The Perfecting Church

 As highlighted throughout this series, humanity's fall corrupted God's “Very Good” intention for Creation, undermining mankind's mandate to dwell interdependently and justly with God and one another. As a consequence, self-preservation displaced community transformation as love, mercy, and justice were replaced by hate, prejudice, and politics. However, God's plan for creation has not changed. This series finale details how the ministry of Jesus serves as the ultimate act of civil disobedience, disrupting the systems of this world and recommissioning us for the glory of God and the "Very Good" of creation.  

Before God ever gave the world a prophet, a king, or a pastor—He gave the world a father. Before there were positions, platforms, or pulpits —there was a garden…and in that garden, God planted a man. Not as a ruler to dominate, but as a reflection of Himself— A cultivator, a protector, a name-giver…Fatherhood is sacred. Not just functional. Not just biological. Not optional. It's part of the Very Good design of God.

In a year of being Rooted and Grounded, we're recovering the foundational truths of our relationship with God, one another, and creation. In a time of shaking, we're committing to become the people God envisioned—whole and holy, deeply established in His love.

God's creation was never meant for us to passively occupy or consume — it's always been accompanied by a call to actively participate in its flourishing and fruitfulness. From Eden to now, stewardship is a sacred thing. It shapes creation, reveals our faith, and transforms our lives. What we tend—or fail to tend—forms us and the world around us. 

What if I told you that God created us to rule… but not to dominate? To reign… but not to own? What if our job on this earth wasn't to take, but to tend? Not to consume, but to cultivate? For generations, power has been used to exploit, image has been reserved for the elite and creation has been treated like a commodity. But Genesis doesn't begin with a human grasping for godhood. It begins with God graciously giving us a role in His rule — in His very good design. We are not owners—we are image bearers. We are royal stewards, called to make the invisible King visible in how we treat His creation.

In the beginning, God didn't just create individuals—He formed a world that was woven together in relational goodness. “Very good” wasn't about perfection; as much as it was about connection. We were made to flourish in relationship not in isolation. God isn't just saving you—He's saving us.

Before the foundation of the world, God entrusted womanhood with a sacred echo of Himself—the call to mother. Not merely to bear life, but to shape it, nourish it, and speak courage into the soul of creation. Today we honor that call—not as a role, but as a holy assignment woven into the fabric of God's image in the earth.

Throughout our lives we are seeking and searching for love, for peace, for joy, for identity, for security, for purpose and for wholeness. And the only One who can supply our deepest need is God alone. So, when we awaken to the knowledge of what is truly good for us, we will always be in pursuit of a deeper relationship with the God of all creation.

Jesus came to fulfill the Father's promise from the Garden — as the seed of the woman who would crush Satan's rule and restore us to God's Kingdom. In Christ and through His resurrection, all things are made new. Today, we don't celebrate a tomb — we celebrate the God of the resurrection, who meticulously rights every wrong by His resurrection power.

Jesus' very first introduction of the Church was accompanied by a declaration that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. From its first mention, God's plan for an increasingly darkening world was a continually maturing Church. We must recapture and recommit to God's original intent for the Church, realizing it's more than Sunday morning.  

When we pledged allegiance to Jesus we became residents of another Kingdom — another world. In this world, we are offered paths of compromise, comfort and self-preservation. But we're not called to escape; we are called to stand firm, bearing witness to another Kingdom — another world. We are called to remain as faithful witnesses to God's reign, even when the world around us is hostile and uncertain.

Those who've accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior have seen something. Eyes that were once blinded to the truth of His death, burial and resurrection have seen that indeed He is the Christ. Having seen and accepted that truth our lives have been radically and eternally changed. We have seen something and we have to say something! 

We live in a culture of “now” moments. Good and bad ones. It can be discouraging what we see in our world. What we see in our nation. What we see in our cities. We must get beyond the cultural and worldly “now” we get stuck in and realize God's Kingdom is here, and it is our NOW! It's our new reality. It has redefined our “now”. Given our “now” a new perspective. Because Jesus and His Kingdom is Here.

We serve a God of justice and righteousness. He has commanded us to uphold both in the public square. We have to be careful not to turn justice into poison and righteousness into bitterness by pursuing our own agendas rather than God's.

