Money is very important to our souls.  It can be very dangerous or very helpful.

Sermon Audio: Money: Dangers and Opportunities.

Sermon Audio: Acts 26; why are we so crazy?.

Also, here is the recording of the new song we learned today: Come Ye Sinners.  The sound is wacky because it’s just a handheld recorder on the podium; plus it’s right in front of the drums!

Audio: Come Ye Sinners (new chorus).

Sunday we looked at Acts 26 and from there meditated on how BAD and CRAZY and INSANE God’s Plan seems to be.  For example, He makes the Very Good Creation with the Two of the top three best humans ever (yet) in it and they walk away from it!?  And He doesn’t torch the place?  And God keeps coming after us with “goodness and mercy”?  And all the stories, the wonders, the laws, the promises, the wisdom, the prophets, the miracles?  And when that doesn’t work, He allows all that pain and hardship and silence.  And what?  They kill the very next prophet they (we) see: John the Baptist.  But what about His Son?  “They’ll respect my son.”  No, we didn’t.  And what does Jesus do?  Does He destroy everyone?  (THAT would be logical after what we did to Him)  No.  He pours out His own Spirit!

But then Paul says, “No, this is true and logical.”  Really?  How?

That’s what we set out to unpack.  How this makes sense.

Sermon Audio: Bible Overview (Studio Version).

And, What is the point of “Church Membership”?

And, What does it mean to be a member of Fellowship Bible Church?

We will discuss these questions and more related to church membership over three Sundays.

*****week 1.  Biblical and therefore Necessary.

Sermon Audio: Church Membership 1 of 3.

*****week 2.  Helpful and therefore Necessary.

Not just for crisis situations, but for everyday life.

Sermon Audio: Church Membership 2 of 3.

*****week 3.  FBC?

Nuts and Bolts of picking a church, why you’d pick ours, and what that involves.

Sermon Audio: Church Membership 3 of 3.

This isn’t how God deals with us now.

God is not “The Punisher.”

In this sermon we examine the major Biblical texts that stand between our hearts and complete confidence in God.

Sermon Audio: The Punisher?

UPDATE: we redid last Sunday’s sermon so the answer to “What this is,” gets up too.  And here it is:

Sermon Audio: Acts 5:1-11.

***announcements
-guest preacher April 3, Jason Weaver, teacher at New Tribes Mission in Waukesha.
-Wednesday Night Bible Studies will resume in May.  Stay tuned for new opportunities.

***sermon review
-Who will be King?  Who will be on the cross?

***service preview
Reading: Romans 6:1-14
Songs: Hallelujah, What a Savior; Grace Greater than Our Sin; Amazing Love.

***devotionals

1.  It’s interesting that in 1 Sam 8 the people reject God because they want to be like the other nations; in John 18:28 they reject God because they don’t want to be defiled.  There are two ways to fall off of any horse.  One way is not preferable to the other; staying ‘on the horse’ is preferable.  Being ultra-conservative is as bad/dumb/sinful as being too worldly.  It took the ultra-conservative Pharisees and the ultra-worldly Romans to kill Jesus.

2.  God’s Kingship is not something other than His Love: they’re the same.
We think that God’s loves us so that we’ll make Him King, or that He wants us to make Him King and then He’ll love us.
But there is no causality or process involved at all.  God is King; God loves us.  When He asks us to receive Him as King He is asking us to receive His love.   If we want to be loved by God, we must receive His Rule over our lives.  Not because He won’t love us if we don’t, but we won’t enjoy it if we don’t.  His rule is His love.
Often we compare God to a good parent.  That’s biblical.  But it doesn’t work too well for adults.
We say that God’s rules—His Rule turned into action items—are loving and we say it’s like a parent telling a kid not to stick a fork in the light socket.  Is that loving?  Yes.  Obviously.  But life isn’t so obvious.  God’s rules are not all so obvious.
What if we envisioned God as a rich uncle, named Warren Buffet.  What would you do if Uncle Warren gives you a stock tip?  You are going to buy or you are going to sell. Whatever he says goes.  Why?  He’s the Master, He’s the Best, He’s the King.  What He says is right.  The way WB relates to the stock market, futures, etc. that’s how God relates to life, love, hearts, minds, people, and all things: He’s the King, the best, the master.
What He says is always the right thing, the smart thing, the thing that we ignore only if we enjoy soul-poverty and depression.
God’s Kingship is His love.  We receive it if we want to feel His love and peace and joy.

***good thoughts
-Great stuff on parenting from Ted Tripp: “Parenting: It’s Never an Interruption.”  But this is not just for parents.  It’s for everyone who ever faces interruptions or who ever gets frustrated by other people.  In short, it’s for everyone.
These four points that Tripp lays out are so crucial:
1. I tend to turn a God-given moment of ministry into a moment of anger.
2. I do this because I have personalized what is not personal.
3. Because I have personalized what is not personal, I am adversarial in my response.
4. So I end up settling for situational solutions that don’t really get to the heart of the matter.

