ReCreate Church’s Podcast

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, March 16, 2025

Jonah and The Worm

Today, Pastor Michael is back in Jonah and NOT talking about Jonah and the whale.  Today’s story is the highly anticipated, the much heralded, the AMAZING story of Jonah and the WORM!

We pick up the story at Nineveh, where Jonah has warned them to turn from their evil ways.  Which they did! And God spared them for doing so!

But, Jonah isn’t happy about that, one bit!  In essence, Jonah is angry because God was being Himself, behaving consistently.  Jonah was angry because God didn’t do things Jonah’s way.  At this point, Jonah is literally ready to die. 

So, in His infinite compassion, the Lord even made a plant to cover Jonah’s head to shield him from the sun.  Even then Jonah was still angry so the Lord had a worm eat the plant, and Jonah was even madder.  The Lord at this point, told Jonah, (CSB) “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11 So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals? ”

God wasn’t looking for a way to destroy Nineveh, he was looking for a way to SAVE it!

The heart of our message is “God is God and I am NOT!”

(CSB Bible Notes) 4:1-2 The unexpected and overwhelming success of Jonah’s preaching resulted in Nineveh’s escape from calamity. However, this brought emotional calamity to the angry and self-pitying prophet, who wished he were dead. Jonah had initially fled from preaching to Nineveh because he feared that God, being excessively gracious and compassionate (see Ex 34:6-7), would find some lame excuse to forgive these pagan, warlike Gentiles. Now his fears had come true.

Today’s verses can be found in Jonah 4: 1-11.

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 9, 2025

Every Day is a Second Chance

Today, Pastor Michael is continuing the story of Jonah, a man just bent on not doing the will of God.  We pick up the story with Jonah, having been spat out of the fish/whale, being confronted with God’s forgiveness.  A second chance is given him, even though he’s not quite on board.  And he does go to Nineveh and speaks to the king.  They do what Jonah tells them, notably fasting, dressing in sackclothes and sitting in ashes (hey, it was the ancient world!) and God sees this and does not destroy the city.  So, not only does Jonah get a second chance, Nineveh does as well!

(CSB Bible Notes) 3:1-3 Jonah went to Nineveh as God had commanded. Extremely great city (lit “a great city to God”; see textual footnote) may have a double meaning: great in size (where “God,” Hb elohim, is used as a superlative for “extremely”) and a city “important to God” even though inhabited by Gentiles.

Today’s verses can be found in Jonah 3: 1-10.

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 2, 2025

Jonah and Jesus

Today, Pastor Michael is continuing the story of Jonah and his continual running from God, notably because he did not agree with a decision made by the Lord to warn the city of Nineveh’s citizens of immenent destruction.  Jonah did not like God showing mercy to the Ninevites, so he was trying to get as far away from the situation as he could!

Big problem, though.  You cannot run away from the creator of the universe!

At this point in the story, Jonah is in the belly of a whale (fish in those days) due to him being cast into the sea by sailors who wanted to appease God for Jonah running from Him. 

So Jonah is praying fervently to God from the belly of the whale, obviously knowing God called the storm and the fish, as part of a plan to show Jonah, you can’t run from God.  And Jonah heartily repented in prayer and the Lord made the whale spit Jonah out to dry land. 

Today’s take away is, “Swallowed by sin, set free by the Savior.”

Today’s verses can be found in Jonah 1: 17 - 2: 10.

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, February 23, 2025

Salvation is in the Storm

Today, Pastor Michael is back with Jonah, the prophet who ’never got it’.  The last time we saw Jonah, he was on a ship bound for Tarshish.  He was essentially in denial of God’s leadership, and he was running from God.

The ship encountered a huge storm that the Lord clearly sent for Jonah’s disobedience.  This storm saved Jonah from destruction; in fact, many things we think of as storms are ‘path corrections’ by the Lord.  

So the ship was in this huge storm, and Jonah crashed out below decks; he was so tired.  The ship’s captain asked Jonah to pray to his God to help them in the storm.  The captain and the pagan sailors recognized that Jonah was running from his God and that bad things were happening to them because of his disobedience.  

