pat loughery

Worship Leader: Casey Corum (electric), (the former)Sheri Keller
Worship Set:
Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?
Holy Is the Lord (Tomlin)
Let My Words Be Few
Dwell
The Lord Is My Strength (1982/Vineyard/Gallo)
Blessed Be the Name (Redman)

Prophetic words:
You are the family. You’re all firstborn children, called to lead. It’s a big party, and the Father has brought gifts. You’re not to leave here without your gift.

This is the decade of the Vineyard.

You are so small because he wants you to see that he is so big.

The song “Blessed…” was prophetic: the enemy trembles when we praise during hardships and trials.

Picture: Pulling toys out of the toy chest. He was washing tears from them. God: anything that replaces me isn’t good and will hurt you. We’re called to a singleness of focus on the Kingdom away from other distractions/toys.

Picture: Battle scene, word: restoration. Small flag, tattered because of warfare. Foxhole. The church has felt defeated, but the Lord has established his giant white flag across the whole camp; the enemy was terrified at the bigness of the Lord. Lord is bringing restoration.

Church Planting
Steve Nicholson tells two stories of church planters.
1. The story of Steve Morgan and Blue Sky Vineyard in Bellevue, WA.
2. The story of Ahyet in Kosovo 6 years ago who was put onto a train (he thought to go to his death), spent time in a refugee camp, then was sponsored to come to the US to start a new life, moved to Seattle, met one person from Blue Sky, started attending parties, then coming to the church, and then six weeks ago gave his life to Jesus.

(Church Planting Coordinator of Southwest area):
Lots of data regarding church planting saturation in urban areas. Least saturated urban area: NYC. Most saturated urban area: Columbus OH.

Keynote: Gordon Fee
Title: The Gospel of the Kingdom

We will focus more on the King than on the Kingdom (which can become an abstraction).

Our King has died as all Kings do, but he was raised from the dead and reigns forevermore.

The reason that the Kingdom is so radically different is that our King is of such a radically different nature. The King is intent to rule over people who bear His own likeness in character and relationships.

We’ll talk about the character of the King because it informs the character of the Kingdom.

Two texts:
24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
– 1 Cor. 15:24 through 1 Cor. 15:26 (NIV)

But to get there, we have to start

1 Corinthians 1:18-25
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
1 Cor. 1:18 through 1 Cor. 1:25 (NIV)

Both begin with Jesus as Jewish messiah who would restore Davidic Kingship. Ch. 15 deals with eschatalogical reality. Ch. 1 is the present Kingdom. But God doesn’t do things according to our expectation of the right way to do things,he does what we think of as absolutely wrong.

Corinth was in the very center of action in the Greco-Roman world: a new city, splendorous. An artistic haven, independent, smug. NYC, LA, Las Vegas of the Roman Empire in one city.

God’s response to this worldly city is against our instincts. As usual, God doesn’t consult us for wisdom; he does it all wrong. His response is a scandal, foolishness to the worldly wise. God’s answer is the cross. We have domesticated the cross, making it a symbol of faith. IT IS A SCANDAL!!! By domesticating the cross, we domesticate the faith as well.

In Corinth this problem was especially acute because they have experienced the Spirit in abundance. But because of this they have considered themselves to arrived spiritually. They believe that their experience of the Spirit has given them a reason to avoid wisdom. But they have problems with arrogance as well.

:Paul begins the letter with an attack against divisions: “we are Paul’s; we are Apollos’”. No! Paul says. it’s God’s thing! The best proof of this is that it’s something that no human being would have made up. And… look who makes up the people of GOd: YOU DO! Who in their human wisdom would have chosen YOU to be the People of God?!? This is God’s foolishness, through the weakness of the cross, so that none of us can boast that we’re better than others. God did it this way in his WISDOM. We CAN NOT come to know God through our wisdom – it would lead to intolerable arrogance; any God we can discover on our own would be created in our own fallen image.

Paul: Jews and Greeks: basic idolatries of our race. Jews demand signs; demand wisdom. Power model and smarts model. An attitude that’s hidden or expressed that says that God must conform to my views of him. Idolatry of God the All Powerful (power for show’s sake). Idolatry of intellectualism: “what makes tings tick”; God as ultimate reason. ((Reason ALWAYS means what *I* think to be reasonable).

Paul says the response isn’t to give what they want, but give them the cross.

Only two kinds of people were crucified by the Romans: slaves and insurrectionists. Jesus died as a messianic pretender, an insurrectionist against the Empire. Foolishness and scandal.

The final word of the cross is that this death was for our sakes: we are all wrong, and we are all responsible. Confronted by the message of the cross, we have two alternatives: I’m right and God’s wrong; OR… the opposite, however hard it is.

The cross is also scandalous because it says we cannot earn God’s favor. As we find that we’re sinful, we try to earn life: Be nice to someone; give money to the poor. It doesn’t work that way. The cross means throwing ourselves totally to God’s mercy.

HOw is this an expression =of power and wisdom? In the final analysis, it turns out that God outsmarted us at every turn. We needed help, not signs; we needed God, now wisdom. Mindboggling wisdom: GOd the creator chose to become created, one of us; to live a truly human life with its toil, shame, burdens, sorrow. He took the chance of getting himself killed. But he lived it out better than we do. But in our human rage, we threw him on the cross, saying ” i don’t want you.” The worst scandal of all: he let them do it. Who wants a messiah like that? We NEED a messiah like that.

Here’s the wisdom: THrough the cross, you change sides. You’ve been loved OUT OF your disobedience.

The scandal of the cross: Through it, people like you and I and – instead of crushing us, redeems us and makes us whole. This is the message of the Kingdom because this is the character of the King, the crucified One. We are called to bear his likeness in the world.