Reflections and Recap

I didn't expect to see snow falling yesterday morning, but then again, I should never be surprised by the weather in this area. Nevertheless, yesterday was a breathe of fresh air for many of our volunteers. We were able to make our first set of major adjustments to our Sunday morning setup schedule, which allowed us to help many of our volunteers reduce the amount of time they were at the school. I'm so thankful for the team God has built and continues to build.

Also, just to put this out there, we'll have a new addition to our worship band this coming Sunday, so you definitely don't want to miss that!

Part 3 of our Rebellion series focused on the topic of guilt. Guilt is something we all wrestle with, and it often comes from one of two sources. Sometimes, we feel guilty because we can't measure up to someone's "unrealistic" expectations. Hopefully yesterday we were able to help people find freedom from other people's legalism and religious standards. On the other hand, we often struggle with guilt because of our sin, and it was this type of guilt that we focused on the most. However, we focused more on the freedom we can have from our guilt through Jesus Christ than the actual guilt itself!

Worship set was...
-Freedom is Here (Hillsong)
-Beautiful Jesus (Kristian Stanfill)
-From the Inside Out (Hillsong)
-Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone (Chris Tomlin)
-You're Not Guilty Anymore (Aaron Keyes)


Rebellion: Guilt

Message...You can watch the video of the message and read the weekly devotional thoughts on our website by Tuesday afternoon.

Matthew 5:8
Galatians 5:13
Romans 6:1-2
Psalm 103:12
Psalm 51
John 8:36
Hebrews 10:17
2 Corinthians 5:15

Guilt is present when Jesus is absent.
-The world says that if you remove God and all boundaries from your life, you will then be able to remove all sense of guilt from your life. However, when you do this, you are freeing your internal desires to run wild and without restraint, which will only lead to more guilt than you could ever imagine.

-By embracing the power and love of Jesus into your life, you will find freedom from guilt.

Apologies vs Repentance
- Apologies reflect the idea that you simply got caught. Repentance is an admission of your mistake and a desire to move in a new direction without the lingering effects of guilt.

-Guilt is removed from our lives through what God has already done, not by what we could potential do.

We you are cleansed, you'll stay out of the mud
-God doesn't simply want to modify our behaviors; He wants to kill off the internal desires that continually bring guilt into our lives.

-When we realize that our sin, which leaves us with nothing but regret and guilt, cost Jesus His life, the desire to go back to that sin should have no place in our life.

Freed people are willing to free people
-When we've truly been freed by Christ, we ought to be willing to do whatever it takes to see others experience this same freedom. Seriously, why would we not overflow God's love and freedom to our family members, co-workers, friends, etc?