ReCreate Church’s Podcast

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, December 19, 2021

Cosmic Jesus!

Today Pastor Michael is talking about a bishop from the fourth century, Nicholas.  Nicholas lived in Myra, a city in western Turkey, then a Greek territory.  

Nicholas came from a wealthy family and loved to help others.  He did so secretly, to not draw attention to himself.  He heard about one family that had a big need and he wanted to ensure that they wouldn’t know that it was him assisting them.  So, he actually went on to their roof and dropped a bag of gold down their chimney.  As luck would have it, a member of the household had hung some stockings on the fireplace to dry.  The gold bounced into the stocking!  Pretty cool, Nicholas!

Eventually people found out that Nicholas was secretly helping people and the story of “Saint” Nicholas spread far and wide.  It inspired a lot of generosity and a lot of giving.  The Dutch particularly loved St. Nicholas and called him “Sinterklass”.  When Dutch immigrants came to America, they brought the story of Sinterklass and it became modified a bit to the story of Santa Claus!

Christmas isn’t just about Santa, it’s also about Jesus.  And Christmas Jesus is likely everyone’s "favorite" Jesus.  But Jesus is on another level.  Not very far from  where Nicholas grew up is Colossae.  Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians,  the book of Colossians in the New Testament.  In this letter, Paul explained to them that Jesus was much, much more than “Christmas” Jesus.  It was not the boy Jesus, the Messiah Jesus, or even the resurrected Jesus.  It is literally, “Cosmic” Jesus!  Jesus is more than one thing; he transcends eternity!

Following the Bible verses listed below, Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  God is not a material being, He is a Spirit.  Jesus is God!

Saint Nicholas comes back in to the story now at the First Counsel of Nicaea (founded by Constantine the Great), where they are wrangling with the subject of Jesus and God being one, incarnate. This study is also called the study of the Godhead in Christianity. They had studied the Epistle to the Colossians and were firmly convinced that Jesus and God are the one and the same.  Now, they had a dissenter amongst themselves, Arius, who did not believe in Trinitarianism, the belief that God is one God in three co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  

Arius taught that Jesus was a created being, that He was not fully divine, but that He was a really, really good guy that does point us to God.  However, this didn’t then, nor now, jibe with the Bible.  No one was more upset on that than Nicholas.  He listened and listed and was getting madder and madder when Saint Nicholas walked across the room and punched Arius right in his mouth!  

Saint Nicholas knew the Cosmic Jesus, the one and eternal God.   He wasn’t created but is the Creator of all things!

Today’s verses can be found in Colossians 1: 15-20,  John 1: 1-18, John 10:30 and John 14:9. 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, December 12, 2021

Broken for our Brokenness.

Today Recreate Church is having our very first Lord’s Supper at our new building!

Michael is covering the very first Lord’s Supper.  It occurred during Passover, a very significant celebration to the Jews of the day. It commemorated how God brought His people out of slavery in Egypt.  This meal that He and His disciples were eating was part of the Passover meal.  Jesus was there with his twelve disciples, His “family”.  

Jesus is giving his disciples His bread, not because they are hungry…He is giving it to them as a symbol of something important. The breaking of the bread is symbolic of how Jesus was going to be broken.  The disciples at this point really didn’t understand the point of his point of Him about to be broken.  

Just hours after this He was arrested.  He was mocked and spit on and a crown of thorns pressed down on His head.  He was made to carry a heavy cross to the execution site and then nailed to that cross.  It was a way of shaming and embarrassing others from committing crimes.  

His life wasn’t taken.  It was given.

The sinless One was broken for us.

Then He took the cup and the symbolism is it is His blood, poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.

His brokenness is our healing.  

(ESV Systematic Theology Study Bible Notes) At the final meal Jesus shares with his disciples before his death, a first-century Jewish Passover meal, he institutes the Lord’s Supper. At the appropriate time, he takes a loaf of bread in his hand, gives thanks for it, breaks it, and gives it to his disciples to eat, saying, “This is my body” (v. 26). Similarly, he takes the cup, gives thanks, gives it to his disciples, and instructs, “Drink of it, all of you” (v. 27).

