This Weekend @ Revolution: 4 Questions that Change Everything

Have you ever wondered why you do what you do? Why you make the decisions you do? Fall into some of the patterns of thinking or feeling that you do? We often shrug those things off. Thinking, I’m just controlling because that’s the way I was raised, I don’t trust people because I always end up getting hurt, I always overspend, overeat because that’s just what I do. I’m just that way.

We are going to be continuing our series through 1 & 2 Peter this week as we have a special guest preacher. Chris Gonzalez, an Acts 29 Pastor from Phoenix will be with us to look at 4 Questions that Change Everything. Chris has been a good friend of mine for the last few years and is an incredible communicator.

This week, we are starting our new summer service time at 5pm, so make note of that on your calendar.

Also, don’t forget about some of the exciting things that are happening in the month of June:

• We are starting a brand new series on June 2 called So You’re Dead…Now What? We will look at what happens after we die, how our lives impact life after death, what heaven and hell are like now, what they will be like in the future, when Jesus will return. It is going to be a packed 4 weeks that you won’t want to miss.
• June 9 is our next child dedication. If you have questions about it or would like to participate by dedicating your baby or child, please email Jared Carter.
• Our next baptism will be on June 16. If you are interested in getting baptized or have questions about it, please email Mike Miller.

I’m looking forward to seeing you this Saturday, at 5pm. Bring someone with you as we celebrate and gather as a church family.

Remember, we meet at 6620 E 22nd St.

See you Saturday.

This Weekend @ Revolution Church

Last week we looked at how at how we know something is true. This week, we are going to look the other side of that coin, how do we know when something is false, when we are believing lies about ourselves, and the world around us. Not only that, but once we know something is false, a lie, what do we do with that? How do we handle that and move forward in the truth?

As we looked at truth last week, we saw how many of us so often fall into believing lies about our past, our sin, even God’s grace. There is freedom to knowing something is true or a lie. There is freedom when we live out of the truth of who we are and who God is. If you’d like to read ahead this week, read 2 Peter 2:1 – 22.

There are a ton of things coming up at Revolution in the next few weeks that I want to make sure you don’t miss:

• Next week, May 26, is our first night of being in 1 service together as an entire church. To read more about why we are doing this, go here. I’m really excited to have our whole church together to worship in 1 service this summer.
• We are starting a brand new series on June 2 called So You’re Dead…Now What? We will look at what happens after we die, how our lives impact life after death, what heaven and hell are like now, what they will be like in the future, when Jesus will return. It is going to be an action packed 4 weeks that you won’t want to miss.
• June 9 is our next child dedication. If you have questions about it or would like to participate by dedicating your baby or child, please email Jared Carter.
• Our next baptism will be on June 16. If you are interested in getting baptized or have questions about it, please email Mike Miller.

As I said, lots of things going on and coming up at Revolution Church.

I’m looking forward to seeing you this Saturday, our final weekend with these service times: 4 & 5:30pm. Bring someone with you as we celebrate and gather as a church family.

Remember, we meet at 6620 E 22nd St.

See you Saturday.

This Weekend @ Revolution: How do you Know What’s True

So far, this series through the book of 2 Peter has been one of my favorite series we’ve ever done. The theme of looking at the lies we build our lives on is so important. If we don’t build our lives or make decisions based on truth, we end up in the wrong places, often hurt and living a life we wish we could trade in.

Last week, we looked at The Lie that Affects our Whole Life. If you didn’t grab the 10+10 questions or the family bible study questions, you can download them by clicking the links. If you are new to Revolution Church and curious why we provide these questions or how best to use them, here is a quick blog post to answer those questions.

