TNC is excited to welcome Tobi Brooks and Jason Knight to the elder team. Elders provide oversight, care, and guidance to our whole church through their words, prayers, and lives. Tobi and Jason have truly lived into this leadership role and are excited to serve Jesus and this church on the road ahead. Listen in as we explain the role of Elders in the Bible, our process, and then hear a word from Tobi and Jason in this important moment for TNC.

NOTES —

1. What is an Elder?

2. What is our Process?

3. A word from Tobi

4. A word from Jason

5. What is Ordination?

6. A charge to our candidates

Our culture teaches us to "look out for me, myself, and I" and prioritize our individual self above others. But our experience shows us that if we're only caring about ourselves and feeding our ego, we wind up malnourished. So what would happen if we shifted our life's center of gravity? John the Baptist teaches us how to live in a story in which we're not the main character. We can learn from his disposition and declaration of decrease.

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- John 3.22-30

// SERIES -- Jesus shows us how we can decrease our stuff, self, and status so we can increase our communion with God.

// QUESTION -- The longer we follow Jesus, shouldn't we become more loving, generous, just, and merciful...not less? The answer is a matter of decrease and increase.

// JOHN'S DISPOSITION (The way in which something is placed or arranged, especially in relation to other things) -- Jesus is at the center of it all, my life finds its proper place in God's universe.

// QUOTE -- "Christian spirituality, the contemplative life, is not about us. It is about God. The great weakness of American spirituality is that it is all about us: fulfilling our potential, getting the blessings of God, expanding our influence, finding our gifts, getting a handle on principles by which we can get an edge over the competition. The more there is of us, the less there is of God." (EUGENE PETERSON, "Transparent Lives")

// JOHN'S DECLARATION (He must increase and I must decrease) -- It's about re-direction, not self-satisfaction. It's about humility, not vanity. It's about other-centeredness, not self-centeredness.

// The best way to decrease is through displacement: to be filled with the life, light, and love of God that displaces death, darkness, and sin. It's decrease through increase.

One of the biggest questions asked of Jesus is, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" In characteristic fashion, Jesus responds to this question with...a question. But what comes next has challenged disciples for generations. If Jesus asks this of this rich young man, what might he ask of me?

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- Luke 18.18-30

// 2 BIG QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK -- Where's God? and What's Next?

// QUESTION 1 -- What's up with "Eternal Life" (What's he asking)?

// QUESTION 2 -- What's up with the "Good" thing?

// QUESTION 3 -- What's up with the "Commands" thing?

// BIG IDEA 1 -- Jesus does not ask us to focus on the narrow list of do's and don't's but to narrow our focus on him.

// QUESTION 4 -- What's up with Jesus asking him to do what he (apparently) doesn't ask others to do?

// BIG IDEA 2 -- Jesus asks him to do what he asks all of us to do: "Give me everything and I'll give you everything and more in return. But if you can't give up your stuff, you won't really give me your self."

// LUKE 14.33 (NRSV) -- "So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."

// BIG IDEA 3 -- Dispossess of your possessions now so that when it's time to give it away or to get taken away, it won't matter in the long run because you've put all your investments safely in the kingdom of God.

// BIG IDEA 4 -- This radical surrender leads to radical generosity which leads to a radical community who is already living the life of "The Age to Come" under the reign of God.

Lent is the 40-day season of giving, praying, and fasting that precedes Easter. Lent is about repentance and repentance is about re-orientation -- turning your face and your feet back to God and his way. In that sense, temptation is about DIS-orientation -- the stuff that knocks us off course and causes us to forget who we really are. Jesus was tempted and shows us how even in the darkest and driest times, we can hold tight to the voice of God that drowns out the voice of the Tempter.

NOTES--

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- Matthew 4.1-11

// QUOTE -- "The number forty was not chosen randomly. Forty is a number associated with times of intense spiritual preparation and significant transition in the Bible. Think of the forty years Moses spent in the desert before God called him to the tasks of liberating the Israelites and building a new nation. Think of the forty days Jesus spent in the desert, wrestling with temptation before he embarked on his public ministry.” (TREVOR HUDSON, Pauses for Lent: 40 Words for 40 Days)

// SERIES -- Jesus shows us how we can decrease our stuff, self, and status so we can increase our communion with God.

// THIS MESSAGE -- 1. The Source of Temptation, 2. The Setting of Temptation, 3. The Substance of Temptation

// BIG IDEA 1 -- Just because you and Jesus wind up in the desert, it doesn't always mean you took a wrong turn.

// BIG IDEA 2 -- Jesus went into the wilderness with His Father's voice echoing in his heart. The name "Beloved" reverberated against the voice of the Tempter.

// BIG IDEA 3 -- "Beloved" is the echo you should never un-hear. You cannot out-believe your beloved-ness (you can only forget to live it.)

Lent is the 40-day season that precedes Easter. Lent reminds us of our frailty, need, and brokenness. The Church has employed the time-tested tools of giving, praying, and fasting to engage these areas of life during this season. However, there's always a danger of missing the point and settling for a "check the box" kind of religious ritual. Fortunately, Jesus teaches his disciples how to properly use these tools to be transformed by God and not just to be seen by others. This message explores the "Why," "What," and "How" of these classic spiritual practices by connecting Jesus' teaching to our everyday lives.

NOTES--

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- Matthew 6.1-6; 16-18

// Jesus teaches us that our MOTIVES MATTER.

// The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ call to get both our INNER LIFE (our thoughts and intentions) and our OUTER LIFE (our words and actions) in tune with the kingdom of God.

// How does this work? Don’t GIVE to make a fuss about it, DO GIVE and forget about it. Don’t PRAY to sound spiritual, DO PRAY to share your whole life with God. Don’t FAST to LOOK spiritual, DO FAST to focus more fully on God.

