Grace is Not a Gamble

It's not very often that I write a blog prior to speaking on the same topic, but that's exactly what I am going to do today. Sunday, we will continue the fourth week of what has been a fun and challenging series, "How I Met My Father" as we learn to find a couch and share our story.

Your story includes some incredible moments, and it also includes some very stupid ones. Our toughest days can be an element of consequence, but more often than not, the resulting embarrassment is by our own ridiculous choices.

I am no different. I'm going to share with you Sunday a story that you have never heard before, and it shaped me for who I am.

It took a fight - yes, a physical one - to get me back in church and ultimately right with God. I paid a lot of "stupid tax" on purchases in my early years by using a credit card. My attitude, ego and self-control was so mismanaged that I hurt a lot of people on the way to finding what God had for me, and there are days I regret a lot of things in my past even though grace has allowed me to be forgiven. The skeletons in my closet don't need to be brought out when I can hear the rattle of the bones in my own head.

And chances are, you are there too.

Grace is not a Slap Bet

In the show How I Met Your Mother (CBS), "Barney" is a high-strung, character-flawed socialite who carries the show. He's funny, but that's because he's a mess. He gambles with his mistakes and has an ego bigger than the moon. But his gambles can get him in trouble, and one day it goes to an extreme.

His friend Marshall is pretty laid back, but Marshall is a lot bigger and more intimidating than Barney. So in an argument, Barney takes a gamble on what he believes to be truth - and he's wrong. A "bet" between friends leaves Barney with a choice. He can either be slapped 10 times consecutively by Marshall immediately, or he can be slapped five times - with no warning - at any point from then until eternity.

Barney is a rebel, so in the "slap bet" he takes the five slaps at random intervals. To this point in the show, Marshall has used four. He has knocked Barney from a seat at the table, across the living room floor, crashed him in front of their friends, and buckled him over furniture. There is ONE slap bet left to dish out, and Barney has no idea when it's coming.

Crazy as it sounds, the slap bet is a stupid way to dish out punishment, but it causes Barney to live paranoid. Marshall tortures him, faking the slap, or sending him an email with a screensaver countdown to the next one. Barney fears the anticipation more than the slap itself. Watch for yourself. (The video is from an independent site, so the links and content is not on me...)

And this is exactly how Satan intends for you to live when you make a mistake. He is torturing you, making you live in fear when your mistakes are going to come back and slap you in the face. Barney SHOULD HAVE taken his dose and ended it. But he CHOSE to live in fear when it could have been over. Christ died for your sin, so quit carrying it for all of your life!

Take your medicine, and move on!

Peter was an apostle of Jesus. He was by and large the most stubborn one, violently defending Christ and yet bold enough to challenge Jesus about his words when he did not understand. But Peter made a horrible decision, three-fold, denying Jesus at the very moment he had a chance to defend him. Peter's words were so cutting, cursing...echoing through the night as the apostle declared with force, "I do not know this man."

Jesus ultimately was crucified and Peter retreated to the boat, not just to his former profession but back to the sea in a moment of sheer regret and skeleton-shaking horror as he contemplated what he had done. Regardless of the words of Jesus planning to return, to resurrect, to see them again, here was the village idiot soaking in his own self-pity in the boat. Is it harsh to call him the village idiot? Of course it is. But I am using that phrase for the own self-deprecation we feel when our mistakes come crashing down. We are guilty, and we know it.

Peter got a second chance, and I want to tell you about that Sunday. You are worthy of a second chance, not because of how righteous you are, but because grace is not a gamble. Jesus died to set the very thing free that you beat yourself up with over and over again.

Peter's story later emerged from utter disaster to incredible blessing. After Jesus ascended to Heaven, it was Peter who led 3,000 people to the gospel after the group emerged from the upper room. Peter saw a lame man walk again with the power of "Jesus Christ of Nazareth" in his right hand and his words. Peter stood before the high council and upheld Jesus after denying he knew Jesus in front of a few people in the courtyard.

Set it free!

God didn't send his son Jesus to die for your sin just so you could use his grace as a get out of Hell free card. But he also didn't send his son to die for your sin so you could wake up every day and sulk in how worthless you are.

