For starters, Sam Maynes, Largent Rape, and Ryan Stephens came over from RCC Lewiston and rocked it. Our very own Kelly Indreland played drums with them and I’ve never heard him play so well. It was hot!
The presence of God was thick tonight. For us, these have been somewhat rare times, but becoming more common. I’ll never take these moments for granted.
They introduced 4 new songs tonight. 3 of them were written by the guys from Lewiston. Serious anointing on those guys for music.
I preached on the topic of Salvation tonight. Big topic, but I narrowed it down to these few things: Most of us have settled for something less than what God has intended. If we would collectively believe the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we would see our city transformed.
I loved to see the Spirit flow the way He did tonight. We had some ministry time after the sermon and James laid hands on people and imparted the gift of faith. I’m believing for greater faith for all of us who were prayed for.
I just love River City Church. I love the people. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want anything to change. But there’s another part of me that knows we are called to reach Missoula with the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh the tension. But not really. We must grow because we must reach those who are far from God. We must do whatever it takes.
I’ve been reflecting on many of the highlights of what God has done through RCC in the last couple of years. Thought I’d just share a few with you:
·We’ve seen numerous people make decisions to follow Jesus
·We’ve seen 2/3 of our church getting involved in small groups
·We’ve seen people grow enormously in their faith
·We’ve seen marriages healed
·We’ve baptized 15 people
·We’ve dedicated 10 babies
·We’ve donated over $5000 to the Missoula Food Bank, and donated an additional 2200 lbs of food to them
·We were given a mobile home which we were able to donate to a family in need of a home
·We dropped 20,000 plastic Easter eggs from a helicopter and watched as 5000 people participated in the 1st Annual Missoula Egg Drop
·We gave back the offering at Easter and watched as people all around our community were blessed by the creative generosity of RCC
·We gave $1000 to the One Prayer initiative, which has in turn started over 1000 churches around the world in the last 2 years
·We partnered with RCC Lewiston to raise $2400 to help provide tents to the victims of the Haiti earthquake
It’s good to take time and remember all that God has done in and through River City Church, as well as through each of the people who have been a part. I’m praying we’ll do even greater things in the next 2 years!
You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting much. Part of that is because we’ve been watching the One Prayer video teachings and we aren’t recording any sermons. The other part is that I’m just taking a break.
However, this Sunday I will be preaching on Unstoppable Worship. It will be recorded and I will be updating the blog. Don’t give up on me yet.
We launched the One Prayer campaign this week! I love what Craig Groeschel has done with this.
Basic premise is this: Jesus prayed in John 17:20-24 that his church would be one. What if churches around the world united together, shared resources, and gave generously? That is what One Prayer is about!
The theme this year is “Unstoppable”. This week we heard from Steven Furtick from Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC.
His sermon was “Unstoppable Power”. We are to be the power of God through Christ. We are conduits for His power.
Each of us has been given gifts to serve others and glorify God.
Many of us have often said, “If only I had a million dollars, I would give so much away to charity!”. The fact is, if we aren’t generous now, we won’t be generous if we become rich.
We need to think “inside the box”. In other words, what do we have right now that we can use for the Kingdom of God? Stop wishing for things we don’t have, and start using what God has already given you!
God has already given us everything we need to do great things! Stop focusing on what you don’t have.
Steven’s analogy of the bunt in baseball was one of the best I’ve ever heard.
If you want to listen to his message, I would encourage you to go to http://2010.oneprayer.com and register, and listen to his message.
Next week is Craig Groeschel’s message, “Unstoppable Courage”.
River City Sunday on the Lochsa was a huge success! In case you didn’t know, we canceled church as usual and instead we went up camping on the Lochsa River in Idaho.
We had 61 people either camp with us or come up for the service. That’s more people than we had each of the last several weeks!
Maybe we need to think about how we do church for the rest of this summer. Rumor has it we may be doing church outside at least once a month! Rumor also has it that we might be resurrecting communion meals on those days as well!
