Episodes
5 days ago
5 days ago
Refuge at The Lord’s Table.
Today, Pastor Michael is talking about so many things: regrets, sins, finances (or lack of them!), relationships, and how the world can turn all of that into a rough place. We need a refuge, a shelter from all of that. We need a place to go when we are hurting, stressed and confused. Is there a refuge like that?
Yes, God has made that place and welcomes you into it.
The core idea today is this: “Chaos in my situation, contentment in my soul.”
(CSB Bible Notes) 23:5 The image shifts from shepherd to friend. The identification of the Lord with a shepherd emphasizes his care and protection, but he is much more than that for a person who is in close fellowship with him. While protection from enemies is still implied, it is intensified with the image of a banquet (table) that is served while the enemies look on. In Jewish society oil was a symbol for rejoicing (104:15) and was also used in the welcoming of guests.
Verses can be found in Psalm 23.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Tuesday Mar 19, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, March 17, 2024
Tuesday Mar 19, 2024
Tuesday Mar 19, 2024
The Chosen One.
Today, Pastor Michael will tell us a story about a “Chosen One.” We seem to love stories about somebody special who shows up to save the day!
The idea of the Chosen One has been around so long that it’s almost become a cliche, but there are historical roots. God gave us paradise, and we messed it up by violating His one and only rule. But God sent His Chosen One to fix what is broken in US. The brokenness, bitterness, jealousy, anger, pride, and all the secrets that tear apart relationships take your peace and separate you from God.
The point is that when we try to fix ourselves, we might get some things fixed for a while, but then something else gets broken. So, we do need a hero; we need a Chosen One.
Good news: God sent one!
The Chosen One has chosen YOU. Will you choose HIM?
(CSB Bible Notes) The scribes identified Messiah as David’s son (vv. 35-36), but David identified Messiah as his Lord. Therefore, Messiah was not just a descendant of David. He was David’s Lord.
Verses can be found in Mark 12: 35 - 37.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, March 10, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
The REsource and THE Source.
Today, Pastor Michael is kicking off on “Scarcity Mentality”, a mindset that forces one to focus on only the lack of resources.
The heart of the message is, “Use the resource, trust the source.” The source, Jesus, will never run out!
Jesus is on His last trip to Jerusalem, coming from Galilee, knowing He will be crucified, rise from the grave, and defeat death and the devil. He is coming down from Samaria with ten men, lepers, who are calling out for mercy. These men had a true scarcity mentality, as lepers of those days had almost no resources available and were shunned by society.
Jesus told the men to go and show themselves to the priests, and they were healed. One, a Samaritan, came back to Jesus and gave thanks. Jesus asked, “Were not ten cleansed?” as ten were who cried out and Jesus told the ten to go to the priests. Yet, only one, a Samaritan, a foreigner, came to give thanks for the healing.
Jesus told the man that his faith had made him well. The other nine used the resource but did not trust the source…the Samaritan trusted THE source: Jesus.
(CSB Bible Notes) It is striking that the only one of the ten men who had healed and returned and thanked Jesus was a Samaritan . . . a foreigner. This is in keeping with Luke’s theme of the universal outreach of the gospel. Jesus’s statement your faith has saved you implies that the Samaritan was healed physically and spiritually.
Verses can be found in Luke 17: 11-17.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, March 3, 2024
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
The Greatest Commandment
Today, Pastor Michael is talking about why we obey God. Why God sets boundaries and how sin destroys. And why our core statement today is, “Love God, Love People”.
We’re in Jesus’ story in the last week of His life. Plans are afoot to capture Him and kill Him. He is less than 48 hours from being crucified. A group of Pharisees had gotten together and were comparing notes on their plan to entrap Jesus, but it failed misably ot this point. One of them, at this point, a scribe asks, “Which command is the most important of all?”.
Jesus answers, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”
God’s expectations for us can be summarized in one word: Love.
Michael’s Sermon Notes:
- How do you love God with all your heart, mind, and soul? KNOW HIM! Read the bible, pray, study. Seek Him out in any way you can. Spend time trying to learn all you can about Him.
- Desire God It means you want to know more about Him; you want to live in His way.
- Center on God. Put Him first. Make Him the primary fuel of your life.
- Worship God. Singing (but making your whole life a song to God.)
- Embrace God’s word. Read the bible and let the bible read you.
- Obey God.
What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself?
- Refuse a self-centered life.
- Give people the consideration you would want.
- Find peace with yourself.
- Share the Good News. Help others connect with Jesus.
