I don't know a statement more true than the one on the picture above. After 6 years with my wife, 5 of them married, I'd actually say it's an understatement, but it is definitely true. When something is stagnant it is no longer fresh or life giving. That is what all relationships, but especially marriages, become if they are not growing in and toward something.

This Sunday we begin an 11-week journey through the scriptures on what marriage is supposed to look like. If we can faithfully live out God's intentions for this relationship, we can almost certainly do it in any other. Please don't miss this opportunity to be challenged, affirmed, and encouraged by what God has to say about all human relationships, but especially about marriage.

“There is nothing surprising or novel in religious groups developing theological ideas in new directions. Early Christians, for example, took Jewish religious traditions of God, creation, sin, the fall, redemption, a saviour figure, resurrection, and a people of God, and reconfigured them all in relation to Jesus of Nazareth identified as saviour and lord. Christianity also brought a very open boundary to that previously, largely controlled community of Jews and talked not only about a spirit power that qualified people for inclusion but also asserted the belief that the resurrection had already begun in the person of Jesus. It was not long before a variety of other ideas, especially Greek ideas, helped ongoing generations of Christians to express their growing sense that Jesus was also divine and needed to be included in a new view of God as a Holy Trinity. The early Christian idea that Christ would soon return to transform the world was itself transformed into an ongoing commitment to develop and expand the Christian community itself.”[10]

What the Mormons teach about Jesus 

The Mormon Scriptures do reference Jesus Christ as the Son of God (Helaman 5:12; 3 Nephi 14:24-6; Mosiah 3:8), and their Articles of Faith open with the idea that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Eternal Father, but they mean something different by it. Davies explains:

“The Articles open with the assertion: ‘We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.’ This simple affirmation echoes the doctrine of the Trinity, which gradually became the mark of orthodoxy during the first four hundred years of Christianity and sets the mark for all subsequent debates about the nature of God. Whilst reflecting early Christian creeds the affirmation does not express the rationale of LDS thought, especially its later development, for it does not operate on the same philosophical principles. Though some LDS writers have tried to describe LDS accounts of God in relation to the official creeds of Christendom, the venture is seldom fruitful, because the worlds of thought and of ritual action associated with them are markedly different (Hale 1989: 7–14). In fact the LDS approach to God is not always easy for members of other Christian denominations to grasp, because of the distinctive value given to the relative status of ‘God’, ‘Father’ and ‘Son’. Jesus Christ, for example, is identified with the Old Testament figure of Jehovah and was the God of Israel. This immediately draws a distinction between LDS and most other Christian traditions, which would identify the God of the Hebrews as ‘the Father’, and Jesus as the Father’s Son.”[11] 

What do Mormon’s mean by ‘Father’?

“At the outset the very word ‘Father’ demands close attention. Many ordinary Christians would, in popular terms and in practical spirituality, identify God the Father with the God of the Old Testament, often referred to as Jehovah. For them the link between Father and Jehovah is assumed and they would not anticipate the counter-intuitive LDS view that equates Jesus with Jehovah. For ordinary Christians it is important to stress this fact: in Mormon terms Jesus is Jehovah and Jehovah is not the Father. In Mormon terminology the source responsible for all spirits, including that of Jesus, is Elohim. This Hebrew plural noun of majesty or intensity is usually used with a verb in the singular and, biblically, describes the single identity of God the Father. In the opinion of Latter-day Saints and in their traditional ritual, however, Elohim becomes particularly important in relation to creation stories, in which it is given a full plural designation–the Gods (Abraham 4: 1). This marks a clear distinction from historical Christian doctrine.”[12]

What do Mormons mean when they say that Jesus is the ‘Son of God’? 

“More traditionally, perhaps, Jesus is taken to be the ‘Son of God’, and this in the most direct sense of God the Father engaging with Mary to engender his Son. This allows Latter-day Saints to speak of the divine and the human nature in Jesus without becoming involved in the technical debates of the early period of Christian history. The Articles of Faith, for example, do not refer to the human and divine natures of Jesus, nor yet to his mother being a virgin, nor to a virgin birth. Brigham Young was clear on the subject, ‘the Being whom we call Father was the Father of the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was also his Father pertaining to the flesh. Infidels and Christians, make all you can of this statement’: Mary was impregnated by God the Father to produce Jesus in the same way as Brigham’s father had sired him (Young 1992:127,137)” (emphasis mine).[13]

For Mormons, Jesus is in the most literal sense God the Father’s son who was born as a result of intimate, physical relations between the Father God and a young woman named Mary, who is somehow still considered by Mormons to be a virgin.

