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Ok so for real this time...fall Community Groups kick off tonight!! Be here at 6:15 for fellowship and coffee, 7 for worship, and 7:30 for community groups. See you in a few hours!

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Once Upon a Time … In Real Life. Parables of Jesus Kingdom Rewards (Matt 20:1-16) ---- --------------------------------------------------- In the parable of vineyard, only the first worker group was told a wage. The later groups were told that they would be paid what was right. They were all paid the same amount, whether they worked all day or only an hour. The early workers didn’t think that the pay was fair because they bore the burden of the work. This is a worldly view of the situation. This parable is about heaven. We need to be careful not to treat God like unappreciative children (asking “why?”, or saying “This is not fair!”) Consider that the master didn’t need to hire any of them. We can trust God to treat us better than we deserve. He already has, because Jesus bore the burden of our sin. There is ALWAYS an opening in God’s kingdom, even at the final hour. (Do we who came to Christ early in our lives resent those who came to know Him later in life?) We should fall on our faces in awe of His incredible gift. We get to go to heaven and spend eternity with God, where there will be or sickness or dying, The Bible describes heaven as the most valuable things on earth being used for mundane things (like roads of gold). God has better things for us than we can imagine. (I Cor 2: 8) The thrill will never be gone. I Peter 1:3-4 says that we will receive an inheritance that is imperishable, incorruptible and unfading. God is MORE than fair to us. Jesus is the foundation, and nothing else (I Cor 3:11-15). In the parable of the talents, it is obvious that the steward who only had one talent didn’t really know the master. (He was on the outside). His master gave his talent to the one who had done the most with the talents. (to those who handles a lot is given more responsibility). We might not think it is fair, but remember, it was never the stewards stuff. It was always the master’s stuff. Likewise, all we have is God’s stuff. The REWARD is to hear the master say “Well done my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master.” We want the Lord to smile because He is proud of us. We don’t know exactly what our heavenly rewards will be, but God will do so much more than the best we can imagine. We need to trust God. He is already better to us than we deserve. He has done the most important work, and He isn’t even finished yet! Application Points -- Trust God’s promise of eternal life when you surrender your life to Jesus. -- Rejoice whenever someone does surrender their life to Christ. -- Work for the joy of Jesus; His praise is the greatest reward. We need to enter the joy of our Master.

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Once Upon a Time – In Real Life The Parables of Jesus The King’s Judgment – (Mt. 12:1-12; Mt 13:24-30; Luke 13:6-9, 16:19-31) ------------------------------------------------------- These days, we Christians are being called judgmental. All we should be saying is that there is a God who says certain thoughts, actions, and behaviors are wrong, and they are a sin against Him. Those actions separate us from a holy God, and the consequence is death. But the story continues – God is love, mercy, and grace, and He made provisions for us. We Christians are not better than non-believers. Our sin might not have the same immediate consequences, but we are all in the same boat. Jesus’ death and resurrection pays for our forgiveness. He is our ONLY hope. We are not being judgmental when we are trying to tell a broken world the truth. Our deepest offense doesn’t compare with the offense that we have been to God. When we are offended, our first thought is not to give our offender more time, but God’s is. He is patient, wanting all to be saved. Matt 13:24-30 is a parable about the wheat and the weeds in a field. In verses 36-43, Jesus explains how it describes the harvest. By the power of God, weeds (unbelievers) can turn to wheat (believers). God wants to give us every opportunity. Jesus will one day return, and then the weeds will be gathered up and thrown into the fire. God is more than fair. He has waited 2000 years for us. God created a perfect world – we humans rebelled against Him and sided with Satan, but our identity is not about what we’ve done. It’s about what He’s done. God provides a way of salvation. He wants us to know and follow Him, and share Him with others. Change is motivated by faith or fear. We need to follow Jesus to be fruitful, not fearful. Luke 13:6-9 is a parable about a fig tree that didn’t bear fruit for 3 years. God expects fruitfulness from us. He is more than patient, and in His grace, has given us more time. We need to receive it, but not abuse it. There is a judgment if we remain unfruitful. The values of this world are very different than ours, from how we handle money to what we do on Sunday morning. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (who was poor), both men died. The Bible says that the rich man was buried, but it says that Lazarus was carried by angels. The rich man could see those in heaven and wants to warn his brothers. Hell is living in eternal agony. To be fruitful, we need to stop doing stupid things, and stop making excuses for doing wrong things. We need to live our lives connected to Jesus. God will create the fruitfulness. Application points: -- Faith is what God wants; believe Him. -- Focus on growing ad serving; fruit will come. We worry too much about producing fruit. Let God do it through us. -- Make no mistake; heaven and hell are real … and eternal. We need to know where we’re going.

