Category Archives: Payette River Vineyard

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons, Theology Thoughts

The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 3 of 7)

moses-parting-the-red-sea-rosencruz-sumeraHallowed be your name…

What is in a name…for God, it is everything.  It is who He IS.

In Exodus 3 we find Moses standing before the Lord at the burning bush. God just told him that He is going to send him back to Egypt to deliver the people of Israel. Moses asks:

Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”   God said to Moses, “I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ “

God was to be known by His Name.

After the people cross the Red Sea, Moses sings (Exodus 15) Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 3 of 7) →

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons, Theology Thoughts

The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 2 of 7)

Yesterday we talked about the nature of the Lord’s Prayer; how it is a battle cry, not a ‘cute’ prayer to say lightly. Today we start the process of diving deeper into the each of the phrases.

To begin with, let us read the prayer as listed in Matthew 6:9-13 (note that it is also listed in Luke 11:2-4).

Our Father in heaven
hallowed be Your Name,
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one

Our Father in heaven….

We speak not to our earthly father – but to the One who made all things. Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 2 of 7) →

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons, Theology Thoughts

The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 1 of 7)

Battle-for-Helms-Deep-lord-of-the-rings-4338897-395-267Walk into any Christian bookstore and you will find tons of nicknacks graced with the words of the Lord Prayer: prayer clothes, posters, ships, pens, table clothes, pictures, etc.

It is said before football games; in prayer meetings around the world…yet for the most part we don’t realize what we are saying.  We think it is simply a ‘cute’ prayer – or at the most, a prayer given to us by our Savior.

Yet, it is not a ‘cute’ prayer or simply a prayer model to be followed. It is a battle cry!

An anthem raised up in the middle of darkness for all to see. The picture I see when I think of the Lord’s prayer is the men of Braveheart yelling before the huge army of Britain. Or better yet, it is the cry of Argon and the men of Rodan as the ride from Helm’s Deep into the massive army of Orcs. Continue reading The Lord’s Prayer: A Battle Cry (Part 1 of 7) →

Payette River Vineyard, Vineyard Movement

Come Together And Worship….

No tomatoes or rotten veggies.  Actually, worship Sunday wasn’t that bad…it was just a tad out of my confront zone.. Undecided

As mentioned previously, our piano player (and main musician) was gone this Sunday so I had to lead worship on my 6-string guitar. While I can play, I’m not a “great” guitarist – preferring to play to small groups or my living room…

Yet it turned out alright. I only made a few mistakes which I doubt anyone noticed (well, I hope they didn’t notice!!!). God still showed up – praise the Lord that He doesn’t depend on our skill! Tongue out

Speaking of worship – we went to a Sunday evening worship service in the small town next towards our community.

The Horseshoe Bend Assembly of God church invited the Meridian Vineyard Christian Fellowship’s worship band to come and hold a concert in the city park. They then invited all the churches in the area to free chili and hotdogs. Laughing

The result was amazing!! We had the Assembly of God crowd, the Grace Lutheran folks, and the people from the Payette River Vineyard as well as a bunch of worshipers from the Meridian Vineyard. Talk about the larger Body of Christ coming together to Praise the Lord!!

I also had the opportunity to talk to the pastors of the AG and Lutheran churches in Horseshoe Bend. We were able to establish a connection that I pray will continue over the years as we all work to serve the Lord in the area.

General, Payette River Vineyard, Vineyard Movement

Godly Conflict

I have been part of a men’s bible study for the past few years. This is exceptional in that I have wanted to quit going many, many times over the years.

You see, this group is unlike any other bible study I’ve ever been a part of – or heard about. Instead of listening to a particular person or working through a study book – we just read a portion of scripture and discuss it. That’s it. No lights or special media feature.

Yet, it is enough.

Within this group of ten to twelve men, there is friendly atmosphere of Godly conflict. Yelp. Godly conflict – as in iron sharpening iron.

It is a “conflict” that drives each man to study the word of God and bring his “A-Game” to the study. You can not just show up and repeat what you have heard on the radio or TV. You WILL be challenged – and it is in this challenging of ideas and interpretations that the “iron” of our lives are sharpened. [@more@]

At the same time, this Godly conflict can lead to hurt feelings and disappointments. Hurt feelings in that sometime it feels that one’s views are dismissed for reasons other then Biblical truth; Disappointments when the group fail to see the eye-opening nugget God has shown you….