Jonah offered to the sailors that they could throw him into the sea.  Jonah, however, was flawed in his understanding; Jonah risked his life for the sailors but not for the city that the Lord told him to go and help save.  Jonah didn’t show much mercy, but the pagan sailors did.

The sailors did throw Jonah into the sea, at which time he was promptly swallowed by a whale!  Even getting swallowed by a whale was an act of God’s mercy!

Today’s verses can be found in Jonah 1: 4-17.

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. 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, February 16, 2025

Mercy Has No Margins

Today, Pastor Michael is in Jonah, talking about how today’s theme, “Mercy Has No Margins” really shows how God’s people can miss God’s purpose. 

The Lord had sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn them that their pagan ways would be held accountable for that evil.  Yet Jonah refused the call and tried to run from the Lord.  He boards a ship, with pagan sailors, at Tarshish, about as far in an opposite direction from Nineveh as he could get.  

Jonah was fleeing, not because he didn’t believe or didn’t want to be called, but because he didn’t believe in the call.  He didn’t feel it far for the pagans or Gentiles to be on God’s team.  And for the Lord to warn pagans of their evil did NOT go over well with Mr. Jonah.  He misunderstood God’s mercy.  He felt good people should get mercy and the bad people should not get mercy.

Jonah (and us!) have to see everyone as a soul that God loves.  

(CSB Bible Notes) God’s holiness is offended by sin. He showed himself to be the judge of the world by holding these distant pagans accountable for their evil, though he also showed his mercy by commanding his prophet to warn them.

Today’s verses can be found in Jonah 1: 1-3.

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, February 9, 2025

Can’t Save Yourself.

Today, Pastor Michael is continuing last week’s theme on salvation, and we continue with our previous week’s essential list:

1. Everyone needs to be saved.You cannot save yourself.
2. God sent the one and only savior, Jesus Christ, to save us.

Pastor Michael picks up the story about 15 years after the Resurrection. Paul and Silas set out on a mission to start new communities of believers. Jerusalem and Antioch were two of the leading Christian areas at the time. During this trip, they enlisted Timothy as part of their troupe, and Luke may have also joined them.   

So they headed west to Troas, and Paul had a vision, a waking one.  In this vision, he sees a man calling him from across the water, asking them to come to Macedonia to help them. So, the gang headed out, from Troas to Neopolis to Philipi, in Macedonia.  Paul was preaching there when Lydia approached them and offered them shelter in her home. Soon after they stayed with Lydia, they were out preaching again, and a slave approached them, having an ability to predict the future and screaming, “These are servants of the highest God!” 

That sounds good because it was correct, but it was an evil spirit that gave her the ability to predict the future and shout what she did. But she followed them for days, continuing to shout this out. 

Finally, Paul turned around and commanded the evil spirit to come out of the girl.  The spirit immediately left her, and she was fine!  Now, at this point, everyone is happy except the men who enslaved the girl to make money with her talents.  They dragged Paul and Silas back into the city, in the middle of a marketplace, and stirred up an angry mob.

Paul and Silas are dragged to prison after suffering a good smackdown, courtesy of the crowd.  They prayed and sang praises to God in prison, and other prisoners and the jailer are listening.

Then, an earthquake shook pretty much everything, and the jailer panicked. He understood that everyone would get away, and under Roman law, if a prisoner escaped, the guard could get the prisoner’s sentence. So he was pretty freaked out!

He draws his sword and places it against his chest to kill himself, and a shout tells him to STOP.  It’s Paul. 

Paul told him “Believe in Jesus, and you will be saved.”

Roman guard, Jesus’s love.  The perfect example of how salvation works.

(CSB Bible Notes) 16:28 We are not told how Paul knew what the jailer was about to do. There may have been just enough light, Paul may have had prophetic insight, or he may have heard enough to surmise what was about to happen. 16:29-30 The jailer fell down trembling because he realized the earthquake was supernatural. This prompted him to ask the most important question in the book of Acts: What must I do to be saved? He was spared from death in the quake, spared from suicide by the discovery that the prisoners had not fled, and now wanted to be spared from God’s future judgment.

