There is a new song that we have done the past two weeks that I wanted to just post the lyrics for and also speak to if I could.

The song is called “Your Voice Rings Redemption” and it is definitely one of the more personal songs that I’ve written recently that I feel like is coming from where I am and then also where I think we, as a body, find ourselves.

Read through the lyrics real quick first. It does no good to reference something that you haven’t read. ha!

In the quiet place

Where our secrets lay

Your voice is calling out

In our waining faith

Where our sins build blame

Your voice is calling out

My broken will just can’t lift a finger

My broken heart is out of tune

Your voice rings redemption

And You sing over me, You sing over me

(repeat)

In the quiet place

Where I can’t keep pace

Your voice is calling out

In our everyday

When life seems mundane

Your voice is calling out, calling out

My broken will just can’t lift a finger

My broken heart is out of tune

Your voice rings redemption

And You sing over me, You sing over me

(repeat)

Plant my feet on solid ground

And I won’t fall, I won’t fall

Go before me and behind me

I’ll heed Your call, I’m not alone

I’m not alone

____________________________________

Things are different now than they were even a few years ago with how we all live socially. It used to be that “well-known” people were the only ones whose lives were on display for seemingly the whole world to see but now with social media it seems like everyone’s life is out there always. But I’m no fool to think that everyone is putting their real life out there for the world to see. If I’m being honest I wish some people would share a little less of their real life sometimes (and yes sometimes that’s me too)
But we are very exacting about what we share not only online but within our own relationships and friendships. Why? because we want to control perception and make sure that we are painting ourselves in a good light, smoothing out our skin and hiding our warts. That’s fine but that’s not real life, and this mentality can spill into our relationships with God where we think that God can only see the doors that we open to him, but we truly know better that God can see much farther than even we can about ourselves. He can see “the quiet place, where our secrets lay” he can see the place where “our sins build blame” heaping up storehouses of guilt. He can see into that place where “we can’t keep pace” and “when life seems mundane” and he’s calling out in those places. The beautiful thing is that he’s not calling out judgement and wrath but instead His voice rings redemption. He sings over us calling us to unfold those hidden layers before him so that he can, as the bridge of the songs says, “Plant my feet on solid ground and I won’t fall, go before me and behind me, I’m not alone.”
God is calling his children to depth and honesty and we are those children. We at Sagemont Church must move into this next step at the church with open arms and empty closets to the will of God. It’s an honor to lead the church in saying this together, and I wanted you to be able to know, past the words, what we are really saying.

It’s an honor to lead you guys in worship.

peace

aric

• What caused the 66 books that we have to become scripture?
• How do we know the Bible consists of no more or no less that 66 books?
• Why the Bible? Why only this Bible?

To answer that we have to look at the process of how God brought the Bible together.  That is called canonization.  There are ways to recognize the canonical books of the Bible.  Here are some of the key criteria:

Old Testament

1. Was the human author recognized as a spokesman of God?
2. Is the book historically accurate?
3. Is there New Testament evidence for the canonicity of the book?

New Testament

1. Apostolic Association: Was the book written by an Apostle, or an immediate associate of an apostle?
2. Apostolic Doctrine: Is the content of the book consistent with the teaching of the other books / teaching of the other Apostles?
3. Has the book been acknowledged by the Lord or one of His apostles?
4. Is the book morally edifying, and is there widespread acceptance in the church?

God has given us everything in Genesis to Revelation.   In Genesis, eternity past: in the beginning God created. God took formless barrenness and made what we enjoy.  In each of the books is our present, showing us how we live our lives for God.  In Revelation, God gave us eternity future.  All we have to do is follow His Word.  Amen.

Just in case you have made it this far, this isn’t about telling the truth. It’s all about the easiest word to say and what that word really means. It’s the easiest word to say, because it generally makes people feel better. It makes them think that their needs are important, that their thoughts are valuable.

So what is that all important word? The word is “yes”.

There’s nothing like asking a friend for a favor and hearing “yes”. It really makes you realize how important you are and how kind the other person is for hearing you and answering the call.