The devil (Satan) is a master at false conviction. He tempts you to believe you can never be loved, never be saved, never be set free.

Well, he's got one slap left, and God's holding the keys to hell and death. In the meantime, forgiveness comes with some tough earthly consequences. Your relationships may have been damaged, and you are likely going to face saying you are sorry. Some things you may never get back, and some hurts last a long time. But let it BECOME your story, not CONTROL it.

Tell Satan you didn't gamble on grace. Your debt is paid.

If anyone is going to get a spiritual smack in the face, let the arrogant one who thinks he's bigger than God take his own medicine.

I'm perfectly thankful Christ took mine.

You do not want to miss Sunday.

Pastor K

A great Father's Day at Revolution!

Photo by Michelle Carver - A dad and his two sons praying

Happy Monday! It's the day after Father's Day and I want to share with you some awesome things from Revolution Church from the past week. We learn to celebrate wins, and God has blessed us in a big way. Hope to see you next Sunday as we continue week four of How I Met My Father!

- Sunday we had one person give their life to Christ, two people signed up for baptism and 24 families or individuals praying in response to a challenging message on parenting and sacrifice.
- Our Jamaica team returned, and 13 people came to Christ or rededicated their lives. We ministered to two schools, three churches and over 1,500 kids total. i am very proud of our team. Our chapel on the campground is not yet built, but when the container gets released it will be. Trust God!
- We have 26 people who have been on a mission trip to either Jamaica or Oklahoma City in the past two weeks. That's AWESOME!
- Chris Alsup and Corey Freeman were just slamming it at the roadside! Chris says they had a 99 percent wave rate Sunday - c'mon, bro! What's wrong with the one person who didn't? Great job by our greeters!
- We continue to add team members to our cleaning and maintenance, first impressions, greeters and had four first-time serving in RevKids last week. Our serve team rate is about 65 percent at church right now. That's awesome!
- Worship for Father's Day - WOW! The Holy Spirit moved, and we just watched as God did some amazing things. "The Great I Am" in the second service was incredible and I was awed to see Ronnie Foster so overcome he couldn't sing, and the audience led it for him. That was cool. Really cool.

Want to give a shout to Pastor Ian Cullen, who did a fantastic job on June 9th while we were on the missions trip. If you want to check out his message, see it here.

Listen to this win from the Revive ladies meeting:

"Win: someone at Revive pulled me aside tonight and just wanted to let me know that since their family has been coming to Revolution Church the past few months they have experienced, wait for it....LIFE CHANGE! Their marriage is better, their kids behavior is better...yes ladies and gentleman that is what it is all about! Life Change! Got the Holy Ghost bumps while she was talking to me."

Our serve team leaders are reading through 1 Timothy this week. Want to join us? We just want to celebrate what God is doing!

Finally, three simple things:

1. Live - Keep it all about life change.
2. Love - Treat people the right way and see them through God's eyes.
3. Serve - Make a difference, not an excuse.

I love my church family, if you missed out this Sunday then you better get ready for next week because God is on the move!

I have preached seven times this week. I am tired. But I love Jesus and can't wait to share with you next Sunday! Get a friend to church, you don't want to miss it! What's your win? Celebrate with us by sharing what God is doing with you!

Pastor K

P.S. I got to return from Jamaica and see Man of Steel with my family for Father's Day. It's intense, but check it out! A lot of gospel parallels and Messiah implications for the main character. You'll see a lot of the Bible reflected in the movie.

And Phil Mickelson didn't win the U.S. Open like I predicted. But I would like to offer my advice that he should have reduced club to the gap wedge on hole 13. Like I'm a pro or something. Just saying. Oh, Phil.

April showers bring...more hours to read the Bible?

It's Thursday, and raining once again here in White House. What that means for my family, and likely yours, is another cancellation of games for spring sports, the single most popular event in Sumner County for many years. The spring sports programs here are diverse and populated, and rain just destroys the schedule.

