Thanksgiving 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

1 Corinthians 1:4-9
I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

If we know anything about the church of Corinth it is that they were probably the most dysfunctional church in all of the NT. This was definitely not Paul's prize church. This church was very different than the Philippians or the Thessalonians. The Corinthians had issues. Division, lawsuits, false doctrine, bad theology, Idols, Marriage issues, they didn't pay their pastors, took advantage of their spiritual gifts, and had some real confusion about the body, sex, worship, love, the church and mostly...Jesus.

With all of the correction that Paul gives in this letter to the Corinth Church, how does he start this letter out with such confidence in them and with such thanksgiving for them? To me this makes no sense.

Paul saw something that we often miss. Paul realized that God had called them into fellowship with Jesus Christ and he is Faithful. Faithful to continue the good work in their lives, faithful to carry them through until the end, faithful to offer them to the Father as holy and blameless and guiltless. God is faithful to those in which he calls.

Today I was overwhelmed with the Grace of God who has been so faithful to me and my family. Why would he have chosen me? Why has the God of the universe called me? Why has he redeemed me and summoned me by name and calls me "His" (Isaiah 43:1)? Why did he choose to give me the gift of regeneration and transformation when so many others have not and will not receive it? Why? Today I was literally brought to tears in my car thinking about this. To think that in the mist of the business of life, if you slow down and look you can see God at work everywhere.

Today I reflected in my car how God is at work in my family. I thought today how God is at work at my job. I thought today how God was at work in my ministry. I stopped today and reflected that even though it seems at times I am a terrible witness of Jesus Christ, God is at work in my influence. I just stopped today and prayed....not for things, but with Thanksgiving. It was powerful!

Today I stopped like Paul did on the day that he put that pen to that paper and wrote "I always thank God". Why? "Because he has called me into fellowship with Jesus and he is faithful." Just look around and remember, He is faithful. The bible is clear, I did not choose God, instead God choose me, and he is so faithful.

Be a Daddy!!!

Let me tell you a little about my experience with Fathers.

1. My dad left the house when I was 4 years old. To be totally honest I do not know the full details behind why he left and what not. Over the years you hear of all different things from all different types of people. Drugs, Alcohol, Women, It just wasn't working, No more love, the excuses can go on forever. I don't blame him for leaving....I just wish he was around more. He worked hard to make sure he saw me as much as he could. He would drive 1 1/2 hours every other weekend to pick us up for the weekend and sometime come up and spend some Saturday's with us. The only thing that was hard was that he wasn't there. In order to be an effective dad, you need to be there. I don't care who you are, your effectiveness as a father isn't what it should be if your long distance.

2. My step-father showed up at 13. He started off trying to be pretty cool, coaching my basketball team in 8th grade, taking me fishing, hunting, etc. He had a temper problem that would flare up every now and again. His biggest downfall to being a dad was that he never showed affection. Now, affection doesn't mean hugs and kisses all day, it just means showing love. I don't ever think that I ever felt love from my step dad. He'd probably disagree.

3. My father-in-law has been real cool since the day I met him. He seemed like a guy that was very willing to take me in and mentor me right out the gate. I was a new Christian and I could tell that if I was gonna be dating his daughter, he was going to be discipleing me. He showed a lot of affection, sent me cards, e-mails, etc just to encourage me. It was a pretty neat relationship.

4 My grandfather on my dad's side is the freaking man. Born in the late 1920's he was raised on a farm. He was a workhorse. This man is a real man, full of integrity, leadership, knowledge. He can talk to you all day about projects around the house, sports, religion, politics, family. He is so well rounded. He came to faith in Christ at around 16 and grew up in the Methodist church. He always teases my Grandma because she is a Catholic Christian (Not many of those around anymore). Anyway, he is a great man.