When you say “yes” to a friend or at work, you can really feel you are meeting a need, helping move things forward, contributing to a greater good.

All those are great things.

So where is the problem? Although it’s the easiest word to say, it’s the hardest to keep. Because saying yes makes us feel so good, it can often get us in trouble. Have you ever said yes and later figured out there was no way you could follow through and keep your word? Have you ever said yes and realized you really had no intention of doing what you said?

This is nothing new. The problem of making this little word count has been around a long time. Jesus even addressed it. In Matthew 5:37 Jesus said “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.” It couldn’t be clearer than that. As followers of Christ, our word should be absolute, not in just telling the truth, but in keeping our Yes’s and No’s.

When our word really counts, we never have to say “I mean it this time”, or “No really”. So next time you have the opportunity to say yes to someone, think carefully about the weight of that single, most important word.

Make your word count.

Blessings

God eternally exists as three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is only one God.

The Father is God:

-       John 6:27

-       I Corinthians 8:6

-       Galatians 1:3

-       Ephesians 1:2

-       Philippians 1:2

-       Colossians 1:2

-       I Timothy 1:2

-       II Timothy 1:2

-       Titus 1:4

-       Philemon 3

-       Jude 2

The Son, Jesus, is God:

-       John 1:1-4

-       John 20:28

-       Romans 9:5

-       1 John 5:20

-       Colossians 1:13,15

-       Titus 2:13

-       Titus 3:4

The Holy Spirit is God

-       Acts 5:3-4

-       II Corinthians 3:17-18

-       Psalm 139:7-8

-       John 3:5-7

-       I Corinthians 2:10-11

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all Distinct:

-       John 14:26

The Trinity in the Old Testament:

-       Genesis 1:1-2; 1:26; 3:22; 11:7

-       Isaiah 48:6; 61:1

Trinity in The New Testament:

-       Matthew 28:19

-       Luke 3:21-22

-       1 Peter 1:2

-       John 14:26

-       II Cor. 13:14

-       Ephesians 1:3-14

-       Ephesians 4:4-6

-       Jude 20-21

We hope these scriptures have been helpful to you and if you have any questions feel free to email us (under Team Awaken or send us a message on Facebook.)

Team Awaken

Ok, so I could be more eloquent, but to me, at this time in my life, time really is the enemy. Let me explain.

This year has been a really rough year. For those of you who know me, you know what has happened in my family so I won’t need to go in to it. For those of you who don’t know me, we lost someone very dear to brain cancer.

So on to the thoughts at hand. As I look back on my life (it takes a while these days), I recall so many times I wish I had called someone, taken the time to go see someone, sent that note or letter… you get the idea. Sometimes we only get one shot at doing the right thing, sometimes we get several chances, but the truth is always the same… when it’s over, it’s over.

One of my favorite sayings is “the most significant times in our lives are often recognized only after they are over.” Think about people in your past that had a profound impact on your life. Did you realize it then, or did it dawn on you years later? If you realized it when it was happening, you are indeed blessed.

I’m not going to rant (like an old man) on the kids these days and there new fangled cellular telephone machines (I’m an Android guy myself), but there is a significant lesson to be learned. I see people sitting together, each on their own phone texting (not really a verb) someone else, facebooking (see texting) about something, all the while mostly ignoring whomever they are with. My point is not that this is now the cultural norm, but rather that in doing so we are no longer living in the moment.

We have always had the tendency to miss the significant things around us. I’m afraid that as we move farther and farther away from the moment, we will miss opportunities that will never return.

My challenge is to look beyond ourselves, see the moment, realize the significance of where God has placed us and act accordingly. Tell someone you love them. Tell someone how much they have impacted your life. Write that note. Make that call.

Remember, time is the enemy

Ephesians 5:15-16 See then that you walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

You probably find yourself in the same place that I do pretty often. For Christians there is that time that we came to a “fork in the road” and we chose the narrow path less travelled that is guided by the Holy Spirit and walks under the banner of Jesus, but now along that road God is calling us to our own paths to draw us closer to him and to make a real difference in the world. We no longer are coming to forks in the road but rather to “exit opportunities”, ways that God often makes apparent to us that we can draw closer to him and have a greater impact, aka resolve. Resolve is a changing of our path to a higher road to a clearer view, and so many times we lack the resolve to exit. We get satisfied with our life and settle for our status quo.