So chances are, you're all bummed out. For parents, this might be a time to adjust the schedule and catch up on housework and homework before Friday. Perhaps you get the kids in bed early for a change. So I want to issue a challenge. Take a few moments tonight to open your Bible.

When the schedule gets squeezed, so does our time with the Lord. Take your kids - or if you are just a empty nest couple or an individual - and open Matthew 5 through Matthew 7. It's the three chapters showing the Sermon on the Mount.

The Bible says "blessed are those which hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" in Matthew 5:6. This Sunday, we begin a series called "The Hunger Games" which gets in depth with the Beatitudes (the Blessed Are's) and the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to get down to earth about the simple teachings of Christ.

A Bible reading church is a world-changing church. Did you feel the energy in church Sunday for Easter? In my opinion, it wasn't because we put on a good show for the holiday. It was because people spent time last week reading the Word and when we showed up for church, the Holy Spirit was already moving in our lives before we got to the building.

Let's do it again. Read hungry, and be filled.

And let it rain. Until tomorrow. I would prefer some sunshine then.

I love you, and these are my thoughts.

Pastor K

Oh, and for good measure, here's a little fitting worship from Michael W. Smith.

The most important blog I've ever written

It's Wednesday, matter of fact the Wednesday after Easter. You feel attacked because you have emerged from a spiritual high this weekend and the enemy is doing everything in his power to bring you back to earth. After all, earth is Satan's domain. He can't touch the high places so he just strives to keep you out of them.

So let's keep this short.

1. God loves you.
2. God understands your frustration.
3. God hears your prayers.
4. God's timing is different than yours.
5. God is faithful.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. This is the most important blog I've ever written.

Because I'm the one that needed to hear it as much as you did. So share it, say it and pray it.

I love you, and these are my thoughts.

Pastor K

Easter recap at Revolution...

WOW!!!!

What a great weekend at Revolution. I want to take a moment to say thank you to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that each of you got the opportunity to celebrate the resurrection together. It was amazing.

Here are some fantastic highlights of Easter weekend at Revolution:

- Three people gave their lives to Christ. One person signed up for baptism. Seventeen people made re-commitments to Christ through their prayers, starting by hammering a physical nail into the cross and letting their past go. Thanks to Drew for the cross and to Glinda for the prayer shroud for the cross.

- Worship was amazing. If you appreciate the quality and excellence in our worship and tech team, please let them know. Justin Goff and his team are not on stage for glory, we just want to be sure Christ receives his. But there is no harm in saying thank you when it is a job well done. We are SO blessed with talent and gifts in our worship and many of those people are running switches and buttons behind the scenes and never get any visual recognition for it. Those people are Pastor Joe, Steve, Layton, Tracee, Sonya, David, Matt, Stephen, Tim, Amy, Michael, just to name a few and I am sure to have left someone out.

- You did AWESOME on the #sevendays scriptures. No one said you have to stop! A countdown video was made with screenshots and we will put it online this week.

- I wore a tie. Don't get used to it. ;)

- RevKids - gosh, that was fun. You all did such a great job but you brought the fun right into the Easter service. Thank you so much to our volunteers. The inside egg hunt? Yeah, that was insane. We had more eggs than square feet in the building which is a little crazy.

- We received our largest in-service offering of the year, and we able to give ten percent back into a church that helped us launch. A check was sent today to Pastor Brent Johnson and Calvary General Baptist Church in Adairville, KY. They started in a funeral home in the 1990s and recently completed a building addition on their property. A church of less than 100 people invested over $3,000.00 in Revolution and we are blessed to be able to give back.

- Our attendance was fantastic. Honestly, the number is very important, but not if that means bragging about it. If you'd like to know our attendance numbers, I will be happy to share it privately as we report to our denomination. But I will say that combined, this weekend was the third largest attendance in the history of our church. The largest ever was Easter 2011 at the elementary school and we were very close this time. Please don't let that be our focus, but it's important for you to know that we value you sharing the message of Christ with your friends. YES! We want you to fill it up and two services continues next week at 9:00 and 10:45 a.m. And guess what...the people who attend next week are JUST AS IMPORTANT as the ones who attend on Easter. We value EVERY DAY, EVERY PERSON.

