At The Village, we go to great lengths to create environments for people to experience God. From our Sunday worship experience to community groups to leadership meetings, we are creating environments. We do this in order to help people begin to understand the need to develop environments in their own lives to do the same thing.

One key in developing these environments is creating atmosphere. We create atmosphere in everything we do. When we invite people to our homes, we typically clean and do our best to bring them in to a welcoming and comfortable environment. When I am writing or studying, I prefer an atmosphere that is quiet with as few distractions as possible around me. Those atmospheres though, do not happen by accident – they are intentional.

In our Sunday worship experience, we do our best to intentionally create an atmosphere for worship. An entire team of dedicated people arrives at the school we meet at hours before anyone else shows up in order to transform a building from a school into a church. Our goal is to create an attractive, welcoming and exciting environment in which people can have an encounter with God.

For this to happen though, we must be intentional in every aspect of the atmosphere that we are creating. We could show up every week, put out chairs and use the provided lighting with no sound equipment and see what would happen. But we do not feel that this would be the best atmosphere to attract the most people in Midlothian to hear the Gospel. Nor do we feel that we would be giving God our absolute best and bringing him the most glory through everything that we do, as He calls us to in 1 Corinthians 10:31.

God has gifted us with the ability to be creative, and one way that we use this amazing gift is to create an unforgettable atmosphere that lends itself to the worship of God every Sunday. Through the simple use of pipe and draping, as well as creative signage and lighting elements, we have the ability to transform a harshly lit cafeteria into a sanctuary of worship that is both inviting and conducive to excitement.

The message that they will hear during this experience will probably be one of the most uncomfortable and convicting messages they have ever heard. We would like to keep that message the most uncomfortable thing they encounter that morning. If someone never comes back to The Village, we would prefer it be because the Gospel is offensive, and not because we were too lazy to be creative and create an atmosphere for worship.

We struggle to look at the story as a whole to understand what God is doing throughout all of History and that it is not disconnected. Everything in Scripture is working together, weaving an amazing story throughout the history of the world to produce God’s revelation of Himself, and how he is going to bring Himself ultimate glory. In the Old Testament, God uses this language of how even though sin is reigning in the lives of people everywhere, He will save for himself a remnant. He constantly tells OT prophets, “It looks pretty bad right now, but understand that through this, I will save for Myself a people who will bring me glory.” Then fast forward to Revelation 7, where, at the end of it all the Scripture records the end of that remnant. John writes that around the throne of God, worshipping God. The story of Scripture is how God gets there. Scripture reveals the story of God redeeming to Himself a people to bring Him ultimate glory.

Last week we talked about the Freedom to Live. We don’t always understand this freedom though. Freedom is not the ability to live however you choose, but rather it is the ability to live as you were created to. We are not redeemed so that we can have this personal friendship with God where we are just accepted as we are no matter how bad we get. It’s a bigger story than that! Remember, the trend from the last few weeks is to go from a Polaroid to a panoramic. We want to step back and see the entire story that God is writing here. Salvation is about more than just you. It is about God creating a people for Himself through His Son, Jesus.

We are not simply accepted; we are transformed and made heirs in the Kingdom of God. We are redeemed in order that God may use us to build His Kingdom. Galatians 4 continues to lay out this amazing Gospel of the Kingdom of God in which we are described as being adopted into God’s family; heirs to His Kingdom. We are taken from slavery to sonship. We are not alone though; in this great Kingdom God is creating a community of people to bring Him glory as one. He unites all things in Jesus to be the church which is “…His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” God is building His Kingdom through the Church.

This is not a future possibility, but a present reality. God wants US to build His Church. This has always been God’s Plan. This is about challenging the world that we just accept as hopeless and believing that God truly has a plan to build His kingdom and to redeem not only individual lives, but entire communities for His name. What would happen if we lived like the people of God rather than just like everyone else. God is calling us to an extreme commitment to the Gospel. But are we willing to answer? Are we willing to live our lives to build His Church in order to further His Gospel? God is building His kingdom, and the question is, “Do you want to be a part of it?”

This is our desire at The Village. Come be a part of it.

What does it mean to be a child of God? Galatians 3 ends with the grace of God being shown as a great equalizer, and those redeemed being the heirs to His promises. Galatians 4 takes it further though. Paul writes that God has adopted us as His children.

Tomorrow at The Village, we will take a look at what the implications in this are for our lives. Many look at the Christian life as a way of gaining acceptance by God, we will see that God goes way farther than accepting us. He brings us in and makes us His very own.