Prayer is an act of resistance. Prayer honors and esteems the unseen, eternal God over all the little temporary gods -- refusing to give them the reverance and allegiance that belongs to Him alone. Prayer gives us perspective and power to oppose realities that are accepted as inescapable and unchangeable by those who suffer from prayerlessness. It's in prayer that we access and surrender to the rule and reign of God on earth as it is in heaven. The act of prayer is an act of resistance.

 It is in prayer that we become portals for the wisdom and revelation we require—heaven has hopes for you and for me and it is in prayer that we access the power of God that is necessary to live in and to live out the plans of God.

Coping techniques are the conscious and subconscious things we do for relief and comfort in the on-going stress of daily life in a fractured world. Our lives are filled with things we do, some knowingly and others unknowingly to cope. The challenge with coping in a world filled with problems and difficulties is that our coping sometimes ends up needing coping. But there's a coping technique that God gives that helps us to truly deal with problems and difficulties and the problems and difficulties that our coping techniques created. It's the ultimate coping technique. 

As the newly minted King of Israel, Solomon worships God at Gibeon. In his prayer he teaches us that although power is given, power is never owned. His heart towards God and the power entrusted to him, causes him to become a version of himself he'd never known and the world had never seen. We often believe power means do what you want, but power actually means become what I've designed. 

Losing control never feels good, but it always has the potential to produce great good. Times of crisis open our eyes to how little control we really have in this fallen, troubled world. Those that experience losing the illusion of control know the kind of desperate prayers that can come from those moments. In crisis and impossible circumstances, we learn how to pray out of control.  

Jesus' very first instructions on prayer included the phrase, “on earth as it is in heaven.” This is still the heart of all sincere prayer — that the Father's will would be done on the earth as it is in heaven.  While prayer can include more than this, it is never any less.  On Earth As In Heaven, pursues the heart of prayer, just as Jesus' original disciples did when they asked, Lord teach us to pray. 

We are living in a rapidly changing world.  A world full of conflicts within its nations; a shifting in world order; increasing droughts, floods and pandemics and technology that is outpacing practices, policies and ethics. In the face of such unprecedented change, we need a Church that is maturing.  We need a Church that is rooted and grounded. 

As we sit between celebrating the coming of Christ and entering a New Year, let's reflect on God's Radical Love in 2024. If God the author and finisher had A Final Word to declare over your 2024, what might that be? Samson had a final word and God had one for him. 

The love of God is greater than any love we will ever experience.His love has come down, but it has also come in. His love is in us and is multiplied as we become more like Him. This great love causes us to live in a posture of "expecting". Through triumphs and trials our position is to expect love to show up in it, through it and after it. The birth of Christ reminds us that love remains and is always present.

Jesus came over 2000 years ago and along with His birth He also gave birth to His Body, the Church. Jesus set things straight when He came the first time and He ascended and He now sits at the right hand of the Father but He promised He would return. He left us with power in the form of the Holy Spirit to help us on the journey between His first coming and His second. Within the help that the Holy Spirit provides is Joy. Therefore we have in our possession Joy for the journey. As followers of Christ it is a must that we maintain the joy of the Lord for the journey.

Corporate worship is a holy, sacred, set apart activity in the earth. There is no other gathering in this temporal world that can replicate what uniquely happens when the saints of God gather to worship Him. In corporate worship God reveals, relocates and realigns. When we worship together, we are changed together. 

Worship is a covenantal act. It is our response to the on-going, faithful commands and covenantal love of the Lord God. He is looking for our worship; not because He needs it, but because He knows we do.  Worship is the remedy for our unceasing quest to find wholeness, fruitfulness and fulfillment.  Worship is the way we access and extend heaven on earth until the new heaven and the new earth.  

The Lord God of heaven and earth is a jealous God. In both the Old and New Testament, more than a dozen times, He refers to himself as jealous. The creator of all things has made all things for His beloved. But He will not stand for anything taking His place in our lives. He wants our deepest affections and surrender. He is The Jealous God. 

Humanity was created to live from and for the very goodness of God. God's very goodness isn't the quality or ability of an individual part; God's very goodness refers to the completeness and wellness of the whole. We were created to live from and for relational wholeness and wellness — the very goodness of God. 