(CSB Bible Notes) The scribe asked Jesus for one commandment, but Jesus gave him two. Love for neighbors is rooted in love for God, the first commandment. No one before Jesus had combined these commandments, but it became standard for his followers.
Verses can be found in Mark 12: 28-34.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Monday Feb 26, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, February 25, 2024
Monday Feb 26, 2024
Monday Feb 26, 2024
God’s Logic
Today, Pastor Michael is turning the reigns over to the ever-popular Billy Huneycutt. Billy starts off talking about worldly and appliance logic, rolling into religious logic. The latter isn’t always right, so Billy is expounding upon “God’s Logic.”
Billy will be using the Samaritan woman as an example in his story. Also ever present are the Pharisees, who have gotten wind that Jesus and His disciples are getting more popular with the locals. So Jesus had to go through Samaria, a place that devout Jews tried to avoid. Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink, which astonished the woman. She was trying to figure out why Jesus, a Jew, would ask for water, and Jesus explained to her that the water He could give would result in eternal life. She then tried to apply her human logic and was mentioning that the well was deep and they had no bucket. So Jesus told her to go and get her husband, and she replied that she did not have one. Which Jesus told her she had previously had five husbands, and she was now recognizing Jesus as a serious prophet.
Jesus, at this point, lets the woman know that He is the Messiah, and she tells the town that He is the Messiah. His disciples wanted to play this down a bit, as it was getting too much! But this did result in many receiving His message, a large harvest, due to the Samaritan woman finally understanding “God’s Logic.”
(CSB Bible Notes) As others had done (1:40-41,45), the woman brought people to Jesus so they could see for themselves. Ultimately, it was on the basis of a personal encounter with Jesus that they believed. His large harvest among the Samaritans marked the first sign of the universal scope of his saving mission (10:16).
Verses can be found in John 4: 1-41.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Sunday Feb 18, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, February 18, 2024
Sunday Feb 18, 2024
Sunday Feb 18, 2024
Truth Demands Transformation.
Today, Pastor Michael is covering the last of Jesus’ earthly ministry, engaged in a topic entitled “Truth Demands Transformation,” meaning if you are receiving the word of God and it doesn’t prompt you to become someone different, someone closer to God, you are missing a huge part of the banquet laid out before you.
Here, the Sadducees were the rivals of the Pharisees and came from wealthy, powerful political backgrounds. Even though far fewer than the Pharisees, they wielded more power. They believed in only the first five books of the Bible and didn’t believe in anything supernatural, no heaven, no hell, no resurrection. If spiritual truth were a banquet, these guys were picking at the rolls in the baskets!
The question they asked of Jesus was about a man dying and his brother remarrying his wife. And it wasn’t as simple as one of them remarrying, but many brothers remarried her, and none left offspring. So, in the Resurrection, the Sadducees asked, “Whose wife was she?”.
Jesus tells them, “Are you not therefore mistaken because you do not know the scriptures nor the power of God? “ He is calling these men out for not believing in spiritual things, for they accepted spiritual things that made them feel good, but they believed in God on their terms.
Jesus affirms two truths here, neither of which the Sadducees believe in: the existence of life after death and the reality of a bodily resurrection.
And this makes us realize that truth demands transformation, something the Sadducees never embraced.
(CSB Notes) The Sadducees approached Jesus with a situation based on the books of Moses. Specifically, the case involved the levirate (or brother-in-law) marriage law (Dt 25:5-6). This law obligated a male sibling to marry his deceased brother’s widow in order to preserve the family name and inheritance. Based on this, the Sadducees presented a scenario designed to make the doctrine of resurrection look absurd. Their question assumed that the future life will be like the temporal life, Jesus declared that the afterlife will be different from life on earth. In heaven, people will not marry or be given in marriage. By going to the book of Moses, specifically Ex 3 and the passage about the burning bush, Jesus used the part of the OT that the Sadducees recognized as Scripture. The point of the OT quotation is that Abraham . . . Isaac, and Jacob were long dead by the time God spoke to Moses, but God declared he was their God. Since God is not the God of the dead but of the living, they must still be alive.
Verses can be found in Mark 12: 18-27.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, February 11, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
In the World to Win the World
Today, Pastor Michael is preaching about being in the world to win the world. In this episode, Jesus will speak to the reality of our dual citizenship: heaven and earth. The timeframe of this lesson is about 48 hours before Jesus is crucified on the cross.
The leaders at this point were sick of Jesus because he was a light that would take away their control. These leaders sent a group of spies to catch him in his words (trick him).
“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” was the question asked of Jesus. Jesus asked for a coin and showed them the inscription and image of Caesar. “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s” and they marveled at Him.
