Really great start to our monthly worship times in Bloomington-Normal. Here's my notes (although I went off script quite a few times :).
·
KEY TEXT: Colossians
1
· DOMINANT THOUGHT: When
we realize that we have something amazing, we run after it… AND we tell
everyone about it… usually there is no pause in our thought processes. It’s
just instinctive for us.
· MAIN DILEMMA: We don’t realize what we have to feast on!
ME
We like Eating
·
I’m a big fan of the grill… especially
large hunks of meat that sometimes take days to prep and smoke… my wife is a
master in the kitchen making sides, baking, creating things from scratch… we
truly believe as Henry Hill says in the mob-film “Goodfellas” that dinner should be an “Event.”
·
Have you every noticed that we like to
feast? Maybe you’re not like the Waters’ house where we both like to cook, but
in general we like to feast.
·
Thanksgiving and Christmas…
anniversaries… birthdays… sporting events… some people do report cards and
graduations…. Sometimes we do it just to get together with a certain group each
month/week.
·
We like to feed ourselves (breakfast,
lunch and dinner)… we need to feed ourselves… we have this instinctual desire
within us to make sure that our body doesn’t perish…
We like specific places to eat
·
But to make it “feasting,” it can’t just be about the
occasion… the place really matters. Where are you going to have your favorite
feast?
·
Will you be heading over to mom and
dad’s? Is everyone coming to your place?
·
The dining room… the deck or patio…
maybe at the stadium or the ballpark?
·
Maybe your feasting has to happen at
your favorite restaurant?
·
Maybe the occasion of the feast makes a
difference of where you eat… in town, out of town… off to a special place that
you feel like only you and your wife know about.
·
When we feast, we have this instinctual
need to make sure that the table is set the right way… that all the right food
is there… that we have the perfect location picked out so that the occasion is
celebrated the right way.
Finally, and maybe most importantly
·
To make it “feasting,” the right
person/people have to be able to show up.
·
For family feasts, we want our loved
ones near us.
·
For birthdays, the birthday-boy/girl
must be there.
·
For barbeques and sporting events, you
want fun people to come J
·
For your anniversary, your spouse
really needs to be there.
·
When we feast, we have this instinctual
desire to have the perfect people there.
The right food… the right place… the
right people – these are just a few of the things that we crave when feasting
in our normal lives.
WE
When we realize that we have something
amazing to FEAST ON, we run after it… AND we tell everyone about it… usually
there is no pause in our thought processes. It’s just instinctive for us.
The Vineyard Church of Central Illinois
begins this week a series about feeding our souls… a series designed to help us
“feast on” the incredible relationship that we have with Jesus Christ.
Everyone is different in how they feast… how
they feed the soul. But this is true of all of us, friendship with Jesus is an
incredible privilege made possible because of the new covenant. We now have
daily access to the God who lives IN us.
We are in union with Him. We can
cultivate this friendship. We can grow
in the intimacy. We can experience Hearing His voice, feeling His love,
receiving His empowering. In this
series, we want you to realize that the soul cannot be neglected! What does it
profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? We are to love God with all our soul--all of
who we are.
Dilemma
But there’s a problem - Maybe we haven’t realized what we have…
maybe we haven’t realized who Jesus really is… maybe we haven’t realized what
Jesus has truly done for us… maybe we’ve listened more to the voice of the
enemy instead of the voice of the Holy Spirit.
When we realize how good the feast is… most
of us will never run away from the table.
But most of us don’t even ask ourselves if we
are “starving” spiritually.
A lot of us don’t think about our spiritual
hunger. When we need food, we go right after it because we know it will feed
our bodies. When our soul (a word used almost 300x in the Bible) is starving,
we need to go right after that which will feed us. We need to feast on our
relationship with Jesus and feed our souls!
GOD
We are going to be in chapter 1 of Colossians
today… and the theme is the gospel. The word means good news… and it is amazing news… we need to
be reminded of just how amazing this news truly is… because the gospel is not
only GOOD NEWS, but gospel is our “soul’s food.”
Let’s open up our Bible’s to be reminded of
the truth of the gospel.
Colossians 1:15-20
·
15 He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And
he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the
head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of
God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all
things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
·
The gospel teaches that CHRIST JESUS is
just amazing!
o He made the true nature of our Father known
o He made everything
o He is above everything
o He’s got all of creation in his hands
o He’s got all of God in him
· And even though he’s all that, he wanted an
intimate relationship with you and me… and nothing could stop him… he literally
moved heaven and earth to bring us back into relationship… he conquers every
obstacle even taking on sin, sickness and death itself… he walked into hell and
brought back the keys locking the doors behind him and wanting nothing to do
with it.
· That’s really GOOD NEWS!
The gospel
teaches that CHRIST JESUS chooses us
· Take a look at your new standing in him now
that he’s chosen us.
· 1: 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us
to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of sins.
· Because he chose us, we now have the same
relationship with the Father that he enjoys…
o No longer living in darkness
o No longer bound by sin and death
o No longer slaves to the confines of this
world’s limitations
o We now live in the newness of Christ’s
kingdom.
· Let’s look at it another way…
· 1: 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil
deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to
present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
The gospel
teaches that CHRIST JESUS sees us differently than the world sees us
· reconnected (ransomed, redeemed, reconciled)
· holy (set apart and free)
· blameless (sins as far as the east from the
west)
· above reproach (nothing can separate us from
him! – sons/daughters of the Kingdom of light)
YOU
Paul teaches us, that when these truths of
the gospel sink deep down into our very core, our starving lives will be
transformed into an insatiable hunger for more of Jesus.
Colossians 2:6-7
6
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and
built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.
When we realize what Jesus has done for us…
- · we will pursue relationship with Him
- · we will pursue intimacy with His message
- · we will partner with Him to do His will
WE
The
Gospel changes the way we live
- · it changes that which we pursue
- · it changes the way we daily feed ourselves
- · it changes our love
The gospel teaches that CHRIST JESUS can’t
be contained...
·
If you pursue the gospel, your life
will begin to bear fruit in the kingdom.
o
Colossians 1:10 so as to walk in a manner worthy
of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God.
o
Not only in your personal growth with
Jesus.
o
But also in your actions among others.
·
If we pursue the gospel, our
communities will begin to hear about this amazing good news because our lives
will be so changed.
o
Colossians 1:5a Of this you have heard before in the word of the
truth, the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is
bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard
it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7 just as you learned it from
Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on
your behalf
o
Christ’s love changes individuals
(Epaphras)
o
Which in turn changes groups (Colosse
church)
o
Which in turn can change the whole
world.
·
If we pursue the gospel, the
Bloomington-Normal Vineyard will grow quickly.
o
Starting in BN with Vineyard (nothing’s
gonna stop us)
o
We need to realize we have amazing news
for neighbors and friends
o
Colossians 1:23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and
steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has
been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a
minister.