 All too often wounds of the heart atrophy our response to the Shepherd of our souls, causing us to miss the Provision, Protection, and Prosperity our Abba longs to supply. There are rituals and routines, sacred rhythms if you will, that are intended to align us with the rhythm of heaven so that our cadence and movement flow with and follow that of the Spirit, the One in Whom we live, move and have our being. As we journey through the 23rd Psalm with an eye on the Good Shepherd, may we encounter the deep healing that comes as we rest the weight of our lives on the Lover of our Soul. 

There are times, when God allows moments that bring us to the end of ourselves; times when we face odds and obstacles that we have no way of overcoming; times when we face enemies and assailants that have every intent on destroying us; times when we see our families, friends, and resources under attack with no way of rescue or relief. But those can be the very moments, when God is healing our hearts. Those can be the very moments when we are learning to trust again. Some heart wounds persist, because we refuse to trust God again and again.

Heart wounds are places of unprocessed pain, hurt and hardship affecting the way we see, feel, believe and behave. Some heart wounds go undetected because they're caused by shared, socially acceptable and normalized events. There is a dimension of our heart healing and wholeness that only comes when we accept and embrace, It All Belongs to Him.  

There are times when heart wounds — places of unprocessed pain, hurt and hardship effecting the way we see, feel, believe and ultimately behave — are caused by despair  and disappointment over what God did or didn't do. But God never intended on meeting our deepest needs with what could be found in this world. His plan has always been to give us a peace unlike anything in this world.  Scripture(s): • John 14:25-28 Slide(s):The vision of wholeness, which is the supreme will of the biblical God, is the outgrowth of a covenant of shalom. Where persons are not only bound to God but to one another in a caring, sharing, rejoicing community with nothing to make them afraid.   — Walter Bruggemann, PeaceGod created the world in a web of relationships that overflowed with forceful goodness. These relationships are far reaching: between humanity and God, between humanity and self, between genders, between humanity and the rest of creation, within families, between ethnic groups, and between nations.  These relationships were “very good” in the beginning.  — Lisa Harper, The Very Good Gospel9.22.2024 Message Takeaways  Some of our deepest hurts are tied to our deepest disappointments. We were created for a peace that can't be found in this world.We've been restored and we are a part of His restoration plan.

When our hearts (soul and spirit) are wounded it hinders and corrupts our thoughts actions and motives. Oftentimes, what we describe as, “the way God made us”, is more accurately described as the way life has wounded us. But there is healing for our wounded hearts. God wants us to be made whole. God wants us to learn to live whole. Scripture(s): • Matthew 25:24-30 • Philippians 2:12, 13 • Proverbs 4:23

Kevin BrownSep 5, 2024, 6:30 PM (4 days ago)to Christopher, Deborah, Joy, Michael, Jill, Lee, meIntroduction:We live from the heart. It's the innermost part of our being. We may think with our minds and act from our physical bodies, but we live from the heart. When our hearts are whole, healthy and pure we think and act as powerfully as we were designed. But when the heart is wounded, weighted down and broken it hinders and even corrupts our thoughts and actions. Oftentimes, what we describe as, “the way God made us”, would be more accurately described as the way life has wounded or broken us. But there is healing for our wounded and even broken hearts.  God wants us to not only be made whole; God wants us to learn to live whole. Scripture(s): (NKJV) • Matthew 25:14-30 • Psalm 34:19Slide:“If your concept of God is radically false, then the more devout you are, the worse it will be for you.” — Dany Akin, A Theology for the Church 9.8.2024 Message Takeaways1. God hasn't given us all the same gifts but God has the same expectation for us all.2. We're concerned about what we experience but Jesus is more concerned about what we conclude.3. Disconnecting from our feelings is not an act of faith; it's an act of avoidance.

The need for comfort reflects a deep-seated desire that drives people to seek environments that offer safety and peace. Comfort provides a sense of stability and emotional solace which is crucial for coping with life's challenges and stresses. How does the church create that environment? 

We all experience it at some point in our lives, the pain of loss. But how we manage it is critical to our faithfulness to God. Discover the Kingdom keys to fully embracing your grief while receiving grace to keep growing through it, so God can get the glory out of it.

