Tickets – $5

Proceeds benefit “To Write Love on Her Arms” (An organization that aids in the prevention of suicide and other forms of self harm)

Doors open at 5 pm

Concert Starts at 6 pm

July 16, 2010

Featuring:
The Violent

Flight From Below

Across the Meridian

To Love a Monster

Humans are Humongous

²⁷Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Since last week I have thought over and over about death.  Everyone here on earth has one thing in common:  we will all die to these physical bodies.  Last week, a good friend of mine lost his grandmother.  She was 82 years old, weak and feeble.  Also last week, someone I never met died.  Yeardley Love, a lacrosse player from UVA.  She was 22 years old, healthy and vibrant.  Though the circumstances for my friend’s grandmother and Yeardley Love’s death were very different, they have both met their appointment with death and have now faced the judgement.  Everything I have known and read about both of these individuals have indicated they were both amazing people.  Both were kindhearted and strong women who loved other people.  I pray that both of these women had a relationship with Jesus Christ for our works cannot save us when we reach the judgement seat.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”  I believe each of these women’s lives meant something!  I believe we can learn from both of them.  I believe both of them taught us how to live our life, and I believe both have taught us something about death.  It is my prayer that the lives these women lived touch the hearts of people everywhere and through their deaths many will come to a relationship with Jesus Christ! 

So here’s the best part about death.  Christ was sacrificed unto death, but overcame death so that we can be saved from our sins (sin is what causes us to die in the first place).  For those of us who trust in Christ to save us; we will live!  We will die to this physical body, but we will live eternally.  I think back to November when my grandmother was put to rest.  What a blessing to know for certain that she had a relationship with Jesus Christ!  It was so much easier to say goodnight to her than it would have been to say goodbye.  I know I will see my grandmother again one day.  It hurts to lay a loved one to rest and not be able to speak to them and see them everyday.  However, it’s comforting to know that they are living with Jesus!  It’s soothing to know that they are not in pain and do not struggle.  How I long for the day that the troubles of this world pass.  I know when I die, I will enter into a better place because I have a relationship with Jesus Christ!  It’s amazing to know that Jesus died so that my friend’s grandmother can live, Yeardley can live, my grandmother can live, you can live, and I can live!  The lives of each of these people have meant something!  Maybe it was to show you how to live.  Maybe it was to help you think deeper about what happens after death.  Please think about death and what happens when you die.  This life on earth is temporary.  We don’t even know when our time is up.  Although this life is temporary, when we die life becomes eternal.  Only through the grace of Jesus will we spend eternity with Him!  Where will you spend eternity and why will you spend it there?

What I love about Spring is the warmer weather, the beautiful bluebird days, and most of all, the new life I see in nature as the grass becomes green, the trees begin to bud, and flowers begin to bloom after being dormant throughout the cold days of Winter.  I usually begin to look forward to the arrival of Spring shortly after the New Year.  As January and February drag by filled with their cold gray rainy days, my desire for the warm balmy days of Spring grows greater and greater.  With each passing day, I hope to see an early arrival of springtime weather.  But, no matter how long the winter or how cold and bleak the days may be, I know that Spring is coming.  I am sure of its arrival because that is the way God designed it to be.  I know as the winter draws closer and closer to an end, that soon warm weather will replace the cold, and new life will replace the grip of death winter has had on nature.

We have the hope of another Sping coming as well, when God wraps up the disease of death caused by sin and replaces it with the new heaven and the new earth.  The Apostle Paul spoke of this coming renewal:

Romans 8: 18-25 (NLT)

¹⁸Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. ¹⁹For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. ²⁰Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse. ²¹All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. ²²For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. ²⁴Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don’t need to hope for it. ²⁵But if we look forward to something we don’t have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.

I don’t know about you, but I am patiently and confidently waiting with a springtime hope for this coming renewal of heaven, earth, and of those of us who are a part of the eternal kingdom of God.  Are you sure that you are a part of God’s kingdom? Are you certain of your salvation?  If not, now is the time to get ready.  Springtime (God’s renewal) is just around the corner.

I often wonder just how many “Christians” would be considered a double agent.  I’ve grown up in church my whole life.  I’ve seen “Christians” come to church, put on their mask, leave, and take their mask off outside the doors of the church.  I personally consider these “Christians” a double agent Christian because they are NOT loyal to Jesus Christ!  If these “Christians” were ever captured and given the choice of life by denial of Christ or death by upholding His name, they would most certainly choose life by denial of Christ!