Yet, the Lord has never given me permission to leave. So I keep showing up….That is when something funny happened: I started enjoying the conflict.

I started seeing the benefit of the conflict in that it stretched me beyond anything I could have imagined. I HAD to learn. I HAD to push into God and His Word. I COULD NOT simply rely on information or knowledge gained through college or VLI.

It’s funny really… I am currently leading a couples small group that is really quiet and, for the most part, uneventful. And what do I want? I want some conflict!! I want someone to have a different view or thought so that we can discuss it and learn from each other rather then a “talking head”.

So what is the lesson?

The lesson is that conflict can be a God sent event. Keep showing up and know that at the end of the discussion everyone is going to laugh, eat some desert and love each other all the more because we follow a HUGE God.

Payette River Vineyard, Theology Thoughts, Vineyard Movement

Revelations – Come Again?

The weekly men’s group that I’m a part of has recently decided to study the book of Revelations…

This is very interesting as about half the group have only been following Jesus for about two years. Yet, they are willing and ready to tackle one of the “hardest” books of the Bible.

I say “hardest” as, well… let’s face it; Revelations isn’t the easiest book to understand. It is similar to Ezekiel in its visions – yet, it also has a bit of Daniel and the letters of John.

In a nutshell: no one really knows what John was writing about.

Sure, folks have ideas and thoughts – which makes it all the more confusing. Especially when those “folks” get so set in their ways that they run over or condemn all who don’t agree with them.

Sigh… as you can see, I’m not too excited about the prospect of studying this book. Undecided[@more@]

Of course, on the flip side – we have a really good group of men. If I was to study the book (which, just so you know, I have studied the book off and on through out the years in different academic settings), this would be the place to do so.

The group is set up where we read a chapter or a portion of a chapter out loud and then discuss it. Everyone is free to ask questions, comment about or general say whatever comes to mind. There are no wrong answers as we all are on the journey to know our Lord more and more.

It seems that the Lord is drawing the church into this study as the ladies have recently decided to do a similar study. Only they will be using some videos in addition to the Biblical text.

We shall see that the Lord is doing.

In the mean time, I better get to studying as there are some sharp guys in the group who know more then I do!! Cool

Payette River Vineyard

Ardell Family Band

This morning was début of the "Ardell Family Band".

Mainly, both the keyboardist and lead guitarist were gone this week – so Em and I had to pony up and lead worship.  Cool

It was pretty cool acutally as I have been practicing on my 6-string at lot recently as I have been leading worship for our couples Bible study. I also recently picked up a thumb pick – which made a WORLD of differences in my playing!!  Between those two things and the fact that I have been playing the bass most Sundays made today fairly painless.

The wonderful thing was that Em and I both have the same style of worship so it was really easy to flow with the Spirit. Shoot, I found myself so caught up with worshiping I forgot about the church and the music!! It was powerful.

Granted, I still have some work to do before I'm "really" good as there was a few times when I got off beat…but that is part of learning.  Tongue out

Payette River Vineyard, Sermons, Vineyard Movement

Warning, Will Robinson, The Site Is Down and Ardell Preached

Some of you may have noticed that bluecastle.us was down for a few days – if you didn’t notices, well… the site was down for a few days.

It is now back up and running as you are currently reading this note on website. Brilliant, I say, simply brilliant.  

I had the pleasure and honor of preaching Sunday morning as our pastor and his wife went camping for the Memorial Day weekend. It’s pretty cool that our pastor has the freedom to do that – shoot, ALL pastors should have that freedom as one’s marriage is very, very, very important!!!

The sermon – ah, to have my notes in front of me… or the ability to upload a huge mp3 file (and when I mean huge – I mean 56mb HUGE!)

“The Holy Spirit Is Our Helper”

Jesus tells his followers that he is sending a Helper to be with them after he is gone four times between the Last Supper and the Garden (John 14-16). My question is what does the Helper or Spirit help us with?