“In more formal terms, God the Father, or ‘God the Eternal Father’ as he is often addressed in worship, is particularly important because, along with a heavenly mother figure, he is the source of all spirit children. Jesus, too, was produced as a spirit child in this way in the pre-existent world prior to his taking a human body through Mary, in a human birth that was the outcome of a form of union between Mary and the Eternal Father. As the Prophet Ezra Taft Benson explained it: ‘Jesus was not the son of Joseph, nor was he begotten by the Holy Ghost. He is the Son of the Eternal Father’ (1983: 4, cited by Millet 1992: 725)” (emphasis mine).[14]

Because of this, Mormons prefer to talk of the Godhead as opposed to the Trinity.

“As far as the LDS doctrine of the godhead is concerned–and ‘Godhead’ is a term much preferred over ‘Trinity’–much is driven by Joseph Smith’s first vision, when he was fourteen years of age. Joseph described a great pillar of light in which two divine beings came to him: the one was assumed to be God the Father because he called the other his Son. It is precisely because these two ‘personages’, as they are usually called, were perceived by Joseph to be distinct entities that Mormonism set itself on the path to a notion of godhead which some stress as being twofold but others as threefold, albeit with the qualification that two of the three possessed actual bodies. This visionary presence of Jesus is at least as important as the doctrine of the Incarnation as the foundation for belief in the divine engagement with human bodies.”[15]

Interestingly, in Mormon theology, Jesus was also a polygamist.

“One minor aspect of early LDS thought, or perhaps it might better be called speculation, and one that is rarely formally discussed today, is the idea that Jesus did, in fact, marry, and that he married both Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead (see Buerger 1994: 67; Kraut 1969). This idea would probably be viewed as impious by many ordinary Christian traditions, not simply because the Bible says nothing about it, but because marriage, sex and sin often seem to combine in a negative way in everyday Christian mentality, despite theological protestations to the contrary, and Christians do not associate Jesus with sin of any sort. In LDS spirituality, however, sexuality is largely positive and in early Mormonism marriage, especially plural marriage, became the route to exaltation rather than to hell.”

Put simply:

“Mormons, as we have seen, identify Christ with Jehovah. Jehovah existed prior to his incarnation as the ‘first-born’ of the myriads of pre-existent spirits. The following statements from James Talmadge, in his Articles of Faith, make this clear: ‘Among the spirit-children of Elohim the firstborn was and is Jehovah or Jesus Christ to whom all others are juniors’ (p. 471). ‘Jesus Christ is not the Father of the spirits who have taken or yet shall take bodies upon this earth, for He is one of them. He is The Son as they are sons or daughters of Elohim’ (pp. 472-73). Not also the following statements from Doctrine and Covenants: ‘And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the First-born; And all those who are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same, and are the church of the First-born. Yet were also in the beginning with the Father…(93:21-23).’ From these statements it is evident that, for Mormons, the only difference between Christ and us is that Christ was the first-born of Elohim’s children, whereas we, in our pre-existence, were ‘born’ later. The distinction between Christ and us is therefore one of degree, not one of kind.”[16]

The consequences of this belief?

“If the devil and the demons were also spirit-children of Elohim, it must follow that they, too, are Jesus’ brothers. This is exactly what one Mormon writer says: ‘As for the Devil and his fellow spirits, they are brothers to man and also to Jesus and sons and daughters of God in the same sense that we are.’ One could therefore even say that, for Mormons, the difference between Christ and the devil is not one of kind, but of degree!”[17]

Further:

