2010 Theme

Print This Page

2010 Master Message List: Raw to REAL
Living REAL Relationships in a Raw World

What is raw?
Leviticus 13:14 But when raw flesh appears on him, he shall be unclean. 16 But if the raw flesh recovers and turns white again, then he shall come to the priest, 17 and the priest shall examine him, and if the disease has turned white, then the priest shall pronounce the diseased person clean; he is clean. (ESV)
Isaiah 1:4 Ah, sinful nation a people laden with iniquity…5 Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head there no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil. (ESV)

What is raw? It is the brokenness, sinfulness, and wounds of our lives caused by our sin nature and other people’s sinfulness affecting our lives.

What does it mean to live a raw life? It means you live your life controlled by the wounds caused by your sin nature and the wounds other people’s sinfulness has caused you.
Acts 12:6…Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Dress yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and followed him. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was REAL.(ESV)

What is REAL? It is the experiences you have in your life that you accredit to God.

What does it mean to live REAL relationship with God? It means you live your life submitted to and controlled by the experiences that come from God.

How does this work itself out in our lives? This is where all the jargon about modernism and post-modernism comes into play.

What is post-modernism to Vanguard in a biblical context?
Acts 17:27 …they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “In him, we live and move and have our being; (this quote is probably from Epimenides of Crete.)

We believe in the absolute truth that Jesus is God and the Savior of the world experienced primarily through our feelings, secondarily through our thoughts, and eventually through our actions.

A modern bible believer would believe that absolute truth is a bigger category than a post-modern bible believer and they would primarily experience God through their intellect, secondarily through their actions, and eventually through their emotions.

If this is accurate this is why relationships are KING in post-modernism. We feel our way to REAL relationship with Jesus Christ (God) through REAL relationship with others. This is the primary premise/assumption of 2010.

January:

3: Romans 1:1-7 Introduction of Raw to REAL, “Going from Raw to REAL in 2010?” What do the terms mean? Where are we going in 2010?

10: VISION CASTING WEEKEND: Romans 1:8-15 A Pastor’s heart for his flock, “Longing for the people entrusted to me to go from Raw to REAL in 2010.” Why does this matter to me so much as your pastor? Why are we going from Raw to REAL in 2010?

17: Romans 1:16-17 “The righteous must live by faith.” How do we live the gospel by faith for a life time so we can go from Raw to REAL? How do we allow the experiences of God to control our lives? (Genesis 46:7 culminates this along with Hebrews 11)

24: Romans 1:18-24 “God gave them over in their sinful (raw, selfish) desires.” Why are we raw?

31: Romans 1:25-32 “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie.” How are we raw? I will show the progression of rawness and where it leads us in the end.

February:

7: Tom Davis speaking for Orphan Sunday.

14: Romans 2:1-11: “Do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” What are God’s principles of judgment for Raw to REAL? What are results of having chosen Raw or REAL as my path of life?

21: Romans 2:12-16: “This will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.” How does God judge the secret rawness of our lives that we pretend is not there?

28: Romans 2:17-3:8 “Now if you call yourself a Jew” What are the judgments to come for the religious who pretend to be religiously REAL but are inwardly Raw. I would continue to potentially unpack my experience from the week before and discuss how it unfolded in my life and the battles and wounds I dealt with in my life as I watched the unraveling occur and the inconsistencies of the “religious” movement of our city crumble. Also seek to answer the question, “Why would God raise up a spiritual leader, let him or her succeed and then pull the rug out from under them and show their depravity to everyone?” “But if our unrighteousness brings out God’s righteousness more clearly, what shall we say?” Our falsehoods enhances God’s truthfulness (verse 2:6)

March:

7: Anniversary Celebration and Baptism/REAL Project Sunday: Romans 3:21-31 “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” How do we experience REAL relationship with Jesus Christ amidst our total rawness? I want to emphasize in this message how Christ is our “propitiation” and what that means and also elevate what “Justification” is in this message and what it means.

14: Romans 3:9-20 “None is righteous, no, not one, no one understands; no one seeks for God.” We are all born raw. I want to go back in this message and talk about the phrase “In inquity was I shapened.” I want to talk about original sin and full depravity in this message and establish that we are all Raw and in need of a Savior, this will be more of an evangelistic message.

21: VIDEO MESSAGING with Kelly:

Romans 4:1-12 “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.” How did Abraham experience REAL relationship with God amidst his rawness? In this message I want to go back and recap Abraham’s story and specifically focus on Isaac and the foreshadowing the story to come through God the Father sacrificing Jesus instead.

27: Saturday Night Preview Service. Kelly will record a 12 minute message casting vision for the Saturday night service.

28: Romans 4:13-24 Palm Sunday “Fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.” How does our REAL faith produce righteousness in us and in the relationships of our lives with God and people?

April:

2: Passover/Seder Dinner led by Tosha and special guest Rabbi Hirsch

Saturday night services starting.

