Jesus

A Father’s Affirmation

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Amanda and I love watching The Biggest Loser.  While there has been some wearisome drama this season, Tuesday night had me standing up and applauding as I watched this father and son duo in the weigh-in show a great example of a father showing affirmation for his son. Chism was being sent off and his …

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The Light of the World

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Jam up day with the church family!  Jeff, now a grandpa of 4 grandchildren, gave an incredible message out of John 8 on the Light of the World.  We were also blessed to hear from our own Carl Burrell concerning the Gideon’s ministry with which he is involved.

We had a great group of worshipers in the house today as we got rowdy in Jesus name.  While we always have a great crew, it was great to have Gary Funderburk back among us to blow that saxophone for us.  During practice, I had to remind the band to keep playing and singing and stop listening to him because he was doing such a great job!

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Temptation of the Christ

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Continuing on through our Christology, we arrive this week at the Temptation of the Christ.  This event reveals Christ’s holiness.  He was set apart, and while he was fully God, he was full man, and he never sinned.

In his 33 years of life, he never rolled his eyes behind his mother’s back.  He never kept more money than he should.  Never had one lustful thought concerning a woman.  Never used his words to demean another.

After his baptism by John, Scripture teaches that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the Devil himself.  It also seems a test like Job’s in that God is leading Christ to the wilderness to prove to Satan his undeniable holiness.  What’s interesting is that while Satan is a worthy adversary, his tricks have not really changed.  He’s not the most creative of sorts.  His temptation to Christ was the same as the temptation in the Garden of Eden: “Are you sure God’s Word says…”

He still uses it today, doesn’t he?

Here are some things to note:

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Who is Jesus to You?

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It was a powerful time together as the church this morning!  We started off our services with a rousing reading of Phil. 2:1-11 and went straight into the worship set focusing on the words: “every knee will bow and every tongue confess.”  We used a 5-piece acoustic group this Sunday which was a fun, percussive setup.

Today, we worshiped to:

We also promoted the Marriage Getaway through a fun means.  Here is the video we shared:

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The Sin of Unbelief

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This text was sent to be after service and I think it summed up today’s worship.  At North Side, we are not dictated by a worship formula. We are not tied to any tradition.  I’ve been given the freedom to lead from the text we are preaching from.  Today, was one of those days of not going way back, but just going a little bit back.

It doesn’t matter how old it is, a good worship song is a good worship song.

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Anticipation of the Christ

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At North Side, we’re all about discipleship.  In addition to discipling our worship team on Wednesday nights, I am also discipling a great group of college students right now.  These guys come over to our house on Wednesday nights and we get into the Word.  This semester, I am teaching this group, and our worship team, through the gospels.

We are doing a Christology of sorts.  A study of the life of Christ is normally organized around speculations or disagreements instead of simply going to the text.  In this study, I am using 14 main events or categories of Jesus’ life to get a clearer picture of the historical figure and the world-changing Savior.

Last night, we discussed the Anticipation of the Christ.  We actually started in our previous session by teaching through the entire Old Testament in one night.  I told the big picture of God’s plan from the beginning.  The blank page in between the testaments reveal a 400-year period of silence where God said nothing to his people.  While Israel waited to see if God would speak again, God brought a word in the Word himself!

In John 1, the apostle teaches that Jesus was that Word in the beginning at creation, and not only was he with God, he was God.  Just like the light that God created with a simple word in Genesis, at the fullness of time, the Word appeared and was the light of man.  The darkness could not overcome the light, the Word, the God in flesh who dwelt among us.

During this study, we also looked at the reasoning and information concerning the difference of the 4 gospels.  Four gospels were written because 4 authors had 4 specific audiences that they were educating concerning Jesus:

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“Christmas is for Jesus! And We’re Gonna…”

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Amanda is taking the boys to help with Meals on Wheels today.  At breakfast, I was trying to tell the boys that since it’s Christmas, we need to serve others because Jesus came not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45).

They were excited, but what Obadiah said next had me rolling in stitches (or wondering if he was a prophet).

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Do You Want to Be Made Well?

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Whoa.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

This morning at North Side was ridiculous.  Jeff’s message from John 5 was one of the most powerful messages I have heard.  The thought that there are many people complaining about their situations but really don’t want to get well resonated so much today.  Still processing all of that goodness.  If you didn’t get to hear it, check it out here on Monday morning.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Unless You See Signs

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What a great day of worship at North Side!  I enjoyed borrowing my buddy’s mandoguitar to play on Sunday morning.  I had many questions about this little beauty.  It’s not a mandolin.  You play it like a 12-string guitar.  Besides trying to get my fingers to stay within the frets, I had a good time playing this little chimy instrument.

Jeff’s message was incredible!  The thought that many people would believe in the miracles of Jesus yet not have their lives changed was so applicable for today.  So, so good.

It was one of those worship services that I had all types of undercurrent themes riding throughout.  It was a different service intentionally, but had some fun turns along the way (at least, I think ;)).   Here’s what I mean.

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Sowing Seeds

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Today, I was blessed to be able and preach at my college roommate’s church.  I spoke on adoption (our adoption into God’s family and the need for children to be adopted into our families).  Praying that many families will either adopt or sign up for foster care. While I loved being there, I hated missing

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