By means of this symbolism of eating and drinking, Jesus teaches his disciples something they will understand only after his resurrection—the most basic meaning of the Lord’s Supper is union with him in his death and resurrection. Even as the disciples consumed the bread and wine, so in the Lord’s Supper believers “feed” spiritually on Christ.

Additionally, alluding to Exodus 24:6–8, Jesus explains that the wine represents his “blood of the covenant,” his violent death on the cross, which brings “forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). When Jesus promises to drink new wine with them in the kingdom of God, he looks past the cross to his resurrection and second coming.

Today’s verses can be found at Matthew 26: 26-30 and Isaiah 53: 5-6.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, December 5, 2021

The Potter’s Wheel

Today Pastor Michael is turning it over to Billy Huneycutt for his Potter’s Wheel presentation.  This is the time when it’s actually better to see a visual representation of what Billy is presenting, rather than an audio (though the audio is plenty fine!).   

Please check out our Facebook Recreate Church feed for pictures, tonight.

The video will be posted on our church YouTube feed, tomorrow, Monday, 12/6/2021.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, November 28, 2021

Pixels aren’t the big picture!

Today Pastor Michael is finishing up the story of Old Testament Joseph.  Using pixels (picture elements) as a guide, Michael is showing that a picture, zoomed in, at the pixel level, is hard to make out.  But zoomed out, the pixels become a great picture! 

As a summary, Joseph grew up with 11 brothers and 1 sister and, to his great chagrin, his pops showed favoritism to him.  Plus, he was having prophetic dreams, growing up.  Dreams that foretold he would rule over his brothers…not a good thing, if you’re one of his brothers!  So, the bros decided to sell him into slavery, a great option over murder, which they had considered!  And sold him to a powerful Egyptian.  Joseph busted it, earning a position in the household as manager of the household.  Not bad!

Then the plot twist! Being a handsome kinda fella, his bosses wife noticed that!  She was determined to get him into bed, but he didn’t capitulate.  She grabs his clothes one day, and she is mad, cause she’s turned down but accuses him of trying to accost her and he is sent to prison.  He keeps his integrity even in prison and is a model prisoner.  The warden notices how responsible he is and trusts him with more and more authority.  So, now, he’s literally in ways, in charge of the prison.  Different, weird and all that is as a segue to his life, but, it is what it is!  Growth is found in struggle, certainly!

One day, two new, high roller prisoners show up.  They are in Pharaoh’s court and these cats have had some weird dreams.  Joseph tells them he can interpret those dreams and those predictions turn out exactly as he predicted.  God at work, again!

Joseph is summoned by Pharaoh to interpret dreams because the butler, after two years, remembers that Joseph interprets dreams.  Joseph is in Pharaohs court and interprets Pharaoh’s dreams so good, he is appointed Prime Minister of Egypt.  Pharaoh’s dreams predicted seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of really bad times (famine).  Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of the entire shebang and Joseph puts grain away and during the really bad famines, Egypt did well and folks from all over the Middle East come to Egypt to get grain during the famine.

The promised land was also hit by the famine.  So Joseph’s family, back home, sent his brothers to go to Egypt to buy grain.  The brothers arrived in Egypt and had to appear before the Prime Minister.  Plot twist!

His brothers are bowing down to Joseph.  He recognizes them but they do not recognize him.  So Joseph tells them to go home and bring back their younger brother.  He binds Simeon and puts him in prison and tells them to go back home. They get home and explain to Jacob the entire story.  Needless to say, it’s turmoil.  Since the famine is still going strong, they have no food, so Jacob sends the brothers back with Benjamin, their younger brother to Egypt.

They all arrive back to Egypt and arrive back at Joseph’s house and Simeon is released.  Yet through all this, the brothers still don’t know this is Joseph, their brother.  They have a huge feast, then sends them on their way, sacks full of grain and put their money back in their sacks and they insert a special cup into Benjamin’s sack.  Soldiers are sent to intercept them and the soldier’s ask them what they are doing with Joseph’s silver cup.  They open Benjamin’s sack and the cup is found.

