Paul
Better Is One Day
Everlasting God
Change Me (?)
Desert Song
Majesty
Jeff Goodrich, an opportunity and his story
1987 high school relationship
Married in 91
Kayla in 94
Didn’t change his role of husband to daddy
2nd child in 98
Julie sufferred post-partum depression
Didn’t know how to fix her, so he reclused into his cave
Put problem onus on the lack of things
Dedicated themselves to a church, but it didn’t help
Finally talked about giving 110% to their marriage
Now he understand for better or worse,
God took them completely apart and put them back together
23 years of being with her he finally gets it
Brad Paisley’s Van
Som friends are having or have had separations for foolish reasons
Once a month at his house
No workbook
Open to all men
In a relationship or about to be in a relationship
Not a Rock exclusive gathering
Scripture-based
Jon
Reflection of us as a people that we’re about community
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand,
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.
3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures,
Decided to run their own show, then they covered themselves, then they blame shifted
Opposite of Genesis 3
Gen 3
Cor preaching the gospel
Concepts of “get the gospel” and “are you saved?”
First importance means back to basics
March Madness
First two weeks of practice you’re just running: line sprints, drills, passing back and forth
Have to understand the basics before you can play the game
No matter how complex you get (Kansas), you can still get wiped out by this little team from Iowa
The church is growing and getting complicated
Cliques
We tend to make things too difficult or complex
The good news is better than you think
Paul is talking to the church of Corinth
Look at people more screwed up than us
Church in Corinth arguing over gender roles and money and sexuality and etc
All this stuff that was broken in Genesis 3
Relationships start to experience conflict
Getting out way ahead of yorselves
We try to make things to complex and too hard to fix
We forget about the basics
Why does Paul say “the gospel”?
Gospel, received, stand, saved
Gospel means the good message
Always brought by a messenger
The battle has been fought on your behalf, there was victory over slavery, and you are saved
Test: say you come into a church building, and see the figurehead talkig, here’s how you live a good life, here’s three methods, using the words of Jesus a a launching point? Take the sermon on the mount, don’t be angry or list in your heart or you will be judged
Read the sermon on the mount and say I want to live like that
I can’t live up to those things
Those are definitely goals to aim for
Golden rule – noble, lovely, worth striving for, not good news
Gospel is a technical term for messenger saying you don’t have to be enslaved, you are liberated, the battle has been won
What are you standing on? Is it good news
If you think the epitome of Christian life is to live a good moral life, you’re going to miss it
If you think that’s the gospel, you haven’t heard the good news
Dos and donts are not liberating
Is our way of life about to change?
Are you going to go back to your boring Monday existence if the battle has been fought and you are not enslaved?
Talking about needing to change
There are some things in me that I can’t change
Has the liberating news gone off inside of you?
We begin to build our lives on things, on our children – thy grow up and move away…how dare they!
v. 2 in vain
To walk away with indifference means you haven’t heard the message
If we’re going to get to the heart of Genesis 3
Liberation through submission
What is liberating about this objective body of truth?
Paul did not figure out the truth, the truth figured him our (the truth happened to him), and he told us about it
He experienced the truth, it happened to him
Saved – liberated, free
Western minds have a great understanding of what freedom is defined in negative terms – free from guilt, control, manipulation, shame
Look at the scripture – freedom is being yourself
When we look at God, is He the most free person in the universe
Can’t lie, can’t contradict, can’t seduce
Modern people hear that and say God is limited
Freedom is being able to do anything as long as we don’t hurt anyone else
The bible deconstructs that: real freedom means to be everything you were designed to be
Gospel – there is a set of truth that will set you free
Built to serve Him, built to be connected with Him
Freedom is not do whatever
So many conflicts in the human heart: I want to be thin but eat cupcakes; I want to be independent but love someone
Love is a covenant relationship that limits both sides
Certain things I have to give up to make it work
To be free means to love, to live within His design
The Golden Rule, the sermon on the mount – they will crush you
The gospel will liberate you
I’m going to sacrifice myself on the battleground, shed the blood you were supposed to shed and buy you back
You’re liberated! Someone has won a battle on your behalf and declared you His people
I’ve come to give you life
Only the rich would ride a donkey
Hosanna – God save us, be our deliverer
They thought His death invalidated everything He said
God deliver us, set us free