Sermon Preparation

I'm always interested in how sermons are presented and thought out. Months ago, I heard a pastor talking about sermon structure. I don't remember who it was but I scribbled these questions/statements down on a piece of paper and just came across it again yesterday.

1. What does Scripture say?
   
2. What does it mean?
3. How or why do we resist it?
4. Predict in what ways we would resist and disarm them.
5. How does this apply to our mission?

If you are a preacher/pastor what does your sermon look like? What are some questions you answer?

Sunday In Review

Despite the ice and snow we had our Sunday Service this morning. Here are some thoughts...

• The morning started out with some challenges. I got a call that the back door to the theater was frozen and there person who went to pick up the trailer was stuck in the snow.
• By 8:30 a.m. everyone had arrived...and the trailer. We were 45 minutes behind schedule but with some extra help everything was set up on time...barely.
• We had someone with sound experience come help us run the sound board. It sounded great!! I hope this is a weekly occurrence.
• The nursery and preschool environments were combined.
• The parking lot wasn't graded so it was...shall we say VERY slippery. Lots of curbside drop-offs.
• We had 9 first first-time guests. This was quite a surprise!!
• Made an announcement for more Lifepoint Kids volunteers.
  
• Set-up team did a great job pulling everything off.
• I preached about experiencing joy in humility from Philippians 2:3-11.
• Nothing should be done with a heart of rivalry or pride.
• Jesus is our example of humility.
• We will all experience humility. We confess Christ is Lord in this life and receive salvation or we will confess Jesus is Lord at judgment and receive condemnation. We have this life to trust Christ as Savior.

Christmas Parade

Today was the Owasso Christmas Parade. A big thank you to all the Lifepoint volunteers. Whether you built the float, taped candy to cards, or walked in the cold. YOU ARE APPRECIATED!!! Around 1500 invite cards were handed out!

Here are a few pictures from the day.

Magnification

I've been thinking about magnification. We understand magnification happens when we look through a microscope, telescope, or camera lens. We know what we are looking at becomes larger. Why do we need things magnified?

1. Something is to small.
2. We need to see the details about an object.

In Philippians 1:20 Paul makes a statement that he wants, "Jesus to be magnified in his body". How does that apply to us? Why would Jesus need to be magnified?

1. Our view of Jesus is to small.
2. We need to see the details about Jesus.

How can you magnify Jesus?

Big 12 Championship Game

I didn't get to watch the whole game but I did see this play. I just love this tackle. If you can call it a tackle. Suh takes McCoy and just tosses him...impressive.

Sunday In Review

Here are some thoughts from Sunday...

• Continued our series - "Experiencing Joy" This week we talked about experiencing joy in death. I know it sounds discouraging but the Bible gives us great encouragement even when facing death.
• In scripture we see the reason for death.
• Did you know 150,000 die every day....most of them without faith in Christ?
• Our attitude can be that if we live or die we want Jesus to be magnified.
• What if we lived Philippians 1:21?
• If we suffer it shouldn't surprise us.
• I saw many people in conversation and connecting after the service.
• Sunday night we had our first ever progressive dinner for FSN (First Sunday Night). Thank you to the three host families. It was a blast.
• I love our church.
  

Bible Study

Great Bible Study tonight. Here are some highlights:

• Jimmy did a great job facilitating discussion and bringing out some great application of Philippians 1:3-8.
• He did an activity where everyone listed things they were thankful for about every person in the room and then he read them out loud. It sounds corny but it worked great. It was one of the funniest and encouraging things we've done at a midweek Bible Study.
• The word awesomeness is now an official Lifepoint word to me.
• There was also surprise birthday cake provided by the Powell family. Chocolate cake really makes any Bible study better in my opinion.
  

Sunday In Review

It was week #3 in our series - Experiencing Joy. Here are some thoughts.

• We talked about experiencing joy in loneliness.
• We are wired for relationship.We desire to communicate and relate to other people.
• I shared some statistics about how we are spending less time with people than we were 25 years ago.
  
• Paul while in prison was separated from friends and he lived a restricted life.
• It's interesting how we see his joy towards the church at Philippi even in a situation that might seem like it is beyond hope.
• When you consider the reason for Paul's joy we see his care for the church at Philippi... we also see he mentions Jesus no less than 6 times in verses 1-11.
• Attendance was down a little because of families traveling over the holiday weekend.
• The elementary students were in the service with us.
  
• We met Sunday night to discuss buying some land. I love Lifepoint's commitment to our mission.