10/15/23 Sermon:

The Story You Live In Is The Story You Live Out, Part 1:

"There is a Better Story"

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

We all have different stories, personalities, and thus unique experiences with how God met us and brought us into the family of God. The Story You Live in is the Story You Live Out! When collaborating with long-time churched people, especially those who grew up in the church, I will sometimes ask them, “What did Jesus save you from?” I get all kinds of answers from people (addiction, sexual immorality, lying, anger, anxiety, depression, hopelessness, an unhappy marriage, financial distress, sin, etc.). All these things are true and praiseworthy, but rarely the one thing I’m looking for. The Good News is Jesus saves, but saves from what? When boiled down to its simplest answer, Jesus saves us from ourselves.
Self is the problem, not food or drink, not sex, not emotions, not wealth, not status. As Peter Lord said, “Sin originates in you. No one can provoke inside of you what does not originate there.” This makes all the more real the words of Dennis Kinlaw, “In truth, we are a million times worse than we know, and our attempts to control our lives destroy us and the ones we love. The world’s ways are never the ways of God, and the world’s people are never the people of God.” It can be difficult to hear, but there are two categories of people in the world, and it isn’t based on race or gender, it is our identities as children of God or children of the devil (1 John 3:10).
This leads me to a crucial point, as stated in previous messages: the Gospel calls people out and it calls people into. Into what? Through our response of faith and repentance (a faith-filled surrender to the Lordship of Christ, turning away from self-rule and toward Christ’s rule) God makes us a new person/creature, gives us a new heart/spirit (Ezekiel 11:19), and we are spiritually born again as literal children of God (John 1:12–13). This new creature/spirit/heart on the inside, through the working of the Holy Spirit, is meant to work a transformation in our life from the inside out that affects every area of our life (2 Corinthians 3:18; 7:1; Ephesians 4:22–24;). This is our identity, who and what we are now. Now our entire life (our thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions) is to be defined and directed by this new identity (Romans 8:1–8). “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:1–4).                                                               
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

Have You Seen My Joy?
 
Ecclesiastes 3:1-14
 
King Solomon was highly favored and richly blessed by the Lord. He asked for a discerning heart so he could properly govern the Lord’s people. This moved God’s heart and He blessed Solomon, not only with wisdom from above but He also gave him great wealth and honor. Solomon was fully devoted to God at first but he disobeyed the Lord’s commands and strayed far from Him. We’ll examine our own lives and seek to avoid the snares and pitfalls that can shipwreck our relationship with the Lord. May it be our deepest desire to walk closely with Jesus through every season of life and to hear the words, “well done my good and faithful servant.”
I love y'all
doug

We all have free access to all that is great and good and happy and carry within ourselves a key to all the treasures of heaven. It’s called prayer. The first step to true prayer is to expect nothing from yourself. The second step is to expect everything from God with all your heart. Instead of focusing your thoughts on yourself and your needs, focus on God’s glory and his love. Then prayer will become a joy and a power, and your trials will become your greatest blessing because they will compel you to wait on God.
Prayer is the Key to the Kingdom. We are only far from God if we are void of the spirit of prayer that opens heaven, and the kingdom of God within us.  The kingdom of God means that God rules in our hearts just as he rules in the kingdom of heaven. A Christians true citizenship is in heaven; he or she serves the King, whose kingdom never ends. We are all of us by birth the offspring of God, more closely related to him than we are to one another. For in him, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). The first man had the breath and spirit of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit breathed into him, and so became a living soul. He was the image and likeness of God, not with regard to his outward shape or form, but because the Holy Trinity had breathed Their own nature and spirit in him.
And as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are always in heaven, and make heaven to be everywhere, so the spirit breathed by them into man, brought heaven into man along with it. And so, man was in heaven, as well as on earth. It is also our paradise, a heavenly state, or birth, of a new life on earth. As willing as the sun is to shine, it’s light and warmth on the earth, the living, God is waiting to work in the heart of his child. That is, if we do not prevent him by our unbelief, or our surrender to the spirit of this world.
 