My prayer is for myself and all of us in Awaken this year is that we truly long for greater resolve. Of course I’m just the music guy, so everything to me can get stuck in that world somehow and this is no different. In music there is something called dissonance which can be defined as inharmonious or a combination of tones that are melodically conflicting and dissonance is usually heading toward  consonance or resolve. Even if you aren’t a music person you would be able to hear this. Our brains naturally long to hear a song find its way back to its root. It feels complete, finished. We all know those places where dissonance settles in our life. We all know the exits we’ve ignored. Make your prayer to find what resolve God is sewing into you and then for the strength to exit.

Love all of you guys and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us in Awaken and at Sagemont Church this year.

For all of us this can play out in all kinds of ways, but for me it rested on me as a “get the job done” mentality. What is the job that I can do that will keep me out of trouble but not challenge me to something bigger than myself. Most of us are completely content to just work at mediocrity. It suits us because it doesn’t ruffle anyone’s feathers and it’s safe. I get the picture in my head from the movie March of the Penguins when they would all huddle in a big mob for warmth and protection, those penguins on the inside have no idea the struggle of the outside. They are simply warmed but the hundreds of penguins between them and any type of danger.

What’s the danger of “the middle” mentality?
First of all people who are living in “the middle” eventually start to have an unrealistic view of the world. They become poster children for the word “fine”. Life doesn’t really present any risks for gain or loss so they become lulled to sleep by their own lack of life.

Secondly, when the inevitable troubles of life come along people in the middle can’t handle it and haven’t built a discipline of leaning on God because they have built a life of leaning on themselves. They are the penguin in the middle of the pack wondering how on earth they could be freezing to death.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:24. Paul is saying, “hey, you aren’t always going to end up on top, but if you never get in the race you’ll NEVER end up on top.” God has called us to a life away from the middle. He’s called us to a life that looks at the cards we’ve been dealt and plays them and doesn’t fold.

What does that mean for you? As your worship pastor, here’s what it means for me at least partially:

I never lead on autopilot, relying on my “gifts” to carry me through.
I seek God desperately asking him to lead me and the band to write songs that speak the heart of God and that respond from the heart of our church
I immerse myself in the scripture daily
I love my family very obviously an honestly
I make every effort to shine a light on what God is doing in our congregation
I die to myself over and over again.

What does it look like outside of the middle for you? What do you need to do today because I was right about one thing “The middle will always be the middle”

Never did I see such consistency, and reality of devotion, such warmth of piety, such zeal and love…Invariably he arose every morning, though it was the winter season, at four o’clock; and after lighting his fire, he devoted the first four hours of the day to private prayer and the devotional study of the Scriptures…Here was the secret of his great grace and spiritual strength. Deriving instruction from such a source, and seeking it with such diligence, he was comforted in all his trials, and prepared for every duty.

Holy moly, it really hit me. The same thing is true for you, our church, and me. No prayer, no power. And WE NEED SPIRITUAL POWER. Our best and strongest efforts are but a slight breeze compared to the gale force winds of the power of God.

Think about the story of the boy with the unclean spirit in Mark 9. The boy’s father brought him to Jesus and the disciples, however the disciples were unable to heal the boy. After not being able to heal the boy, Jesus’ disciples asked, “Why could we not cast it out?” Jesus answered, “Insufficient prayer!” What did he mean? Probably not that they hadn’t prayed over the demonized boy, but that they had not lived in prayer. They had been caught in a prayer-less period of life.

Notice: Jesus cast out the demon without praying: Mark 9:25 “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again.” But Jesus had prayed. He lived in prayer. He was ready when evil came. But the disciples had become weak and negligent in their praying. And they were powerless in the face of strong evil forces. In other words, without persistent prayer we have no offense. No prayer, no power.