“From the foregoing it has already become evident that in Mormon theology Jesus Christ is basically not any more divine than any one of us. We have previously noted that Mormons deny the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so they teach, are not one God but three gods. It remains further to note that Christ is not considered equal to the Father: ‘Jesus is greater than the Holy Spirit, which is subject unto him, but his Father is greater than he.’ Though it is said that Christ’ created this earth under the Father’s direction, it is also said that certain pre-existence spirits, like Adam and Joseph Smith, helped him. Further confirming Mormonism’s denial of the essential deity of Christ is the following statement by Mormon elder B. H. Roberts: ‘The divinity of Jesus is the truth which now requires to be reperceived…the divinity of Jesus and [the divinity] of all other noble and saintly souls, insofar as they, too, have been inflamed by a spark of Deity—insofar as they, too, can be recognized as manifestations of the Divine.’ When we recall the goal of Mormon eschatology is for man to attain godhood, we conclude that the Christ of Mormonism is a far cry from the Christ of the Scriptures. Neither his divinity nor his incarnation are unique. His divinity is not unique, for it is the same as that to which man may attain. His incarnation is not unique, for it is no different from that of other gods before him, who were incarnated on other earths; nor is it different from that of man, who also was a pre-existent spirit before he was incarnated on this earth.”[18]

The point? It's clear from Mormonism’s own teachings and doctrines that they do not follow the Jesus of the Bible.

This is why a casual and uninformed look at Mormon doctrines on their website would appear Christian initially. However, a deeper study of Mormon belief and teaching, compiled here by CARM, reveals fundamentally heretical views of Jesus and what makes one right before God:

“One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation,” (Miracle of Forgiveness, Spencer W. Kimball, p. 206).
 
“A plan of salvation was needed for the people of earth so Jesus offered a plan to the Father and Satan offered a plan to the father but Jesus’ plan was accepted. In effect the Devil wanted to be the Savior of all Mankind and to ‘deny men their agency and to dethrone god,’” (“Mormon Doctrine,” p. 193; Journal of Discourses, vol. 6, p. 8).
 
“Jesus’ sacrifice was not able to cleanse us from all our sins, (murder and repeated adultery are exceptions).” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 3, 1856, p. 247).
 
“Good works are necessary for salvation.” (Articles of Faith, by James Talmage, p. 92).
 
“There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith as a prophet of God.” (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p. 188).
 
“The first effect [of the atonement] is to secure to all mankind alike, exemption from the penalty of the fall, thus providing a plan of General Salvation. The second effect is to open a way for Individual Salvation whereby mankind may secure remission of personal sins.” (Articles of Faith, by James Talmage, p. 78-79).
 
“As these sins are the result of individual acts it is just that forgiveness for them should be conditioned on individual compliance with prescribed requirements—'obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel,’” (Articles of Faith, by James Talmage, p. 79).
 
“This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts,” (LDS Bible Dictionary, p. 697). 

Strangely, many Mormons may not even know that this is what their church teaches regarding salvation. But these are Mormon writings that have continued to be taught, and they are the foundation of their belief system.

In short, Mormons believe that being a good person is precisely what makes someone a Christian. Jesus is not the means of salvation, but the point at which the means begins. This is fundamentally against orthodox Christian teaching.

As we dwell on the promise of our coming King in this season of Advent, I'd like to share a new song just written by one of our lead worshippers that we will be doing this Sunday as we launch our Advent series. 

Let Your Kingdom-Sam Crowley(key of A)

Verse 1: Let all the things that I have

And the status that I’ve earned

Fall away.

Let all the praise that I get

And give to myself

Cease to be.

Let the glory of Your name

And the further of Your fame

Be my call,

My only reason to live,

The very thing that makes me breathe,

Until I come home.

Chorus: Let Your kingdom come into this world

And last forever.

We’re not waiting to deserve

To call You savior.

All our confidence can break itself down if it’s not in Your love.

Verse 2: Be hope that moves me to sing,

Peace that proves itself strong

In my pain;

And until Your return,

The coming back of my king,

Please sustain.

Bridge: In Christ, we strive

For the love that he has shown

In Christ, we strive

Till the coming of our lord…

And his kingdom.

This is the lynch pin, because He chose us before the foundation of the world, and in love, He predestined us for adoption. So we are predestined, chosen, and adopted.

Before time itself existed, before the Evil one turned in pride from God to his own works, before this world was even created, before Adam and Eve were ever created, before the unveiling of creation itself…God chose His children.  Now, I want to slow down, and pause, so that you absorb the great, cosmic, joy laden words of Paul here…so that you can soak in what is being communicated here. As far back as imagination will allow, further, deeper into time, before the dawn of time, it was there that God chooses us.   Are you feeling the very tangible weight of such a statement? Do you understand all of the implications of this; that the Father chose us before He even created us? What a glorious realization!

