Sunday Recap - 10-10-10

Sorry I've been so sporadic about posting the Sunday recaps lately but there has been a lot going on in a number of areas and this is the one thing that can wait.

Sunday I was able to teach the kids in Kidmo again and share with them about God's plan to invite them into His family. The writers for Kidmo really did a great job and the kids seemed to respond well to what was being taught. Some great questions along with some typical silliness for the kids made it a really enjoyable time.

Then we transitioned over to worship mode and helped the praise band bring "Today Is The Day", "He Reigns", "I Will Rise", and "Change My Heart Oh God." We were missing our drummer and bass player and it definitely seemed to sound different on stage, but the folks out front sang out and the vocalists were right on it. Great job guys!

We had just celebrated the Lord's Supper last week, but I was really convicted about the way we tagged it onto the end of the service and wanted to come back to worship with the Lord's Supper at the center. So "Nexus" was born out of the desire to help people see that the Old Testament covenant and our New Testament age of grace meet in the symbolism of the communion table. It was some pretty heavy theology but I pray that God delivered everything He wanted to the congregation.

Sunday night we began our "The Forgotten God" small group at our home and the turn out was outstanding and the discussion inspirational. Great group embarked on a worthy mission. Pray for us as we close the gaps in our understanding of the Holy Spirit and what God wants from each of us and from our church.

One last thing - Bunny got a great letter from The Full Belly Project this weekend and once she shares it with the girls on Wednesday night, I'll come back and share it with you. Bottom line is this - New Hope is DOING SOMETHING about those in Africa who need God's people to step up and love them.

Sunday Recap July 25th, 2010

This is me and my man Logan Marston, who has just schooled me on the latest going's on in the world of abstract art and general coolness. Logan's Dad is in Afghanistan for a little while longer and while Bunny and I have often offered to take him home with us, for some reason Logan's Mom Laura wants to hang onto him for a while longer.  Logan is so full of life that getting a picture of him being still only means you panned the camera at the same speed he was moving at. We love him and the rest of the kids God has given us at New Hope.

I think I made some relationships more active with the kids today by announcing that we will be giving "Bible Bucks" as reward/incentives to the kids for certain activities that we believe will help them grow in their knowledge of Jesus. Our Kidmo children's program is really geared to involve the parents in their spiritual education by providing a high quality and impactful children's "MAP" that relates back to that Sunday's lesson and gives parent and child a chance to go over it together.

So to encourage that, we're offering the Kidmo kids great incentives to bring their Bibles, return with the "MAP" completed and signed by a parent, memorize the "Compass Point", and also if they bring a friend they get rewarded as well. We'll have a Kidmo store with items they can redeem their "bucks" for and also they will be able to earn Dairy Queen treats, and at the top level - trips to the area attractions like the Zoo, Gulfarium, Dolphin Cruises, and movies! We're going to have fun and learn about how God wants us to love Him and others.

Summer is coming to a close rapidly here as the school year starts in early August, so we have people scattered all over the US. But the congregation we had today was great. It included our newlyweds - Mack and Lois Kirkland who got married at New Hope last Saturday.

We began with "Mighty To Save", then "Forever" and finally "Amazed". The idea was to get us all thinking about Jesus and build a sense or awareness of just how incredible He is. Our invitation was "Grace Flows Down." While we missed Pam on percussion and John on bass, I really thought the vocalists were so good this morning and that the band did well too.

We continued our journey into Colossians this morning with a leap into some of the richest and Christ honoring Scripture in all of the New Testament.



What can you say about that incredible Scripture?

I related a story Nancy Ortberg told about a friend of hers who took his 8 year old son to the Grand Canyon. They had been talking about how neat God's creation was and trhe Grand Canyon had come up, because they lived within driving distance. They had looked at pictures many times, but one day the dad decided that he was going to help his soon understand it first hand. So he got his son up way before dawn and told him they were going on a trip but would be back later that day. His son was sleepy but excited.

It took a couple of hours to get there, but they arrived and it was still dark. Sunrise was coming soon though,so the dad woke his son and asked him "do you trust me?" "Don't be silly Dad. Of course I do." Then the dad asked his son to take his hand and they would walk a little ways down the parking lot because he wanted his son to see something. "Okay" said the little boy. "But I want you to keep your eyes closed."

"Okay."

They walked to the edge of the canyon and in just a minute or two the sunrise began to appear over the rim on the other side. Once it had illuminated the canyon,the dad told his son to open his eyes.