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Once Upon a Time … In Real Life. Parables of Jesus Kingdom Accounting (Luke 12: 13-21, 41-48; 14:25-35) ---- --------------------------------------------------- Pastor David says that our Christian life has some similarities with how to be successful while hunting: 1) plan and prepare. 2) make the effort needed. 3) report any harvest. In our Christian life, we need to live with great faith and EFFORT and need to count the cost of being a disciple. Luke 14: 26 tells us to hate our mother and father, which means that our love of others shouldn’t compare to our love of God. We need to discipline ourselves to love Jesus more than anyone and anything else in our lives. It is a false gospel to say that all God wants from us is our sin. God wants us to die to ourselves and be 100% surrendered to him. Life is hard, but if we are surrendered to God, when life overwhelms us, we can follow and trust Him even when we don’t understand what is happening. Are we willing to be open-handed to God with our kids, our spouse, and our stuff? We are blessed and wealthy compared to so many and we need to be willing to let it go. We do not need to make a vow of poverty. Money isn’t bad, but God values people. It is our mindset that matters. We need to be truly willing to let things go, be ready for service and live in the reality of Jesus’ return. (Luke 12: 35-40). Luke 12: 13-21 is a parable about a rich fool who stores up treasures for himself but is not rich towards God. Jesus came to give us life, not arbitrate about stuff on our behalf. The American Dream tends to take us away from being effective in our Christian life. Young people want to hang out with the young and active and older people want to kick back and take it easy. It is silly to not use and value people who have trained their entire life. God says that those who pile up treasures are foolish. Are we willing to love God more than our stuff? We will have to give an account. How much does God require of us? Everything! We need to sell out to following Jesus. To live rich towards God, we need to obey his commands and follow the Great Commandment: serve God, make disciples, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. We are all on a mission trip. We should live our lives consistent with the way of Jesus Christ, disciple people, and hold all we have with an open hand. Practical take-ways to be ready for Jesus’ return: -- Get rid of greed. This was the rich fool’s problem. -- Put aside power trips. -- First Jesus, then our families. To love our families most, we must love Jesus best. -- Stay surrendered from our stuff

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Once Upon a Time … In Real Life. Parables of Jesus The Kingdom Come in You (Luke 15) ------------------------------------------------------- The context of the parable of the lost sheep, coin, and son is that the Pharisees and scribes were upset that Jesus not only accepted, but also welcomed and ate with “sinners”. Paul did not presume upon God. Instead, he saw himself as the servant or slave of God. We are not equal to God. It is God who initiates calling us His child and His friend. God is at work in the life of each believer to transform us into who He made us to be. We ALL matter to Him. Our role is to love and serve the Lord. God is the seeker, and we are the sought or the others. The Seeker cannot abide that the lost are lost, and he rejoices when he finds and rescues someone who was lost. God is not against us, He is FOR us. God is about restoration… building His family and His kingdom. Are we self-righteous and full of ourselves? Do we under-estimate ourselves and are filled with loathing? Or do we see things as they really are? Our attitude toward our sin should always be the same. We should weep and mourn, and turn away from it, but then, we should put the shame and guilt behind us and rejoice in God’s forgiveness and love. We should look clearly at where we started from so that we can clearly see what we are becoming. Application points: -- View ourselves humbly, but not without worth -- Consider that God seeks us, even though we’ve wandered off. He wants us to have a repentant heart. Repentance is confessing our sin and turning away from it and toward God. -- God’s goal is redemption and restoration. We need to welcome who God welcomes.

