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Valuing Our Vision series #6: Empty Bleachers

psimpson — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:12:26 +0000

message title: Empty Bleachers
message text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-26
message date: 07.25.10
Ownership matters. When I possess something as its owner I also possess the authority to determine the usage of that thing. This series will answer questions of ownership and management. It will look at the world, our lives, and our resources in light of the reality that God owns everything and therefore sets the parameters for our management of all we have and are. This final message in the series looks at our stewardship as the body of Christ. Since God’s family is made up of participants and not spectators how does that impact the way in which we manage our function within our local church?

empty bleachers outline 6

Beginnings

psimpson — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:19:38 +0000

This was an article for the August newsletter at our church.
Have you noticed that it is almost universal that we human beings get excited about beginnings? Everything from the birth of a baby to the start of a race is filled with a variety of pomp and circumstance accompanied by a frenzy of excitement. As crazy as it sounds for some, even the first day of school is met with a measure of excitement. Think about it, children and teenagers head off to the first day of school decked out in a new wardrobe and sporting all new school gear, because it is a fresh beginning. We could almost go so far as to say we have a love affair with beginning things.
As excited as we tend to get about beginnings we have a reputation within our culture for lacking follow through. Our excitement over finishing well is, let’s say, not so universal. For whatever reason or reasons we can sometimes lose sight of the excitement of driving the last nail or finishing the last mile.
At the end of this month we are celebrating the legacy of MorningStar Baptist Church to finish well. We are closing the chapter of the first 50 years of ministry only to begin a new chapter looking to the next 50 years. My desire is that this would be a celebration of magnanimous proportions! Anyone can start a church, but not everyone can celebrate 50 faithful and fruitful years, and every one of you have made some contribution. It is because of the availability of so many faithful followers of Jesus Christ that we are having this celebration. My encouragement to each of you is to invite those who have been a part of this spiritual legacy to be here on the weekend of August 27-29. This will be our opportunity to thank one another for each other’s faithfulness, and also, to collectively thank God for His gracious hand of blessing. I would also encourage you to invite some friends who you’ve been praying for. I can think of no better way to celebrate 50 years of ministry than to ask God for a harvest of souls coming to know Him – and that will require that we scatter some seed and invite some friends and family who need Jesus. As we all pitch in we can make this 50th celebration one to remember.

Valuing Our Vision series #5: Genuine Joy

psimpson — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:11:42 +0000

message title: Genuine Joy
message text: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
message date: 07.18.10
Ownership matters. When I possess something as its owner I also possess the authority to determine the usage of that thing. This series will answer questions of ownership and management. It will look at the world, our lives, and our resources in light of the reality that God owns everything and therefore sets the parameters for our management of all we have and are. This message takes a look at what God thinks about how we manage our bodies. If God owns everything does it include my body or does He just care about my spiritual side? By looking at Paul’s words to the church at Corinth we see that God does care about the management of our bodies and we glorify Him with our body when we are satisfied in Jesus Christ.

genuine joy outline 5

Valuing Our Vision series #4: An Eye for Opportunity in an Hour of Urgency

psimpson — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:48:16 +0000

message title: An Eye for Opportunity in an Hour of Urgency
message text: Ephesians 5:15-17
message date: 07.11.10
Ownership matters. When I possess something as its owner I also possess the authority to determine the usage of that thing. This series will answer questions of ownership and management. It will look at the world, our lives, and our resources in light of the reality that God owns everything and therefore sets the parameters for our management of all we have and are. This message looks at our time and how God cares about the management of our time. Every moment of our lives is an opportunity and we only get one shot at making the most of that opportunity so we must be intentional.

an eye for opportunity in an hour of urgency outline 4

Freedom!

psimpson — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:15:05 +0000

message title: Freedom
message text: Galatians 5:1
message date: 07.04.10
As we celebrate our country’s freedom and the price of that freedom, we can also remember the freedom we have in Jesus Christ.