They go back to the city and PLOT TWIST (again)!

One of the brothers, Judah, offers himself in place of Benjamin.  At this point, Joseph finally reveals his identity to his brothers.  They are, needless to say, terrified.  But the things that happen to us, appear to be done by people that want to hurt us, so against us, yet we cannot see the big picture. 

It is God doing the work through the stuff that happens!  Can you even think of a more convoluted, crazy story than what happened to Joseph?  Yet it STILL worked out, thanks to God!

We live our lives down in the pixels, but there is victory in the bigger picture!

Today’s verses are found in Genesis 45:  4-8 and Genesis 50: 20. 

 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, November 21, 2021

Thankfulness.

Today Pastor Michael is handing the reins over to Nick Dowdy.  Nick’s message today is on Thankfulness.  Let’s address what we need to be thankful for.  As believers we can be thankful for the wondrous deeds that God has performed.  The biggest deed is that God sent his only Son to us to wash away our sins.  Jesus willingly died so that we can be reconciled back to God.   The other wondrous miracle is, as a Believer, you have been given a new identity.  He has taken people of this world, a place of acceptance and a place of love.  He has given us a place at His table.  We do not have to question who we are once we have accepted Christ.  God has deemed us worthy.  We can never take this for granted.  

This wondrous miracle, we can hold on to, no matter what.  This is the truth and the single reality of every single Believer in this world. There is nothing that can touch that. 

This is what we have to be thankful for.  It is so easy to get caught up in ‘today’.  We can lose sight, so easily.  

Giving thanks to God is more than checking off a box.  It is more than going through the motions.  It is taking time and stepping back, meditating and thinking of the magnitude and reality of what He has done.  We must allow Him to change our way of thinking.

Thankfulness is a matter of perspective.  We must talk about the works of Christ amongst ourselves and speak about the goodness of God. Thankfulness and peace are linked together.  The peace of Christ should rule in our hearts and we should be thankful.  

Today’s verses are found in Psalms 9: 1, Psalms 100: 4-5, Psalms 107: 21-22, Psalms 118: 1, Colossians 3: 15-17 and Philipians 4: 4-7.

 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, November 14, 2021

From prison to palace: in one day!

Today Pastor Michael is continuing to follow the story of Joseph and how Joseph has experienced long delays in his life and certainly, life not being what he originally thought it might be.  He’s gone from being sold into slavery to being in prison and today’s story picks up with the prisoners Joseph has been assisting by interpreting their dreams.

In these dream interpretations, one prisoner has a good outcome and one did not.  The one that did, was supposed to help him by trying to obtain his freedom but he didn’t.  Joseph languished in prison for another two years!  As it turns out, Pharaoh has a dream about himself standing by the Nile and he sees seven cows come up out of the river.  These cows were fat and nice.  Then seven more cows, not nearly as good looking, come out of the river and eat the other seven cows!  Zombie cows?

Needless to say, this dream disturbed Pharaoh.  He then has another dream and sees a wheat plant sprout up, with seven stalks.  Then, as with the cow dream, here comes seven more stalks off the same plant and they’re ugly, unhealthy, diseased, blighted, scorched wheat.  The bad wheat then eats up the good wheat.  Give the man credit, he has some seriously weird dreams!

He wakes up and consults his trusted staff and no one can tell him.  But wait!  His butler overhears this and then suddenly remembers his time in prison where Joseph interpreted the dreams.  He tells him the story of Joseph’s dream interpretations and how accurate they were.  Pharaoh sends for Joseph and Joseph stands before him.

Joseph proceeds to tell the Pharaoh that he doesn’t interpret dreams.  But he did clarify his statement, stating the he couldn’t interpret dreams but God can.  

Pharaoh tells him the cow and the wheat dreams and the Lord gave Joseph the interpretation.  Which was: the two dreams represent the same message.  The seven good cows and wheat represent seven years of prosperous and good.  The seven bad cows and seven bad grains of wheat represent seven years of famine and those seven years will make the seven good years seem long ago and forgotten.

