Illuminate Community Church

08/11/19 - Vision Sunday

Perhaps you've heard Proverbs 28:19 (from the King James version) quoted in Christian leadership circles, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." This has become an inspiration in the church growth movement and widely used to support the importance of painting a compelling portrait of church direction. However, the verse refers to a literal vision from God. The kind of vision that Old Testament prophets received. The ones that come in the night through dreams or spoken audibly by God Himself. This is the full verse from the English Standard version, "Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law." Quoting the entire verse reveals a lot. Where there is no prophetic vision, or word from God, then the people do not have direction. The law is prophetic vision and when it is kept there is blessing. In other words, apart from God's Word we have no direction. This Sunday is Vision Sunday. It's a time for us to celebrate what God has done and what we trust he will continue to do through Illuminate. But we must never forget that God has already given us the vision for what we do, who we are and what we are to become. God continues his faithfulness to us and it's good for us to push the pause button and reflect on where we've been and what's ahead. I am very excited to share the plans to expand God's Kingdom and as always, the best part is that we get to do it together!

08/04/19 - Spiritual Gifts Part 1 - 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

I have a confession to make…when I was younger, I mistakenly took pride in the "lone wolf" mentality. I thought I didn't need anyone. I was the one who helped others and could take care of myself. I was strong and ready for anything. Vulnerability meant weakness. I was wrong. Since then, I have learned to share my needs and receive care. God knew this all along. In fact, he created you and I to lean on one another. Not only did he create us for this, but he actually gifted us for it. Paul reminds us that every Christian has been given a special gift. Kind of like a spiritual gift fingerprint unique to you. These gifts are unique for another reason. They are to be shared. It's when we share our Spirit empowered gifts that we create a community unlike any other. The bottom line is that every Christian is in ministry through the church. No one is merely a consumer of services; everyone is a disseminator. The Corinthian Christians were a fractured group because they consumed and didn't give back. They refused to share their lives together in service. So let's learn from their mistake and employ our gifts for the common good!

07/28/19 - Common Unity - 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

It's been said that opposites attract. It's true for the north and south poles of magnets and It often feels true in relationships. While opposite personalities may be drawn to each other, it's what you have in common that keeps you together. The word community means "common unity." Christians celebrate the Lord's Supper which is also called communion. Christian communion is a sharing of deeply held thoughts, ideas and feelings about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So here we stand my brothers and sisters; side by side, hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder. We look to the past and remember who we were and what we were before meeting Christ. We were lost sinners in need of a savior. We look to the present and examine ourselves. We acknowledge our sins and confess them to God and receive forgiveness. We look to the future knowing that Jesus will return and usher in a final supper when all will be made right. Our common unity in Jesus Christ binds us together. It compels us to express genuine love for each other. This is the way we build community.

07/21/19 - Meat Market Freedom - 1 Corinthians 10:15-33

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.

 A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all.”

–Martin Luther
 

Christian freedom is one of the hottest spiritual topics today. To folks accustomed to legalistic Christianity and the sets of rules that many would say must guide Christian conduct, Christian freedom is a strange animal. Because of what He did on the cross, we have been freed from sin, guilt, shame, and legalism with all of its lists of do’s and don’ts. The gospel was not designed to “keep us in our place” spiritually, but to liberate us to live joyfully and enjoy all we are and have in Christ…“For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1)

 

But Christian freedom doesn’t mean we’re free to sin or compromise. Nor does it mean that we the right to do whatever we want. This Sunday, the Apostle Paul helps us see that there is something more important to our freedom in Christ than doing as we please. And it has a lot to do with Luther’s second phrase…

07/14/19 - American Idols - 1 Corinthians 10:1-14

Saint Augustine said, "The essence of sin is loving anything more than God." In my opinion, this is one of the most profound and insightful statements ever made by a human. We often think of sin as those things that are dirty and ugly and really, really bad. Augustine gives us a different perspective. He tells us that we make idols out of good things when we make them ultimate things. This is a disordered love. Money, power, career, spouses, children, social causes - all good things but we must be careful to keep them in their proper order of love. When our love of career exceeds the love of family we have a disordered love. When our love for family exceeds our love for God we have a disordered love. 

The Corinthians had every gift, they lacked nothing. They were richly blessed by God. You know what happened? They turned the blessings of God into their own self-confidence. They took credit for what God provided. How do you know if you've turned something into an idol? Ask yourself this: Would I think life is no longer worth living if I didn't have it? Idols are functional saviors attempting to replace the real Savior Jesus Christ. They will always lets us down, Jesus never will.

