ReCreate Church’s Podcast

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, February 5, 2023

Jesus Is More!

Today, Pastor Michael is back in Mark after a hiatus over the holidays.  Mark is one of the Gospels, each one of which has a different viewpoint on Jesus’ story. 

Matthew—Gives an overall view.

Mark—Fast paced, action oriented, close up.

Luke—Detailed, intimate look.

John—overarching, high level view, where Jesus fits into history.

Michael’s opinion is that Mark is a great place for anyone to start reading the Bible at, especially since Mark was a protege of Peter.  And we’re pretty sure Mark is from Peter’s viewpoint.

So, with that introduction, we find Jesus back in his hometown of Nazareth, speaking at a synagogue.  Now you’d think, being in the hometown hood, he’d be well received, the folks happy to see him.

Not!

Folks were actually ‘astonished’ at His words, some even feeling offended. To the point that they called Jesus, ‘Son of Mary’, about a big a dig as one could get in those days, as folks were called sons of their father.   So it was readily apparent that Jesus still had the home town crowd in the holding a grudge of sorts as to his beginnings being suspect.  Clearly, people did not (and still do not) respect you in your hometown.  

Israel in those days had a big thing apparently, for false prophets.  Those type of prophets would tell them what they wanted to hear, not what they needed changed and cleaned up.  The true prophets were actually ridiculed.  As an example, look at the treatments of Isaiah and Jeremiah.  

Which brings up the point, what really is a prophet?  A prophet is someone who gives a message from the Lord.  These messages may or may not be predictive, but a lot of people associate prophets with predictive prophesy.  Prophecy does not simply seek to predict the future, but can also change the present.  So was Jesus a prophet?  No, He was much more than a prophet.  The teachings and miracles that surrounded Jesus proved he wasn’t sent from God; He is God.

To those determined to not believe, they will hold on to their own ways.  No evidence is enough, even to be raised from the dead.  So Jesus left Nazareth and went to where he was wanted.  

Jesus is more.  Jesus is more than a man.  More than a good teacher.  More than a prophet.

Jesus is God.

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) Surprisingly, Jesus is not a celebrity in Nazareth as he is elsewhere in Galilee, but people were “offended by him” (or, he was a “stumbling block,” 6:3). This repeats Mark’s insider-outsider motif: those we should expect to believe in Jesus do not, and those we should not expect to believe in him do. The return to Nazareth ends with Jesus “amazed at their unbelief” (6:6). The greatest hindrance to faith is not sinfulness but hardness of heart.

Verses can be found today in Mark 6: 1-7.

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, Sunday, January 29, 2023

Seeking Jesus. 

Today, Pastor Michael is turning over the reigns to Billy Huneycutt and the message today is about seeking Jesus.  

Today we are concentrating on “seeking” and “Jesus”.  

And we find Billy covering Jesus where a huge crowd is converging on Him, with Jairus, a synagogue leader, pleading earnestly with him, to put His hands on his daughter so that she will live and be healed.  

This is important because synagogue leaders didn’t trust Jesus and here is a leader of a synagogue and he lies prostrate to Jesus, crying out for help for his daughter.  He sought after Jesus wholeheartedly and his need was great.

And a woman was there, who was subject to bleeding for 12 years.  It was against the law for her to be in public.  Crazy rules in those days, huh?  Immediately her bleeding was stopped and she was freed from her suffering.  She felt in her body that she was free from her suffering. 

Mark 5:21-26 (CSB Study Bible Notes) The intertwined miracles involving Jairus’s daughter and the bleeding woman occur in all three Synoptic Gospels (cp. Mt 9:18-26; Lk 8:40-56). Both miracles involved uncleanness.