3: Recorded Message of the Easter Message Romans 5:1-11

4: Easter Sunday Romans 5:1-11 “We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?” How do I have a REAL relationship with Jesus Christ?

10/11: Special Speaker: Jack McKee from Ireland coming and speaking to us on the phrase from Romans 5:1-11 “knowing our suffering produces hope because God has poured out his love on us.” I would potentially want pastor Jack to talk about the suffering he has endured at the hands of the religious rawness all around him in the shankel in Belfast Ireland and how he has found a way to live REAL relationship and love Catholics and Protestants alike into a REAL relationship with Jesus Christ. We would also meet with Pastor Jack to see if we could partner with him in 2011 to help them further plant churches in the Belfast area and in Northern Ireland/Scotland.

17: Romans 4:13-24 recorded from March 28th

18: Romans 5:12-21 “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” How do I deal with the perpetual rawness of my life so I can get to REAL relationship with God and others? I want unpack how grace is to be appropriated into a person’s life. How do I accept God’s grace even if people do not offer me His grace for what I have done to them?

24: Romans 5:12-21 recorded from April 18th

25: VIDEO MESSAGING with Kelly

Romans 6:1-14 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” How do I break the cycles of raw in my life so I can live REAL relationship? Here I am going to talk about how God used the accountability group in my life along with memorizing this passage to help break one of the strong holds of rawness in my life.

May:

1: Romans 6:1-14 recorded from 4/25 message.

2: Romans 6:15-23 “Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace?” How do we not abuse grace? How do we not use the phrase “I am just being real” as a cop out for our rawness and misuse of grace?

8/9: Mother’s Day: Special Speaker: Jill McCoy

15: Romans 6:15-23 recorded from the May 2nd

16: Free Agency Weekend Romans 7:1-25 “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” How do we deal with our hypocrisy and inconsistency? How do we walk methodically through to REAL while always dealing with our layers of rawness and sin? How can we be leaders (Be a servant leader) in front of others as we unpack the paradoxes of our nature, drives, temptations, struggles, and victories.

22: Free Agency Saturday: Romans 7:1-25 recorded May 16th

23: Romans 7:1-25 Part Two: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” How do we deal with our hypocrisy and inconsistency? How do we walk methodically through to REAL while always dealing with our layers of rawness and sin? How can we be leaders (Be a servant leader) in front of others as we unpack the paradoxes of our nature, drives, temptations, struggles, and victories.

29/30: Kelly Williams and Ellen Goad’s Dad, Larry will be speaking on this weekend.

June:

5: REAL Project Saturday: Romans 7:1-25 part two recorded from May 23rd

6: REAL Project Sunday: Romans 8:1-11 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. How do we learn to live not allowing the past rawness and present rawness to condemn us as we walk in REAL relationship with Jesus Christ?

12: Romans 8:1-11 recorded from June 6th

13: Romans 8:12-17 “if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” How do we live by the Spirit so we can put to death the deeds of the body? How do we starve the perpetual cycle of rawness in our lives? How do we break the cycle of being made raw by our own choices even if originally it was caused or we were affected to be raw by others?

19/20: Father’s Day Weekend: Kelly preaching live at both days. How do I live out Raw to REAL in my relationships with my children?

26: Romans 8:12-17 recorded from the June 13th weekend

27: Video Message with Kelly: Romans 8:18-30 “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Genesis 46:7) All pain is God’s pain? How do we grow to see God as Sovereign over our lives so that we accept the rawness of our lives as a way He reveals to us His redemptive plan for our lives and others?

July:

3: Romans 8:18-30 recorded from the June 27th

4: Video Message with Kelly: Romans 8:31-39 “Nothing can separate us from the love in Christ Jesus” How do I live through the rawness of my life so that I can get back to feeling the love of Jesus Christ in my REAL relationship with Him?

10/11: Student Sunday: Alan Briggs and Mike McCoy live at both days

17: Romans 8:31-39 recorded from July 4th

18: Romans 9:1-5 “I wish that I was accursed.” Paul is sorrowful over Israel’s condition. Who in your life do you wish you could give your life for theirs because all they do is perpetuate raw in our lives and self-destruct?

24: Romans 9:1-5 recorded from July 18th

25: Romans 9:6-29 Part One “Is there injustice on God’s part?” How do people experience REAL relationship with Jesus Christ? Who decides? How does God’s sovereignity work? We will explore verses 6-16

31: Romans 9:6-29 recorded from July 25th

August:

1: Romans 9:6-29 Part Two “So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” How do we reconcile our choice to overcome the rawness of ours lives with the reality that He ultimately determines who is given the ability to have REAL relationship with Him? Seems unfair!

7: Romans 9:6-29 Part Two: recorded from August 1st

8: Romans 9:6-29 Part Three “So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.” How do we reconcile our choice to overcome the rawness of ours lives with the reality that He ultimately determines who is given the ability to have REAL relationship with Him? Seems unfair!

