The human heart and human condition hasn't changed much in 6000 years.

We've all heard of the story of Sodom.  There is a man named Lot that lives in the city, the Bible says the "the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave".  Abram in an intergalactic conversation with angels pleads for the lives of the righteous that live in Sodom.  The LORD agrees that indeed if righteous are found in the city He will spare them.

The angels go into the city as men, Lot greets them and welcomes them into his house.  Over the course of the night Lot has to protect the men from being raped by the people of the town.  Yes, this one get an nc-17  rating.  The angels blind the crowd and in the early morning, while it is still dark they command Lot to flee for the city is going to be destroyed.  

When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city."

But he hesitated.

How telling!  How...like me!  We hear the voice of God as a command.  Sometimes that command is regarding sin in our lives, others times directions.  Sometimes the command involves a difficult conversation we need to have with someone like removing them from leadership, or pointing out an area of their life that is consistent with the one they are claiming they are living.  But we hesitate.  

I believe sometimes our greatest sin is disobedience by hesitation.  It's easier when we hesitate because it doesn't appear to be willful rejection of God but rather passive rejection.  

There isn't time to hesitate.

The Bridge Church v.2.1

It was 2 years ago this coming Sunday that we had our second preview service at Western Branch Lanes in Chesapeake, VA.  It served as a "practice" service, I remember I preached about Jesus.  Two weeks later we had our first public worship service, I preached on forgiveness.  At the end of the service I gave people the chance to respond.  I still remember the first person that stood up to come forward and the many people that followed behind him.  That Sunday we had 110 people in attendance.

The two years that follow contain many stories, if I delved into them some would make you cry, other make you smile for joy.  We've seen people come to the brink of proclaiming faith in Jesus Christ only to be reconsumed with the world and turn their back to God.  We've seen some lives radically transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We've journeyed with one of our own to the brink of death and saw God bring him back.  God has beat cancer, depression and infertility in us the past few years.  It's been a great time.  There's always the nagging feeling that there is more, that there could have been more.

I confess as the leader of this movement that there are times that I missed God and missed where God was leading.  Sometimes it was due to fear, other times due to me not paying spiritual attention and other times I was apathetic.  But fortunately God, in his mercy, came back to refresh me, he has come back to reviatlize me and with this new energy and new passion to fulfill the vision God impressed on my heart some 4 years ago now to start a church where the main thing is the main thing- a church where Jesus sits on the throne.  It's with this fresh passion and fresh vision that we move into year three of the ministry of The Bridge Church.

I anticipate a continued movement of God as we exalt Jesus Christ as Lord.  There is a better way to live, there is a way to really live and that way is to recognize that Christ is Lord and give him full access to our hearts and to our lives.  It's a new kingdom we're living for and that kingdom exalts Christ as Lord.  This 3rd year of ministry for The Bridge is going to be the best yet, the best is yet to come.  I anticipate God to move in new ways through the worship team and the three worship leaders.  I anticipate God to speak loudly and clearly causing life transformation through the sunday sermons!  I anticipate great impact in the community as we exalt Jesus as Lord and make the unsaved a priority.

(If you attended a B360 this is old news...) All of this will be taking place at a new location.  We'll be moving about 1.7 miles down the road and will now meet at Park View Christian Church.  In addition to being the place we have our Sunday morning worship service we will also have full time use of the building.  We will be using it in a shared capacity with the Park View congregation and look forward to this relationship with this.  

Here's how it will work.  Our worship service will kick off at 9am (yeah I know that's 30 minutes earlier but you'll live).  At 9:45 the Park View congregation meets for Sunday school.  We'll end our service at 10:15, this is the exact same length of service we currently have.  At the east end of the building there are three classrooms that we will use for Bridge kids, nursery and a church office.  These rooms are for our full time use and are exclusively to be for our church!  (huge blessing!)  The remainder of the building is open for shared use we just need to make sure we plan in partnership with Park View and the ministries they value.  

So that's the big announcement.  The address for Park View is 3201 Western Branch Blvd, Chesapeake, VA if you want to look it up or drive by.  We'll be having work days for the next few Saturdays starting each time at 9am.  If you have a spare hour or two to contribute your help is NEEDED to get the classrooms prepared in time for our first Sunday which will be our two-year anniversary Sunday February 8, 2009.

I'm excited about this opportunity.  Sometime if you get a chance ask me the story of how all this came about.  The story is laced with God's provision and in no way to I hesitate to say our partnership with Park View to come to this building use agreement is a miracle!  

Jesus is Lord!