This weekend we will be continuing in 2 Peter and looking at 2 Peter 1:16 – 21 and looking at how we know what is true in our life and in our world. We are bombarded everyday with messages. Online, in magazines, on TV, through friends. We have our favorite authors, favorite artists, even our favorite pastors, but how do we know if what these people are saying is something that we should follow. Most of us go by the sensory response of if what they are saying makes us feel good or if it aligns to what we already think, but Peter spells out a standard for the church that is far more reliable. Even for Peter, an apostle , who was an eyewitness of the death and resurrection of Jesus says that the test of a true teacher is not their resume, not their success and not their popularity. The ONLY litmus test by which true teachers are to be judged is on their alignment to what Scripture teaches. Because of this, a litmus test for the health of a Christian, is that their love, awareness and dependence on the Bible should be constantly growing.

This weekend is Mother’s Day and because of that, we will be having a special opportunity for you to take a family picture for FREE. Before both services, you and your family can get a free family picture through a photographer that attends Revolution Church. This is a great opportunity for your family. This is also a chance if you don’t have kids to send a picture to your mom and update your facebook picture. If you are a woman, call the men in your life (sons, husband, brother, nephews, son-in-law) and tell them that for Mother’s day, you simply want them to join you for church and for them to treat you to dinner afterward.

I know for many of us, this weekend is an exciting weekend as we celebrate the women in our lives. For others, this is a painful reminder. For some, it is the reminder of a mother who is no longer with you. For others, it is the reminder of the dream of being a mother that has not been fulfilled. Because of that, at the end of each service during our prayer time, we want to invite those who don’t celebrate this weekend, but who instead you mourn in this area of your life. We want to invite you during the response time of communion to go to one of our leaders in the prayer corners, for us to pray over you. God is sovereign, and His comfort is real, even when life is the hardest.

Remember, we meet at 4 & 5:30pm at 6620 E 22nd. St.

See you Saturday.

This Weekend @ Revolution: The Lie that Affects Our Whole Life and Faith

So many great things happened at Revolution Church right now. I announced that in conjunction with our move at the end of August, we will be moving to 1 service on May 26th. The reason is that all the places we are talking to right now are larger than where we meet right now and we want to be prepared for that. I’m excited about this on a number of levels: we get to worship as an entire church in one room this summer, God is preparing us for some big things as we look to move to a larger facility and he uses Revolution to help people find their way back to God. By making this transition now, it helps us to make sure our teams and systems are ready for 1 service instead of 2.

We also announced 2 weeks ago that Jared Carter has joined our staff team as the Next Generation Pastor overseeing Planet Rev and Rev Up. He had a parent meeting this past week for parents of Planet Rev kids and announced that this week we are introducing an electronic check in for Planet Rev. You can read all the details here at the Planet Rev blog. If you are a Revolutionary parent, I’d encourage you to subscribe to this blog to stay up to date on what is happening in Planet Rev.

Also, this past week, we started a brand new book of the Bible, 2 Peter. The theme of 2 Peter is simple: many of us believe lies that affect our lives and our faith in Christ. On Saturday, we looked at how we fight one of the biggest lies in our culture, the lie of having more. If you missed it you can listen here.

This week, I’ll be preaching from 2 Peter 1:5 – 15 and looking at some of the doubts that many people wrestle with: have I sinned too much for God’s grace, is it possible for me to lose my salvation, can I do something for God to stop loving me. Many people can easily believe that God exists but then struggle with believing that God cares for them, loves them and forgives them. If we see these lies and the truths that combat them, it actually affects everything about our relationship with Jesus.

So, do whatever you have to do to be at Revolution this week (and bring someone with you, you never know how a simple invite can make an eternal difference). An easy to invite someone is to send them an e-vite.

Remember, we meet at 4 & 5:30pm at 6620 E 22nd. St.

See you Saturday.

This Weekend @ Revolution: How do I Know if I’m a Follower of Jesus?

We wrapped up 1 Peter this past weekend and made some important announcements about what is happening at Revolution Church right now and into the future. If you missed it, you can listen to it here.

One of the things I talked about was that we’ve hired Jared Carter as our Next Generation Pastor. I’m so excited about this and what it will mean for us to have someone concentrating full-time on Planet Rev and Rev Up. We will be having a parent meeting this Saturday after both services for parents of Planet Rev to meet Jared and some of his volunteer leaders, some details on what is ahead (including family fun nights throughout the summer, more secure check-in and what the future of Planet Rev will look like). You can read more about that here. I’d encourage you that if you have kids, infant – 5th grade to make plans to be at one of the meetings.

