What happens When Grace Happens

You know what happens when grace happens? When grace happens you were sitting on death row, you knew your fate and for the first time you let your denial and pride go and actually understood how you deserved everything that was awaiting you. As you circled your cell waiting for the guard to come and read you your last rights all you could do was listen to your heart pound and wait. All of the sudden the guard shows up and your head drops, and then he says...."your free, they want Jesus instead." This is what happened to Barabbas, a murderous vile individual waiting crucifixion, and deserving of what would be his demise, gets pardoned by the one who was without fault. We don't know what Barabbas does after this day but we can determine what we do with our Barabbas moments from here on. Join us Sunday at 10am to find out what happens when grace happens.

Elkgrovechurchofchrist.org

What happens when grace happens

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:2-11 NIV)

Jesus offers grace by stooping down, reaching out, knowing the guilt of the person in front of him and offers grace, then straightens up pulls her out of her mess and offers a second chance, offers a new life a new beginning. The God of grace is a God that stoops, bends, and reaches down, so we can be lifted up.

GRACE

Grace.

We talk as though we understand the term.  The bank gives us a grace period.  The seedy politician falls from grace.  Musicians speak of a grace note.  We describe an actress as gracious, a dancer as graceful.  We use the word for hospitals, baby girls, kings, and premeal prayers.  We talk as though we know what grace means.  

 

But do we really understand it?  Have our churches settled for a wimpy grace?  Join us Sunday at 10am as we learn more about "What Happens When GRACE Happens"

Help us BUILD our future

 The Elk Grove Church of Christ is currently searching for a new building we are in the process of our biggest capital campaign. We are raising 1000000 dollars and we are half way there, if you have ever wanted to be apart of something big in the Elk Grove area, spreading the good news to a community that is hungry to hear it please come visit it us, makes us your home, and get invested. Go to www.elkgrovechurchofchrist.org to get more familiar with us. 


Have a blessed day

Spiritual Disciplines

Hello all it has been a while since I have posted so I wanted to fill you in on some things we have been studying. The last few weeks we have been studying Spiritual Disciplines. I have created live events for all of these sermons on the YOUversion app on you mobile devices. Here are the links to the last three (click on the links below):
Stewardship 
Evangelism 
Prayer 
Fasting 


In addition to this all of our sermons are on our website at www.elkgrovechurchofchrist.org please visit the sites watch the videos and pair them with the live event on your YOUversion app for the best learning experience.

Have a Blessed Day Everyone!

Live Event sermons on your YouVersion App

For all of you out there with The YouVersion Bible App on your phones or tablets or even your computers I decided to Publish my sermons for people to be able to follow along either at our church or even as you watch them off of our website. This week there will be a new one and this time it is available tomorrow, that way you can answer questions early and we can use the poll question in the service. please check it out if you haven't. click here to view the live event

Pepperdine bible lectures recordings

For all who were unable to attend the Pepperdine bible lectures this year go to this link http://www.cvent.com/events/2014-pepperdine-bible-lectures/custom-131-a49ae54774f0411ca2e645172dfc70c8.aspx at the bottom is a link to ITUNESU follow that link and it will bring up all the recordings from the week at Pepperdine. I hope this is a blessing to you

Letting God break though my walls

Everyone is searching for something. Something to make us feel full, to fill the emptiness that this world has put in side of us. However along this journey of life many of us have put up huge internal walls initially to protect us from being hurt, feeling ashamed, being rejected, and so many other negative feelings. What we didn't expect as we started putting up these walls was how it has blocked God from fully working through us and within us. That something you have been searching for won't fully appear until you allow the spirit of God to break through your walls like a Miley Cyrus would call a wrecking ball. As you allow these walls to come down you will feel a different kind of construction within you, no, not more walls but bridges. These are bridges connecting us to God's will and purpose. We will see bridges leading to love,  to forgiveness, to reconciliation, to hope, patience, peace, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, selfcontrol and so many other Godly attributes. We will start to feel our life perspective change, one that was geared around a ME outlook to one geared around a life that is less of ME and more of GOD and loving OTHERS. However please take caution, people who have worked on this have found their family life become more loving and encouraging, others have found their marriage grow to new levels, and yet others have found going to work more rewarding, and all have shown better ability to overcome life's hurdles. If we want to have true breakthroughs in our life we must daily work on allowing the spirit of God to break through our walls of self doubt and fear that this world has instilled in us! Let's work on this today, start with asking God for forgiveness in your mistakes, repent of your pride, and ask God to allow His spirit the freedom to roam in your life to break down your walls and build bridges to Him. 

