Worshipping Series

UNSTOPPABLE: Worshiping God

My Lord and My God!

July 6, 2008

Do You Get It?

How many times has someone asked you the question, "If you could go back in time, would you do it?" And how many times have you answered that question with: "I would do it only if I could go back knowing what I know now."

Would you go back and do High School again? I would – but ONLY if I could go back with what I know today. The reason is simple – now I get it! Today I understand so much more than I did then. I have experienced enough of life that I could go back and I’d run the place. But back then when I was 16 or so I just didn’t get it.

We learn from experience. We learn from mistakes and from things that go well. It’s just the way things seem to work in life and in faith!!! This Sunday we’ll talk about the value of "Worshiping" at Meridian Christian Church and how faith transforms you from being a watcher into a worshiper who falls to their knees and cries out, "My Lord and my God!"

Meridian Christian Church VALUES

There is no place like this place anywhere near this place! MCC is a place of acceptance, of encouragement. There is no pretense or posing here. This is a place of honesty and integrity. This is a place where people matter – not their color, not their upbringing, not their economic stature, not their clothes style, not their political leanings, not their sexual orientation, or even their faith background. Every person ever born into this world is a child of the creator God – there are no exceptions – none. God loves them all just the way they are and he loves them too much to leave them that way… MCC is about the transformation based on five fundamental values.

For the next several weeks I would like to talk with you about each of these values and what they mean to us. I am not going to “preach” as much as I want to simply share with you my heart for the future of Meridian Christian Church as we move into a new future.

Helping People Find The Way Home

30 Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:24-31

Did you even wonder why God demanded sacrifices in the Old Testament? It seems more than just a little barbaric doesn’t it!

I heard of a Youth Minister several years ago that did a summer camp program. On Monday he introduce the campers to a young lamb. For the entire week the campers got to play with the lamb, feed it and care for it. It wasn’t long until every kid loved that little lamb. On Friday morning he informed the kids that God had told them they were to kill the lamb as a sacrifice on Friday night. Believe you me… the entire camp was in an uproar. Kids called their parents. Parents called the camp, the church leaders, and some called the ASPCA. If PETA had been around they would have been called.

Well, that Friday evening the Youth Minister took the sheep up on the platform amongst the sobbing of these callous teenagers and announced that the lamb would be spared.

The fact is that God ordained the sacrifice of animals so that in we who actually participated in the killing of an animal would be reminded how serious the issue of sin is to God. It is sin that is the root cause of separation from God – and it is this separation that becomes death.

Recently, I had to climb up into the rafters of my attic to clean out a vent pipe from my bathroom. A bird had somehow wandered into this pipe and being trapped with no way out – he died in there. The result was a dirty, smelly job in a space that was roughly 1200 degrees. Let me tell you that when I lifted out that little baby bird – I felt badly for the helplessness of this tiny animal. God instituted the sacrifice of animals so you and I would understand the pain of sin to him.

And then – and this is the incomprehensible piece He sent his own son to die, as his sacrifice for our sin.

Do you get it? Jesus died for you and then he rose out of the tomb into a new and forever life so he could lead us home! Do you get it?