I love my wife! Our seventeen years of marriage has been one of the greatest journeys we could ever imagine filled with unexpected twists and turns. We have always made it a goal to invest in our marriage and not become complacent (This is as good as it gets) or prideful (We have this all figured out). With that said we are currently reading one of the BEST books on marriage that is out there now, in my humble opinion, titled What Did You Expect? by Paul David Tripp. We have decided to read the same chapter and discuss it – one chapter per day. It has been amazing! We have only completed three chapters up to this point and so far I have learned a ton, laughed, had my soul crushed with conviction, laughed some more, fallen more in love with Angie, been encouraged and worshiped God!

Last night we read about two competing kingdoms: Kingdom of Self and the Kingdom of God. One thing that just slammed me in the soul was Tripp’s view on the effect of sin when I focus on the Kingdom of Self. Tripp writes:

I have written before about what 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says about the fundamental nature of sin, but i think it is particularly helpful here. the passage reads,  ”For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (NIV). The apostle Paul summarizes here what sin does to all of us. Sin turns us in on ourselves. Sin makes us shrink our lives to the narrow confines of our little self-defined world. Sin causes us to shrink our focus, motivation, and concern to the size of our own wants, needs, and feelings. Sin causes all of us to be way too self-aware and self-important. Sin causes us to be offended most by offenses against us and to be concerned most for what concerns us. Sin causes us to dream selfish dreams and to plan self-oriented plans. Because of sin, we really do love us, and we have a wonderful plan for our own lives!

What all this means is that sin is essentially antisocial.

We really don’t have time to love our spouse, in the purest sense of what that means, because we are too busy loving ourselves. What we actually want is for our spouse to love us as much as we love ourselves, and if our spouse is willing to do that, we will have a wonderful relationship.

He goes on to say:

They (our spouse) are either vehicles to help us get what we want or obstacles in the way for what we want. When your spouse is meeting the demands of your wants, needs and feelings, you are quite excited about her, and you treat her with affection, But when they become an obstacle in the way of your wants, needs, and feelings, you have a hard time hiding your disappointment, impatience, and irritation.

Boom! This was so huge for me! Sin draws me inward! It causes me to be way too self-absorbed with ME!

Think about this. How many arguments have you had with your spouse lately because they broke a law of God? How many times have you gotten angry at your spouse for anything that had to do with the kingdom of God? I would bet like me, none! The things that I get irritated about are primarily based upon when she has broken a law of my kingdom! She had become an obstacle in the way of my worship of me! Seventeen years in this thing and I’m still learning! How about you?

Do yourself and your marriage a favor and grab this book! What Did You Expect?

It must look crazy!

A huge blue pool in front of Legacy high School on Sunday.

Tons of people standing around it cheering.

Men, women and children being “dunked” under the water.

Yep, I bet that does look crazy to the on looking world!  It is!

Sunday we baptized close to 30 people! Baptism Celebration is one of my favorite times at Grace Point Church. People who have decided to trust Jesus as the forgiver of their sins and the leader of their lives enter the pool in order to display the gospel. They are showing Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection! Baptism is “a neon light flashing ‘Gospel, Gospel, Gospel.’” They are screaming to the world around them what Paul wrote to the church in Galatia nearly 2000 years ago.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. – Galatians 2:20

It was so amazing to see husbands baptize their wives, fathers baptize their children, Community Group Leaders baptize friends from their groups and teenagers baptize their teenage friends! Unbelievable! Check out a few pictures from Sunday! Thank you Becky McCoy for the pics!

You can also view more by clicking here.

Enjoy!

We are currently in a new series titled: We Are at Grace Point Church. This is a series that has been brewing in me for close to a year now. I wanted to really define who we are as Grace Point Church and began to ask (beg) God for a concise vision for the church. As I prayed, studied scripture, sought wise counsel and spent some time in solitude I sensed God’s Spirit pressing three words on me over and over. Gospel. Community. Mission. Instantly I began to process what this would look like as a vision statement for the church. Once I landed on a statement I presented it to the elders and staff and they loved it! Here it is:

Grace Point Church exists to make disciples of Jesus that live in community for the community. 

