ReCreate Church’s Podcast

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, May 28, 2023

The Man Who Saw Trees Walking.

Today, Pastor Michael is going to tell a story about a man who saw trees walking.  A blind man could see, and others who could normally see were blind.

Bethsaida (“house of the fishermen”)is where Jesus is today; his ministry headquarters was just down the road in Capernaum. 

Jesus was in Bethsaida, and a group of people are coming up to him with a man whose eyes are bandaged, and they wanted Jesus to see this man and heal him.  Jesus took the man’s hand and leads him through the streets. 

They get to the edge of town, and Jesus keeps going out into the fields with the man.  Jesus then took off the man’s bandages, spit on his fingers, and touched the man’s eyes.

Jesus asked him, what did he see?  He told Jesus that he saw he saw men like trees, walking.  Then He put his hands on the man’s eyes again and made him look up, and he was restored and saw everyone clearly.  Jesus told him not to go into town.

This is an interesting story because the healing was incremental or partial.  First, the man saw ‘trees’ walking.  But after he was touched a second time, his sight was fully restored.

Healing isn’t the same all the time.  There is a lot of variety in the way folks are healed.  So, why is this a two-stage miracle?  Because some of the greatest miracles occur in two stages!

Every single person begins in a state of spiritual blindness.  Jesus will have to open our eyes enough to ‘see’ we need salvation.  The Holy Spirit will open our eyes enough for us to recognize that we need Jesus.

We then have that partial opening of our eyes and can see enough that we need Jesus.  Then He touches us, and we fully see that we can cry out to the Lord and be saved!

(Disciple's Study Bible Notes) 8:22-26 MIRACLE, Christ—Miraculous events may become symbolic parables. Jesus healed the blind man in a unique two-step process. As in 7:32-37 Jesus used the power of touch in healing. Unique here is the apparent partial cure after the first “treatment.” The larger context depicts the blindness of the disciples.

Verses can be found in Mark 8: 22-30.

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, May 21, 2023

When Life Doesn’t Add Up.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about the two miracles of fish and bread.  There is the feeding of the 5,000, known as the “Miracle of Five Loaves and Two Fish,” which occurred near Bethsaida, near the Sea of Galilee.  This was in Mark, Chapter 6.

The second is the feeding of 4,000, known as the “Miracle of Seven Loaves and a Few Fish,” which occurred near the region of Gerasenes, near Decapolis.

That second one is a miracle that essentially falls through the cracks (or could be said to be in the shadow of) due to the more known first miracle.

There are good reasons to believe these are two separate miracles.  Different amounts of loaves and fish, between the miracles. Different amounts of leftovers; the 5,000 had 12 leftovers (one for each of the Disciples), and the 4,000 had seven leftover baskets; Mark and Matthew both include these events.

The disciples had one loaf of bread in the boat they were traveling in and worried it wouldn’t feed everyone.  

The disciples here really had a tough time feeling that Jesus could feed everyone; they have seen him feed 5,000 and then 4,000 and then they stress over a single loaf for 13 people!  Arguing amongst themselves and didn’t look up. 

The core thought in today’s lesson: When life doesn’t add up, look up!  Look to Jesus for the answer.

Mark 8:21-22 (CSB Study Bible Notes) 8:21 This repeats the question of v. 17. The disciples still did not get it. This is Jesus’s most severe rebuke of the disciples in the Gospel of Mark, but there was a bright spot. They didn’t understand yet what Jesus was about.

8:22-10:52 In this section, Jesus completed his ministry in Galilee and began his journey to Jerusalem. It was time to leave the crowds, limit his miracles, and teach the disciples about his impending death.

Verses can be found in Mark 8: 1-21.

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, May 14, 2023

Gentle Is Strong.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about gentleness.  Gentleness is not weakness, and Michael is in the book of 1 Thessalonians, a book that started as an actual letter from Paul to the believers in Thessalonica on how to do things. 

