The Day Is Finally Here![space]

Sunday Nov. 3rd The RiverTown “Fall Back” Worship Service And Festival 2013!

BIG SERVANTS and BIG SERMONS, Week 3, Master Series, 10.27.13

This Question Has Begun To Haunt Me In The Past Year: Who In Our Community Would Notice If RiverTown Church Disappeared?

THE BIG SERVE Week at RiverTown Answers This Question Best!  

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The Purpose Of THE BIG SERVE Is To Help Me Become A BIG SERVANT in my Community!

The Big Serve Happens Through RiverTown the week of Oct. 28 – Nov. 3

BIG SERVE Opportunities This Week:

1. Laundry Love – Monday Night 7pm at The Laundry Mat near the Circle K Convenience Store By RiverTown 

2. Serve Our Neighbors Yard Clean Up – Wednesday Night meet at RiverTown 6pm – We’ll clean up yards to serve people near our Campus

3. Halloween Yard Parties – Wednesday Night 7pm in the Twin Chapel and Castlewood Subdivisions

4. Invite Someone And Serve At “Fall Back Outdoor Worship Service” and FALL FESTIVAL! – Next Sunday Morning Nov. 3rd, 10am at RiverTown.

Find Out More About NEXT SUNDAY CLICK HERE.

BELOW IS A SNAPSHOT OF MY MESSAGE TOMORROW MORNING AT RIVERTOWN

“BIG SERVANTS  and BIG SERMONS!”

A Big Servant Is One Who Stoops To The Lowest Place Of Service On Purpose.

And He began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table, saying to them, 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this man,’ and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. 10 But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 14:7-11

THE HEART AND HANDS OF A BIG SERVANT?

1. HEART: Choose The Lowest Place And Let God Be The One To Lift You Higher.

2. HAND: Find A Need And Fill It!  Find A Hurt And Heal It!  Find A Chasm And Bridge It.

Sometimes You Have To Do The Deeds Of Christ In Order To Hear The Words Of Christ.

People May Forget Everything You Say, But They Will Never Forget How You Made Them Feel.

 This Poem By Edgar Guest Really Explains How God’s People Can Be Living Walking Sermons Every Day!

SERMONS WE SEE

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day;
I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.
The eye’s a better pupil and more willing than the ear,
Fine counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear;
And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds,
For to see good put in action is what everybody needs.

I soon can learn to do it if you’ll let me see it done;
I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.
And the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true,
But I’d rather get my lessons by observing what you do;
For I might misunderstand you and the high advise you give,
But there’s no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.

When I see a deed of kindness, I am eager to be kind.
When a weaker brother stumbles and a strong man stays behind
Just to see if he can help him, then the wish grows strong in me
To become as big and thoughtful as I know that friend to be.
And all travelers can witness that the best of guides today
Is not the one who tells them, but the one who shows the way.

One good man teaches many, men believe what they behold;
One deed of kindness noticed is worth forty that are told.
Who stands with men of honor learns to hold his honor dear,
For right living speaks a language which to every one is clear.
Though an able speaker charms me with his eloquence, I say,
I’d rather see a sermon than to hear one, any day.[divider]

What Kind Of Master Is Jesus?

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?  Luke 6:46

LORD JESUS!  You’ve either said these sacred words yourself, or you’ve heard somebody else say them.  But have you ever stopped to think: ”Why DO you we call Him ‘Lord’ and then NOT DO what He tells us?”  That’s Jesus’s question in Luke 6:46.  It’s a legitimate question and it deserves a legitimate answer.  This October at RiverTown, we’re going to take some time to get to the bottom of our LORD’S question.

So, I took some time think about some of the excuses in my own life.

Today, I re-read one of my favorite blogs today from a Christian leader and teacher named Ed Stetzer and wanted to post it so that I could remember it better and share with anyone interested.

You can find it here:  http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2009/march/andy-stanley-on-communication-part-1.html

Andy’s Philosophy of Preaching

Question: What is your philosophy of communication/preaching?

