Mcc Podcast

This week we conclude our Streaks series by being reminded, because I think we all know this, that we are not meant to do our faith journey alone.  We are born to belong.   We are created for community.   And whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we spend our whole lives trying to fit in, get in, and stay in. It almost doesn’t even matter what “in” is; we just want to belong somewhere.   Romans 12:5 (NIV) reminds us that in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.   In a healthy-functioning community of disciples of Jesus we are deeply connected to one another, and when something happens, good or bad, the instinctive response is to rally around one another.   We will also be reminded that community is not only how we impact each other, but how we impact the world.

This week, Jason Beaver continues our series Streaks by focusing on the habit of Generosity. Jason walks us through the importance of making generosity a regular habit and how it will push to a deeper level of faith when we commit to a plan of regular generosity.

This Sunday we look at a conversation Jesus had that speaks about a 3rd streak we need to be shooting for that is the biggest catalyst for those who are younger disciples. By the way, I don’t mean your age or how long you’ve been following. As a matter of fact, you may have been following Jesus for years or decades and still be a young disciple. And if this habit is not part of your walk, you will stay there.   This streak comes up in a conversation that started with a question: “Who is my neighbor?” And we find out that being a good neighbor (read that disciple of Jesus) is really just about opening your eyes to the simple things you can do to help someone in need.

Streaks are something that you want to do (or not do) intentionally and consistently because it gets you somewhere you want to go. They are not something someone or something can do for you. You actually have to do it. It’s not something that can be set on autopilot. It requires action on your part.   Last week we began with the disciplines that surround scripture. By far, the number one catalyst for growth in your faith, regardless of how long you have been following Jesus, is how you engage the Bible.   This week it’s about prayer.   A friend once said to me, “A church cannot grow beyond the prayers of its people.” Do you believe that?   This week we look at why praying is one of the streaks that a disciple of Jesus must have, what we need to make sure our prayers include, and how to make it a daily streak.

This weekend we will begin a series called Streaks. The idea for this series is that there are habits or disciplines that, as disciples of Jesus, we need to develop that will have their greatest impact on our lives if we do them consistently and often.  Daily is what we should be shooting for.  Hence - streaks.   During this series we’re going to look at what God uses in our lives so that we are being changed by Jesus.   This Sunday we are beginning with the disciplines that surround scripture. By far, the number one catalyst for growth in your faith - regardless of how long you have been following Jesus - is how you engage the Bible.   Paul wrote to Timothy, (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV),” Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”   This weekend we will see how we can make this streak a reality in our life.

As we start our year I want to remind you that when we say disciple at MCC we mean someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and is committed to the mission of Jesus.   So this Sunday I want to talk about chairs.   Have you ever played musical chairs? Probably when you were younger, maybe at a birthday party? Everyone is in a circle and there is one less chair then there are people and someone plays music and when it stops you find a chair. When I was a Student Pastor, we played full contact musical chairs with our high school students. That just removes the pretense of being polite. That was fun.   I’m going to guess that most of us continue to play this even as adults, we just may not recognize it as the game. But we stand up, We move from this chair to that one, We stake our claim. We want to be the last one sitting in the winning chair because we all know that where you end up sitting in life is a big deal.   So as we sit on the edge of a new year, I want us to stop and t

We will remind ourselves what Jesus has brought into our lives and still offers to people today, a message of hope.   This year we will have 3 Christmas Eve services:  December 23 at 7:00pm  December 24 at 5:30pm and 7:00pm   I’d like to ask a favor. When you determine the service you intend to be part of, please RSVP.  There are 3 ways you can do that:  - our website on the Christmas tab  - a link on our Facebook page  - The sign-ups tab on our Church Center app  We’re asking MCCers to do this so we can anticipate how many will be in the room for each service. This also allows us to plan well for children in our nursery and preschool classrooms which will be available for all 3 services.  We know that we have people from the community who will not know to do this so we want to make sure we have plenty of room for everyone. We can and will be ready to expand seating as needed. Thank you for your help in being prepared for that.

This Sunday Rich will continue our Ugly Christmas Sweater series talking about “the blues.” Christmas can be a time seasoned with disappointment. Perhaps you have heard me say that Christmas is the Great Exaggerator. Whatever you are feeling the rest of the year - at Christmas time - the volume gets turned up.

This year we are approaching the Christmas season through a series that we’re calling Ugly Christmas Sweaters. Now, while ugly Christmas sweaters are funny, we know that Christmas brings with it, for many people, an ugly side of life. We try to bury it with colored lights and music and Christmas specials and Hallmark movies that begin in October, but people, maybe your friends, maybe you, deal with:  Busyness  Depression  Loneliness   And Jesus didn’t come to gloss over the ugly parts of life, He came to light them up with His Kingdom and help us through. So we’re going to be taking the 3 weeks leading up to Christmas to talk about what it looks like and what Jesus has to say about helping people through the ugly parts of Christmas.   This Sunday we will be starting with Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth.

Family gatherings are always stressful. Each time we gather together we are bringing in both our expectations and our brokenness. But what if our family gatherings could look different. This week we will look at scripture to see how putting Jesus at the center of our families can actually change the way we view our gatherings and how we treat each other.

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving and many of us will be getting together with family at some point. AND because the next day is Black Friday and the following Monday is Cyber Monday, we thought it was good for us to be reminded of what Paul reminded the early church. This is the official beginning of the holiday season that will take us through New Year’s Day.

