Who Needs Church?

Levi Lusko and 20 guest speakers 

We had the honor of hearing Dakota Killingsworth at the 4pm

Who Needs Church?

Asaph wrote a Psalm

Psalm 73:1-17

It's better to follow God with a pure heart.

My experience challenges my belief.

I'm not seeing the value of being apart of a church.

Why NOT go to church: 

1. It's easier than ever not to

2. It's messy

3. It costs something

4. It's a battle

Life is not a playground, it's a battleground. 

We're forgetful and we tend to focus on the physical.

Started feeling compassion for the people who didn't have Jesus.

Dakota Killingsworth :

5 Reasons That We Do Need Church

1. Call Out

It's a place of worship

2. Grow Down 

Galatians 6:2

The devil tries to get us alone

Adversity comes for us all.

When we keep our circle small we give the devil easy picking.

Find a mentor.

Be in a group.

3. Pour In

This is our giving.

Our skills and finances.

Being good stewards.

Steward is an old english word meaning keeper.

They have humility.

They have quiet confidence that they are utilizing the gifts and money God has entrusted to them.

Honor Him with the grace He has given us.

There is power in giving!

Our treasure is in Heaven and not on earth.

4. Armor Up

Sharpen your sword.

God gives us weapons but we need to be ready to use those weapons.

Ephesians 6:13-17

In our mortality we have access to the greatest weapon - God's word!

Apply what we learn.

5. Reach Out

Evangelism

Our service to the community

Romans 10:14 MSG

What's it going to cost my community if I don't serve?

Heart full of grace and a soul full of love.

Back to Levi :

The problems in church are the reasons there is power in it!

Without oxen the barn would be clean. But without oxen, you don't have need for a barn.

Church is not what we do, it's who we are. 

Ephesians 2:20 brick by brick - cornerstone

None of us are supposed to be following God in isolation, we're supposed to be in cooperation.

If Jesus shed His blood to buy it, we should give our lives to build it!

Ephesians 5:25-27

Jesus love the church! 

Magnificent 7 : week 7

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

EASTER WEEKEND

But First, Death

John 11:17-26

Jesus gave Martha a ministry of truth.

Jesus gave Mary a ministry of crying with her.

I am God, and I have all the power, but I became man and can identify with you.

If life is hurting for you, you have a God who is hurting with you.

Grapple with the reality of death.

The resurrection is only necessary and possible because of death.

The only way to get you out of your grave was for Him to go to His. 

Death is our last enemy.

Death is: 

vicious

violent

vile

If we don't understand the bad news, we don't have context for the good news!

Jesus death was : 

voluntary

Vicarious

Victorious!!!!

Bring out what is in your kids, don't change what is in them.

He didn't just die for you, He dies as though He were you!

2 Corinthians 37:21

1 Corinthians 14

The power of the resurrection is not just for your eternity, it's for your whole journey!

He wants you to have life during life!

John 11:25

The resurrection is not an event, it is a person!

It's not just what He does, it's who He is!

Magnificent 7 : week 6

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

A More Perfect Union

John 15:1-8

The branch cannot bear fruit of itself.

Our power comes from Him.

He repeats Himself - I Am The True Vine

It doesn't speak of perfection, just moving in the right direction.

When we're in Heaven we'll have the perfect union.

Our relationship with God's Holy Spirit is the key to abiding in Him.

After dinner walk.

John 14-17 they're taking about a mile walk - passing by lots of vineyards. At the gates that you use to enter the temple, emblazoned above, was a golden golden vine. 

Israel was God's vineyard, God's vine.

The vine to them in that day is as the bald eagle is to the U.S.

Jesus was showing them that there was a new way to God.

Your connection to Jesus now connects you to Life.

A branch is a conduit.

Your garden hose is only as good as what flows through it.

Jesus is saying, you're only going to have what I am offering if you connect yourself to Me.

You can't do it only through the hose, you need the spigot. Jesus is the spigot.

The gaps in your union will stunt your fruit production.

4 words that are true to the relationship with the fruit and the vine ::

1. Organic

I want this life to grow out of you.

Union : the action of being joined or a state of harmony

Who tends to the vines : a husbandman 

Organically and not mechanically

A life to grow, not a religion to know!

It's delicate and needs to be fostered.

It's not obligatory.

Is your relationship with God living and growing?

2. Exclusive

If you're a branch you can't hop around where the grapes are bigger.

He says TRUE VINE because He knows He's not the only vine.