We had a great time camping with everyone even though it rained every night. At least Sat and Sun were nice.
We pulled off the 1st pig roast in the new smoker trailer. It turned out perfect! Couldn’t have asked for a better maiden voyage. Can’t wait to fire it up for 4th of July and tailgates this fall.
We did the service in an amphitheater at the campground. Couldn’t have been a better place to worship our Creator.
We did an acoustic worship set with guitars and drums.
Kevin Beeson came up from RCC Lewiston and brought a great message on the balance between sitting and waiting, and getting up and going.
We’ve got to know when to sit and wait on the Lord, and we’ve got to know when it’s time to get ‘er done!
The analogy he used was that the 2 greatest commandments are to love God (sitting and waiting on God), and to love your neighbor (getting up and going to serve people).
We actually had some visitors at the service and also camping with us. We even had 2 strangers show up for the service! Good stuff!
We had a technological nightmare tonight! Battery went out on my guitar twice, and my microphone once. As a result, the sermon didn’t get recorded. Seriously?
I know for a fact that the enemy was working overtime to distract us, to keep us from entering in to worship tonight. Sorry, didn’t work.
We had the richest time of worship during rehearsal that I’ve had in a LONG time! We were on our faces. It was the most incredible experience. Hard to explain unless you were there.
Regardless of the technological issues, we still sensed the presence of God tonight.
I know for a fact some chains were broken tonight!
I had a very busy week and spent 3 days last week working on a consulting project in Oregon. Needless to say, I got a late start on my sermon.
I actually didn’t even have the topic until driving home from Oregon late on Thursday eve. I was finally able to slow down enough to ask God what He wanted to say to RCC this week.
It was so cool the way He spoke to me on that drive. For some reason I just started thinking about scars. First I thought about all of the scars that I have on my left hand from playing with knives as a kid. I actually have 8 scars on my left index finger alone!
The best scar was one that cut right across the knuckle straight to the bone. I can remember seeing the bone and tendons when I did it.
Funny thing is, when I think back on that day, I don’t remember the pain of the wound, but I do remember it being one of the best days of my life.
You see, that day I shot the largest buck I had ever shot. I cut my finger cleaning the deer. To be honest, I didn’t even care that I cut my finger because I was so excited.
All of us have scars. Some of the scars bring back painful memories, and some bring back good memories.
Sometimes the scars that hurt the worst are the emotional scars deep down. But God does not intend for our scars to be painful. He intends them to bring healing.
There are a lot of men in the Bible who had deep scars. Jacob walked with a limp after wrestling with God. Jacob wrestled his whole life so that he could obtain blessing. He wrestled with his father, he wrestled with God. Finally, God blessed him, but not until after he dislocated Jacob’s hip.
Jacob walked with a limp the rest of his life. But I bet if you asked Jacob about that limp, and what happened that night, he wouldn’t have told you about the pain. He would have told you that GOD BLESSED HIM THAT NIGHT!!!
Job was also a man with many scars. Job was the richest, most influential man of his time. He was also a man of integrity, a worshiper, a man who shunned evil.
Satan came to God one day and said, “The only reason that Job worships you is because you’ve given him so much. Just take it away and he’ll curse you.” So God said, “I don’t believe it. Go for it.”
So Job lost his riches, his children, his wife, and the rest of his family. Even so, Job did not sin. Instead, he said, “Naked I came into this world, and naked I’ll leave. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”
Then he got boils. From the bottoms of his feet, to the top of his head. Nasty boils. He sat in a pile of ashes and scraped his boils with a piece of broken glass.
That causes scars. In fact, when his 3 friends finally showed up, they didn’t even recognize him because he was so scarred.
His friends were so traumatized by Job’s appearance that they just sat with him for 7 days and said nothing.
At the end of the day, God blessed Job with twice as many riches as before. He also restored his household.
