It's the Little Things

Pastor Dan's sermon from 12/23/2007

Scripture Reference: Micah 5:1-6

Click here to listen.

Christmas has really become a big time of the year. In the church you hear that Jesus should be your reason for the season. In our American world you pretty much hear about "holidays". Somewhere in between all of the bigness of Christmas there is a little bit of guilt for some Christians because we try to straddle the fence of gifts and The Gift.

In this sermon, I tried to address from Scripture what the bigness of Christmas is all about. If I could sum it up in one sentence it would be that, "The bigness of Christmas is found in the smallness of the manger." Jesus is not the reason for the season. He is the reason for our very lives.

What Does God Want From Us?

Here we go on another series journey. In Acts 8, we read about the story of Philip and his evangelistic journey. One particular story, which we will take a closer look at this Sunday, is of Philip and the Ethiopian treasurer. What a great picture of true evangelism. This is a template of what God desires from us. But more on that later.

I wanted to share a reading that I came across from the Teacher's Commentary as I was studying for preaching this week. It is about church growth and I believe a picture of GRPC. Check it out...

“What’s happened to us? We were so close before. And then we started growing … and. … ” Carol’s words reflect a common experience. A little group of believers comes together, grows close, and forms a local church. There’s an exciting sense of closeness and warmth and enthusiasm.

As time passes, growth comes. We become busier and busier. New people come in whom we don’t know, and before long the closeness we felt with earlier friends is lost. Soon decisions about buildings and parking lots and programs and staffing and so many other things crowd in on us.

It’s easy then to look back at the earlier days and to long for the intimacy of that smaller group. It’s also easy, if we’ve never experienced that kind of fellowship, to doubt whether it is even possible in this day and age.

All such longing is not only useless; it is also foolish. It is in the very nature of life to reproduce. It is in the very nature of Christian faith and life to reach out, to welcome more and more people into the family of God. It may be more difficult to maintain warmth and a sense of oneness in a church when growth comes. But the solution is never to push back to the past. The solution is in finding new ways to affirm and to experience our [solidarity].

It was no different in the early church. With growth and expansion came tensions. There were disagreements. There was sin. There were suspicion and misunderstanding. But through it all the early church expected that God the Holy Spirit would enable them to experience the unity that He Himself had fashioned in that bond which knits believers to Jesus and to one another."

I can't help but think of our church. I have been here since the beginning. I have watched people come and go. When I observed the dramatic musical this past Sunday it really hit me that there are many new faces in our church. But there are also many faces from the past! What I saw on the stage was a meeting of the old and new, blended together as one gigantic family of believers.

Our vision for the Kingdom of God can never be so small as "I want a smaller church". Can you even fathom those words coming from the lips of our Savior? Jesus didn't say to go into some of the world, he demanded that we go to ALL nations! Jesus envisioned one gigantic mega church. Yes, I know mega church is a bad word, especially in small church circles. But read John 17 and see what Jesus desires for his church--ONE CHURCH.

The Church is not about buildings, programs or who the preacher is. It is about doing the work of the Kingdom and GROWING the church. This means that your church is meant to grow. No matter how big your church is, are you actively involved in building the Kingdom.

We will be asking over the next few weeks, "What Does God Want From Me?" We will study Philip, Paul and Peter as the Scriptures reveal to us what God wants from us as individuals and what he wants from us as part of a congregation of believers. I hope you will take the journey with me.

The Heaven Series All In One Place

Right now we are working on putting together one media resource of all of the sermons, videos and devotionals from the "Heaven" series. We want to make this available to you and your friends and family and will announce something shortly. For now, you can download everything here or direct friends and family to this page to listen, download devotionals, and watch videos. I really hope that you were blessed by the series on heaven and that you have been encouraged to be heavenly minded so that you are of earthly good. All glory be to God!

You can download the sermons here.

Week One: You're On A Need To Know Basis.

Week Two: And to Die is Gain.