freedom! outline

Laughing at Ourselves

psimpson — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:35:08 +0000

My wife and I are polar opposites when it comes to embarrassing moments. She is like an embarrassing moment magnet whereas I can count on one hand the number of embarrassing moments I’ve had in my lifetime. So when I do have an embarrassing moment my wife relishes the occasion and reminds me of it frequently, in love of course. That is why our Christmas tree excursion of 2006 will go down in the annals of history as one of the best for my wife.
The weeks leading up to Christmas were a bit cluttered for us that year so we didn’t have a whole lot of flex time to utilize as we went about the usual Christmas decorating preparations of hanging the outside lights, redecorating and rearranging the interior then purchasing and decorating our live Christmas tree. We’ve always been a little nostalgic when it comes to Christmas trees, seeking to make the whole ordeal a memorable experience and not just a purchase. So we’ve always sought out tree farms and went the ‘cut your own and drag it back’ route. That was our desire in 2006 as well and though we were unable to cut our own tree it still was a memorable experience and not just a purchase.
It was business as usual as we arrived at the lot. We carefully trekked through the rows and rows of pre-cut trees and narrowed it down to three or four of our favorites and then went about listing the pros and cons of each one. One was scarce on the bottom but had a nice full top, another was nice and full on the one side but the other looked as if someone had taken a pair of hedge clippers to it. Still another one was nice and full but quite out of proportion. We finally settled for one that wasn’t quite as full but was proportional throughout. We paid for our purchase, had the tree shaken and bundled and then I began the process of securing the tree for transport.
Maybe you’ve heard it said, “The best laid plans of mice and men,” well I’ve heard it too and all I can say is that my idea for securing our tree looked a lot different in my head than it actually turned out. Our vehicle did not have a luggage rack so I had to find a little more creative way to secure the tree to the roof. Though I was never a Boy Scout I’ve learned to tie a pretty mean knot and exercised my craft on the driver door mirror of our little SUV. Satisfied with my handiwork I flung the rope to the other side of the car and looped it around the mirror on the passenger side door. I’m sure many of you can see where this is going already. Fortunately for me, for reasons no more profound than I couldn’t tie the knot tight enough around the mirror on the passenger side I chose to go a different route and opened the door and tied the rope around a handle on the ceiling of the car. Satisfied with my efforts I tucked the excess rope under the passenger seat told my wife to jump in and proceeded around the front of the vehicle. As I did I noticed two employees watching me out of the corner of their eyes. It appeared they were smiling and their shoulders were bouncing a little. I shrugged it off and thought nothing of it until I reached the driver door and tried to open it. It came open about an inch and stopped. It was clear now the two employees were laughing at what they knew was coming and now my wife had joined them. I had secured the tree and it wasn’t going anywhere, but neither was I, at least not through the driver’s side door. I walked back past the laughing employees, asked my wife to collect herself enough to please step out of the vehicle then crawled through the car to the driver’s seat laughing a little myself as I did. Like I said, we may not have got to cut down our own tree but it certainly turned into an experience.
Whether you are an embarrassing moment magnet like my wife or more like myself we all need to laugh at ourselves every once in a while. I’ll be the first one to tell you we must take life seriously, but let’s not take ourselves too seriously. There was a time in my life when I would have wanted to let my wife and those two employees have it for making light of my mistake and not warning me about what I was heading into, but what would that have got me? A night on the couch and a black eye or two, instead I got a good laugh and a memorable family experience to cherish. I’ll take the embarrassment and the memorable experience any day.

Valuing Our Vision series #3: Bigger Barns, Smaller God

psimpson — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:17:33 +0000

message title: Bigger Barns, Smaller God

message text: Luke 12:13-21

message date:06.13.10

Ownership matters. When I possess something as its owner I also possess the authority to determine the usage of that thing. This series will answer questions of ownership and management. It will look at the world, our lives, and our resources in light of the reality that God owns everything and therefore sets the parameters for our management of all we have and are. This message looks at a biblical stewardship of wealth and how when we manage our wealth as the Bible teaches it will make us rich toward God.

bigger barns smaller god outline 3

Time to Reflect

psimpson — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 23:22:47 +0000

I am headed to my 20 year high school reunion this weekend. Special occasions like this always put me in a reflective mood. Personally, I like to reflect. I like to evaluate the ebb, flow and patterns in my life, even though I don’t always like what I see and what God tells me I must do about it. Still, I have enjoyed reflecting during the last several weeks prompted by said reunion. See, I wasn’t living my life to honor God 20 years ago so there is a lot of ebb and flow since that time. There have been a lot of devastating patterns overturned and replaced with life-giving, God-honoring ones. I like to stop and just rejoice when I come across things like that. God doesn’t allow me to stay there long though because there are still so many patterns in my life that need to be surrendered to His Lordship. I’ve got a long way to go, but God has certainly brought me a long way too.
There is another special occasion coming up that I hope will prompt the same kind of reflective mood in all of us. It is the 50th anniversary of MorningStar Baptist Church. What a great time for each of us to prayerfully evaluate the ebb, flow, and patterns of life and ministry for this church. What a great time to rejoice in the ways in which God has revealed and replaced destructive patterns in this ministry. God won’t allow us to stay there too long though because He still has work to do. He still has life-threatening patterns to uncover and root out in us individually and collectively.
We are going to have a wonderful time of celebration August 27-29. There will be old friends and new. There will be memories made and memories remembered. There will be food (of course, we’re Baptist!), there will be music, there will be laughter and surprises. But in the midst of all of that I want to encourage every one of us to also allow this to be a time in which we intentionally, passionately, and fervently seek the Lord asking Him to reveal to us His perspective of this ministry past, present, and future. For those who do, I assure you it will be the highlight of this special occasion.