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Once Upon a Time … In Real Life. Parables of Jesus Kingdom Communication (Luke 11:1-13, 18:1-8) ------------------------------------------------------- We sometimes struggle with how to live as a child of God in the world today. We exist to have a relationship with Him and share His message, and He sustains us. Even when we go through trials, we should focus on the eternal (2 Cor 4:16-18). We pray to the eternal, holy, infinite God, and He knows us better than we know ourselves. He wants to hear what we have to say, but also knows that we struggle to believe that prayer does any good. To help us remember what God has already done for us, we should engrave His unshakeable and eternal gift in our minds. Jesus told two parables: Luke 11: 5-13 – Here, Jesus used the model prayer: worship; surrender; request/confession of reliance; confession; application; and plea. Then he told a parable, and admonished people to ask, search, and knock. The parable tells us that, just as we who fail do things for our children, how much more will God do for us? It tells us that we are not an inconvenience to God. Luke 8: 1-8 – A widow keeps going to a judge on the take because she needs justice. The judge eventually wears down. Unlike this judge, God will swiftly grant justice. In this fallen world, life is hard. We need to engrave what God has already done for us on our mind and heart so that we remember that God will do the best thing for us in every situation. Prayer is not about getting God to do what we want. It is about worship, praise, intercession, and bringing our requests before God. It is about knowing that He is the only One who can do anything about the situation. We need to pray always and not get discouraged. We need to keep calling the God of so much more. Application points: -- Let urgent and pressing need drive persistence in prayer. -- Don’t despair; the dynamic of prayer is different than other conversations. Prayer is not ineffective. God absolutely hears you. -- God is better than we are at our best. If you’re writing your troubles in stone and blessings in sand, try switching it up. Let’s remind ourselves of what God has already done, and that we can trust Him with our current situation.

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Once Upon a Time … In Real Life. Parables of Jesus (Two-for-One) ------------------------------------------------------- Pastor Dave shared two parables about the return of Christ from Mt 25:1-30. Part 1: Parable of the 10 Virgins ------------------------------------------ In Biblical times, the bride would wait for the groom at his family’s house. Then, bridesmaids would circle him with torches and escort him to his bride. In this parable, the groom was delayed. When he arrived to meet with the bridesmaids, 5 of them were ready with the oil that they needed and 5 were not. If the 5 that were ready shared their oil, they would not have had enough light to escort the groom to his bride. When the foolish bridesmaids were finally ready, it was too late. This parable shows that those outside of God’s family do not get to come in after Christ comes again. We need to live ready for Jesus’ return Application points: -- Don’t sleep on Jesus. Nobody knows when Christ will return (Matt 24: 36-44). Stay alert! -- It’s been a while and sometimes it’s hard, but keep living in the light of Jesus’ return. -- This is personal, and your true identity is at stake. You are a child of God. Being ready for His return means that we need to live and do what he told us to. Part 2: Parable of the Talents ---------------------------------------- God expects some things from us, not because we want to perform for him, but because of who we are. We can’t do all of God’s work alone, and it would be easy to feel like a failure. God asks us to act justly, love faithfully, and walk humbly with Him (Micah 6:8). We should live our daily life with ALL belonging to God. We don’t know all that we can do, but God does. He gives us our talent and capacity, and entrusts us with people, life, minute, hours, and days. We need to be faithful with what God gives to us. He doesn’t set us up for failure. And remember, He not only calls us, but also equips us. Application points: -- God knows you; He is way more than fair. (We don’t want “fair.” We want to hear Him say that we are a good and faithful servant. -- Give your best. God is worth it. -- Never forget to who it all belongs. Receive your reward from Him. -- Trust God that he is your solution, not your problem. It all comes down to who doesn’t know the Master – who doesn’t know Jesus. As a child of God, the greatest joy in life is not “our” success, but instead to be faithful to Him. God blesses the faithful. We are to be a voice of hope in a dark world. Our job is to tell people about Jesus, even if they don’t want to hear it. Be inspired that He KNOWS us, and still entrusts us, and equips us to do His work.

