Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Sermon Outlines on the CBF BLog

We've had so many suggestions to post the outlines from Sunday sermons on our web site, that we're going to experiment with using our blog for that purpose. This will also allow a forum for questions or comments from each weeks message. To use this to follow an audio message, simply print this post, return to the CBF homepage and click on Sermon Audio Archives.

So here we go...

Sunday, April 18, 2010
HOPE
“Return to Hope”
4th in a Series
Teaching Pastor Barry Wingfield
Luke 22:34-33; John 21: 1-19



The Sea, Charcoal, & Jesus

Before
Miracle catch
Wants to run from Jesus
Denies Jesus by the fire

After
Miracle catch
Runs to Jesus
Peter restored by the fire


Jesus and the making of Peter

The Call : A new name & a new purpose

The Fall: A bad turn & the resulting failure

The All: A restored relationship, A focused mission, & Follow-through


When my Hope feels Lost…

I may have turned from faithfulness.

I may have become self-focused.

There may be suffering I am called to.

Satan is at work.

When my Hope Returns…

I am enduring (or returning) in faithfulness.

My focus will be on the welfare of others.

I am honored to suffer.

I am strengthened by Christ’s work in me.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Road to Hope

What a great Easter weekend the Lord blessed us with! Friday night was moving and powerful, Saturday the kids and their parents were treated to fun with a focus on Christ, and Sunday morning we "raised the roof" in worship and praise to our risen Savior!

God was (and continues to be) at work through this past weekend as evidenced by the guests you invited (we had a bunch!), the joy in your hearts (the smiles and love were contagious!) and also the emails, posts, and phone calls that have come this week. May the Lord be praised for the life-changing hope he has given us through the resurrection of Jesus his Son!

The great thing about this hope we share is that it's not a thing of the past, it's a thing of the present and the future.

Why not invite again those who came with you this past Sunday as we examine the resurrection appearances of Christ over the next several weeks?

THIS SUNDAY: "The Road to Hope"
In this message from God's word we will see how the resurrection of Jesus reveals the way to get on, and stay on, the road to Hope. (Read Luke 24 for a preview!)

Because of our common hope in Christ,

Barry

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

aWake

I’m not a morning person. I sometimes pretend to be around the older crowd, but i’m not fooling anyone. For some reason I desire to get up early, though. I have this weird feeling down inside that if I wake up early, then I won’t look lazy.

Different eras in my life call for different sleeping patterns though. In elementary school, my mom would come in my room and wake me. In junior high, she would scream from the bottom floor (we slept on the second). In high school, it was sort of the same thing. I never used an alarm until college. My phone became my mom in college. It’s a lot easier to hit the snooze when the alarm isn’t your mother.

Dad woke me up differently. He would only wake me up occasionally if mom had left early or was out of town. He would quietly open the door, stand there for a second, and calmly say my name until I woke. It was as if it didn’t matter if I woke up, it was my choice. Sometimes, I would not even know he had opened the door. It was calm…refreshing…soothing…like sunlight.

I wonder what Jesus felt like when he was raised from the dead? He was fully God, yet fully human. I wonder if he felt the same way I feel when I wake up each morning? Did he slip in and out of dream like consciousness for a second? Or did his mind sort of just “click” back on? Did he rub his eyes? Did he yawn? Did he hear a knock on the stone? Or did God say in a calm voice, “Jesus…it’s time to wake up”?

What if God created us to go to sleep each night and wake up each morning to better understand the resurrection? It’s not entirely “out there” to think God wants to remind us of the most important day in history when Jesus was raised from the dead by allowing us to wake up each morning.

After college, I got to a point in my life where the sunlight would actually wake me up. I love the way the sun slowly but softly peeks over the horizon and trees. Then it simmers through the window. It calmly creeps in through each blind blade and says “Cody…It’s your Dad, wake up.”

Psalm 57:8- Awake my whole being, Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.

-God, wake me up with the Harp and Lyre. Help me rise each day to sing your praises loudly.

-Cody Van Scyoc
www.codyvanscyoc.tumblr.com