Oh, if we could all think on these things.  So many missed opportunities, so many ruined relationships, all because our self-absorption turns us against each other with emotional responses.

***service preview
-Reading: 1 Peter 2:11-3:7 (Focus on 2:11-12)
-Songs: A Mighty Fortress is Our God; Doxology; The Church’s One Foundation; You Never Let Go.
-This Sunday we will pray for Christian Unity together with churches across the world.
Here’s a simple prayer that we will use to remember our True Oneness in Jesus:
Lord Jesus Christ, You call us together in faith and love, breathe again the new life of your Holy Spirit among us that we may hear your holy word, pray in your name, seek unity among Christians and live more fully the faith we profess.  All glory and honor be yours with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. AMEN

***devotional
His Own Possession.
You are God’s.  We are God’s.  He owns us.
What does that make you feel?  Do you feel less?  or more?
In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter’s intended impact is clear: MORE!  “Chosen…Royal…His Own.”
One side of the coin is this: you no longer live according to your plan.  You belong to another and are only enjoying life to the extent that you accept that situation.
One side of the coin is this: the One Who owns you really likes you and wants BestThings to be for you and won’t lose you or misuse you.
Same Coin: Two sides: Both comforting.  You have a purpose in life and you have protection in life.  Two things we all want, you now have.
You belong to God.  All will be well.  All will be better.

One, a pretend one, is that we, like Buzz Lightyear (Space Ranger), know what’s best for the right-ordering of our life’s ‘universe.’  This one results in us making hash of said universe.  We chose this story when we distrust God’s goodness and ability to execute justice on our behalf.  This is the source of all evil thoughts and conflicts.

Two, the real one, is that we, like Buzz Lightyear (Andy Davis’s toy), acknowledge that we don’t know what’s best for our universe.  Therefore, we “keep entrusting ourselves to Him who judges justly.”  This one results in Joy.  We chose this story when we distrust our ability and trust God’s.  This is the source of all peace, all forgiveness, all reconciliation, all restraint, all creativity, all love, all hope, all kindness, all gentleness, all wisdom, (you get the idea yet?) all good, all everything that’s worth anything. *phew

-like the Knight told Indiana in ‘the Last Crusade’: “chose wisely.”

***good thoughts
-powerful, profound, amazing thoughts from biblical counselor and author Ed Welch: Depression’s Odd Filter.
-I like using written prayers from time to time.  They inject new phrases, expressions, ideas that I’ve unwittingly omitted from my regular prayers.  Here’s a good one, reportedly from Oscar Romero: “for Perspective“.

***service preview
-this coming Sunday we’ll be focusing on 1 Peter 1:13-2:10.  (!)  Yes.  That’s a lot of passage.  Give it a once-over before Sunday so you benefit more from our time together.
-Sunday Songs: God of Wonders, O God Our Help in Ages Past, Be Still My Soul.

***devotional(s)
-John 8:56 is an interesting verse.  The Pharisees say to Jesus: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
In this passage Jesus clearly connects Himself with Yahweh.  It’s a spine-tingling passage.  But what I want us to notice is that the Pharisees say that Jesus is “not yet fifty years old.”
What?  Not yet fifty?  He’s barely 30.  Speaking as a 30 year old, if someone said I was “not quite 50″ instead of “barely 30″ or “not yet even 40″ I would wonder.  Why 50?  Why not something closer to my age?
Here’s a thought.  In that culture birthdays were not celebrated.  Ages were less precise.  So the Pharisees might not have known exactly when Jesus was born.  So they had to guess.
Look at Him.  See the gray?  The wrinkles?  The beaten skin, the bags under the eyes, the limp?  He has kind eyes, but He has surely seen trouble and known affliction.

Isaiah 53:1-3  Who has believed what they heard from us?  And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

How does a thirty year old get to looking nearly fifty?  In a culture where fifty was a lot closer to the grave than fifty is these days?  Sorrows.  Grief.

There is no greater proof in the world of our spiritual danger than the reluctance which most people always have and all people sometimes have to pray; so weary of their length, so glad when they are done, so clever to excuse and neglect their opportunity. Yet prayer is nothing but desiring God to give us the greatest and best things we can have and that can make us happy. It is a work so easy, so honorable, and to so great a purpose, that (except in the incarnation of His Son) God has never given us a greater argument of His willingness to have us saved and our unwillingness to accept it, of His goodness and our gracelessness, of His infinite condescension and our folly, than by rewarding so easy a duty with such great blessings.