The leaders were amazed; they had never heard anything like Jesus was offering. Jesus was teaching that we have to obey earthly authority as long as it does not force disobedience to God.
(CSB Bible Notes) 12:15 If Jesus answered “yes,” he would be seen as pro-Roman and would alienate the crowds. If he said “no,” the Pharisees and Herodians would denounce him as a revolutionary (Lk 20:20). Jesus was not fooled. He saw their hypocrisy and realized they were testing him.
Verses can be found in Mark 12: 13-17.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, February 4, 2024
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Honor God With Your Vineyard.
Today, Pastor Michael is discussing a parable Jesus taught about workers in a vineyard. He had just had an encounter with religious elites, those who should have been the most excited about Jesus, but they did not like Jesus at all! The zealots did not recognize that the power and authority that they had was not for their own benefit; it was to help people!
The temple courtyard in Jerusalem is the setting, and the time is Passover. So it’s a busy place, and among the crowd are Jesus and His disciples. So Jesus starts teaching, and a delegation of leaders comes out to challenge Him, essentially for the big table turnovers He did the day before, asking Him why he was back. Jesus answers them by telling them a story about a vineyard.
A man planted a vineyard and made it a productive and good vineyard. He rented it to caretakers and said he would return in a year to see how it was doing. So, after that time came, he sent a slave to see what was up, but the farmers beat the slave up and sent him away. He sent another slave: same story. Then a third slave and, you guessed it: same story. Then the owner decided to send his only son; obviously, the slave thing wasn’t working!
As it turns out, the slaves got off pretty good; the farmers killed the son and threw his body over the vineyard wall.
At this point in the story, Jesus turns to the leaders and asks them, “What should the owner do?” to which they reply, “The owner should come and kill the vineyard farmers.” Jesus said the owner of the vineyard should give the farm to others!
The context in which this was told is that Jesus is at the temple courtyard and was discussing this with Church leaders. What was Jesus challenging them on? Authority. What did Jesus expose about them? That they loved their authority and power they received for representing God more than they cared about God’s authority!
In this parable, the landowner represents God. Everything is His. Still is, by the way :) And, in this parable, the vineyard is the Promised Land, an image of Jerusalem, especially. The tenant farmers are the people of Israel, especially the leaders. And the owner’s only son? A representation of Jesus.
What God asked here, in this parable, is honoring God’s authority and obeying Him.
Did the tenant farmers (or Israel) do that? Absolutely NOT!
The religious leaders were just like the farmers in the story: they are rejecting the Son, sent to them.
Three takeaways:
- Recognize that everything you have is a gift from God.
- Don’t ignore God’s messages.
- Believe in the Son!
Verses can be found in Mark 12: 1-12.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Wednesday Jan 31, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, January 28, 2024
Wednesday Jan 31, 2024
Wednesday Jan 31, 2024
Embrace Your New Identity
Today, Pastor Michael is continuing the study of Ephesians, a letter of instruction given to believers by Paul. Paul talks of the old person versus the new person in Christ. The challenge before you is to embrace your new identity.
Paul is stating here that you will have times when the old you comes back, and it will take focus to live your life in a new way. Seek the Lord in prayer to help you in understanding this.
King Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, said the world is empty, coming from a man with everything he could ever want. Indulging yourself doesn’t leave you happy, at least not in the long run. Solomon said, fear God and keep His commandments. That is where you will find joy! Something has to change inside us, which is the new you!
Ephesians 4:21-24 (CSB Bible Notes) Paul pictures the truth totally in terms of the Messiah, who is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). 4:22-24 The apostle often described who believers already are, while also pointing to what they should strive to become. The practical paradox is that while freedom from sin’s eternal penalty is already ours, freedom from the former way of life (a life of sin) comes only through our daily quest for obedience and purity. These are lifestyle commitments that every believer is called to make.
Verses can be found in Ephesians 4: 20-24 and Ecclesiastes 12: 13.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, January 21, 2024
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Not Who I Used to Be
Today, Pastor Michael is talking about how new life in Jesus is truly new. The old person creeps in occasionally, though!
The big idea for this series is that the old man has no place in the new life. In Ephesians, Paul is talking to people in Ephesus and warning them that now that they know Jesus, they can’t go back and live how they used to live. We live in tension between the new life and the old life; it’s human nature. But if you have Jesus in your life, you’re not who you used to be
(CSB Bible Notes) The Ephesians passage contrasts a person’s former lifestyle and the new life in Christ.
Verses can be found in Ephesians 4: 19.
Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.