This week as we begin our series, Family Feels, I want to remind us all that children are awesome. Our responsibility to them as parents (and all of us who have children within our sphere of influence) is awesome too.   Christian psychologist Gary Smalley co-wrote a book with John Trent entitled, “The Blessing.” They wrote: “ While we may say out loud that we don't care what other people think about us, on the inside we all yearn for intimacy and affection. This yearning is especially true in our relationship with our parents. Gaining or missing out on parental approval has a tremendous effect on us, even if it has been years since we have had any regular contact with them. In fact, what happens in our relationship with our parents can greatly affect all our present and future relationships."   And we all have this in common. We long for the love and praise of our parents; what Smalley and Trent call “The Blessing.” Sunday I get to share about the incredible opportunity we have, here at MCC, to bles

This weekend we are going to conclude our Life Is Hard, God Is Good series by looking at the last 3 chapters of Job’s story. As a reminder, last week we looked at chapters 3-37 which contains the conversation that Job’s 3 friends had with Job, mostly accusing him of doing something wrong that prompted God to punish him so heinously. It also contained Job defending himself and complaining about how God treated him.   As the book ends, God speaks. And in what God says, we will be reminded of three principles that we need when we face difficult times in our lives as well. And none of these may fly well in our culture today.

There is an organization from Europe known as BLTC Research. The company was founded in 1995 in order to promote what they call “paradise-engineering.” One of their stated goals is to deliver “genetically pre-programmed well-being.” According to their scientists - using our “super-minds” and genetic engineering - mankind can abolish both physical and mental pain altogether. They plan to create super-health and usher in a cruelty-free world. No suffering.   Now that’s an interesting world-view, but you know as well as I do, it’s absolutely ridiculous. We saw last week that we live in a fallen world and that bad things happen to good people. In fact, both God’s Word and human experience demonstrate that human suffering helps us mature and that the experience of suffering forces us to lean more heavily upon God.   Last week we read the story of Job that so many people are familiar with. This week we will see what we can learn from the conversation between Job and his friends who came to “comfort him.”

Job lived 4500 years ago. And the book of Job was probably the first book in the Bible. He predated Moses who wrote the first 5 books of the Bible.   Q: Why, you may ask, am I telling you that?  A: The first divinely inspired book written deals with humanity’s age-long mystery; why do good people suffer? Some things never change.   There comes a time in every life, just like in Job’s, when you will wonder the same thing. It’s as if all hell has broken loose. Suddenly. Unexpectedly.   It happens to all of us. No one is exempt. One way or another, tragedy strikes every life. And then the doubts begin. The questions:  Why is this happening to me?  What have I done to deserve this?  God, what’s wrong with me?  God, don’t You still love me?   I want to warn you now:  There will be lessons in this series you won’t want to hear. We will likely read verses that will raise more questions than they answer. Some painful memories may come rising to the surface as we lo

If you’re one of the 115 million Americans who heads to work in a vehicle on a daily basis, odds are there are few things that frustrate you more than getting stuck at a red light. According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, the perfect amount of time for a light to remain red is between 60 and 90 seconds. That means that, ideally, an urban driver would spend an average of 75 seconds waiting at each red light.   According to AAA, the average American spends 17,600 minutes driving each year. That’s 3,520 minutes, or 58.6 hours, spent waiting at red lights every 365 days.   But it’s not just waiting in line that challenges our patience, challenging situations and frustrating people, test our patience as well. Sometimes even the best of friends can test each others’ patience.   Patience can be an Achilles’ heel, depending on how it affects the example we are leaving of our faith and how being a disciple of Jesus plays out in real life in real time.   And this Sunda

Conflict is a universal experience with all people.    It doesn't matter how well you get along, it doesn't matter how much you love each other, it doesn't matter how mature a Christian you are, there is still going to be some conflict in your life.   In fact, in any relationship with another person, no two people are going to see eye to eye on every issue. The more time you spend together, the more opportunities you'll have to disagree.   However, that doesn't mean we can't live our lives in peace and harmony either. Conflict is inevitable, but it doesn't have to be fatal. This week we’ll be looking at what James says about two of the most common roots of conflict in our lives, and how we can avoid allowing that to be an Achilles’ heel in our faith.

Dr. Louann Brizendine is a neuropsychiatrist and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She wrote the books, “The Female Brain” in 2006 and “The Male Brain” in 2010. She states that, “A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000.” Now there is a lot that could be said with that type of statistic. But I won’t say any of them. But I will remind you that Proverbs 18:20 (Good News Version) says, “You have to live with the consequences of everything you say.” Have you ever noticed that some of us are born with a silver foot in our mouth? We have this natural ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Nothing is opened more wrongly at the wrong time than our mouths. James talks more about the tongue than any author in the New Testament. Every chapter in his book says something about managing your mouth. This Sunday, I will be sharing 2 reasons that James reminds us of why our mouth can be an Achilles’ heel, and what we can do to make sure it

We continue our series through the book of James which we’re calling Achilles because, regardless of how mature we are in our faith, we all have at least one, Achilles’ heel (weakness). Maybe more than one. I’m going to bet that most of us think that what James talks about next, that we have totally under control. This is not a problem for us. And big picture, maybe it’s not a problem here at MCC. Maybe. But I wonder if you will discover what I did as I prepared for this message, at times I do struggle with this. This week we see how favoritism was an Achilles’ heel in the early church and can be in our lives as well.

On any given weekend, I think it would be fair to say that, some of us who gather for worship come looking for answers and you know God’s Word has those answers.  I would think it is equally fair to say that the majority of us are here because, at some point, God’s Word did change our lives. And we were determined to give ourselves to Him.  And, there will be some in worship, online or in the room who have not made a commitment to Jesus through their baptism who are still trying to figure the Book out.  For those who have had God’s Word change you life, let me ask you this, does it still? Does the Word of God still change your life? Because the Bible can become an Achilles’ heel in our lives. How is that even possible?