There is also something else I absolutely love in the conversation between Jesus and the boy’s father. Look at what Jesus tells the father and how he responds: Mark 23 “And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Did you see what the father and the boy said? “I believe, help my unbelief!” Man, I have felt that way a hundred times and I know I will probably feel that way a hundred more. We know God can, but sometimes we wonder if He will. However, Jesus did not rebuke this remark, instead the father and the boy found favor with Jesus.

I think we can all learn much from this passage. Lets be a people who function with spiritual power and ask God to allow us to be a part of the greatest year we have ever had at Sagemont. I am praying for 500 new people to meet Jesus and join us in the mission of the Gospel this next year. Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!

Isaiah 51

1 “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,
      You who seek the LORD:
      Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
      And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
       2 Look to Abraham your father,
      And to Sarah who bore you;
      For I called him alone,
      And blessed him and increased him.”
       3 For the LORD will comfort Zion,
      He will comfort all her waste places;
      He will make her wilderness like Eden,
      And her desert like the garden of the LORD;
      Joy and gladness will be found in it,
      Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
       4 “ Listen to Me, My people;
      And give ear to Me, O My nation:
      For law will proceed from Me,
      And I will make My justice rest
      As a light of the peoples.
       5 My righteousness is near,
      My salvation has gone forth,
      And My arms will judge the peoples;
      The coastlands will wait upon Me,
      And on My arm they will trust.
       6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
      And look on the earth beneath.
      For the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
      The earth will grow old like a garment,
      And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;
      But My salvation will be forever,
      And My righteousness will not be abolished.
       7 “ Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
      You people in whose heart is My law:
      Do not fear the reproach of men,
      Nor be afraid of their insults.
       8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
      And the worm will eat them like wool;
      But My righteousness will be forever,
      And My salvation from generation to generation.”
       9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
      O arm of the LORD!
      Awake as in the ancient days,
      In the generations of old.
      AreYou not the arm that cut Rahab apart,
      And wounded the serpent?
       10 Are You not the One who dried up the sea,
      The waters of the great deep;
      That made the depths of the sea a road
      For the redeemed to cross over?
       11 So the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
      And come to Zion with singing,
      With everlasting joy on their heads.
      They shall obtain joy and gladness;
      Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
       12 “ I, even I, am He who comforts you.
      Who are you that you should be afraid
      Of a man who will die,
      And of the son of a man who will be made like grass?
       13 And you forget the LORD your Maker,
      Who stretched out the heavens
      And laid the foundations of the earth;
      You have feared continually every day
      Because of the fury of the oppressor,
      When he has prepared to destroy.
      And where is the fury of the oppressor?
       14 The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed,
      That he should not die in the pit,
      And that his bread should not fail.
       15 But I am the LORD your God,
      Who divided the sea whose waves roared—
      The LORD of hosts is His name.
       16 And I have put My words in your mouth;
      I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
      That I may plant the heavens,
      Lay the foundations of the earth,
      And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

    17 Awake, awake!
      Stand up, O Jerusalem,
      You who have drunk at the hand of the LORD
      The cup of His fury;
      You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling,
      And drained it out.
       18 There is no one to guide her
      Among all the sons she has brought forth;
      Nor is there any who takes her by the hand
      Among all the sons she has brought up.
       19 These two things have come to you;
      Who will be sorry for you?—
      Desolation and destruction, famine and sword—
      By whom will I comfort you?
       20 Your sons have fainted,
      They lie at the head of all the streets,
      Like an antelope in a net;
      They are full of the fury of the LORD,
      The rebuke of your God.
       21 Therefore please hear this, you afflicted,
      And drunk but not with wine.
       22 Thus says your Lord,
      The LORD and your God,
      Who pleads the cause of His people:

      “ See, I have taken out of your hand
      The cup of trembling,
      The dregs of the cup of My fury;
      You shall no longer drink it.
       23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
      Who have said to you,[a]

      ‘ Lie down, that we may walk over you.’
      And you have laid your body like the ground,
      And as the street, for those who walk over.”

May God richly bless you,
Amen

Austin Birdsong