The sermon at Patterson Avenue Baptist Church this AM (February 19, 2012) tells about four stooges (we called them Mo, Larry, Curly,  and Shemp) who bring a friend (we called him Joe) to Jesus.

Old Joe is paralyzed.

The story begs the question:  “What paralyzes you?”  What holds you down, what holds you back, what keeps you in check?

The answer is simple.  The thing that holds us back is sin – or rather the feeling that sin is bigger than grace – beyond God’s ability to forgive.

IT’S NOT!

Before healing happens – forgiveness is give.  The man is set free, set at liberty.  The thing that paralyzes him is destroyed.  Then (and only then) does Jesus heal him.

Because he is set free, he can “get to steppin.”  He can MOVE, serves, free, set at liberty.

Watch “Get To Steppin” when you click this link now!

Free

The night Jesus was arrested, one of the things he talked about with his disciples was the Holy Spirit. He referred to the Holy Spirit with a word that was translated into Greek as parakletos, a word that conveyed the sense of ”advocate,” “friend” or “supporter.”

Parakletos was the word used for a person who would stand beside you in court to support
you and your cause, to speak up for you, to hearten you.

“When he comes,” Jesus said in John 16:8-11, “he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted” (John 16:8-11, The Message).

The godless world is wrong about three things, Jesus said: sin, righteousness, and judgment. But the Holy Spirit would expose those errors.

So how is the godless world wrong about sin? The world thinks sinners can atone for their own sins by doing works of goodness. But now that Jesus has come to forgive all sin and reconcile all things to God, the only kind of sin that can remain is the sin of not trusting
in him who takes away all sin. There is no sin Jesus hasn’t forgiven. But if we don’t believe that, we’ll keep carrying the burden of guilt even though we don’t need to.

And how is the world wrong about righteousness?

The world thinks righteousness is human virtue and goodness. But now that the Son of God has lived a perfect, obedient life in our place and as one of us, human righteousness can only be defined as the gift of God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself is our righteousness, not our good works.

How is the world wrong about judgment?

The world thinks that people who suffer in this world are sinners under God’s curse, and that people who are healthy and wealthy are the only ones under God’s favor. But now that the Son of God has destroyed the works of the devil, judgment can only be defined only as condemnation of the evil god of this world, not as condemnation of those Jesus came to save.

Jesus told the disciples that the Holy Spirit would bring the truth about sin, righteousness and judgment. To be forgiven of sin, to be judged righteous, and to be freed from condemnation are all gifts of the Father through Jesus Christ. They are not something we
earn, or something we deserve. We experience them only by trusting the One who gives them to us.

In Jesus Christ and only in Jesus Christ, we are reconciled to the Father and share in Christ’s righteousness and Christ’s relationship with the Father. In Jesus, we are the
Father’s beloved children. The gospel is indeed good news.

From Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE.

Holy Spirit

What might be a self-portrait of Rembrandt has been discovered hidden under another one
of the Dutch master’s paintings. By using advanced scanning techniques, scientists
investigated a Rembrandt painting titled “Old Man with a Beard” and much
to their surprise, the scan revealed that another painting was underneath–one
that might well be an early, unfinished self-portrait of the artist himself. It
seems as if Rembrandt had begun a self-portrait, then later used the canvas to
paint the “Old Man with a Beard.”

The story reminded me of the way most of us think about God. We often think of him
like the second painting – an old man with a beard. After all, that’s how religious
artists usually portray him. So we grow up thinking of God as an old, distant, and
rather threatening figure–stern and quick to anger if we fail to live up to his
impossible standards. But, this way of thinking about God obscures what God is
really like, just as the painting of the old man obscures the self-portrait beneath
it.

To get a true idea of what God is really like, we need to look beneath the layers of
the popular concepts about God, by looking to the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
When we do that, a true and undistorted understanding of God emerges.

“If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” Jesus explained. Only Jesus shows
us what God is really like. Our God–the Father, Son and Holy Spirit–loves us
unconditionally and will never let us go. God is not out there, somewhere in the sky scowling at us, ready to pounce and punish. The Bible tells us that it is the Father’s “good
pleasure to give us the Kingdom,” and that God is not “willing that any should
perish.” It tells us that God sent Jesus into the world because he loves
the world – not to condemn humanity but to save it (John 3:16-17). Once you get
past the layers of misunderstanding, the true picture of God is one of love–much
greater than we can possibly imagine.

Through Jesus, we are shown God’s true heart toward us–we see him as he really is, not as
a distant figure who is mad at us and unconcerned about us. In fact, he is
right here with us, ready for us to turn to him and receive his loving embrace.

Don’t let other images get in the way of who God is or how God feels about you. Look
to Jesus, who alone is the self-portrait of God.

By Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE.

God

Dennis Pethers is an author and international evangelist living in England.