There's a reason that attendance number isn't important to be broadcasted. First, scripturally, I have no doubts God is not really that interested in churches and pastors competing about numbers. But for all the blessing we might have received numerically, there is a struggling pastor who worked HARDER than we did this weekend and maybe this season wasn't the harvest for his congregation in the number of attendance. But that ministry has value, just like the church of 20 people down the road and the thousands who gathered at the mega church in Hendersonville. IT ALL MATTERS. Everybody matters. And I am so thankful you chose to worship with us and pray you will continue to be a part of a church family. Celebrate, don't compete!

- I love my wife. She didn't feel well this weekend and she worked hard. I appreciate her so much. Don't forget the best way to bless me, is bless her.

- Saturday night, we stayed late after the egg hunt to clean up and get prepared for Sunday. A dance party erupted in the youth center. Sweaty kids and adults were laughing, playing, and even though I spent part of the time listening from a computer desk, it was so nice to have some fun. Leaders - don't forget to play, it's important. Love the people and spend time with them.

- We served over 325 items at the hospitality area. For free. We don't charge, we don't sell, hospitality is our gift. You made a difference. The retail purchase price of what we served this weekend was almost $1,000.00 we were able to do it for free. Church, you did a GREAT job of helping us keep cleaned up for each service.

- Greeters were awesome. I love seeing the yellow vests in the parking lot and cars waving as they go by. Do you know what kind of impression that makes for complete strangers who pass our church? You guys for two straight weeks have done it in the rain. That's commitment.

One note: When turning into the parking lot, do not drive head first into another vehicle. Almost, while waving. Ahem. Chris Alsup. I'm talking to you.

- Tim and Amy make that facility pretty. Thank you team for stepping up to clean and organize even when time is short.

- Next week we start the Hunger Games. Read your Bible from Matthew 5 to Matthew 7 and study the Beatitudes (the Blessed Are's from Matthew 5).

A Bible-reading church is a world-changing church!

P.S. Within the next two weeks, we are praying to unveil plans for a building remodel concerning kids and youth to free up more space and put a huge facelift on our kids area. Can you pray with us for God's perfect direction as we seek him?

I love you all. You are the greatest church. Just keep bringing your friends and family, and we are going to develop leaders and disciple people as we change the world.

Get some rest and no slacking next Sunday!

Pastor Kris

P.S. Clay Harris looked pretty in his Easter dress. Just seeing if you were still reading.

You can't do everything...

Revolution Church is so blessed. We are really working on leadership development. So I want to take a moment to pass some encouragement to leaders, serve teams and the people who make up our church every week. Are you ready? Get ready. Receive it, in the name of Jesus.

YOU. CAN'T. DO. EVERYTHING.

As our church grows, opportunities to expand and serve get crazy busy. We are not going to slow down serving and impacting our city. We are going to offer strong foundations to build families, which is why we have a 10-year vision for changing families and futures through Financial Peace University. But just like other things, this may not be the spot for you.

Do not assume that God called you to lead every single ministry, attend every single event and be involved in every single meeting. You will burnout quicker than a smoldering fire.

HOWEVER... YOU. CAN. DO. SOMETHING.

Leaders emerge with influence in the face of opportunity. We are counting on God to fill our church and birth passion inside your belly, matched with your spiritual gifts, to serve him passionately and worship in your serving.

You have no influence if you never impact people and you are not committed. Be passionate and have purpose about what God has called you to do.

Revolution Church is going to do three things and do them well:
1. Life change through the transforming power of Christ. We are not shopping the 30 percent of people attending other churches. We are passionate about reaching the 70 percent who aren't attending anywhere and need Jesus. We're going to make a dent in Hell by telling people about Heaven.
2. Love people and challenge them to grow in their faith. We are going to push people to plug into discipleship, give faithfully, READ YOUR BIBLE, pray every day. Take a step every day to grow.
3. Serve the community and our world.

HOW this happens is you. We can't make every announcement during worship, or market all events, or budget for internal ministries that simply don't fit what God has called us to do. What we CAN do is place ministry in the hands of people who will passionately lead it, fund it, staff it, grow it and make it awesome.