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Once Upon a Time – In Real Life The Parables of Jesus The Nature of the Kingdom – (Mt. 13:33; Lk. 13:18-21; Mk. 4:26-29) ------------------------------------------------------- Application points: -- Ground your hope in Kingdom victory. "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain that which he cannot lose." -Jim Eliot -- Don't be so discouraged by appearances that you miss the reality: -- -- The Kingdom of God is growing. -- -- Never forget that history has a point! God's at work... and He is winning. The harvest will come!

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We will be having a church wide garage sale Friday, July 17 and Sat, July 18 from 7am-12pm! All proceeds support our youth attending camps, retreats and mission trips so come see what treasures you can find and support our students in the process!

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Celebration Baptist Church will be having a church wide garage sale Friday, July 17 and Sat, July 18 from 7am-12pm! All proceeds support our youth attending camps, retreats and mission trips! 5620 Laredo Rd. NE, Rio Ranco

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Once Upon a Time … in Real Life The Parables of Jesus Living the Kingdom Agenda The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) ------------------------------------------------------- Jesus simplified God’s law to 1) Love God with all that you are, and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we try to identify with the priest or Levite, not the Samaritan, a person who would be despised by the Jews. But it is the Samaritan who spends his time and money (equivalent to 2 days wages) on helping the victim. The Samaritan is the hero in this parable. There are only 3 kinds of people: 1) Natural that don’t know God. 2) Spiritual who walk with God. 3) Worldly who know God but don’t walk with Him. Jesus won’t answer questions that defend our prejudice (Gal 3:27-29). Instead, He answers questions that get us closer to God’s plan. We need to be careful NOT to put our thoughts, prejudice and beliefs into the Bible. We need to ask questions that get us to God’s plan, not just our prejudice. And we need to be honest with ourselves. Application Points: -- Learn that the Kingdom agenda is to love God, love others, and make disciples. -- Ask who and how you can influence for the kingdom. -- Hope, pray, speak, and work for salvation, even when it cuts against your grain. Let’s pray that God help us to see people through His eyes, and that He helps us to be willing to give of our time and share Him.

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Once Upon a Time – In Real Life The Parables of Jesus To the King (or the Singer)! (Matt 11:16-19) ------------------------------------------------------- John the Baptist didn’t come to make friends. He came to pave the way to Jesus. Jesus also ignored the social dos and don’ts of the day. He talked to tax collectors, and talked to women in public, even a Samaritan woman and one who had a bad reputation. In fact, although many shunned Jesus, He only shunned the prideful. John was direct. Like John, we should say the message straight and not make it about ourselves. We should decrease as God increases. Life has lost its heart. Today, many younger people think that God and Jesus are myths. Their opinion does nothing to change the truth. Jesus is still crying out in the marketplace. How will we respond to God’s reaching out to us? We should dance to the music, love, share His grace and forgiveness, share hope and glory. Point people to Him. Application points: -- Don’t expect the masses to help you make the right choices. They will often lead you wrong. -- Find God in the serious and the joyous. Embrace life with God. It’s about our relationships with others and Him throughout your life. -- Ultimately, what we do proves who we are and Whose we are.

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Happy Monday everyone! Remember, this weekend is the Big Picture conference at Celebration. Ages 6th grade - adult are welcome to attend; cost is $20 and only $10 for each additional family member and includes 3 meals. Come learn, engage, worship, and fellowship with us! Contact the church office or email agrafe@celebratechrist.net to sign up!

