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If you were out last Sunday or working in the nursery, here is the sermon audio from yesterday as we continue to make our way through our study of the life of David.

We have new t-shirts coming in time for our outreach to Missouri State. The design is below. The guys have the unisex size in forest green and the ladies have the ladies cut in dark chocolate. I think the shirts will be around $10 a piece. We're also thinking about making up some kids tshirts as well, so let us know if you're interested in getting them.

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Our website, www.gracehillchurch.org, recently got a makeover...nothing drastic, just a touch up here and there. I am also working on a new section for Grace Hill members that will be password protected and will have things like a church directory, Sunday morning schedule, etc.

Sometimes I feel a lot like Gideon. (No offense to you, Gideon!)  If you remember his story (Judges 6-8), he was raised up out of obscurity and personal weakness to lead the Lord's Army, small as it was, against the Midianites to throw their yoke of oppression off of his fellow Israelites.  But before he became a successful judge/general, Gideon struggled to believe: 1) that God had actually called him to rescue his people (6:15-22), 2) that God would actually use him to rescue his people (6:36-40) and 3) that God had fully equipped him to rescue his people (7:7-15).  The common denominator here is that Gideon's view of God was deficient.  It just wasn't big enough, and with a deficient view of God, he was unable to accommodate the prospect of being Israel's deliverer.  Boy can I relate!  I find that a deficient view of God's bigness to be a huge obstacle in believing that God can use me to plant a gospel-centered church in the heart of a religious city like Springfield.  How do I overcome the belief/practice that one's goodness (and not the gospel) is sufficient to save them?  I wonder if there were to be a Wikipedia entry written about me, how much of it would be devoted to chronicling the numerous doubts and questions I have had throughout the years?  And yet, even though most of what is written about Gideon in Judges 6-8 is about God's answering Gideon's questions and overcoming his doubts, he still chooses (and delights) to use him.  I rest in the fact that God does not get wearied by my questions/doubts and that he gives grace to help me wrestle through them.  

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I've been enjoying a few days off this week and on Tuesday, I took Denise and the kids to Wacky World so Jackson could jump around on the inflatables there.  We had a blast though there was a scary moment towards the end of our time there.  Thankfully Denise was feeding Anna Sloan in the car, so she didn't see it.  Jackson had just finished playing on an inflatable and was running to me to go on another one.  Of course he wasn't the only kid running around the place.  There were quite a few and no "bouncers" to tell them to slow down.  Well, one of the bigger kids, a girl probably 10 or 11, didn't see Jackson and she ran right into him and they collided.  It was a violent hit, like a wide receiver going across the middle of the football field and a defensive back hitting him and knocking him flat on his back.  That's what happened to Jackson.  I ran over there and he cried for a little bit and then shook it off and went back to playing.  The little girl felt bad and apologized and while I knew she didn't mean to knock my son over, she did.  What can I say, I'm a parent and I love my son. 

As I've been pondering that scene over and over in my mind, it gives me pause to think of the love our Heavenly Father has for us and how he hates to see sin "run us over" and "knock us off our feet."  Yes we may not have been running straight (I don't think Jackson was running straight when he got hit), but the impact still affects our Father.  He hates sin.  He hates what sin does to us.  He hates what sin has done to this world and all the good things he created.  He hated sin enough that he was willing to do something about it.  He sent His son, whom he loved as much as he loved himself, to defeat sin by living a perfect life and dying a perfect death and being raised to new life.  He did that for me.  He did that for you.  He did that for the "whole world."  What a love!  What a Father!

Lord, help me hate my sin and what it does to you and to those around me.

We've all heard the saying about about what happens when you assume something. This was brought home to me as I was meditating on a portion of Joshua 22. The chapter begins with Joshua thanking the Eastern tribes of Manasseh, Gad and Rueben for their faithfulness to God in keeping his commandments and to their fellow tribesmen in helping secure their inheritance of the promised land. He sends them off with God's blessing and as they head back to their lands, they stop at the Jordan River, which borders their land on the west. Before they cross over, they build "an altar of imposing size" without explanation. Word gets back to Joshua and the leaders that they have built this altar, and they are incensed because they think that these tribes have gone rogue and intend to offer unholy sacrifices to other gods. Israel gathers as one at Shiloh to go to war against their fellow tribesmen having just fought alongside of them as they occupied the land. A delegation is then sent, headed up by Phineas, to lay out the charges of apostasy and idolatry against the people. After all, there can only be one interpretation for why this altar was built. He then reminds them of what happened to Achan and his family because of his sin, which is that they all perished. "If you sin in this way," they say, "you will bring this onto all of their heads."

The response of the accused lets us know that nothing could have been further from their mind. "We built this altar because we're afraid that your children will cut off our children from the land because we are on the "wrong side" of the river. This altar is to bear witness that we are part of you and you are part of us." This altar was not built so that we might sin against God, but so that your children would not sin against our children by cutting them off. Wow. Talk about your gigantic misunderstandings. Can't you just see the whipped cream and pie filling oozing down their face?

Unfortunately for us, the question is not "how many of us have been guilty of doing this?" but "how often have we been guilty of doing this?" We often take a "shoot first, ask questions second" attitude when it comes to judging people's actions. Case in point - I was just talking to Denise on the phone and she was asking me to run an errand for her before lunch, which I replied in a few sentences that I couldn't. My answer was followed by dead silence because she was no longer on the phone. What do you think was my assumption? She hung up on me because I wouldn't run an errand for her when she needed me to. I called her back and come to find out, her phone cut out and she didn't even hear me say no. That's what we do! Someone says something to us or do something to us and we assume that it can only mean one thing, which is usually the worst thing. The gospel reminds us that we are lousy judges of people's hearts and motives, much less our own. The gospel doesn't necessarily mean that we assume the best about a person, but we presume that we may not have all the facts and that we should seek more answers. As for me, I need to confess my judgmental heart towards Denise.

What fun it was to serve alongside our folks from Grace Hill at Convoy of Hope's Hand of Hope. This Springfield-based relief organization sends needed supplies all over the country and the world when crisis strike. Our work wasn't complicated but incredibly gratifying. Thanks to all who were able to come out! We're going to make this a monthly event!