ReCreate Church’s Podcast

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, October 15, 2023

The Scandal of The Cross (Lord’s Supper Service)

Today, Pastor Michael tells the story of Hosea, a prophet who married a prostitute.  This is, needless to say, an untenable situation for Hosea, yet he loved her and never gave up on his wife’s infidelity.  He loves and cares about her, always bringing her back home.  We’re used to the idea that love is conditional; one has to meet a certain standard to continue to be loved.  You have to have certain things, according to this world, that you have to have something to offer.  Normal love requires love in return.

However, the most impressive story of unconditional love is not Hosea and Gomer.  It is Christ dying for us. The cross is the most significant scandal, meaning Jesus took our sins upon Himself.  The sinless took on the sin of the sinful.  While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  He was mocked, spit upon, and hanged on the cross, not for people who are loveable, not for people who are basically good.  He was broken for broken people.

His love for us is not based on our character but His. His unconditional, scandalous love for us.

Verses can be found in Romans 5: 8 and the book of Hosea.

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.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, October 8, 2023

The Freedom of Letting Go.

Today, Pastor Michael is covering the story of a man who had to let something go that was the most crucial thing he had.  Freedom is found when we learn to let go.

We are following Jesus as they make their way from Galilee in the north to Jerusalem in the country’s center.  They are going to celebrate Passover.  Nearly everyone went to Jerusalem and would go through Jericho to get to Jerusalem.  The distance between Jericho and Jerusalem is about 14 miles, and thousands of pilgrims would pass through Jericho on their way to Jerusalem.  Many beggars were on the side of the road during this time, and Jewish tradition heavily emphasized giving to the needy. 

So Jesus was passing along this route, and Bartimaeus, a blind man, reached out to Jesus, asking Him to have mercy on him.  Many warned him to be quiet, but he cried out more and more.  It’s important to note that Bartimaeus called him “Son of David,” a very important point.  This acknowledges Bartimaeus as recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, by calling him the “Son of David.”

Bartimaeus shed his outer robe, itself a significant act because in those days, outer garments were some of the most important things people owned.  By shedding it, Bartimaeus placed total faith in Jesus and “let go” in total trust.  He let go of a good thing to have a better thing.

Bartimaeus asked for his sight back, and Jesus told him, “Go your way, your faith has made you well,” and Bartimaeus’ sight was restored.

(CSB Bible Notes) 10:52 In contrast to his healing of the blind man in 8:22-25, Jesus simply announced your faith has saved you, and Bartimaeus could see.

Verses can be found in Mark 10: 46 - 52.

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.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, October 1, 2023

Greatness is in Service

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about service.  Greatness is not in being served; it’s in serving.  During this time, Jesus’ expression has changed and is totally transfixed.  He tells his disciples that The Romans will kill him and that on the third day, He will rise.  Jesus prophesied both His death and resurrection.  James and John go to Jesus and ask Him to let them sit at His place of honor when he comes into His kingdom.  Jesus responds to them with grace.  Essentially, they didn’t know the depth of what they were asking.  He asks them if they can drink from the cup he drinks from and be baptized with which He is baptized.  Here, the cup is a metaphor for suffering, and baptism is a metaphor for being plunged into calamity. 

He asks them if they are willing to share His fate, and they indicate they are.  But here, the disciples fail to understand the further teaching by Jesus.  True greatness lies not in having a position over the authority of others but in being a slave to all.  The Son of Man himself came not to be served but to serve, and by implication, any follower of the Son of Man can do no less.

(CSB Study Bible Notes) 10:35-36 This is the only time in Mark that James and John acted on their own apart from the other disciples, and they did so selfishly. Most likely, they asked Jesus to grant their request even before they spelled it out because they knew they were being selfish.

Verses can be found in Mark 10: 32-45.

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.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, September 24, 2023

With God, All Things Are Possible

Today, Pastor Michael is turning over the reigns to Billy Huneycutt.  Billy reads from the Gospel of Mark, where a man runs up to Jesus and falls on his knees before him, asking, “What must I do, good teacher, to inherit eternal life?”.  Jesus counsels the man that no one is good but God alone and that he knows the commandments.  The man replied that he had done all that since he was a boy.  So, Jesus tells him further to sell everything and come and follow Him.  The man did not like that a bit; his face fell, and Jesus told His disciples and followers, “How hard it is for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of God.”

