The Church

The Church. Something that we have struggled with from the very beginning. It’s almost been like Jesus painted a gorgeous picture of a mountain.

We looked at it and said, ‘What if we put a couple trees over here? It’s still a picture of a mountain.’ And then another said, ‘We need to change the color of the sky. There we go-that’s better. Still a picture of a mountain!’ And another says, ‘There’s plenty of room to put our name on the bottom here next to the artist’s signature. It won’t mess with the picture. It’s still a mountain.’

We had a very unique opportunity with the opening of a new church. In my mind there was no history, no debt hanging over our heads, no drama-just a clean slate. This last Sunday we spent a lot of time talking about the church and about how some people think our church is 7 months old, but in reality we are about 2,000 years old. And so even though we would like to think our church has a clean slate and there are no struggles, we realized that the church was made of people.

We have had so many visitors come to The Rescue Church-it has been truly amazing. What we have found (a.k.a. DUH moment) is that people have history, people struggle with debt, and people have plenty of drama. The problem we have found is that we took a beautiful picture of what the church was supposed to be and conformed it to what we liked and then forced people to understand it…and LOVE it!

God continues to work on my heart as being the pastor of The Rescue Church. We decided to take the picture of the church and make it painfully simple. Take away the manmade additions and just look at ‘the mountain’.

What did Jesus tell us to do? Are we doing it? Let’s start there. Do you love Jesus?

Let’s start to capture our love for the mountain again. Let’s take away the things that we’ve put in the way of that love. We will never claim to be the perfect church, but we will forever claim to be a church that loves Jesus. From the beginning, The Rescue Church has talked about Jesus, and though many things will change, one thing will never change, the Book will be open and Jesus will be proclaimed, by the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The result? That’s for God to know.

Much Love-PC

pastorcory@rescuesumner.org

www.rescuesumner.org

Clarity

Clarity…

The state or appearance of being clear. I would have to say that the first 20 or so years of my life I had the appearance of being clear. I gave my life to Jesus at a young age, enjoyed going to church, and lived a life that would convince most people that I was a Christian. But what was I doing? Just like every senior at the end of this high school year will ask-what am I going to do?

I think for most Christians this question leads to the appearance of clearness while at the same time mediocrity takes over their unconscious faith.

For myself, this past year has been a time of clarity in my life. I realize that this blog has looked more like a church update page, but I must tell you something important that happened in my life through the planting of The Rescue Church. God called me back to my first love of Jesus Christ. Too long we have just agreed with or tolerated the words of Jesus. I have come to believe that the words of Jesus were a poem of love for you and me.

My faith, my life, my family, my relationships have become so much more clear when I started to love Jesus again. I’ve always loved Jesus, but have you deeply loved Jesus-where you think about Him constantly? Through clarity comes mission and purpose. As Christians our mission should revolve around the love that has been given to us. For me, and those at The Rescue, we have decided that means to preach Jesus. Every week. At all costs.

Why must I talk to people about Jesus?

Isaiah 42:7, 'To open blind eyes, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.' Seems like a pretty good reason. But who do you know sitting in a dungeon? Again, clarity issue. We have looked at this world for so long through the OK lense. Everything is OK. You don’t want anything to do with Jesus, that’s OK. You’d rather live a life of sin, that’s OK. I understand you’re struggling with your faith, but it’s OK.

The message, the Gospel of Jesus, becomes much more clear when we realize that souls are in bondage. There is work to be done, and that has given me clarity. There are those who need to hear about Jesus, and that’s given me clarity. I love Jesus, and that has given me clarity. 

If you would like Jesus and the clarity He provides, I'd like to invite you to church on Sunday. 

www.rescuesumner.org

-PC

What Do You Smell Like?

