Sorry these have taken so long to post. We've been super busy with the church move, the end of school, and planning for the Summer months ahead.... anyway, there will be lots of things posted here in the next few months as both Corrie and I will be having some awesome speaking opportunities.
Enjoy the Easter message :)
STORY - 1977
- Terrible snowstorm led to days of fun
- After the snowballs and sledding
- Out came the Star Wars toys
- Remember I lost the snow-tank
- Ran out in my jammies frantically searching
- When I finally found it, it was the greatest miracle this young man
had encountered at the time. – hide the tank on stage and pull it out
As a church, we believe in greater miracles… the miracles of
Jesus…
·
We believe in His miraculous birth
·
We believe He turned water to wine
·
We believe He healed the lame and the blind
·
We believe He healed leprosy… the most dreaded
disease of His day.
·
We believe He raised the dead.
·
YOU may not believe the things we believe… and that’s
ok…
·
but I think that we all long for the miraculous… weather it’s the
MIRACLE of your favorite sports team coming back to win a championship (Cubs
fans)
·
OR your family/friend needs a miracle in their lives
for finances…
·
Infertility…
·
Cancer…
·
mental illness or some other situation.
·
I think we all want MIRACLES… but we get tripped up
because we think of them as “miraculous” which by nature of the word means that
they are NOT commonplace… no they are extraordinary!
How
do the miracles of Jesus affect us 2,000 years later?
·
How can an event in Israel…
the death of an obscure Rabbi change my life today?
·
For many this event has
astounded and amazed them for centuries… even some of the most analytical and
skeptical people have been confused. (Case 4Christ).
·
Some have come to faith in
Jesus
·
Some have at least some
sort of respect that His life has changed our world.
WE
may hear that, but still ask the question: How does that help me today?
·
…get a better job?
·
…my dad’s cancer?
·
…me pay my bills?
·
…me with my back or knee
pain?
·
...just feel better on a
Monday morning?
In my own life right now, I have friends and family who are
dealing with pain, illness and disease that we are praying for breakthrough
for. We’ve not seen everything happen yet that we want to… we are longer for
greater miracles than just finding lost toys.
Where do you need a miracle?
PRAYER
Our entire Vineyard church was founded on the belief: “God is
still doing miracles.”
RED CARD Testimonies
Easter is important because it’s the
culmination of the miraculous…
·
We
believe that Jesus was arrested… beaten… crucified… buried.
·
And
we believe He rose from the dead Sunday morning and appeared to many witnesses.
He is risen! An amazing miracle!
- Further, those of us who believe in the miracle of the crucifixion
and resurrection have faith that it accomplished something miraculous…
- Just raising one’s self from the dead would have been enough… but
it did so much more.
- Hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah (53)
tells of the freedom and wholeness that the cross would bring to you and to
me…
“Surely he has borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”
- We believe Easter brings freedom from our past & wholeness for
our future.
- We have often said that the passion story …the death and
resurrection of Jesus is the greatest miracle…
- But I want us to come to grips today with the idea that it wasn’t
just a one time miracle… I want us to unpack the idea that… The Miracle Continues
The Point: The
most astonishing miracle of the resurrection is—
Ø Jesus wants to come alive IN you
Ø … & work miracles in your body, mind,
emotions, family, finances, fears… life
Ø We can now be full of the Spirit of
our Savior
Ø We can be full of God! And
experience His miracles…
Never heard this? Don’t believe it? It’s the secret of the
Cross!
- People can think being a Christian is just being good, attending
church, believing certain doctrines like the resurrection.
- All Ok, but Jesus Himself said: John
14: 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my
Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
- Jesus seems to think all of this was about relationship.
But we don’t seem to know this key truth… either we’ve never heard
it…
or our paradigm
of God is way off…
Remember my story about the Snow-Tank? That toy was my greatest
treasure in my little world. Nothing would stop me from going to get it.
Nothing would stand in the way of my pursuit of that toy… and when I found it,
I considered it the greatest miracle!
Ever stopped to wonder what God thinks is the greatest miracle?
God wanted nothing standing between Him and
us… He wanted no problems, no roadblocks, no obstacles… and so He removed them
at the cross and through the resurrection.
God’s Greatest Miracle? , An unhindered relationship
Let’s take a look at how Jesus explains this through one of his
stories… that if received with a childlike heart today… will reveal a hidden
truth for all who believe.
Parable of the Hidden Treasure/Pearl – Matthew 13
44 “The
kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found
and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has
and buys that field.
45 “Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one
pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
RECAP: A man was who was walking in a field when he
discovered a hidden treasure—a pot of gold--buried in the ground! Quickly, he
buried the treasure again, and was so ecstatically joyful, he went crazy, sold
everything he owned (house, farm, boat, donkey, tunic…), so he could return and
purchase the whole field.
Anyone ever heard this story before?
