Paul

Mighty To Save
Welcome To The Rock It’s Good To See You All (Desert Song)
Rocks (fast/halftime Lindy)

Welcome and Announcements

Wonders/Be Lifted High (Coda, fade as one to)
Came To My Rescue
Sweetly Broken
Love isn’t an emotion, it’s an action – for God so loved the world that He gave His only son (from yesterday’s wedding)

Jon

Why do we sing? To express our love for You
Notes are useful
Last week we talked about matters of the heart, hard hearts, etc
Eternal life is a term bandied about
Not heaven, but a God-centered life
Genesis 1
v. 27 Even people you don’t like have a piece of the divine
What makes us valuable is that we have been created in God’s image
Told something about humanity – it’s goodness
Today we see a lot of brokenness
But in the beginning we were created good
He speaks
v. 3 there is light, order
v.6 expanse
Light, water, sky, air
v.9 dry land
v.11 vegetation
Reproduction
More advanced creation
Start with big vague concepts, move to more advanced
v.20 waters swarm with living creatures, air with birds
Animals with personalities
Gets more advanced, creates man, watches it, watches it…and says, “I can do better” and creates woman
Created humanity in His image
To experience eternal life
In humanity we have sin
They wanted value and identity from something other than God
Genesis 3 calls that sin
Bends the human soul
Sprayed with graffiti
Graffitized
Masculine and feminine parts bent
Looking for something else to give us life
Guys:
What do you do? what gives you purpose in life
Walk into junior/high school, cliques
What makes you different and unique?
Why do we need to fit in
Created in God’s image, but been graffitized
Have to find a place
God doesn’t make mistakes – He makes people
Created in His image
We all know we’re bent
This is the way you need to be as a man, as a woman
The system of organized religion has something called “doing ministry”
You find people doing that to find identity, purpose, value
Lost in business and lose pieces of soul
Valuable to religious institution, lose pieces of soul
Girls:
Tends to be bent toward the man
Have to find identity in a man
Need his attention or I’ll die
Please don’t – you’ll be left wanting
Bent on this thing called “a shapely body”
Thus eating disorders run rampant
Searching for identity, purpose, value
We keep searching and holding up the mirror – we’re supposed to see image of God, but the mirror has been cracked so we’re trying to remove the graffiti by seeking for identity
As a Christian community, what are we supposed to do?
Colossians 1
v.1-4 if God looks down, all He sees is Jesus
Back in Genesis He saw us behind the tree, in the bushes
Now He sees Christ, the Messiah
When you say yes to Jesus, you are shifted, you are a new creation
To be a Christian – old self has died, new self is alive
Constant awareness that bent part is dead
Don’t just say “I’m a sinner”
Can’t you hear Jesus up there saying, “What did you think I died for?!?”
Kids are a reflection of their parents
New creation
Tired of shame based reality
People know what they are
Not defined as sinners – as new creations
This is who you are – be this!
Only Messiah Jesus is constant
Called to reflect glory of God back to the world
This sounds like really good
v.9-10 Genesis 1 language
Your old life is hidden in Christ
Renewed on a daily basis, in the image of God
Spiritual growth is like a return to Genesis 1
When you hear the word repent, it’s scary
Jesus says repent, teshuva -> return
Return back to God, your creator
Life-giving to repent
Turning around back to God
Revelation? turned to the noise?
Because of bent image we get off track
Jesus says teshuva
People-pleasers say – I can’t have people upset with me
How does God get glory? When we reflect him on Earth
Jonathon…Harold ? Woolner?
Our calling, our job: relentless pursuit of who God has called you to be
This is how He has made me
You be you and I’ll be me, and we are we
As we are who we’re supposed to be
Phillipians 1
v.6 so valuable to me
God doesn’t make mistakes, junk
If you follow Me, I’ll blow your mind
I’ve got a lot invested in you
I’ve got a lot of work I want to do through you
Everyone has a past, dark things happened to us
Past pushes us into the future
Secret deep inside of us that we don’t want to talk or deal with, and our past pushes us into our future
Pushes us forward with shame and conditions
Identity wrapped up in things done to us
Be the light
More becoming the person He meant us to be
Until the day of the 2nd coming, He will keep working on us
You keep being pulled into the future by this past promise
This reality that God is making us into somethig beautiful
I’m gonna let God pull me into what God made me to be
12 o’clock is coming
We want you to be you, not someone else
Don’t just sit around saying how come no one else is passionate about what I’m passionate about – that’s who you are
Sometimes conformity becomes the rule of the day – the only conformity is Messiah Jesus
Some of us need to repent, to return to who you really are
When you are you, and me is me, and we are we…the revolution can begin.
Opportunity
Mary Williams leaves for Chicago on Tuesday
Pray for her and her family