If all who are redeemed are children of God, does that mean that we are family? In Christ, God is building His people, the Church. God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus, and through the life of the Church. Through this great Gospel that God has weaved throughout history He desires to give us true freedom. This freedom not only brings us to life, but also frees us to belong. We belong to God, as well as to each other.

Join us tomorrow @ 10 am @ Swift Creek Elementary School.

When disaster strikes on the magnitude of what is happening in Haiti right now, we want to respond in a meaningful way.  For a new church without a lot of resources, thinking of how to respond properly can become overwhelming.  But the truth is, there are a lot of great ministries and organizations with the infrastructure in place to get much needed relief to Haiti in the coming months and years. We as the church can each help a great deal by giving our resources to these efforts.

I’m sure everyone has seen various places to give to the relief efforts over the last week, as they have been hard to miss. Desiring God has a great list of charities to give to, and we’d also recommend the Baptist Global Response, which is a humanitarian relief organization of the SBC.

We’d like to call particular attention to Churches Helping Churches, a relatively new initiative by Mark Driscoll and James MacDonald. As the Church both local and universal, we are called to care for the broken and hurting of the world both physically and spiritually. Village Church believes that the Church is God’s plan A for being the hands and feet of Jesus and bringing the Gospel to the world. Bringing relief to Haiti should be a Gospel effort for the believer.

To that end, and realizing that various humanitarian relief is flowing to Haiti right now from many sources, we are especially burdened to help equip the Church of Haiti to spread the Gospel to their people. This means getting much needed supplies to the churches of Haiti, for their own help and so they can have the resources to be the hands and feet of Jesus to other Haitians. Many churches have been devastated in this disaster by the loss of leadership, facilities, and resources. Helping to equip and rebuild these churches will strengthen the infrastructure of Haiti as local churches provide vital and needed humanitarian services. At the same time, helping local churches is a way to support our brothers and sisters in Haiti and their Gospel mission. Click below to give:

If the purpose of the Ten Commandments is to lead us to Jesus, then what effect does this have on the type of life we live? When we come into a life of faith, what does it mean to follow Jesus?

Faith in Jesus is not simply about moral obligation and a code of ethics. Faith transforms life into a life that is lived the way it was designed for. In Jesus, we have a freedom to live. Too often though, faith is often seen as a restriction on the life many of us want. Is God attempting to limit us by placing restrictions? Is it possible though, that instead, freedom is different than we assume. Freedom is something that liberates from the binding of moral obligation as well as creating a life that joyously follows Christ with all that it possesses.

Join us tomorrow at the Village as we talk about, “The Freedom to Live.” God desires our liberation from any and all laws that condemn and bind our lives. Village Church meets @ Swift Creek Elementary School @ 10 am. See you there!

Tags: Worship Experience

Last week, we discussed the promises God made to Abraham, and that it was Abraham’s faith that God would fulfill those promises that changed His life and made Him follow God. Abraham had zero inclination to follow God until he had an absolute belief and trust in God that changed His life and prodded Him to obey. It was Abraham’s faith in God that had brought the righteousness of God into his life.

Paul used this story to show that through this promise to Abraham, God had set into motion the family tree that would bring about Jesus, who would bring redemption to all man, not just the physical descendants of Abraham. Righteousness does not come to our obedience to any law, not even the law of God, but that it comes only through the plan of God, which was completely fulfilled in Jesus.

This week, we went right into verses 11-22 discussing the purpose of the law and Jesus’ fulfillment of all of God’s promises to Abraham. We live segmented lives where we look at part rather than the whole, and we often take that perspective right into our view of the Bible. God’s promises can be looked at as Polaroid shots, whereas His path of fulfilling those promises is a panoramic landscape. We must be willing to finally look at God’s story as a whole rather than a grouping of random stories.

God starts by revealing this promise to Abraham, and then throughout the Old Testament He makes it more clear by revealing that through the line of Abraham He was raising up a people who would be for His possession so that the name of God would be spread through the whole world and worshipped. Then, through Israel’s failure, God re-iterates that the promise is not dependent on man, just like He had revealed to Abraham that the covenant was completely one-sided, and dependent totally on God. He reveals in Isaiah that even though they were disobedient servants, He is sending an obedient servant that will complete this covenant so that the whole world will know God, and His name will be called IMMANUEL – “God with us.” The covenant of God has always been dependent only on God.