Andy: Preaching on Sunday mornings is such a simple thing and by complicating it, I think we all do ourselves and the audience a disservice. It is very simple. Here is the model: Make people feel like they need an answer to a question. Then take them to God’s Word to answer the question. And tell them why it is important to do what we just talked about. And then you close by saying, “Wouldn’t it be great if everybody did that?” And that’s it. It is a journey. You take people from somewhere to somewhere.

And that’s why preaching by points is a terrible model. Because points are not a journey. Points are points. But communication is: Here we all are. We all have a common need or desire. We all have something in common, and I am going to stay here until I make you feel the need to have it resolved. And then I am going to open God’s Word and resolve it. And I am going to take that and tell you what you need to do specifically. And then I am going to take a minute and talk about what the world would be like, how much better off we would all be, if we would all do what the Scriptures say. It is really that simple.

Anytime a person listens to a pastor or to any talk that is compelling, all those elements are there. And you feel like you have gone with somebody on a journey. You just need to learn to outline that way. So when they bring an outline, I say, “You didn’t make me want to know what you spent twenty minutes telling me, so you left the station without me. I didn’t really care. It really wasn’t that compelling.” So, give me one idea, not multiple ideas. Most sermons are too long. Most sermons cover way too much information. Most sermons could be series. I say that all the time. “Poor guy, he spent all week preparing. He has three sermons and gave them all in one rushed forty-minute time period. His three points should be three sermons. Just leave me with a thought. We will all come back next week, so there is no rush to get it all in in one week.”

So, it is simple. It is a journey. This morning I am going to start by making sure that I am going to leave the station and everybody knows where we are going. And they know why they need to go with me. And once I have built enough tension for someone to give a rip about what we are going to talk about, then I am going to take them to a passage of Scripture where somebody resolves or expresses that tension. And I am going to stay there long enough so hopefully they will go back that afternoon and they will say, “I understand this part of the Bible.” Then I am going to talk about what to do and what a wonderful world it would be like if we all just do this. It is really that simple.

We had Jeff Foxworthy come to our Christmas party for our staff several years ago. I sat there on the first row, and I can hardly breathe because I am laughing so hard. It went two hours and I sat there thinking: there were no points; he has no application; he has no outline that I am aware of. I have been sitting here for almost two hours, and he is talking about rednecks. And I am fully engaged. There is no takeaway. There is no value. There is nothing biblical. There are no visual aids. There is no video. And I am fully engaged for an hour and a half.

The reason I bring that up is: there is this myth that people say, “Sermons need to be short because people today have short attention spans.” That is totally irrelevant. People’s attention spans are as long as their engagement. If I’m engaged, I will sit and stay engaged until I have to go to the bathroom. The issue is: are people engaged, not how long is the sermon? Granted, there are things that determine how long worship services should be. But communicators need to figure out how well do they engage people, and they should not talk one word longer than people are engaged.

There are people like Jeff who can engage you for an hour and a half in your chair, and they should go an hour and a half. And there are other communicators who can’t keep you engaged for more than 15 or 20 minutes, and they shouldn’t talk longer than that. Because once I am disengaged, then I begin to process the information as: this is irrelevant; church is irrelevant; God is irrelevant; the Bible is irrelevant. And all of a sudden I am learning the opposite lesson. I am drawing conclusions that are opposite of what the communicator is trying to make me draw because I am disengaged. So, the issue is: how do you engage the audience? And one of the things I talk to our communicators about is: The outline is great; the stories are great. But how do you engage them? How do you make it feel like we are on a journey, not you are just up there giving me information.

Wow, I can’t believe its already the last week of our New Velcro Marriage Message Series! There have been so many good Sunday memories already made, date challenges completed, and new friends made part of the RiverTown family. Here’s last week’s message from my YouTube channel. The baby pool of shame was a real hit, you’ve got to see it!

I want to make you a promise about this Sunday! We have been dealing with some pretty heavy topics the first three weeks of this series.

Last Sunday at RiverTown was one of the best Sundays of my life as a Pastor.  It felt like God was literally raining people down into our worship center!  God showed up in an amazing way and brought in so many new single adults, couples and families for the new Velcro Marriage Series.  There were over 290 people in attendance and we counted 14 decisions to follow Jesus.  I want to thank the army of volunteers that made the huge start of this new series possible.  

