Generous IRL – Week 2

Let’s focus on the IRL part of the series. Today we’re talking about Baptism. Baptism is how we demonstrate God’s grace and His generosity in real life. We’re taking His incredible sacrifice, His incredible gift, and we demonstrate it, in real life. Why do we do it? Well, it’s what I say to my sons all the time:

because Dad said so.

God told us to get baptized and I’ve got one goal today, to make sure every Christian adult has been baptized. Have you been baptized?

One day in Jerusalem, Peter was preaching to a huge crowd and he killed it.

Acts 2:37-39

Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

This is the question a lot of people have when they become a Christian. What do I do now? And Peter told them:

38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

First, repent and believe. That’s what justifies you. That’s how the relationship starts, but then there’s a next step. Just like when you get married, the steps don’t stop after the wedding. What’s the next step? Be baptized.

Let’s read the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-15.

5 The king of Aram had great admiration for Naaman, the commander of his army, because through him the Lord had given Aram great victories.

Naaman is a rich and famous soldier. The equivalent of our day would be someone like Tom Brady.

But though Naaman was a mighty warrior, he suffered from leprosy. ² At this time Aramean raiders had invaded the land of Israel, and among their captives was a young girl who had been given to Naaman’s wife as a maid. ³ One day the girl said to her mistress, “I wish my master would go to see the prophet in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy.”

⁴ So Naaman told the king what the young girl from Israel had said. ⁵ “Go and visit the prophet,” the king of Aram told him. “I will send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel.” So Naaman started out, carrying as gifts 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing. ⁶ The letter to the king of Israel said: “With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy.”

⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and said, “Am I God, that I can give life and take it away? Why is this man asking me to heal someone with leprosy? I can see that he’s just trying to pick a fight with me.”

⁸ But when Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes in dismay, he sent this message to him: “Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel.”

⁹ So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go and wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.”

¹¹ But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! ¹² Aren’t the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Pharpar, better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.

This is a rich and famous person hissy fit. Have you ever known what you should do, but your pride keeps you from doing it? Naaman wanted to be healed, but his pride wouldn’t allow him to dip in dirty water.

¹³ But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’” ¹⁴ So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!

¹⁵ Then Naaman and his entire party went back to find the man of God. They stood before him, and Naaman said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”

So are you ready? Are you ready to dip in the water? To announce your marriage to Christ with a ring? To unite with Christ in His death & resurrection? On Sunday we had 35 people get baptized and you can join them.

Let us know if you want to be baptized.

Did you like this message, Generous IRL – Week 2? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.

In this teaching, Jesus. Week 14, we hear Pastor Mike talk about Jesus doing something none of us could imagine enduring, and in his humanity, He couldn’t have done it. So how did He do it? How did Jesus endure the cross?

Everyone has felt it. Every student, parent, and leader has felt the urge to quit. “I’m not smart enough. No one will help me. I don’t have enough money. I’m too shy. I’m too ugly.” Maybe you want to quit your marriage, job, or something else. Quitting is Easy. Perseverance is hard.

You might have to work harder or fail more times than others. You might have to be more disciplined or read slower than others. You might not be as smart, pretty, or wealthy, but

God has given you everything you need to do what He created you to do.

JESUS. WEEK 14 TEACHING TEXT

Matthew 27:26-37

²⁶ So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

²⁷ Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters^[a] and called out the entire regiment. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. ²⁹ They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” ³⁰ And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. ³¹ When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

The Crucifixion

³² Along the way, they came across a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene,^[b] and the soldiers forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. ³³ And they went out to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). ³⁴ The soldiers gave Jesus wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.

³⁵ After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.^[c] 36 Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there. ³⁷ A sign was fastened above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against him. It read: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

Did you like this message, Jesus. – Week 14? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.

In this teaching, Jesus. Week 9, we hear Pastor Mike talk about when Jesus healed a man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath.

Most people complain about things in their lives that they’re not actually willing to change. I’m overweight. I’m poor. I’m depressed. I’m lonely. I’m childless. So ask yourself:

Would I actually like to get well?

I don’t want to be stressed anymore, but I can’t give up Netflix. I don’t want to be addicted, but I also don’t want to give it up.

So when Jesus asked the guy at the Pool of Bethesda “would you like to get well?” the guy gave an excuse (John 5:7). I’m not sure this man was open to hearing about other possible ways to be healed. He had one idea of how the healing would go, and Jesus’ way was different.

So what is your excuse?

We all do it: “I believe God heals marriages, but not mine. I’m done with my marriage.” “I believe God heals addictions, but I kinda like mine.” “I believe in tithing, but here’s why I don’t tithe. I’m different.”

God’s promise of salvation isn’t that He’ll forgive your sins and then leave you screwed up and broken. Jesus wants to make you whole.

A terrible idea that is destroying lives right now is the idea that people don’t change. It’s not Biblical. It’s not logical, and it’s incredibly depressing. You’re not stuck the way you are, but here’s the problem:

You can’t change yourself. You need God. He’s the creator, the owner. If your goal is to be rich, you might get rich, but you’ll be miserable. If your goal is to get sober, you’ll be sober and depressed. Seek God first, and He’ll give you what you need.

JESUS. WEEK 9 TEACHING TEXT

John 5:1-18

Jesus Heals a Lame Man

5 Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. ² Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda,^[a] with five covered porches. ³ Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches.^[b] 5 One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”

⁷ “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”

⁸ Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!”

⁹ Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, ¹⁰ so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”

¹² “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.

¹³ The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. ¹⁴ But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.

