God is SO Good (April 6, 2012)
Our Women’s Bible study started in March and I was so excited….I had really been looking forward to it! I was just going to attend, grow in God’s Word and maybe meet some new women. Well, God had other plans….As the registration for this study kept blowing up…Final count 185 women…I was asked to lead a table. I was blown away with the number of women that signed up, so I agreed to lead a table of women. Then I had a second thought: Am I overcommitting to things…biting off more than I can chew? I just went through a lot of life changes and was going through a period of adjustment. But then I remembered…it’s not about me…I need to do this. God will equip me and He has provided the women desiring to Grow in His word.
As the women started to arrive the first night of our study, I was nervous and excited as to WHO God would place at my table. I had been praying for these girls for weeks. So here they all came….6 girls….5 of them I had never met…one from my table at the last study! WOW! Thank you God for this! Every girl at table #15 is so unique and so special. It has been a joy diving into God’s word alongside each of them. They are all so eager to grow in Christ!
2 weeks ago, one of the girls, Brooke (who drives from Vinings to attend Sunday services and Tuesday studies) shared with us that she wanted to be baptized! That sparked great conversation as we all stayed late that night and talked about following Christ. Liz shared that her son, Nolan, had been talking about getting baptized too! The First Wednesday service on April 4th was held in the future home of Revolution Church. Brooke and Nolan were baptized….along with the Schroter family, and Hailey. 3 kids and 1 girl from my Bible study group! To be able to witness that and be a part of what God is doing is just beyond words for me! So grateful, so humbled, so blessed!
Jesus—the Divine Christ! He experienced a life-giving birth and a death- killing death. Not only birth from the womb, but baptismal birth of his ministry and sacrificial death. And all the while the Spirit is confirming the truth, the reality of God’s presence at Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion, bringing those occasions alive for us. A triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, the Crucifixion. And the three in perfect agreement. 1 John 5:6-8.
Contributor | Jenna Ellis (Children’s Minister)
How to Fight (April 4, 2012)
We just wrapped up our series Tempted where we discussed the temptations of Jesus. It has been an amazing 4 weeks and some I will not soon forget. Given the sheer size of our church, it is hard to keep everyone up date on all the GREAT things that are happening. We try our best to communicate as broadly as possible but there are just simply too many good things happening to capture them all. Having said that, I want to share something with you all that we discussed at Man Wknd since it was so closely related to our series.
On the Saturday morning of Man Wknd, we talked about how to fight temptation. I gave the guys 4 truths that all started with an A to help make them more memorable. I wanted to share them here in order to help us all know how to fight.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 states “3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
There is a way to fight temptations and it is not the way we normall fight anything else in life. Here are the 4 ways to Fight:
- Admit your weakness: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
- Ask for more grace: Titus 2:11-12
11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.
- Align with His word: Matthew 22:29 & Psalm 119:11
29Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. Matthew 22:29
11I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11
- Assemble others: 1 Timothy 1:12
12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Temptations were a very real part of Jesus’ life and they are are very real part of our life. We can and should learn how to fight them. However, we must never forget that WE ARE NOT JESUS and therefore we will give into temptation. When we do, we must never forget that we should RUN TO JESUS and not AWAY FROM JESUS when we mess up. Our victory over sin is not about what we do but rather about what Jesus did. I told the guys at Man Wknd that you cannot out sin grace because the Grace of God has appeared in Jesus and defeated sin. So fight sin but also run to Jesus when you lose.
The Growth Process | Part 2 (February 16, 2012)
John 8:32
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
We are all looking for freedom. Often our desire for freedom leads us to a misunderstanding of what true freedom actually is. The verse above from the book of John is one of the most famous verses in the Bible and is even used by many people who don’t even realize they are quoting the Bible. The equation of truth = freedom is an easy one to understand but much more labored to apply. That’s where understanding the context of this verse helps us.
See when Jesus said this, He was coming off of a jab-hook-uppercut-ninja kick combo of addressing several issues. He addressed His status as messiah and living water. He attacked the issues of division and unbelief. He responded to a woman (and her accusers ready to stone her) caught in adultery with baffling grace (especially for someone who was beginning to paint a vivid picture of the fact that He came straight from His Father who is our Holy and unapproachable God). He was also almost arrested 4 times in less than 2 chapters. The best way to get to the heart of this verse though is to examine the verse RIGHT before it.
John 8:31
“Jesus said to the people who believed Him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.”
Jesus was being clear, if you want to be a disciple, follow my teachings ONLY then will you find freedom from ALL these other ideas and rules, of which confusion over said rules and ideas would lead to the arresting of God Himself and ultimately His death on our behalf. See discipleship is not just for the spiritually elite who “get it”. It isn’t some Christian black ops task force who carry out missions with their amazing strength and faith. EVERYONE is a disciple.
So the question isn’t, are you a disciple…the question is, WHO are you a disciple of?
So as disciples, how do we stay faithful to the teachings of Jesus and GROW in our obedience to His word when so many get so confused? This is where Revolution’s GROW UP process helps us to encourage one another in becoming faithful disciples of Jesus Christ and to continue to obey His scripture.
Our process of obedience is never ending, but has 3 clear steps to start:
Step 1
Gospel Class
This is where we set the foundation of all our beliefs and get on the same page about how to Grow in response to the greatest news ever.
Step 2
Membership Class
In this class, we both clarify what it means to be a part of a body of believers and how Jesus left us the church to help us continue on a life long journey of growth.
Step 3
Once we have joined each other in covenant membership, we pledge to continue to study His word together. The first class we have for this is a practical class designed to equip and encourage you, which we call our 101 class. We also have seasonal studies and classes, which we will use to help propel everyone all year long in continued dedication to the Scriptures.
Our membership process is 2 steps that happen the same night. We want you to set the foundation of belief in our Gospel Class first, then after you can join Revolution at our Membership Class. Ideally you would attend our 101 class a few weeks later, then sign up for classes and studies as they are offered throughout the year. All of this is, of course, with a continued personal commitment to spending time in God’s Word.
Contributor | Preston Porter (Grow Pastor)