What I said on Sunday: Second Adam

What I said on Sunday: Second Adam

Second Adam

First Adam

We choose Leonaro's Vitruvian Man as our image for our "Fully Alive" series. We like the idea of adding an image of what we consider the perfect man in relation to nature. I studied art history in college so for me it was very difficult to censor one of our most recognized classical works. But, this is church, the guy is gonna need a fig leaf. The perfection in proportion with Vitruvian Man could not of compared to Adams perfection.



Adam and Eve were perfect and created to:

1. Commune like God, God created them to be in communion (as he was with him self), create, and rule. Genesis 1: 27 So God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 
2. To Work  We were made to work.   Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Work is not a result of the fall, yet it's not quite right because the after the fall it it toil by the sweat of our brow. We are dealing with the spirit of entitlement (poor think they deserve something for nothing, rich think that they are entitle to break the rules and religious think that they are entitled to Gods blessings because they have been good)
3. Made for relationship Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone... 

This is our purpose (now there is more).

Second Adam
Jesus is referred to as the second Adam and He too was perfection, perfection in every way. The image below is a mosaic in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher depicting the feet of Jesus on the cross and Adams skull.
Jesus was created to (made incarnate) to:

1. Reconcile us to the big God, to a loving father, to our creator, to the creator of everything. Romans 5:10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
2. Atone Paid the price for our sins, took our place and took the punishment. It was free gift, a true sacrifice. This is the definition and means of righteousness. Romans 3:25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
3. Justify Just as if it (the fall) had never happened. Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

US
We have to get back to pre fall Adam and we can do it because Jesus made it possible. But it is our choice. If we truly choose to believe in faith then there are some things we must take care of.

1. Mind Because of the Atonement and His righteousness which is now our righteousness we should desire to have the mind of Christ. To think what he thinks, to begin to feel how he feels. To think of the things of His Kingdom and not of this world (you have to give to get, the first will be last, you have to die to live, compassion for the poor). Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
2. Body We can't ignore our bodies as if they are not a part of our spiritual life. The body is not bad, but the desires of the flesh is what keeps us from getting close to God. We embarrassed the Prism class just not because we want you to be a skinny happy Christians, we want you to grow closer to God
3. Soul Feed your soul. I Prayer that Sunday's will be your day of rest with God, you can come into this house, into his presence and rejuvenate our soul.

We need to strive to live how we were originally designed. First of all to communicate with God and do what he does, act how he acts. Second we have to work.

This idea of Fully Alive isn't some cute slogan that we thought up in a brain storming session. It is Prophetic, it is God's word to you, and I believe that it is specifically for this family. A specific vision where Creekers are known to be "different" "Alive". While everyone else is drifting through life like a ghosts Creekers are taped into something all together different. There is a zest and love for life that is palpable, there is a love for people that is authentic and there is a love for God that is real.

David's song of Praise: 2 Samuel 22

How did you do this week?  Were ya "signing the Blues"? or were you signing praises to God?
Were you "praising god...or where you "thinking evil"?
Did you make a home for praise? Or did you forget that God inhabits the Praises of his people?
Could you tune out the noise this week (neighbors, work, politics, self) and could you "tune in" God? (Could you do it during worship just now?) Praise gives God a chance to speak.
Has your spiritual health increased this week? Praise in spiritual health made audible.
Have you seen the kingdom of God made manifest his week? Praise is the bridge from this kingdom to His.
Praise is honest. Praise unites. True praise make all worshipers equal. Praise gets us closer to God, feeling distant?  Have you praised God this week?, have you praised other, have you praised your self???
Praise the reaches the inside of the Temple releases God's awesome power.

Every revival, every outporing of the Spirit, every massive move of God that has transformed people, communities, sociteis and cultures has started with praise in song. Early Christians would sign praise songs in the colosum as they were about to be devored by wild animals.

During the Reformation, Martin Luther to bar song and changed the lyrics to praise. The Great Awaking used music to teach the people right theoplogy and most receltly the Charismaci movement of the 60's and our own tradiont of the Vineyard worship style. Small little house churches sing Vineyard songs. We are instucted by God to "sing a new song"psalms 149. It is our secret weapon.



Open your Bibles to 2 Samuel 22,  (Also see Psalms 18) we are going to camp out here. This is David's a song of praise for deliverance.

I want to look at three areas of praise:

• Praise that reaches the temple: Read vs 1-22 The power of God through praise. How do we get that power? David is our model. The Power that we have available to us is unthinkable. So why wouldn't we want to praise him.

• Praise People?

 Ran an estate sale last week were a crusty old WWII Vet bugged me and told me that Christianity was "God damn *#it and that I was an idiot for believing it. So how do I one of the "greatest generation" to come to the Lord? I celebrated his service to me. He warmed up a little. David had the ability to praise and celbrate his enemeys from Saul to Saul slain son. He prasied those whom God annointed even though they had fallen from Grace.

• Praise Yourself? Beat yourself up this week?