My special gift

So every night I get the pleasure of tucking my little princess in bed; and each night I get to be the last voice she hears so I make the most of it. I let her know how beautiful she is, how smart she is, how kind she is, and I always finish with telling her that god made her perfect with such a loving heart! See I do this because I know there will be a time when someone will hurt her feelings and say things to her out of ignorance because of her disability, but each day she can end it knowing the truth from her father about how amazing she is.... Not just me but the Father who created her knew her before she was in her mothers womb, the one who made her perfect from the beginning and has great plans for her, to show the world through her what beauty, perseverance, strength, love, faith, and true compassion is! Be on the side of encouragement today, love someone who is different and use your gifts to make this world a better place to live in.

STAY TUNED!

Ok everyone so I think I decided that I am going to start implementing video blogs soon. I think it will help us see the picture Jesus is painting in my thoughts a little better. So with this there is good news and bad news. First the good news: first you won't have to read anymore, and second I feel I can go a little more in depth to what God is speaking through me. Now for the bad news: you have to look at my beautiful face and hear my wonderful voice, all of which you'll have to decide if it is true or not. 

All joking aside I am looking forward to speaking with you all in the near future, in the meantime there are sermons uploaded on our website www.elkgrovechurchofchrist.org 

If only

If only

There is a phrase that we use from time to time when something bad or tragic has happened in our lives, and that phrase is, "if only." You know, if only he wouldn't have gone to work today he wouldn't of got in that car accident, if only she would have been more careful, if only he would have eaten healthier, they would still be here. We use this thinking to help us live in some nostalgic fantasy of what could've been. This is common for us because death wasn't in our original plan, and through time have lost the big picture view. In John chapter 11 Jesus' friend Lazarus gets sick, word gets to Jesus and instead of coming immediately he waits a couple days. After a couple days Jesus lets his disciples know it was time to leave because Lazarus was dead. When word got to Mary and Martha (siblings of Lazarus) that Jesus was coming Mary stayed and Martha came to talk with Jesus, this is what she said, "“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” (John 11:21, 22 NIV) Martha drops an "if only" on Jesus! If only you were here my brother wouldn't have died! You can feel the grief and pain in her voice. Jesus gives her comfort by saying "Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” The words were good but you can almost feel her thoughts, "I know he will he loved you and served god I know he will, but what now." As Martha answered with , “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 11:23, 24 NIV) but Jesus brings the future to her present and lets her know, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die...” (John 11:25, 26 NIV) he lets her know I am that resurrection day, I am the one who brings death to life, I AM! He calls out of the tomb to his friend and says Lazarus come out, after being dead a few days Jesus speaks life into him, he is showing prior to his own death and resurrection that He and only he has power over death! But wait there is even better news, Jesus brings life to our present also, he brings life that pulls us out of our own death, our spiritual death, our emotional death, our addictions, abuse, pain, discomfort, grief, whatever we are struggling with our God sends that same spirit that led both Lazarus and Christ to rise from their tombs to us, to rise out of our earthly physical and emotional tombs as well! In John 11:26 Jesus leaves Martha with a question, Jesus said to her. "Do you believe this?” (John 11:26 NIV) this is her response to the question, which came before Jesus brought back her brother, “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” (John 11:27 NIV) I leave you with the same question, do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God that he came and conquered death so that you will not perish but have eternal life? If you said yes to this and have not yet been baptized find me lets talk, if you answered no to this and you are struggling to find where Jesus fits for you, find me, comment me, or email me ghavinn.crutcher@elkgrovechurchofchrist.org I would love to talk to you about this amazing gift of Christ!

