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Father's Day Message Notes

Father’s Day Message Notes

Jason Haymaker, Speaker

Ephesians 5:15-17

- Make the most of every opportunity- don’t act thoughtlessly

 - The question isn’t: will they remember me: but, will they want to?
        - We will be unforgettable: either positive or negative
        - We remember phrases: your fat, stupid, can’t do anything right...

- If phrases we know are negative, we need new phrases
        - Positive phrases-
            "I like who you’re becoming"
            "You're special and you matter to your daddy"
        "I think God can do it"

4 phrases

1) I Love You

            - love languages    
            - kids need irrational love from us- moves beyond a quota
             - communicate they are treasured, not just tolerated

2) I’m Sorry

            - Fathers don’t exasperate your children
            - take them by the hand and lead them
            - meekness is strength under control
            - weakness is being passive and getting pushed around

3) I believe in you

            - more about the person than the production
            - okay to fail- we all will

Jason and his dad-

 "my dad and I could have gone to 5 below, bought squirt guns, and charged hell together"

 Jesus knew that Peter was going to fail- looked at him, believed in him

4) I’m praying for you

            - tell what your prayer is- example- to Jason's kids
                    - "that Jesus will be fresh to you"
            - we’ve got to have vision for our kids

 

Monday Morning Quarterback

Look back at Sunday's experiences...

- Nate Adams absolutely crushed it on lights this weekend.  Not only did he nail his cues and timing, but he creatively made same color-combos that accented color stories in new backgrounds.  Without us asking him- he took it to the next level within the scheme he knew we were looking for.  LOVE it.

- One of our new female vocalists, Jessica Centorbi- did a fantastic job.  Great voice- she had great stage presence already.  

- Pastor Marty Dent is a stud.  Some people, you just know they are being authentic.  It's who they are.  When you take risk and step out in faith- your faith is strong because of who it's in.  He validates- not others who shoot down our dreams.

- On that- I remember the night I was ordained- a former Pastor approached me afterward, and "complimented" me with this: "Well, I never thought you'd make it as a Pastor.  But I guess I take that back now."  Like Marty said- "don't kill what makes others come alive.  Don't assault another's calling."

- Marty talking about: "passing up excellent opportunities with security for risky ones that provide freedom in life."  Great advice.  

- God opposes the proud, gives grace to the humble.  Here's a highly qualified leader serving...in the ladies restroom... and me having fun at his expense...  

- Heard great things about the audio mix.  Loud and full yet people can "hear themselves singing."  The low end of the keys shakes me on the stage- YES.  I heard you can hear every member of the band.  YES.

- Great having my wonderful friends, Mark and Susan Taylor and family with us.  You won't find better people than them.  At lunch, Eli kept talking about the children's experience, thing after thing.  Eli: "I like your church."  That's a win for our City Kids.

- I heard the concentration from the production team was great.  They were focused the whole time- no cell phones or distractions- and you could tell the difference.  They did a great job.

 

This:

Pursuing Truth Together

Series: Tattooed: What Marks Us

Speaker: Jason Haymaker

Me Too: Pursuing Truth Together

_____________________________

"God did not create man because he was lonely.  God exists in community with Himself (Trinity), and created man as extension of Himself."

Isn't it interesting how Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love God with everything... and to love one another- those dots are connected.

The early church shared EVERYTHING.  Sacrifice was a daily affair.  Coincidence that "much grace was upon them all?"  (Acts 4)

Acts 4:34- "there were no needy persons among them."

What are you willing to sacrifice so this would be true about us today?

"Authentic community is real (not fake) life together."

"The love of God in part is not just between you and God, but in part is also to be shown to you and I."

Love needs to be defined holistically.  Up and out.

"Sacrifice: the seeking of another's good at one's own cost."

"If you seek to love biblically, it will cost you."

Biblical love will cause you to be self-less, and love sacrificially.

Don't talk about loving God with everything if you won't walk that line with others.