Paul here is comparing himself to a nursing mother, feeding them, not with milk but with the Gospel of God.  They were giving of themselves, in their life force, to make them stronger in faith.  

If you want to see gentleness as evidence, consider being gentle to someone that is not being gentle back.  That’s one of the fruits of the spirit.  If gentleness isn’t present in your life, you’d better make sure Jesus is in your life.  

Jesus people should be gentle people.

The core idea of today’s message: gentleness is not weakness.  Gentleness is using our strength to make others strong.  

1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 (CSB Study Bible Notes) 2:4-7 Paul tried to please God in all he did and said because he was appointed by God to this task. God also continually examined Paul’s heart, so he did not want to deceive his audience or try to win their approval at the expense of God’s approval. Such should be the attitude of all Christians.

2:8 Paul’s method of ministry was not only the impartation of the gospel but the sharing of his own life as well.

Verses can be found in 1 Thessalonians 2: 7-8. 

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, May 7, 2023

Are You Open?

Today, Pastor Michael is giving us a story that is unique to Mark; it doesn’t appear in any of the other gospels.  The question we’re centering on in this study is, “Are You Open?”.  

As in, open to the will of God.

Jesus has just left Tyre, to the north of Israel, and He decides to go around the east side of the Sea of Galilee.  Folks brought a deaf man to Jesus, and He told him, “Be Opened,” and the man could hear again.

Jesus told the people not to tell anyone, but the more He ordered them, the more they proclaimed it.

The great thing here, however, is that the man could now hear and hear the most important thing he could ever hear: Jesus!

The question is not is the Lord speaking?  The question is, are you open to what He has to say?

Are you open?

(CSB Study Bible Notes) While Jesus’s other healing miracles brought astonishment and amazement (1:22,27; 2:12; 5:20,42; 6:2,6,51), this is the only time that extremely or “beyond all measure” appears. He has done everything well, echoes the Septuagint wording of Gn 1:31. Once again, Jesus had done what only God could do (Ex 4:11).

Verses can be found in Mark 7: 31-37.

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, April 30, 2023

Spiritual Plumbing

Today, Pastor Michael has turned over the reigns to Duncan Crook, who has stood in for Michael a few times, and his message today is about…plumbing!

Not our house’s plumbing, of course, but spiritual plumbing.  

Starting off, we have some ‘bad’ news: You have no hope of unclogging your spiritual plumbing!

The good news is that God desires to unclog that spiritual plumbing if you’ll allow him to, and He will do it from the inside out!

Duncan uses the plumbing analogy to explain a lot of things in Christendom and in Jesus’ teachings.  And it starts with Duncan being called by Michael for clogged plumbing at the church.  So, Duncan went to the church and found the situation was exactly as he expected: clogged!  Duncan and Michael found the cleanouts and started to open them up; it wasn’t pretty!

And in the end, Michael and Duncan bandied about to see who could use this experience as a life experience in a lesson one day.  This sermon is the result of that.

We all need to be sure that negative thoughts, attitudes, and other sins are sent ‘down the drain’ to use the plumbing analogy.  This spiritual blockage in your heart holds you captive to the Devil’s will.

Roots can cause backups, spiritually and at your house.  Spiritual clogs are selfishness, bitterness, rejection, evil thoughts, and others that cause backups in our spiritual plumbing.  

So, we must turn first to the Lord and acknowledge that we have a spiritual problem. 

Then, we have to maintain our plumbing for it to work well; spiritually, this is the same!  But we have a professional we can turn to confession, repentance, and the Word of God will clear away any blockages because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Verses can be found in Luke 6: 45, 1 Corinthians 11: 28, Philippians 2: 14, Numbers chapters 13 and 14, Psalm 37: 8, Ephesians 4: 26, Ephesians 4: 31, Psalms 51: 1-12, Psalm 139: 23-24, and Acts 3: 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, April 23, 2023

The Goodness of God in an Unfair World

Today, Pastor Michael is in Mark and speaking about the goodness of God is greater than the unfairness of the world. 

