That Mountain!

Yesterday I wrote a post about some of the things I'm learning from Matthew 28. I'm going to pick it up where I left off so read this to catch up if you want...



So here's my thing with the Great Commission...the scope of what Jesus intends for us to accomplish is unbelievable!



"All nations...All commands..."



Both of those directives seem pretty overwhelming!



To add to it, the "all commands" part took on new meaning when I stumbled across this little detail in verse 16 that I hadn't ever noticed before.



16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.



I thought, "I know Galilee, that's Jesus' hometown...but what's this mountain?"



And then it hits me! Jesus preached a famous sermon at the outset of His ministry that we have nicknamed the Sermon on the Mount...



Sure enough, Matthew 4:23 puts Jesus in Galilee and Matthew 5:1 puts him on the mountain to preach his famous sermon.



In other words, Jesus tells His disciples to go back to the exact spot where it all started and then Commissions them to go and make disciples of ALL nations...teaching them ALL commands, on top of the same mountain that He was standing on when He preached the Sermon on the Mount!!!



The disciples were so blown away the first time they heard Jesus preach this message that Matthew wrote this about their reaction, "28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law."

Imagine what they must have been thinking after seeing all they had seen over the three years of Jesus' ministry.

"I mean, Jesus was dead 24 hours ago, and now we're back where it started except it's our turn!!!"



That's probably enough for now...to be continued!

Discipleship

What do you think of when you hear the word discipleship?

Bible Study? Prayer? Tithing? Service? Evangelism? All of them wrapped up into a book sold by LifeWay complete with a semester schedule, benchmarks and gold stars???

Me too...kind of!

I've been reading the "Great Commission" in Matthew 28 and it has been changing my understanding of this word.

Here's the part we all know:

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you..."

It's a very powerful statement. Unfortunately, it's incomplete! I cut the front and back out of Jesus' actual phrase. Here's the whole thing:

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

It's interesting to me that we cut Christ out of the great commission! We trust Him for salvation but after that it's almost like we say, "Thanks, I'll take it from here..."

I think this approach is really stupid!

Here's a couple takeaways that hit me pretty hard:

1) This statement is really about Jesus' activity through me not my activity for Him! (All authority to Christ...therefore go...)

2) His request (ALL nations, ALL that I have commanded you) is actually pretty ludicrous.

3) Jesus seems to know that it's ludicrous since He reassures us that He will be with us to the end of the age...you know, like it's going to take that long!!!

To be continued...

Blitter...I should write a blog but only have time to twitter...

Sometimes everything is due on the same day...

This is the stack of paper I brought into a 45 minute 1 - on - 1 meeting with Chunks Corbett (my boss, our Executive Pastor)...

Sorry trees...

Our 45 minute meeting turned into 2 hours!

Butler Campus...I'm all in!

Hey Butler Campus,

Just wanted to thank you for a great Sunday. The Worship Experience was VERY powerful, the message was great and you (the volunteers) went above and beyond.

Now, you probably know that I'm not a big sports fan, so it may surprise you to know that I completed a bracket (for those of you who don't know what that is...I feel you! It's a little sheet that people who love basketball fill out to give their prediction for who will win the NCAA tournament...)

Here's a picture of my completed bracket:

Wait a minute, you can't see who I've picked to take it all. Here's a closer shot shot:

That's right! Butler takes it all...They took Carolina (a.k.a. the Devil..not the Blue one) in the second round...

I'm all in! I love you guys!!!

Carol Mac...

Carol Mac is the custodian at Butler High School who unlocks the doors for us every Sunday morning and goes above and beyond helping us when we need her. She has been with us since I became the Campus Pastor in April, 2008. I have developed a great personal relationship with Carol Mac and I wanted to tell you a little bit of her story.

About three weeks ago, Carol moved into her new house. Carol was selected by Habitat as a candidate for a new home. For the last year she has been working tirelessly every weekend investing countless hours building her new home and consequently her new life.

I had the privilege of being there the week she moved in, to pray for her and thank God with her for the blessing of her new start. I was able to bless her with a house warming gift and give her a card on behalf of Elevation Church. She was very touched by our generosity.

So, Butler Campus, thanks! Because you have been faithful to give to Elevation we are in a position to be generous. This is only a small example of how we have been placed in a position to be generous and to serve our community. For Carol Mac, however, who has been impacted by our church from behind the scenes, this unlooked for blessing was anything but small.

