[NOTE: Due to technical issues, part 1 did not record]

Sometimes we need a pretty big nudge to get us out of the shallow end in our relationships with God and others. Peter gets just that in the second scene of this incredible story of how the Spirit of God is bringing 2 different people from 2 different people groups into 1 kingdom family. But religious, social, and ethnic barriers needed to be crossed. Then and now, the Holy Spirit shakes us out of religion and sends us out on mission. What next step into deeper waters might the Holy Spirit invite you take? What barriers need crossing in your life?

SLIDES + STATEMENTS FROM PT. 1:

-- Focus Statement: The Holy Spirit seeks us and invites us to take a next step in our life with God.

-- The Holy Spirit sought the outsider -- he's out in our neighborhood moving toward the "Not-yet's" and he's waiting for us to partner with him for God's kingdom.

-- A step toward God is always a step toward others. And be careful, the Holy Spirit isn't afraid to make you uncomfortable...

-- What next step is the Holy Spirit inviting you to take this week?

SLIDES + STATEMENTS FROM PT. 2:

-- The Holy Spirit shakes us out of religion and sends us out on mission

-- Sometimes it takes time for God to get our attention and get us moving.

-- Religion = the practices associated with belief (Think outside working in)

Faith = trust expressing itself in action (Think inside working out)

-- Religion can become a substitute for a relationship with God, a kind of "Spiritual Kiddie Pool" when the Spirit's leading us to the deep waters of faith.

So you can get...

1. A God problem -- He's too big for your pool!

2. A People problem -- There isn't enough room for everybody God's inviting!

3. A You problem -- You ain't actually swimming!

-- The Holy Spirit shakes us out of religion and sends us out on mission -- So how's he shaking you + to whom is he sending you?

How do we live after the new beginning Easter launched in the world? We look at the end of Matthew's Gospel for the answer. The universal King has launched a universal mission (known as "the Great Commission") and we're called to invite all people into the life-giving reign of God and make apprentices of Jesus.

SLIDES/RESOURCES:

Easter created a new world under the risen King's life-giving reign.

So, Easter wasn't the end to the Jesus story -- it was a new beginning.

"To be a Christian does not mean that we are to change the world, but rather that we must live as witnesses to the world that God has changed." // STANLEY HAUERWAS

"The central theme of our missionary message is that Christ is risen, and that, secondly and consequently, the church is called to live the resurrection life in the here and now and to be a sign of contradiction against the forces of death and destruction." // DAVID BOSCH

FOCUS STATEMENTS:

1. We make room for the "Not-yet's"

Slow transformation is still transformation

2. We live under the life-giving love of the reigning + risen King

What would it look like if God were in charge?

3. We "Go + Make" not "Wait + Take"

Discipleship is being with Jesus to learn from Jesus how to live like Jesus // DALLAS WILLARD

4. We leave no room for discrimination in discipleship -- everyone's invited

ALL nations = ethnicities, cultures, colors, backgrounds...and even "Them"!

5. We go with God-with-us

Ours is a great CO-mission

SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 28.16-20

Daniel 7.13-14

Matthew 1.22-23

He is risen! We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and remember that death is not the end because our King is alive. On Easter Sunday we see 5 reminders from the Gospel of Matthew. First, don't be afraid! Then come and see for yourself and go and tell others -- Jesus is alive. Know that he's going ahead of you and when you encounter Jesus, take hold and celebrate.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

1. Don't be afraid!

-The terrifying things in the darkness -- death, shame, brokenness -- are all made new in the light.

2. Come and see for yourself -- Jesus is alive!

-Stay awake to what God is doing in your life

3. Go and tell others -- Jesus is alive!

-Share what God is doing in your life

4. Jesus goes ahead of you

-Every step is an arrival, God is already there when you show up.

5. Take hold of Jesus + celebrate

-He really is making all things new

Luke 23:33-46 gives us a valuable insight into the events of the crucifixion of Jesus. As we study the scriptures, we are made aware of a new kind of Kingdom that God is bringing to this earth through Jesus. We see Jesus actually living out one of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, "blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth". The events of this crucifixion are sad and sometimes hard to take in, but taking a deeper look, we find that God had one plan of redemption for all the people of the world, and that was through Jesus Christ. Through this act of sacrifice, we find that we become the recipients of God’s Love.

Who is my neighbor? Who should we love? Who should we help? Simon the Cyrene didn't have the time or luxury to ask these questions. But Simon stepped in to help Jesus carry his cross for part of the journey toward crucifixion. As we join them along the path we're reminded that we can't choose our neighbors. But, as followers of Jesus, we're called to love with sacrificial action and respond to needs when needs arise. Will you be a neighbor to someone in need?

RESOURCES:

--How do we find our story

in the story of the cross?