Week Three: Big Houses and Eternal Square Footage.

Week Four: That's One Long Church Service!

Week Five: Eternal GPS

You Can Download the Devotional Packet Here.

What is Heaven Like Devotions. (Coming Soon)

You Can Watch and Download the Special Film Presentations Here.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Imagine

The IronMan

What's Heaven Really Like? Part 5: Eternal GPS

Pastor Dan's sermon from 12/16/2007

Scripture Reference: John 14:1-6

Click here to listen.

What's Heaven Really Like? Week 5 Devotional

This is the devotional on Heaven that Pastor Dan passed out during his sermon on 12/16/07.

Week 5 Devotional

The Iron Man

This past Sunday morning, I closed the Heaven series with an illustration of a close friend of mine. I have posted the video of his experience in the IronMan that he finished in Florida in the Fall of 2007. To me, this is a picture of our race and the victory God has given those who know Jesus Christ. The Lord gives us small victories in this life. For some of us, victory comes if we make it through another day. For others, victory comes when we finish a monumental feat like the IronMan. Still, all of us who have faith in Christ have been given complete victory over sin in death as we share in Jesus Christ's sufferings on this earth as we anticipate sharing in his glory in heaven. I hope you enjoy this video. It will be embedded soon but for now you can download it here (it is about 48 MB).

You can download the IronMan Video HERE.

The Making of "Imagine"

QUICK NOTE: The "Imagine" video will be available for download this week. Check back for an update.

These past two weeks have been a real blessing for me as a pastor. I have had the opportunity to meet many of you for the first time, to catch up with some of you and even to learn some new things and hear some stories that I have never heard before.

I can say honestly that we were a little nervous when we first opened up the "Imagine" video to the whole church. Who would turn out? Would anyone turn out? How would the film turn out? What a blessing it has been to see God answer all of those questions.

The filming of each person only takes a few minutes, but the the conversations that I have had with many of you following the filming have been heart wrenching, uplifting, encouraging and a blessing.

I wish that every person in the congregation could watch the film this week with the eyes that I am watching with. I know the "back stories" to these pictures. I have heard the pain, seen the tears and have been privileged to receive a little piece of your grief and your anticipation for that Great Day. I am still trying to think of ways in which you could share your story with everyone else.

If you would like to post your story, feel free to do so. If you wouldn't mind me sharing your story, just e-mail it to me and I will find the time to post it to my blog.

I want to thank each of you for taking part in this project. You have been a blessing to me, you will be a blessing to your congregation, and you have glorified our Lord and Savior.

I can only imagine what it will be like, to meet all of these people in these precious pictures.

Coming to a Close

This has been one of the most encouraging series' that I have taken part in. I have heard over and over again how God is blessing many people through His Word. Personally, the study of heaven has been transforming for me.

Over the past several weeks I have had the opportunity to get to know many of you and hear about why you anticipate heaven. Through the video project that you have taken part in, I have been able to laugh, cry and pray with many of you. I wanted to say "thank you" for your willingness to lean into pain and memories as you share with the congregation what you are looking forward to in heaven.

The video that will be shown on Sunday is not so much about the people that have already gone to heaven, but more about the anticipation WE have of heaven. I would encourage all of the congregation to fix their mind on things above rather than on earthly things as you take part in watching the video and singing worshipful songs to our Lord and Savior. Of course, it is impossible to show everyone in our church who waits for a perfect reunion. The purpose of the video is to help you fix your mind on heaven--what it will be like, the joy we will experience, the love and peace we will finally have in a perfect way!

As great as it will be to see our loved ones again, how much greater will it be to be in the presence of God?! I cannot wait for that day when we are all made perfect and the new heaven and new earth are made complete. What a day that will be.

So the series is coming to a close. We plan to make the video/audio and devotions available to the congregation in one resource that you can hand out to friends who don't know the Lord or who are on their way to meeting him very soon.