If you get a chance this Sunday, tell Carol Mac congratulations!

A Great Day

Yesterday was a great day! Attendance was great. The worship experience was great. All the volunteers who waded through the puddles to greet, park, load, unload, etc... you are awesome. Pastor's Message was incredible! That video of the guy running on the street, it was great. The BBQ was great. The 6:00pm worship experience packed full like Christ was coming back when we were done - great! Bob "the reader" Aycock, you were great! In short, yesterday was a great day.

By far, however, the best moment of the day for me was the man who came up to me after the 11:30 worship experience with his family and said he was ready to give his life to Christ. I had the privilege of leading him to Christ on the spot. He was not the only person who gave their life to Christ yesterday either. about 35 people raised their hand to accept Christ when Pastor gave them an opportunity at the 6:00pm worship experience. Yesterday was a GREAT day!

To all of my Butler people, thank you! Each of you played a part in creating a great day yesterday and I am so thankful for you.

Ministry Time...

Yesterday we had a "ministry time" in the worship experience. Pastor preached the second and final week of The Dip and challenged people to turn back to God's perfect plan for their life. He used a story about his son Elijah who was afraid of a fly to illustrate a powerful point. Just like Pastor (Elijah's father) is much bigger than the fly, God (our Father) is much bigger than our "dips" - no matter how big we fell like they are. By putting our problems back into perspective we are in a better position to receive God's work in and through that situation.

The message was simple to understand but very challenging and humbling to apply (in my opinion, the best type of messages) and our people were faithful to the call of God to respond. We had dozens of people at the "altar" praying, crying, calling out to God, worshipping...it was a wonderful time.

After days like yesterday I feel a strange mixture of excitement and responsibility. God blessed us with His presence and people responded to His powerful message of grace yesterday, so I am excited. Yet, there are thousands of people in Charlotte who have never experienced God's presence or grace and so I feel a tremendous responsibility to reach them. This tension is often an uncomfortable place to be, but when I read Jesus' words in the great commission in Matthew 18:18-20 I am reminded that it is the right place to be..."go...and make disciples".

Like Father Like Son...

The picture below is, in fact, a picture of my son passionately embracing the pole that marks the entrance to the line where you would wait to purchase a delicious donut from Dunkin Donuts...




It's amazing to me how much this kid is like me!

Our Sacrifice is Their Victory

Yesterday was an amazing day at Elevation. The weather was awful but spirits were high. Rather than try to explain it second hand I thought I would let you read an email I just got from our newest parking team leader at Butler, Eric Welch.

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Team Welch!

Considering it was your first day....AND most of the radios quit working (what, it's not like they were soaked with water or anything)....AND Hurricane Laffey was pouring through the area ("little bit of stinging rain, big 'ol fat rain, and sometimes rain that seemed to come from straight up")...AND most of us had standing water in our shoes... I'd say you guys did a FANTASTIC job out there! If anything, that was probably the best day for you to be out there on your fist time; you've tasted the "worst" of what we do...it can only go up from here! Sink or swim, boys, we're diving in!

All kidding aside, though, you guys (and gal) handled yourselves very well given the circumstances; and thanks to Hopkins, Bill, Frank and Jason for helping out!! It's even more important that we're outside on days like yesterday. If people coming into church see our happy, smiling, soaked faces they may think to themselves "huh, I wonder what it is about this place that makes their volunteers dedicated and crazy enough to be out in weather like this, there must be something special happening here." It all helps to open the door for what Pastor does inside. It's not about us, and how cold we are or how wet we are. It's about them. Our sacrifice is their victory.

Next week, we're scheduled for the evening service, but there is no evening service as it turns out; so we're not parking. I'll let you know when we're on again once we decide whether or not that will affect scheduling of teams.

Remember when you were a kid, and you'd go outside and play in the snow, and your jeans would get all wet? Then you'd get that itchy feeling all over once you were soaked? Anybody else besides me experience that yesterday?

Great job guys!!

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Here's the best picture I have of the conditions at 5:55pm last night - right before the 6:00pm worship experience started.




Thanks Eric (and all of the volunteers who are tired from a long cold day of volunteering) you continue to amaze me!