// "Fasting is the voluntary denial of an otherwise normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity." (RICHARD FOSTER, The Celebration of Discipline)

// In fasting, we disengage to more fully engage with God.

// Do we want AFFIRMATION from others or TRANSFORMATION from God? We give, pray, and fast not to be seen by others but to be formed by God who sees us in secret.

This is the final message in our annual focus on TNC's Core Practices. But before we "Bring Peace" to our neighborhood and world, we need to go back to where it all started. Because whatever peace we have to share between God and others originated in the work of Jesus.

NOTES --

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- Ephesians 2.14-22

// IMAGE -- Jesus is the doorway, the gospel is the key, we are the house that God built to live in.

// CORE PRACTICE 5 -- We commit to partner with God in his mission to bring his Shalom (holistic peace and well-being) to our neighborhood and world.

// Christianity is a journey toward the Other -- God, Neighbor, "different's" and enemies. Where do we learn such a thing? From Jesus who journeys toward us. So, we live what we've learned and we give what's been given.

// To "bring peace" is more than sharing good works and good vibes -- to bring peace is about joining God's work and bringing God's life into our everyday places

// INVITATION -- How are you called to "Bring Peace" to your family, friends, vocation, and location?

// REFLECTION --

- What if we were the most loving church in Garland?

- What would we need to do?

- What would we look like?

- What racial, social, political, or cultural differences would need to be transcended (not eliminated)?

We commit to make time for God and others for transformational relationships to grow. These days, creating space is not a luxury, it is a necessity. We need good, restorative time together to grow, survive, and thrive in an increasingly noisy, distracted, and divided world.

NOTES

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- Isaiah 30.15-18

// Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5.16, NIV)

// Our inclination to work and worry -- we look everywhere but God for help.

// God's invitation -- resolve to involve God

// Creating space grounds us in God's presence and opens us to see the bigger picture.

// We discern the loving presence of God by lowering the volume of our noisy heads and anxious hearts.

// SILENT PRAYER (CONTEMPLATION) -- Attentiveness to the presence of God without words.

// SOME TIPS FOR GROWTH FROM RICH VILLODAS --

1. Befriend silence

2. Normalize boredom

3. Reframe distractions (as invitations)

4. Embrace the truth that prayer is not something we master, but an act that forms us.

5. Trust that God is always waiting for you with open arms.

// God's invitation -- However far you've run or long you've waited, God has run farther and waited longer.

How do our beliefs inform our practice? This is what we explore each year by examining TNC's Core Practices. Our focus this week is on growing disciples. Listen to Jesus' own words to his disciples in John 15 and discover 3 truths about our own growth in our lives as apprentices of Jesus.

NOTES--

// TNC CORE PRACTICE 3 -- We commit to invite people into a relationship with Jesus by baptizing, teaching, and sending them on mission.

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- John 15.1-5

// 1. Growth happens to the degree you're rooted, sustained, and strengthened in Jesus our Source of life (Vine).

// The gospel is not about making bad people good or good people better. The gospel is about making dead people alive. (Heard this week from RICH VILLODAS)

// REFLECT -- Am I more loving, generous, compassionate, truthful, patient, faithful... now than I was a year ago? Whatever my answer, does it have anything to do with the degree of my "Remaining"?

// 2. Growth happens when God prunes what's draining, distracting, or destroying us (so that we can bear better fruit).

// REFLECT -- What in my life is in need of pruning or is in the process of getting pruned?

// 3. Growth happens with, by, and for others.

// REFLECT -- What's the fruit our church is bearing? ...my life is bearing? What fruit from others has nourished my life?

We commit to love others as ourselves regardless of race, background, ethnicity, orientation, or status. Our second core practice is to love our neighbors. Through the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus helps us understand who our neighbors are and how we should love them.

Notes

// Scripture Focus - Luke 10:25-37

// In this parable, we notice what a true neighbor does: Pay attention, see the other as a person, show mercy, meet the need, bring the outsider in, use his power and resources to help another, allow others in the community to help. Lastly, he understands, accepts, and embraces the cost.

//Quote - “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige, and even his life for the welfare of others.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

//Reflect -

Which of my neighbors am I being led to love?

How should I love these neighbors? (in what ways, in what manner)

What if we loved in such a way that the term Christian became synonymous with loving?

We commit to be with Jesus to learn from Jesus how to live like Jesus in our everyday lives. That's our first core practice. It's where everything begins and ends when it comes to following Jesus together. In this message we'll hear a clear invitation from Jesus that cuts through all the distortion, misunderstanding, and over-complication so that we might walk with him into new life.

NOTES --

// SCRIPTURE FOCUS -- Matthew 11.25-30

//The way of Jesus is livable and within reach because Jesus is alive and within reach. (But only those wise enough to realize they don't have everything figured out understand this)

// What if the way of Jesus is deeper and simpler than many Christians have made it? DEEPER = Keeping conscious, constant contact ("Come to me") and SIMPLER = Loving God, Loving Neighbor ("Take my yoke")

// QUOTE -- “It’s about funneling ourselves into a central place. Our choice is not to focus on the narrow, but to narrow our focus. The gate that leads to life is not about restriction at all. It is about an entry into the expansive. There is a vastness in knowing you’re a son/daughter worth having. We see our plenitude in God’s own expansive view of us, and we marinate in this.” (GREGORY BOYLE, Tattoos on the Heart, 31)

// REFLECT --

1. What burden am I tired of carrying?

2. What keeps me from feeling at rest?

3. What is Jesus (who is alive and within reach) teaching me about how to live freely and lightly in this season?