5:21 The other side refers to the western side of the Sea of Galilee. Mark has already recorded key ministry events by the sea (1:16-20; 2:13-15; 4:1-34). Mark’s description of Jesus’s return is virtually identical to that given in 4:1 before he crossed the lake. 5:22-23 Synagogue leaders such as Jairus were respected laymen responsible for synagogue oversight and activities. Fell at his feet and begged him earnestly shows Jairus’s desperate concern for his little daughter. Luke recorded that she was his only daughter (Lk 8:42). The ruler’s request lay your hands on her shows awareness of Jesus’s method in other healings (1:31,41; 6:5; 7:32; 8:23,25). Jairus’s word for get well also means “be saved.” The same word was used of the woman in v. 28 and in Jesus’s proclamation in v. 34. 5:24-26 The implication is that the woman suffering from bleeding, making her unclean according to OT law (Lv 15:19-33). That this had gone on for twelve years (cp. v. 42) and she had been treated by many doctors but not helped at all indicates an illness that was beyond the help of current medicine. Furthermore, she was financially depleted—she had spent everything she had.

Verses can be found today in Matthew 6: 33 and Mark 5: 21.

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, Sunday, January 15, 2023

Nothing Energizes Like Purpose!

Today, Pastor Michael is continuing our study on “overflow”.  Today’s topic that ties into overflow is energy.  Energy is a strange thing: when you’re young you have time and energy and no money.  When you’re retired you have money (hopefully!) and time but no energy!  And then there’s that “in-between” time, when you’re raising your family and you have no time, no energy and no money!  

Where do we get energy? There are plenty of worldly ways: caffeine, exercise, good diet.  But the spiritual side of energizing power is called “purpose”.  When we have purpose it energizes us.  

And the ultimate source of purpose?  Almighty God!  Trust in the Lord to give you purpose and He will give you meaning and direction.  

(CSB Study Bible Notes) God not only had strength, but he distributed that strength to his people. The criterion for receiving God’s strength was not youth but trust. Those who trusted God would have an unlimited source of strength.

Verses can be found today in Isaiah 40: 30-31 and 1 Kings 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. 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, January 8, 2023

Oil and Treasure (also known as:  Blessed to Be a Blessing!)

Today, Pastor Michael is looking at the Principle of Overflow.  This is rooted in the 23rd Psalm at verse 5, where we hear, “my cup overflows”.

This is a symbolic meaning of how God blesses us beyond our capacity.  What do we overflow with?  Joy and peace come to mind immediately.  Last week we talked about time.  Today we are exploring what we would love to have too much of: resources (money for example).  Is there such a thing as too much money?  Too many resources?  Resources come in all types but to have too much of them is both a rarity and a blessing. 

We have a hard time recognizing when we have an overflow.    Especially an overflow of resources.

Now, Michael is talking about olive oil and how it was used for practically everything and was an everyday provision back in biblical times. Oil was mixed with fragrances and used to annoint people on special occasions.  To be anointed was to be in the Lord’s favor.  

Examining verse five, one way to look at this is, if you could put your blessings in a cup, they would run over the top. Goodness and mercy will be following you always, and you will spend eternity with God. That’s the ultimate blessing!

So, knowing that you can say, you are blessed in order to be a blessing!  And God is worthy of our trust, regardless of the overflow or shortfall!

(CSB Study Bible Notes) In Jewish society oil was a symbol for rejoicing (104:15) and was also used in the welcoming of guests (45:7; 92:10; Lk 7:46).

Verses can be found today in Psalms 23: 1-6.  Proverbs 21: 20.

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, Sunday, January 1, 2023

Happy New Year!

Today, Pastor Michael is starting off our New Year with a throwback to a responsorial reading of the Bible.  Michael is reading the 23rd Psalm, likely the most famous verse in the Bible and our church audience reads back to him. 

Psalms 23 (CSB) 1 The LORD is my shepherd;

I have what I need.

2 He lets me lie down in green pastures;

he leads me beside quiet waters.

3 He renews my life;

he leads me along the right paths

for his name’s sake.

4 Even when I go through the darkest valley,

I fear no danger,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff — they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

6 Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me

all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

as long as I live.

Michael is concentrating on verse 5. What about those days when our cup (money, time or energy) isn’t overflowing?  The only way to sustainably  give to others is to have a cup that is overflowing.  We need to rethink and realign how we think of ‘giving of ourselves’.  When we share something of ourselves, there is an ‘outflow’.  That’s a good thing, a wonderful thing.