I have used a lot of resources throughout the series, but I would really like to give credit to a few of them. I would encourage you to read some of these books and test them against sound doctrine and the teachings of Scripture. Some of them are "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn, "The Glory of Heaven" by John MacArthur, "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis (and of course many other writings by him) and a compilation called "A Glimpse of Heaven" which quotes many different teachers, theologians, authors and the like.

Continue to run the race that has been marked out for you. Press on toward the mark so that you might receive the prize of heaven. I hope you have been blessed by this series.

What's Heaven Really Like? Part 4: One Long Church Service!?

Pastor Dan's sermon from 12/9/2007

Scripture Reference: Luke 6:20-23; Revelation 7:15; Matthew 5:1-11

Click here to listen.

What's Heaven Really Like? Week 4 Devotional

This is the devotional on Heaven that Pastor Dan passed out during his sermon on 12/9/07.

Week 4 Devotional

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

I have had many people come up and ask me where the video "Where the Rubber Meets the Road" can be viewed online. Well, here it is. I hope it blesses you as much as it did me while creating the video.

What's Heaven Really Like? Part 3: Big Houses and Eternal Square Footage

Pastor Dan's sermon from 12/2/2007

Scripture Reference: I Corinthians 15; Revelation 21-22; Isaiah 60

Click here to listen.

What's Heaven Really Like? Week 3 Devotional

This is the devotional on Heaven that Pastor Dan passed out during his sermon on 12/2/07.

Week 3 Devotional

Do All Children Go to Heaven?

Do all children go to heaven? I guess depending on who you talk to and how many children they know may determine different answers--negative and positive. I wonder how many stay at home mom's and dad's would answer this in the affirmative in the midst of breaking up another whining fight or flare up in temper tantrum's? It is a valid question. I have been asked this many times before and I do believe that I have an answer from my theological perspective.

The Bible teaches the doctrine of election (Ephesians 1:4, Romans 8:30, chptrs 9-11 etc). And it also teaches covenant theology (Genesis 3, 12, 15, 17, 22, Jer. 31, Ezekiel 37, I Cor 11 etc). I believe these two doctrines hold the answer--especially for believers.

I want to answer the general question first--do ALL children go to heaven. The answer is that all "elect" children go to heaven. Who is included in that elect bunch only God knows. My heart wants to say that all children are elect and I think I can make a strong argument for that based on Jesuss own words in Matthew 19.

Matthew wrote, Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” When he had placed his hands on them, he went on from there. Luke 18 adds that babies were also brought to Jesus. I think it is clear from these passages that at least some children, yes even babies go to heaven when they die.

But I believe that the proof of the children of the "elect" is even stronger. I am under such conviction concerning this doctrine that I would be confident in telling a Christian parent who has lost a young child that their child is with Jesus and like Jesus in heaven. In I Corinthians 7:14 the children of believers are called "hagios" which means "saints". They are called the same word as those who are true believers. This means that children of believers are considered heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven.

Of course there are objections to this interpretation. But most of these objections are non-sensical questions such as, "What if the child of the believer matures and does not profess faith in Christ--would they still go to heaven if they died young?" This is non-sensical in that it is an impossibility for it can never happen. If we stop with the first part of the question than we find our answer as the Apostle John answers this question clearly in his first epistle--they were never true believers. The second part of the question assumes that a person can grow old, not profess faith, and become young again and die--doesn't make much sense does it?

The question we must stick with is concerning the death of CHILDREN who belong to believers. Paul answers this question clearly--they are in the covenant and considered holy. Peter says in Acts 2 that the promises of the Gospel are for us and our children. In Acts 16, Paul tells the jailor to believe and that he and his whole household would be saved. I can say confidently that young children of believers are in the grip of our Lord for eternity.

What about the others whose parents aren't Christians? I can only stop at the words of Jesus. Jesus does not say that ALL children inherit heaven. He indicates that many children such as the ones that were brought to him will inherit heaven. I believe we worship a merciful God. I must believe the words of God himself when he says that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy.