"If We Are The Body... " (pt3)

Romans 12:1-5 & 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

8/6/23 Sermon

Misty Creek Community Church

Senior Pastor, Stephen Streett

Swimming Against the Current
Matthew 5:14-16
 
As followers of Jesus, we have been called to be light in a dark world, to proclaim truth where there is deception, bring peace where there is chaos and spread hope where there is utter despair. It may seem like this world has fallen far beyond saving but greater is He who is in us (Jesus) than he who is in this world. Christian, God Almighty has promised us that nothing in all creation will ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! That is real hope for a lost and dying world! Are you ready to shine your light for Christ Jesus?
I love y'all
doug

Worship Pastor: Doug Allen

If we are the Body: Part 2
Romans 12:1-5 & 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
The sermon this Sunday will be broadcasted live from Misahualli, Ecuador. We will begin with each MC3 Into the Wild Team member sharing about the trip.  If the reception is good, our mission team may sing a song during the message. Questions the team will be answering:
How has our team been the body of Christ this week?
Share your God wink moments.
What is your greatest take away from this experience?
I will tell a powerful story about one of my palliative care patients and the body of Christ. 
I will share real life experiences of how our Mission team and Misty Creek continue to be a healthy body of Christ. How we share one another’s joys and sorrows. How we have remained connected to the MCCC body of Christ while in Ecuador. How we all work together for one purpose. Please Continue to pray for our team as we prepare to return from Ecuador July 23, arriving back in Atlanta July 24 at 5:46am. 
Our MC3 Into the Wild 2023 Team: Pastor Stephen and SJ Streett, Lisa and Mike Nemetz, Jacob Menefee, Sam and MJ Eads, Amy, Andy and Katie Trizzino, Ellison Finke, Brianne Lonergan, Elegance Lonergan, and Alicia Cosby. 
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

If we are the Body: Part 1
Romans 12:1-5 & 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Back in 1985, William R. Greer performed an in-depth chemical analysis of the human body and its mineral properties. His conclusions were published in the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. Greer claimed that the average human body contained 5 pounds of calcium, 9 ounces of potassium, 1 and 1/2 pounds of phosphorus, 6 ounces of sodium, 6 ounces of sulfur, 1 ounce of magnesium, and trace amounts of iron, iodine, and copper. According to a professor at the Illinois Medical School, the total value of these minerals is just a little over $8.00. So, the value of the human body is roughly equal to the price of a movie ticket in most major cities. Makes you feel good, doesn't it? Our Bible passages for Sunday are about the church being the body of Christ. Why do you think the apostle Paul used the image of a body to symbolize the church?

Senior Pastor, Stephen Streett

You Are Not Alone
Psalm 139
“You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.”
Psalm 139:2
 
Often the loneliest people are the people we assume are not lonely at all. They may seem to be social butterflies; however, deep down, many feel utterly alone. God knows every microcosm and nanosecond of your existence—every cell, atom, and molecule; every interest, weakness, and achievement; every hope, dream, and concern. He knows every movement you’ll make today (Psalm 139:2-3), every action, step, and pause for rest, every blink, glance, and breath. He knows when I will stop preaching this message and when you’ll stop listening to it. He knows your personality. He knows your emotional triggers, behavioral patterns, bad habits, and comfort zones. He knows what you’re good and lousy at doing, every temptation and victory. When you’re troubled, He can unravel the complicated issues you are facing. Loneliness isn’t just the feeling of being alone, but of being surrounded by many people and yet really not known and understood by anyone.
 
He was there as you were crafted in the womb. (Psalm 139:13-15) He remembers the headlines on the day of your birth and knows the events that will take place on your final day on earth. (Psalm 139:16) He knows what your future holds and the pathways you’ll choose to arrive there. 
In a world of social media but ever-declining personal relationships, of megacities with more and more lonely people, of billions of individuals who secretly wonder if anyone even knows their name, here is a truth that we must focus on: God knows you, and you are never truly alone.
 
