thePOINTE

Sunday Preparation - 3/14/10

I'm excited for this week as we open the books of Acts again together. I have posted this coming Sunday's worship music below. I encourage you to become familiar with these songs each week so that you can participate as we sing together on Sunday morning. One new song that we will be singing is called "Out of the Depths" by Sovereign Grace Music!  This song is an adaptation of Psalm 130.  The lyrics are as follows:

Out of the depths, O Lord, I cry to You
When I am tempted to despair
Though I might fail to trust Your promises
You never fail to hear my prayer
And if You judged my sin
I’d never stand again
But I see mercy in Your hands

(Chorus) So more than watchmen for the morning
I will wait for You, my God
When my fears come with no warning
In Your Word I’ll put my trust
When the harvest time is over and I still see no fruit
I will wait, I will wait for You

The secret mysteries belong to You
We only know what You reveal
And all my questions that are unresolved
Don’t change the wisdom of Your will
In every trial and loss
My hope is in the cross
Where Your compassions never fail

© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

This song expresses the tension we feel as Christians who experience hardship or persecution in life but who also trust in God. Psalm 130 itself is a cry to the Lord to answer the prayer of the Psalmist in his time of need.  It is also an expression of trust in God's sovereign care and patience as we wait for the Lord to act in his justice, mercy and grace. Even as we wait, our hope is in the cross where God demonstrated these attributes of his character to the fullest.

This Sunday's songs and related passages:

Holy is the Lord: Rev. 4:8-11, Neh. 8:10, Isa. 26:8;  The Stand: Psalm 8, Phil. 3:7-11;  Out of the Depths: Psalm 130;  It is Well With My Soul: Psalm 46:1-3, Psalm 103:1-6, Phil. 4:4-7, John 14:27;  Mighty to Save: Zeph. 3:14-17, Rom. 1:16, Titus 2:11-14, Heb. 2:5-18

Sunday Preparation - 3/7/10

Hi All,

Today we will be starting a new weekly blog post series called "Sunday Preparation."  The goal of these weekly posts will be to make you familiar with the songs that we will be singing in our Sunday morning worship gathering.  This will be a place for you to listen to the music that we will be singing and reflect on scripture passages pertaining to the song lyrics.  To a certain degree, all of the songs lyrics will reflect passages of scripture that tie into the sermon theme or point to Jesus Christ.  We won't play these songs exactly as you hear them below, but this is meant to give you an idea of how the song sounds and what the lyrics are.  I hope you find this a valuable tool and use it to enjoy worshipping God in a deeper way! 

This Sunday's songs and related passages:

O Praise Him: Psalm 95:1-5, Psalm 71:22-23, Psalm 98;  Better is One Day: Psalm 84, Psalm 65:1-4;  Nothing But the Blood: Eph. 2:13-22, Heb. 10:19-25, Heb. 12:22-24, 1John 1:7;  Lead Me to the Cross: Phil. 3:7-9, Matt. 4:1, John 1:(1, 14), 1 Cor. 2:2;  You Said: Psalm 2:8, John 4:27-38, Acts 1:8, Gal. 3:7-9

Dover Shores Elementary Work Day

    

Join us for a work day at Dover Shores Elementary School. We will be planting, mulching, and whatever else is needed to get the outside of the school ready for spring. We are thankful for our partnership with Dover Shores as we both seek the welfare of the city where God has placed us.

Bring your family and invite your friends, neighbors and co-workers as there is plenty of work to be done.

When: Saturday, March 6th, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Location: Dover Shores Elementary (1200 Gaston Foster Road, Orlando, FL 32812

Needs: People to work. Money for landscaping material.*

If you can bring the following, it would be helpful (no problem if not)

shovels, rakes, wheel barrels, gardening gloves, garden hand tools, etc.

Feel free to come for any or all of the time. If you have infants or young kids, feel free to bring them and just hang out.

*supplies will be approximately $400. You can contribute online or bring a check. If you submit online, please let us know that you desire your contribution to go towards Dover Shores expenses. Our hope is to cover these costs for the school. 20 people giving $20 will get it covered. 

Questions: brian@crosspointewinterpark.com

The 4 W's of Giving

One of the things that we are seeing over and over again in the book of Acts is the way people gave generously of their finances. People saw a need and responded. I love that this is happening in our community and we want to see more and more of this. 

One of CrossPointe Winter Park's community group leaders, Mark Farrell, recently put together a short video explaining the why, what, when, and where of giving financially. Mark works in the area of personal finance vocationally, and produces a blog regarding some of these issues. You can check it out here.