Today’s verses can be found in Acts 15:39 - 16:40.

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, February 2, 2025

Only the Lost Get Found

Today, Pastor Michael is discussing salvation and our situation in the present age.  Along those lines, Pastor Michael reminds us of three things, all hugely important:

1. Everyone needs to be saved.
2. You cannot save yourself.
3. God sent a savior in Jesus.

In today’s lesson, Michael will drill down on the first item: everyone needs to be saved.  We pick up the story back in Jesus’ time, with communities springing up along the Mediterranean of followers of Jesus.  There were also missionaries, and likely, the most famous of them was Paul.  Paul was on his way to Damascus, and at that time, he wasn’t on the side of Jesus, but after a chance encounter with Jesus, he became a strong believer and missionary.

Paul and Silas, to continue the story, were on their way to Phillipi, a Greek territory.  They found people hungry for Jesus and the message.  But they encountered a lady, displayed as a sideshow.  Paul and Silas prayed for this lady and an evil spirit in her departed.  The two men who ran the lady’s sideshow were unhappy that their show had been effectively canceled and started a riot!  Yep, weird indeed!

Paul and Silas were apparently complicit in all of this, and they were beaten and thrown into prison.  Paul and Silas were in prison, praying, and the prisoners overhead them.  When the story couldn’t get any crazier, along comes an earthquake.  Yep, you read that correctly: an earthquake!

This earthquake effectively freed all the prisoners, forcing all the doors to open and freaking out the prison warden.  It freaked him out because, in Rome, the guards would have to serve the sentence of any escaping prisoner.  Paul called out to him to not worry and the warden fell down, exclaiming, “What must I do to be saved?”

To be saved, you must be saved from SOMETHING.

What must you be saved from?  The consequences of our actions. In other words, the consequences of sin.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.  The story of salvation is not about you or what you have done: it is about what Jesus has done!

(CSB Bible Notes) 16:29-30 The jailer fell down trembling because he realized the earthquake was supernatural. This prompted him to ask the most important question in the book of Acts: What must I do to be saved? He was spared from death in the quake, spared from suicide by the discovery that the prisoners had not fled, and now wanted to be spared from God’s future judgment.

Today’s verses can be found in Acts 16: 22-34.

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.

 

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, January 26, 2025

A Wonderful Message on Bible Study.

Today, Pastor Michael is turning over the reigns to David Boudreaux, one of our church elders.  Today, David wants us to read God’s Word and spend as much time in His Word as we can.

The Word of God is the Law of God, the very breath of God.  God didn’t give us just a short study on life; He gave us a detailed guide to follow in His Word, and David will be spending most of today’s message in the Old Testament, specifically in Joshua.

This wonderful teaching that David brings today is an exercise in how, as Christians, we need to be in the Word, always.  David gives many excellent tips on how to read the bible and apply it to study and your life.  This message is a proper foundation for reading the Bible, given by a seasoned pro who has spent considerable time in the Word and is a fantastic reference for new Christians as well as mature ones.

Review the verses section below; David has gone to great lengths to give us verses that apply to today’s message.

(CSB Bible Notes) 1:8 Two more references to the instruction affirm the key importance of God’s revelation. Study and learning of it are to form so much a part of one’s life that the words are fully obeyed as in Dt 6:6-9. The stylistic frame of God’s promised presence in Jos 1:5,9 indicates that Joshua’s success will come because God is with him, enabling him to read and observe God’s Word (Eph 2:8-10).

Today’s verses can be found in John 1: 1-2, Psalms 1: 1-2, Joshua 1: 7-8, Deuteronomy 17, Romans 3: 23, John 6: 44, Ezra 7: 9-10, Hebrews 10: 24-25, 2 Timothy 2: 15, 2 Timothy 3: 16-17, Matthew 28: 20, Proverbs 27: 17, Joshua 3:15, Joshua 23:6, Joshua 24: 15, Revelations 3: 20, Joshua 1: 8, and Jeremiah 33: 3.

