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CHANGED LIVES - 5/18/2010
The vision of our church is Changed Lives. Our purpose is to create an environment where the Holy Spirit of God can transform lives through the love of Jesus, the teaching of the Bible, the community of faith, and the crucible of service.
Changed Lives result in more changed lives, as the ripple-effect impacts marriages, families, schools, communities and even nations. Many lives are being changed at the Tabernacle, and we want to see even more lives transformed by Jesus. However, the truth is that in some ways things have begun to stagnate.
We’ve run out of facility space. New faces keep coming every Sunday, but some old faces have also disappeared. Staff and volunteers are stretched to the breaking point. Our giving continues to increase, but we’re still operating at about 1/5th our financial capacity. We feel like a big church, but still operate like a small church. These are all classic symptoms of the so-called church “tunnel of death.”
This “tunnel of death” is the attendance range of 300-500, where the increasing demands on staff, facility and ministry programs cannot keep pace with finances. This is why churches tend to be less than 300 or more than 500. Churches can survive the “tunnel, they just cannot live there very long. The Tabernacle has been in the tunnel for almost a year and a half.
The difference between a living thing and a dead thing is change. Living things are always changing, but when a body doesn’t change, the result is stagnation and death.
It’s time for the Tabernacle to change some more so we can see more Lives Changed. It’s time to get busy living or get busy dying.
We have faith that God is not done with us yet. He began a good work in us, and will be faithfully complete what He started (Phil 1:6). The real question is will we be faithful to do our part?
Join us on this journey, the 2011 Faith Odyssey.
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Good News & Bad News - 3/26/2010
The Bad News first – everything in this world was broken, polluted and diseased by man’s choice to disobey God and effectively hand it over to Satan, sin, and death. Greed, lust, theft, hatred, betrayal, murder and all manner of other evils are the result. The shreds of goodness that remain in life, like love, friendship, beauty, and hope, are all tempered by the fragile number of years in an average lifespan.
The Good News is that Jesus died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins, and three days later rose from the dead, conquering Satan, sin and death, and making the gift of salvation available to all who believe on Him alone for eternal life. This gift is free and available by grace alone through faith alone. This is the Gospel.
Some people spurn this gift and do their own thing. They thumb their noses at God and His gift, and pursue their own temporal heavens on a rapidly decaying earth. Other people pursue a relationship with God by trying to make God love them. They pride themselves on being good, religious, mystical or spiritual. Both are wicked. Trying to control God or get him to owe you by obeying the rules or being “good,” is just as despicable as pursing sin and ignoring Him.
God loved us first and wants us to love Him back. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, or love us less. God demonstrated his love for us through the sacrifice of Jesus, and the gift of the Gospel. God’s desire is that we respond to His love by loving Him back, and offering our lives to Him as living sacrifices in worship.
From John
Lead Pastor
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The Poor in Spirit - 3/18/2010
Some of the most famous words of Jesus are,"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Jesus was speaking of those who recognize that they have a spiritual need. The "poor in spirit" in this context know that they lack something and need God.
Many people live such busy lives they never listen to the hunger in their own hearts. The hunger is for unconditional love, acceptance, forgiveness, purpose and meaning. They find a way to anesthetize themselves by putting on a mask, with meaningless relationships, worldly pursuits, addictions, or worse. Deep inside however, there's a poverty that can only be fixed by knowing Christ.
Jesus said that those who listen to that inner cry, those who recognize their poverty - are blessed, and His kingdom belongs to them. Jesus' followers are people who understand their own sinfulness and brokenness - and who look to Him for salvation, not to themselves or the things of this world.
Jesus also called Himself the Bread of Life. He is an unending source of spiritual food, and the Poor in Spirit come to Him like hungry beggars, unable to feed themselves. When that is our attitude - the Kingdom of Heaven is ours.
Let us never look down on others who are not Christian, who don't yet know Jesus. Instead, remember that we are beggars who have found a source of food - the "bread of life." When we tell others about Jesus, we do so as a beggar shares with another beggar.
Part of the Tabernacle mission is to: love God and love people. This Easter Sunday (April 4), who are the hungry people around you that you could invite to come to church and meet the Bread of Life?
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RULES of ENGAGEMENT - 5/1/2009
The decision to marry is the second most critical decision in life right behind the decision to follow Jesus. Marriage was designed by God to be a sacred covenant between God, a man, and a woman. God is the centerpiece of a Biblical marriage and can even serve as a picture of the Trinity. God the Father ruling over the marriage, the man giving himself up for his wife like Jesus did the church, and the woman as a helpmate, like the promised "helper" the Holy Spirit. But marriages are under a horrific onslaught in our culture. Unhappy marriages are profuse, adultery is rampant, and even Christians only have a 50% chance of not divorcing. The sacrament of marriage has been degraded, the institution seems to be crumbling, and many have just given up on it. After all, if it`s not a covenant that will be kept, or if it`s going to make me unhappy, what`s the point really? Maybe the point of marriage is not to make me happy, but is really to make me holy. Any marriage birthed out of what can it do for me is bound for trouble. But when two people are focused on honoring God and serving their spouse, that marriage is on the right track. It is certainly easier said than done, but a covenant marriage is about giving yourself away the way Jesus gave Himself away for us. The Bible is a great roadmap given by God to help us navigate the high seas of marriage. 1 Corinthians provides some "Rules of Engagement" for men and women in regards to marriage. So for the next few weeks, join us as we take a closer look at this issue. Not just for those in a marriage, but also for those who are single, divorced, or hoping to be married someday. See you Sunday. Boondock Saints Series: 1st Corinthians April 26th "Men & Marriage" Mark Driscoll (dvd) May 3rd "Women & Marriage" Tim & Heidi Burgess May 10rd "Sacred Marriage" John Vermilya May 17 th "Divorce, Singleness, & Remarriage" John Vermilya
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