We encourage you to take a look at the video below and begin praying through what sacrificial giving would look like in your life. This video is not intended to be the definitive statement on giving from CrossPointe, but rather to generate your thoughts and help cultivate some practical next steps in your giving. Let us know your thoughts and/or questions you have. Feel free to post in the comments or email info@crosspointewinterpark.com 

Share Your Story

As we've been journeying through the book of Acts, one of the things that stands out is how the people came together to tell the stories of how God was at work. This was done, not to build their own name, but to make the name of Jesus more famous. It's our hope to do the same thing, but we need your help. Would you take a moment to answer the question below with a short, anonymous, response? The responses we get will be used on Sunday morning to help tell the stories of how God is at work in and through CrossPointe. 

The question asks you to consider how the Gospel has been changing you over the past few months. For some of you this may mean becoming a Christian. For others it may mean how the Gospel is maturing you in Christ. Either way we want to hear your stories. This will help build up the body of Christ as people hear tangible ways that God is at work. How will people know if we don't speak up? This is an easy way you can speak up and allow God to get His glory for your story. 

Thanks!

Lent Prayer Guide

We had a great first gathering this morning as we came together to pray for our community. Thanks to all who participated. It was neat to experience God's Spirit moving amongst us. If you missed this morning feel free to come next week! 

Below is a link to download the LENT PRAYER GUIDE that we are encouraging you to use during this season. Even if you can't come on Wednesday mornings you can still participate. 

Download Lent Prayer Guide

We Don't Know We're Sick

There was a time when people, regardless of their belief system, acknowledged that something was wrong - not only out there in the world, but also in themselves. However, this is not the world we live in anymore. I was struck by the words of C.S. Lewis recently as I’ve been reading The Problem of Pain. In it, referring to this time when people admitted the bad news of their condition, he says,

It was against this background that the Gospel appeared as good news. It brought news of possible healing to men who knew that they were mortally ill. But all this has changed. Christianity now has to preach the diagnosis - in itself very bad news - before it can win a hearing for the cure.

I couldn’t agree more, but how do we do this? How do people come to a point of accurate diagnosis? I may see their illness, as I see my own, but how do I get them to see it? Are people even introspective enough to contemplate the bigger questions of their existence?

This is the challenge of being a missional people and church. People no longer flock to the church for answers to their questions. I think the key (and by that I don’t mean a magic bullet) is as we build relationships, we share our own illness and how Jesus is healing us. This keeps us from a condescending tone because we are fellow patients who have encountered the one who can truly bring healing.

Value Conversion | COMMUNITY

As the new year is upon us, we at CrossPointe have been talking a good bit about the need for people to get connected in a community group. But why? What's the pointe? I thought I'd take a minute to share a bit of why we do what we do.

Depending on your background, when you hear about COMMUNITY GROUPS there may be several things which come to mind. Is it just a trendy way of saying Bible study? Is it a place to meet new people and make friends? If you have no church background you might wonder what kind of freaky gathering is this? 

For us at CrossPointe it's the primary way to GROW IN GOSPEL COMMUNITY, FOR THE COMMUNITY. Let me unpack that to shed some light on what a group is and is not.

It's first of all a weekly gathering where people come together to grow in the GOSPEL. Since we believe the Gospel is more than just how one gets saved, but it's the means by which we continue to grow as Christians, then we never move away from it. We are people with a huge problem...namely that we look to everything but Jesus for our identities. We need constant reminders of who we are in Jesus because of what He has done for us on the cross. I may cognitively know I am a new creation, but I don't always experience that. I need a community that will remind me of my true identity and help me experience this truth. However, it is not enough to simply gather. We don't naturally have Gospel conversations where we delve into the mystery of the Gospel and its implications for our lives. You may think that you will, but you usually won't. You and I need some guidance in this and that is where our study materials come in. Though there is nothing magical about these studies, they do bring intentionality to our conversations. They invite us to look to the Bible, where the Gospel message is revealed to us. They discipline us to ask the tough questions, to get below the surface. To allow us a few moments to pause and reflect on the goodness of God, despite what our circumstances sometimes feel like. 

As we begin to grow in our new identities as followers of Jesus, we then have the spiritual resources to sacrifice for others. At the heart of the Gospel message is a sinless man sacrificing for a people that our naturally his enemies. As we dwell on that reality we can begin to love others genuinely and more fully. We can truly develop community with the people in our groups because we will begin sacrificing for one another. I would contend that Gospel community is not always the people you would naturally hang out with. You and I tend to hang out with people who are like us and share similar interests or passions. There is nothing wrong with that, but we shouldn't mistake a similar age and stage in life as the prerequisite for Gospel community. Sometimes this happens, but that is not the goal. The goal is to be a people who are maturing in Christ together. 

