South Fellowship Church

Dwell | Guarding the Goal | 1 John 2:3-14 | Week 2

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In 1918 the United States government finished the construction on Fort Knox.  Fort Knox is where you want to go if you're interested in stealing 5000 tons of gold.  It's the only place in the United States, or in the world, that you could do that.  But here's the problem---if you tried to break into Fort Knox, you would find that the sides have granite walls that are four feet thick.  This would prevent you from getting into the sides of the building.  If you say, okay, I will tunnel my way in.  I'll dig under, then dig up.  Good luck!   Down underneath it is a number of feet of concrete.  After you get through the concrete you have ten feet of granite that this building sits on.  Let's hypothetically say you made it in.  Once you got in, you'd find a vault.  The vault itself has a 22 ton door that blocks the way to get into that 5000 tons of gold that you're looking for.  If you say, "Well, I'm not going to break the door down, I'm just going to pick the lock."  You would need ten employees who work at Fort Knox, and each one of them have A portion of THE code that allows you to get into the door.  None of the others know the other parts of the code, they just know their own.  You need all ten parts of that code.  Let's say, hypothetically, that you actually made it into the vault, in order to get out, you would have to get passed the 30,000 military people who are stationed there.  Good luck!!  There's a reason why that at the beginning of the second World War most European nations stored their gold here.  The Magna Carta was stored there.  The Declaration of Independence was stored there.  The Crown Jewels from the United Kingdom were stored there. The vault is said to be atomic bomb proof. 
We protect the things that are important to us, don't we?  We guard the things that are important to us.  It's the reason that it takes an hour to get through the security line at the airport.  We guard the things that are important to us, don't we?  We put a hedge around them and we protect them.  Here's the thing, if you're a follower of Jesus this morning, the Scriptures are going to talk to us about guarding the things that are most important to us.  If you're not a follower of Christ this morning, you get to look in on what OUR Fort Knox should be as followers of Christ.  We've made it a lot of different things.  If you were to do a straw-poll --- What's the most important.....what's the thing we're suppose to guard above all else, as followers of Christ?  You'd probably hear....well, it's important for us to guard good theology.  Totally agree.  It's important for us to guard having the right world view.  Totally agree.  It's important for us to guard the religious liberties and the rights that we have.  I agree.  But it's not our Fort Knox.  It's not the thing that we're called to guard above all else.  If you want to find out what it is, open with me to 1 John 2....."

Dwell | Touching the Light | 1 John 1:1-2:2 | Week 1

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There are times when it's hard for us to believe that the authors of the Scriptures actually were real people.  That they lived real lives.  They had real struggles.  They had real joys and real successes.  The author of 1 John is a man by the name of John.  He was a real person who had some pretty unique experiences in his life.  He was one of the best friends of Jesus while Jesus walked the earth.  He was one of the twelve disciples, but he seemed to have been in the inner circle.  He had access to things that not everybody got access to.  The evening Jesus was betrayed, he had his disciples around the table.  They would sort of lounge, in those days.  John was the one who leaned right on Jesus.  Pause for a moment and imagine what that might have been like.  To smell Him.  To have Him rub up against you.  To hear Him laugh.  To hear Him chew (maybe with his mouth open).  John goes on to write in that same chapter of his gospel that he was the one that Jesus loved.  Evidently, the Apostle John and Jesus had a fairly unique and deep and meaningful friendship.  
In fact, it was John in John 19:26-27 who records the words of Jesus as Jesus hangs on the cross.  When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved {He's talking about himself here.}  standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son!"  Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!"   Here's what's going on --- Jesus is hanging on the cross, dying for the sin of humanity and he looks down at his friend, he looks down at his mom and says, "Hey, John, from now on, you're taking care of my momma!"  John takes this seriously.  I almost expected to read, "Um, excuse me, could you repeat that?!"  What would somebody have to do to let their mom move into your house?  Probably die for you!  But even then, some of you are going, "Well, I'm not even sure I'd do it then."  But here's what John does:  And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.  From that moment on, John is caring for the mother of the Messiah.  Do you think he heard some stories?  Moms love to tell stories about their kids; if you think Mary was any different, you're wrong!  To hear the stories about what Jesus was like when he was a little kid.  To hear the stories about the way he frustrated her.  Can you imagine telling somebody, "Oh, that Jesus really frustrated me one time!"  Can you imagine what John has seen and what John has been through?  The fact that Jesus says, "Hey, John, will you care for my mom?" tells us something about the character of the person who's writing this letter...."

