Paul
Break Every Chain (There is power in the name of Jesus To break every chain)
Our God (is greater, our God is stronger, God you are higher than any other)
Epic video about men’s fraternity
Jen and Tiffany
In the spring we attended a seminar at life covenant by Samantha Morey
Raising your children – I thought it was about disciplining
So much deeper and more incredible
Sat Sep 22nd 9-1230
Paul
Need more children’s ministry volunteers
Parent info night tuesday September 25 7:30
Great And Glorious (Everything I am I give You)
Forever Reign (You are good, You are good, when there's nothing good in me)/ From The Inside Out (Everlasting your light will shine when all else fades)
Find Rest (Life was formed in Your hands)
Jon
Second to last in series on Psalm 23
Finish up next week and then move onto a new series
Let’s read the 23 Psalm as we have each week
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. (Psalm 23:5 ESV)
The poem structure follows the cycle of the life journey of a sheep
Home represents safety
No judgement, feel the most alive
Change is the only constant we can count on
So the shepherd takes the sheep to green pastures and makes them lie down
State of rest, no war, no structure, no production, no lists
But He continues to work
Learning to trust that the shepherd is leading us
We want you to learn how to trust Jesus
Then he brings us to still waters so our thirst is satisfies
Several weeks ago we talked about peace amidst chaos
Peace and joy and rest co-exist together
Ignore the chaos
Hopefully we’re learning wisdom and what it means to be more fully alive
I was thinking about wisdom this week and I’d like to share an email I wrote to a friend
Ecclesiastes is about wisdom
But we’re talking about something else
Do the right thing and God will honor all that
E is for the people who did all the right stuff and still suffered
It’s actually a crap shoot
Peace is not getting rid of the pain, but being grateful
That’s wisdom
Life isn’t about getting rid of stuff
It’s about following God
Co-exists together
I don’t have all the answers, but I’m going to sit in the middle of it and enjoy life
I can’t fix it, control it, manipulate it, so I’m going to sit and let You take is somewhere
There isn’t always some lesson to be learned in chaos
Sometimes in my personal journey all I’m left with is questions
Am I a good enough father? Husband? Friend?
Am I doing everything according to God?
Sometimes there’s no answer and that’s the answer sometimes
The amazing thing is that you can still live with not having an answer
Then we go from green meadows to still waters then to making sure were on the right path
More questions, is this door open over here? Is this the path
I hope I’ve chosen right
Even when we seemingly choose the wrong path, it doesn’t affect the shepherds ability to work with us
That’s not the ideal path, but it’s the one you’ve chosen and I can work with that
He’s more concerned about leading you on paths of righteousness than anything else
Paths can change
Next year throws a curve ball and leads us down different paths
Then we get to the valley of deep darkness
A time of deconstruction
God saying you don’t need that and stripping it away
In order to be more, he has to strip some things away from us
There’s a possibility I might be wrong so he leads me through these dark times
There’s still peace, still joy
It all co-exists together
Why is it possible to enjoy peace in the midst of chaos? The shepherd is with us
Shepherd is a bad mambajamba with this rod and this staff
Defends us, disciplines us, draws us in close to give us peace
This poem reminds us that life has a rhythm
Sabbath and setting aside one day a week to restore your rhythm
Set aside our lists
Today is a most sacred day, I’m going to let You rule and let us rest in you
This is Your day
Lord this week was awful, my heart got ripped into so many pieces
Tonight we come to the table
I’ve set up life for you to partake of
Table is still in full view of your enemies
Shepherd would make up a mixture of oil and sulfur and tar and place it on their heads
This would keep parasites and flies and things out of their nasal cavities
Without this, the parasites would fly up into the nasal cavities and literally drive the sheep mad
They would smash their faces into rocks and into the ground to escapce the torture
We have a shepherd who goes before us and prepares the path
There are no guarantees in the Scriptures that we’ll be 100% safe, but He’s gone through it before and He’s as ready as he can be
When I was 17 years old, I went backpacking for two weeks with friends
Halfway through, little guy Ernie called it quits
So the boys, being boys, try to motivate him by insulting him
So Gary Perry decided what we should do is take some of the weight in Ernie’s pack and put it in our packs
Ernie needed to refocus
The shepherd goes before us and leads us
We’re always in the presence of our enemies
We’re guided by our shepherd which gives us assurance of knowing well be alright
There are absolutely no guarantees that we won’t get hurt
Ecclesiastes is for everyone who did everything right and still got screwed
You can exercise every day and still drop dead from a heart attack at 50
You can be faithful to your spouse and they leave you
Peace and conflict are mingled together
Greatest discovery
On the trip through the Appalachian Trail
God shows up every day and looks a lot like people
Am I the only one who has questions like this?
And God sends people to me who say the two best words, the very best sermon anyone can preach – me too
I don’t want a bunch of advice, just be with me. I understand what you’re feeling, but we can get through this together
I have a friend who just moved back here after 15 years
We were emailing
What makes your soul soar?
Let my soul pour out into an email to him and he wrote back with a big fat me too
I know my sheep and my sheep know me
We stand in solidarity with each other
Other new testament writers call Jesus our high priest
Jesus is our high priest who stands in defense of us
He has felt all the emotions and all the junk we go through
And He says Me too
This is a Savior we can relate to
He says I stand with you