I have learned a lot from my experiences with father figures. There are Pro's and Con's to each of them and each has played a vital role to who I have become as a father. I am trying to incorporate a little of my history into my parenting today. If you know anything about me, it is that I want to be a great daddy. People used to ask me in high school what I wanted to be and I would always respond "A Great Daddy". Today I do ministry with my kids, take Abby on dates, buy her flowers, play ball and wii with D, wrestle with Ella. I tuck them in everynight, pray with them, teach them, lead them, discipline them when needed, cry with them laugh with them, hug them, kiss them, show them that I love their mommy. Those are some of my most prized moments in life so far.

If you are a father who is reading this, let me encourage you. Your children are your most valuable, precious, little assets. They come before everything else except Jesus and your wife. I know you love your kids, but show them. I can never show my kids how much I love them, it is un-showable (Is that a word?), but try. Leave a legacy for them!!!! Be a dad that isn't a drunk, a cheat, a loser, a guy who's always at work, or who is ignoring them so he can do his own agenda. Don't be that dad who's angry all the time, not having fun with them, not kissing them, not telling them there value. You don't want to be that Daddy.

I will end with this since just wrote about worship a few blogs ago. "You become like that which you worship"....you worship work, you become a workaholic; you worship sex, you become a porn addict at best; you worship drugs, you become a druggie; you worship alcohol, you become an alcoholic; you worship church, you become a religious freak, you worship your kids, you become that annoying father; you worship sports, you become a sports nut who's killing your son's refs.

Here's the catch, but.....if you worship Jesus, you become like Christ, and in Christ you find the greatest father of all.

Who's your daddy?

Worship is a Lifestyle

Romans 11:36 – 12:1 To him (Jesus) be the GLORY forever! Amen.Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to OFFER (or DEDICATE) your bodies as living SACRAFICES, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship.

Worship is by biblical definition, Glory, Dedication, and Sacrifice. Glory: What person or thing drives your decisions? What do you value or honor the most? What makes you happy or sad? Where do you go for comfort? Where do you go to find your identity? Dedication: Where the T-shirt, talk about, on your Myspace / Facebook page, music you list to? Sacrifice: Where does your time, energy, money, resources go?

Church is not the only place you can experience worship.....
My goal is to answer the question “is worship a gathered event or a scattered lifestyle?”To answer this question I think we are required to look at a PERSON or MAN who is by far the greatest worshipper to ever walk the planet. Noticed I said man or person and not God. I think that in order to understand how great of a worshipper Jesus was, we first have to recognize him as he truly is. 100% God as well as 100% man.
Human attributes:
Human Birth: Born of Mary.Human Upbringing: Wasn’t born a man.
Human Mind: Increased in Wisdom. (Studied and Learned)
Human Emotions: Wept over city and friends. Was happy, sad, angry.
Human Body: Bled, Thirst, Hunger, Pain.
Was known to everyone as Human: Carpenters son, looked human.Jesus’ entire life was in full worship of God the Father.

Every area of Jesus’s life had God as Glory, he constantly Dedicated himself to God the Father, and he ultimately made the final Sacrifice for us on the cross.10 practical things that Jesus did in the book of Matthew as a means of Worship that we are to follow. There are many more but I have chosen 10.

Overcoming Temptation Matthew 4: 1-11 Leading Matthew 4:18-19 Accepting Persecution Matthew 5:11-12 Prayer Matthew 6:5-13 Forgiveness Matthew 6:14-15 Teaching Matthew 5-7 Compassion Matthew 9:35-36 Serving Matthew 20:26-28, Matthew 23:11-12 Persistence Matthew 24:12 Witnessing Matthew 28:18-20

Back to the original question. “Is worship a gathered event or a scattered lifestyle?
You never see Jesus participating specifically in a gathered corporate worship service in all of scripture. Instead you see Jesus worshipping through obedience. True Gathered Christian worship cannot be obtained unless it is worship from an obedient Christian. The first step towards obedience is repentance and response. Worship is an obiedient response to that in which you worship. Jesus needs to be our Example of worship and our Object of worship, because you become like that in which you worship.

A little about me.