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From last Sunday, Once Upon a Time – In Real Life The Parables of Jesus ------------------------------------------------------- To help people understand life in God’s kingdom, Jesus told parables that they could understand from their life experiences. Parables typically have the same number of points as there are characters in the story, and there is always a twist that shows the gulf from where we are now and where we should be in God’s kingdom. The parable of the sower is the key to understanding all parables. The sower sows the Word of God, the gospel message. This parable shows us the 3 main things that get in the way of His Word being productive: 1) Satan. This is like the seed falling on the path for the birds to eat. If a person is intent on being against God, do not make them your focus. Instead, cultivate the soil. Our role is to influence people. 2) Self. Some people are shallow and only want part of the story. This is like the seed falling on rocky ground where there is no soil. We need to surrender our whole life to Him. The Christian life is not always easy or comfortable, and some never really fully surrender to Him. 3) World. There may be persecution, or the person might chase the wrong stuff. This is like the seed falling amongst the thorns. We need to be careful not to lead someone to believe that they are right when they disagree with God. That is not love. We need to take time to build bridges and cultivate the soil. But if we don’t plant, then we won’t harvest. We need to live wide open to God’s good news to make a world of difference, and swallow the hook! Application points: -- Remember that the gospel is Jesus’. -- Cultivate some soil. -- Play the sower; share the good news. -- Don’t leave your fruitfulness in doubt: Influence people for Christ; Let the Spirit grow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control in you until they show change.

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Let God's commands design your plan. 1)Soak in the Scripture, pray on, and stay in fellowship to counter identity confusion. 2)Men: Lead, love, train, and serve. 3)Women: Complement/submit, respect, train, and serve. 4)Children: Obey, honor, and grow.

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Summer community groups begin tonight! Join us at 6:15 for coffee and fellowship (and games for the youth!) then at 7 for worship and small group Bible study. See you there!

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Learn to Love by Faith (1 John 4:7-21) ------------------------------------------------------- Love is more than a powerful feeling of deep affection, as the world would have us believe. It involves choice, intention, desire, and caring enough about the one being loved to want the best for them. Some people ask why a loving God would send someone to Hell. They think that love means that they can do whatever they want and God will give them a pass. But God is holy and perfect and He cannot allow sin in his presence. We wouldn’t survive in his presence. God knows exactly who He created us to be, and He loves us too much to let us waste our lives. He created us to be His children. Yes, people who rebel against Him will end up in hell. When we live life the way we want, it is not love, that is death. The better question is how can God love us so much that He would choose to send His Son to die for us even when He knows us so well? We need to love because we are loved. God commands that we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:36-39). When we accept Jesus, we are forgiven and can truly LIVE, because He stands in the line of fire of God’s coming wrath. Love is not about warm fuzzies. We may not always FEEL like loving someone. But when we want to hang on to a grudge, let’s remember that nobody has ever done to us what we have done to God. We need to love others not in our own strength, but with the love that He has shown us. We love because He first loved us, and we should be an agent for God’s love. Some people want us to not only accept their rebellious lifestyle, but celebrate it. That is not love. We don’t need to agree with people’s choices, but we do need to ask ourselves whether we are influencing others for Christ. We should point people to Jesus and pray for those who persecute us. Application points: -- Spend time reflecting on God’s love for and forgiveness of you. -- Thank and pray for those you need to love and forgive. Make it a conscious decision and change your self-talk. Ask a friend for prayer to help. -- Demonstrate Christ-like love. Take loving actions: speak graciously; pray regularly. The most important thing you will ever do is to encourage people toward Christ.

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Risk Becoming a Great Lover (Gen 2: 18-25; Eph 5:22-33) ------------------------------------------------------- The church should teach on marriage and intimacy, because the world twists this beautiful relationship that God created. Wouldn’t it be great if our marriages at Celebration are so good that the community takes notice? We do not FIND our soulmate or get lucky in love as the world would have us believe. The reality is that that we must risk enough for love, need to work at it, and be strong enough to not walk out when things get tough. The world celebrates conquests and people’s lives are destroyed. God’s design is so much better!! We need to forge a one-flesh love that this world cannot break or tear apart! God recognized that man needed someone special on earth. He took a piece from Adam’s side to make woman. Note that we are not 2 people to battle, but are SIDE by SIDE working together. God’s plan is 1 man and 1 woman for life. Marriage is a spiritual covenant between man, woman, and God. For a good marriage, we can’t be selfish; we can’t try to fix each other; and we can’t dwell on the negative. Remember, we CHOSE to marry this person. Now we need to follow through. God chooses the marriage relationship to describe the relationship of Christ and the Church. Man is commanded to love his wife like Jesus loves us, dying to self, with a life-giving love. Wives are told to submit to their husband, but this means to CHOOSE to submit, not to become a doormat. Men have a God-given responsibility to lead, not to repress, and women are to respect and submit to their husband not because he deserves it, but because it is God’s way. If a couple fights over their individual rights, then a marriage crumbles. Forging is done through heat and pressure. We need to consider whether our marriage will fail when there is heat and pressure, or whether it becomes stronger through the power of God because it is forged. Application points: -- Do yourself the favor of coming in second to your spouse! -- Recapture the wonder! -- Dwell on the good and pray for the rest. Stop trying to fix each other and forget about the past. Pray for God to make the change. Men, love her to greater inner beauty, and women, respect him to greater inner strength.

