South Fellowship Church

ALL I AM: Crazy Uncle Laban Genesis 28-30

ALL I AM: Crazy Uncle Laban Genesis 28-30 Pastor Josh Billings
One of the things I do is read through my passage as many times as I can when I prepare for a sermon. I read through this one a couple times and was asking God what kind of analogy I should use, what kind of story to bring up and something hit me. Benedict Arnold came to mind! One of the greatest deceivers and traitors in American history. The interesting thing about Arnold....I thought I knew the story pretty well, but as it turns out, I had only scratched the surface about what really was going on in Benedict Arnold's life when he betrayed the American forces. The thing is is that Arnold had been dealt a pretty tough hand in life. That's no joke. He had some pretty significant challenges to overcome and he had struggled and struggled to be a successful general in the American Army. He had had some success in several battles previous to his treason, but it was limited. To make matters worse for him, his comrades or his colleagues, other generals had been known to take credit for his very few successes that he had experienced. To make matters worse for ole Arnold, he had very little money. He lived with an incredibly high level of debt and he was constantly borrowing money. At one point, his co-officers took him to court and demanded that he be court-martialed for some of the issues he had. They found him innocent of those charges, but the stigma stuck with him.

ALL I AM - Jake The Snake - Genesis 27

ALL I AM: Trinkets and Treasures – Genesis 25:29-34

December 26, 1919, a decision was made that definitively shaped two organizations for the next 85 years. Harry Frazee sold one of his best players. His name was George Herman Ruth---you might know him as "The Babe." For $125,000, the owner of the Boston Red Sox, sold the rights of George Herman Ruth (the Babe) to the dreaded New York Yankees. For the next 85 years, the Boston Red Sox lived under "The Curse of the Bambino." Babe Ruth, at the time, was a pitcher, but he started dabbling in hitting and the year before he was traded in 1919, he hit 29 home runs, which wasn't all that bad for a pitcher, even back then. Once he was traded to the Yankees, he started to play every day. The first year he played for the Yankees, he hit 54 home runs and drove in 135 RBIs. He followed that up, in his 1921 campaign, with 59 home runs and 106 RBIs. He went on to be one of the most prolific baseball players of all time. He took the Yankees to the World Series seven times and won it four times. Hit 714 home runs, hit .342 over the course of his career and was elected to the Hall of Fame with more than a 95% election rate. He was a pretty decent player it turned out! You read back through it and you go well, why in the world....Harry Frazee, why in the world would you sell the rights....he didn't even trade him, he just said I need cash, that's what I need. I need you to give me $125K and you have the rights to the Babe. Why in the world would he do that?? If you go back and read about Harry Frazee, he was not only the president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox, but he also dabbled in Broadway theatrical productions. Those weren't doing so hot at the time and he needed cash. So he traded the Babe for $125,000 in cash in a loan for $300,000 and for 85 years it haunted the Boston Red Sox. He made a decision that was based on the immediate and he failed to see the way the long-term might play out.

ALL I AM: Family of Promise Genesis 25:19-28

ALL I AM: Family of Promise Genesis 25:19-28
As a kid I used to love to hear my grandparents tell stories. The grandparents on my mom's side of the family (my grandfather specifically) had some stories to tell. I don't how many of them were true, but they were all intriguing, at least the first time around. He used to share about his time in war in the South Pacific where his boots would have been wet for months on end. He loved to share about meeting my grandmother in his parents' flower shop. She walked in the door, at the ripe old age of 18, and they got married. He told stories about working for an engineering firm that was instrumental in landing one of the first shuttles on the moon. He claims that his name is on a plaque on the moon. I haven't been able to verify this, but we can only assume that it's true. My grandmother had some beautiful stories, too. She told us.....Kelly and I were standing in her hallway one time looking at a picture of her passport when she came over from Germany as a grade-school girl. She told us about fleeing Germany when Hitler was starting to rise to power and how her father had the intuition to see this coming. He loaded his entire family on a boat, sailed across the Atlantic and got to the United States of America. What my grandmother remembered about that event was that both literally and figuratively my great-grandfather refused to look back to Germany after he left. On that boat, head straight forward, saying, "We are not looking back. We are not going to be a part of that."

Easter - WALKING IN GLORY Romans 6:4-5

WALKING IN GLORY  Romans 6:4-5
 
January 30, 2009, at 11:37, a nurse at Palomar Hospital handed me a baby.  My baby!  Ethan--6 pounds, 10 ounces, little tiny guy, but as she handed him to me, I had this overwhelming feeling that my life would never be the same.  I'd fallen in love in a way I never knew I could and I also sensed that although he weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces, he actually weighed a little bit more than that on my heart and my life.  We put him in the car seat a few days later, after those few glorious days where the nurses changed his diapers and made sure that we didn't kill him.  It was wonderful.  We got in the car, strapped him in the car seat, started driving home.  The drive home where you are going 10 mph in a 35 mph zone and you're wondering why everybody else is in such a hurry.  I'm driving along and going my speed (slow) and people are honking at me and waving at me with only one finger.  We walked over the threshold of the door; I helped Kelly get into the house.  I had Ethan under my arm.  When we closed the door behind us, the silence was almost deafening.  It was as though sirens should have been going off somewhere in the universe to alert people that we had absolutely no clue what we were doing.  I had this feeling like is this a joke.  Is somebody going to come through the door and say we know you have no clue?!  I can remember holding this little kid---he weighed 6 pounds, 10 ounces---and he might as well weighed 1000 pounds. The weight I felt in that moment was just.....it redefined the way that I looked at life.  

