On Wednesday, April 17th, 2013, Josh Kimes gave my favorite message of his to date.

SPEAKER: Josh Kimes
TITLE: Freedom Ain’t Free

Exodus 3:7-12 NIV

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concernedabout their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivitesand Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

Galatians 5:1 NIV

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Freedom was never talked about when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. It hurt too much. Generation after generation were born into slavery.
-After a while do you accept what is wrong as right? Do you accept what is abnormal as normal?

How free are you?
-We might not be bound by slavery externally but we can be bound internally: mistakes, guilt, insecurities, surroundings, emotions, mediocrity, your past, failure
-God wants to set you free so you can live free and set others free.
—If we want to live free and set others free, we’re gonna have to face some pharaohs in our life: a person, a thought pattern, anything that tries to restrict you in life to your fears, doubts, and discouragement, anything that keeps you enslaved.

3 Pharaohs we need overcome if we’re going to live free and help set others free:
1) A pharaoh called self.
-We need to see ourselves as God sees us.
-Until we know whose we are, we don’t know who we are.
Exodus 3:11 NIV

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

-Moses didn’t see himself as much.
—We can see ourselves like this when we’re called to defy culture and lead.
-How you see yourself will influence how you see others and how others see you.
-Sometimes it’s good to talk to yourself in the mirror like this girl:

 http://www.youtube.com/embed/qR3rK0kZFkg

-What you see and what God sees can be totally different.
-If you don’t see yourself that way in your mirror, then you’re probably looking in the wrong mirror. You need to look in the mirror of the Bible
-What you see and what God sees can be two totally different things.
—Where you see guilt, God sees grace.
—Where you see failure, God sees a future.
—Where you see a slave, God sees a son/daughter.
-Get over yourself and get beyond yourself.
-If you can beat yourself, you can’t be beaten.
—Don’t be your worst enemy.
-God doesn’t call the equipped; he equips the called.
—What we think disqualifies us is often what actually qualifies us.
-God says: 
—You were created in his image
—You have a purpose
—You’re complete in him
—You’re the light of the world
—You’re the salt of the earth
—You’re more than a conqueror
—You’re a partaker of his divine nature
—You’re more than a conqueror
-You don’t need to chase influence in your life. When you see yourself the way God sees you influence chases you.
2) A Pharaoh called silence
-If you don’t speak up, your Pharaoh will shut you up.
Exodus 8:1 NIV

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.

-Worship brings perspective in the midst of chaos.
-Worship brings passion. It’s powerful.
—When you’re a slave to fear, mediocrity, etc the first thing to go is your worship.
-For 400 years no one spoke up for the slaves.
-Your pharaoh would love you to live a silent life to struggle and suffer in silence.
Proverbs 18:21 NIV

The tongue has the power of life and death,

    and those who love it will eat its fruit.

-It’s not time to remain silent. It’s time to speak up and worship through the doubt, feelings, and discouragement.
—Speak to your pharaoh. “Let me go so I can worship!”
-Don’t live silent about the hope you have in Him.
-Don’t get to the end of your life and find that you’ve done more talking than living.
—Let your life, generosity, joy, passion, and kindness speak for itself.
-Let your life speak louder than your lips.
3) A Pharaoh called setback
Exodus 14:10-12 NIV

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

-They’re telling Moses not to give them hope.
—The setback stood in the way of God’s promise, provision, peace, purpose, and freedom
Exodus 14:13-14;21-22 NIV

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided,and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

-When God is in the picture your setback is just a set up for a comeback.

Galatians 5:1 NIV

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm,then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

-That freedom was bought with a price.

On Sunday, April 14th, 2013, Pastor Carl continued his scandal series by talking about the scandal of grace. If you’d like to check out the first message he’d done on Easter, you can find it here.

SPEAKER: Pastor Carl Lentz
TITLE: A Scandal Called Grace

Scandal: a situation that has gone down that shouldn’t have happened.
-Favor you don’t deserve. Access to areas you shouldn’t be allowed in.
-When people can figure you out, you need to be living deeper. People should ask, “Why are you here? 
Grace is personified in Jesus.
-Because of Jesus alone we have the right to believe we can be healed, etc.
-The same grace that saved you should be sustaining you today.
—It never stops: grace, grace and more grace
John 11:1-4 ESV

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord,he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

-You can come back from a lot of things but not death. Death was undefeated…so far.
-You’re the one who Jesus loves.
—Have that same confidence. He went to that cross for you.
-Even when you’re at your worse, God can still do something for his glory.
John 11:25-27 ESV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

-The resurrection is not an event, it’s a many…
-If there’s a situation in your life, it probably doesn’t look the same from heaven’s point of view.
John 11:38-44 ESV

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them,“Unbind him, and let him go.”