Here, Billy reminds us that all things are possible with God.  All of us have fallen short.  We have the commandments and the Bible and don’t always follow what we know we shouldn’t do.  Why?  Because we chose our own way.  We have free will to do so. 

Love Jesus and follow Him closer and closer, and you will have transformative change!

(CSB Bible Notes) 10:23 How hard it is refers to extreme difficulty. Rather than an advantage, possessions hinder entering God’s kingdom.

Verses can be found in Mark 10: 17-27 and John 3: 16. 

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.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, September 17, 2023

His Performance, Your Acceptance

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about how “acceptance must be earned,” an idea that we pick up at a young age, teaching us that we must perform at a certain level.  Living in a world where our acceptance is based on our performance, most folks believe God must love us similarly: that we must meet the standards and the requirements.

God’s acceptance of us cannot be based on our performance!  The core of the message today is that acceptance rests on His performance, not yours.

Michael dives into the book of Mark, where parents brought their children for a blessing from Jesus, and the disciples stopped them.  Jesus was indignant and told the disciples to let the children come to Him and told the disciples that whoever didn’t receive the kingdom of God like a little child would never enter it.  

(CSB Notes) 10:15 Jesus’s second saying relates to how a person welcomes and enters the kingdom of God. A little child accepts what is given as a gift without asserting his rights or claims (cp. Mt 18:3). To enter God’s kingdom, a person must accept it as a gracious gift.

Verses can be found in Mark 10: 13-16.

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. 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, September 10, 2023

The Subject I Wanted to Skip

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about one of the most painful experiences in life…divorce.  Hard topic to cover but Michael’s going there! 

Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem and telling his disciples he’ll be arrested and crucified.  The disciples still don’t get the overall picture, but the Pharisees are back with even more “not getting it.”  And they bring up the question of divorce.  They are trolling questions that would entrap Jesus, picking a controversial topic.  They were going through Perea at the time, an area headed up by Herod Antipas, a figure known for beheading John the Baptist, because of John’s views on divorce and remarriage.  So, the Pharisees were smart in picking the topic and the place!

In that day, there were two schools of thought on divorce, modeled after two rabbis: Shammai, whom taught divorce was only allowed by adultery by the woman (not the man) and was a more conservative view.  Rabbi Hillel, taught that a man could divorce his wife for, essentially any reason, a far more liberal view.  The Pharisees had hoped that Jesus would entrap himself, similar to how John the Baptist did and suffer a similar fate.

Jesus’ answer, however, quoted as “What did Moses command you?”, based on Deuteronomy 24: 1-4, did not command divorce only acknowledged it, protected the woman’s rights, and prohibited a husband from remarrying his original wife if he married another woman in between. Once again the Pharisees were misusing Scripture!

Divorce is so polarizing, but it doesn’t end you, God doesn’t stop loving you.  No matter your story, no matter your deal, we love you at Recreate Church!

Love endures, grace forgives and hope rebuilds.  Wherever you are, relationship-wise, give your situation to God, trust Him with it and He’ll work it out.

Verses can be found in Mark 10: 2-12.

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.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, September 3, 2023

Salt and Fire.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about how Christianity isn’t always an easy path to follow.  God will bring good from the things that test us.  Michael’s memory jingle for the day is “Tribulation is transformation. Integrity is Influence.”  That’s what today’s message is all about!

Jesus mentions salt and fire in today’s verses in Mark, and it is said, “salted with fire”.  The fire here may mean the parallel of refining and purifying of salt and followers of Christ being persecuted in an “unsalted” world.  The “salt” is the distinctiveness of salt and the distinctiveness of being followers of Jesus.  So these two simple verses carry a lot of meaning, in a lot of ways.

And the fire does not destroy who we are; it destroys who we were pretending to be.  When you’re facing struggles, don’t assume that God doesn’t care.  Jesus didn’t come to rid the world of suffering; He came to redeem our suffering here and now.  It can be the catalyst for growth and maturity!