Jesus Claims to Be the Son of God

¹⁶ So the Jewish leaders began harassing^[c] Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. ¹⁷ But Jesus replied, “My Father is always working, and so am I.” ¹⁸ So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

Did you like this message, Jesus. – Week 9? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.

In this teaching, Jesus. Week 4, we hear Pastor Mike talks about Jesus being tested by the satan in the wilderness and when Jesus spent some time in Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and cast out a demon from a man. We can learn from Jesus on how we should respond when we face devils.

1. Respond with the Truth of Scripture.
2. Don’t be a victim.

Jesus. Week 4 Teaching Text

Luke 4:1-13

The Temptation of Jesus

4 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,^[a] 2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.

³ Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

⁴ But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’^[b]”

⁵ Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. ⁷ I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”

⁸ Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say,

‘You must worship the Lord your God
    and serve only him.’^[c]”

⁹ Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! ¹⁰ For the Scriptures say,

‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you.
¹¹ And they will hold you up with their hands
    so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’^[d]”

¹² Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’^[e]”

¹³ When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.

Luke 4:31-37

Jesus Casts Out a Demon

³¹ Then Jesus went to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught there in the synagogue every Sabbath day. ³² There, too, the people were amazed at his teaching, for he spoke with authority.

³³ Once when he was in the synagogue, a man possessed by a demon—an evil^[a] spirit—cried out, shouting, ³⁴ “Go away! Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

³⁵ But Jesus reprimanded him. “Be quiet! Come out of the man,” he ordered. At that, the demon threw the man to the floor as the crowd watched; then it came out of him without hurting him further.

³⁶ Amazed, the people exclaimed, “What authority and power this man’s words possess! Even evil spirits obey him, and they flee at his command!” ³⁷ The news about Jesus spread through every village in the entire region.

Did you like this message, Jesus. – Week 4? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.

In this teaching, we hear from Pastor Mike as he talks about how we should not focus on the approval of people but on the approval of God. The idea of winning the approval of God is tricky though because our salvation is not contingent on our works. There is nothing we can do to be saved by Jesus.

When we start to believe that we can sanctify ourselves by being good enough, we end up like the Pharisees trying to earn the approval of religious people. So let’s remind ourselves “God Saved you by his grace when you believed.” Ephesians 2:8. God did it. You can’t do it. The Israelites tried it for millennia and now we’re trying. We Can’t. The gospel is called good news because God can and He did. Jesus was perfect for us? His righteousness saves us. Not ours.

No Shave November Week 1 Teaching Text

Galatians 1:10-12

¹⁰ Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.

¹¹ Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. ¹² I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

Did you like this message, No Shave November Week 1? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.

In this teaching, we hear from Pastor Mike as he talks about growth in desserts. Growth is possible in the desert because before the rain comes seeds were already planted. What’s the desert in your life right now? Maybe you’re in debt, your marriage is falling apart, you’re addicted to porn, you hate your job, you feel lonely, and you’re overwhelmed. There are good seeds in there so water them.

We can sit around and complain that we are not getting enough rain to grow the seeds, OR we can water the ground.

Acts Week 8 Teaching Text

Acts 20:22-28

²² “And now I am bound by the Spirit^[a] to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. ²⁴ But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

²⁵ “And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again. ²⁶ I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault,^[b] 27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.

²⁸ “So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his own blood^[c]—over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.^[d]

Did you like this message, Acts Week 8? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.

In this teaching, we hear from Pastor Mike as he talks about having crucial conversations and how to give grace and speak truth.

We can’t just know the truth. We have to take action, to share the truth. So many of us are tempted to run to our comfort zones, away from important conversations. We get scared, and avoid the conversation. Patterson says in the book Crucial Conversations:

“The mistake most of us make in our crucial conversations is we believe that we have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend.”

Kerry Patterson, Crucial Conversations

That’s why many of us don’t share our faith. We don’t want to lose a friend. But shouldn’t we be more worried about their eternity? This is good news! You don’t have to have all the answers you just need to have grace and speak truth.

Acts Week 5 Teaching Text

Acts 8:29-35

²⁹ The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”

³⁰ Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹ The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.

³² The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.
    And as a lamb is silent before the shearers,
    he did not open his mouth.
³³ He was humiliated and received no justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.”^[a]

³⁴ The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” ³⁵ So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

Did you like this message, Acts Week 5? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.

In this teaching, we hear from Pastor Mike as he talks about Stephen who became the first Christian martyr and how when you are under attack how can you remain faithful to God. How do we make it through leadership storms? When you choose the be a leader you’re signing up for trouble. Why? Because there are people in this world who love to punch up. No expert is smart enough. No boss or pastor can be good enough. That’s why good followers make good leaders.

Jesus tells us to submit to our leaders, even bad leaders. We choose grace over fairness. We choose to give respect even when it’s not earned. That may sound like we’re weaker, but it makes us stronger.

Acts Week 4 Teaching Text

Acts 7:54-60

⁵⁴ The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.^[a] 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ⁵⁶ And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God’s right hand!”

⁵⁷ Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him ⁵⁸ and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.^[b]

⁵⁹ As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.

Did you like this message, Acts Week 4? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.

In this teaching, we hear from Pastor Mike as he talks about courage and confidence.

Acts Week 2 Teaching Text

Acts 4:12-22

¹² There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”

¹³ The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. ¹⁵ So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber^[a] and conferred among themselves.

¹⁶ “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. ¹⁷ But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.” ¹⁸ So they called the apostles back in and commanded them never again to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.

¹⁹ But Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? ²⁰ We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.”

²¹ The council then threatened them further, but they finally let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God ²² for this miraculous sign—the healing of a man who had been lame for more than forty years.

Did you like this message, Acts Week 2? Check out more of our Sunday teachings here.