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Learn to Treat Your Parents Right (Ex 20:12; Col 3:20; Pr 1:8-9) ------------------------------------------------------- Pastor David shared about how he took a job nearer to his parents so he could be near enough to care for them in their old age even though the job was for less money than he could have made. All of our relationships start with God, but our first and most important human relationship is with our parents. We don’t honor them because they are perfect, and it doesn’t mean that everything they do is OK. We don’t need to always agree with them. We need to make sure that we don’t ignore God in favor of honoring our parents. Obedience to our parents pleases the Lord, but obeying Him always has higher priority. We must treat our parents rightly within the bounds of what God requires of us (Col 3:20; Eph 6:1). Moms and dads are to be the “front line” of discipleship. Children may not always appreciate their parent’s rules and instructions, but these come from love. Some parents want to be a friend to their children, so they don’t correct, rebuke, and discipline them when they need it. Children need for their parents to be adults who love and obey God more than anyone or anything else. The church partners with the parents to help them raise up Godly children. Parents need to make the most of every day they have with their children, and children need to realize that they won’t always have their parents around. God matters. Trivial, temporary things don’t. Doing things His way is the best path to having a blessed life (Prov 1:8-9). Honoring our parents results in being honored and respected by others because of our character. We should honor our parents for a lifetime. It will sometimes be hard, but it is a command from God. A society that doesn’t honor its parents will not last. Application points: -- Work to have the best attitude toward your parents you can -- As children, obey them in anything that doesn’t disobey God. -- As we get older, treat them well. Keep listening, keep loving, and be there when it gets hard. There is a fight for life in our society about “expendable” human lives. The older and weaker, those whose “quality of life” isn’t as good as it once was are increasingly vulnerable to being institutionalized or even euthanized.

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Start With God (Dt 6:4-5; Ex 20:2-11; Lk 14:25-33) ------------------------------------------------------- Whether we are introverted or extroverted, God created all of us to be successful in our relationships. But even people that we trust might betray us or mislead us. Over the next 7 weeks, we will learn how to pursue good relationships. We first need to look at our PASSION and ASSURANCE. Our passion is what we really care about, what consumes our thoughts. Our assurance is that our God is perfect and He doesn’t make mistakes. He made us to have great relationships. God made us to know and love Him, not part time but full time. He loves us unconditionally and when we respond to Him, we enter into an unbreakable relationship on His terms (not ours) (John 10:27-30; Ro 8:35-39). He knows all things and He teaches us. (I John 4:19). We need to live abandoned to God. Let nothing rival God in our heart, and let’s not settle for less than Who He really is. We need to not treat God lightly, and make sure to take time for Him and for us. God will change us. We can get off track really fast and take a wrong turn, but God keeps us on the right track. He knows what we need. Let Him be our security and let’s learn to live a life in worship and trust (Ex 20:2-11). All good relationships start with our relationship with Him. In fact, loving God is the key to loving everyone else. We need to love God most before we can love someone else the right way. (Luke 14: 25-23) We need to surrender everything else and trust Him in everything. Application points: -- Keep God first in everything. -- Surrender your life. -- Surrender your other relationships. Trust God with them. -- Surrender your “stuff”.