Jesus only traveled outside of Israel a few times in His life.  This is one of those times.  He is in Tyre, a deeply Gentile place during His time; today, it’s a city in Lebanon.  

He enters the town quietly and goes into a house.  A lady comes into the house uninvited.  Lots of flags going off here, as she was a lady, a Gentile, and a Syrophoenician (a Phoenician from Syria), so this lady was NOT the typical person that would approach a rabbi.

This woman is shouting and talking about how her daughter needs healing from an evil spirit.  She needed a miracle this day.  The woman had heard that Jesus was in town and did everything she could do to get to Him!  

The lady falls at the feet of Jesus and calls him Lord, a big deal, and recognizes him as such.  She also called Him the Son of David, a very powerful title!  She recognizes him as Lord and Messiah.

Jesus says to the woman, “Let the children be fed first, because it isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”  This is an easily offensive statement at the time because dogs were unclean.

This wasn’t an insult but, rather, a test.

The lady replied back, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Jesus replies to her, “Because of this reply, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.”

She believed the goodness of God was greater than the unfairness she had received.  

Will you trust God when life is unfair?

(CSB Study Bible Notes) His words, because of this reply in Matthew’s account focuses on the greatness of the woman’s faith (Mt 15:28).

Verses can be found in Mark 7: 24-30.

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, April 16, 2023

Traditions Versus Your Heart.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about the Pharisees, the “Separate Ones.”  These days, the word Pharisee is synonymous with hypocrite, but in their day, they were well respected.  And the Pharisees had a tradition of washing their hands after returning from the Market.  The problem with their rituals was that they felt those that didn’t conform to their practices were "under" the Pharisees. 

So, being typical Pharisees, they have to point out that some of Jesus’ disciples were eating with what they perceived as “unclean” hands.  And, naturally, they had to point this out to Jesus, who quickly shut that down, referring to the Pharisees as hypocrites, essentially letting them know, their traditions were good but their hearts: not so much.  

Don’t settle for tradition, when the truth is there!

Mark 7:4-9 (CSB Study Bible Notes) 7:3-4 These verses are an explanatory parenthesis. This is Mark’s only reference to the Jews as a group. The tradition of the elders (cp. vv. 5,8-9,13) refers to oral traditions that had grown up around the written law. Such traditions became the heart of rabbinic Judaism. Apparently, when the Pharisees returned from the marketplace they did more than just ritually wash their hands; they thoroughly purified themselves.

7:5 Jesus replied in v. 8 that the tradition of the elders is merely “human tradition.”

7:6-7 The word for hypocrites refers to an actor who hid behind a mask. Thus the word means “pretender.” Jesus’s quotation from Is 29:13 clearly defined what a hypocrite was and focused on God’s condemnation of those who taught doctrines of human commands.

7:8-9 Jesus accused the scribes and Pharisees of abandoning the command of God while keeping human tradition. They made their oral traditions more important than God’s law.

Verses can be found in Mark 7: 1-23.

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. 

 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, April 9, 2023

The Convict and The King.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about Easter.  Resurrection Sunday.  And he feels in his heart that the Lord is leading him to ‘tell a story’.  

So, this is the story of the convict and the king.  A pair of bright eyes set in a face that was probably handsome many years ago but today, he’s showing that he’s had a hard life.  He’s trying to remain calm but he sees the iron spike about to be driven into his wrist, on the cross and knows the pain is about to start.  His name is not truly known but he is known in history as the penitent thief.

He was on a cross, as was another thief, the impenitent thief, to the left and right of Jesus on Golgotha.  Yet with what little life he had left, the penitent thief exclaimed to the crowd, Luke 23:41-43 (CSB) We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 And he said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus gave His life; He was not executed.  He gave His life for all of us. After finishing His mission, Jesus committed himself into His Father’s hands and breathed His last. No one took His life from Him. He gave it freely.