There are tons of places to find life, but eventually it will suck you dry.

3. Continuous

A more perfect union with fewer gaps

When there's an interruption of flow there's no life coming to you.

There needs to be a constant connection for the power to flow.

How many times can you connect with God and then do what God tells you to do.

Read the Bible until you are ready to apply what He's telling you to.

Make it hard to forget God throughout the day.

Practice His presence!

Knowing He is always with us.

You cannot grow big and strong with your relationship with God when you're constantly disconnecting and reconnecting.

The fruit comes when you're connected.

4. Productive

Be in cooperation with the vine.

Our productivity is meant to progress.

He intends for more.

Fruit - more fruit - much fruit

A husbandman doesn't want to see fruit until 3 years. He wants the roots to grow down and then grow up and out.

Never stop seeking growth.

The more we demolish stuff the more he'll bring more fruit.

The only way for there to be productivity there must be pruning.

Pruning : the most fundamental of all vineyard tasks.

The vine is full of sap.

Pruning brings the most sap to the fruit.

The light comes in where there used to be shade.

Cuts things away that would otherwise divert the flow.

Need air because where it's too moist it leads to rotting.

Cuts away anything with bugs and disease because those spread.

Do more by doing less.

2 questions husbandmen ask :

1. What needs to be cut off?

2. What needs to be cut back?

We all have 'suckers' in our life that are keeping us from growing fruit.

Pinching is a way they cut back. 

On a good branch there is foliage or flowers that are beautiful but they could lead to the sap flowing away from the fait.

It's not bad that you read novels, watch tv, but maybe pinch it off a little bit.

Sometimes it's just seasons.

God's job is to prune.

Through His word + other people.

Our job is to remain.

The lease likely you'll want to remain is when you're in pain.

When you're in pain is when you're getting primed.

We can trust Him!

When you feel the blade, lean into the Vine!

John 12:32

Lifting up vines and branches before pruning.

Magnificent 7 : week 5

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

Welcome Home

John 14:1-6

Not behave and get saved, but believe and receive.

Ephesians 2

In this passage of scripture it's THE Thursday night before Good Friday.

Washed the disciples feet.

Gave communion dinner.

Matthew 16:21

You ask Jesus - you receive - and then you need to step out in faith.

The blessing is in the going.

God gives them words of hope and help in these 6 scriptures.

He gave these words to give them hope in not only His death, but in their own deaths.

Takeaway Truths :

1. Jesus is the answer to the ache within

Why do we always feel like there's one last thing we need?

If I just had...

We chase the initial high.

Our hearts are troubled.

John 14:1 "let not your hears be troubled"

Jesus said, I'll see you on the other side.

Never doubt in the shade what Jesus told you in the sunshine.

We make permanent decisions in temporary emotions.

Jesus was going to keep walking on by.

He was waiting to be wanted.

Because He's a gentleman.

Jesus is saying He's the answer to whatever is troubling your heart.

"The greatest calamity is not to feel far from home when you are, but to feel right at home when you're not." Max Lucado

Richness is not possible outside of God.

2. Death is not the end

You are a soul and you currently have a body.

John 14:2 there is more after death

Hebrews 9:27

Absent with the body, present with the Lord.

Death is not leaving home, it's heading home, where Jesus says, "welcome Home."

Prepare : mean the cross

You are made in the image of God so when He says let there be light and there is light, you have that power too.

What you speak has the power of life or death.

We only get your words to judge you by.

Let's live a life that attracts others in and wants them to live like us.

Generous

3. Heaven is an upgrade

"mansion"

Heaven is far better.

Paul got to go to Heaven and described it as far better

4. There's room for everyone

John 14:2 there are many mansions

Ezekiel 33:11 He gets no pleasure in the death of the wicked

5. There are many ways to miss Heaven

There is only one way to go there.

"I AM the way."

"No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Heaven is closed off to no one, but is only accessed through The One.

"In that magnificent statement Jesus answered the three greatest questions of the human heart." John Phillips

You don't need to loop to a map, you look to the Messiah.

1 John 5:12

Do you have the Son?

Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!

Magnificent 7 : week 4

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

The Human Shield

John 10:11-18, 27-30
"I am the good shepherd The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep."

Jesus became a human so that we would have a shield.

Shepherd's do what they need to do to take care of their sheep.

Everyone has a shepherd, we all look to something.

The sheep needs constant supervision and guidance.

