The Overflow Podcast

Stories have the power to draw us in and call us out, to lift us up and lead us through. God knows the power of Story. That’s why He wrote all of reality inside of one. In this message, Pastor Chuck shares the story of the Prodigal Sons to show where the Father’s heart has always been for His kids to come home and for what it could look like again to BE our Brother’s Keeper!

Palm Sunday: The people stood in the street shouting praises and declaring Jesus as their King. Good Friday: A mere 5 days later, the same people refuse to be silenced until Jesus is executed on a Roman Cross. What in the world happened in these days to change the people from cries of “Lead Us,” to those of “Leave Us?” In this message, Pastor Chuck looks at 3 foundational events in Jesus establishing His Kingdom on earth: Riding in on a donkey, flipping tables in the Temple, cursing a fig tree — and shows why these events reveal the heart of how to establish the Kingdom of God today!

Good News! We LIVE as workers in the field and the harvest is huge and ripe! 

 

Key purposes in this message

 

1. To activate and release the evangelistic grace given to you. Anticipate and ready our hearts for the season of harvest.

Mark 4:26-29

26 Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. 28 The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. 29 And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.”

 Are you ready? 

 

2. To equip and enable you as a worker in the field. Put the tools in your hand and learn how to harvest. 

Joel 3:13 Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. 

Are you able?

 

In an attempt to convert a potential client from a prospect to a sale, we would categorize them as ready, able and willing. It's the same for us as workers in the field in the kingdom of God. Holy Spirit can move even when we don't think we're ready, or able. However, he can't move much through us if we're not willing to let him. 

 

Matthew 9:37

He turned to his disciples and said, “The harvest is huge and ripe! But there are not enough harvesters to bring it all in. 38 As you go, plead with the Owner of the Harvest to thrust out[v] many more reapers to harvest his grain!”

 

Much of today is about your agreement in faith to partner with what the Spirit is saying right now: The Harvest is Ripe; Swing the Sickle.

 

(Edited "Life of Wheat" video) 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vgblaqurtddahsj/Erin_Wheat_Harvest.mp4?dl=0

(Full "Life of Wheat" video)

https://youtu.be/b44xja5KeAo

John 4 and the Story of Samaritan woman is used to show how Jesus harvested the wheat, and how the Samaritan woman did what she had just seen Jesus do. 

 

5 ways we come into agreement with the evangelistic grace and anointing in us. 

1. Go into the field. (Be where the people are)

2. Hold the wheat. (Know their story/ENGAGE!)

3. Hold your own sickle. (Know your story/IDENTITY)

Gospel fluency does not hinge on personality. 

4. Swing the sickle. (Share the story of Jesus)

If there is any rhythm to evangelism, it is found in our ability to recognize the Gospel story in everyone. 

 

Jesus is the author. Jesus is the offer. 

Feel, Felt, Found: 

I understand you feel______, I have felt________ too, when _________. Jesus found me and he__________. Now I have __________. Would you like to know the ________________ I have found? 

 

John 4:42

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

 

5. Bundle/Gather the harvest.  (Join the church! MCs and Discipleship) At Overflow they are bundled in Missional Community where the harvest is used for future fields and harvests.   

 

 

John 4:34-38

34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe[e] for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”

 

The woman drops her jar. Why? She no longer needs the things of this world. Her time is better spent not getting those physical needs met, but meeting the spiritual needs of others. 

In other words, by our standards, she is not able, she is not ready, BUT she is willing. Are you?

Right at this moment, in the midst of every mundane or chaotic circumstance surrounding you, your very GOOD Father is on the throne with dreams for your life better than anything you can ask or imagine. There are 4 Seasons in all of our lives where we need to trust God’s faithfulness over our feelings so we can experience His dreams for us: Part One of this message focused on Spring (The Season of Looking Up) and Summer (The Season of Stepping Out). Here, Pastor Chuck shares about trusting God through seasons of transition, mystery, and loss: Fall (The Season of Letting Go) and Winter (The Season of Holding On). “Before you can see the dream that is coming, you will need bold trust to let go of the dream that is changing!” Join us to find how to hold on to hope in winter and prepare your soul again for spring!

The 4 Seasons of Expectancy: Part One

 

Before you woke up this morning, God already thought more precious thoughts about His plans for your life than every grain of sand on every seashore that has ever existed. While you dreamed, He gloried in His dreams FOR you! If this is true, why do so few seem to live out these dreams when they awake? In this message, Pastor Chuck walks through the life of John the Baptist to look at 4 Seasons we desperately need to elevate God’s faithfulness over our feelings and choose expectancy. Spring: The Season of Looking Up. Summer: The Season of Stepping Out. Fall: The Season of Letting Go. Winter: The Season of Letting Go. 

 

myoverflowchurch.com

“Restoring the Rhythms of Rest” 

We were made to live from rest — to abide before our Father and to feed on every word He is continually speaking straight to our hearts. When we refuse to rest, we lose sight of God’s heart and begin to look for obscure signs from His ‘hands’ to establish or protect some agenda that isn’t birthed from security and intimacy. REST is the foundation of our RESToration. In this episode, Pastor Chuck walks through the fall of Elijah to call us back to the heart of our first love — and gives powerful and practical counsel about how to live from the rhythms of rest!

 

PDF Resource: https://myoverflowchurch.com/pdfs/Rhythmes%20of%20Rest.pdf

We Live: Death by Goodness

 

Jesus came for so much more than for us to exist, or survive, or get by. He came “so that we might LIVE!” But we have an enemy seeking to steal our time and soul, to kill the dreamer in us, and to destroy our hope. In this message, Pastor Chuck shares how the enemy often does this not by using the sin of ‘badness’ but that of GOODNESS — wearing us out as we trust where our feet can take us instead of living at Jesus’ feet. This message of hope shows us how to lay down every ‘ought’ and ‘should’ to experience the freedom and delight of the finished Gospel today.

 

Come and Live!

“Words Create Worlds!” Pastor Chuck concludes our “Happy New You” series with a message on the power of our words — and how they can release the Kingdom of God in your life today!