Grace and Peace,
Stephe

A note from our Pastor 

Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Lose and Nothing to Fear
(What makes a person truly free?)
Galatians 5:16-25
What makes a person truly free? Just because we live in a free country doesn’t make us free. I have known many young people who thought that becoming an adult would make them free. There are many adults that will tell you that’s not true. What makes us free? I think there is one person we can turn to to know freedom: Paul. Paul spent most of his time in prison, yet he knew more about freedom than most of us ever will. You might ask, why would that be true?  Paul knew complete freedom because of three things. He had nothing to hide. Nothing to lose. Nothing to fear.  May we all learn to live by Paul’s example. 
How do we do that?  It simply means that you trust Jesus more than you fear your circumstances. After all, if we can trust Him when things are good, we should trust Him even more when things are less than ideal! 
How we live today impacts where we will be in eternity. Now is the time to number our days and live for eternity. I do believe that how we live today will impact where we will be in eternity.  Psalm 90:12 tells us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom. I believe that’s where this phrase “live for eternity” is based. Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Lose, and Nothing to Fear - that’s what makes a person truly free!
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

Pray for Your Enemies? Love Your Enemies? Are You Kidding? 
Luke 6:27-38
Lucy says in a Peanuts cartoon, “I love humankind; it’s people I can’t stand.” Love your enemy? Pray for our enemies? These days? Possible perhaps, but not likely. In fact, we would prefer not to. But now we pick up our Bibles and are confronted by the words of Jesus: "But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you" (Luke 6:27-28). Nuts! Truth is, we would rather have permission to bomb the enemy back to the Stone Age, or at least some punishment that would fit the crime, not this. Love your enemies? What does Jesus mean?
It should be noted that, both in Jesus' time and in our own, there are some folks who seem to think that it is almost a sacred duty to hate anyone who is not "one of us" — forget this love stuff. The Essenes of the Qumran community, the people who preserved the Dead Sea scrolls, were like that. They believed that they were to "love all the children of light and hate all the children of darkness.” You biblical scholars know that this reference in Luke's gospel is not the only place we find this instruction in the New Testament — it is also in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 where Jesus is reported to have said, "You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:43-44).
Whether Jesus was thinking of the Essenes when he brought this subject up we have no way of knowing, but the point is that people (religious or not) do think and act in terms of hatred for their enemies, and Jesus says, "This ought not to be." E. Stanley Jones once asked Mahatma Gandhi why he refused to become a Christian when he so regularly quoted the words of Christ. Gandhi replied, “I don’t reject your Christ, I love your Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ. When will we who call ourselves Christian, become what we call ourselves? Love your enemies? Are you kidding, Lord? No. Jesus says, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you" (Luke 6:27-28).
As William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, said, "The only way a Christian has of getting rid of his enemies is to love them into being his friends." There are days when that might seem preposterous, ill-timed, and unrealistic. But, you know, it just might work. On top of that, this is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
Stephen

Complete Joy
John 15:9–11
Currently, we are no strangers to stress. Mental tension and worry caused by our problems and life in general can be a hallmark of daily life. Stress can fuel cancer, shrink the brain, age you prematurely, lead to clinical depression, weaken your immune system, and increase the risk of stroke and heart attack. In short, stress is killing us. Many of you are dealing with aging parents, cancer diagnoses, health problems, wayward children, job loss, income loss, and grief. To top things off, you are struggling to balance everything in your life. And it’s not just the big events in our lives that cause stress. It’s the day-to-day grind we put ourselves through. We live in a fast-paced society where it’s common to have an overly busy schedule. Day in and day out, we sacrifice ourselves for our job, our friends, our hobbies, and our family. You may be a student trying to work and go to school, a dad trying to work two jobs to provide for your family, or a stay-at-home mom cleaning the house and taking the kids to school and practices.  If stress is killing you slowly, it’s time to put on the brakes.
It’s not God’s will for you to live a life full of stress. The Bible tells us that we can maintain a sense of joy in our lives. So, what do we do to break the stress cycle? Simply starting your day with a morning devotional and a few minutes of prayer can set the tone for a stress-free day. Listening to worship music and meditating on Scripture throughout the day can help you keep your sanity and maintain a peaceful spirit. Try embarking on your day infused with the peace and joy of God in your heart. It will help you to sail right through those potentially stressful situations with ease and grace.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now abide in my love. If you keep my commands, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and abide in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." John 15:9–11 (NIV) Notice how Jesus makes the shift in John 15 from abiding to love to joy. Rarely does Jesus tell us so explicitly why He has told us something. He does so here. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Notice, not just some garden variety joy, but My joy. And notice why—so that your joy may be complete.
Let yourself try to fathom this, being filled with the "My joy of Jesus" and your joy being complete. This is not a flimsy, brief emotion. This is the durable, unflappable "joy of heaven, to earth come down." And let's be clear. Joy does not mean happy times. In fact, the greatest joy comes in the most unhappy times; in the midst of fiery trials. Joy is not optimism. It is not a can-do spirit. It is not positive thinking. It can look like the denial of reality only because it is witnessing to the much deeper reality of the abiding, presenting, perfecting love of Jesus.
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