So, we’re going to talk about overflowing in a study over the next few weeks.  The categories we’ll cover are: time, resources and energy.  Today, we’re covering ‘time’.

Time.  Time seems to be (and actually is, in fact) different in speed; sometimes fast…sometimes slow.  Like when you’re having fun and doing things you love: time flies.  But try something you don’t like and time stands still, it seems.  Einstein’s ‘Special Theory of Relativity’ states that the rate that time passes depends on your frame of reference.  The point is, time isn’t the same!

So with that preamble out of the way, we find Michael in Luke talking about Jesus telling the story of a man going from Jerusalem to Jericho.  Robbers attacked the poor guy and left him half dead on the side of the road.  A priest was walking down the same road and went to the other side, so he didn’t have to help the poor guy.  A Levite, walking down the same road, did the exact same thing.  Talk about not helpful, jeesh!  

But a Samaritan saw the poor guy and helped him, bandaging his wounds, taking him to an inn and even paying the innkeeper money to help the poor guy.  The definition of a good neighbor!  And a Good Samaritan, too!

God gives us opportunities to help others like this; as the Samaritan did.  Do we always take the time to help?   Do we have an overflowing cup, as this message started out with?  We need that to align prioritizing our time.

Would we have time to give to the thing God wants us to do or is our schedule full?   

When you make God a priority and give Him your time, studying the Bible, spending time in prayer and making time for your spiritual connection with Him, you’ll find that cup will get filled back up!

(CSB Study Bible Notes) The road from Jerusalem to Jericho, a distance of seventeen miles with a descent of more than three thousand feet in elevation, was a dangerous route through desert country. It had many places where robbers could lie in wait. It is possible that the priest and the Levite . . . passed by on the other side of the road because they thought the wounded man was dead and they would become ritually unclean by touching him, but it is more likely that they were afraid of being attacked by the same robbers or simply did not want to be bothered with the inconvenience of helping the man.

Verses can be found today in Psalms 23 and Luke 10: 30-37.

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. 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, December 25, 2022

It’s Christmas!

Today, Pastor Michael is all about Christmas and he’s piggybacking off the story of the Grinch’s heart.   In our culture, today, we use the heart for a lot of emotive responses.

In the Hebrew culture of Ezekiel, they didn’t express emotions via the heart, they used the bowels (whoa!). The Bible uses the heart as the center of the intellect; not emotional responses.  When the Lord tells us we are going to get a new heart, He’s giving us a new way of thinking, understanding and how to respond.   So true change of heart is more than an emotional switch.

Michael also brings up a fantastic point about hardness of our own hearts, towards others.  “Hardness in your heart will never create softness in another person’s heart.  It’ll just hurt you more”.  

(CSB Study Bible Notes) 36:26 The statement I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you reflects the teaching of Dt 30:6-8—that the Lord will circumcise the hearts of his people so they may live in obedience. This radical new creation (Ezk 11:19; 18:31; Jr 31:31-34) was necessary to break the people’s bondage to the cycle of sin and retribution emphasized in Ezk 20. Regeneration is a secret act of God by which he imparts new spiritual life to dead hearts.

Verses can be found today in Ezekiel 36: 26-27.

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. 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, December 18, 2022

Family.  

Today, Pastor Michael is in Genesis and talking about creation, family and people needing other people.   People need meaningful, social interaction.   Our culture, in the pandemic, has moved towards more social disconnection and social isolation.  People need people and interactions with other people; God made us to be familial and social.  If you don’t have that family, you still have more family in God’s family!  And at ReCreate, we are one church, under God!

Nobody has to be home alone!

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) God’s compassion reaches to those whom society often forgets: the orphans, the widows, the lonely, the poor, and the women who remain at home.

Verses can be found today in Genesis 2: 18., Psalm 68: 5-6.

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, Sunday, December 11, 2022

Deviled Ham!

Today, Pastor Michael is back in Mark and discussing a man the odds were against.  His life was so messed up, he didn’t have a devil’s eggs chance of making it through a Baptist pot luck.  His problems look absolutely impossible to overcome.  Then he met the God of possibilities!