This was some information that I shared with a pastor in MA that was asking about me. I thought I would post on here incase anyone else is interested.

Background:
I don't think that you know all that much about me so here I go. I grew up in a typical broken home, went to ENC to play Basketball and I became a Christian my freshman year. I was lead to the Lord by a guy who was a part of the Assembles of God, went to ENC and was locally licensed under Cliff H, and currently go to a Southern Baptist church but if you walked into it, you would never know. I have had mentors from all different backgrounds, Nazarene, Baptist, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, etc. With that being said, I have no real specific denominational background. From a Theological view, I am kind of Charismatic with a seat belt if you know what I mean (Probably Not). I am Evangelistic in nature and have been told (and would agree) that my gifts would probably be teaching, leadership, encourager and pastoral. Some of my favorite pastors are Mark Driscoll, Andy Stanley, Bill Hybles, David Wilkerson, Matt Chandler, Francis Chan, John Maxwell

Calling to Ministry:
Ultimately if I had to choose what I wanted to do in life, I most likely would not choose to be a minister of the Gospel. The only issue is that our family feels such a strong calling. Notice that I said Family, because when God calls someone into ministry the entire family goes, therefore, the entire family needs to be called in order to confirm the calling. When we were still in school God's calling on me was so strong that I literally couldn't sleep for a week because I didn't want to surrender to it. Then when I finally did but still didn't pursue it, actually after in my mind I surrendered to teh calling I literally ran from the calling for about a 2 year period when we were living in Boston. After my running, God just took the vision away. Then about 3 months after living in Greensboro, it was back. Since then, it has been confirmed from all types of people including Steve (father-in law) my pastors, my wife, another mentor, accountability partner, etc. Personally, I know I am to be in ministry, I know that God is going to use us in a real powerful way.

Calling to Boston:
For a while I have felt like God was going to call us to Boston. About a year ago, I started having some dreams where I was preaching in Boston Commons. I knew in my dream that it was the beginning of a church plant, there was corporate worship, preaching, chairs, Church banners. It was very real and I had the dream about 5 nights in a row and each time it was the same dream but I was seeing it from different angles. Beth, my wife was totally turned off to the idea of ever moving back to Boston but in the last year she and I both have agreed that we want nothing else than to be obedient to what God may want to do. Boston is a very spiritually dry area (maybe its better to say that it is just filled with the wrong spirits) and I would love nothing more than to be a part of Gods plan to lead people to Christ in that area.

Vision:
I envision a very contemporary church in Boston. I am all about reaching current mainstream culture with the Gospel of Jesus. I think the church has failed cuent culture by trying to give them rules to follow, rather than teaching them how to walk with God. However, I acknowledge that there is not just one way or style that will reach today's culture, and also there is not a desired style of corporate worship that is better than another. Personally, I am a casual person. I typically wouldn't show up to church in a shirt and tie, unless of coarse I was asked to. However, I am not sloppy, just casual. I envision loud music similar to that of people like Hillsong, New Life Worship, Desperation Band, David Crowder, Matt Redmen. Similar to that in which you would have at a Passion event.

Biblicial Authority:
I also believe that the bible is ultimate authority. I believe that all scripture is God breathed. I believe that the entie bible is the story of Gods redemptive plan through Jesus to redeem his people. I believe that the bible is the main way that God currently speaks to his people. However, not the only way. I do believe that God speaks through other means, but those other means must always be supported by the ultimate mean; which is the bible.

Update

Since my last Church Plant Update, not a whole lot has changed. I have recently been asked to slowely be transitioned into the youth pastor at our church which is a pretty big deal for our large church. Lately I have been talking with some people in the Boston area about churches and planting. I am not really sure what will come of it.

I have a new favorite pastor. Matt Chandler of The Village Church in Dallas Texas. He is an exceptional speaker and his doctrine is right in line with my beliefs. You can check him out on Itunes. He is usually in the top 20 in the religion and spirituality section.

Be a church on a mission.