Closing the Gap

Greetings Living Hope Family! I’m Robert Duvall; my wife is Amy, and I have 3 sons: Alex (13), William (9), and Grayson (5). Amy & I have been members of Living Hope since 1996. I’m currently serving as the elder overseeing ABF and small groups. Amy is serving as a high school table leader & a high school girls’ small group leader. We are excited to see what God is doing at Living Hope as we take a step of faith each day to serve Him and bring glory to His name.

We talk about it all the time: “How are we going to close the gap?” The gap between broken relationships…. The gap between the amount of money we overspend & our income…. The gap between the amount of time we spend developing our children & the actual amount of time we invest in their lives….. The gap between loving our spouse like they’re the most important person in our life & the demonstration of love through our words and actions…. The gap between what we say & what we do. In today’s sermon, Pastor Richard spoke of the gap between our knowledge of God’s Word & its application in our lives. It is not enough to say we love someone or to say we love God. We must demonstrate this love. The apostle John writes in I John 3:18, “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Yes, Brothers & Sisters in Christ, we must do all we can to close this gap.

As part of God’s perfect design, we need each other to help close the gap. Rick Warren writes, “It may seem easier to be holy when no one else is around to frustrate your preferences, but that is a false, untested holiness. Isolation breeds deceitfulness; it is easy to fool ourselves into thinking we are mature if there is no one to challenge us. Real maturity shows up in relationships.” God intends for us to develop these authentic relationships so that we can both challenge one another & encourage one another. There must be a healthy balance between the two.

As Christ’s Church, as a country founded on biblical principles, as a local community of faith, as a small group, as a family, and as an individual, we realize there is little evidence of perfection. Consequently, there is a gap between our commitments and our accomplishments. To a world that would call us “hypocrites”, what can we say? Or a better question is, “What can we show?” There must be fruits of our labor culminating in an undeniable evidence of LOVE. I am proud to be part of a local body of believers who “get it” and who “show it”. At Living Hope, I believe our gap is relatively small. We understand, albeit imperfectly, that we have been called to love God, love each other, and love lost people. Certainly there is room for improvement, but I believe our members’ “heart’s desire” is to embrace Pastor Jason’s challenge to “be the most LOVING place on the planet.” We have seen this through our support of Hope House by loving people and expecting nothing in return. We have seen this in our deacon ministry by loving people in their most desperate hours of sickness and grief. We have seen this in our children’s ministry as volunteers love our kids through the teaching of God’s Word while having lots of fun. We have seen this in our senior adult ministry that celebrates God’s gifts of wisdom and self-sacrifice. We have seen this in our ABF’s and small groups by fulfilling Christ’s example of serving one another & speaking the truth in love. We have seen this in a senior pastor leading his flock with a simple, yet powerful, message of love, “To help people: Get to God, Grow in Christ, and Give to Others.”

Pastor Richard accurately said that we have a Family Reunion of God’s people each and every Sunday at church. Without hesitation, I can say that I’m proud to be a member of this loving Family called Living Hope. Let’s close the gap TOGETHER!

Excited to be "On Mission"

My name is Todd Crosby and my wife's name is LeAnn. I have one daughter Anslee and one daughter (Averi) on her way in about 2 1/2 weeks. They are truly gifts from God. My family lives in Knoxville, TN and my wife's family lives in Owensboro. With both sets of families away our small group has truly become our family. I also am a small group leader and it is an absolute passion that God has given me to edify our small group and be edified myself at the same time. Being a small group leader has forced me to study the word of God more often and with more intensity than I would have ever imagined. I once thought that a small group leaders role was insignificant and trivial in the church, however in the process I have found that no role in God's church is trivial or unseen by God. In 1st Chronicles I recently read how Mattithiah was entrusted with making flat cakes in 1st Chronicles 9:31. This may seem dull and mundane but what is interesting about this text is in God's Authoritative, Inerrant, Clear, Sufficient, and Necessary eternal word he took notice of this man's faithful service of making flat cakes. The point is clear that no job is trivial and God commends faithful service, no matter how small or large. As a small group leader this text is very encouraging.

As we gear up for the Church on mission I personally am excited to take a deeper look into the book of Acts. As small groups become more and more a source of where people seek Biblical training it's encouraging to see true Biblical training as the emphasis. As I have followed along with Pastor Jason this year and read commentaries on Acts I have been most profoundly transformed by chapter 15 (The Jerusalem council). If I take nothing else from the whole years worth of study in the book of Acts, I will take chapter 15 with me. Chapter 15 shows us the first and longest lasting heresy within the church. It also showed me how easily heresy can creep into the church if we are not careful. Of course the central doctrinal issue of chapter 15 was the doctrine of salvation. The leaders of the church make it very clear that it is by Grace "Alone" that we are saved. Bill Star's wonderful testimony recently was the essence of this truth. His testimony and many
others may not be as clear had Peter, James, and Paul not stood up for the truth that we indeed are saved by God's unmerited favor. In chapter 15 scripture is used to validate the truth. This emphasizes the importance of reading, studying, and applying scripture in order to proclaim and defend truth. So as we collectively as a church dig into the scripture I get really excited about that because we too will be able to with confidence proclaim and defend truth because of such Biblical training.