May God lead you always, shining his blessings upon you, bringing you life, so you may live it to the full!

I AM

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


   We are all about to embark on a new year. For most of us this is usually a time of trying to figure out how to create a better us. We do things like: start a diet, read more books, exercise more, spend more time with loved ones, ETC… Most of these start with good intentions, we want to be healthier or smarter, we ultimately want to use our time wiser. However, more times than not these "resolutions" rarely make it to March. Why is that? My suggestion is that we are looking for change in all the wrong places; we are looking with in ourselves whom we already recognize are flawed and we are asking that same flawed person, "Hey why don't you get out there and fix yourself?" Things just don't work out that way, we need a great source for change, someone who knows us better than we know ourselves, someone who knows our strengths, our weaknesses, someone that IS. Here is my challenge for all of us, in the book of John Jesus comes out with some big time statements, some in which ruffled a lot of religious leaders feathers, these statements are the I AM statements, you know the same ones that the God in the old testament used. Starting this Sunday, January 4th, we are starting a series entitled, "I AM, so you can be.." starting with I AM the Bread of Life.  We hope you can join us for great worship and fellowship, we also understand that this may not be possible for everyone so we have resources for that on our web site www.elkgrovechurchofchrist.org we have most of our Sunday sermons up for you, this is our way to help you feel part of our family, or if you are on the fence on coming in to visit this will give you a glimpse of what we are about.

May God Bless You in the New Year! My hope is that you allow God to be in your life and in that amazing transformation he will help you become that change that you have always wanted to see in your self. May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you PEACE!

Typos and errors

I am sorry if there are grammar and typos throughout my blog many times I write these on my phone or ipad. I will work hard to correct these in the future!

Sermon videos

Check out my sermons at http://m.youtube.com/channel/UCucJz1GIhj2LTJiCYd7F18Q

HAPPY THANKSLiving

We are in the time of year where our country celebrates a time of thanksgiving, a that we set aside to be grateful for what we have. I think that this is an awesome thing, but what if we we re able to find a way to be thankful everyday so instead of celebrating a day called thanksgiving, we live a lifestyle I call ThanksLiving! Here is how you get started,th e first thing you have to do is when you wake up make a choice, you have to choose whether or not you want to be in a good mood or a bad mood. This will determine how the rest of your day goes. Think about it, if you choose good, you will find yourself having a positive perspective and approach to all situations in your day. You will find yourself developing ways of breaking down barriers of resentment and anger and building bridges of forgiveness and thankfulness. It sounds easy when you say it but this is something that takes a lifetime to figure out, that is why it is called thanksLiving, a lifetime of learning how to have a grateful heart. Now if you wake up and choose to have a bad attitude you will find yourself creating mountains out of molehills, you will miss read people's body language and you will be building barriers of resentment and breaking down bridges of love and forgiveness, finding ways to be ungrateful for the life you have been given. This approach is the easier of the he two, because it is much easier to be the victim of life and find ways to loath the cards you have been given. To make excuses of why you can't be a better person, to find reasons to be mad at God, and to find reasons to be mediocre is an easier road than choosing to be the victor of your circumstances. ThanksLiving happens when you choose to not let the world defeat you but to take a stand with the help of Christ and say NO MORE! I choose life and I choose to live it to the full and be grateful for each day, and use the gift of each to to be not only a better person but to be a better spouse, a better son or daughter, parent, student, employee, boss, Christian, there are so many things that we could be better at if we see our role as a gift insteado f a burden. Today is Monday, many of you regret this day every week. You drag yourselves to work and you complain the whole day about having to be there, that is not having a grateful heart. Change your perspective, be grateful you have a job, you make an income and support your family, but even more importantly you have a forum where your positive attitude can impact the lives of others who are struggling, who don't know our savior, and who are just going through the motions of life aimlessly. God has placed you where you are so you can be the light to this world, the salt of the earth. With a grateful heart how much brighter will your light be, how much greater will your flavor of salt be, and how much happier will you be. Let's start today by being grateful for what God has given us,this is Called contentment, a definition I have heard that I liked for contentment is, "contentment is understanding that God has given me everything I need for my current happiness." We get caught in the comparison trap that leads to an ungrateful heart because we have a hard time measuring up to others around us. God wants us to know to that our worth is not base do n what we have but who created us. God made us so special that out of all of his creation we were the only think and he made with his hands and not just his voice. That he so intimately created us that he even are using in his own image. What makes our relationship even more amazing is that even when we were consumed in sin, and were at our absolute worst he sent his son to die for us! If you can't live a grateful life knowing this we will need to check your plus and make sure you are alive! Be grateful choose happiness over anger, choose love over hate, choose forgiveness over resentment, choose good over bad, choose life over death...basically choose God and allow him to lead your life and you will achieve thanksLiving