I pray that we are not double agent Christians!  I pray that we are the type of Christians that are honest about our lives, our struggles, and our problems.  As a church, we are family!  Family should be people that you depend on to give you honest advice, lift you up, and encourage you.  Earlier I mentioned that I have grown up in church my whole life and I’ve watched the way “Christians” in the church have lived their lives.  Well, God has given me the privilage to be a part of this church plant at The Grove Church.  God’s vision for this church is for us to reach the unchurched – the lost!  All praise to God, that is exactly what we have been doing!  Through this, I’ve seen people with problems come to know Christ!  Although they have come to know Christ, they still have problems in their lives just as we all do.  The only difference between these new believers and the “Christians” I watched in church my whole life is the simple fact that these new believers are not double agent Christians!  These new believers would uphold the name of Christ if put in a situation which they must decide.  I have witnessed people come into this church, give their life to Christ, take off their mask, acknowledge their struggles, leave the church with encouragement, tell others about Christ throughout the week, and come back to church the next week to find more encouragement and hope!  This is how we should live our life!  Christianity is about living your life for Christ EVERY DAY and not just Sundays!  I pray that we are not double agent Christians!  Live your life for Christ each and every day!

It reminds me of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked “what must I do get into heaven.”  Jesus responded to him, “sell all what you have and follow me.” Rather than following Jesus, he went back to his wealth and possessions living  the life he wanted to live. So the truth is thatjesus is the only one can heal a broken heart that is filed with sin. Will you let him heal your heart and stop trying to fill your life with apps that leave you wanting more. Lets sayif we compare your self to a smart phone: what apps would you fiill your life with instead of Christ?

Well there is the Consumer app- This App is made up of Wall street, Ebay and Amazon which try to make you fill the void of unhappiness with quick fixes that don’t last.
 
Addicted app: This is your favorite app: the one you go to all the time. It can be sex, drugs, or alchohol
 
The Controller app: this app hasto be over someone or something, trying to fill your void with power and popularity.
 
You may realize one of these apps represent you. Remeber what I said about the only one who can fill the void. That is Christ and Christ alone!
 
In Christ Bro Will

This benefit concert will help a friend of the church pay for a costly surgery! Asking for $5 a ticket or other donation amount. No tickets sold in advance. Gate opens at 6:30 p.m. Show up early! It’s gonna be great!

God is not looking for new or novel ways to reach our world for Christ.  The only way the Church can succeed in impacting our world for Christ is through people who have been radically saved and changed by the awesome power of God in their lives.  So why then are we making so little of an impact on unbelievers?  I believe that part of the reason is because we have fallen into the trap of thinking that reaching people is dependent upon our intellect, our persuasive arguments, our innovative methodology, our charisma, etc., you get the idea. The only thing God needs to make an impact on our world for Christ is men and women who are wholly dedicated to Him. Again, Bounds wrote, “What the Church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer.”

You see, we are the key.  We need not be the smartest or most gifted speaker to be used by God, but we must definitely be the most dedicated to God’s use.  We must be filled to the overflowing with His presence, His power, His personality, and His passion to save the lost, and the only way to do that is through spending time with God in prayer. 

When I was a young man serving as minister of music at a church, I began to notice older couples who had lived together for years as husband and wife.  I could easily have put each of these couples together without anyone ever telling me who was married to whom, because they looked alike, thought alike, and acted alike.  The striking similarities were due to the fact that they had spent so much time together that they had actually become one in body, mind, and spirit. The same is true for the person who has walked and talked with God through years of consistent and constant communion with Him in prayer.  As we spend time with God in prayer, we become one with him in heart, mind, and spirit.  We think like God thinks, we act like God would want us to act, we talk like God would have us talk, and we love like God would have us love.  You see, we are God’s message, and we are God’s method.  But the key to being used by God is by becoming like Him, and that my friend only comes by much prayer.

Jesus put it this way: ⁴“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. ⁵“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (John 15: 4 – 5)

Let’s become people that God can use to build His kingdom by abiding in Christ through constant and persistent prayer.

In Christ Bro Will