This Saturday, we will be continuing our Weird series and start 2 Peter. The main theme of 2 Peter is how we combat the lies in our lives and how that affects how we live and our faith. Many of us fall into believing lies when it comes to how we view God, how we think He views us and consequently, where we stand with God.

One of the most common questions I get has to do with assurance and how one knows for sure where they stand with God. Is it possible to know for sure? What if you keep on sinning? Churches talk about being “born again” but what does that mean?

These questions are crucial not only to salvation and eternity, but to how we live our lives and find freedom from sins, addictions, negative emotions, etc. Peter gives us some very clear answers we’ll look at this week from 2 Peter 1:1 – 4 if you’d like to read ahead.

This will be a great week to bring someone with you who doesn’t know Jesus (as every week is), but this week we will be unpacking very specifically what it means to follow Jesus, how changes Jesus changes our lives and what that means practically.

Remember, we meet at 4 & 5:30pm at 6620 E 22nd. St.

See you Saturday.

This Weekend @ Revolution: The Kind of Church God Uses

Last week as we continued our series Weird, we looked at the kind of person God uses. If you missed it, you can listen to it here.

This week, we are going to wrap up 1 Peter as we look at 1 Peter 5:5 – 14 and look at the kind of church God uses.

As we looked at last week, all of us want our lives to count, we want them to have a purpose, to have influence. The same goes for when we are part of a church. We want that church to make a difference, to have an impact, to live for more than themselves. But how does that happen? What does a church like that look like?

Most churches seem to just be about themselves, but God uses churches that use their influence and resources for Him. This week is an important night in the life of our church as we look to what God has called us to and how we will fulfill that. We will also be making an important announcement to go along with this message that you don’t want to miss.

So, do whatever you have to do to be at Revolution this week (and bring someone with you, you never know how a simple invite can make an eternal difference). An easy to invite someone is to send them an e-vite.

Remember, we meet at 4 & 5:30pm at 6620 E 22nd. St.

See you Saturday.

This Weekend @ Revolution: The Kind of Person who God Uses

Easter was an unbelievable time at Revolution Church. Started off with a powerful Good Friday of walking through the Stations of the Cross and then celebrating baptisms in our Easter services. If you weren’t there, you can listen to the sermon here and see some of the pictures of the baptisms here.

This week, we are continuing our series Weird and I’ll be preaching from 1 Peter 5:1 – 4 and looking at the kind of person God uses. We all want our lives to matter, to make a difference, but God has specific qualifications for the kind of person He uses.

When we think of a leader or a person God uses, we often think of a superhero kind of person. Someone who is strong, maybe good looking, looks and sounds spiritual whenever they open their mouth and seem almost otherworldly in how they live. But is that really who God uses? If so, that creates a narrow view. Yet, many people walk through life and think, “God could never use me.”

Peter points out not only who God uses (and the answer might surprise you), but also when God is most likely to use people (again, the answer on this one might surprise you as well).

This is a crucial week in this series as this gets into the area of leadership. All of us are leaders, we all lead someone in our life. We are all further on our journey with God than someone. The reality is not, am I a leader, but am I a good one?

In addition to talking about who God uses and when he uses them, I’ll also get into what it means to be a leader at Revolution Church, why that matters to you and how that will move us forward to being a church that plants churches. I can’t emphasize enough that you definitely do not want to miss this week or next week at Revolution (you don’t want to miss any week at Revolution, but these 2 weeks are critically important to who we are as a church and where we are going).

It is definitely a week you don’t want to miss.

So, do whatever you have to do to be at Revolution this week (and bring someone with you, you never know how a simple invite can make an eternal difference). An easy to invite someone is to send them an e-vite.

Remember, we meet at 4 & 5:30pm at 6620 E 22nd. St. See you Saturday.