Time management

There is never enough time in the day, you may have heard this statement or have even said it numerous times. I seems like there just isn't enough time to get all the things you need to get done in a day, with work, kids, their school work and sports, not to mention all the tv you have to watch plus sleeping and playing on the internet ... There just isn't enough time! What if I told you, there was not only enough time in the day for all that but there is even time for God, mainly because we start to put him first. If we truly think about getting our proorities straight we would see that if we place God first , then our family, then our work, then all the other stuff we would see that we can get things done that we need to. Our priorities shift from being all about us to being all about God. In matthew it says, " But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and All these things will be given unto you."

    Seek God first, change your priorities and He will bless you, and your time will start to take shape as you do. Lean on God and his timing and he will bless you.

The Winning Hand

 

In our journey though our series All IN we are going to finish on the idea of Winning the Lost. When I think through all the people in the bible that were all in for Christ, and were ALL IN for seeking and saving the lost there was know one better than the Apostle Paul. Paul and no problem going around and telling others about Christ without embarrassment or fear and calls all others bluffs because he knows with Christ he has the winning hand. Paul in his ministry had great passion for saving those who were lost and he did everything in his power to seek them and share the good news to them. When one goes all in at a poker game their goal is to win it all for themselves, to go home with all the chips and become the winner. When Christ took on the cross he went all in for two things, 1 to glorify his father and be all in for him, and 2 he went all in for all of us. As we consider going all in for Christ we should be doing the same, we should be all in for Christ and all in for each other.

 Paul was so great at this and gives us an awesome example in 1 Corinthians 9 19-23, when he says, "Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law though I myself am not under the law, so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law, so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings."  I want us to consider a few things here as we discuss this section of scripture, the main point is in order to go all in we have to give all up. I could add a lot to this statement but using this section of scripture lets ponder over 3 things. the first being as we go all in for Christ we have to, "Give up our preferences." Before i explain what I explain what I mean here I want to be clear first and foremost that there is a big difference between preference and conviction. Preference is how you dress, what you like to eat, and other items like that, even cultural norms. Paul gives us the example of this in verse 20 of our text when he says, "To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law though I myself am not under the law, so as to win those under the law." Paul in no way (if you need reference read Galatians) is saying you need the law to be saved, however he knew that if he didn't follow these cultural norms the jews would dismiss him before he even had a chance to share the Good News with them. His preference would probably be to just have them to conform to where he is at and then speak to them, but that doesn't work and he knew that. So when he was around the Jews and wanted to ease into them listening about the message of Christ he wasn't going to work on the sabbath, or eat pork, or whatever would distract them from hearing the message. to nail this idea down we can look at acts 16, when timothy wanted to join Paul on a missionary trip to work with the Jews because timothy had a heart for them, Paul took him and had him circumcised. Paul didn't do this so Timothy would be saved, he did it because the jews knew his dad was greek and he wasn't jewish so they would listen to anything he said unless they knew he was circumcised. This was a preference thing. Its as if Paul is saying in order for us to save this group we are going to have to change our preferences to be relatable to this group of people so that we can break down the barriers and build bridges. We have had some issues in the church of doing this in opposite order we like to break down bridges and build barriers. we use the mind set of if you aren't like us we don't talk to you, its the idea that our preference is to have a spiritual country club where we are all alike and we place our preferences and give them equal or greater value than our convictions. Paul was going to make sure that all the people that he came in contact with could have a chance to hear the message in a way that was relatable to them, without changing the convictions of his message just the presentation of it.

