ReCreate Church’s Podcast

Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, Sunday, April 21, 2024

Don’t Be Afraid of Tomatoes!

Today, Pastor Michael discusses the importance of not fearing as a believer. He draws a parallel from history, when people in the past, many centuries ago, were afraid of tomatoes because they were called ‘poison apples.’ They believed tomatoes were lethal, but in reality, the acid in tomatoes was reacting with lead from pewter plates used in those days. Just as a prepared soul has no fear of the end, we, too, should not fear the unknown. Remember, this message is not just about tomatoes; it’s about our faith and how we face the unknown.

 It’s Wednesday evening, and the apostles are leaving the temple, having spent three days there. They are commenting on how impressive the buildings were there.  By this time, the sun is going down in the west, silhouetting the temple and making quite the impression.  Jesus told the apostles that not a stone would be left of these buildings, and this made the apostles question the reasoning of that statement, asking Him privately when that would happen. They mistakenly equated the end of the buildings with the end of the world. 

Jesus replied, in His longest teaching on the end times, describing events and conditions that are the beginnings of sorrows.  The early indicator that something major is coming.  

Getting back to our theme, don’t be afraid; the problem is not the end times, the problem is the fear in us.  If you are a follower of Jesus, you do NOT have to be afraid!

(CSB Notes) Jesus prophesied (announced, not merely predicted) the destruction of the great buildings. Symbolically in the withering of the fig tree (11:12-14,20-21) Jesus had already prophesied their end. Some question the accuracy of not one stone will be left upon another because some stones remain today in the Western Wall, but this was not part of the temple itself but the foundation that supported the platform on which the temple stood.

Verses can be found in Mark 13: 1 - 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, Sunday, April 14, 2024

You Can’t Outgive God.

Today, Pastor Michael is expanding upon where Jesus cleaned the temple out of all the folks doing business inside, instead of worshipping.  He runs them out and comes back on Tuesday and the religious leaders come out to meet Him, wanting to know what on earth He was doing back at the temple.  The next day, Wednesday, they try tripping Him up again.  So now, we’re at the point where Jesus is betrayed and arrested.

Jesus knows this.  All of it.

So He just sits down on one of the low benches, around the Temple.  There were a bunch of offering boxes around and He saw many people coming and going.  He watched quietly until one special woman, a widow, approached the boxes.  She reaches out and deposits two tiny little coins, and Jesus turns to His disciples and says, “She is giving more than anyone else.”

His disciples marveled at that assessment, wondering where it came from.  Jesus taught them that she gave all she had; others simply give out of a surplus. 

The core idea of this message is: You Can’t Outgive God!

(CSB Bible Notes): Stewardship is measured by the sacrifice we make, not by the amount we give. The widow’s willingness to give all she had represented better stewardship than the large gift of the rich who retained abundant resources. The amount left after the gift is a more significant figure than the amount of the gift. Christian stewardship involves sacrificial giving that counts the need rather than the availability of resources for personal use.

Verses can be found in Mark 12: 41-44.

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, April 7, 2024

Toxic Leadership.

Today, Pastor Michael talks about something we universally seem to run into: Toxic Leadership. 

Everyone seems to have a story or know someone affected by Toxic Leadership. But it hits closer to home than we think. The biggest group of people who should answer to their role in leadership are YOU and I. While we may not have the “title” of “Leader,” leadership is really and truly about power and influence. 

Today’s core theme, knowing that, is: Truly leadership seeks to serve, not to be served.

In today’s lesson, we’re with Jesus about 48 hours before he will be crucified.  He is talking to His disciples about toxic leadership; those leaders (the ‘scribes’ in those days) were more concerned about being served than serving others.  Their love of recognition is what Jesus is calling them out for.

All pride is ugly, but spiritual pride is extra ugly.

So what can you do?  Lead.  But be a leader like Jesus, all about serving OTHERS. 

Verses can be found in Mark 12: 38-40.

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, Sunday, March 31, 2024

The Offense of the Cross.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about Easter, the biggest day in Christianity!  And bluegrass music in Peru, but that’s another story.

The cross is a symbol found everywhere. The cross of Christ is everywhere but misunderstood, and Michael wants us to see it in a new way. A writer, the Apostle Paul, said the cross was offensive.  He was writing to a group near Galatia, and they were treating  Christianity as ‘just another religion.’

If a person feels good works can you into heaven, a cross is an offense. 