(CSB Study Bible Notes) 9:49-50 Jesus’s puzzling statement in v. 49 probably drew on the association of fire and salt in the sacrificial context of Lv 2:13. The first salt saying of Mk 9:50 occurs elsewhere (Mt 5:13; Lk 14:34) and focuses on the good uses of salt, which disciples must reflect on (Mt 5:13). Salt from deposits around the Dead Sea could lose its flavor since it was not pure sodium chloride. Disciples who lose their saltiness are no longer effective witnesses. The second “salt saying” of v. 50 draws on the OT custom of using salt in making covenants of peace.

Verses can be found in Mark 9: 49-50 and James 1: 2-4.

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.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, August 27, 2023

Cut Off What Cuts You Off From God

Today, Pastor Michael discusses Jesus’ teaching on cutting off (symbolically / hyperbole) things that cause sin and lead to spiritual separation.  Here, Jesus tells His followers to cut off limbs that lead to sin, for example, their hand, if it causes them to sin.  Jesus is not teaching mutilation; He is teaching that sin originates in the heart.  One can lose a hand or an eye and still be a terrible sinner!

The gist is that we must control anything that takes us away from God!  Cut off here is getting things out of your life that take you away from Him.

(CSB Notes) 9:43-48 The body parts and admonitions are figures of speech that warn disciples to guard their sight and actions against participation in evil, for recklessness here can lead to spiritual downfall (cp. Jb 31:1,5,7). This is the only place where Mark used the word for hell (Gk gehenna). The imagery for hell developed from the Hinnom Valley southwest of Jerusalem. This valley was used for pagan human sacrifice (2Kg 16:3; 21:6; Jr 7:31), hence the association with unquenchable fire and perpetual rot (their worm does not die).

Verses can be found in Mark 9: 43-48.

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. 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, August 20, 2023

W-A-T-E-R

Today, Pastor Michael is departing from his study of the book of Mark and talking about baptism and its meaning.

We’re in Acts today, in the early days of the Christian movement, a few years after the Resurrection, when most of the believers were centered in Jerusalem.  An angel of the Lord comes to Philip, tells him to head to Gaza, and doesn’t tell him why. But he IS an angel, and Philip IS obedient, so he heads out.  About halfway there, he encounters an important Ethiopian man.  This was not purely a lucky meeting; it was why the angel sent Philip. 

The story continues with the two meeting and Philip discovering he is an important Ethiopian, reading the book of Isaiah and not understanding it completely.  He was having difficulty understanding whom the passage was referring to.  Philip explained that it was Jesus who was being referred to, not Isaiah.  The Ethiopian requested that he be baptized, and he was done so with Philip.  When the Ethiopian came out of the water, the Holy Spirit miraculously carried Philip away to his next appointment!

Water baptism is the outward symbol of inward transformation. 

WATER = Wash Away The past Emerge Renewed!

Verses can be found in Acts 8: 26-40.

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.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, August 13, 2023

Stumbling Stone or Stepping Stone

Today, Pastor Michael discusses good teachers and how they are stepping stones to learning, not stumbling stones.  A good teacher helps a learner step up, not stumble.

And along that line, as a Christian, you can be the reason someone steps up to the faith or a stumbling block to them.

We’re at the end of Mark and are discussing this idea with Jesus’ teachings in Mark. In chapter 9, verse 42, Jesus states, “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall away — it would be better for him if a heavy millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”

We must be careful not to cause anyone to stumble in their faith, whether they are simply young people or young believers.

Michael adds some “Do’s” and “Don’t” on what we can do to help be a Stepping Stone, instead of a Stumbling Stone to someone’s faith journey.

DON’T be somebody’s excuse for unbelief.

DO set the example of a humble life that is pursuing God.

DON’T be the reason somebody’s spiritual growth gets stunted.

DO support and nurture those who are younger in the faith.

DON’T be the discouragement that derails a faith journey.

DO be the reason that somebody decides there is truth in Jesus because of what they see in your life.

DON’T influence anyone to trust their own morality or religion.

DO set the example of trusting in Christ!

You may impress people with your strength, but you’ll connect with them through your weakness!

(CSB Study Bible Notes) 9:42 To cause someone to fall away refers to hindering discipleship or causing someone to sin. Little ones refers to immature disciples. A heavy millstone was the one donkeys turned to grind wheat. As terrible as drowning was, Jesus said it would be better than suffering the punishments of vv. 43-48.

Verses can be found in Mark 9: 42.

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.