Simple. Biblical. Concise. Measurable.

Our heart is for people to give their lives to the mission of God! This is His mission! Make disciples. Live in community. Care for the community you inhabit.

Over the next few weeks we will explore what this looks like as disciples that live in community for the community. We have created five core identities that we believe every follower (disciple) of Jesus should embody. I’ll post each identity over the next few weeks to help explain them in more detail.

Until then…

Enjoy!

I am so thankful to be a part of a church family that really “gets it” and has a desire and passion to see our community renewed and people redeemed! I’m speechless. Thank you Grace Point Church!

I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

This weekend Grace Point Church will be serving our community in tangible ways. This will consist of handing out bottles of water at busy intersections, cleaning up the local park, bagging groceries at several Smith’s, a movie night loaded with family activities and a free BBQ for the public on Sunday afternoon. There are a lot of people giving up their weekend to love our community. Why? Why do we do this? Free advertisement? Church growth strategy? To make a name for our church and become famous? NO!!! We believe that God has called us to care for and love the community in which he has placed us.

 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. – Jeremiah 29:7

We are to seek the welfare of the community! Pray for it! Love it! Serve it! That is what we will do! It is also part of the vision of Grace Point Church. Vision is vital! Without a clear vision you have no idea what you are doing, the direction you are going and you cannot answer the most important question – why! My mentor, Dave Kraft, had me do an exercise and write out a vision for the church. This would consist of what I believed God wanted to do through Grace Point. This ended up working perfectly since we are reevaluating the previous vision and begging God to realign us for the future (more on this in later posts). Here’s what I came up with:

Las Vegas is better known as “Sin City”, a place where anything goes and what happens here stays here. Almost forty-million people a year visit this city to experience the lights, glam, and excitement of “The Strip”, but what about the people who live here?  Las Vegas is home to almost 1.9 million people. The city and surrounding communities are full of busy people searching for meaning, hope, and identity everywhere except in the God who created them and extends his grace to them. Barna research stated that over 80% of the people who call Las Vegas home do not attend an evangelical church. That translates to over 1.5 million people who need to hear about the life-changing message of Jesus Christ. Las Vegas does not just need one church; it needs hundreds of new churches. Our dream for Grace Point Church is to fill the void and plant churches that would point people to the grace of God seen through Jesus Christ.

The story of the Bible begins with God creating man and woman to live in relationship with him and enjoy his grace forever. Through their rebellion against God, the relationship was broken. The bible continues as a story of God rescuing and redeeming broken people and renewing cities and communities. Throughout this story, God is always pointing us back to his grace and thus back into the relationship with him. We believe God has called us to do the same. God has called Grace Point Church to make disciples that live in community for the community to point people back to the grace of God shown through Jesus Christ. Through Grace Point Church, we hope to make the gospel of Jesus Christ accessible to the people of Las Vegas in authentic and life transforming ways. Our prayer is that the communities within Las Vegas will be a renewed because of Grace Point Church. 

Our desire is to see this passionately lived out by every Covenant Partner that calls Grace Point its home. A win for us is to see lives transformed by the gospel that in turn transforms marriages, families, homes, workplaces, schools, and communities.  Our dream is for people to become disciples of Jesus that make disciples. We want to do this not by addition but by multiplication. We believe that the greatest way to make disciples is to be a disciple-making church that plants other disciple-making churches. 

That is the why! We want to point people to the grace of God as seen in Jesus! Grace Point!

So when you see all those blue shirts in the North Las Vegas area this weekend, they are people pointing to the grace of God. They are a cosmic signpost to a great and glorious God!

Let the pointing begin!

Enjoy

Well…

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged. Actually, a while is an understatement. It has been close to 3 years!!! Needless to say a lot has happened in 3 years!

This blog will give me an opportunity to talk about Jesus, share my life, what I’m learning, what God is doing, some leadership blah, blah, blah, awesome stories, pictures, my family and Grace Point Church “stuff”!

Make sure you add it to your RSS feed or subscribe via email.

Game on!