What a wonderful, good, loving, merciful, gracious Father! We don’t have to earn, or merit, or work for His choosing, but He is simply pleased to choose us in Him. God’s choosing to save, choosing to die in the Person of Jesus, choosing His children from among humanity was not an arbitrary or whimsical decision. He planned for Jesus to die before Adam ever rejected Him. This is huge! This is the tension between His great transcendence and His accessibility, as He flexes His eternal authority and unstoppable love in the dimensions of time! This marks the security of our adoption, and though we are difficult children, He will never give us back.

During one of my pastorate before moving to Atlanta to plant Renovation I met a family in our church who had two adopted son's, and two biological daughters. Their son's were from New Orleans, and when they found out that I grew up in Baton Rouge, and had family in New Orleans, they were very excited to introduce me to their son's. These two boy's suffered horror's as children that no person, let alone a child should ever have to experience. They suffered through sexual abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, and forced incestuous behavior with each other. Needless to say they were extremely broken...which made them extremely difficult children.

Growing up with their adopted parents the boy's had done everything you could imagine, in fact when I met them the youngest had just finished a short stint in a juvenile detention center for drug and battery charges. At one point things got so bad that the father removed the family's two daughters from their own home to a grandparents, because they feared what the boy's might do to the two girls, but didn't want to give up on the boy's.

Rather than sending the boy's away, or giving them back to the state, their father gave up his and his wifes biological children for a time, so that they, through the power of the gospel, could rescue these boy's. They never gave up, they never gave them back, though these were difficult, no, more than difficult children to parent. They made extraordinary sacrifices to keep these children, to show them gospel love...and grace...and mercy. They pursued, and kept these boy's despite the many complications it came with!

The truth is, that all of us who are in christ, are "difficult children".  We are resistant often, "prone to wander...prone to leave the God we love"----And yet, God will not give us back.  He will not give up on us.  His commitment to us is unbreakable.  An imperfect God...and imperfect Father would give us back.  A God with weak commitments would be done with us....but not "The God" of the bible...the God who exists (in reality),creates, and saves.

Some of you have experienced a father's failed commitments to you, time and time again...and yet, our paternal God demonstrates his unshakeable commitment to us. That he would break into time, to keep his promises to us in Christ. God orphaned His Son Jesus on the cross, to make us orphans no longer. This is the power of His "other-worldly" love, and the wonder of His mercy and grace in securing our adoption.

So some of you are thinking, what do I do with this truth? I implore you to consider not what to do, but who to be. God wants His children to be all of these things described. Secure in Him. Secure in His promises. And consumed by His love. Once you figure out who you are in Jesus, what to do flows out of that identity…and in Jesus you are the child of the living God.

In 1 John chapter 3 verse 1, the apostle John writes,

"see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are."

This phrase, what kind of love, literally translates “unearthly, foreign, other-worldly.” This love the Father gives us is so unparalleled, and John so astonished that he wonders aloud “where did this come from?”

So how great a Father is God? How wonderful the nature, character, and goodness of the Father of Lights? How otherworldly this love? Not only did He willingly give Jesus as a sacrifice to rescue us from sin, hell, and death; and not only did He sacrifice Jesus as a wrath-consuming propitiation, turning His wrath to favor and saving us; not only did He place Jesus as an Advocate between Him and us, pleading our case before the righteous Judge, God went far beyond that. Far beyond kindness and clemency to His rebellious creation and invited us into His family.

Please don’t take this lightly, because God could have not saved us at all. He could have left us in our rebellion, and brokenness. Even still He could have saved us, pardoned us from sin, given us an Advocate in Jesus, and then cast us aside, out of His presence, recued from hell, but distant from Him. He could have denied access to Him, maintained an element of disconnected rule, rather than intimate love, and even of that we are not deserving; but God, rich in mercy and full of grace, went far beyond even that, far beyond simply saving.

I like how John Piper puts it, he says, “Nothing in us, or in the nature of the world required that God would go beyond all redeeming, forgiving, rescuing, healing love to this extreme—namely, to an adopting love; a love that will not settle for a truce, or a formal gratitude…but will press all the way in to make you a child of God.”

In Ephesians 1:3-5 the apostle Paul writes “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…and in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…”

Reading this we know those who are followers of Jesus are blessed by God the Father with His salvific blessing in Christ and the inheritance we receive in Him by the power of the Spirit…but why? Why would God give so wonderfully of Himself?