I just had this on my heart. Our church is growing fast, and we have lots of stuff going on.

Don't build an unstable wall for tomorrow without a foundation, but fortify your city one brick at a time.

MAKE. A. DIFFERENCE.

I'm not afraid to say God put you here for this time because YOU can. Not me. YOU.

I just get to be blessed by what he puts inside of you.

I love you and these are my thoughts.

Pastor K

Pick up Your Chair...

By the way, that IS the original chair we used.

The sound was clear - at the close of Revolution Church's services at H.B. Williams Elementary School, the noise echoed through the gym as dozens of people turned and began stacking the hard plastic chairs we used each week for service.

For 70 weeks, we set up and tore down, every week. In January of 2012, we were blessed to move into a permanent facility. And though many of us don't miss the eight-hour Saturdays when sometimes things would all go wrong, and the late Sunday afternoons making sure the building was cleaned right, I certainly do miss hearing the sounds of the "stair chackers."

Funny thing. That's a transposed way of saying "chair stackers" but I can't tell you how many times I screwed that up on stage trying to say it right. Be my guest, you'll do it too. But that's not the point of today's blog.

Sunday began "Sun Stand Still" at Revolution Church. We challenged our church to own the vision and dream for God to do the impossible. Reaching the impossible requires a full reliance upon the Holy Spirit, and a simple obedience. Quit trying to change the world - just simply change your next step. And that means picking up your chair.

Now that we are settled in a building, the vision certainly has different ways to carry itself out. I want to offer THREE SIMPLE WAYS to "pick up your chair" at Revolution Church. Together, we CAN change the world, and together with God, we CAN do the impossible.

Pick up your chair by:

1. Serving like you worship. During Sunday's music time, Philip Gorodetzky was playing the djembe (pronounced "gym-bay") with his left hand, while his eyes were closed and his right hand was in the air. He was serving as he was worshipping, and do it with the same hands. When you serve like you worship, you are as passionate about serving others as you are about praising the name of Jesus. Because serving IS worship.

Serving happens in systems, but using those systems is a productive way to carry out what God has for you. In a church, find a system and get plugged in to serve - setup, small groups, greeters, ushers, maintenance, kids, cleaning, tech, teens, admin, leadership - or simply see a need and be a part of the system to meet the need by creating ministry.

The key to serving is sacrifice. Make a difference.

2. Praying like you preach. We have called our church to a seven-day prayer fast. Each day from 6-7 a.m. or 6-7 p.m., take an hour to pray for your family, your self, your church, your leaders and your calling/ministry.

Followers of Christ do a lot of talking. We fill Facebook, T-shirts and text messages with constant billboards of who we are in Christ. But when we do not translate our talk into an open communication with God, we are missing the biggest piece of how He works in us.

Pick up your chair by owning the vision in prayer. Call out to God, and intercede for your church and those around you. Step up by kneeling. Get connected with God.

The key to prayer can also be in how well we listen. It's not always about what we say.

3. Finding like you follow. Christians abuse statistics, so without throwing a number at you, I can instead verify that the large majority of people who come to church do so because someone invited them to the Gospel, to a service, or give church a try.

We are in a community with 58 churches, yet 70 percent of the people around us on a given Sunday (whoops, there's a stat) are not in church, and therefore most likely not following Christ. Church membership is not a precursor to salvation, but if a person is not connected to a local church, it is a fair question of how connected they are to the Gospel of Christ which called us to work together.

You are at Revolution Church because you chose to follow - hopefully Christ above all. You responded to an invitation, mailer, outreach event, serve project, buzz in the community - there is a channel which brought you. That channel likely had a person connected to it.

Saved people SAVE people. Served people SERVE people. Found people FIND people. The centrality of the Gospel is to tell the world about the Good News of Christ.

So pick up your chair so someone else can sit.

Today's blog is simple. It's probably not going to change your life.

Funny thing, it might change someone else's life. And if we all pick up our chair, it will definitely change our church.

Don't get comfortable. We haven't even started yet.

I love you, and these are my thoughts.

Pastor Kris