Sunday, August 9, 2009

 

Announcements - George
1 Cor 13:-8
Sept 27th missions - be in prayer   $120,000 to E. Africa
Aug 29th  blood drive
John 10:11  I am the good shepherd

 

Communion - Cory Graham
John 10   I am the gate
John 17:1-5   Jesus had completed his work
Thomas Edison -- there are 3 essentials -- hard work, sticktoitiveness, common sense
sin -- slipping faith, rebellion against God
what had to be given up for us to be here today?   Jesus' life
We are all one decision away from going in the direction away from God
What if Jesus had decided not to die on the cross for us?
We wouldn't be here
We wouldn't be able to experience a life of love, grace and mercy
Where is my faith?   where is my level of commitment?

 

Corrie McClarey   "Man in the Mirror" 
The Drabots are on vacation in Florida
campus students are at a conference
Steph is 10 weeks pregnant

played song "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson

Ex 34: 29-35 
1)  Israel feared the glory of God on Moses' face and we're afraid to come near him
Moses had to wear a veil over his face to give the command of God
He had to veil the glory of God

 

2)  Moses' uncovered his face when he was with the Lord and covered it when with the people

 

3)  Israelites received two stone tablets with instructions how to conduct themselves as God's Holy People
Their obedience was defined by 2 stone tablets. 
The stone tablets could not  give life. 
The Old Covenant was temporary.

 

2 Cor 3:7-18
vs. 12  we are very bold
Are we very bold church?
Paul contrasts Moses' ministry, the old covenant, with Paul's ministry, the new covenant
Even Moses did not have a full-time connection with God
He would go into the tent to receive the radiance from God -- the glory started fading
through the Holy Spirit, we are connected to God full-time
God expects us to reflect his glory on an ever-increasing basis
vs. 18 we reflect in our lives the message of Christ
we all does not equal everybody, no, Disciples how have confessed that Jesus is Lord is who He is talking to
We are to reflect his glory in an ever-increasing basis
The Christian life is a process of transformation
areas we need to reflect on in our lives with God: 
area 1   Matt 7:1-5   judging others
we have a responsibility as disciples to remove the fleck of sin in other disciple's eyes
but we look at the message bearer, not God's word
Going 85 in a 70 on the highway, you get mad at the cop.  He's the messenger, the enforcer of the law.
Discipling is more effective if the discipler is humble, enough to take the plank out of his eye
Don't look at the messenger, look at the law
How do our families grow?
Take a look in the mirror
What do I need to change to reflect God's glory?
We haven't cleaned our spiritual mirror in a while, spots on it & cloudy
we need to get out the spiritual Windex and clean the mirror
God, I want to be transformed, I want to be in your likeness
Gen 1 says we were made in his likeness

 

We need to get a blind spot mirror when our mirror is cleaned
We don't see things clear
We need other people in our lives to help us see the blind spots, the areas we need to change

 

1  Cor 10:31-11:1
Why do we fail to bring glory to God in our relationships?
We’re too busy trying to be right instead of righteous
In Corrie's house, they have discussions
a lot of apologizing has to happen
we need to change to reflect God's glory
The apologies need to be sincere and genuine
Eph 5:21  submit to one another out of reverence to Christ
we don't want to submit because of the other person's sin

 

area #2  Change the image
how many times do you look in the mirror?
If you see something's not right, you change it
we get convicted
Is it the same way when you look in your spiritual mirror?
God doesn't look at the physical appearance, he looks at the heart
Are we concerned about how our image looks spiritually?

 

Heb 11:1    in order to change our image, we need faith
we can't do it on our own
God's undefeated, and we're defeated
We look at what's sin --that’s the problem with our faith
We don’t think we can change
if we look at what is seen, we don't believe that God can change what is wrong in that person's life

 

Mt 21: 18-22   "if you have faith and do not doubt"  
teens had impossible dream list two years ago, they had 41 dreams -- and 18 have come true