This past weekend we had a 'multi-campus' event for our church as we had The Rescue's First Annual All Church Campout with Pastor Ralph still bringing the message at home base-Maple Lawn Elementary.
I would consider myself a veteran camper. I know how to make hash browns, like the smell of a fire, can tell scary and mostly true stories, can setup a tent in 2 minutes, and can stand a whole weekend without showering. Which brings me to the topic of smell.
For our worship time on Sunday we looked at 2 Corinthians 2:14-17. Paul talks about Christians being the aroma of Christ, but also gives us our duties as that aroma-'to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.' Paul used the imagery of Christ's triumphal procession which refers to the 'Roman Triumph'.  This is a simple concept that describes the re-entry of the successful army general and his soldiers back into the city. Behind the victorious army the arrested soldiers would follow shackled in chains. 
Priests would line the parade and spread the smell of incense over the entire festivities. The same smell was the smell of victory for the general and his army, but was also the smell of death to those who had lost the war.
When we speak about Jesus, people will feel the same. It will be the sweetest aroma they have ever smelled, or it will mean the smell of defeat. God is waiting to use us to spread the knowledge of His Son, Jesus. He wants us to fall in love with Jesus so much that we can't help but smell like Him because we've lived so closely to Him. 
So how do you change your smell? Realize that a change needs to be made. Realize that God loves you and wants to rescue you with His Son, Jesus. You can do it, because the hard work has already been done by Him.

-PC
pastorcory@rescuesumner.org
www.rescuesumner.org

How to Walk in the Light

John 8:12, 'Jesus spoke again to the people and said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.''

In this passage from Sunday the Pharisees were more attracted to the situation than the message. Jesus was speaking about saving all mankind, and the Pharisees were trying to hammer Jesus on the fact that he didn't bring any witnesses to back up what he was saying. They still viewed Jesus as just a man. He spoke of a Father that they thought they knew and they thought they worshipped. The Father they prayed to revolved around their traditions and man made rules. The situations and details started to overshadow their God.
Jesus was speaking at the Feast of Tabernacles. A Jewish holiday where they remembered the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. God led them away during the night with a pillar of fire (Ex. 13:21). And so at this festival they constructed a huge candelabra, set it on fire to remember that pillar. I can envision Jesus standing by this man made pillar of fire (that could be seen from miles around!) and saying the words, 'I am the light of the world.'
Simply to say-I led you out of Egypt and I still call you to follow me.
I'm learning that to follow does not mean agreement alone. It means to serve, to obey, to give, to be taught, and the scary part-to change. How hard is it to change? It's up to you and whether you want to follow Jesus.
Our goal at The Rescue is to dive into the Word of God-the Bible-and see how Jesus told us to live. If we are doing something that doesn't line up with Jesus' words-we change. We still have lessons to learn. I still have lessons to learn, and I'm excited to be along side a group of people who are dependent on God and want to honestly learn more about their amazing creator. If you are reading this and have questions about God-please contact me.

-PC (Pastor Cory)
pastorcory@rescuesumner.org
www.rescuesumner.org

The A-Team

My favorite TV show growing up was the A-Team. Mr. T was my favorite character because it amazed me how he was able to move with 50 lbs. of gold wrapped around his neck. But my favorite part of every show was when Hannibal would light up his cigar, look at the team and say, ‘I love it when a plan comes together!’ Usually in every show there would be a plan, some sort of challenge would present itself, and then the team would respond and change their strategy. So Hannibal’s original plan would usually be overshadowed by how the team responded to adversity.

We took a one-week break from the Gospel of John Sunday as we invited our kids to join us for our service. We looked at a passage from 1 Corinthians 12 that emphasized the church being a body with every part being vital to the operation of the body. Something happened Sunday that most of you didn’t know and probably didn’t notice as the service started.

Just about everything on the service order was changed about 20 minutes before the service. The music, prayer, sermon, ALL OF IT! As the type A pastor that I am, I will be totally honest and say that this gave me a little bit of stress. But something amazing happened, that was totally the Spirit of God. Once 10:00 AM hit on the clock, everything came together. The music was an experience we haven’t had yet at The Rescue. I preached on a different text then I had intended on. Our prayer time was just amazing. As I was driving to Applebee’s to have lunch with my parents and the in-laws, it dawned on me how it happened.

Yes-it was God, but how did it come across as not a last minute change? The people. As I preached about the Body of Christ and how each part has it’s value and is vital to the health of the church, I began to realize how special the group of people around me was. I don’t want to get too gushy on this blog post, but I’ve been blessed. The beauty of Sunday was that a group of people came to worship God. What the order of service had was a minor detail; they came to seek after the One we worship.

