Today, we finished up our Satisfaction series at North Side. What a great way to begin 2008! The last four weeks, we have shown some of the areas from Solomon’s life recorded in the Book of Ecclesiastes where he tried to find satisfaction but could never find any. As we read through the book as a congregation, it was amazing to see that the same things Solomon dealt with then we are still trying to use to find satisfaction.

But we can’t find satisfaction other than one place. God wired our hearts that we can only find it in one place – in a surrendered life.

The last two verses of this book are pivotal. As Solomon looked through the entire world to find satisfaction, he finally found it and recorded it here:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (New Living Translation)

13 That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. 14 God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.

That’s it. You want satisfaction? Fear God and keep his commandments. If you can do this, you got it all.

God gave us wonderful gifts to make our lives happy, but all of those gifts belong to God.  We can’t enjoy his gifts until we realize that we must stand in awe of God.  He is the giver.  The giver is always better than the gifts.  If you want satisfaction, you better look to Jesus.  Keep his commandments.

Today, we got to worship to the following songs (By the way, all of this music is available in the bookstore at North Side.  We know there is a lot of music and books out in the world to buy, we just want to equip you with some good ones):

• On Our Side – Chris Tomlin
• Glorious One – Fee
• Glorious – Chris Tomlin
• Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone) – Chris Tomlin (Man, I think Tomlin led more today than I did)
• Surrender – Vineyard UK

Next week, we are starting a series I am pretty excited about.  It’s called “Original Blues.”  There are so many people right now that are dealing with the blues.  Some of the situations in your life right now has made you so sad, you are questioning if you are truly facing depression.  Circumstances that we don’t want come our way.  The death of loved ones or fear of our own death produces depression.  Some of us are so scared about the future, we can’t find happiness again.  That’s what “Original Blues” is all about.

If you have loved ones that are going through a hard time right now (that would all of you), bring them along with you on Sunday.  People need to see God’s perspective on the blues.  The next three weeks is going to healing for a whole bunch of people!

Also, we are getting a new Compass Magazine next week.  For those of you who work in doctors’ office or stores where you could leave some out on a table or a counter, take a few more with you this coming week.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if someone was in a waiting room next week in a doctor’s office and read about God’s perspective on the blues in their lives?  What if their curiousity gets them to check out the church?  What if at the church they come to a relationship with Jesus?  What if Jesus changes his or her life so much he or she changes the world for him?

Start thinking big, North Side.  We got a city and a world we got to do something about.

Some of you may have seen this video clip of Steve Harvey. For those of you who have not, prepare yourself. I don’t know personally if Steve Harvey is really living for Jesus or not, but this video at least gets me out of my chair and running around my living room turning cartwheels preparing me to go and either punch the devil in the face or get busy changing the world.

This was taken from one of his comedy shows where he tries to explain if he had the privilege to introduce Jesus at the Second Coming, this is how he would do it…

2. You don’t need a building to worship God.

For 15 years we didn’t have a building of our own. But I guarantee we did a lot of worshipping during that time. The Bible says, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24 NAS). God created everything in the world. That includes any place you might consider having a worship service. Worship isn’t a place; it’s a verb.

Trav’s Feedback: If the American church could get this New Testament principle in our heads, we wouldn’t have as many conflicts in the church as we do now. I have started trying to remove a phrase from my vocabulary on Sunday mornings: “Welcome to North Side Baptist Church.” Because that is an incorrect, unbiblical saying. When we worship together on Sunday mornings, we have not come to church when we enter the building. The church enters the building. God’s children are the church. The temple he resides in now is our lives. Did you know that the Greek word for church actually simply means “a group or gathering.” When the New Testament began to talk about the church, they were talking about a group of people assembled together. Those groups just happened to be focused on Jesus. It never had anything to do with a building.

Our lives should be more holy than any mere building ever could be.

I’m trying to get better at verbalizing what I believe. So here are a few options:

• “Good morning everyone. Welcome to the building of North Side Baptist Church.”
• “North Side would like to welcome you to joining us this morning.”
• “Glad you found North Side here at 409 W. Northside Dr. this morning. Normally, we are all over town, but this morning we tried to get together.”
• “Don’t get too comfortable in this building. We are a lot better scattered than we are gathered.”

Well, you get the point. We don’t come to church. We are the church. And if we understand that, it really doesn’t matter what a building looks like because that simply is not church according to Jesus.