Rather than being an addition to His promises, laws such as the ten commandments are a guide to show us our dependence on God. As it unfolds into the complete panoramic shot, we are finally able to see the path that leads to God redeeming us through His Son, Jesus. 2 Corinthians 1:20-22 reveals it as saying, “All of the promises of God find their “Yes!” in Jesus.”

God’s promises are not dependent on our actions. If they were, it would not be a promise based on Him, but rather us. The law, which is fulfilled in Jesus, shows our dependence on God and His dependability on keeping His promises. We can trust God to be who He says He is, and to do what He says He will do.

This Sunday at The Village we will be in Galatians 3. God has been showing me so much whereas my incessant need to depend completely on Him is concerned. Have you ever tried to live your life by obeying the 10 commandments?  Have you ever wondered if obeying them could get you closer to God only to find that you always fall short?  Maybe though, you are one of those select few who think that you measure up pretty good compared to those laws.

But we all will probably confess that there is a lot of confusion as to the reason behind those commandments.  Are they meant to get us closer to God?  If you try really hard to obey them, does that mean that God loves you more?  What happens if you can’t obey them? Some of the answers to these questions may surprise you.

These are just a few of the questions we will grapple with tomorrow as we continue to make our way through the book of Galatians.  This promises to be an eye opening and sacred cow shattering day as we are more honest than we are comfortable with about the Word of God.  See you there, tomorrow @ 10 am @ Swift Creek Elementary!

Tags: Worship Experience

How dependent are we on God?  When Scripture speaks of it, it often focuses on two aspects: redemption and hope.  These are really the two aspects of life that people spend their time searching for.  We all seek redemption in one-way or another, and are hoping for something.

Psalm 6 is David’s plea for both of these things.  When we begin reading this Psalm he is begging God to redeem him from the wrath of God.  He finds himself under God’s hand and is struck with a trembling fear realizing his need desperate need for redemption.  Rather than seeking it somewhere else, he finds it in the hands of the one whose wrath He faces, God.  His hope of redemption is God.

There is also another part of this Psalm that finds David seeking redemption and hope in a tangible way in this life.  Notice though, that he finds that in God as well.  Where do we find our redemption?  What about our hope?  No matter what circumstance we are in, it is only found in God’s hands.  God seeks our dependency.

Yesterday at the Village we began the New Year by delving into what our lives will look like over the next year. We found ourselves in Galatians 3:5-14 asking the question, “What brings the work of God into our lives? Is it our works of the law? Or is it our faith?”

We make so many commitments at the beginning of the year. Millions make resolutions in January, but the stat is that only 6 % of people keep those New Year’s Resolutions. We are terrible at keeping commitments, so does that mean that hope is lost? This section of Galatians shows that our failures are not what sums up our lives. Instead, it is dependence on the promises of God that bring His works into our lives.

Paul uses the life of Abraham as an example. Beginning in Genesis 12, Abraham follows God to becoming a great nation. From the beginning though, it is noticeable that Abraham is not responsible for this at all. He does not seek God out; God seeks him out. He does not make a commitment to God; God commits to Him. Abraham must simply root his faith in God. He must trust that God will follow through with what He said He would. Because of this, He is able to follow God. Without faith though, this is impossible.

Our concept of what it means to commit to God must not be based on what we are giving God, but rather, what God has promised us. In this, He becomes the basis for faith rather than our works for Him. We can do nothing for God, but rather, He desires to transform our lives. Through this, He replaces our life with His life. He gives us a new vision for what life could be. Notice that Abraham leaves his life in order to follow God for the vision that God has laid out for Him. Too often, we attempt to give God the vision for what our life should be. God doesn’t fit into our plan; instead He replaces our plan with His plan. This is transformation.

It takes no faith to live life based on the same desires everyone else has. God desires a people who will live for His glory. We must be completely dependent on Him. Abraham did not manufacture a vision that would lead to the redemption of the world through the Son of God. It was God’s plan and God’s design. Abraham simply trusted God. This is the basis for the Gospel. God has promised life through His Son. God has placed our debt of sin wholly on His Son. Jesus became a curse for us, yet we still attempt to plan the vision out ourselves. God’s vision for Abraham is God’s vision for us: To live lives trusting fully in Him to be who He says He is and to do what He says He will do.

When we attempt to fit God into our lives and commitments, we are always left disappointed and jaded towards others and God. When we are the planner, failure is close at hand. When God is the planner, redemption always takes place. Stop committing to a life that is going to fail. Trust God for what He has promised. He has promised a life through His Son, Jesus.

Tags: Sunday Message Recap