The little boy did, but for a moment he was silent, and then he said "wow." A few more moments passed as he took it all in and then he added "I had no idea."

That's where I think a real look at Who Jesus is would leave anyone who really looked. Jesus is everything. He is all we need. He is the master of the universe. He is the first in everything. He is Lord of All.

I don't think the average person who considers themselves a Christian has embraced that fully. Functional atheism is the result. And it is so much less a life than Jesus died to give us. Read Colossians this week. Give the Word time to work and the Holy Spirit freedom to make the changes in you He wants to make.

New Hope - we are going hard after being known as people who know Jesus, who love Jesus, and who want more of Jesus. Come and see!

Sunday Recap July 11th 2010

Odd how God works.

Tackled the next parable in a series where I'm trying to expose people to the way Jesus tied theology to life - everyday life AND eternal life. It was the parable known as "The Rich Fool." You know the one - it's about the guy that is so successful he has a little talk with himself about the future, then gets a wake up call from God. It starts though with a lead-in snippet about a young man asking Jesus to intervene in a probate matter.

Brothers and sisters, I know WAY too much about probate issues after my brother and I walked that road together in the wake of our father's passing. And Bunny has had a smidgen of the pain visit her as well just recently. So even though I was just tackling the next text, God knew when I'd approach and would use it to speak His Truth to our family as well as to the New Hope family. Had others thankful for the message as well. Thank God, folks. Thank God.



This week's context was the week after the 4th, and the occasion of a major advancement in our Fellowship Hall extreme makeover. The guys worked 11 hours Saturday (thanks again Craig, Scott, Taylor,and Mack) getting it done. And everyone was marveling at just how good it looked. More to come.

We chose some songs for that part of worship to engage people and lift Jesus and His work here among us.

God of This City - the Tomlin version but with a bluesy start that really was great
Indescribable - beautiful song for a beautiful summer morning
Your Grace is Enough - love this song's blending of OT and New
Come Just As You Are - "hear the Spirit's call..." yep, that's what to listen for

Had a good crowd and also had a very involved and responsive group at our church conference that evening. Of course the coffee and Bunny's caramel cake probably amped everyone up some. But we discussed what God was leading us to do and how to do it better.

Praying this week for Joe Stoy and the five boys he's bringing with him to RA camp. New Hope paid their way - boys from our neighborhood who need this - and we're praying that God will honor the investment with life changes that will last forever. This is the first time New Hope has sent boys to camp, and I'm really looking forward to hearing about what God did.

Sunday Recap June 20 2010

We are into summer big time, where the 15 minute trip to Destin can take an hour and where we apparently intend to keep at least one family in Orlando continuously. Had some folks return and others leave. The most notable return was our Big Creek Missions group back from a week in KY. They were a little tired from the trip - having arrived after 9 PM the night before. But they were still pumped. We'll hear more from them next week.

Father's Day - it's one of those days that you have to determine as a pastor what direction you should take the message. Do you preach at/to fathers? Do you talk about fatherhood/parenthood/family? I literally thought and prayed about this particular weekend for a while and wound up being pointed to the Parable of the two sons in Luke 15. There's a ton of great resources out there on this passage - Kenneth Bailey's contextual work, Tim Keller's "Prodigal God" materials - really a host of people have tackled it. Many are splitting the study of of the parable into multiple sermons and looking at each brother and the father. I chose to cover it all in one.

Two things that really jumped out at me from the story: There were two lost sons - not one. The younger son (called the prodigal) is a no brainer for us - we see his sin immediately. But the elder brother's sins aren't as obvious because he seems to do what he's told and follow the rules. In my experience, the most devastating hurts that the Bride of Christ has suffered have not been from the prodigals but from the older brothers. Cross them as a pastor and you'll know it. And yet what they have done is set up a parallel "gospel" of works that has nothing to do with the heart of Christ.



Music for Sunday was:

Our God Saves
How Great Is Our God
Unfailing Love
The Potters Hand
Just As I Am

We're working hard every week to raise the level of worship and praise and I want to thank the band and the vocalists for investing more time in getting better at what we are honored to do.

Sunday Recap May 23rd 2010

After a day of reflection over yesterday, I'm much more inclined to believe that the "Plan B" day was also a good day. I'm looking forward to next Sunday and sure that God will continue to work in us. Our work continues on bringing our best to the Master each Sunday, but He's faithful and will give us everything we need to get there.

Sunday's Music set was:
O Praise Him - David Crowder;
God of This City - Tomlin version,
It Is Well With My Soul;
Softly and Tenderly.