Pass

This story was part of my message this Sunday and I wanted to share it here with a few additional thoughts God has been revealing to me these past few days.

Romans 14:11-12  

For it is written,
         "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME,
         AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD."
So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.

I wonder if we believe this to be true.  Last Monday night we were sitting in the emergency room with Seth.  Seth is 10 months old and is generally a very happy baby.  He's real curious and just into the crawling/starting to walk phase.  Which translates he's into everything and happy about it.  We were in the waiting room and Seth was being his normal happy self, which is a tough sell to the nurses that determine the priority of patients but was good for us in trying to care for him.  

After we settled in I grabbed my book and began reading.  A few pages in I heard a sound that was disturbing and so I looked up to see what it was.  A boy, about 10, was sitting across from me.  He was in a wheelchair.  Not the kind you sit in with a broken foot but the kind that severely handicap children sit in for much of their lives.  I want to make sure I say this properly.  When I see a handicap child I do not pity them or their parents; but I will say that my heart breaks for them.  I can't imagine the care and attention they require and I know much is being asked of them just to go about "normal life".  So I saw the boy and I saw his mother and the noise was the boy having a seizure.  It was almost more than I could handle.  Clearly this boy was sick, and clearly struggling.  The mother, in her grace and love, comforted her son.  She must've known just what to whisper to him because when she did he would calm and be at peace again.

Finally we broke the silence with her and asked her how long she had been there.  2 hours.  I was shocked.  How in the world could they make this women wait 2 hours for her child to be seen.  They didn't belong in the waiting room, they belonged in a hospital room to be cared for so they could go home and have all the things they needed to make life comfortable.  It was very frustrating for me, I wanted to demand that they be seen immediately.  I wanted to demand that they be given a pass.  The ER rules wouldn't apply to them because of the circumstances of the boys situation.  But...no pass was given.

Don't we just want to give people passes in life?  Is Jesus Lord?  We want to give people excuses, make the excuses for them.  They can't focus on their relationship with God right now because work has them really slammed.  They're having some financial struggles right now so God has taken a back seat.  Their children have been sick, the family isn't doing well, they are going through a divorce so they really haven't had the time to give to God.  I'm just so tired I can't get up and read the word of God, I need that extra 20 minutes of sleep.  I'm doing my best, that's all God asks...  All passes.  All things based on circumstances not on the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Is he or isn't he?  Is he Lord?  Is he not Lord?  I'm come to the point that I respect the integrity more of my non believing friends that do not pretend that Jesus is Lord.  Meaning they in NO way confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and in turn in few ways confess with they lives Jesus is Lord.  Believers that I know are free and flippant to confess Jesus with their mouths but their actions/lives show little integrity.  If I'm really honest I have little respect for that and unfortunately an increasing intolerance for it either.  I need to ask God to break my heart for those instead of wanting to attack them.  But still the point is the same.  Is Jesus Lord?

If we believe the passage I cited in Romans 14, the answer is YES, Jesus is Lord.  One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess.  Whether by choice or by force EVERY knee will bow.  We do not know when that day will come but for me; the day has come! 

Promise, Process, Payoff

I heard a message at Catalyst '08 that just revitalized me.  It was preached by Steven Furtick he said something to the effect of "Between the promise and the payoff there is a process.  Don't fade in the process so that you fail to attain the payoff."  That's a good word and one I've been holding on to for the past few months.  

I believe I stand on a promise of God.  The promise that if I continue to preach Jesus, to exalt Christ on the throne and keep him central that he will work through my sermons and in the people that hear.  I believe in that promise and I believe there will be payoff.  I believe that God wants to build a church called The Bridge Church that exists to exalt Jesus as Lord as we connect people to people and people to God.  The promise is good and the promise is from God.  

Sometimes, if I'm really honest, I wonder what the heck God is waiting for.  I can't figure it out for the life of me.  But I can rest assured in the fact that God is not only in the promise and will be in the payoff but he is also in the process; even when I can't figure out what he's waiting for.  I decided yesterday, after the worship service, I resolved, I recommitted to not just the promise and to the payoff but to not fading in the process.

I was born to preach.  I was born to declare the crucified Christ as Lord of my life and Lord of all lives because Jesus sits on the throne and is Lord whether we recognize it or not.  Jesus is Lord and that is the message I will preach.  I will stand before the people that God brings to The Bridge and I will preach each and every message as if it's my last.  One day I will be right, that message will be my last and just to make sure I preach my last with all power and all strength that the Spirit gives me I will preach each as if it's my last.  Amen.