Pharaoh needs to appoint someone to plan for the seven bad years, by storing away grain and preparing for it.  Needless to say, Pharaoh is impressed with Joseph. Pharaoh appoints Joseph to oversee this effort and gives him royal clothing and jewelry.  To commemorate the promotion, Pharaoh gives Joseph a new name, Zaphenath-paneah (“Revealer of Mysteries”, how cool is that!), and a wife, Asenath.

Things went just as Joseph predicted.  They had seven great years and collected the grain and saved it up.  Then when the famine hit, if they had not laid aside that stock, everyone would have starved.  People came from all around to buy grain in Egypt.  Egypt was saved and provided grain for others and Joseph became a great hero.

From the prison to the palace, in one day!  

God has dreams for you and for me; but we have to grow into those dreams.  It took Joseph thirteen years to see God’s purpose for him realized.  Every day God grows us in our faith and our character.  

Today’s verses are found in Genesis 41: 1-57.

 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, November 7, 2021

Missed Exit.

Important note: We had a problem in our audio chain in the morning service, so the audio is a stripped out version from our video production.  We apologize for the quality of this audio as it’s not to our usual standards.  

Today Pastor Michael is back with Joseph in the Old Testament, continuing our study on him.  And one of our themes today is that interpretations belong to God.  Joseph is in prison at this point but the Lord has provided for him, yet again.   In prison, Joseph prospered and is quickly given authority.  Joseph meets two high level, important inmates from Pharaoh’s service; one a butler, the other his chief baker.  

Each of those inmates admitted they had weird dreams the night before.  Remember: Joseph’s special gifts were about dreams, so Joseph asked them about their dreams.  Joseph said something very specific here, that is important:  Interpretations belong to God.  With that, Joseph, with God’s help, interpreted the two inmates dreams.   

The interpretations were exactly as Joseph predicted.  The butler got a good interpretation and the baker did not.  Yet they were still correct.  

The butler forgot all about Joesph, thought and he languished in prison two more years.  He missed another exit!  

Joseph has helped others with their dreams, what about his dreams?  He keeps getting knocked off track.  How is he supposed to interpret these setbacks? 

All of the interruptions in his life weren’t setbacks.  They were his journey!  

Today’s verses are found in Genesis 39: 19-23, Genesis 40: 1-22 and Proverbs 3: 5-6.

 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, October 31, 2021

The Trouble With Temptation.

Today Pastor Michael is taking a break and Nick Dowdy is speaking.  His subject is the “Trouble with Temptation” and we’re continuing the story of Joseph that Michael has been teaching on for some time now.  We’re at the part of the story where Joseph is starting to experience temptations in Potiphar’s household, where Potiphar’s wife is finding herself drawn to this handsome, unattached Hebrew.  And she propositions him, to which he refused.

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) Joseph adamantly refuses to become her lover for two reasons. First, it would be a disservice to his master, who has trusted him (39:8–9a). Second, it would be a sin against God (39:9b). Joseph’s words help us understand the difference between guilt over sin and godly sorrow over sin. Guilt means we are sorry for our sins because we know they are ruining our lives and may keep us out of heaven. Godly sorrow means we are sorry for our sins because we know they grieve the heart of God. It is Joseph’s commitment to high moral principles that keeps him free from an illicit affair.

Nick then goes into a nice study on temptation in James, covering a primer of sorts.  The biggest point being in this side study is that God never temps people.  A second point is that people are only tempted by their own desires.  Third, temptation only becomes sin once we act on it in an ungodly manner.  Lastly, sin results in death and this may not be a literal death but the death of a relationship, etc.  This is a great summary of temptation today and in Joseph’s time.

Back to Joseph, Potiphar’s wife did not like Joseph turning her down a bit, so she set him up, royally.  She took his robe and came up with a story that she fed to her husband, essentially claiming that Joseph tried to sleep with her!  And of course, Potiphar believed her story and had Joseph imprisoned.  Poor ole Joseph, just cannot win.

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) We do not know why Potiphar puts Joseph into prison rather than killing him (39:20). Does Potiphar have reason to be suspicious of his wife’s story? Has she done something like this before? Maybe Potiphar trusts Joseph more than he trusts his wife. If that is the case, Potiphar is appropriately cautious. You can release an innocent man from incarceration, but you cannot resurrect him.