THE LORD'S PRAYER: Kneeling for Battle Matthew 6:13

THE LORD'S PRAYER: Kneeling for Battle   Matthew 6:13
 
The year was 1720, the date June 21st.  The pirate, Bartholomew Roberts, was just about to sail in to the Trepassey Bay in Newfoundland, the easternmost part of the United States of America.  As he got ready to enter that bay, he noticed that there were twenty-two merchant ships lined up around the coast of the bay.  In that day, merchant ships often carried artillery because there were others, like Black Bart, sailing the open seas, ready to take them down and take them for all that they were worth.  Black Bart, or Bartholomew Roberts, was one of the pirates who came up with, what we know now to be, the "Jolly Roger" flag.  It was a way to send a message that the pirates used.  They would simply hoist up this flag and it was an invitation to any ships that could see it "hey, if you're willing to hoist up your white flag and surrender, we're willing to not kill you."   They were trying to negotiate.  Bartholomew Roberts and his crew pulled into the Trepassey Bay in Newfoundland, June 21, 1720, surrounded by 22 ships in this bay and they, slowly but surely, hoisted the "Jolly Roger" flag. And every single one of the twenty-two ships in that bay, slowly but surely, hoisted up their white flag of surrender. Every single one.  The ironic part is that if you go back and read about this account, together for sure, but even independently, many of those ships that gave up without a fight had enough resources onboard to give the good pirate, Black Bart, a run for his money.  But they refused to even fight the battle.  They had enough to win and yet refused to fight.  

The Lord's Prayer: Releasing the Records - Matthew 6:12

THE LORD'S PRAYER: Releasing the Records    Matthew 6:12
 
Have you ever tried to think back and figure out what your earliest memory is?  Not one that you've seen in pictures or stories that you've heard, but genuinely the thing from your past that's the very first thing that you can remember.  For me, I was five years old.  It was my birthday and I had been given a Big Wheel for my birthday.  Huge wheel in the front, two mini wheels on the back ---- I was in love!  I begged my parents to let me take it on an inaugural spin around the block.  I was ready for my birthday party; I was dressed in a red-and-white shirt that had horizontal stripes on it.  I had red shorts on and on the left pocket was a little green alligator.  I begged my parents mercilessly; I now know where my seven-year-old gets it from.  They finally gave in.  I took my red and yellow Big Wheel on a spin around the block.  I went tearing out of the driveway, made a left hand turn, made another left hand turn, another left, another left and I was about to make my final left hand turn on the final stretch and I'm not exactly sure what happened.  Other than the little wheel on the back got caught in the groove that attached the curb to the sidewalk.   The next thing I knew, I was lying on my face, in the gutter, covered in mud.  I can remember getting back on my Big Wheel and making that final left hand turn and heading home.  I pulled up the driveway and put the Big Wheel off to the side and stood there, not exactly sure what was going to greet me when I knocked on the door.  It was the first time in my life that I can remember feeling shame.  It was the first time in my life I can remember failing.  The first time in my life where, regardless of anybody else's standard for me, I didn't live up to my standard for myself.  Can you remember the first time you felt that way?  

THE LORD'S PRAYER: All I Need Every Day - Matthew 6:11

If you've been with us over the past few weeks, you know we've been walking through a series on the Lord's prayer.  If you're new with us, welcome, we're really glad you're here.  We're going to be diving into one of the stanzas in this prayer and trying to ask God God, what do you want us to hear from this portion of this model prayer that you gave your disciples to pray -- a way for them to interact with you.  
I grew up in a church that was sorta "high church."  It was a Presbyterian church and the pastor wore a robe every Sunday when he preached.  I think it was because he didn't want to think about what he wore under it.  Every time he prayed....he had this sorta booming voice....his name was Ben Patterson and every time he prayed, you just felt like the Shekinah glory of the Lord filled the room.  I can remember as a kid sitting there, going I don't think I'll ever be able to pray like that.  I don't think I'll ever be able to talk to God in a way that I really feel like he hears me, because I don't know that many big words and I don't know how to do that and I don't know how to enter in.....   I can remember feeling almost a little discouraged by prayer as a young kid because I felt so distant from the way it was suppose to be done.
 
Helping people live in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus.
 
 
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THE LORD'S PRAYER: All I Need Every Day - Matthew 6:11
Speaker: Pastor Ryan Paulson
South Fellowship Church
Based in Littleton, CO 

The Lord's Prayer - Kingdom Invasion - Matthew 6:10

“Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
(Matthew 6:9–13 ESV)

BREATH OF HEAVEN: The One Thing that Changes Everything - John 8:31-32 & Romans 13:8-9

BREATH OF HEAVEN: The One Thing that Changes Everything - John 8:31-32 & Romans 13:8-9A number of years ago, I got into road biking and I never thought I'd be a road biker, but my wife got me a bike for Christmas.  I was looking for another way to get out and enjoy beautiful Colorado and, indeed, over the last few years, I've really grown to love the sport of road biking.  I had a friend who invited me to go on a bike ride with him, sort of spontaneously.  He called me and at the time my wife was hosting a party and there were a number of women over at our house.  I said yes to him.  I was biding my time and hoping that by the time it was for me to go, they'd be gone.  I went upstairs and got ready.  It came time for me to go.  I had to walk downstairs through my living room to get into my garage.  The living room is where all these ladies were.  I had to go downstairs dressed head-to-toe in full-on spandex in order to get into my garage!  I had always been the guy that looked at others in full spandex and thought, "I'm never going there!  I'm never doing THAT!" until I went on a bike ride not wearing them.  It was not fun!  I realized the moment I got on the bike WHY everybody that rides spandex head-to-toe!  I joined that club.  It turned out....the thing that looked confining at first, actually brought freedom.  The thing that looked like it was going to be uncomfortable and it looked like there's no way I'm ever going there, actually was the thing that allowed me to ride way better with way more comfort than I ever would have imagined.