The cross is not a symbol of self-will but of a willingness to give up self.  The cross is also offensive to human pride.  The cross is offensive to human reason.

The offense of the cross paid the cost!

Verses can be found in Galatians 5: 11, Philippians 2: 8, and Colossians 2: 13-14. 

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, March 24, 2024

Refuge at The Lord’s Table.

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about so many things: regrets, sins, finances (or lack of them!), relationships, and how the world can turn all of that into a rough place.  We need a refuge, a shelter from all of that.  We need a place to go when we are hurting, stressed and confused.  Is there a refuge like that?

Yes, God has made that place and welcomes you into it. 

The core idea today is this: “Chaos in my situation, contentment in my soul.”

(CSB Bible Notes) 23:5 The image shifts from shepherd to friend. The identification of the Lord with a shepherd emphasizes his care and protection, but he is much more than that for a person who is in close fellowship with him. While protection from enemies is still implied, it is intensified with the image of a banquet (table) that is served while the enemies look on. In Jewish society oil was a symbol for rejoicing (104:15) and was also used in the welcoming of guests.

Verses can be found in Psalm 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, Sunday, March 17, 2024

The Chosen One.

Today, Pastor Michael will tell us a story about a “Chosen One.” We seem to love stories about somebody special who shows up to save the day!

The idea of the Chosen One has been around so long that it’s almost become a cliche, but there are historical roots.  God gave us paradise, and we messed it up by violating His one and only rule.  But God sent His Chosen One to fix what is broken in US.  The brokenness, bitterness, jealousy, anger, pride, and all the secrets that tear apart relationships take your peace and separate you from God.

The point is that when we try to fix ourselves, we might get some things fixed for a while, but then something else gets broken. So, we do need a hero; we need a Chosen One.

Good news: God sent one!

The Chosen One has chosen YOU.  Will you choose HIM?

(CSB Bible Notes) The scribes identified Messiah as David’s son (vv. 35-36), but David identified Messiah as his Lord. Therefore, Messiah was not just a descendant of David. He was David’s Lord.

Verses can be found in Mark 12: 35 - 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, March 10, 2024

The REsource and THE Source.

Today, Pastor Michael is kicking off on “Scarcity Mentality”, a mindset that forces one to focus on only the lack of resources. 

The heart of the message is, “Use the resource, trust the source.”  The source, Jesus, will never run out!

Jesus is on His last trip to Jerusalem, coming from Galilee, knowing He will be crucified, rise from the grave, and defeat death and the devil. He is coming down from Samaria with ten men, lepers, who are calling out for mercy. These men had a true scarcity mentality, as lepers of those days had almost no resources available and were shunned by society.

Jesus told the men to go and show themselves to the priests, and they were healed.  One, a Samaritan, came back to Jesus and gave thanks.  Jesus asked, “Were not ten cleansed?” as ten were who cried out and Jesus told the ten to go to the priests.  Yet, only one, a Samaritan, a foreigner, came to give thanks for the healing. 

Jesus told the man that his faith had made him well.  The other nine used the resource but did not trust the source…the Samaritan trusted THE source: Jesus.

(CSB Bible Notes) It is striking that the only one of the ten men who had healed and returned and thanked Jesus was a Samaritan . . . a foreigner. This is in keeping with Luke’s theme of the universal outreach of the gospel. Jesus’s statement your faith has saved you implies that the Samaritan was healed physically and spiritually.

Verses can be found in Luke 17: 11-17.

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, Sunday, March 3, 2024

The Greatest Commandment

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about why we obey God.  Why God sets boundaries and how sin destroys.  And why our core statement today is, “Love God, Love People”. 

We’re in Jesus’ story in the last week of His life.  Plans are afoot to capture Him and kill Him.  He is less than 48 hours from being crucified.  A group of Pharisees had gotten together and were comparing notes on their plan to entrap Jesus, but it failed misably ot this point. One of them, at this point, a scribe asks, “Which command is the most important of all?”.  

Jesus answers, “The most important is Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

God’s expectations for us can be summarized in one word:  Love. 

Michael’s Sermon Notes:

1. How do you love God with all your heart, mind, and soul?  KNOW HIM!  Read the bible, pray, study.  Seek Him out in any way you can.  Spend time trying to learn all you can about Him. 
2. Desire God  It means you want to know more about Him; you want to live in His way. 
3. Center on God.  Put Him first.  Make Him the primary fuel of your life. 
4. Worship God.  Singing (but making your whole life a song to God.)
5. Embrace God’s word.  Read the bible and let the bible read you. 
6. Obey God.  

