Flatland/Pics: Being the Rain

Well, I man­aged to recover a part of the post that I lost from a cou­ple weeks ago. I am going to include it along with this weeks ser­mon since they go together well. We at Flatland have been look­ing at our logo and dis­cov­er­ing how it is a pic­ture of Flatland, a promise to us and a call of ministry.

Flatland logo — where ever you are feel­ing dry, God will bring you refresh­ing. Last week we learned that God wants us to step into his rain of redemp­tion. Without God, we are a dry and cracked land. But God will pour out His sal­va­tion upon us, even though we are ugly dried up mud. Flatland must be like God and accept peo­ple as they are.

But there are even more refresh­ing that God is will­ing to do. He wants to trans­form us. Pour out His rain on all parts of our lives. Eph 2:1–2 [show]Ephesians 2:1–2 And you were dead in the tres­passes and sins [2]in which you once walked, fol­low­ing the course of this world, fol­low­ing the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of dis­obe­di­ence– (ESV)
we were dead but now we are alive.

We can loose our pas­sion for God. Sin in our lives can dry us up. But God wants to con­tin­u­ally rain on us, to trans­form us into spir­i­tual beings.

Have we stepped out of God’s rain and are dry­ing up? Stepping into the rain. Parable of the sower. Matt 13 [show]Matthew 13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. [2]And great crowds gath­ered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. [3]And he told them many things in para­bles, say­ing: “A sower went out to sow. [4]And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. [5]Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and imme­di­ately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, [6]but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they with­ered away. [7]Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. [8]Other seeds fell on good soil and pro­duced grain, some a hun­dred­fold, some sixty, some thirty. [9]He who has ears, let him hear.“ [10]Then the dis­ci­ples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in para­bles?” [11]And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the king­dom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. [12]For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abun­dance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. [13]This is why I speak to them in para­bles, because see­ing they do not see, and hear­ing they do not hear, nor do they under­stand. [14]Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is ful­filled that says: “‘You will indeed hear but never under­stand, and you will indeed see but never per­ceive. [15]For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and under­stand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.‘ [16]But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. [17]For truly, I say to you, many prophets and right­eous peo­ple longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. [18]“Hear then the para­ble of the sower: [19]When any­one hears the word of the king­dom and does not under­stand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. [20]As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and imme­di­ately receives it with joy, [21]yet he has no root in him­self, but endures for a while, and when tribu­la­tion or per­se­cu­tion arises on account of the word, imme­di­ately he falls away. [22]As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceit­ful­ness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruit­ful. [23]As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and under­stands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hun­dred­fold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.“ [24]He put another para­ble before them, say­ing, “The king­dom of heaven may be com­pared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, [25]but while his men were sleep­ing, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. [26]So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. [27]And the ser­vants of the mas­ter of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ [28]He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the ser­vants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ [29]But he said, ‘No, lest in gath­er­ing the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. [30]Let both grow together until the har­vest, and at har­vest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bun­dles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” [31]He put another para­ble before them, say­ing, “The king­dom of heaven is like a grain of mus­tard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. [32]It is the small­est of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the gar­den plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.“ [33]He told them another para­ble. “The king­dom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three mea­sures of flour, till it was all leav­ened.“ [34]All these things Jesus said to the crowds in para­bles; indeed, he said noth­ing to them with­out a para­ble. [35]This was to ful­fill what was spo­ken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in para­bles; I will utter what has been hid­den since the foun­da­tion of the world.“ [36]Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his dis­ci­ples came to him, say­ing, “Explain to us the para­ble of the weeds of the field.” [37]He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. [38]The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the king­dom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, [39]and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The har­vest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. [40]Just as the weeds are gath­ered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. [41]The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his king­dom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, [42]and throw them into the fiery fur­nace. In that place there will be weep­ing and gnash­ing of teeth. [43]Then the right­eous will shine like the sun in the king­dom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. [44]“The king­dom of heaven is like trea­sure hid­den in a field, which a man found and cov­ered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. [45]“Again, the king­dom of heaven is like a mer­chant in search of fine pearls, [46]who, on find­ing one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. [47]“Again, the king­dom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gath­ered fish of every kind. [48]When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into con­tain­ers but threw away the bad. [49]So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and sep­a­rate the evil from the right­eous [50]and throw them into the fiery fur­nace. In that place there will be weep­ing and gnash­ing of teeth. [51]“Have you under­stood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes.” [52]And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the king­dom of heaven is like a mas­ter of a house, who brings out of his trea­sure what is new and what is old.“ [53]And when Jesus had fin­ished these para­bles, he went away from there, [54]and com­ing to his home­town he taught them in their syn­a­gogue, so that they were aston­ished, and said, “Where did this man get this wis­dom and these mighty works? [55]Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his broth­ers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? [56]And are not all his sis­ters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” [57]And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not with­out honor except in his home­town and in his own house­hold.” [58]And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbe­lief. (ESV)
. We need to go deep into our rela­tion­ship with God in order for our roots go deep that we may mot dry up. We need to prac­tice the spir­i­tual disciplines.