14: Romans 9:6-29 Part Three recorded from August 8th

15: Romans 9:30-10:4 “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” In this message I want to compare how we work religiously at times to “make ourselves better” when in reality it is not what we do but it is in our experiencing of him that we gain a knowledge of who we are and who he is. This frees us to submit ourselves to him to be moved supernaturally out of our rawness into a REAL relationship with Jesus Christ. How does this happen? How do we gain the knowledge we need to have to be made REAL in his sight?

21: Romans 9:30-10:4 recorded from August 15th

22: Romans 10:5-21 “For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” How do we help people go from raw sinful lives to REAL faith in Jesus Christ?

28: Romans 10:5-21 recorded from August 22nd

29: Romans 11:1-10 “So too at this present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” Deal further with this concept of the elect (remnant of Israel) and God choosing some and hardening others. Deal theologically with the concept of Israel still having a remnant.

September:

4: REAL Project Saturday: Romans 11:1-10 recorded from August 29th

5: REAL Project Sunday: Romans 11:11-24 “grafted in.” How did God graft us Gentiles in place of the Jews? What does this mean for us today as Gentiles?

11/12: Fike and others talking to the church about worship Romans 12:1-2. Fike will lead both the Saturday and the Sunday services that weekend live. “Present your bodies to God.” How do we sacrifice our rawness to God in REAL worship to him? I would like for us to try something creative this weekend and NOT have a traditional message time. I would like for the whole service to be worship with intermixed teaching and readings on what worship is suppose to be and how we are incorporating the elements of communion into this. I would like for communion to take a more prominent role in the service this weekend.

18: Romans 11:11-24 recorded from September 5th

19: Romans 11:25-36 “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel.”Why did God harden Israel? What does that mean? How does that affect us as Gentiles?

25: Romans 11:25-36 recorded from September 19th

26: Romans 12:3-8 “Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought” You can’t be whoever you want to be, you can only be who God has created you to be. How do I learn to deal with the rawness of my life that pushes me toward being someone I am not so I can move in the direction of REAL relationship with Jesus Christ that frees me to simply be who God created me to be?

October:

2: Romans 12:3-8 recorded from September 26th

3: VIDEO MESSAGING: Romans 12:9-21 “Let love be genuine” What are the marks of REAL relationship with Jesus Christ and others?

9/10: Stewardship Weekend:

16: ROMANS 12:9-21 recorded from October 3rd

17: Romans 13:1-7 “Let every person be subject.” How do I deal with authority wounds that have made me raw so that I can learn how to be in REAL relationship with Jesus Christ through submitting to authority?

23: Romans 13:1-7 recorded from October 17th

24: Romans 13:8-14 “Make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” What does it look like to love another believer into a REAL relationship with Jesus Christ?

30: Romans 13:8-14 recorded from October 24th

31: VIDEO MESSAGING: Romans 14:1-22 “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. What does it look like to love a weaker brother or sister into a REAL relationship with Jesus Christ?

November:

6: Romans 14:1-22 Recorded from October 31st

7: Romans 14:1-22 part two As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. What does it look like to love a weaker brother or sister into a REAL relationship with Jesus Christ?

13: Romans 14:1-22 part two recorded from November 7th

14: Romans 15:1-7 “live in harmony with one another.” How do we love each other into a REAL relationship with God that enables us to live in peace and harmony with one another?

20: Romans 15:1-7 recorded from November 14th

21: Romans 15:8-13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,… abound in hope.” How do we live in REAL relationship with the Spirit so we abound in HOPE?

27: Romans 15:8-13 recorded from November 21st

28: Romans 15:14-21 “Instruct one another.” Part of a REAL relationship with Jesus Christ is instructing one another. How do we do this and who does this in your life?

December:

4: REAL Project Saturday: Romans 15:14-21 recorded from November 28th

5: REAL Project Sunday: Romans 15:22-33 “Striving with one another in spiritual and material blessings.” How do we strive with one another in spiritual and material blessings and who do you do this with? This is a part of REAL relationship as well.

11/12: Children’s Musical Saturday/Sunday

18: Romans 15:22-33 recorded from December 5th

19: Romans 16:1-16 “welcome her and help her.” Who do you welcome in the Lord? Who do you help in the Lord? How can be the family of God as we live our REAL relationships?

24: Christmas Eve on a Friday Night led by Rick Clapp

25: Romans 16:1-16 recorded December 19th

26: Rick Clapp Speaking: Romans 16:17-27 “watch out for those who cause division” Part of being a family is not letting anyone say something bad about the family or dividing the family. How do we as Vanguardians be a family and live out our REAL relationship as a family?

January 2nd: Romans 16:17-27 recorded December 26th

January 3rd: New Series Begins

Email This Page