As you probably noticed, there are a couple of older hymns in the mix. It dawned on me yesterday that those are as contemporary as the rest of the songs, because we are dealing with the same issues that drove the writers of them. "It Is Well" fit great with the sermon, and is just a "heart" song for many.



I tried to use the life of Joseph as an illustration of just how even the worst things in life can all work together for God if we are hidden in the arms of God. My hope was that several different groups of people might be led to consider where they were with God. The retiree wondering what happened to my dreams. The teenager dreaming big but unprepared for the "Plan B" events. The person who felt alone without any idea of what the "plan" was.

A lot of Scripture, which Bunny let me know I read too fast. I've got to work on that. But Joseph's was such an amazing life that made a huge difference not just for a family, or even nations, but for God's plan to bring Jesus into this world.

We really don't know the results of an act of obedience and trust in the moment we do it, do we?

Praying we'll all be ready for "Plan B" - David

Sunday Recap - April 25th 2010

After the great day Saturday in the park, a bunch of us were feeling the effects of that labor of love. It was a good tired. Having the opportunity to talk to hundreds of people and to expose them to what God is doing around the world and here in Valparaiso was a rush. But I was really looking forward all week to coming together on Sunday. Here at New Hope it's like every Sunday is a family reunion. 

Second week of the "Primal" series and we looked at "Wonder" as part of what a person who loved God with everything would experience everyday. Oh how I can resonate with that theme. I don't know how many times, especially since we moved down here, where I have been blown away by what God has done in Creation, in provision, in people. "Wow!" is a proper response as is worship and that's what we did.

Our worship music set was:

Here I Am To Worship
Amazed
Your Grace Is Enough
- we did not do "Forever" - I felt that we had hit a "sweet spot" and wanted to get into the message right then!
Come Just As You Are - was our commitment song

The message was really fun to prepare for even though the week was WAY over filled with prep for Saturday. We took a minute or two to review where we had come from and spent some time explaining how living with a sense of amazement and wonder - with excitement about what God has done, is doing, and will do - is key to loving God with everything you have. We are starving our souls by filling them with "junk food" like TV, internet, games and chat when we could be experiencing the presence, love, grace and mercy of Almighty God!



The audio actually did record this week. It seems to help if the preacher turns the mike on - so I'll upload it later and it will be available on the church website. New Hope Valparaiso

Sunday Recap - March 21, 2010

We're into spring break season now, and our friends and their families are coming and going. Two of our congregation  J.C. Roberts and Scott Marston, aren't headed on vacation though - they're deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. When I was preparing the message on Gideon earlier in the week, in contrast to Gideon's excuses, I was thankful that God placed me here in Valparaiso, among everyday heroes who never would call themselves that. But they are to me. Our congregation will be bringing J.C. and Scott to the throne every day until they return to us, and supporting Pam and Laura and their families.


The message began with a question - Who's your hero?

It's my contention that in today's society, we have purposefully diminished the study of our nation's heroes, and decided that children don't need to be shaped by the stories of those who have gone before. That's our loss, because it's by looking at those who stand out - warts and all - that we can see the potential for world changing lives in all of us - by God's grace and through His power. So we looked at Gideon, and his battle plan against the Midianites. It was actually God's plan. Gideon's was let's hit them with everything we can hit them with. God's plan was "I got this."

We see in the story God's attempt to shape the battle field - not the area where the Midianites were, but of the hearts and minds of Gideon and his people. God takes a 32,000 man army and shrinks it in stages down to just 300 men plus Gideon. A lot has been made over the years about the method God used. That really doesn't matter. The focus should never shift from God to the men. God could have accomplished His victory with whatever number of men He chose to. The key was not the 300.

The key was the one. Gideon.

Was he willing to obey God?

We face the same fears and doubts,just about different things. The deal for us is the same - heroism is optional, but obedience is an absolute requirement to see God's power flow through us and change the world. Had a great time all week with the message and in delivering it.



Music this week: "Lord I Lift Your name On High", "Nothing But the Blood", "Have Thine Own Way" with a video of "For the Sake of the Call" by Steven Curtis Chapman just after the message started. That man is so awesomely using the talent God gave him.

