Worship in the Park

The Gospel

Thank you kids!

We truly had a wonderful week of VBS. This year we opened up pre-k, and boy we were not ready for how good of a response we would get. We had a total of 175 kids come through the week, with 66 of those kids being pre-k. Contrast that with the 115 we had last year.

But it’s more then numbers, it’s impact. These kids raised over $175 for the local christian charity fund, 168 pounds of food were donated to the food pantry, the kids made around 90 cards for residents at Christian homes, middle schoolers cleaned and helped organize the food pantry, pulled weeds at Christian homes, and helped Kevin with projects at church, and more. Not to mention the 50+ volunteers that helped to prep and help during the week.

All of this, the planning, preparing, executing was for one purpose. To further the message of the gospel.

TRANS

There are seasons where we lose sight of what is most important. Business, stress, hurry, bad habits, and more all cause us to miss the mark. Part of the purpose of days like today is to reorient ourselves toward what is most important.

I can say for myself, the last month the Lord has been working on my heart. Between going to Boulder, CO to evangelize and then VBS right after that, I have been doing nothing but sharing the gospel with people and talking about Jesus. Here’s what I’ve realized: I have not yet found how deep the gospel goes. And I’ve also learned another thing: the need to be transformed by the gospel increases every day.

Contrast GOSPEL with, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, just as long as you are happy.”

God created us to be with Him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sins separate us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds. (Genesis 4 – Malachi 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life. (John)

Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever. (Acts – Revelation)

“It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as it makes you happy.” The backwards, upside down, doesn’t-make-sense to the world answer that the gospel gives is this: with Jesus, you experience more then happiness, you experience joy.

Joy comes when we bring ourselves under what is true, when our hearts find rest in Him, when we look to God in the midst of storms and pleasures. No matter what life throws at us, eternal life starts NOW as our hearts are formed and shaped to be more like Christ.

So we celebrate Baptism because these people have eternal life. They are like Jesus in that they have gone into the grave, and have come back out anew. Newness of LIFE is their identity, it is their security, it is their now, it is their future. All of this is a work of God alone. We bring praise and honor and glory to Him who changes lives through the good news.

Took

Challenge your bored mindset

I think many of us accidently believe that what we learn in Christianity is much like our experience in school. We start with learning numbers, and then we learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. Then we get more advanced with algebra, trig and calculous. Some of us go on to even more advanced forms of math in college (for some reason).

When it comes to faith and we keep going back to the same statements about Christ dying for our sins, we think “isn’t there something else? Can’t we move on from this elementary stuff?” We get bored. But we miss the point.

The gospel is not boring, you have simply grown bored of looking at it. Your endless pursuit of “new” has left you bored with the truth. The gospel is so simple a child can splash in it, and so deep that a theologian can swim in it. So swim! Your understanding of the gospel can ever go deeper. There are not secret truths only level 33 Christians get to learn, rather, our depth of understanding increases. What the gospel MEANS only grows in your mind as you become more and more dependent upon Jesus.

But remember that the gospel is not meant to stay in your mind, it is meant to be lived. This is our second challenge.

Take a step toward Jesus

The gospel is always drawing us out of where we are. It is pulling us and wooing us toward’s Jesus. Sometimes we understand obedience as if it were a harsh obligation. But it is not a “have to,” rather, it is a “get to!” Those who are going to be baptized today “get to” do that. We who worship and study the word “get to” be transformed by God. We “get to” spend time today as a faith family, loving, encouraging, and being with each other. But what I love about God is he is always spurring us on to the next step. He is moving us, shaping us, and drawing us into deeper freedom, life, and joys.

REFLECT: What does a step look like for me?

Come, connect, grow, serve.

COME

For some of you, simply COMING here is a step. Perhaps you have felt far from God, but one thing or another brought you to the service today. Make no mistake, what may seem like a “random” attendance is God pursuing you.

CONNECT

Some of you need to take a step by doing more then coming, but you need deeper connection. As with the G in the G.O.S.P.E.L. acronym, God created us with relational needs. The need for connection is by design. Connection for you may look like joining a life group, or getting together with someone from church to discuss faith, or maybe it’s as simple as being intentional during the meal today. Connect with someone you either know or don’t know, and orient your conversation around Jesus. Cut the small talk in half, and encourage one another. Ask, how can I pray for you?

GROW

Some of you have more growing to do. Pete Scazzero said he realized he was stuck in his faith. He was not a 40 year old christian, rather, he was a 1 year old Christian that he had lived 40 times! Growth for him meant trusting in his new identity in Christ and learning to live from a place of emotional and spiritual health. Remember, the gospel calls us into a “get to” not a “have to.” The deeper we trust that reality, the more freedom we experience from sin and our flesh.

SERVE

Lastly, some in this room have your AWANA badges filled out 10 times over. You’ve been to more bible studies then you can count, and you’ve signed up for more. But when you are asked if you would consider taking a new kind of step, you might shrink back. “I’m not a leader, I don’t know enough, I’m not good enough, etc.” It is hard to quantify exactly, but there comes a point where more information becomes a place to get stuck.

The Lord is calling out to you, you’re ready.

You’re ready to mentor someone,

you’re ready to lead your own study,

you’re ready to teach a kids sunday school class,

you’re ready to do care ministry, or worship team, or student ministry, or welcome team.

You are more ready to serve then you think, and the essence of serving is Jesus’ last call to action in Matthew 28, to “GO” and make disciples.

LANDING

“It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as it makes you happy.” Turns out to be very empty. The reality is, when you keep taking steps in your faith, what you find is a deep satisfaction that can only come from the Lord. “The Joy of the lord is my strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

And today we are going to witness a step of faith from a few individuals who have decided to be baptized. Baptism is a symbol, a picture of an inward reality. Just as Jesus was laid in the tomb and was brought back from the dead, so we put people down in the water and bring them back up. That same resurrection that Jesus experienced, we experience a move from death to eternal life when we put our faith in Christ Jesus alone for the forgiveness of sins.