Freeway | Freedom | Luke 15:25-32 | Week 6

"Over the last few weeks we've been living in the parable of the Prodigal Son that's found in Luke 15.  We're in our last message of this series that we've been doing.  Remember, a parable literally means 'to throw alongside of.'  In this parable, it's Jesus taking the story of a father and his two sons and he throws it alongside of the reality of the world we live in and the kingdom that Jesus came to inaugurate.  We said earlier that a parable presents a picture for us to climb up inside of and explore.  For us to ask questions about ourselves and about God.  It's a way for us to ask the question are we living in the way that Jesus created us to live and designed us live? Are there maybe some things that God would press on us to say, "You've pictured me in one way, but I'm different than you've ever imagined?"  Over the last four weeks, we've been exploring this through the angle of the younger son...."

Freeway | Acceptance | Luke 15:19-24 | Week 5

Freeway | Acceptance | Luke 15:19-24 | Week 5

Freeway | Forgiveness | Luke 15:19-24 | Week 4

Pastor Larry Boatright continues the Freeway Series, using Luke 15:19-24 to share about forgiveness.  

Freeway | Ownership | Luke 15: 17-20 | Week 3

"Certainly we can relate to the feeling of pursuing freedom and finding ourself in cages.  That song (Cages) by NeedtoBreathe poignantly points that picture of the place we often find ourselves in.  It's the place that the prodigal son found himself in.  He believed he was on the pathway to freedom, but he found that he was actually on his way to confinement.  We're going to pick up that story again today.  If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke 15..."

Freeway | Discovery | Luke 15:11-16 | Week 2

We have all of the DNA of freedom, yet we often find ourselves in confinement.  Everything in us cries out that we were designed for something more and something bigger and something better, and yet, we look at our lives sometimes, and our lives defined by a fear that we can't get over, a guilt that we can't shake free of, and a despair that seems so prevalent that it defines our everyday reality.  We look at ourselves, we look at our own hearts and our own souls and the desire is in us to go, yeah, I was made for freedom.  All of us know it.  It's a transcendent, human reality.  We know that we were designed for freedom and yet, we also know that there's things in our life that keep us enslaved.  There's things in our life that confine us. There's even decisions that we've made that turn that more and more into a reality....

Freeway | Awareness | Matthew 13:10-17 | Week 1

"I always get excited about a new series beginning and this one is no different.  As I've had the chance to study over the last few weeks and look through, hopefully a fresh lens, the story of the Prodigal from Luke 15, it's once again captured my heart and reminded me of the story that we find ourselves in as human beings.  Specifically, and uniquely, as followers of the way of Jesus.  My hope is that over the next six weeks this story would be an invitation to you back into the greatest story ever told.  Sometimes we need that invitation and we need that reigniting of our faith, so when we sing "awaken my soul," it's not because we've never been awake before, it's because sometimes we get caught in the monotony of life, don't we?  And the every day.  And the pain and the hurt.  Sometimes we need that invitation from God.   That's my intention and hope over the next six weeks...."

Labor Day Sermon | Ditch Digging | 2 Kings 3

Screaming in the Streets | Enlarging Your Word | Proverbs | Week 10

As we continue our series on Proverbs, this sermon was on generousity, drawn from multiple texts in the book of Proverbs.