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

God delivered the Israelites out of their slavery to the kingdom of darkness, baptized them in the Red Sea, fed them the bread of heaven, gave them water of life, and was preparing them for the next phase of the conquest of the promised land. In preparation, He warned them that when they experienced the many blessings and good of the land, to guard their hearts vigilantly, because they would be tempted to become proud and forget the Lord. He warned them, “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today” (Deuteronomy 8:17–18).
It is common for our vision to get blurry or obstructed by circumstances; and when this happens, we must focus and adjust our position to get our vision cleared up. But this warning from God in Deuteronomy 8 is not about blurry or obstructed vision. It addresses the drift and even hijacking of our vision. God’s warning to the Israelites is a warning to all God’s people. We forget how desperate and dependent we are (not were but are). We forget where God brought us from, why, and how. It wasn’t our goodness or greatness or worthiness. As Dennis Kinlaw said, “In truth, we are a million times worse than we know… You and I desperately need God. From him flows all that is good, true, and right.” Every Christian would acknowledge this as true, and when God brings us out of the slavery of sin into the new, free, abundant, and good life that He has provided for us by His great love, power, and goodness, we find ourselves initially full of great gratitude, joy, and unwavering focus on the Source.
 
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

God Vision Part 4: Fact or Fiction

2 Peter 1:16-21

Recently, a store that’s part of a vast retail chain labeled its Bibles as “fiction.” A pastor shopping for a gift came across the Bibles and saw “Fiction” written on the price tag. He took a picture and posted it on social media with the comment: “[Name withheld] has Bibles for sale under the genre of FICTION.” The retailer later apologized, saying the Bibles were mislabeled and the mistake had been corrected. We would never find the apostle Peter making a similar mistake. He was emphatic that he didn’t create cleverly invented fiction but wrote from the real-life angle of his eyewitness experiences. “For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majestic splendor with our own eyes.” 2 Peter 1:16-18In other words, the Bible is grounded in historical truth. At the transfiguration, God affirmed Jesus as His Son. Philip said, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus.” (Matthew 17:1-9) And whatever the prophets wrote, it wasn’t the product of the author’s “own understanding or from human initiative.” (2 Peter 1:20-21). Ensuring the accuracy and reliability of what was written, the human authors were “moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21) In fact, the Holy Spirit guided different people of diverse backgrounds to reveal God’s inspired truth. So, as he wrote of the power and trustworthiness of Scripture, Peter affirmed their authority to speak into our lives. He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. —Mark 16:15

Grace & Peace,

Stephen

For those of us who were born, we know where we were and what we were doing 22 years ago on September 11, 2001. We remember how we felt because to some degree we have felt that way ever since, and this pandemic, divisiveness, riots, killings, natural disasters, and anniversaries such as this one reminds us that nothing is normal now. What should we do when pandemics and cataclysmic events strike?
I. HAVE FAITH - NOT Fear Isaiah 43
II. PRAY - DON’T Panic
III. BELIEVE GOD - DON’T Blame HIM
IV. RESPOND - DON’T Run
V. BE ASSURED - NOT Angry
 
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

"God Vision, Part Three: The World"

9/3/23 Sermon

Misty Creek Community Church

It seems that nothing in the world is safe from change. Most brands we loved as kids look different today. Famous hamburger chains now offer salads. We grow taller and wider. Our hair turns gray or falls out. Our athletic abilities and mental faculties slip away. The six pack abs morph into a spare tire. We get wrinkles. Our teeth fall out. Even my most treasured relationships change. Best friends get transferred. Our kids grow up and move away. The fact remains that everything changes, everything except for God.
Only God is unchanging. God is not rebranded. He does not evolve. He does not grow old and fall apart. He does not move away. He is the same yesterday, today and forever more. And when everything in our life is so unstable, it gives us great comfort to know that God won’t change. He is the same today as he was at creation. What security that provides. Folks God is our constant security and foundation. As James reminds us: James 1:17
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” 
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