He is our owner because:

•  He made us
• He paid a great price to save us

1 Peter 1:18-19

Ownership :

When you belong to them, you belong with them.

Friendship:

He is not a cold, distant owner...He is a friend to us!

He's good, even when you're not.

"If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won't he leave the ninety nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?" Luke 15:4

"The understanding of God as your shepherd will fill up the greatest holes of your soul, no matter what they are." Timothy Keller

There's nothing more important than your relationship with your Shepherd. 

Partnership:

The only one who wants you separated from the flock is the devil.

The wolf wants to destroy the sheep.

Hebrews 10:25

It's not just productivity and safety it's about continuing the mission of the Shepherd's heart.

Celebration of the strength of His grip.

John 10:28 No one will snatch you out of my hand.

Psalm 23

Your only job is to worship.

"The world is full of people who miss their destiny because they wouldn't pay the price." William Barclay 

Magnificent 7 : week 3

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

Open Sesame

I Am The Door

John 10:9-10

Something being spoken that causes something to be open.

Jesus is God's open sesame to everlasting life and abundance.

There is a treasure in knowing God that is far more valuable than any gems, or gold.

In scripture doors speak of new opportunities.

2 Corinthians 2:12

Revelation 3:8

We get comfortable and want to hang on to what we can control but God sets before us new doors and we need to quit being scared of walking through them.

Once You Enter Into Relationship With Jesus There Is : 

1. Protection
God sent Jesus so that dead people could live.

2. Provision
find pasture
Provision for every need.
Jesus is not only the door, but the bread too.
He Is what we need in the moment we need it.
Trust Him through the journey.

3. Privilege
In and Out
Be in the church and out in the world.
You are called to shared the gospel.
The church at it's best remembers it's not all about us.
Don't act like the whole world is saved.
Be salt and be light.
It's a privilege to know about Him.

Luke 19:10

"He didn't come for the chosen few, He came for the rejected many." Billy Graham

4. Pleasures Evermore
more abundantly
Philippians 4:7 Peace that passes understanding
1 Peter 1:8 joy unspeakable
Isaiah 55:7 abundantly pardons
not just a little grace Psalm 23:5 my cup runs over
Ephesians 3:20 "God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, His spirit deeply and gently within us.

Revelation 4:1 "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven."

Psalm 84:10 "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness."

Psalm 16:11 "You will show me the path of life, in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

Magnificent 7 : week 2

Levi Lusko - Fresh Life Church

Spiritual Sunburst

John 8:12

I AM the Light of the world

Brief moment where clouds open and that is Jesus to a T!

You could describe the whole Bible as "from darkness to light."

Revelation 22:5 "There shall be no night there..."

Jesus is God turning off the dark.

Isaiah 9:2

Malachi 4:2

1 Timothy 6:16

It's not just what He is, it's WHO He is!

God is Light!

God is not only light...light is not God.

Eleanor Roosevelt : "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."

Metaphor :: 

The sun gives us life, vision + joy

Without light there is no..

Life : God is like that..God is like our dependence on the sun.

Vision : without light there cannot be color.

Joy : vitamin d

Magnitude ::

Looked backward and forward.

Involved their kids.

Huge involvement of light by using gigantic candelabras.

William Barclay : "They sent such a blaze of light throughout Jerusalem that every courtyard was lit up with their brilliance."

John 8:20 Jesus spoke this in the treasury the morning after the huge celebration.

Point to the past faithfulness of God 

Exodus 13:21

Begging God in the coming days to give them a fire light.

I Am I Am the Light of the world.

2nd half of the verse - He who follows Me!

How do we tap into our mission?

Mission ::

Follow Him!

"Follow Me" to the tax collector, the adulterer, the fisherman, etc.

If we are with Jesus and He is Light, then we will always have light with us.

Psalm 36:7

Don't trust your own eyesight.

You can see light from far away.

Small flint can be seen from up to 3 miles away.

The light that we see from the sun left it 8 minutes ago.

So much of light is invisible to our eyes.

William Herschel : infrared and ultraviolet

Something invisible comes in and something highly visible comes out.

2 Corinthians 5:7

Look at our life and know God is doing invisible things.

Look at people and know that they are filled with the light of God.

Light isn't just wonderful it's also dangerous.

If you have prolonged exposure to light it is deadly.

What brings life can take life.

Exodus 33:20

We are incapable of living with God in all His glory.

So He bridged the gap and sent His Son Jesus!

Matthew 17:2 

Moses shines because he reflected that light, Jesus is the source of that light.