Society says leadership is about ruling or lording over one's subordinates. However, true leadership requires that a leader is a servant first. That is often exhausting, especially when one is leading stubborn and foolish individuals. Therefore, to radically love these individuals, leaders must intercede on their behalf, as Jesus interceded for us on the cross. 

Loving each other well is part of the foundation of our rootedness in Radical Love. We cannot live radically through love without radically loving each other. The world will know our radical love through the radical love we show to one another. Jesus reminds us that the world will know what we show.

There will be traumas, tragedies, and excruciating transitions in our lives that God allows and authors — to get us to the places He's pre-ordained and to make us into the people He's pre-ordained. There's pain in the plan, but because God has determined to stand with us there is no force in the heavenlies, in the cosmos, in the earth or beneath the earth that can stand against us. Our great call in this life is not to live trying to avoid pain but to remain inseparable from He who will not separate from us. 

The Lord is our keeper. He keeps us in distinct ways. He keeps some things from us. He keeps and protects us in the midst of some things. He keeps some things set aside and reserved for us. But we're not naturally given to being kept. Too often we believe the lie we must keep or are capable of keeping ourselves. Being kept is the art of abiding in trust and dependence on the Lord God. We must learn to live kept lives. 

We began our journey of answering God's call together on July 10th, 2011.  Our first service was held in the United Artists Movie Theater.  We ended up with standing room only in the 153 person theater, with people standing in the hallways. We started, not with a moment but with a movement towards His mission and we continue together on that journey today. 

We tend to believe forgiveness is for the benefit of those who've offended us, but forgiveness is more about us than them. Forgiveness is the way out of victimhood. No matter what others do or have done to us our future remains unchanged, as long as we stay in God's hands by forgiving them completely. 

The words of Jeremiah and the words of Jesus seem to be in conflict. How can a good God, who plans to prosper us, not to harm us, to give us hope and a future also be the God who leaves us in a world so twisted it killed its Savior? Jesus, our High Priest knows the brokenness, depravity and violence of this world first-hand, yet he prays to the Father to keep us here and to keep us from the Evil one. As Jeremiah states, God has a plan. But as we've come to know first-hand — There's Pain in the Plan.

Fatherhood has a unique role in creation. The role of the father is not better or more important than the role of the mother, but the role of the father is different and distinct from the role of the mother. Due to the fall of mankind, all of creation has suffered a father wound and all of creation is in need of healing for our father wounds. 

It's true, the sovereign, radical loving God of creation causes all things to work together for the good. His plans and purposes for His creation will prevail. This doesn't mean there won't be afflictions, falls, temptations, traumas and tragedies along the way. It does mean, in spite of it all and in the face of it all, God is working it together for the good. In the end He prevails and in Him we prevail. He's working it together for the good. 

Pits are the traumas, tragedies, and excruciating transitions in our lives that God providentially allows or authors to get us to the people, places and plans He's pre-ordained and to make us into the person He's pre-ordained.  Our direction and destiny often has much to do with not only what happens to us but how we rehearse and remember what's happened.  If we are going to fulfill the fruitfulness God has intended in and through our lives we are going to have to grow in our understanding of pain and suffering.

We will all endure heartbreak in this life.  There are many ways our hearts can be broken, the death of loved ones, divorce, betrayal, job loss, financial ruin, health challenges, estrangements, inequities, and the death of a vision, to name a few. Losses can distort our hearts and keep us from the radical love God offers. God's desire is to heal our broken hearts to expand our capacity to both receive and release His love.

Radical love is unlike storge love, it's different from eros love and it goes beyond phileo love. Those loves are exclusively for family, our romantic interests and our closest friends. But radical love does not exclude anyone for anything. It willingly accepts all things, in order to make all things new. Radical love is all inclusive. 

"Her children rise up and call her blessed" - Proverbs 31:28We invite you to join us at The Perfecting Church on Sunday, May 12 at the 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. worship service as we celebrate and honor Mothers. We encourage you to arrive early to participate in a special breakfast prepared and served by the men of Perfect Experience. Create lasting memories with your family members by having a photo taken by a professional photographer. For those attending the 9 a.m service, photos will be taken from 8:00 to 8:45 am and after the service. For those attending the 11:00 a.m. worship service, photos will be taken after the service.  Also, all mothers who attend in person will receive a special gift.  We're eagerly waiting to worship and celebrate with you!