How to Start a Fire: Receive the Holy Spirit, pt.9
That’s so Fire!! 
John 17:1-11
That’s so fire! That’s current Gen Z teen slang for “off the charts awesome!” When something happens that is dynamic, amazing, and, as we older generations might say, “really, really cool,” it’s now “SO fire!” People in the workforce recognize “FIRE” as a different concept. For many, FIRE means “financial independence, retire early,” a lifestyle aspired to by many. The idea is to work hard and long in your early years so that you can retire early and enjoy your later years. Sadly though, this strategy has backfired for many, leaving some retirees to languish for years upon years without a feeling of connection and purpose, while their money declines rapidly in an inflation economy. Some have returned to the workforce in their later years due to necessity, some due to financial or psychological need, as a panacea for their dilemma. We need connection. The “FIRE” lifestyle may seem enticing in the short term, but it’s the purposeful engagement with something that “fires us up” that makes us feel that life can be “so fire!”
It’s no wonder then that Jesus’ best promise to us is the kind of life that he knows will give us our best sense of identity, connection, purpose, mission, and joy: the “life of God.” Or better said perhaps: “life in sync with God”––a life that is Fully Intimate, Relational, and Exceptional! A FIRE life. Not the kind of FIRE life in which we “retire” and remove ourselves from work, mission, purpose, and connection, but the kind that immerses us entirely within it. That’s what entering into the “life of God” means. It’s a kind of spiritual life in which we exude joy, peace, holiness, and intimacy. And it happens right in the here and now no matter our other circumstances. Eternal Life. That’s the promise Jesus makes to his disciples.
But what exactly does that mean? Scholars tell us that the word “eternal life” here in the Greek is “zoe aionis.” The phrase suggests a kind of life that happens in the fullness of time. It refers not to a duration of life or a future destination in life but to a “quality of life” based in the “knowledge” (ginosko) of God (the Father/Son/Holy Spirit). As we said when we talked about the “Way” of Jesus, “eternal life” in this sense is not something we look for in the hereafter, but something we can have right now –a fully intimate, personal relationship with God, in which we “know” God spiritually, emotionally, deeply, and truly. We bond with God in a way that makes us “one” with God. Jesus explains to his disciples that he has had this relationship with God himself as he completed his mission on earth. He now offers that same kind of relationship to his disciples, so that they too can “know” God (and Jesus) in the person of the Holy Spirit personally and intimately and can therefore do amazing things in Jesus’ name.
The Holy Spirit is tasked therefore with a mission to unify the disciples with God and with each other in a way that enables them to harness the power of healing and change that will enable them to make an impact in the world in which they are living right now.
The disciples by way of this “eternal life” condition will experience a special relationship with God. All who belong to Jesus, who believe in him, will be gifted “eternal life” –the ability to forge a life with God in which Jesus resides in them and they in him now and in the future.
Grace and Peace,
Stephen

How to Start a Fire: Receive the Holy Spirit, Pt.8