We find Jesus and His disciples have landed in a region noted as the Gerasenes (Decapolis) and it is important to know that this region was populated by Gentiles.  They get out of the boat and meet a guy that was in a desperate condition.  He had been restrained by chains and continually broke them and spent his time in caves (tombs).  Essentially a mad man.  As it turns out, he was demon-possessed.  He runs to Jesus and Jesus asks him, “What is your name?”.  He answered, “My name is Legion, we are many”.  Legion was a unit of the Roman Army, some 6,000 strong.  So this is an indication there wasn’t one evil spirit in this man but a BUNCH of them!

These spirits knew they were facing the Son of God.  They asked Him to be cast out of the man and went into a herd of pigs that ran off a cliff and drowned.  The crazy duality here is that the demons asked to be cast into the pigs (an alternative to the bottomless pit) and that Jesus allowed that.  If nothing else it shows the grace Jesus has even for Satan’s demons. 

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) A legion in the Roman army consisted of nearly six thousand soldiers; the attribution of “Legion” to the demoniac may suggest that his demonic oppression rivals the force and domination of the Roman army in the Decapolis (5:9). The superhuman strength and explosive terror of the demoniac are no contest for the Son of God, however, whom the demoniac recognizes in Jesus, and to whom he pleads for clemency (5:7). The demons acquiesce to Jesus’s superior authority but beg not to be banished from the region (5:10). There is a measure of grace even in Jesus’s judgment of Satan’s minions, for he consents to their plea.

Verses can be found today in Mark 5: 1-20.

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, Sunday, December 4, 2022

Is This Boat Gonna Sink?

Today, Pastor Michael is letting Billy Honeycutt talk about Mark Chapter 4.  Billy is chatting, in the beginning ,about a video with a bear that we had to trim out for DRM (digital rights management) but is available at Preview YouTube video The Preacher And The Bear - Strolling Down Memory LaneThe Preacher And The Bear - Strolling Down Memory Lane.  Billy is taking about faith and how its more real when we’re getting squeezed by a bear, so listeners may want to take a gander at that video.

Jesus was speaking here with parables but when he was alone with the disciples, he explained everything.  This is where the message starts.  

That day, Jesus said, “Let’s go over to the other side” and his disciples did that.  While on the boat, a squall came up and Jesus was on the stern, sleeping.  His disciples woke him up, telling him they were afraid.  Jesus calmed the storm and the disciples were amazed, yet still frightened; mostly about how He could calm a storm.  Isn’t that crazy, how 2,000 years ago folks were scared how He could calm a storm and today we’d likely be most appreciative of Him saving our necks!  

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) At the word of Jesus, calm replaces chaos. Ironically, the disciples are more terrified by the power of Jesus than by the terror of the storm (4:41). “Who then is this?” they ask. This is the question not only before the disciples but also before Mark’s readers: will their experience of Jesus lead to faith (4:40) or to fear and doubt?

Verses can be found today in Mark 4: 35-41.

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. 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, November 27, 2022

Small Seed, Big Tree.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about something small becoming something BIG.  We’re back to parables, big ideas = common themes.

At the time Jesus spoke, folks knew about mustard seeds and plants.  Today: not so much, but the story / parable still is strong.  So, Jesus is speaking here, in Mark 4: 30, about mustard seeds and speaking in hyperbole.  The mustard seed isn’t the smallest seed in the world but it was the smallest seed planted in Israel in those days.  The exact ‘size’ of the seed, not really that important here: it’s the core concept of something surprisingly big coming from something surprising small.

And herein, ReCreate Church is the church that grew from a small seed!  But is a big tree, in helping others!

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) 4:30–32. The final parable stresses the contrast between the insignificant beginning and inconceivable end of a mustard seed. The OT celebrates the mighty cedar as a symbol of God’s power and splendor (Ps 80:10; Zch 11:2; Jr 22:23). Jesus, however, likens the kingdom of God to a mustard seed, so small that it is practically invisible (4:30–31). From insignificance and obscurity, God’s kingdom grows into a bush or tree that provides refuge for “the birds of the sky”—which may imply the inclusion of all the nations in God’s coming kingdom (4:32).

Verses can be found today in Mark 4: 30-33.

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.