I do believe that we will only get out of this study as much as we put into it. If we show up to small group, service, and etc unprepared and unwilling to put forth the effort in our personal quite time the impact will be quite sub par. However I firmly believe that if we will put forth the effort if even for just these two months we will see a wonderful transformation in our own lives and most importantly give God glory because of it. Considering the success that we have had before with church wide studies like this I think the same will happen this go around as well.

Therefore my thoughts and prayers are with Jason as he preaches, with Richard as he prepares the lessons, and the rest of LHBG staff for so many details that goes into a study like this. My thoughts and prayers are also for us within the congregation who will be fed by this study and hopefully in return feed others and give God glory.

Thanks and God bless.
Todd Crosby

Four Friends and Jesus

Hi, my name is Bill Starr and my wife Cindy and I have been Members at Living Hope for the past 5 years. We have three grown daughters, all of whom are married and three grandchildren. I currently serve as a 4th grade boys shepherd at 9:30 and as a teacher with the 3 year olds at 11:00.

At the beginning of Scott’s message yesterday he was discussing how we look at our faith and the fact that we often treat God as a cosmic bell hop who exists to meet our needs and grant our wishes. I believe that if most of us listened to several days of our prayers we would find that much of our prayer time is spent presenting a “to do” list to God and then following up to see what the hold up is on getting our requests answered. The scriptures present a very different picture of what our interaction with God should be. God is worthy of our worship and our service. As we consider what He has done for us in sending His son Jesus to earth to take on flesh, live a sinless life and then be offered as the final sacrifice for sin, how can we have any response other than thankfulness and gratitude? When my heart struggles to evoke this type of response, I have learned to go back and consider again what God has done through Christ on my behalf. As you read the Psalms look how often the Psalmist reflects on how God has acted in the past and this makes him worship and it gives him hope for the future.

The four friends of the paralytic put their faith into action. What did they know about Jesus? Perhaps not very much, but they did know that Jesus had healed people of various afflictions. They believed that He could heal their friend and they took steps to make it happen. Scott noted their perseverance – the room was full, the way was blocked. They did not give up but became creative and found a way to get their friend face to face with the Savior.

Notice that Jesus deals one on one with the paralytic. The friends have done their part; they have brought their friend to the Messiah. Do you think the paralytic was surprised when Jesus said “Son your sins are forgiven”? Jesus got right to the ultimate core issue – the sin problem. Notice also how the paralytic did exactly what Jesus told him to – take up your mat and go home. This is a great example of simple obedience.

Scott closed the sermon by mentioning that the man came in on a mat and he went home carrying the mat. To Scott’s point this morning, my guess is that the man shared the “good news” of his encounter with Jesus with everyone he met. When we encounter Jesus our lives are no less changed than this man’s. We experience a heart change. This heart change should be as evident to those around us as the change in the paralytic was to those who saw him walk out of the room carrying the very mat he had been carried in on.

God is good

Bill

Missional Living

Hi, my name is Dwan Graham. My husband Jason and I started attending Living Hope in 1999 and became members in 2001. We have three children—Isabel, Mattie and Noah. We currently serve as small group leaders, work in the children’s ministry and are active in missions. I have also had the privilege to serve in Women’s Ministry leadership through MOPS and most recently missions. Serving at Living Hope has given me the opportunity to use the gifts God has given me and it is through service that He has shaped much of my life.

Living Hope is more than a church building, Living Hope is an extension of who we are as we come to serve, to worship, to grow, and to live missional lives. Jason and I do hold many different service titles within the church body; however, Small Group Leaders is one specific title that continues to stretch us, mold us, and encourage us. We believe Small Groups are an extension of the body of Christ that serves and loves one another as family but also reaches out to the community as a group to effectively serve and share the love of Christ with others.

Small Groups are a community of disciples who carry out Christ’s ministry. So how do we carry out Christ’s ministry? We do this by studying God’s word together, serving in love, praying for one another and others, providing support for those with a need, and going where He asks. In short, Small Groups are the Christian community living missional lives in relationship to one another and the world. Mark 10:45, says “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

So what does this look like inside our Small Group? Providing meals, mowing one another’s lawn, offering/giving financial assistance during difficult times, babysitting one another’s kids, praying for each other, holding one another accountable and so much more! During our meetings, we have the opportunity to study, to worship, to pray, and to have communion with one another. Yet, even more than the love and service and study with one another as a Small Group, we have had the great opportunity to serve our community by adopting angel tree families, giving food baskets to people in need, providing lawn care for widows, taking care packages to an assisted living center, and presenting Backyard VBS for an apartment complex. This summer will be the second year our Small Group has hosted the Backyard VBS.

All these ways of serving and studying together grows you close in relationship with one another as a Small Group family but more importantly grows you into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. I praise God for our Small Group which has walked along side us during difficult times as well as joyous occasions. And through each circumstance or season our Small Group has joined us in prayer, provided spiritual support and loved us unconditionally. God is sovereign and faithful—and has given us a loving, giving Small Group Family.

The heart of the church is covenant: God’s commitment to us in Christ, and our commitment to God and one another in Christ. Do you realize that the phrase ‘one another’ is used 153 times in scripture? Love one another, spur one another on… Through Small Group we commit to help one another live our lives in grace by vowing to support the church’s common life and ministry with our prayers, presence, gifts, and service. Without covenant and commitment, there is no church. And what better way to commit to the church than through living life-together as a Small Group.

Commit today to either strengthen your Small Group or to join a Small Group! And may Christ be manifested in the life of our church and Small Groups today! Glory be to God!!