The first chapter of John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus was in the beginning with the Father and that all things were created through him. Jesus is called the Word because he is the fulfillment of all God’s previous words to his people. He is the exact nature, personality, and being of the Father in human form, and we can know him through the eyewitness testimonies contained in the Bible. The Bible is also commonly referred to as “The Word” because it is God’s revelation concerning his Son Jesus (the Word). Therefore, as we apply this truth to our lives, four implications come to the fore: 
 
1)   Love, Read, Meditate on, Savor the Word: The Bible is God’s love letter to his people, not a rulebook. It is the story of an adulterous people (Israel) constantly prostituting themselves out to foreign gods. But God pursues. Though we continue to run to other sources of truth and life, making train wrecks of our lives, God beckons us back to him and his Word. Here is a story of a long suffering, magnanimous, infinitely patient and forgiving God who answers each of our adulterous trysts with, “I love you. I still love you.”


2)   Learn/Memorize His Word: The sermon was almost titled “The Grammar of God” for a reason. For anyone who ever learned a language, you know grammar is annoyingly difficult. If you know vocabulary you can get by, but you cannot become fluent and carry on a meaningful conversation. Theology is the language of God (God-talk, right?). How well do you know His language? Many people say, “I know God loves me, I don’t need to study the Bible. I’m a Christian.” This statement is much like someone going home to one’s spouse and saying, “Babe, we’re married. You said yes. I don’t need to spend time with you. I don’t need to talk to you.” How well do you think that would go over? But no one who is married would say that because we love and cherish our spouse! Asking, “How often do I need to read the Word and pray” is seriously like asking one’s spouse, “How often do I really need to talk to you and spend time with you.” Such actions would belie our lack of love, and we would have to ask ourselves if we were ever truly in love.


3)   Let the Word Change You, Not Vice Versa: We can do two things when we read the Bible: exegete or eisegete. We can read out of it (pull the meaning out) or read into it; one is true worship of God, the other idolatry. When we make scripture say what we want it to say, when we say, “You can rise above all your problems and live in total victory,” Jesus responds with his resounding words, “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:20). Much like the idols that Israel made for themselves, we set up our own idols, and then try to O.K. them with God after the fact, rather than allowing God to speak to us. We make God in our own image. Let the Word change you, not vice versa.


4) Give the Word to Others: Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, now go!” There’s an important principle here: To the extent that we are giving others God’s word, we can speak with authority. This is why Paul can say, “For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:17). Because he’s not saying his own words, he is commissioned by God to speak Christ. Paul knew that he would be held accountable in the sight of God for whether he preached Christ in sincerity or not. He knew that he and his glory would soon pass away and all that would be left is the Word of God (1 Peter 1:24)—that the peddlers of God’s word are touting their own glory. He knows that if you don’t give Christ to others, then you give them nothing.

But, we determined, this is difficult. The religious among us will get the will and word part. They will obey, and tell everyone how good they are at obeying; and look down their nose on those who have difficulty doing so; but they will lack all joy and delight in who God is. They follow from fear, or out of duty, but never delight.

The irreligious, they get the delight part. They love the idea of God loving them, but to follow His every word; to find identity in Him and him alone; to trust and obey; this is something that rubs them the wrong way. Because they don’t feel free when told to obey; they don’t feel self-actualized when told that there are rules in this life, and instruction given by God to govern the world.

Though they seem different, they really aren’t. You see they are both means of self-justification; the first by joyless obedience to the law of God, and the second joyful delight in being a law unto themselves. Both are methods of self-developed and self-defined spirituality. Both are a longing to rule, purify, and be defined by who you are and not who God is.

The beauty of the scriptures is that it is one story, one promise from the Old Testament to the New, and the beauty we find in the words of the psalmist in Psalm 119 is that God doesn’t want either of those positions. God longs for a joyful delight in knowing and serving Him, and He gives us the means to do so in Jesus. Jesus justifies us so that we not only have the ability to obey God, but the delight of knowing Him intimately.

Spirituality is found in union with Jesus, and how we express that spirituality is not by emptying but filling; not by looking in but looking up; not by trusting in my higher self, but trusting in the resurrected Savior and His reconciling work in the world; not by focusing on the energy of the universe but focusing on the word of God, the One who created the universe. In this way we are truly spiritual beings, and our source is the only Eternal and Divine, most Wise and Wonderful God of the universe!