Job lived the rest of his life with scars to tell his story. But the most painful scars wouldn’t have come from the painful boils on his skin. The deepest wounds would have been the apparent betrayal by his wife, his family, his friends, and even his God.
But I bet if you would have asked Job about those scars, he would have said something like, “Those scars are a reminder of the goodness of God. Those scars are a reminder that God gave me a double blessing!”
Scars are inevitable. Living with pain doesn’t have to be.
There was another man in the Bible who had scars. When Jesus rose from the dead, for some reason his disciples did not recognize him. I think it was because he was in his glorified body. The same body he dwells in today at the right hand of the Father.
Interestingly enough, he still had the scars in his hands, feet, side, and probably his back.
In John 20:24-28 when Thomas didn’t believe that Jesus was alive, Jesus graciously showed Thomas his scars.
Jesus didn’t complain about his scars. He didn’t complain that his disciples betrayed him. He didn’t complain that he didn’t deserve to suffer and die. Instead, Jesus scars were a sign of God’s grace towards all of us. A sign of his forgiveness for the sins of mankind.
I think the deepest scars that haunt most of us are caused by emotional wounds. Wounds of unforgiveness. Just like scar tissue can build up and end up causing more pain at times, unforgiveness can cause spiritual and emotional scar tissue to build up, becoming more and more painful with time.
What was meant to be healing actually starts to become painful.
Jesus’ scars remind us that we’re forgiven. We need to accept God’s forgiveness and move on in our lives.
Jesus’ scars also remind us that we need to forgive. Unforgiveness causes scar tissue to build up and become painful over time.
God works all things out for good, for those who love him. Also, what the enemy meant for harm, God will turn into good.
God’s in the business of trading old hearts for new, trading our sorrows for joy.
Great service last night. Seems that we continue to have a few first time guests each week, and also had a few people come back who we haven’t seen in a while.
I thought worship went well. We’re doing 3 songs at the beginning, and 2 at the end. We might even swap that around. The response time has been really good the last couple of weeks.
We played Jenga in church. I used the Jenga puzzle to represent the church. I then labeled a bunch of the pieces with different spiritual gifts. Each piece represented a unique person in the church with unique giftings. I then had people come up and take out pieces one by one until it collapsed. You get the point.
God has shaped each of us to serve Him in a unique way. None of us was created identical. We need to celebrate our differences.
The church is incomplete without you. RCC needs you to show up and serve with your unique gifts.
The best place to exercise your giftings and abilities is in a LifeGroup. If you aren’t in one now, get in one!
As is our new tradition, we wrapped up the evening with some ribs and a Cold Smoke at Famous Dave’s BBQ. Gotta love that place! Good food, good friends, can’t go wrong.
Great service last night! We had a lot of new people even though it was snowing out.
It was Sam and Emily’s last night leading worship for a while. They’ve been so faithful and such a blessing to RCC. Be praying that they would clearly hear God’s voice regarding this next season for them.
Looks like Eric and Jamie are going to step up and start leading again. Looking forward to a new season of worship!
God was in the house last night! I sensed the presence of God in a way that I haven’t since we moved into the new building.
I feel like there’s an expectation in the people, and that we’re on the verge of a move of God. Not even sure what that means, but I’m excited!
Kicked off our new series, “Wild Goose Chase”. The Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit, “An geadh glas”, meaning the Wild Goose. They believed that living a Spirit-filled life was akin to chasing a wild goose. Wild geese are unpredictable, untameable. They can’t be caged.
We started last night by tacking the most basic, but important questions: “Who is the Holy Spirit? And, what is His primary purpose.
The Holy Spirit is not a force, energy, or power. He is a person. The 3rd person of the trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-eternal, co-existant, and co-equal.
I likened the roles of the 3 to a building project. The Father is the executive. He is the funder and calls the shots. The Son is the architect. He has the master plan. The Holy Spirit is the contractor. He gets the job done.
The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is this: To point us to Jesus and the cross; to bring glory to Jesus Christ.
One of my longest sermons in a while, but worth a listen!