Which brings us to the last part of growing in Gospel community, for the community. To be maturing in the Gospel can never be divorced from loving the community that is not connected to the church or your group. The love of Christ that we are experiencing together, as we dwell on the beauty of the Gospel, should compel us to seek ways to serve and love others who have not experienced the love of Jesus. This does not mean you wait for the church leadership to organize a service project of some type (not that these are bad, or that we don't do them), but that you seek ways to show the love of Christ in the everyday rhythms of life. We try and love people in the ordinary and the mundane with Gospel intentionality. If we are truly growing in the Gospel then we will be humbled by a message that tells us we were nobodies, but we have only been made somebody because of Jesus. So we will have no reason to look down our nose at anybody else. We have no reason to boast, except in the cross of Jesus. Yet if we are growing in the Gospel, then we will simultaneously be growing in confidence as well. Confidence in who Jesus is and what He has accomplished, and this will give us strength and power to actually love those who don't believe what we believe. 

This is our hope for our groups in 2010 - will you join us in the journey?

Reflections on Worship Night and a Video

For sometime now I’ve wanted to come together as a church for an opportunity to simply draw near to God in worship and prayer. To be able to immerse ourselves in a worship experience that is not rushed for time or other distractions. It’s not that Sunday morning isn’t sufficient, it’s just that I find myself wanting more. To be able to incorporate some different aspects of worship that we are less likely to be able to do on a Sunday morning in a YMCA gym. Last night was that night. We gathered at the University Club in Winter Park. The agenda was the words of James 4:8 - Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. I don’t know why I’m surprised that God follows through on his promises. He most certainly drew near to us last night. Sure it was nice to be in a room with better acoustics and lighting, but was that the reason things went well? I genuinely believe God answered our prayers for his Spirit to be poured out amidst us. To encounter God experientially. To not simply cognitively know about God, but to actually experience His presence. I for one am thankful that we serve a relational God who loves to be near his people.

I love that we got a chance at the end of the night to break into smaller groups and pray that more and more people would become worshippers of Jesus. To pray for people by name. To pray that they too would encounter Jesus. To make sure a night like last night isn’t just about us, but it’s also about God using us for His redemptive purposes.

I am looking forward to more nights like this.

- huge thanks to all of our worship team members and those that helped with graphics, lights, sound board, set up, etc., etc. There is nothing logistically easy about a night like last night and I’m extremely thankful that so many are using their gifts for God’s glory. I hope they experienced great joy in serving.

Preparing for a New Year (part 2)

 “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:12-14

-Looking ahead to the next year through the lens of justification

Paul get’s to the heart of justification: “Christ Jesus has made me his own.” You are accepted fully through what Jesus already accomplished on the Cross---not what you do or do not accomplish next year. 

Looking ahead through the lens of justification allows you to fail....but then continue on. The Scriptures repeatedly reveal that we are more sinful than we can imagine, yet more accepted than we could ever hope. So make plans, have goals, work hard....but WHEN you fall short, know that you are loved and accepted. This will give you freedom to flourish and the ability to press on.

-Looking ahead to the next year through the lens of sanctification.

While Paul knows he is accepted as he is, he “presses on” and “strains forward” to know God, to be like Christ....he desires to become what he already is. That is the goal of our planning for next year---to know Jesus and orient our lives around Him and his Mission of making all things new.

While it is often easier to focus on behaviors and make a list of things to do, we also need to look at our heart going into the new year. As your heart changes, your actions will change. Read Galatians 5:16-24 and identify where you are inclined to live in the flesh (sin) and where you need to grow in the Spirit (righteousness). 

Apply those heart motives to your life. What does it look like for you to grow in love, joy, peace, patience kindness etc.?  At home? At work? As a student? As a father? As a wife? In your neighborhood? With your finances? With your time? 

Practices that will help you change: 

Calling: What has God called YOU to do? What are your abilities? What do you desire? What are the opportunities God has given you for next year?

The Bible: The Word of God changes people. It will reveal what you are to become---read it, study it, meditate on it, apply it.

The Holy Spirit: Ask God to reveal what you need to change and to give you the power to change.

Community: Get people in your life that will encourage you, challenge you, call you out, expose your blind spots, help you identify sin, where you need to grow.

Mission: Seek to make Jesus famous, not yourself.

Hopefully this has left you with more questions than answers. God has created all of us in a unique way and with unique callings but with the same mission and purpose: to know Him and to point other people to Him.

What are you straining forward and pressing on towards next year?