God uses Biblical community to reach people.

We've become good at superficial community.

Most people are turned off by the Church's community, rather than invited in.  That should tell you something.

90% of ministry is showing up.

Biblical community is sacrificing something we're doing to have a "me too" relationship.

Every handshake, every dollar given, every conversation- is an opportunity to have an impact on others for Jesus.

Western Reserve has just been through a season of consolidation.  I think we're about to transition into the greatest season of growth we've ever seen.  Let's do things now to get ready.

Tattooed- The Passionate Life

Tattooed Series, The Passionate Life

Speaker: Jason Haymaker

_____________________________

Churches tend to drift from the things that make them who they are, in order to make things more pleasant for themselves.

Check out Revelation 3, the letter to the church in Sardis- "I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead."

"The church that is alive is guided by the Spirit and passionately reflects Him."

"What breaks God's heart?" = Passionate Reflection, The Passionate Life

"God's heart breaks for the spiritually disconnected." - Luke 19

Acts 1- He will be the one empowering, you will be the one doing it.  You'll be the witnesses.

"We have no idea of our potential until we attempt what we can't attain without Jesus."

"The church needs to be driven by 2 questions: (1) Does it bother you people who are spiritually disconnected from the Father will spend eternity in hell if they die that way? (2) What is a soul worth?"

50% of Americans have no church home.  There are 98,000 people within 5 miles of Western Reserve's driveway.  Every year 4,000 churches in America close, with 1,000 opening.  Every year 2.7 million members fall into inactivity.

"In order to win more, we must risk all."

"The United States now ranks #3, behind China and India, in amount of people that don't know Jesus.  We're quickly becoming an unreached people group."

"The church becomes effective only when the Spirit of God is released among us and we reflect Christ our Savior.  In order to win more, we have to risk all."

"People need a place where the rungs of acceptance are so low that anyone with an interest can come here and find a friend."

"Did you do all that you could to help the spiritually disconnected become wholehearted followers of Jesus?" 

Did you ask: "What is a soul worth?"

On that note, what do you do with this: "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

If we have truth without action, we will become the church or Sardis, and apathy will kill us.

Nancy Beech, staff at Willow Creek- "every 5 seconds in this world, a child dies of hunger-related disease."

What is a soul worth?

Jacked: Destination

Jacked Series, Week 4        Notes from: Jason Haymaker

Our lives are headed somewhere.  Could it be toward... settling?

Matt 5: Blessed are those... (Happy, or fulfilled, "Jacked")

4 Different Indicators of pursuing the Jacked Life:

1. Grace Motivates You
         Blessed are the poor in spirit... meaning, those who get that they need a Savior, needing grace.

  Regardless of how much time I spend in church, read my Bible, what I attend- I am not good enough to make it in to heaven.  You don't deserve heaven, no matter what the body of work of your Christian life has been.  You're saved by grace when you believe- grace is something we are given that we do not deserve. 

  Jesus came to earth to pay the penalty for our sins- its by His grace that we have opportunity to know Him, to be saved.  My friends... we need saved.  A recent study said that 86% of evangelical Christians said that you go to heaven if you're "good enough."  It's not a reward; it's a gift.

"Poor in Spirit" means that you know you need Jesus and you are set free by Him.  

2. Sin Frustrates You

  Question for us as a Church: "What if we're supposed to walk in the church and not feel good?  What if times because of authentic spiritual conviction you don't feel right?  What if we're supposed to be frustrated with our sin?"  People living the "Jacked" life are people of conviction.  Not necessarily of guilt, but being broken and to mourn that the sin that you and I give ourselves to.  The church was never intended to be a place where we come and pretend like everything is ok.  We traded authentic brokenness for inauthentic fake behavior.

  "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."  - Blessed are the people whose heart breaks for their sin.

"We're most honest over beer and wings and the Lizard."  Could we be like that?

"The church needs to be a place where it's okay to not be okay."