I’ve heard it taught a few times under this mindset – when you
discover the truth of the story of Jesus… sell everything you have and go after
that faith… after all it’s worth it…
But there’s a problem with
this: it’s teaching that
the Kingdom is your kingdom. It suddenly puts you in a mindset of self-effort
and striving to get that pearl/treasure and takes the load off of the King of
the Kingdom.
This parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven… it’s about Father
God’s desire fulfilled.
An unhindered relationship with the Father
is the Greatest miracle.
Listen to the real truth of this parable.
- A man came to earth—field—and
found the most precious treasure
of all—hidden in the earth—
- Human beings, made in his image of so much worth and value.
- Gold
coins--stamped with His image but …Covered with dirt, grime, rust..
- But this
treasure did not belong to Him—the field was sold to the enemy.
- God wouldn’t
just “steal” it back… He needed to buy it back.
- So he, with
utmost joy and delight, launched a plan to get the treasure(us) back.
- He understood
their value and His love exploded for them.
- He paid the most incredible price—sacrificed
all—his very own life on the
Cross--to redeem or buy this entire field so this buried treasure—Us, His
precious sons and daughters could be restored to our original image--the
image of God.
- All sin,
sickness, grit, grime of Satan and sin gone, defeated, destroyed by the
death and resurrection of Jesus.
You are the treasure of GOD!
Where we see our faults, our failures, our mistakes… He sees
destiny, purpose and goodness… you may have doubts about yourself, but Father
God isn’t confused… He simply wants an
unhindered relationship with you and me.
The
story of Easter is not what we think it is… we’ve taken the peripheral parts of
the story and made them the center:
·
Forgiveness of
sin
·
The Sacrifice of
Jesus
·
Eternal life
through faith
All
these are SUPER important, but they tend
to put the focus in the wrong place… Father God is the central character in the
story of our Bibles…
Easter
is about HIS pursuit of HIS children… and what we now
have access to…
Let
this sink in…Not only are we the apple of God’s eye… His treasured possession…
His pearls of great price
BUT,
He’s given us access to another treasure through the cross and resurrection
·
Jesus in us
·
His Spirit in us
·
His miraculous
power through us
·
ALL because of
the Easter Story!
The
apostle Paul was crazy for this truth… it was the message that changed his
world:
1.
I’ve been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)
2.
Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20)
3.
The same Spirit that raised Jesus lives in us (Rom. 8:11)
4.
We have been filled with Jesus (Colossians 2:9)
5.
The mystery is that Christ is in YOU! (Col. 1:27)
What
difference does this make?
Ø No
matter what you might have thought before...you are so very valuable to God!
Ø He
sees you as His priceless treasure and paid a great price to purchase you.
- He loves you! You are worthy! You have destiny &
purpose in Him!
- Believe—in these truths and your
reality can change today.
- Believe
& Experience the miracle of new life in Christ right now.
Jesus
actually took all of us… our frustrations, problems, sins and trials to the
cross with Him… He buried all of that garbage in the grave… He raised us up
with Himself… each of us who believe have Christ in us!
We
have been “Crucified with Christ” & “Live with Christ.”
Unfortunately,
this continues to be a hidden truth for so many of us…
· Father wants an unhindered relationship
with us…
· He’s already done all the work…
· He now lives within us to empower us to miraculous things…
Story of the Northern California Couple:
·
In 2014, a news story broke …...
·
Walking dog on same path every day
·
Tin can sealed on both sides – heavy – paint?
·
Took it home…but filled to the brim with gold—with gold
coins.
·
Went back and dug more – 8 cans
·
1,400 rare US Gold coins – buried 100 years
·
Biggest find in US history - $10 million
IMAGINE
·
the difference it made that
they understood the treasure that they possessed…
·
the difference it would
make if we understood what’s in us…
·
Jesus’ life… Jesus’ power…
Jesus’ identity
·
Jesus is alive in us who
believe… He has all the wisdom, authority, hope and healing that anyone could
ever need…
·
if we believe this truth
IMAGINE how we’d approach our problems?
Can this work in real life?
We love sharing the
testimony of what God is still doing in his relationship with us today.
Jamie and Kevin Crozier –
Sully
History of cancer …and even
lost loved ones.
Discovered a lump – not a
good report – imagine her fear/anxiety
So bad she was rushed to
Mayo in a matter of 2-3 weeks.
Jamie’s Video—
Isn’t that an amazing story… made possible
because of Father God’s pursuit of us… and made possible because of Jamie’s
belief in the miracle of Christ in us!
We are His treasure and He is ours…
Today, we celebrate the empty tomb… we
celebrated the risen Jesus… we celebrate the miracle of Easter… We celebrate
our fullness in Christ… When we know the miracle, something amazing happens…
·
When I found my snow-tank, my whole attitude changed and
I celebrated.
·
When the couple found gold in their backyard, they began
to give away of their resources to help the poor and hungry in their community.
·
When the Father found us, He moved heaven & earth to
be in relationship with us.
·
When we discover the truth of Christ in us… the hope of
the world alive in us… what will be do?
Jamie understood this truth & pursued her
relationship with Jesus above all else… you?
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