Saturday, I got to lead two breakout sessions at the South Carolina BCM conference, Converge, on relationships. I had a blast getting to know different college students from across the state. We looked at what God had to say concerning dating and preparation for marriage, and I was so encouraged by the feedback I got. I am working to get the Freshmen 15 book done as soon as I can, because a lot of the college students really encouraged me in this project.

As I promised, below are some links of further help on the subject and some other equipping resources. For those of you at the conference, I’d love to hear your feedback here on the blog or on Facebook. And I would ask you to pray for this project so that it can cover over a multitude of sins (James. 5:19-20) by keeping people focused on God.

Connect:

• BLOG – travisagnew.org – Travis’ blog that has these notes and excerpts from the upcoming book, Freshmen 15.
• PODCAST – Travis teaches a college Bible study called Fusion and this is the podcast that has some of those messages.
• FACEBOOK – find Travis on Facebook and be alerted when the Freshmen 15 book becomes available.
• NORTH SIDE – Travis’ church’s website.

RESOURCES:

• Matchmaker Messages - sermons on dating and relationships
• Freshmen 15 Excerpts – Here’s some rough drafts on a few of the chapters.
• Freshmen 15 Table of Contents – here’s what the upcoming book is all about.
• Pulse Radio – online radio station of our church.

Here’s some of the scripture we used and didn’t get to use in the breakout. Check these out for further study:

• 1 Cor. 7 – main passage we used on whether or not to get married
• Matt. 6:33 – what do you seek first?
• Ps. 37:4 – delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart
• 1 Thess. 4:3-5 – learn how to control yourself
• 2 Tim. 2:22 – flee from youthful lusts
• 1 Cor. 6:18-20 – your body is a temple
• Matt. 5:27-28 – danger of lust
• Eph. 5:3 – not even a hint
• Genesis 39 – Joseph running from adultery
• Matt. 19:8-12 – seriousness of marriage
• 1 Cor. 10:13 – no temptation has come on you that is not common
• Jas. 1:12-17 – how lust is born
• Gen. 24:62-67 – waiting on God’s timing
• Gen. 29:20 – years seem like minutes…
• Prov. 31 – P-31 woman
• Prov. 6, 7 – watch out for a certain type of women, fellas…
• Judges 16 – Samson just doesn’t know how to pick them
• 1 Tim. 2:9-10 – modest is hottest
• 1 Pet. 3:3-9 – dress for the ladies
• Mark. 10:9 – what God has joined together…
• Eph. 5:22-33 – husbands and wives
• Col. 3:18-19 – husbands and wives
• 1 Tim. 4:12 – be an example in your purity
• Song of Solomon 2:4; 4:9; 5:10; 5:16; 6:3; 6:9; 7:6; 7:10; 8:4; 8:6-7 – righteous attraction

Tonight at Fusion we discussed the need to hide God’s word in your heart (Ps. 119:9-11).  Sure we’ve heard about it and people are always telling us it is wise to memorize scripture, but when are we actually going to resolve to do it?

The time is now.

Just like we leave in the morning with the things we need in our pockets, bags, or purses to help us through the day and be prepared, we must be prepared by hiding God’s Word in our hearts!  We can’t wait or hope we can make it through the day.  We must anticipate being tempted and tested all day long, and so we need to have scripture memorized so that we are literally armed to fight against the temptation.

So get some notecards, write the verses on one side and the reference on the back, and get started.  Find the areas in your life where you are currently struggling (worry, selfishness, lack of contentment, lust, loneliness, etc.) and find some verses that state God’s thoughts on those subjects.  Memorize them.  Chew on them.  And have them ready for when the battle comes.  When the temptation comes, don’t expect to be able to stand firm in your own reasoning.  Hide God’s Word in your heart!

Here are some sites to get you started:

• Topical Memory System – this is a topical memory system I developed and worked through a few years ago and ranges on topics but tries to equip you in areas in which you need to know the Word.
• Navigators – the Navigators set the bar for Scripture memory.  They have a topical memory system to put verses together in categories which allows you to work through the scriptures.  This site actually has flashcards for you to use.
• Biblical Counseling Workshop – this site gives you a list of verses to memorize and also displays them for you.
•  Bible Verse Site – this site has a great list of scriptures.  If you are not too keen on the King James’ English, then you can memorize them in your preferred translation, but this list is done be categories and really helpful.
• Mentoring Disciples - these verses are also categorized by different topics.

Closing random thought:  I like to have pictures on my blog posts because they help messages stick.  So I googled “scripture memory” in the images tab, and the guy below this is what I found.

Doesn’t that just scream scripture memory?!  He’s actually a teacher that emphasizes this stuff a bunch, he just make me laugh out loud tonight.