3. You Long for Growth

You'll do anything to see more people trust Him.  People that are living the Jacked life is that we are constantly growing.  Healthy things grow.  People will surrender things because they just want to see the Kingdom advanced.  "They're being authentically transformed, not hypocritically informed."

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Meekness = strength under control.

You can back it up- but you don't always need to.  Secure.  It's about we, not me.  I don't have to be in control, I don't have to win the conversation.

What are you doing to actively serve the body of Christ?

Also- grown up people feed themselves.  Don't look to someone else to "feed you."

"Some of you need to exchange your bib for a fork and start to feed yourself."

4. You Are Generous

People that live the Jacked life love to give.  Freely receive, freely to give.

There are some that felt the sting of the economy's struggles more than others in the last few years.  However- is it because things are genuinely difficult...

Or is it because a few years back your god died?

Where are treasure is, there are heart is also.  

You can't live the Jacked life without giving generously to God... and you also need to be generous with others.

On a personal note (Josh)- years ago I delivered pizzas for a side job.  Every time I drove up to a place where there was a car in the driveway with a religious bumper sticker, or some kind of religious figurine in the garden or a scripture plaque on their house... I was like, "oh great... won't get a good tip here."  I'm telling you, Christians most of the time are the worst tippers.  That should never be- should be the opposite.  If you count out exact change for tip, or it's anything less than 15-18%, even for just one person- please don't tell them you're a Christian.

Your Life is headed somewhere.  Don't settle.

What more does God have in mind for you as an individual?

What more does God have in mind for Western Reserve as a church?

 

Jacked Series- Priority

Jacked Series- Priority- Speaker: Jason Haymaker

It's not always easy to talk about money.  There's been so much damage done by the church at large earning a reputation about being gold-diggers- there is a fundamental distrust.  

If you're not a follower a Jesus, nothing is expected from you.  If you're a Christian and here visiting looking for a church, take your time to find the church fellowship God's leading you to commit to.  Then give.  If you're a part of our family- put your hand ON your wallet.  But, and make your own judgment on this... we're not gold-diggers.  At all.  We want more FOR you, not just from you... and your giving is a big part of that... for you.

For us to understand how the Jacked Life works, finances propel it or impede it.

Where your treasure is- your heart is there too.  Sounds familiar.

Jesus talked more about money than heaven and hell.  

Jesus makes an assessment, that we are consumed.  In Matt 6, Jesus indicates that.  There is distrust, worry.  Worry about food, about your body, about your image.

"Jesus knew that we tend to worship the provision rather than the provider."

Instead, how about this "precept and a promise..."

Precept: Seek Me

Promise: I Will Take Care Of You

When we give, we are advancing His Kingdom.  We are Seeking First.

"If every Christian in America tithed, we'd be able to feed and clothe every person on the planet, and have est. 60-70 billion left over to advance the Kingdom."

"It's amazing how we trust God with eternity and not with our checkbooks."

Jesus' Mission: To Seek and Save that which is lost.

What stresses Jesus out? The plight of the poor.  His heart breaks for them.

The Bible says that if we know there are poor people and we ignore their cry, then we will not be heard by God.

Church; the mechanism God has chosen to change the world is you.

A church should never have money problems... unless as a church you do nothing for the poor.  If you do nothing for the poor, either locally or globally, you should have money problems.  Your mind is deceived.

Do any of us give to the Lord out of guilt rather than joy, and deep down resent it?

"What consumes us is the protection and advance of ourselves, not the protection and advance of the Kingdom."

The church DOES NOT belong to those who give the most.  It belongs to Jesus.

If you are a spectator, you need to start giving.  Stand up, step into the gap, and give the way Jesus has called us to give.  If you're not, don't think that you're worshipping God.

LOVE Celebration ~

This weekend at Western Reserve was a special weekend- we celebrated the LOVE. movement.  

