It was another great day at RockChurch. But yeah, I pretty much enjoy every Sunday. I love coming together and hanging out with the RC community. Good coffee, good people, good music, good environment, good preaching (right?), and great presence of Jesus!
RCBand did an outstanding job with the new song Hosanna (Hillsong). This was the lineup:
- Free (Newsboys)
- My Hope Is You (Third Day)
- More Love, More Power (Jeff Deyo)
- Hosanna (Hillsong)
- Amazing Grace (Traditional, 9AM only)
I am seriously loving preaching our current series. Here’s the recap/takeaways:
- “The leading assumption in the American church is that you can be a Christian but not a disciple… We need to clear our heads about what discipleship is.” ~Dallas Willard
- Gave some staggering stats about church attendance and the unchurhed.
- Mark 8:34-38 (Key Scripture for series)
- Discipleship focuses on making disciples with 4 essentials.
(Taken fromGROW by Winfield Bevins)Discipleship is:
- Gospel‐centered (we accept Christ and begin to follow Him)
- Missional (we begin intentional personal evangelism)
- Community (this happens through small groups, worship, studying, serving)
- Reproductive (build people like yourself, leadership development, church planting, making disciples)
- We only focused this week on #1.
- Defined the gospel.
- The gospel has been described as a pool in which a toddler can wade and yet an elephant can swim. It is both simple enough to tell to a child and profound enough for the greatest minds to explore. ~Tim Keller
- Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23 (Key Scripture for Part 2)
- “I realize that most biblical scholars see the soil in this parable as representing the condition of individual hearts and I agree. But the underlining principles are not only true for individuals; they are also true for the ministry of a local church.” ~Larry Osbourne
- “The gospel is not the most important message in history; it is the only essential message in all of history. Yet we allow thousands of professing Christians to live their entire lives without clearly understanding it and experience the joy of living their lives by it.” ~Jerry Bridges (The Discipline of Grace)
- “It is precisely when the church is a ragbag collection of people who aren’t like each other that ‘great grace’ is essential, and that grace is what turns converts into disciples.” ~Steve Timmis
- Spent some time talking about a “ragbag collection.” [Insert a farmer joke, an outhouse joke, and a stand-up comedy routine here. I guess you will have to listen to the podcast. The 11AM service was fortunate to witness a cartwheel.]
- I read a recent Facebook post from Pastor King (Riverside): Preacher R.T Kendel said he heard one pastor say “if you really knew me you wouldn’t come hear me preach. And if I really knew you I wouldn’t let you in!!! (I love this! Funny and true, huh?!)
- John 13:34-35 (Jesus said our love for each other will prove to the world that we’re His disciples.)
- Some of the hardest people to love…go to church.
- 2 Ways to Demonstrate Love: 1. Build Each Other Up 2. Make Allowance For Each Other’s Faults
- Romans 14:19-20 and Ephesians 4:2 support the two points I just listed. Good stuff.
Feedback (via Facebook & Twitter)
- Loved it:) including the cartwheel. Ur awesome:)
- It was so good it will help me through the whole work week…thank you for all the thought and heart that you put into what you do..and for all who serve with you to make God’s message so clear.
- It made a Big decision making moment in “my life”….Thank you!!
- It (service) was awesome, thanks for always being transparent, real and relevant!
You can listen to our podcast (Part 1 of this series) by clicking HERE. Part 2 should be uploaded by the end of the week. By the way, if you’re an iTunes user please rate our podcast and help us out by writing a review. Thank you so much!
I want to close by giving a big shout-out to all of our volunteers!
It’s all about Jesus.
~PC
