Month: June 2015

Do you ever get really excited about something and then, halfway through it, you wish you could back out? That’s how I visualize jumping out of an airplane with my brother. (He’s a skydive instructor.) I was thrilled with what we’re covering for this week’s message initially, but as I’m trying to craft this amazing passage into a message, I found myself stuck at every turn. I know, I know. I’m not exactly selling tomorrow’s message very well.

But that’s OK. I don’t need to sell it. It sells itself. Let me give you a peek at the passage.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. – Ephesians 3.14-21

My challenge is taking this wonderful prayer and trying to distill it into a coherent 30 minutes. The bulk of this is one sentence in Greek! It’s a beautiful passage that I leapt at the opportunity to teach upon, but halfway through I thought I wasn’t equal to the task.

I’ll give it my best shot, but if I’m really going to take this passage seriously, preaching isn’t the biggest issue anyways. It’s prayer; praying for God to strengthen you in your inner being and to help you grasp the amazing and endless love of God. Talk about praying big! I’m praying this for you – feel free to do the same for me!

And pray for those around you. There are discouraged believers in your life who need this strengthening in their hearts (inner being) and to be overwhelmed by God’s love. Pray that God would get through to them.

There are also those who don’t yet know Jesus in your life. Pray that His love would break through and they would come to know His amazing love. Pray that He would use us to share it!

See you in the morning,

Pastor Justin

 

Reminders

• Father’s Day is next week. The Holy Grill is going to feed us a great breakfast at 9:00 and we’ll have a car show – we need entrants! – as well. We love classic cars, but we also like unique cars so, if you love your car, contact christine@cypresschurch.net and let her know you want in the show!

I’m hiding in a back room getting this out as guests arrive for my daughter’s birthday party so I’ll make this quick. I won’t bore you with details of my party. This is to remind you of the party we’ll all have tomorrow.

You won’t want to miss church tomorrow. It’s going to be great. Family services are always fun – maybe interesting is better – and tomorrow won’t be an exception. Each year around this time our one church on many campuses has our Annual Celebration and Business Meeting. Last year we closed the Branch doors and went over to Cypress. This year we’re doing something different.

We’ll have a celebration service of our own at our regular time. We’ll have testimonies, worship, and a family message. … And then the next party starts. After service we’ll head to Grace Christian School – it’s in Cypress, but I think it’s actually closer to us than the Cypress campus! We’ll have maps for you tomorrow morning.

Why would we go there? A few reasons.

• Free taco truck.
• For those who are members, that’s where we’ll hold the business meeting, which consists of voting on budget, new elders, and new trustees.
• If you’re not a member, but still want to see what’s going on, you’re more than welcome to attend. And fill out a Connection Card letting us know you’d like to be a member and we’ll get you started on that process.
• Free tacos.
• Bounce houses, lots of green space, and playground equipment.
• Did I mention the free tacos?

It’s going to be a great time. I hope you’ll join us. And invite friends and neighbors, too. Let’s make it an event!

One more thing …

• If you can’t make church for whatever reason, but still want to join us at Grace Christian School, come on over! The address is 4545 Myra Ave, Cypress, CA 90630 and we should get started around noon!