(CSB Study Bible Notes) 23:40-43 In the midst of this display of unbelief and mockery, the other criminal came to understand the difference between his own guilt and Jesus’s innocence (this man has done nothing wrong). He also realized that Jesus was the Messiah and asked to take part in his coming kingdom. Jesus assured him that, after death, he would immediately be reunited with him in paradise (eternal life beyond the grave; see 2Co 12:4).

Verses can be found in Luke 23: 32-43.

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, April 2, 2023

Palm Sunday

Today, Pastor Michael is in the story of Jesus where some things are being set into motion.  Folks are worshipping Jesus at this point, His disciples likely feeling like folks are understanding his message and rolling out the red carpet, so to speak.  The welcome one would normally give to royalty.

Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter.  It gets its name from people laying down palm fronds (i.e. becoming the ‘red carpet’) for a grand entrance. 

Jesus and His Disciples stopped at Bethphage and Bethany.  This is the only time in the bible that Jesus isn’t walking but actually riding a colt. 

Jesus, riding the colt, and His disciples started the descent from the Mt of Olives into Jerusalem, while followers shouted Hosanna, praising Him as the Messiah.  

The prophecy continues as Jesus arrives on a lowly donkey as an invitation to those that will humble themselves. 

Luke 19:29-34 (CSB Study Bible Notes) 19:29 Bethphage and Bethany were small villages near the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. Bethany, the hometown of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha (Jn 11:1) was only two miles east of Jerusalem, just over the Mount of Olives, a ridge across the Kidron Valley from the temple in Jerusalem. The two . . . disciples are not named in any of the Gospels.

19:30-34 Religious or political leaders in that time often borrowed property (a young donkey) for a short time, as here. Matthew 21:7 says that the mother donkey was also commandeered. This action fulfilled the prophecy of Zch 9:9: “Daughter Jerusalem . . . your King is coming to you . . . humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Verses can be found in Mark 11, John 12, Luke 19, and Matthew 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, March 26, 2023

Food and Walking on Water.

Today, Pastor Michael is following up on the “Feeding of the Five Thousand”.  Jesus and His Disciples were in the woods and the whole point of being in the wilderness area was to get some rest.  But the crowd followed them!  And during this time, Jesus feed well over 5,000 from just the meager leftovers of someone’s lunch!

So, here is this miracle-working man that can feed us every day!  If he were a king, he could feed us every day!  Let’s make this man a king!

But, they wanted to make him king for all the wrong reasons!  

When the evening came, the boat with the disciples was in the sea and they were paddling like crazy and getting nowhere!  They looked out and saw that He who had created water could walk on it!

The disciples all saw Him and were frightened, thinking He was a ghost, but Jesus spoke to them. When Jesus got into the boat, the wind flat-out stopped. The disciples were amazed because they failed to learn from the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were hardened. These miracles coming this close together should have reminded them that Jesus is the Son of God who has power over everything. He can create food; He can walk on water! 

 Mark 6:50-52 (CSB Study Bible Notes) 6:50 Jesus reassured the disciples with two commands: Have courage and don’t be afraid. The words it is I are literally “I am” (Gk Egō Eimi), the divine name of God in Ex 3:14 (cp. Is 41:4; 43:10-11; 48:12). Jesus did what God alone could do and used God’s name to identify himself.

6:51 In 4:35-41 the wind ceased when Jesus commanded it to stop; here it stopped when he got into the boat . . . Astounded was the usual reaction to Jesus’s power (cp. 1:22,27; 2:12; 5:15,20,42).

6:52 Mark diagnosed a twofold problem: the disciples had not understood and their hearts were hardened. Hard hearts (spiritual insensitivity) characterized the Pharisees at the synagogue in Capernaum (3:5).

Verses can be found in Mark 6: 45-52 and Matthew 14: 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.