Kingdom Posts

When the Church Leaves the Building

29 Mar , 2008 1 Comment

What happens when the church leaves the building?  We’re about to find out.  The truth is the Church spends most of its time outside the building and was never intended to stay in the building.  If you’ve been around First McKinney much lately, you know that we seek to be a church on mission with Jesus in the world.  Jesus has come to transform our hearts so we can transform our world with His love. 

Our focus in April is “Transform Your World” and throughout the month we’ll explore what happens “When the Church Leaves the Building”.   We seek to rediscover the forgotten mission of Jesus and begin to look at the Church and our world in brand new ways.  We seek to be a source of healing wherever we encounter injustice, discord, and neglect.  We believe that Jesus is the Answer and He is the One who brings hope and healing to all people through us.   

On April 27th we will literally “leave the building” and worship the Lord through service in our community.  Instead of going to church, we’re going to be the church.  Our entire church family will be on mission throughout the weekend.  It will be a wild and wonderful display of the radical grace of Jesus.  The entire month will culminate on May 5th with our annual “Transform Your World” offering.  It is going to be an earth-shaking, heaven-descending kind of movement of God’s people.  Watch while stories of redemption emerge as we go find Jesus on the move and join Him in what He’s doing.  (We’ve got a hunch as to where we might find Him- among the least and lost of our community). 

Jump in and hang on!  www.fbcmckinney.com/Default.aspx?p=14526

Walk Through the Door

08 Mar , 2008 No Comments

walkthroughthedoor.org

www.walkthroughthedoor.org 

Jesus is the Door to life.  In John 10:9 Jesus says, “I am the Gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come in and out, and find pasture.”  Notice that being “saved” allows us to have freedom to “come in and out, and find pasture.”  Jesus died so that we might actually be set free.  In Galatians 5:1, Paul says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.”  I used to think this verse was redundant until I realized the power behind it.  Jesus didn’t die to simply save us from the penalty of our sins (though that’s an amazing exchange); He died to save us from our sins– here and now.  Too many of us have come to believe that once we cross the line of faith and receive salvation, we’re done.  I’ve discovered that the Gospel is much bigger than that.  Jesus didn’t die simply to save us from hell.  He had something more like a transformation in mind.  The Gospel has the power to transform your life, if you’ll walk through the door(s) that He’s calling you through.  As we walk with Him He leads us to wide open pastures of grace and selfless living.

During this season of sacrifice and commitment, I’m challenging each of us to consider what doors we need to walk through.  The driving story for us this Easter is the Exodus.  The BIG story of God is the story of freedom and liberation- saving us from oppression of sin and slavery to self.  What’s your story?  Tell the world by going to…  

 www.walkthroughthedoor.org       

“the least of these”

04 Feb , 2008 No Comments

woman-at-dump-heap-gc.jpg 

You could smell it before you could see it.  Something was in the air… and it was not good.  I was at the city dump in Zone 3 of Guatemala City.  I was in the city preparing for a trip we’ll be taking this summer and I found myself in the midst of one of the worst humanitarian tragedies I’ve seen.  Here, thousands of people live and many survive off the dump heaps.  They rummage through the garbage every day to find something to eat, to keep, or to sell.  I was there late in the afternoon when I saw a woman walking away from the dump, her front completely covered with dark, wet filth.  She had obviously been going through the garbage much of the day.  I saw another woman (pictured above) carrying two very large bags of garbage up a hill.   

In a meeting with partnering pastors and leaders I met Carol.  Carol has a heart for the women who live around the dump.  Many of these women are single and were formerly (or are currently) involved in prostitution and drug use.  There is a kindergarten near by where many of these children come to be loved and cared for throughout the day.  At night, Carol teaches women how to sew so that they might have a means of income.  I told her I had to see this.  What I saw broke my heart and, at the same time, gave me hope. 

This summer I’m hoping to take a group of 70 to 100 people with me to Guatemala City to bring compassion, hope, and the love of Christ to the people there.  We’ll have a chance to make difference in this dark spot of the world.  I sensed the presence of Christ in this place.  I know that He loves the people there and I do too.  

I hope you’ll pray about coming with me.  Check out the “Transforming Your World” website at http://www.fbcmckinney.com/Default.aspx?p=14526 or just call our church office to find out how you can get involved.