-Don’t miss the message. Martha was concerned about the smell
-Leave everything in the tomb. Don’t let anything from your old life come into your new life.
-Jesus didn’t have to raise him from the dead. He didn’t have to comfort them but He did.
-God is for you. You don’t have to sit and hide anymore. 

There are three interesting characters in this story: Thomas the doubter, Mary the discouraged, and Martha the frustrated

Because of His grace:
1) Doubt does not have to define you. Your faith can.
-If God’s grace came through before it’ll come through again.
-Doubt doesn’t have to crush your faith. It can build it.
John 11:16 ESV

So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

-Thomas said let’s all go so we can all die with him. Thomas didn’t even want to go.
—Maybe you’ve felt the stung of doubt or opened yourself up to someone just to be betrayed and now you doubt.
-The more you doubt Him, the more He shows up.
-Decide not to be defined by your doubt. Faith is our portion.
-We have the trajectory of our perspective. We know the end of the story.
-Beware of doubt-dealers in your life.
—They’re people who, no matter all the great things happening, they’ll still doubt. They give passive aggressive answers like, “I doubt it,” “Don’t get too comfortable because people are always losing jobs,” “Just so you know, the divorce rate is the same as outside the church,” etc.
—Don’t buy what they’re selling.
-If no one goes with you, be okay with that. You can’t kill them.
-Give them room to doubt
—What we believe is ridiculous.
—Be okay with people doubting you
—The same people who doubt you today may be sitting in church with you next week.
—They always have something bad to say to make you want to doubt.
—You don’t need doubters stealing your faith. Minimize their influence in your life.
-When you can, get around as many hope dealers as much as you can
—Sometimes the only time you do that is at church on Sunday. 
—A little bit of hope goes a long way.
—We take for granted the great relationships we have.
-You’ve been saved and called. Don’t doubt the calling.
—Don’t limit what you can do
-The grace that set you free is gonna keep you free.
—People tend to believe in the grace that saved them but not that grace equips, calls, and sends them.
-We have all been saved under this amazing sky of grace. It’s unmerited favor for anybody.
-Everybody walking has the same access to Jesus. There is no one holier than anyone else
-You have just as much right to believe in the grace of God in your life. The call of God is vibrant in your life.
2) Discouragement doesn’t have to contain you.
-The grace of God can set you free. 
-Discouragement is doubt on wheels.
—Doubt gets you to stop but discouragement will keep you like the walking dead and you miss out on the joy of His scandalous grace.
John 11:17-20 ESV

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tombfour days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.

-Have you ever been so discouraged that you can’t even move anymore You don’t know if you can fight anymore.
—You know your God is good and he’s in the neighborhood. Stand up and say that discouragement isn’t your portion
-Discouragement is a choice so you can choose scandalous joy instead.
—Martha chose to run out and chase the Savior and the joy in its way.
-What happens to you doesn’t have to change what comes through you. Our God has set us free.
-When you hold onto discouragement it affects everyone around you. You can’t stay in that defeat because you need to remember that God won the war even if you lost the battle.
-Don’t stay seated in that place of discouragement.
3) Delay doesn’t have to confuse you. Delay does not mean denial.
-In God’s kingdom delay doesn’t mean he’s not coming or answering; it means he’s doing more than you can imagine and it’ll take longer than you expect.
-Pray but the rest is up to God.
-Delay is part of the journey.
-Jesus did nothing when He initially heard about Lazarus.
John 11:21-22 ESV

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

-People believed that the spirit of that person would hang around the body until 3 days. 
-Delay destroys dreams. Don’t let delay keep you from chasing Jesus.
-Have a “but even now” moment because He saved you even now.
—Even in the middle of your sin you can ask God to help you.
-Be persistent in your faith.
—Jesus is gonna roll the stone away even now.
—You’ve got death on one page and on the the next page is life.
—You think you’re so far away from where you’re supposed to be and your not. God’s working on your behalf.
-You have the right to believe that there is a scandalous turnaround waiting for you.