The short answer is: everything.[@more@]

However, since that would make a very short sermon, I flushed things out a bit more. =)  Here are some bullet items that I talked about:

  • The Spirit will guide us into all truth and tells us the things of God. I.e. The Spirit talks to us directly about things going on right now as well as helps us understand the Bible. (John 14-16)
  • Going to Exodus, we sell the Spirit coming upon carpenters, weavers, jewelers, and other craftsmen to help them build the Tabernacle. In the same way I believe the Spirit helps us in our jobs today – as long was we make the deliberate choice to focus on God and what He is doing at your job. It’s not about getting rich or being promoted – it is about the Lord On High.
  • In 1 Samuel 10, Samuel tells Saul that the Spirit of God will come upon him and that he “will be changed into a different person”. His “nature” would change – so it is with us. Everything MUST change. The way we look at this world, the things that we do – everything must change.
  • God is not an American. He is here in America – but he is also in Iraq, Russia, Chile, Africa and everywhere else. We need to be thankful for the freedoms that our love ones have fought for on behalf of this country. However, we need not waste them by building bigger houses and gathering more things – we need to change the way we use our freedoms. If we have bowed our knees to Christ, we need to be focused on Him and what He is doing in the world.
  • What is God doing in the world? Isaiah 61 and Matthew 10

Isaiah

  • God is here to heal the broken heart (emotionally, spiritually, physically)
  • Free the captives – captives are not law breakers, they are prisoners of war. We, the church, need to go out and find them and release them from the bonds of the evil one.

Matthew

  • Jesus told the disciples to go and “preach this message, 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' 8 Heal those who are sick. Bring those who are dead back to life. Make those who have skin diseases 'clean' again. Drive out demons. You have received freely, so give freely.”
  • That is the same commission we have been given. Let us do it.

Hmm…this reads a little rough…oh well… it was better in person. Undecided

Payette River Vineyard

Rockin’ Couples Bible Study

A new couple came to our couples Bible Study last night at the personal invitation of one of the members. While this may sound like a seemingly non-earth shattering event, in reality it was HUGE!

Why?

Because it means that the folks in the study are capturing the vision, heart and importance of meeting together in community outside of Sunday morning.

If people are inviting others to join the group, it means that they are enjoying and growing in the group. To me, as a leader and pastor, this is AWSOME!!!!! 

All glory and praise be to the One Who Rules Heaven and Earth!!!

You want to know something else cool? The heart of worship is spreading!!!

We introduced worship into the small group last week – previously we just watched a short clip from the Fireproof movie – not quite sure how the group would receive it. The feedback we got last night after the group was great.

Not only are they enjoying the material, they are enjoying the worship time before hand as well. Aslan is on the move – get ready, He isn’t tame!!

Payette River Vineyard, Vineyard Movement

Vineyard National Conference Audio Files

There where some power hitting sermons at the national conference last week. Shoot – I’m still processing a few of them!

The good news is that they are now online! Laughing

Session 1: Bert Waggoner

This was a great session outlining the future of the Vineyard Movement, the challenges faced and the opportunities ahead.

Session 2: Cherith Fee-Nordling

Wow! Cherith preached one of the best and hardest sermons I have ever heard. She called us to “die” so that Christ can “resurrect” us into a new life. If you only have time to listen to one session, listen to this one![@more@]

Session 3: Don Williams

A powerful look at the empowerment of the Holy Spirit – no matter what we do as believers, we need God’s Spirit to guide us and empower us. You may remember that yesterday's post was about this session and the ministry time that followed. Smile

Session 4: Jay Pathak

Jay did a wonderful job at calling the church to be the church instead of building up walls and trying to protect itself from “evil”. I loved his comment about if you want to reach people, go where they are (ie. the bars, clubs, parks, streets, etc) instead of waiting for them to come to you (ie. the church building).

Session 5: Wess Stafford

This session was a close second to Cherith Fee-Nordling’s session – but in a different way. Wess is the president/ceo of Compassion International and boy did his heart for the young and forgotten ring out across that hall. I have never seen a man so passionate about reaching children in my life! This session would be the second session I would listen too if I had to pick.

Session 6: Rich Nathan

Hmm…I have to admit that I did not attend this session as we had to catch a plate back home. Undecided I will listen to it though as I have been enjoying reading Rich’s book “Who Is My Enemy? Welcoming People The Church Rejects”.