Monday, July 20, 2015

Soul Food - July 19, 2015



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.

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