This is why I’m excited about the future of The Rescue, and I’m not ashamed to tell you (the reader) about us. We are a group of people who have been broken in this life and have seen the only one that can rescue us-Jesus Christ. If you’re seeking, broken, hurting, or even feeling pretty good, but just know that you need to make a decision about who Jesus is-join us this Sunday at The Rescue. Go to the website for directions and it’s at 10:00AM.

God Bless You-PC (Pastor Cory)

www.rescuesumner.org

pastorcory@rescuesumner.org

Who Do You Say That I Am?

In John chapter 7 we see a lot of names given to Jesus-teacher, prophet, healer, deceiver, liar, demon-possessed, uneducated peasant. These were names given to him by a crowd. Some in that crowd put their faith in him that day, and yet there were still those in the crowd, who had never spoken with him that wanted him dead. In my mind, I think they wanted him dead just so that he could permanently go away. 
Those that wanted him dead consisted of Pharisees and Jewish leaders and teachers. How could all these 'religious people' want Jesus dead? I think it all came down to wisdom. These religious leaders did not want to admit that someone, especially someone 'uneducated', knew more about God and the Scriptures than they did. Jesus never looked at them and said, 'Neener, neener, neener, I know more than all you guys combined!' Nope-he just taught with authority. He taught of God's will, and to these teachers that meant arrogance and blasphemy. The scriptures tell us Jesus grew in wisdom from God the Father, not from any earthly teacher or rabbi.
A key point we talked about on Sunday was wisdom. It wasn't like these teachers were ignorant of the law and Scripture. It was just they had no love for God. Scripture says that knowledge puffs up. If you study all the time, but you don’t love God, you will just be arrogant and difficult and your relationship with God will be non-existent. It says that love builds up, that the goal of our studies shouldn't be about being smart nor being able to out-quote each other. The goal should be that we love God and love our neighbor. Now I'm not saying, 'We don’t need all that book learning, we just need to love Jesus.' I’m saying that if you do study the Bible in the right manner, you will end up loving Jesus and loving others in practical ways. They go together. 

Have they been going together in your life?? Maybe you've spent your days reading and studying the Bible so much, but have failed to experience it in your daily walk with Him.  

How has the Bible changed the way you live? And yes, if you read the Bible you should change the way you live. If you don't feel like you need to afterwards, you aren't really reading it. 

That goes for Christ followers and Pastors too! (Myself included).

I hope this message has spoken to you in some way. If you are reading this and have some questions, I'd love to speak with you. I'm really good at buying people coffee, and I love talking about God. 

-PC (Pastor Cory)

pastorcory@rescuesumner.org

www.rescuesumner.org

In His Timing

Growing up in Sunday School there were always 'Good Guys' and 'Bad Guys'. The ultimate 'Good Guy' was of course, Jesus. He was like a superhero going from town to town healing people, performing miracles. And then you had the 'Bad Guys' who were usually the Pharisees, or these Jewish Leaders who were in charge. I could never understand why they acted the way they did. Didn't they know Jesus was God?! Didn't they know he was the hero?!
I think we find a reason why they didn't want to believe in John 7. It is the Feast of the Tabernacles, and Jesus' own brothers (who at this time didn't even believe he was the Messiah) asked him to come to the festival and perform something grand. Give the people at this party a miracle.
This was not Jesus' plan or in his timeline. This was yet another example of how a group of people came to Jesus and said, 'Yes Jesus, we know you consider yourself God. That's great. But you ought to really do this. It makes perfect sense to everyone here that you would do this.' There has been a solid theme these last couple weeks in the Gospel of John that Jesus did not come to please, he came to save.
We, especially the church, need to come to Jesus and thank him for who he is and what he's done. And then listen to him!! He always had a teaching to give and still does for us today. When we don't listen we sound like the crowd in John 7:20 when they said, 'You are demon possessed.' This crowd did not believe Jesus had the authority to teach in the manner he did. Mainly because he taught against their religious pride. And for this in John 7:7 it says, 'The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil.'
Keep this in mind when telling others about Jesus. Realize that there will be those that hate Jesus and the teachings he held. But be tenacious!! Be resilient!! Jesus died for all and his Spirit can reach all!!
It is all in his timing.

-PC
pastorcory@rescuesumner.org
www.rescuesumner.org