Sunday Recap 03142010

- Daylight savings time hurts every year on Sunday morning, but it's worth it to get the awesome extra time in the evenings after we get home.
- Really warm vibe before Bible Study that carried over into worship. We had lots of people at New Hope today that wanted to be there and had looked forward to it all week.
- Demoed the Kidmo children's curriculum we are going to after Easter and if the response from the adults is any indication, it's going to be off the hook. I had several people come up excited about it and had some GREAT ideas about how to debut it.
- Got word we're going to be able to do a block party in Kelly Hills during spring break. COOL!
- Praise team did awesome today. You guys are awesome servants and are so faithful. Thank you.

- BUCKETS OF HOPE
- BUCKETS OF HOPE
- BUCKETS OF HOPE

Not sure exactly how many we'll end up with but it might be 20! That's New Hope helping a group of people the size of New Hope!


We so exceeded my expectations in this ministry. People were really giving sacrificially to help the Haitian people in their hour of need after already helping through the Red Cross and other agencies. The SBC alone has put almost 100 tons of food on the ground there and we're a part of that too.

- I have the feeling that despite some awesome things last year, that today marks the starting line for the run to the prize in 2010. We are going to touch more people - in more ways - in more places - with more of the love and grace of Jesus than ever before. Write it down.

Okay, today's worship set:

Here Is Our King - Crowder
Holy Is the Lord - Baloche
Unfailing Love - Tomlin
I Surrender All

Today's message continued our look at Gideon with the focus on his unusual method of "setting a fleece." His idea was to get absolute confirmation of God's will through making God jump through hoops. I expanded it some to get at some of the other "so called spiritual" ways Christians make decisions. This could have been one of those messages that changes lives in ways that I won't ever realize. If someone truly acts on what they heard and changes the way they make decisions - HUGE!



I'll try to get the audio uploaded to the website tomorrow.

Sunday Night Recap - 3/7/10

Wonderful change in the weather might have put everyone in the mood to come to praise and worship God today. After Niara ( the older girls) presented a video by Love146.org about the fight against human trafficking we kicked off the worship music set which was a mixture of old and new.

O Praise Him  - Crowder
Holy Holy Holy
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) - Tomlin
Unfailing Love - Tomlin
Softly and Tenderly

As for the message... I started the week out studying the problem of God and suffering, but as the week moved on I wondered if I didn't need to step back from the philosophical and focus on the practical ways those questions show up in our everyday life. That feeling was confirmed by events and in my prayers so the resulting message's hope was that I'd gain an immediate connection and be able to help people find God and His grace whatever they were going through.

Judges 6 opens the book on Gideon - one of the flawed heroes that God seems to enjoy using for His purposes. It also opens us to the great promise: "I will be with you."

Friends, live in that great truth. Abide in it - in Him. God is enough. His grace is sufficient.

Sunday recap 02/21/10

Really interesting Sunday on a lot of levels. Let's see:

• We have a well pump with running water now in the lobby. 
• May have achieved  a record for the length of the announcements. 
• Had one of those days when the Scripture and what is happening in people's lives right then cross paths.

We're seeing the results of what the Child2Child girls led us to do right now in Africa as a well is being repaired, financed in part by New Hope. And this year the goal is to completely fund a well there. John Anderson shared how some of the kids sponsored by folks at New Hope walk several kilometers to get water. One of them said that was her favorite chore. We feel led to help. Pray for us.

Our involvement in "Buckets Of Hope" for Haiti continues as more completed buckets were placed in the lobby. A filled bucket will feed a family for a week. The SBC has distributed 20 tons of rice already through our Haitian church partners and has 40 more tons in country. Combined with medical help and now increasing help in planning reconstruction and it's great to be a part of a group making a real difference.

Child2Child is continuing (along with Niara) to help us look at human trafficking and are calling us to act to change it. Kind of fitting we sung "God of This City" given that song's background.

I guess you can see why the announcements were long. There's a lot going on at New Hope. It's all good. :) No better place to find your opportunity to work with God to change the world one heart at a time.

Song set: God of This City, Forever, A Shield About Me, It Is Well With My Soul, Jesus Paid It All

We're working through Philippians and came to the last chapter.



There's a lot in there of the "things you ought to do" category. Human effort - or trying harder in other words - won't get it done. It can only happen through the power of the Holy Spirit as we give up our schemes and plans and embrace God's way - following Jesus with heart, mind, and soul. Just to tell yourself "don't worry", will not work. But replacing that with a fixation on the goodness and grace of God? Winner.


I closed the sermon with a video of Fernando Ortega singing a tribute to Ruth Graham. It seemed to sum up so much of what Paul was hoping the Philippians (and what I'm hoping the "New-Hopians") turn out to be.