What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself?

1. Refuse a self-centered life.
2. Give people the consideration you would want. 
3. Find peace with yourself. 
4. Share the Good News.  Help others connect with Jesus. 

(CSB Bible Notes) The scribe asked Jesus for one commandment, but Jesus gave him two. Love for neighbors is rooted in love for God, the first commandment. No one before Jesus had combined these commandments, but it became standard for his followers.

Verses can be found in Mark 12: 28-34. 

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, Sunday, February 25, 2024

God’s Logic

Today, Pastor Michael is turning the reigns over to the ever-popular Billy Huneycutt.  Billy starts off talking about worldly and appliance logic, rolling into religious logic.  The latter isn’t always right, so Billy is expounding upon “God’s Logic.”

Billy will be using the Samaritan woman as an example in his story.  Also ever present are the Pharisees, who have gotten wind that Jesus and His disciples are getting more popular with the locals.  So Jesus had to go through Samaria, a place that devout Jews tried to avoid.  Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink, which astonished the woman. She was trying to figure out why Jesus, a Jew, would ask for water, and Jesus explained to her that the water He could give would result in eternal life.  She then tried to apply her human logic and was mentioning that the well was deep and they had no bucket.  So Jesus told her to go and get her husband, and she replied that she did not have one.  Which Jesus told her she had previously had five husbands, and she was now recognizing Jesus as a serious prophet.

Jesus, at this point, lets the woman know that He is the Messiah, and she tells the town that He is the Messiah.  His disciples wanted to play this down a bit, as it was getting too much!  But this did result in many receiving His message, a large harvest, due to the Samaritan woman finally understanding “God’s Logic.”

(CSB Bible Notes) As others had done (1:40-41,45), the woman brought people to Jesus so they could see for themselves. Ultimately, it was on the basis of a personal encounter with Jesus that they believed. His large harvest among the Samaritans marked the first sign of the universal scope of his saving mission (10:16).

Verses can be found in John 4: 1-41.

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, February 18, 2024

Truth Demands Transformation.

Today, Pastor Michael is covering the last of Jesus’ earthly ministry, engaged in a topic entitled “Truth Demands Transformation,” meaning if you are receiving the word of God and it doesn’t prompt you to become someone different, someone closer to God, you are missing a huge part of the banquet laid out before you.

Here, the Sadducees were the rivals of the Pharisees and came from wealthy, powerful political backgrounds.  Even though far fewer than the Pharisees, they wielded more power.  They believed in only the first five books of the Bible and didn’t believe in anything supernatural, no heaven, no hell, no resurrection.  If spiritual truth were a banquet, these guys were picking at the rolls in the baskets!

The question they asked of Jesus was about a man dying and his brother remarrying his wife.  And it wasn’t as simple as one of them remarrying, but many brothers remarried her, and none left offspring.  So, in the Resurrection, the Sadducees asked, “Whose wife was she?”. 

Jesus tells them, “Are you not therefore mistaken because you do not know the scriptures nor the power of God? “   He is calling these men out for not believing in spiritual things, for they accepted spiritual things that made them feel good, but they believed in God on their terms.

Jesus affirms two truths here, neither of which the Sadducees believe in: the existence of life after death and the reality of a bodily resurrection.

And this makes us realize that truth demands transformation, something the Sadducees never embraced.   

(CSB Notes) The Sadducees approached Jesus with a situation based on the books of Moses. Specifically, the case involved the levirate (or brother-in-law) marriage law (Dt 25:5-6). This law obligated a male sibling to marry his deceased brother’s widow in order to preserve the family name and inheritance. Based on this, the Sadducees presented a scenario designed to make the doctrine of resurrection look absurd. Their question assumed that the future life will be like the temporal life, Jesus declared that the afterlife will be different from life on earth. In heaven, people will not marry or be given in marriage. By going to the book of Moses, specifically Ex 3 and the passage about the burning bush, Jesus used the part of the OT that the Sadducees recognized as Scripture. The point of the OT quotation is that Abraham . . . Isaac, and Jacob were long dead by the time God spoke to Moses, but God declared he was their God. Since God is not the God of the dead but of the living, they must still be alive.

Verses can be found in Mark 12: 18-27.

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.