With that in mind I thought it would be helpful to provide a tool that can help us be more "spiritual" by drawing us into the scriptures. Here are a few different reading plans that were constructed by North Point Church that wiil be helpful in applying the message.

Bible Reading Plans

Since Renovation has officially launched weekly Sunday services, we've been invested in the mindset shift that happens when you transform from a launch team with the occasional preview service to adding a weekly event and week-ful existence as a church. It's a big change. 

Whenever a high-impact, life-routine-altering event occurs, everything gets knocked off balance a bit. The leadership team at Renovation knew this, saw it coming, and tried to put guardrails in place to minimize the impact, but you never know how things will shake out till the event goes down. 

Some things you can try to prep for, but there's always going to be an X-factor… like the weather. First service we spent literally chipping a path through the ice left over from a winter storm that never hits Atlanta, but did, and in its wake shut down the city for 4 days. Atlanta schools were closed that entire week, and when we arrived at the school the Sunday morning of our first service, there was ½ inch of ice covering the 20+ stairs from the parking lot to our front doors. The team used hot water and shovels to clear a walkway so that guests wouldn't break any bones to worship God with us. 

As a church plant that doesn't own a permanent worship space, all of our church equipment is in a storage facility, and despite being in a place that offers 24 hour access, that first Sunday we didn't have access to it until about 2 hours prior to start-time. It's not suffering for the sake of the gospel to load an entire church into a UHaul, drive it to a facility, unload it all and set it up, knowing you got to do it all in reverse in 3 hours; but as self-centered and lazy sinners, sometimes it feels like it. That's just real talk. 

A lot of distractions pop up as you go official. Maybe the screen and the projector don't play nice or the sound mix isn't right, or there isn't enough help to move things efficiently for one reason or another—cleaning unusually frank and fresh graffiti off the walls for instance. Sometimes people just aren't "into it" because they're tired from carrying 50+ chairs by themselves. Batteries die, software crashes, timing gets off. A stolen car in a police chase hits a pole down the street and kills the power to the whole place just as the sermon starts. Microphones, lights, the screen and the coffee pot all turn off at once, to the exclamation of 28 kids who have now experienced a Sunday school blackout. It happens. Church planting is heavy lifting for the muscles AND the mind. 

That's all the front-side, difficulties that any enterprise can experience. If this were some business startup, a sports event, something like that, we could complain, do what it takes to fix it, and get on with it. We might even pat ourselves on the back for the good job we did. In some sense a church can too, but the deal is, we're not in business with a product or creating a show. This is a church. It's a gathering of people who love God and each other, coming together to worship Jesus, inviting others and encouraging each other. These issues and troubles are minor and don't count for much unless we are indeed just a show or a product. 

Keeping the main thing the main thing is what matters: Prayer, worship, and the gospel being preached are of first importance…the city being reached. 

The evidences and rewards of that main-thing perspective in people is what drives and should drive the heavy lifters. Is God showing up and doing what He does? Is He blessing us and others by changing hearts and lives? Do we see evidence of the Grace of God in this ministry and mission? 

We get a tangible “yes” each week when we look for it through the lens of God and the gospel as the main thing. 

I can't tell you other people's stories without their permission, but I can tell you what we have seen and experienced in this short run. 

Intense prayer and worship times where the roof just wants to come off. Not for noise or a spiritual Super-Bowl high from a good song, but because in prayer and worship something forced us down into an overwhelmed sense of love for God and humility that was shared by others if you looked around. People weeping for joy and sorrow. Prayer that runs over time because you can feel the Holy Spirit is moving and isn't done yet. People showing up whom we haven't seen in months and sitting quietly, visibly moved through it all. People that don't go to church, showing up at a church in a school auditorium.

A crowd that looks like heaven: every tribe and tongue, skin color and wallet size, pedigree and no degree, side by side, hands in the air, heads bowed.  Comments and encouragement. How can I help? What City Group meets near me? Will you pray for us? 30-some kids from the risky neighborhood coming to Renovation Kids minister, needing to be fed, needing to be loved, needing someone to walk with them, as Christ does for us, which we will do for them. Band members that just quit playing and drop to pray in thankfulness to God for what He has done, is doing, will do. Jesus as the main thing. 

3 weeks in. There's more to tell. More to do.