One of the biggest things, off the bat- is to understand part of our DNA, part of the Church's DNA- is mission.  To expand the Kingdom of God, to be known by what He has done through us- and particularly to our community and the world.

We're going to stand before God one day and answer for what we've done- expanding His Kingdom and caring for the poor.  

One of the things we're so excited about... Western Reserve, you're doing that.  You've busted your tails in these last seven weeks- we're so proud of you.

This is why we did a flip-flop giveaway to our people, wanting to mark the event.  We gave away flip-flops with "Love is Dirty" on them.  You can tack them on your wall until spring:) but what better to mark the giving away of 100,000 pairs of shoes with a type of shoe.  Western Reserve, you always step up and answer the challenge- this is what kind of people we are, and who we're going to be- to never shy away from doing something risky; answering what God calls us to do and to be.

Jason shared from Micah 6:8, about acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.  

This is our DNA, who we are: Micah 6:8.  In our behavior, our motivation, and hopefully our authenticity.

LOVE. Turn your other cheek.

Some thoughts from Jason Haymaker.

What's it mean to love?

We have cultures.  Cultures of pessimism.  Of a critical spirit.  Of bitterness.

There's a picture of someone who is angry and bitter looks like.

Could that picture be you?  Not just the old man or old woman- but so many of us.

First thing when people have wronged you- go to them.  So often we go to each other.

On the other hand- check out Matthew 18- the story of the man who was forgiven of great debt, and then didn't release the man who owed him a smaller debt.

It's possible to have examples of the Kingdom of heaven here.

Don't forget that in this story, the King represents God, and the servant represents you and me.  God let an unbelievable debt go, and what do we do to others?

Do you live from a culture of grace or a critical spirit?

Do you forgive your brother... from your heart?

"God's amazing grace collides against our amazing hypocrisy."

You can't be free in your heart until you set others free in your heart.

Love. Truth.

                

Week 2- Gotta B Tru                Speaker: Jason Haymaker

Assumed membership.  Some say they've always known Jesus... that's simply not true.  You need to encounter Jesus as Lord, realizing how much you need him.

We've defined Christianity by the wrong things.  We're basing things on the external.

We think if we can get all these things on the outside right, then we'll be okay- but it's not about that. 

We think about things like "being polluted by the world" and we define them by the wrong things.  Seeing rated R movies, alcohol, tattoos, etc.

What, really, is the evidence of following Christ?  There is evidence... but what is it?

"It's only in the church in America can a man who is shady in business, treat his wife like trash, be addicted to porn, be a negligent father, blame his laziness on supervisors come to church and everyone thinks things are okay."

"Ladies- only in the church in American can you slander a person on facebook, cast doubt on leadership, gossip, dishonor your husband,  raise your voice at your children, and then come into church be involved and everyone thinks things are okay."

"Somewhere along the line it became about assumed membership.  People have been in the church for many years and never really met Jesus."

As a follower of Christ, you cannot be content with sin in your life.  At the same time, Christians will struggle with sin.  

Your evidence won't be perfection... you will still struggle.  Check out Romans 7.  Godly people struggle with sin.  But... you'll hate it.  You're not okay with it.  And God will give you victory.

In the mean time- there is still evidence of following Jesus.   You can't follow Jesus and be the same... you just can't.

You need Jesus.

LOVE.

 

LOVE SERIES: WEEK 1            Speaker: Jason Haymaker

Love is dirty.

God wanted to know us so much, even when we did not want to know Him back-

Love is dirty.

Every other religion says you have to get really dirty to get to God.

This one says that God got dirty to get to you.

Love is dirty.

Jesus was here.  In our mess.  In our dirtiness.

Love gave it all.  

We get email complaints about things like the Passion of the Christ, because it's a rated R movie showing in church.

The truth is rated R.

First, we were loved.  Now we love.

Christians spend so much time trying to exclude.  Maybe we've got that backwards.

Jesus got dirty to save us.

Who are you willing to get dirty to save?