Read v 21-25.
David was not a good guy. He lusted and sined with Bathsheba and when he could not cover up his sin he had her husband murdered. He had a nice little harem. He got angry at god when god smoked his friend. He was a terrible father whose own son rebelled against him. He would be disqualified from ministry if he lived by our standards, yet he is celbrated in THIS BOOK as a man after God's own heart.
 He lead a tragic life, yet it was still victorious.

Either David is lying, delusional or he sees himself as God sees him and has excepted that the Lord is is Rock and Savior.

David's heart for praise, his ability to SING a new song puts him into a depper relationship with God, praise puts him into the realized PRESENCE of God, it moved him from that dark mean world to an understanding of his glory. Chapter 23 David says " The Spirit of the Lord Spoke through me: and Is not my House right with God"? His songs of praise where eternal tapping into God so deep that they were also prophetic. Turn to Luke chapter 1:68 (give history) v 19 " I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. Jesus was all over this, He was inside of David's praise, He was the center of David's praise and David didn't know it on a a conscious level.

And David never stopped praising, at the end of his life when the pain of failure where numb and he was filthy rich, with honor and power He had this unending desire to build God a house. So he wrote His "Thanksgiving Prayer" 1 Chronicles 29:v9. He could have been a mean  bitter crotchety old man, but he choose to be a man of Thankfulness and Praise. Call the band and ushers and welcome the habit of worship and giving (give in faith expecting a return) Holy Spirit in this House...Who are we praising now? Jesus...


2 Sam: 24. If you have trouble with this verse lets talk. I had issues with it, it's one of those that make you go,"hmmm?'
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20samuel%2024&version=MSG

A Wing and a Prayer: or Miricale in the Muck

Listen to the Sermon Now 

A thoughtful gift. This year I got my wife this I Pod Nano. I even had it engraved. Plus I downloaded her entire music library on this thing, it took me days. And I got her a Bible with her name on it. I did good. Yes, I am patting myself on the back, because I usually get her a gift card to Marshals which she like, but really has no meaning, or thought. Might as well give her cash. My response from my wife this year was great because she knew that I loved her enough to take some time and thought. God is the same way. He wants our love not our sacrifice.













We need tension in our life in order to fly. We are like the kite, no tension no flight.


1 Chronicles 28:9

 ^9-10 "And you, Solomon my son, get to know well your father's God; serve him with a whole heart and eager mind, for God examines every heart and sees through every motive. If you seek him, he'll make sure you find him, but if you abandon him, he'll leave you for good. Look sharp now! God has chosen you to build his holy house. Be brave, determined! And do it!"

1 Chronicles 28:20
David continued to address Solomon: "Take charge! Take heart! Don't be anxious or get discouraged. God, my God, is with you in this; he won't walk off and leave you in the lurch. He's at your side until every last detail is completed for conducting the worship of God. You have all the priests and Levites standing ready to pitch in, and skillful craftsmen and artisans of every kind ready to go to work. Both leaders and people are ready. Just say the word."

Job 22:21
"Give in to God, come to terms with him and everything will turn out just fine. Let him tell you what to do; take his words to heart. Come back to God Almighty and he'll rebuild your life. Clean house of everything evil. Relax your grip on your money and abandon your gold-plated luxury. God Almighty will be your treasure, more wealth than you can imagine.

Proverbs 2:1
[ Make Insight Your Priority ] Good friend, take to heart what I'm telling you; collect my counsels and guard them with your life. Tune your ears to the world of Wisdom; set your heart on a life of Understanding. That's right—if you make Insight your priority, and won't take no for an answer, Searching for it like a prospector panning for gold, like an adventurer on a treasure hunt, Believe me, before you know it Fear-of-God will be yours; you'll have come upon the Knowledge of God.

Proverbs 3:5
Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline; don't sulk under his loving correction. It's the child he loves that God corrects; a father's delight is behind all this.

Proverbs 20:5
Knowing what is right is like deep water in the heart; a wise person draws from the well within.

What I said on Sunday: Expecting Spiritual Healing

What I said on Sunday: Expecting Spiritual Healing

Expecting Spiritual Healing

When I was in college I spent a the summer traveling through the Mediterranean. A majority of my time I spent in Israel on an Archeological dig. While visiting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem I was approached by a orthodox rabbi who invited me to dinner.  Of course I excepted and he gave me directions to his house and pointed in the general direction. That evening I showed up early and invited one of my college friends to join me, Dwight. We showed up, were warmly greeted, but there was a little awkwardness. Then it dawned on me. I have olive complexion dark curly hair and my name is Joshua Kapchinsky. "He thinks I'm a Jew"!. My friend, Dwight Anderson is fair, red headed, blue eyed and as anglo/arian as you can look. We sat around the table with a number of young traveling Jews that the Rabbi had invited. The Rabbi said, "I've invited you all here to tell you about Orthodox Judaism and would like to get to know you all, let go around the table and introduce our selves and I expect that there will be a few surprises" (indicating that there was one that was unlike the others, the obvious red headed stepchild at the table.)



Urban Dictionary: red headed stepchild

A person or group treated without the favor of birthright. The boss treats this department like his red headed stepchildren. A child who is obviously not your own, a child who is treated worse than other children in the family I beat him like a red headed stepchild. With red hair being rare, a child born to non red headed parents was often assumed to be the child of an affair. Thus was treated badly, usually in the form of beatings. I'll beat you like a red headed stepchild.

