And more blessings...

This last Sunday I talked a little about a sermon I heard. The thing is, is that I heard this sermon almost 2 years ago. The weird thing is that it has really stuck with me.

If we are honest, we will have to admit that most of the sermons we hear go in one ear and out the other. I can’t tell you what I preached about a couple of months ago (without looking at my notes on my computer), and you can’t tell me what I preached either. But there is always that one sermon….

This sermon was based on Ephesians 1:3-14. The preacher was Louie Giglio and the church was my computer screen and speakers…..it was online!

Ephesians 1:3 says, “How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.”

If you examined your prayers, how many times would you find that you are asking God for more blessings? The fact is that He has blessed us with “every spiritual blessing” already! What more could we ask for?

I’m not going to repreach what I spoke about on Sunday here. Actually, this article has very little to do with that! More importantly I want to share with you some online resources that might be a blessing to you when you are searching for more of God!

http://webcastingtechnologies.com/722/ - is the place where I heard Louie’s sermon a couple of years back. However, Louie has moved on. But you can experience modern worship with powerful and relevant messages. It is a whole service online! The only bad thing is that the sermons aren’t archived – so you can’t find Louie’s original message on “blessings” – or whatever he called it…..

http://www.enewhope.org/video/ - New Hope Christian Fellowship – Pastor Wayne Cordero. He is an awesome minister and you will be truly blessed. The only downfall is that the video screen is kind of small.

http://www.live365.com/stations/177334 - “Anointed Sounds” with Dj Bennybee. Hit the link and you can hear worship music online. You have to keep the small window open to hear the music, but you can minimize it!

http://www.coastlands.org/teachings.php - The Coastlands Foursquare Church – Pastor Daniel Brown. You can listen/read video, audio, and articles. The thing I love about this website is that you can save them to your hard drive and watch them when you want. They also have multiple ways to search for a specific topic.

http://www.rzim.org/publications/realaudio_index.php - Audio messages that you can download from Christian Apologist Ravi Zacharias.

I hope you find your sermon that “sticks” with you. Although the “blessings” message was a good one… I’m sure there is something out there for you.

Do me a favor and take some time to pass this email along to some friends and help this ministry get the “word” out.

Peace!

Cool Website

Check this website out!

http://www.breakfastwithfred.com/core.php?content=home

Response?

I can’t believe no one ever responded to that last post….  

Stupid

Chrsitians are so stupid sometimes!

Connected

I received some bad news this morning.  A friend, who I have known since I was way little, passed away of a heart attack.  It’s hard to believe because he is younger than me, and I’m not really that old.  I was really stunned to hear the news and immediately my mind start racing.  It was hard to go to school and focus while I was thinking and processing this…  His parents are devastated.  He was an only child.  His wife of 1 year must be in shock too.  I can’t even begin to imagine what they are going through.

In all this, one word kept coming to me: connected.

As I processed this tragic event and this word, so many meanings came to me.

Connected: I haven’t seen Nick in such a long time.  His parents were real close to ours back in the day and I used to see him a lot.  Although he was younger than me, and closer to my brother’s age, he was mature for his age and we got along.  I still remember his room, it was so cool – it had the Star Wars wall paper up!

But, as the years passed and we all kind of went our separate ways, I lost touch.  I spoke with him briefly over the AOL instant messenger.  But, we never got together to catch up.  I regret that!  It would have been great to know how he was doing and see him.

● In all our busyness, it is worth it to forget those that were a part of our lives at one time?  Wouldn’t it be right to make the effort to touch base every once in a while?

Connected: I already mentioned that his family is in shock.  He was an only child and has only been married for about a year.  His family will miss their connection with Nick.  

There is an important connection here.  There are people in our lives that love us and we love them back.  People also hurt us, and we in turn hurt them back.  With all the time we spend on the junk of this life, we should try to focus on making “good” connections…loving connections…

● Is it really worth it to hold the grudges and hurts that people who are connected to us inflict on us?  Yes, some are done on purpose.  But some are done on accident.  Because we are hurt, we tend to not forgive and choose instead to break our connection with people.  It’s times and events like this that help us to remember that some things are just not that big of a deal!

Connected: The cool thing about death, is that for some, it isn’t the end of the line.  I know that Nick was a Christian.  He was connected to Jesus!  This is the most important connection anyone can make!