A whole lotta prayin’ goin’ on

23 Oct , 2007 No Comments

I love the old negro spirituals.  This sounds like a good one.  But it’s actually the story of what’s been going in our church family.  There’s been a whole lot of praying going on.  FBC McKinney has been so committed to private, “in your room” kind of prayer (Matthew 6:6), that we actually have a prayer room for people to access any time 24/7/365.  This month we’re celebrating 20 years of prayer in our Prayer Room.  Since 1987 we’ve had 9,653 people ask for prayer (by filling out a prayer card), and 18,458 people pray over those cards.  Nearly 10,000 cards prayed over multiple times daily; this adds up to hundreds of thousands of prayers!  That’s amazing!  Our church has been marked by prayer.  In fact, I’ve said it’s the most important ministry of the church- any church! This month we’ve been learning to pray like Jesus.  Here’s why this is SO big.  Think about it: The KEY to your Christian life is not found in what you know about God, not even what you do for God, but in the intimacy that you have with God through Christ, and the character and the qualities that are produced as a result of that one relationship.  That’s the ONE thing He’s called you to.  And as Oswald Chambers has noted, it’s the one thing that will be constantly under attack in your life.  Are you committed to daily, consistent, intentional prayer?  How are you doing?  If you want to be a Kingdom person and allow His will to be done in your life, it will all start with prayer.

Thy Kingdom Come- Jeff Warren

10 Oct , 2007 2 Comments

Have you ever struggled in prayer?  The truth is we all have.  The tragic truth is that some of us have ceased to struggle.  In fact, we’ve stopped praying altogether.  Why is this?  I have a theory.  This may sound harsh to say but I believe it’s because many of us have been actually been praying wrong.  I discovered the key that unlocks prayer.This sounds simple, I know, but it’s learning to pray like Jesus.  So simple, but few of us do it.  Many of us are familiar with the prayer called the “Lord’s Prayer” and most of us are familiar with the phrase “Thy Kingdom come…” In fact, some of you know the rest of that phrase, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”  At the beginning of His ministry (and throughout the Gospels), Jesus came “preaching the Kingdom.”  In fact, most of His parables centered on this thing of the “Kingdom of God”.  In fact in Matthew 6:33, He said,  “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” 

What is the “Kingdom”?  

Jesus talked about the kingdom all the time.  Every parable is about the kingdom.  Most of them start with, “The Kingdom is like…”  Most of us think of the Kingdom as heaven- as some far off, some day, kind of place.  But Jesus says that we should pray for His Kingdom to come in the here-and-now.  We are to pray for His Kingdom to advance right now.  In fact, when the disciples asked, “When is this Kingdom coming; when are you going to bring this Kingdom?” Jesus said to His disciples that the Kingdom of God is among you- in fact, it is “within you”.  What is this Kingdom?  Well, a kingdom speaks of a king who is reigning, and of loyal subjects who pledge their allegiance to Him and who are following Him.  A Kingdom speaks of territory, of commerce, of an economy, and of values.  This is so important:

  • The Kingdom is wherever God rules.
  • The Kingdom is wherever God has dominion.  (power, control, dominance)

How, then, does His Kingdom come?  It comes as His people give Him rule over their lives.  It comes wherever His people are showing His power, His love through their lives.

  • The Kingdom is wherever God’s people are surrendered and are serving

Him.  Wherever God reigns over people is where the Kingdom of God is.

  • The Kingdom is wherever God is at work.  The Kingdom is wherever Jesus

shows up.  And Jesus shows up wherever His people are serving others, loving people in need, sharing His love with our world. Think about this: It seems that we’ve focused so much on Jesus as Savior- and that He is- but we’ve forgotten that He wants to be Lord of our lives.  Some of us have come to believe that once we’re saved, nothing else matters.  To be a Kingdom person means that you praise Him for saving you- but you realize that He has saved you in order that He might be LORD- Ruler, the reigning King of your life.    

What is His righteousness? 

Again, if we are to seek it- what is it?  And if we’re to seek it FIRST, we better figure out what it is and how we are to seek it!

  • Righteousness is the very character of God- namely, His holiness.

·         To be righteousness, simply put, is to be like Jesus.  Jesus is the perfect representation, the image of the character of God (His righteousness), lived out in human form.  It’s important to note that, as we receive the forgiveness of God through Christ and His sacrifice on the cross- we are made righteous by Him.  In fact, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that we have been “made the very righteousness of God in Him.”  And we are now to live the righteous life of Jesus.In the end then, a “Kingdom person” is a Jesus person.  And if desire to be a Kingdom person then Jesus becomes the Ruler in my life.  I give Him authority over every aspect of my life.  He reigns over my thoughts, my words, my checkbook, the decisions I make about how I spend HIS resources.  He reigns over my relationships, my calendar, my body, how I use His gifts given to me, how I spend my leisure time… He RULES.  Are you a Jesus person?