Life Center

Being offended is a national sport! Everyone is so thin-skinned. If you doubt it, let me ask you: what offends you? I’ll bet you didn’t have to think about that very long!

What if Christians were known as people who were unoffendable? What if we were hard to offend, and when we did get offended, we didn’t hang on to it long, but just let it go? How much happier and lighter would you be if you weren’t packing around a bunch of offenses?

May 18-19, 2019

Introduction and offering:

ILL: Brant Hansen opens his book, Unoffendable, with a story about being at a business meeting and hearing a speaker say, “You can choose to be unoffendable.” He writes:

“I remember the guy saying it’s a choice we can make, to just choose not to be offended.

Sure… Just—you know—choose, as if it’s really just up to us.

I found this offensive.”

Being offended has become a national sport. We’re all so thin-skinned now. It doesn’t take much to offend us.

ILL: Pastor Ed Rowell tells this story:

During a recent baptism, I paraphrased a passage of Scripture to fit the situation: “If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creature in Christ.” (I was baptizing a young woman.)

The next morning, I was going through the cards we use for prayer requests. Suddenly one of them nailed me, by name, for “daring to change the infallible, inerrant, unchangeable Word of God. When the Bible says ‘he,’ it means ‘he’…to change it to fit your rampant feminist agenda is the worst kind of heresy.”

Most days I would have tossed

The enemy starts shaking when God’s people start forgiving.

It’s Northwest Leadership College Takeover Weekend! We have four students sharing mini-messages:

Who told you?

God calls us to get rid of all anger. You’ll be a happier, healthier and smarter person if you do. Let it go!

April 27-28, 2019

Introduction and offering

ILL: One evening when my son Andy was in junior high, we were all hanging out in the family room and he was wrestling with his twin sisters. He was getting a little rough, so I told him to back off so he didn’t hurt his sisters. He didn’t. So I told him again. He still didn’t. And sure enough, he hurt Amy and she started crying. I came out of my chair like a rocket, screaming. Andy ran up the stairs to his room with me in hot pursuit. In his room, I lit into him. I was right in his face, angrily chewing him out. When I finally came up for breath, he calmly said, “Dad, you have an anger problem.” (Cheeky little bugger!)

Stunned, I sat on his bed and hung my head. I knew he was right. After a couple minutes, I said, “You’re right. I need to change. I’m sorry. Will you forgive me?”

I had an anger problem. I began to get some help and work on it. I wish I could tell you that I’ve never lost my temper since then—I wish. But I’ve gotten better—probably in part because I’ve gotten older, and I don’t have a prostate!

How many of you lose your temper? Would you like to lose it for good? I sure would. I don’t think that’s possible, but for the next several weeks, we’re going to work on it with God and make some progress. He will help us and I think that will make Him —and you—happy!

Recently I read this book, Unoffendable, by Brant Hansen. It’s so good, I asked my family to read it. Brant’s message is that giving up o

The first Christians had a simple message: we killed Jesus, but God raised Him from the dead. We did the worst that could be done, but God had the last word.

We invited Pastor Tim Timberlake to speak at Life Center. Tim and his wife Jennifer (a Life Center alum) pastor Christian Faith Center in Creedmoor, North Carolina. Tim loves Jesus and is a terrific communicator!

It may be bad, but God is working it for my good.

The biggest BUT in the world is “But God.” Everything changes when God intervenes in our lives!

March 30-31, 2019

The Big Idea: The biggest BUT in the world is “But God.” Everything changes when God intervenes in our lives!

Introduction and offering:

ILL: How many of you remember Pee-wee Herman? In his first movie, “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” Pee-wee proposes an adventure to a friend, who starts objecting, “But what about this? But what about that?” And Pee-wee responds, “Everybody has a big but.”

I want to talk with you about the biggest BUT in the world: But God! There are multiple places in the New Testament where the phrase “but God” indicates God’s intervention in our lives. For example, in the book of Acts, when the apostles tell the Jesus story, they often say, “You put Christ to death, but God raised Him from the dead!” That’s a big BUT!

Today, we’re going to look at a classic passage in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians 2:1-10 (p. 1006). Paul begins by describing the universal human condition apart from God: here’s the mess we’re in. Then in verse 4, he says, “But God” and describes what God has done for us in Christ and why. It’s the biggest BUT in the world!

The Big Idea: The biggest BUT in the world is “But God.” Everything changes when God intervenes in our lives!

Offering: 1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collectio

We are called to engage, to work for the peace and prosperity of the city where God has placed us. We are called to stay true to Jesus, and when we do, God will be praised and people will believe.

March 23-24, 2019

ILL: A rabbi went to live in a corrupt city. Every day he ran through the streets of the city and shouted over and over, “Repent! Turn from your sins.” Days led into weeks, then months, and years. Every day the rabbi could be heard shouting his plea. Finally one day a friend asked him, “No one listens to you; everyone just laughs; why do you continue to do this?” The rabbi replied, “When I first came here I dreamed of a city turned toward God. I envisioned the city changing. That has not happened, so today I run through the streets shouting my plea to keep the city from changing me.” (From We are the Beloved, p. 9-10, by Ken Blanchard)

Are we changing the world we live in, or is it changing us? Are we being thermostats that set the temperature, or are we merely thermometers that reflect it?

That’s what we’ve been thinking about in this series, RESIST! We’ve been looking at stories from the Old Testament book of Daniel. Daniel was a young Jewish man who was taken captive to Babylon where he lived his entire life in exile. He remained faithful to God while living in a culture that was hostile to his faith. He didn’t live isolated from Babylonian culture—as we’ll see in a moment, he was in the middle of it, working for its good. But neither was he assimilated by Babylonian culture.

Jesus empowers us to live in His Kingdom and to resist the spirit and the rewards of opposing kingdoms.

We help people find and follow Jesus, not the church staff, that’s all of us, we together, our mission is to help people find and follow Jesus. The earliest Christians, the way that they could identify themselves as Christians, as Jesus followers in the culture that they were in, it was a three-word phrase that they would use. It would identify them as Christians. It was, “Jesus is Lord.” Jesus is Lord. See, this is not dangerous for us to say. You could go out in public and say, “Jesus is Lord,” and people would just think you’re weird, but they wouldn’t hurt you.

But if you were in that day, if you went out and screamed, “Jesus is Lord,” that was in direct opposition to Caesar, to Pilate, to Rome, to the Sanhedrin, to the ruling classes. And when you said Jesus is Lord, you were in danger for your life. So, when these people said Jesus is Lord, they were declaring something radical. Not Caesar, not Pilate, not the Sanhedrin, not Rome, Jesus is Lord, and today Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. Not Trump, not your husband, not your wife, not your kids. Thank goodness not our kids, right? Jesus is Lord. Today that confession holds true.

And if Jesus is Lord, if Jesus is our King and we are his followers, I think that we should look somewhat different from the people who don’t confess Jesus is Lord. Our lives should be played out in a way that is different if Jesus truly is Lord. So, what do we as Christians do? If Jesus is Lord, how do we interact with culture? Some Christians choose to isolate from culture. “If Jesus is Lord I’m gonna isolate from culture and not allow culture to