Can you imagine being connected to God?  That is exactly what Jesus did for us.  His sacrifice on the cross allows us to be connected to God.  And it isn’t a superficial connection either.  It is a super, super, super, heavenly, super glue connection.

● Is Jesus your Lord and Savior?  Can you say you are connected to Him?

Connected: Because Nick is a Christian, and his parents and family are Christians, one day they will be reunited in Heaven.  The parent/child or husband/wife relationship won’t be the same, but he will know his parents and wife, and they will know him.  Once the initial celebration of being in Heaven and worshipping Jesus slows down – they will embrace and talk about their days on Earth.  It will be a joyful time!

Heaven is an awesome place!  Jesus said that He was leaving Earth, in the New Testament, to go and prepare a place in Heaven for his “friends.”  It’s been a while now, Heaven must look spectacular!

● This world is not all there is.  Everything we work for and strive for will mean nothing compared to Heaven!

I hope that you can connect a little with this short note.  I know that it is the course of action to deal with our own mortality when we hear bad news like this.  But, for the Christian, the end of our mortality only leads to our immortality.  Ask yourself – is all the junk of this world worth it?  No – not if it gets in the way of your relationship with Jesus and your loved ones!

Values pt2...

This week I spoke about Values. Let me give you a quick summary….

We all have values. Some of us have different values, i.e. someone who doesn’t have kids isn’t going to value kids etc….

But, if you are a Christian, there is a place that we all start from. Jesus mentioned it in Mark 12:28-34 and you can find the same theme in Jude Jude 17-23.

Mark 12:28-34 - One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the discussion. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: `Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these." The teacher of religious law replied, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbors as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law." Realizing this man's understanding, Jesus said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Basically, the Scripture says that we should value: God and others. This should be our starting point. What takes the place of spot # 3, 4 or 5, is up to you. But, it should honor God….

The Bible doesn’t only say that we should value, but we should examine our values to see how we are doing…

2 Corinthians 13:5 - Examine yourselves to see if your faith is really genuine. Test yourselves. If you cannot tell that Jesus Christ is among you, it means you have failed the test.

I hope you spend some time thinking about what is important in your life. We clutter our lives with so much junk, that we can surely benefit from “chunking” some of the junk!

I have a “value” worksheet on the E-group website. You can check it out! Let me know if you have any problems getting to it.

Let me leave you with this…..

If we don’t live our lives examining our values, we are leaving to chance: who we are, who we are becoming, and ultimately accomplishing our purpose.

Values

If we don’t live our lives examining our values, we are leaving to chance: who we are, who we are becoming, and ultimately accomplishing our purpose.

2 Corinthians 13:5 - Examine yourselves to see if your faith is really genuine. Test yourselves. If you cannot tell that Jesus Christ is among you, it means you have failed the test.

360 Yahoo!

http://360.yahoo.com/todd_sepulveda

Early Church and stuff....

Ok, this is very long…. I typed it out over two nights.  I hope you take some time to look it over…….
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I’ve been thinking about the early church lately.  It must have been so exciting.  Christians gathered together (they weren’t called Christians at the beginning) to pray and the walls shook!  The Apostles performed the same kinds of miracles that Jesus did.  And, they all brought a little something to the faith.

It must have been a little scary too!  There was always the threat of Roman soldiers persecuting Christians on command from their superiors and probably just for the fun of it too.  If the threats from soldiers wasn’t enough, they had to make sure the Jewish rulers weren’t trying to kill them as well.  Identifying yourself as a Christian could mean that your were thrown out of the synagogue and disowned by the Jewish community that you knew.  But, some were and they counted it worth it.

Besides the excitement and the fear, the early church was probably really unorganized too.  This is one reason why Paul writes to the church at Corinth and gives them a little guidance on what a gathering should look like and feel like.  It is recorded in

1 Corinthians 14:26-33

26What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. 27If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God.
 29Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. 30And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. 31For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. 33For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.
Does that part of Scripture reflect our current church culture?  Not just our small home fellowship, but other churches as well?  The answer would be no!  I wonder if the early Christians would even recognize one of our “modern day” gatherings?

When was the last time you had a word to share?  When was the last time you prayed in a group?  When was the last time you led a song or gave some insight into the faith?  In the famous words of the Wolf Brand Chili commercial, “that is just too long!”