Dear Misty Creek faithful,

There’s been a huge amount of talk about “vision” in the church world, especially for the last 3–5 decades. Vision is about seeing—specifically seeing clearly. Seeing what clearly? Reality, facts, truth, potential, and opportunities, to name a few. The whole world for all of history has been on a “Vision Quest”—a search for God, Truth, Love, meaning, and purpose. The world has spent millennia knowing there is more, something other, that there is an Answer, a Source for this otherworldly longing for the transcendent and default operating system based on it.
History is the story of the corporate and individual journeys of humanity to find the fulfillment of that Vision Quest. Every decision that led to every experience (promotions, pleasure, position, power, acquisition, success, thrills, romance, procreation, all of it) goes beyond people acting human and doing what humans are designed to do. They are the pursuit of God and purpose and the fulfillment these two bring, and the realization that everything else falls short to meet them. This is what Steve Winwood was singing about as he sang, “Think about it. There must be a higher love, down in the heart or hidden in the stars above … without it, time is wasted time … bring me a higher love.” Every bite, every drink, every puff, every hit, every snort, every relationship, every piece of art, every form of entertainment, every rebellion, it is all the Vision Quest searching for God and purpose and the fulfillment they bring.
 
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

The combination of our recent experiences of “Thin Spaces” between heaven and earth, and the powerful sense of God’s manifest presence through the body of Christ at Misty Creek, reminded me again of the scene from Jesus Revolution where Lonnie Frisbee spoke to Pastor Chuck Smith. He said, “My people are sheep without a shepherd, chasing hard after lies. It’s a quest for God. How can you not see that? There is an entire generation right now searching for God. I know we must seem a little strange. But if you look a little deeper, if you look with love, you'll see a bunch of kids that are searching for all the right things, just in all the wrong places. And my people, well, they’re a desperate bunch. And desperation, man, there is power in that word. What would it take for you, Chuck Smith, to be desperate?” 
I felt the Lord remind me of two things that I will address in two parts: God Vision—The World, and God Vision—The Church.
 
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

If We Are The Body: Part 4
Romans 12:1-5 and 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Many of you have heard Joye Percival and I speak of thin places, meaning a thin space between heaven and earth.” While we cannot manufacture these thin spaces, where heaven and earth meet, there are those sacred moments (some are practices) that are predictable and even promised “thin spaces.” God promises that when we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us; that where two or three gather in the name of Jesus, He is there with them; that “God inhabits the praises of His people” (Psalm 22:3 – the Hebrew word, “inhabits” is yashab which means to sit, settle, dwell, inhabit, and abide); that “the word of God is living and active” (Hebrews 4:12); that if we ask, seek, and knock it will be given, we will find, and the door will be opened to us (Matthew 7:7); that God initiates, calling and knocking at the door and if we will hear and answer He will come in (Revelation 3:20); the reward of our loving obedience is God showing himself to us (John 14:21 — the word “show” means to reveal and manifest); to name a few.
These promises are so powerful and point to the power and presence of God and His revelation. It is in these “thin spaces” where the source of revelation (God Vision) is able to work and speak into our lives. It is in these “thin spaces” that we’re in a position spiritually to hear and see what God is wanting to say and show us. 
The church struggles with the temptation to look to alternative sources or to make the moments and practices the point and purpose, when in fact they are merely a pathway to the point and purpose. It isn’t the singing, the praying, the gathering, the obeying, etc., that are the main experiences. It is where those take us, into the awareness and manifest presence and revelation of God! Revelation (God Vision) is the work of the Spirit. If we are not careful, we can easily find ourselves in a position of loving the work of the Lord more than the Lord of the work.” In the end, He is the vine, we are the branches, and apart from Him we can do nothing, not even have a clear or right vision.
 
Grace and Peace,
Stephen