He has just published a new book:   The Rooftop – a Crisis of Opportunity

Dennis Pethers has also become a close friend of mine over the last several years – having preached at Patterson Avenue Baptist Church on several occasions with warmth, conviction, and passion.  If you visit the church site and do a “search” in the sermons section, you’ll be able to listen to preach.

Dennis Pethers evangelism resource package “More to Life” is a best seller at Lifeway.  If you know me, you know I am not a huge fan of many resources as Lifeway – but this is an exception.  I love this material and have used it in my church.

Dennis Pathers has just published a new book in electronic format – so it can be distributed to the masses for as little as possible (only $2.99).  It is a short book, easy to read, and filled with great materials.

‘ The Rooftop – a Crisis of Opportunity ’ is a short, easy-to-read, ebook that encourages ordinary Christians to gain a fresh vision of God’s heart for the lost and then to join in with the mission of Jesus.

It views what many see as a ‘crisis’ in a different way – a great ‘opportunity’ to face the new reality with a new vision – God’s vision! Dennis prays that this book will be used to help initiate a new culture of faith sharing as many Christians begin to share Jesus beyond the walls of the church, the walls that we have built.

Wherever you stand on the theological spectrum – liberal, conservative, fundamentalist, New Covenant, Trinitarian, evangelical, Baptist, Methodist, WHATEVER – this little ebook is worth the read.  At only $2.99 – don’t let this slip past you.

Your reviews will all be welcome and approved on this blog – good, bad, or indifferent.  Go get your copy of Dennis Pethers ebook today.

The Rooftop – a Crisis of Opportunity

Dennis Pethers

That’s right…Sponge Bob Square Pants sings a song that inspires a dream that shows up in today’s sermon.

Preached on February 5, 2012, at the Patterson Avenue Baptist Church, this sermon is titled “So, You’ve Had A Good Day!”  Or, as Sponge Bob Square Pants might sing, “It’s the Best Day Ever!”

The text for the day is Mark 1:29-29.  It tells of Jesus “best day ever” – early in his ministry, total success, praise, and adulation.  If you or I got that kind of attention, we’d probably want to take a picture and hold on to the moment.

Hint:  That’s not what Jesus does!

You can watch the video when you click here now.

Sponge Bob Square Pants

Tony Campolo – Birthday Party
Tony Campolo tells the story of when he threw a party for a prostitute in a diner in Honolulu, Hawaii at 3am.

Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God
by: Tony Campolo
publisher: Word Publishing, published: 1997-09-09
ASIN: 0849940680
EAN: 9780849940682
sales rank: 513992
price: $4.55 (new), $0.01 (used)

With candor and insight, Tony Campolo passionately hits on hot button issues that impact the Christian life, including how to: protect yourself from technology without becoming Amish; have a devotional life without becoming a monk, and figure out the will of God without hearing voices from Heaven.

Tony Campolo

“The Devil Wears Church Clothes!”

You’ve seen the devil, right?  You know where he hangs out!  Down in the “crack house” – or in the back alley where a woman sells her body for money to buy drugs in the crack house.  Or maybe in the BIG bank, where cold, heartless bankers foreclose on the poor without so much as trying to work out a deal.

But the one place nobody expects to see the devil is in church.

In today’s sermon (based on Mark 1:21-28) we explore the reality that the devil is often found in church – wearing his (or her) “Sunday Best.”

Click the sermon title below to watch the 1/29/2012 worship gathering at the Patterson Avenue Baptist Church.

Click here to watch:   “The Devil Wears Church Clothes”

The Devil

Sunday Service – 2/28/2010 – Barbara Brown Taylor
A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. The Reverend Barbara Brown Taylor delivers a sermon entitled ”Sacramental Sky.”

Altar in the World, An: A Geography of Faith
by: Barbara Brown Taylor
publisher: HarperOne, published: 2009-02-01
ASIN: B003B65280
sales rank: 15338
price: $5.79 (new), $6.04 (used)

In her critically acclaimed Leaving Church (“a beautiful, absorbing memoir.”—Dallas Morning News), Barbara Brown Taylor wrote about leaving full-time ministry to become a professor, a decision that stretched the boundaries of her faith. Now, in her stunning follow-up, An Altar in the World, she shares how she learned to encounter God beyond the walls of any church.

From simple practices such as walking, working, and getting lost to deep meditations on topics like prayer and pronouncing blessings, Taylor reveals concrete ways to discover the sacred in the small things we do and see. Something as ordinary as hanging clothes on a clothesline becomes an act of devotion if we pay attention to what we are doing and take time to attend to the sights, smells, and sounds around us. Making eye contact with the cashier at the grocery store becomes a moment of true human connection. Allowing yourself to get lost leads to new discoveries. Under Taylor’s expert guidance, we come to question conventional distinctions between the sacred and the secular, learning that no physical act is too earthbound or too humble to become a path to the divine. As we incorporate these practices into our daily lives, we begin to discover altars everywhere we go, in nearly everything we do.