(Bible for Hope Study Notes) We must look at temptation for what it really is. Temptation, when it stands alone, is merely a withering, shrinking lure. Despite its prevalence, it has no power unless we choose to surrender to it. Remember that temptation itself is not a sin-Jesus was tempted-but yielding to temptation is sin. Everyone can remember falling to temptation. The memory stirs up feelings of being dirty, empty, drained, and even exploited. Grieving the sin is natural and healthy before a righteous God. These feelings and memories can serve as reminders to guard our hearts and minds.

Nick finishes our study on temptation in 1 Corinthians that God will always provide a way to endure temptation.  God will always provide a way out; we are without excuse.  

Today’s verses are found in Genesis 39: 6-20, James 1: 12-15 and 1 Corinthians 10: 12-13. 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, October 24, 2021

Turning Obstacles into Opportunities

Today Pastor Michael is picking back up on the story of Joseph, who we left last week in a precarious situation.  At this point, it looks like Joseph’s dreams are at the bottom of the pit he’s in!

God’s plans can mess up ‘our’ plans, but our plans are only the plans of a human being.  God sees everything!  God definitely changed Joseph’s plans and dreams.  It looks like he had a demotion of sorts!  But while Joseph was a slave, the Lord was with him.  That’s the difference maker!

Joseph was free in his spirit, his brothers were slaves in their spirit.  So we ask the question: if God was with Joseph, why isn’t his life easier right now?

We assume the proof of God being with us is our life being easy.  That’s not true. The road to where God wants to take you might lead through a valley.

God will take Joseph through Potiphar’s house to Pharaoh’s house!  And that is God’s plan.

A good news summary today: It’s the hard times that teach us and makes our faith grow. 

(CSB Baker Illustrated Bible Study Notes) 39:1–6. Joseph finds himself in the employ of Potiphar, a high-ranking official of Pharaoh (39:1). What goes through the mind of the bewildered teenager, who has been uprooted violently from his home, sold as a servant, made to live with strangers, and purchased off the trading block and is now dwelling in a foreign country?

Joseph has two things going for him. First, the Lord is with him (39:2). Joseph may not know this—at least not yet, for although the Lord is with Joseph, the Lord does not keep Joseph out of trouble and danger. This is the only chapter in the Joseph story (excluding chaps. 38 and 49, where Joseph is either absent or minimally present) where “LORD” appears, and it appears seven times, all by the narrator. In addition to the divine presence, Joseph is a diligent worker, one who impresses his master with his conscientious industriousness (39:3–4). Joseph is to Potiphar what Jacob was to Laban. Both of these non-Israelites experience blessings because a child of Abraham is in their midst. Joseph oversees everything except Potiphar’s food (39:5–6).

Today’s verses are found in Genesis 39: 1-6.

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, October 17, 2021

Decked Out to Sold Out!

Today Pastor Michael is continuing his study on Joseph and his crazy family situation.  The story picks up with Joseph searching for his brothers, who have moved their flock to Dothan and let’s just say they that when he found them, they weren’t exactly glad to find him!  His brothers took off his coat (the special one that, as his Dad’s favorite, was given only to him) and cast him into a pit.  They then plotted to sell Joseph to the Midianites and sold him for 20 pieces of silver and the traders took him to Egypt.

Sold out!  

Joseph had to feel he was doing right, following what God wanted him to do and then it all fell apart.  What then?

What about those down-in-the-hole moments, when we’re dealing with ruination of our plans?

Three things to consider when it seems like everything is going wrong:

1. The presence of God.  Did God leave Joseph?  No, God was just as present as he would EVER be.
2. The promises of God.  It looks bad, but the promises of God are just as true in the bad times as they are in the good times.
3. The provision of God.  A dead-end can be a portal.  Bad times can be portends to good times.  

Realize, God is always the same and never leaves us.  Good times or bad.

Like Joseph, there is much more to your story than where you are at, right now, today!  Trust God while you’re in the hole and God will come through!

Today’s verses are found in Genesis 37: 12-36.