God With Us With Others

                  Intro – John 4:1-42

In this story we see Jesus breaking through the barriers of…

                  Culture, Nationality, Ethnicity, Sex/Gender, Shame, Intellect, and Religion

                  Jesus is jumping every fence to reveal the boundary transcending love of God to her

                  In Christ there are no barriers…

                  In Jesus we are reconciled and reconnected to God. Every barrier that has kept us estranged from God has been dealt with. (Gal 3:28, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Colossians 3:11, Ephesians 2:13)

                  Love Unbounded

                  Bounded Set __________________________________

                  Centered Set  __________________________________

                  Conclusion

God With Us

I.               Intro – John 2:1-11

God loves us not from a ___________________ but by entering into our ____________________.

It’s not a matter of “If you build it they will come” but rather if you go the ________________________ just may come.

Jesus said as much with his _____________ as he did with his words.

II.              The Incarnation and Incarnational Ministry

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and blood,

      and moved into the neighborhood.

   We saw the glory with our own eyes,

      the one-of-a-kind glory,

      like Father, like Son,

   Generous inside and out,

      true from start to finish.

III.            Love and Listen

Romans 13:8-10 (the Message)

8-10Don't run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, and any other "don't" you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can't go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

Stewardship

I.               Intro – Matthew 25:14-30

II.              Whose Money is it Anyway?

A.    My money?

B.    God’s money?

III.            A Question of Stewardship

2 responses from the parable:

A.    Inaction motivated by fear or complacency

B.    Action motivated by a desire to honor God through stewardship

IV.            How Can We Become Better Stewards?

A.    Learn to live simply

B.    Get out of debt

C.   Become a giver

V.             Q&A

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

Recommended Reading: The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

*Also if you have further questions on getting your personal finances in order contact Josh McInteer at joshmcinteer@yahoo.com

Anxiety, Sin and Grace

I.               Text Luke 12:13-32 (NIV)

II.              What is this Thing We Call Sin?

A.    Sin lists

B.    Sin vs. Sins

C.   The sin progression

1.    ____________________________

2.    ____________________________

3.    ____________________________

4.    ____________________________

5.    ____________________________

6.    ____________________________

7.    ____________________________

III.            Sin Acts in Response to Anxiety

IV.            The Only Antidote to Anxiety is Grace

Generous Life: A Generous Response to a Generous God

Generous Life

I.               Framing the Conversation (Matthew 18:21-35)

A.    A Generous Response to a Generous God

B.    The Mark of New Covenant People – Loving God and Loving Others (Matt 22:37-39)

II.              Why and How Should We Give? (1 Corinthians 9:6-15)

A.    Cheerfully and Not Out of Guilt or Compulsion

B.    Sowing and Reaping – (Not a formula but a principle of life)

C.   With Indifference to Money

D.   So That We Can Be Increasingly More Generous (You are not the point of God’s blessings but a point in what God wants to do through you and your finances)

III.            Where Do We Give? (Acts 4:32-35)

A.    The Church Organized

B.    The Church Organic

C.   The Church Local

IV.            The Discipline of Giving – How to Live a Life that is Consistently Generous

A.    Live Simply

B.    Get Out of Debt

C.   Budget for Generosity

“Make as much as you can.  Save as much as you can.  Give as much as you can.”—Martin Luther

V.             Conclusion – Q&A

Artificial Life

I.               Texts – Luke 6:37-43, Genesis 3:1-12

II.              The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

A.    Corruption in our genes – judgaholics.

B.    Humans are forever drawn to knowledge, mistaking it for life

C.   Judging is the illusion of living which keeps us from truly seeing ourselves or others.

III.            Eye Surgery

A.    How to remove an embedded plank from your eye

B.    New sight

IV.            Checking for Vital Signs – How to tell if the life you live is real or artificial.

A.    Judging without being judgmental, confrontation in humility

B.    The question is not whether God is on our side but whether we are on God’s side.

C.   Giving and forgiving

The Joy, Fear, and Struggles of Motherhod

The audio from May 9, 2010 is taken from a panel discussion which featured 4 mothers at different phases of motherhood discussing their joy, fears, and how they encountered God in motherhood.