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
by: Barbara Brown Taylor
publisher: HarperOne, published: 2007-04-01
ASIN: B004HB1D5O
sales rank: 47207
price: $6.00 (new), $5.57 (used)

By now I expected to be a seasoned parish minister, wearing black clergy shirts grown gray from frequent washing. I expected to love the children who hung on my legs after Sunday morning services until they grew up and had children of their own. I even expected to be buried wearing the same red vestments in which I was ordained.

Today those vestments are hanging in the sacristy of an Anglican church in Kenya, my church pension is frozen, and I am as likely to spend Sunday mornings with friendly Quakers, Presbyterians, or Congregationalists as I am with the Episcopalians who remain my closest kin. Some-times I even keep the Sabbath with a cup of steaming Assam tea on my front porch, watching towhees vie for the highest perch in the poplar tree while God watches me. These days I earn my living teaching school, not leading worship, and while I still dream of opening a small restaurant in Clarkesville or volunteering at an eye clinic in Nepal, there is no guarantee that I will not run off with the circus before I am through. This is not the life I planned, or the life I recommend to others. But it is the life that has turned out to be mine, and the central revelation in it for me — that the call to serve God is first and last the call to be fully human — seems important enough to witness to on paper. This book is my attempt to do that.

After nine years serving on the staff of a big urban church in Atlanta, Barbara Brown Taylor arrives in rural Clarkesville, Georgia (population 1,500), following her dream to become the pastor of her own small congregation. The adjustment from city life to country dweller is something of a shock — Taylor is one of the only professional women in the community — but small-town life offers many of its own unique joys. Taylor has five successful years that see significant growth in the church she serves, but ultimately she finds herself experiencing “compassion fatigue” and wonders what exactly God has called her to do. She realizes that in order to keep her faith she may have to leave.

Taylor describes a rich spiritual journey in which God has given her more questions than answers. As she becomes part of the flock instead of the shepherd, she describes her poignant and sincere struggle to regain her footing in the world without her defining collar. Taylor’s realization that this may in fact be God’s surprising path for her leads her to a refreshing search to find Him in new places. Leaving Church will remind even the most skeptical among us that life is about both disappointment and hope — and ultimately, renewal.

Bread of Angels
by: Barbara Brown Taylor
publisher: Cowley Publications, published: 1997-01-25
ASIN: 1561011428
EAN: 9781561011421
sales rank: 81554
price: $6.99 (new), $1.29 (used)

As Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us, the Israelites received the bread of angels— manna—as they made their way through the wilderness. So too is God made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives. With humor and an eye for human stubbornness, Taylor points to just how much like the people of scripture we can be—stiff-necked and ungrateful in the face of God’s bounty. Taylor moves through the span of the Bible in her search for divine love. In the stories of Moses, David, and Daniel she picks up its trace in reversals and surprises. She refreshes our perspective on Pentecost and its aftermath in a sermon sequence on the Book of Acts. And at book’s center radiates her stunning parable of the Incarnation, “God’s Daring Plan.” With characteristic flair, Taylor grounds her exegetical enterprise on jokes and stories packed with truth. As pleasurable as they are profound, her meditations on the life of faith and the cost of discipleship will instruct the preacher and delight the reader.

Barbara Brown Taylor

GRITtv: Rev. James Forbes: What Is Our Responsibility?
Rev. James Forbes talks about the responsibility of everyone to ensure that natural disasters don´t become human disasters. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: grittv.org

James Forbes is one of the finest preachers in America – in the world.

Formerly the pastor of the Riverside Church in New York, I was honored to hear Forbes and spend a little time chatting with him last year.  Dr. James Forbes speaking for John Jasper Day
Dr. James Forbes speaking for John Jasper Day at Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church Richmond Virginia directorzone.cyberlink.com

Forbes

Sermon for January 22, 2012 at Patterson Avenue Baptist Church

Based on Mark 1:14-20 - Sermon Title:  Wearing the Team Jacket

What does my Baltimore Raven’s jacket have to do with Christian discipleship?  Listen to the sermon right now to find out.  Click this hyperlink immediately to listen to the sermon.

Oh, the sermon message is not in any fashion hindered by the fact that my Ravens just lost the game to New England.

If you’d like you very own Raven’s jacket, you can get it at the link below.  I’ll get 10% from Amazon.  All proceeds from Ravens Jacket sales will go to charity.

NFL Men’s Baltimore Ravens Heavy Polyfill Oxford Jacket With Artic Lining (Black, X-Large)
publisher: G-III
ASIN: B005CRCY46
EAN: 0790755293658
price: $80.10 (new)

Color Blocked NFL Full Zip Jacket With Artic Fleece Hood That Will Detach, This Jacket Is Poly Filled Lined For Warmth And Has Great Tackle Twill Graphics

Ravens