When we become immersed in this story

we are transformed by God's love + sacrifice

to love + sacrifice. //CRUCIAL QUESTION

--Tonight's reminders:

1. You cannot choose your neighbors

2. To love your neighbor as yourself means sacrificial action.

3. A neighbor is one who responds to needs. //FOCUS STATEMENTS

--1. You cannot choose your neighbors

Jesus re-zoned our neighborhood, everyone we encounter is a neighbor worthy of love. //FOCUS STATEMENTS

--"Please, come sit down and let's figure out why God had our two paths cross today." //INTERRUPTED PASTOR

--Ministry is meeting people where they are

and journeying with them to where God

wants them to be.//WHAT IS MINISTRY?

--2. To love your neighbor as yourself requires sacrificial action.

Love is relating to another as valuable, even at cost to yourself.//FOCUS STATEMENTS

--What was Simon sacrificing by helping Jesus?

1. Time

2. Plans / Pilgrimmage

3. Safety

4. Reputation

--3. A neighbor is one who responds to needs.

Simon wasn't "ready" but he responded//FOCUS STATEMENTS

--Every day we are presented with opportunities to carry the cross for others. Often, we find it easy to carry the cross for those that we believe are deserving of it. We also justify ignoring the plea of others because we feel they "brought it on themselves." // STATION 5 PRAYER EXPERIENCE 2016

--Many times, the daily interruptions we encounter are actually kingdom opportunities. They are those moments, however big or small, when heaven is knocking on earth's door. The most important thing is not that happen but that we will answer. Don't miss the knocking. Invite the kingdom of heaven into your day on earth.//KINGDOM OPPORTUNITIES

Along the path to the place of crucifixion, tradition imagines that Jesus scans the crowd and meets the gaze of Mary, his mother. What would he have seen in her eyes? Sorrow, pain, or a face that says "Is this really happening?" Haven't you been in a situation where you felt helpless to help those you love? A parent of a struggling child. A child of an ill parent. A friend of a friend who is in a tough spot. We have all suffered alongside those we love. In this message we're reminded that even in suffering, 1) Jesus is intimately acquainted with pain, 2) Jesus gives us what we need when we need it, and 3) Jesus is at work even though we don't see it or understand it.

RESOURCES:

"In an incomprehensible reversal of all righteous and pious thinking, God declares himself guilty to the world and thereby extinguishes the guild of the world. God himself takes the humiliating path of reconciliation and thereby sets the world free. God wants to be guilty of our guilt and takes upon himself the punishment and suffering that this guilt brought to us. God stands in for godlessness, love stands in for hate, the Holy One for the sinner. Now there is no longer any godlessness, any hate, any sin that God has not taken upon himself, suffered and atoned for. Now there is no more reality and no more world that is not reconciled with God and in peace. That is what God did in his beloved Son Jesus Christ." // Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"We have a God who is infinitely gracious and knows all our wants. I always thought that He would reduce you to extremity. He will come in His own time, and when you least expect it. Hope in Him more than ever; thank Him with me for the favors he does you, particularly for the fortitude and patience which He gives you in your afflictions. It is a plain mark of the care He takes of you. Comfort yourself, then, with Him, and give thanks for all." // Brother Lawrence

With shouts of "Release Barabbas", an angry mob set in motion what is the greatest sacrifice in history- a completely innocent Jesus being sentenced in place of the completely guilty Barabbas. It was not the Pharisees or Pilate that freed the condemned. Jesus is the one who gave Barabbas his freedom and released his chains. This week we look at where we fit into the story of Barabbas and eventually into the narrative of Jesus stumbling and falling under the weight of another's cross.

We begin our Lenten 2017 series with the first two Stations of the Cross. As we follow Jesus' journey to the cross we will ask this crucial question: "How do we find our story in the story of the cross?" Each station will give us a glimpse into the clearest revelation of God's love for us. Jesus was condemned so we wouldn't have to be. Jesus takes up his cross so that we would find life on the other side of death.

This is the final message of our series in the letter of James. So how does everybody's mentor for an everyday faith use his final words? To encourage Jesus followers to use their words to build up a community that's been torn down. Words build a foundation of trust and prayer builds a community with the power to fuel their practice. In prayer we stand in the overlap of heaven and earth, of what is and what could be. James' final words are a call to pray for God's reality -- help, healing, forgiveness -- to become our reality. How would our world be changed if we committed to faith-filled prayer? We would be a community that lived our faith.

James goes full blown Old Testament social justice prophet in this section of his powerful letter. He's announcing the end of the lavish lifestyle for rich oppressors and the end of the suffering of the poor oppressed. Jesus will come soon to set the world right...but we've got to be patient. Do we oppress the oppressors? Is God listening? So how do we wait? We remember God's faithfulness in the past to remind us of his faithfulness for the future.

RESOURCES -- Other texts to look at: James 1.9-12; James 2.5-7; Matthew 6.19-21; Psalm 37.1-10