07/07/19 - What Should A Christian Do? - 1 Corinthians 8

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we Christians live in a broader context than our church community. We live in the world. We are called to be missionaries and ambassadors (good will representatives of some other place - heaven). The Corinthian Christians were asking this question - What is permissible for a Christian and what is not? We often think this way too. We want to know where the lines are so we can step right up to them and yet not feel the guilt of crossing over. Paul changes our perspective. Instead he wants us to think like this: In what ways are we too behave so that we can maximize our evangelistic influence? Paul gives a few timeless principles. What is safe for one Christian may not be for another; true discernment always requires love as well as knowledge; and believers have no right to demand certain freedoms if they in turn prove detrimental to those around them. The mature Christian will ask, "What do those around me need from me right now?" This is love.

06/30/19 - What Should A Christian Do? - 1 Corinthians 8

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we Christians live in a broader context than our church community. We live in the world. We are called to be missionaries and ambassadors (good will representatives of some other place - heaven). The Corinthian Christians were asking this question - What is permissible for a Christian and what is not? We often think this way too. We want to know where the lines are so we can step right up to them and yet not feel the guilt of crossing over. Paul changes our perspective. Instead he wants us to think like this: In what ways are we to behave so that we can maximize our evangelistic influence? Paul gives a few timeless principles. What is safe for one Christian may not be for another; true discernment always requires love as well as knowledge; and believers have no right to demand certain freedoms if they in turn prove detrimental to those around them. The mature Christian will ask, "What do those around me need from me right now?" This is love.

06/23/19 - Come As You Are - 1 Corinthians 7:1-24

Some people think that coming to Jesus means you change everything about yourself. That's not accurate. Certainly the call to follow Jesus means we distance ourselves from the sin that hinders our relationship with him. Paul says that we are all former somethings. However, we are not called to change our circumstances in life. The Corinthian Christians took things to the extreme. Their ancient society was rampant with illicit sex, divorce and socioeconomic divisions. Some believed the way to become spiritual was to deny all of these and become like impoverished, celibate monks. Paul says "No, instead, come as you are." God uses us as he finds us. It's not about being married, single, rich or poor. It's not about our ethnicity, age or gender. It's not about being the janitor or the owner. We don't even own ourselves says Paul! It's about obedience to the one who purchased us with his precious blood.

06/16/19 - Your Body Counts - 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification : that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God…”
(1 Thessalonians 4.3-5)

There are very few times in Scripture where God speaks so directly about His will—his expressed desire—his ideal, his plan, his best design for us. Paul says that God’s best for you is to abstain from sexual immorality and to exercise self-control.

Living in our culture means you are affected by sexual immorality – our technology has made it freely and instantly available, everywhere at any time to anybody (including children), and always anonymous. It affects our clothing, our schools, our TV, our films, our music, our media, even our coffee. We hear about it; we read about it; we see it; we think about it; we even legislate it. Without doubt, you or someone you know has been and will be affected by the worship of sex because, as Peter Kreeft (professor of philosophy at Boston College) has said, “Sex is the effective religion of our culture.”

Our culture, like Corinth, has hijacked sexuality, taking what is an awesome gift that blesses and making into an awful god that controls and destroys. This Sunday, the Apostle Paul will speak truthfully, directly, and passionately to the Corinthian believers and us, giving perhaps the clearest perspective in all of Scripture on our bodies and sexual sin. I wouldn’t have chosen this text for Father’s Day, but then again, Paul’s words may be the gift many really need and want to receive…

06/09/19 - Take One For The Team 1 Corinthians 6:1-11

Are you competitive? Even if you're not chances are you don't like losing. For the competitive Corinthians, life is all about winning and losing. Lawsuits are certainly about winning and losing. So imagine their surprise when Paul makes a most troubling announcement: any Corinthian Christian who takes another believer to court over a trivial matter has already lost. Going to court with a fellow-believer is a no-win situation. The better way is to take it to the church first. If the church lacks the maturity to mediate, then take the loss. Imagine Paul telling us that it is better to be a victim than a victor. Is Paul saying that it is better to be wronged, better to be defrauded?

How can this be? Looking at Paul’s words from the dark side, just what keeps the Corinthian saints from taking the loss, from being the victim? The only reasons I can think of are all bad ones. We don’t want to take a loss because of our pride. We don’t want to let the other person get the better of us. We don’t want to lose. If we are materialistic, we don’t want to lose money or possessions, which are more precious to us than our relationships with fellow-believers. Those who are self-centered and self-serving do not want to have any of their rights violated. We protect and exercise our rights, no matter what the cost to others.

Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian Christians can only be understood in terms of the utterly different value system of the Christian, as opposed to that of the unbeliever. The Christian life is dominated by the cross!