What would it take for fellowship to look, feel, and act more like it must have looked, felt and acted in the early days of the faith?

Well, for one thing – it should be made up of people who are “participating” in the faith.  Christianity and our church services weren’t supposed to be spectator sports.  But that is exactly what they have become.  They were supposed to be about people who have had a touch from God, learned something new, had a testimony or a good report, shared an inspiring Scripture they read or a conversation they had.  It was supposed to be about bringing a song from your heart, praying with no fear, opening up and trusting.

Second, our weekly gatherings should be a crescendo, a culimination of 6 other days of walking with Jesus.  It is a celebration – that we wouldn’t want to miss!  It should be a joyful time and not a chore.  We should come with expectation, “What is the Spirit going to say to us today?”

Third, we need to remember that we don’t need perfection.  I’m sure the early church gatherings had bumps in the road.  Can you picture it, “Where are we meeting this week,  In the catacombs or at Joey’s house?”  I’m sure they didn’t always sing on key and they had issues about what to do with kids.  When it comes down to it, if we were perfect, Jesus wouldn’t have needed to come anyway!  It’s ok if things are always smooth or out of order – it would be expected in the early gathering I’m sure!

Lastly, the early church formed community.  There is Scriptural evidence that they met in homes and in large meetings at “Solomon’s Portico.”  We never see a church service in the New Testament the way we know church today; where you can go inside, sing, pray, read the Bible and not really know anyone who is sitting around you.

The world is desperately trying to fill the gap that the church has left by creating community in so many different ways.  I could sit here an list a bunch but let me just turn your attention to one.

Yahoo has started something called 360.  It is your own webpage that allows you to stay “connected” to your friends, family, or just the public.  On your 360 page you can share photos, your blog (online journal), the groups (email groups) that you are involved in, feeds that your subscribe to, lists like favorite movies, books, and TV shows, reviews, online radio stations, and all the friends and “community” that you have created…. I visited one 360 that had over 150 friends!

To make it fun, I created my own.  You can see it here - http://360.yahoo.com/todd_sepulveda

I “invited” one of my old school friends to be listed as one of my friends on my page – his name is Thad.

The sad thing would be if my 360 page becomes more of a community than the church I attend.  I hope that would never happen.  I hope to do my part so it doesn’t.  I hope you will do your part too!

Todd

p.s.  If you need a “Daily Bible Log” or a “ Prayer Focus” sheet, you can get them on the yahoo group for the church, under the files section - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/assurancechurch/  or you can get them on the church website – www.assurancechurch.com

You can do all kinds of free stuff at Yahoo – like create your own webpage – very easily, create your own interest group, email, and get your own 360!  If you do any of those, let me know so I can add you to my community! ;-)

Pick - Swords or Grace?

I’ve been studying on the topic of “priests.”  Tonight’s sermon was going to be on the priesthood.  I will still deliver it next week – family day.  

But when I was reading, I came upon this Scripture that really stuck with me.  The context – Moses is on Mt. Sinai with God.  He’s been up there for a while.  The “recently released from slavery” people of Israel get tired of waiting on Moses (and God) and had Aaron make a golden calf.  You know the rest….they worshipped a “thing” that couldn’t hear, see, smell, touch, etc…

Moses is alerted by God and gets back to the camp…

Exodus 32:25 - When Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get completely out of control--and much to the amusement of their enemies-- he stood at the entrance to the camp and shouted, "All of you who are on the LORD's side, come over here and join me." And all the Levites came. He told them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends, and neighbors." The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three thousand people died that day. Then Moses told the Levites, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because of this, he will now give you a great blessing."

Isn’t it a good thing that God doesn’t deal with us like that today?  If so, we might have to constantly “watch our backs” to make sure some servant of God wasn’t coming to strike us down when we weren’t serving God to our full potential.  That is living under fear!

Aren’t you glad we are living under God’s grace….  The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all our sin and brings us to a right relationship with the Father.  But, there is this warning…

Hebrews 10:28-29 - Anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Think how much more terrible the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant as if it were common and unholy. Such people have insulted and enraged the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to his people.

This week, as you go about working, eating, sleeping; doing the “common” things – remember the LORD – who should be worshipped “uncommonly.”  What can you do “uncommonly” for Jesus this week?