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, January 19, 2025

Not This Year!

Today, Pastor Michael is comparing our physical and spiritual health, which is very timely given how many are trying to start the New Year on a new foot.

Some ways we can encourage spiritual health are:

1. Start every day with prayer.
2. Engage with the word of God every day.

You can add other items, such as writing down things you are grateful for, scripture memorization, serving people while avoiding recognition, and more.

Let’s start with spiritual junk food.  Spiritual junk food is the empty distractions and missed beliefs that starve our souls.  Anything that fills your hours without filling your soul is an easy way to remember what we shouldn’t be doing! 

Today, our lesson finds us in Ephesus; Paul is speaking to the Ephesians about striving to become what they should / could be as followers of Christ.  And he’s preaching precisely what we just said: if you’ve been set free in Jesus, don’t go back to the spiritual junk food!

What would that be today (spiritual junk food)?  Entertainment and media! They are far more addictive than we think, and we could go down so many rabbit holes here.  We can, however, quickly state areas that, at the start of this new year, are things we ‘should’ do:

1. This year, we will worship in a way that is not just emotion.
2. This year, we will trust that God loves us, even when we’re having a bad day.
3. This year, we will know we are blessed, even when our bank account doesn’t know it.
4. This year, we will move beyond the idea that righteousness is all about rule-following.
5. This year, we will refuse to confuse tradition with truth.
6. This year, we will choose spiritual intimacy over religious busyness.
7. This year, let’s move beyond social media spirituality.
8. This year, let’s move beyond spirituality. That’s all talk.  If you say that you’re saved, live like it.
9. This is your year to live differently!
10. This year, let’s let go of shallow beliefs.

Three actions steps this year:

1. Examine your diet (media).  Is it feeding your soul?
2. Replace the junk with truth.
3. Focus on forever.

(CSB Bible Notes) 4:17-19 This section of the letter provides the practical outworking of v. 1. Paul’s exhortations denounced the readers’ former way of life. The content of the exhortation parallels early Christian baptismal practices of putting off old clothes before putting on new clothes to enter the baptismal water.

Today’s verses can be found in Ephesians 4: 17-18.

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, January 12, 2025

If Jesus Said It, We Can Trust It.

Today, Pastor Michael is giving us a lesson remotely, as the snow and ice forced us not to hold a service at the church. 

Today’s lesson is about faith.  Jesus expressed sorrow that His followers didn’t have great faith.  But Jesus did have a believer who trusted Him in His word. Here, Jesus had just finished a powerful message, returning to Capernaum.  A delegation of Jewish elders came out to meet Jesus, asking Him to help a Roman Centurion.   This Centurion had a servant who was sick.  The Centurion had heard about Jesus and his miracles, so he asked the Jewish elders to ask Jesus for help.  Jesus agreed to see the Centurion’s servant, and when He got there, another group of folks came out to meet Him.

The Centurion knew Jesus only had to say the word, and his servant would be healed.  This Centurion did not even feel worthy of Jesus coming to him, but he knew Jesus had the authority to heal.  He knew the authority Jesus had and recognized Jesus as the Messiah.  This Centurion even had more faith than many followers of Jesus did at the time! 

Jesus marveled at the Centurion, telling the crowd He had not seen such great faith, even in Israel.  And the servant was healed! 

The Centurion saw the truth in Jesus that even Jesus’s followers did not see. 

“If Jesus said it, we can trust it” is our central theme today. 

Full Authority In Those Hands = FAITH.

(CSB Bible Notes) 7:2-3 A centurion was a commander of a hundred men in the Roman army. This centurion was apparently a compassionate man, deeply concerned about the illness of his servant. He reached out to Jesus through some local Jewish elders (either recognized leaders in the community or respected older men). In the parallel passage in Mt 8:5-10, the centurion approached Jesus directly.

Today’s verses can be found in Luke 7: 1-10.

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.