The message about Soul Velcro from Ephesians 4:23 made such an impact on people last week.  We laughed so hard to see the couples who volunteered to be the Velcro Couple trying to pull themselves apart in the Velcro jacket and dress.  It’s true.  The Velcro of the Soul is Forgiveness.  

This week we are going to tackle a subject I call Untangled Love!  I can’t wait to show you all what God has been teaching me this week about his pattern for untangling relationship issues.  The heart of the message this week goes like this:  Those who experience deep and satisfying connection are the ones who believe that God has made them worthy of love and belonging!  The passage of scripture God has led me to this week is the story of how Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead in John 11:35-45.  When Jesus Raised Lazarus From The Dead, He Showed Us How To Untangle Any Relationship with the words, “Loose him, and let him Go!”  

Guess how I’m going to illustrate how Jesus can untangle our love, loose us from our past, and set us free.  Hint: It involves one of my friends being wrapped really tight in Velcro, Just Sayin!

Here’s a preview of this Sunday by way of video.  This moving story shows how one couple worked our the physical challenges in their relationship and can teach usall about Untangled Love.  I’ll be sharing more about this couple on Sunday.  

I would also like to take a minute in this blog and email today to thank my friend and RiverTown youth pastor Dana Phillips for the last two years of faithful service to the Lord and to our Church.  I praise God for his new full-time job at TSYS as I shed a tear for the way we will miss him here.  Matthew Cotner will be taking over the leadership of our Student Ministry as our Interim Youth Pastor.  Matt is a former Army Ranger and has been with us for the past 7 years as a member.  He has served as a high level volunteer in our Children’s ministry, Music Ministry, and in the Youth Ministry for the last year and a half under Pastor Dana’s leadership. He has also recently joined our Church Leadership team called the Pastor’s Council.  Please pray for him and his family.  He is ready for this new challenge and we all believe that God has great things in store for our whole church with the addition of him to our staff.

Pastor David Rathel

The Velcro of The Soul is Forgiveness.     

Unforgiveness against anyone harms my relationship with everyone.  

Unforgiveness becomes anger.  Anger moves to bitterness.  Bitterness becomes depression and then you feel isolated and cut off from everyone.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

I think of Soul Velcro as the forgiving spiritual connective tissue inside the human heart.  If you have difficulty making deep and lasting soul connections, check your heart for unforgiveness.  There are only two kinds of old married couples.  There are unforgiving old bitter cynics and brokenhearted lovers that never give up on each other until they succeed.  A good Marriage is simply the union of two forgivers.

I also think that forgiving is like experiencing a death or loss that needs sometimes to go through the grief cycle.  When I have to give forgiveness, I have to submit to the necessary experience of a long black tunnel of chaos and pain if I am to ever fully recover.  I have to trust God that there will be an end to the emotional torment.  I have to trust that he is able to comfort me and heal me and that is the only one who can do it.  I have to believe that the other person who hurt me can’t give me what I want or need from them.  I have to let them go and look to God first.  I have to trust that he can heal me and help me overcome the destruction the other person has caused.

God’s plan and intention is to use the injury to make me a different person.  That’s also the reason it still hurts.  It hurts because I am still in the process of coming in line with God’s purpose for the injury.  I have to give in to God and cooperate with the direction the pain it taking me.

Injury + Forgiveness = Gods Gift and Blessing For Me.

The injury digs a hole in my life to make me a much deeper person.  I only survive if that hole is now daily filled with Gods love.  The new trench in my soul can become become like a French drain of forgiveness that now channels all future pain to Christ himself in the depth of my soul.

Those who have been deeply or often injured need a well worn drain of grace that always delivers the sorrow, pain and sadness to Christ on the Cross.

It is similar to the way a lightening rod takes the fierceness of the strike and sends it harmlessly to the ground.

Any unforgiveness from my past will make me unable to stick closely to the ones I love, especially my spouse, and Family.  Unforgiveness will eventually isolate me and leave me wondering why I feel so disconnected and unloved.

This sermon just got downloaded today as fast as I could type.  It’s the one I needed today for my own life.  I felt like a huge weight got lifted when I received this word from God.  I had felt that I had some extra spiritual weight lately and I wasn’t sure what to do about it until now.