It turned out that the dinner was more than just dinner, it was a special holiday Shavuot celebrating the day God gave the Torah to the people. This happen 50 days after the Exodus. In the Greek it's called Pentecost.
 

 

Acts 2, Day one of the Church, receives the Holy Spirit. Pentecost, the day God brought us all back together in a common language. A holy gathering as opposed to a holy scattering that he performed at Babel.

Act 8 Simon the Sorcerer and the Samaritans (wannabe Jews) who received the Holy Spirit.

Acts 10 Peter's Vision and the Gentiles who receive the Holy Spirit

 ^9-13The next day as the three travelers were approaching the town, Peter went out on the balcony to pray. It was about noon. Peter got hungry and started thinking about lunch. While lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw the skies open up. Something that looked like a huge blanket lowered by ropes at its four corners settled on the ground. Every kind of animal and reptile and bird you could think of was on it. Then a voice came: "Go to it, Peter—kill and eat."
 ¹⁴Peter said, "Oh, no, Lord. I've never so much as tasted food that was not kosher."
 ¹⁵The voice came a second time: "If God says it's okay, it's okay."
 ¹⁶This happened three times, and then the blanket was pulled back up into the skies.  

From this we know that Peter was a good Jew, if he had tasted bacon he would  not have argued with God. And because of this dream we can now eat things that are tasty; pig, shrimp, cheese burgers. But the dream was not about the unclean food, it was about the unclean Italians, the red heads.
  
^17-20As Peter, puzzled, sat there trying to figure out what it all meant, the men sent by Cornelius showed up at Simon's front door.

I once had a Jewish colleague who ate bacon on accident, I didn't say anything. Is that bad?  Maybe so, cause I was laughing on the inside.


 Peter goes to Cornelius's house
 The minute Peter came through the door, Cornelius was up on his feet greeting him—and then down on his face worshiping him! Peter pulled him up and said, "None of that—I'm a man and only a man, no different from you."
 ^27-29Talking things over, they went on into the house, where Cornelius introduced Peter to everyone who had come. Peter addressed them, "You know, I'm sure that this is highly irregular. Jews just don't do this—visit and relax with people of another race. But God has just shown me that no race is better than any other. So the minute I was sent for, I came, no questions asked. But now I'd like to know why you sent for me."
30-43 Basic Gospel message.
 ^44-46No sooner were these words out of Peter's mouth than the Holy Spirit came on the listeners. The believing Jews who had come with Peter couldn't believe it, couldn't believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on "outsider" non-Jews, but there it was—they heard them speaking in tongues, heard them praising God.


God gave us three gifts:

• First the Law, Torah, Holy Scriptures.
• Second his Son; the ultimate gift that took away the transgressions of the world.
• Third the Holy Spirit, our counselor/comforter. The Holy spirit is the third gift from God. And has to work with the word or Scripture. 

There now are two Pentecosts: The day we received the Holy Scripture and the day we received the Holy Spirit.


Pentecost Sunday and the out pouring of the Holy Spirit transforms us and heals us spirtualy and empowers us suppernaturaly.  It's a gift available for all, the are no favorites, there are no red headed stepchildren .

The Benediction: I encouraged people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. And encouraged those that have been baptized to be conscious of the presence of the Holy Spirit, He is skittish like a dove (not an original illustration). Can't walk to fast or to slow, ya might chase it off. Galatians 5: ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Do You Expect Your Prayers to be Effective?

James 5:16-17

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

EFFECTIVE PRAYER:

 
1.___Transparent: 

•  Do you talk to God as if He was a friend, spouce, conselor, sibling or parent? Or is our language NIV or King James when we pray? 
• Are we addicted to counsel? Who do we turn to first in our times of need? God or loved ones? 
• Ok to want and to ask for favor.

 




2._____Selfless  

• Every religion has a cross to bear or self denial. The Gospel has resurrection that must be lived out. Self has to die and must be reborn. 
• Areas in our livees must die, so that we can be reborn.
• Prov 27:²¹ The purity of silver and gold is tested
     by putting them in the fire;
  The purity of human hearts is tested
     by giving them a little fame.
  

3.____Know it's Authority: (See previous blogs on the Kingdom.)

 

 










4.___Indignant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhFbkfGYq90

• Be dogged  in prayer! Don't give up, don't give in. Insist on blessings and indignant towards the enemy, don't allow Him to steel, kill and destroy.
• 
  
  
  

  "If I don't take my prayers seriously, why should God?"

   

Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. (3John 1:2 NASB)


That simple prayer discloses a profound truth. John tells us that both prosperity and good health flow from a prosperous soul. Every one of us hopes for prosperity and health. Perhaps we are closer to those things than we realize. Perhaps we should “attend to our own minds, and so proving what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2).

Prayer for impartation. (grace transferred).  God distributes gifts. Give God our failures and success.

Come before the Lord???? abandonment? Addicted to the counsel of others? Milk?

Baggage defines how we pray.
Can you feel a depressed person when they walk into the room?

The worst sin is unbelief.