Good Samaritans

psimpson — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:02:25 +0000

Perhaps you heard the story of Wesley Autrey from a few years ago. Autrey, a 50 year old construction worker from New York City was standing on the subway platform with his two daughters who were heading downtown to see their mother when a man dropped to the platform floor from a seizure. Autrey quickly ran for the help of a transit worker and then borrowed a pen from another rider. He forced the pen between the jaws of the young man, a 20 year old college student, and helped him through the seizure. The young man seemed to be fine, he got up from the floor of the platform and began walking around, but the ordeal was not yet over. As the next subway train was rolling into the station the young man had a relapse and stumbled onto the tracks. Autrey dove into the path of the oncoming train, grabbed the young man and rolled him into the trough between the tracks just in time for the train to pass just inches over his body saving himself and this young man.
I love stories like this one, I think most of us do. There is just something about a story with a hero and a happy ending that makes us feel warm and fuzzy. As I read the story last week from several different sources, I couldn’t help but find myself thinking, “I wanna be that guy.” But that quickly lead me to thoughts of how I would react in the same or a similar situation. I wonder if I would be one of the multitude of riders who stood on the platform and did nothing or would I be the one who came to the rescue of someone in need? What I’ve realized is it’s easy to say you would do something but it’s a lot different when you find yourself right in the middle of the crisis needing to make a quick decision. It’s one thing to know and discuss what’s right it’s quite another to do what’s right.
This whole event is like a modern day example of the parable of the Good Samaritan told by Jesus nearly 2000 years ago. Some of the details are a little different, but there are many similarities. A man is mugged and left for dead on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, a road that made for dangerous travel during the days of Jesus. A priest just happens by as he is traveling home to Jericho from Jerusalem sees the man and passes by on the other side of the pass. A Levite then does the same a little later. Both men see the man left for dead and both men pass by on the other side pretending they never witnessed the man in need. It’s not until a Samaritan merchant passes by that the man left for dead finds the help he needs. He sees the man and is moved to do something so he goes to the man, binds and treats his wounds and takes him to a safe place to recover for as long as it takes. He then covers the entire bill for the man and rides off into the sunset, never to be heard of again, but always to be remembered.
Jesus tells this story in response to a question asked by someone in the crowd as he is teaching. The man was looking to test Jesus and seeking to justify his own actions, or lack thereof, by getting Jesus’ response to the question, “who is my neighbor?” The point of the question being who do I need to help when they are in need and who should I ignore, to put it bluntly. But the man does not receive the response he is looking for. He was hoping Jesus would simply say, like most of the other religious teachers of the day, love those who are like you and ignore those who are different. But instead of this simple answer Jesus tells the story which takes the man’s question and reverses so that it no longer focuses on the neighbor worthiness of others but the neighborliness of this man and everyone else in the crowd. By the time Jesus is done with the story he asks the question of the man, “who proved to be a neighbor?” a question with an obvious answer, the one who helped the man.
We may not be faced with a situation as dramatic and Wesley Autrey or the Samaritan merchant this week in which we are called upon to risk our lives for a total stranger, but each one of us has a whole host of opportunities to prove we are a neighbor to those around us whether we deem them neighbor worthy or not. Now that’s heroic.

Valuing Our Vision series #2: Management Matters

psimpson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:27:16 +0000

message title: Management Matters

message text: Matthew 25:14-30

message date: 06.06.10

Ownership matters. When I possess something as its owner I also possess the authority to determine the usage of that thing. This series will answer questions of ownership and management. It will look at the world, our lives, and our resources in light of the reality that God owns everything and therefore sets the parameters for our management of all we have and are. This message takes a look at our role as managers of God’s possessions and how as faitful stewards we are productive investors which keeps us ready for the return of Jesus Christ.

management matters outline 2