We need to fol­low God’s man­ual instead of try­ing to be spon­ta­neous. Believe He has a plan and fol­low His will. God wants us to enjoy life and is pas­sion­ate about giv­ing great things BUT we must be pas­sion­ate about Him first and fore­most. He must be our focus our pas­sion our love and when we do he will rain on us.

This week we are mov­ing from being the flat and dry land in need of God’s refresh­ing rain to being the refresh­ing rain on the dry parched land of the world.

Flatland has two new oppor­tu­ni­ties for being that rain, Flatland24 and an 8:30 ser­vice at Flatland144.

Our logo rep­re­sents our lives and the world with­out God and the promise we have with God.

Only 20% of Omaha have an active rela­tion­ship with God. We live in a spir­i­tu­ally dry place but God is will­ing to pour out His rain and He wants us to be that rain.

Acts 13:47 [show]Acts 13:47 [47]For so the Lord has com­manded us, say­ing, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring sal­va­tion to the ends of the earth.’”
and Hebrews 2:3 [show]Hebrews 2:3 [3]how shall we escape if we neglect such a great sal­va­tion? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, (ESV)
.

How do we con­firm God’s sal­va­tion? We are not sales peo­ple try­ing to sell God. We are to pro­claim that we are sat­is­fied customers.

Work out our salvation.

Staying phys­i­cally fit is like work­ing out our sal­va­tion. It is a daily com­mit­ment. We have to watch what we eat. Slacking off ends up mak­ing it harder to start up again. Garbage in garbage out. Regular work­ing out is required (spir­i­tual disciplines).

Stalling a plane results in a quick plumet to the ground. Spiritual stalling can lead to a falling from God’s grace.

Monitor your heart rate. Spiritual heart rate is your involve­ment in outreach.

Getting into the gym is to live our Christianity in front of the world.

Got to take sup­ple­ments, extra pro­tien, recov­ery stuff. Spiritual sup­pli­ments us being involved with other Christians (small groups etc).

Saturate with Hope.

Society is look­ing for hope. Hopelessness leads us to despair and giv­ing up. Heb 10:23 [show]Hebrews 10:23 [23]Let us hold fast the con­fes­sion of our hope with­out waver­ing, for he who promised is faith­ful. (ESV)
. God gives hope and we can rep­re­sent that hope to the world.

Putting our heart in the right trea­sure. Involve God in our every­day deci­sions. Work hard to honor God.

Live right

Based on God’s expec­ta­tions.
Don’t con­dem the world John 3:15–17 [show]John 3:15–17 [15]that who­ever believes in him may have eter­nal life. [16]“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that who­ever believes in him should not per­ish but have eter­nal life. [17]For God did not send his Son into the world to con­demn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (ESV)

Live con­sis­tently accord­ing to His Word.

Whoa, lots of stuff there and some of it I can’t explain, you will just have to lis­ten to the pod­cast — http://www.flatlandchurch.com/

I am being really struck by the very clear call by our pas­tors to action. The last ser­mon series “Dive In” and this one are both chal­leng­ing us to be involved in min­istry, in dif­fer­ent ways. This one is more of a look at what Flatland is com­mit­ted to, namely, to bring refresh­ment to all who are feel­ing dried up. One can be lost, with­out God and need redemp­tive rain, one can be feel­ing dried up spir­i­tu­ally and in need of a refresh­ing rain. Flatland Church has as its focus to bring that rain to all.

I really like what Pastor Jeff said this week about how we don’t sell sal­va­tion rather we pro­claim how we are sat­is­fied  cus­tomers  (yeah, the pic­ture is of Pastor Bart who started the ser­mon). And so we are chal­lenged this week, “How are we bring­ing God’s refresh­ing rain to those who feel like a dry and cracked land?”