The second thing we have to give up is our privileges. In verse 21 Paul says, "To those not having the law I became like one not having the law though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law, so as to win those not having the law." So this got me thinking is this saying that we should compromise our message to have it work out for other people? The answer for that is absolutely not, this isn't a story about compromise, it is a message of compassion. Paul's messages never show him waning on his convictions he doest water the Good News down, its the opposite, he wants all kinds of people to find Christ, the sexually impure, the idol worshipers, the tax collectors, the Jews, Gentiles, Slave or free, Paul had a heart for people and a passion to serve God through Christ. His compassion brought many to the name of Jesus, by leaving his preference and privilege at the door. 

The third thing we have to give up is our prerogatives. In verse 19 Paul says, " Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible."  During the Roman Empire it is estimated that the slave population was around 30-40%. Imagine that for a second and then think of what every slave wants to be, you guessed it free! but look what Paul is saying here, although i am free, i have decided to become a slave to all, to win as  many as possible. I am willing to put myself into slavery to others in order to win souls. Paul was an incredible man, creating a legacy of humility, placing the work of the cross above his own desires, he truly took Jesus' words to heart in Luke 9:23, "For any of you who want to be my followers must turn from their own selfish ways and pick up their cross daily and follow me." Paul knew what it felt like to be forgiven and shown grace, and he wanted to share that with others with out the filter of preferences, privileges and prerogatives.

So how are we doing with this, how difficult is it for us to meet people where they are at to adjust to them without conforming to the world, how can we allow Christ to transform us so we in turn can help transform others to his message?

come out sunday at 10am for more on the WINNING HAND! visit us on Facebook @ The Grove Elk Grove Church of Christ or visit our webpage at www.elkgrovechurchofchrist.org

Jump into life!

This will be short and sweet. We are all so afraid to do something new, or something we have never done before. I want to encourage you to get out there, try it and remember " ammatures built the arc, and professionals built the titanic." Follow your heart chase your dream, use your talents that God blessed you with. When you love what you do you will be blessed to do what you love, give God the glory and whatever you do in word or deed do it all in the name of The Lord! 

BIG NEWS

Jesus loves you! It may not be a surprise to some, but to others it is such a great relief to know someone loves and forgives you.Christ came for those that knew they were sinners not those whom thought themselves righteous.

One way in

I wish that if there were one thing we could do better as Christians is get along better with ourselves. How can we focus all our time on seeking and saving the lost, or being in our community planting seeds and reeping the harvest that is so ripe when we are spending too much time complaining about one another or trying to prove how we are the only way to heaven? Christ says, I am the way the truth and the light no one gets to the father except through me." (John14:6)

    We need to realize that salvation has nothing to do with us but by the sacrifice of Christ, the free gift of salvation. Through that gift Christ gives us a simple command. He tells us really to do just two things he says, love The Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbor as your self. Do we need to be aware of false teachers, yes! Do we condemn people, no! Jesus didn't give us the authority to judge others, in fact he says, "Matthew 7:1-6 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. 

    I think we need to evaluate where we are at and strive to love God more and everyday by the love we have for God we learn to love His creation more and more! 

God I pray that you help us be the example of love to the world around us using the example of your son Christ. The perfecter of our faith, and we can walk in the light as he is in the light and have fellowship with one another, and with that the love of Christ will cover our sins. I pray that I don't just use words but actions, and I pray that I start with my family, by being a better husband, better father, and a better man. I pray as a leader I lead better by being a better follower of you! And I pray that you open our eyes more often to your eternal plan for us, and I Pray this in your son holy name, amen.