Sermons - Vineyard Church of Holly Springs: Recent Episodes
VCHS
Speaker: Josh Pavel
Note: Our apologies that the end of the recording got cut off due to a power issue with the equipment.
Speaker: Josh Pavel
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Special Guest Speaker: Matt Stoudt
Small Group Information and Sign Up: http://www.hollyspringsvineyard.org/small-groups
This week begins our Lenten series “Perspectives”. In the first sermon of this series, Pastor Josh discusses the hunger we feel for different things in our lives and the way those longings can be filled by the things we are meant to be filled by or by cheap imitations.
This sermon is where the rubber meets the road in this Sabbath series. With all of our theological learning about the need, history and meaning of the Sabbath, we still need to implement what we’ve been talking about into a regular Sabbath practice. This week, Pastor Josh discusses what it looks like to practically implement a Sabbath into our schedules.
Psalm 92 is a song for the Sabbath. When our roots are deeply connected with the Lord through Sabbath rest, we can have peace, worship deeply, trust the Lord for our deliverance, and have fruitful longevity in our ministry.
So much of our culture is always pulling us to store up more, indulge in excess, never be content, but with Sabbath, we are actively countering those temptations, choosing contentment and gratitude and being actually fulfilled by resting in God’s presence. With Sabbath, we really can have enough.
Looking at sabbath rest through the lens of spiritual discipline, co-pastor Leah Pavel discusses how sabbath is no longer enforced upon us an a demand or order but offered to us as a gift through the fullness Jesus brought. Sabbath is a tool we engage in for spiritual maturity and emotional health that transforms our lives, aligns us with God’s ways, gives us identity, trust in God, and allows for a set apart time of intimacy with and worship of our Creator.
Sometimes we spend so much time on the thoughts of the Lord’s greatness on a grand scale, thinking of Him as the Lord of the universe or Lord of all, that we forget how He is also Lord of very specific things, like the Lord of my life, or the Lord of our church, or even the Lord of today. Every aspect of Jesus’ lordship is found entwined with the Sabbath and offers of a view of this rest that makes it much more than just a vacation or a day off.
Sabbath is most effective in our lives when we not just fit it in in one off, random spots but make sabbath rest a part of our life pattern. So what does that pattern look like and how does it affect us? Pastor Josh continues digging in to the Sabbath that remains for God’s people.
For the Israelites, the Sabbath was a non-negotiable. So much so that the death penalty was an expected punishment for breaking the command to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. The seriousness of the command underscores the importance the observance of Sabbath to their (and our) faith.
In the first sermon of this new series on Sabbath, Pastor Josh discusses what Sabbath is really intended to be and how it only makes sense in relationship to our regular work.
Joy and happiness are not the same thing. The bible speaks often of joy and rejoicing. So what is it and how do we get?
Ecclesiates tells us there is a time for peace and when Jesus came, it was just such a time. When we have the true peace that God offers, the things of this world cannot upset the work of peace that Christ has done within us. The battle and the peace are both the Lord’s!
Hope is evidence that we have a positive expectation on something external to ourselves - something that doesn’t depend on us. Hope is what we have when we’re waiting on God to accomplish something in our lives. This first Sunday of Advent, we lean into the hope we have that is the fruit of Jesus coming once as a man and the promise that He will return again.
As ones who have been saved and have received grace and forgiveness we are entrusted with the gospel and expected to not only avoid sin but to actually produce fruit. Part of that fruit is to share the Good News with those who need to hear it, to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom with the urgency and importance that it deserves.
God’s gathering place, His house, where His people reside and commune with one another, is meant to be a place where we are at home and prayer is the fragrance that always fills the space. God gives us an invitation not to be guests there but to come home and stay and soak in prayer together.
VCHS elder Brant Cannon speaks from the book of Ephesians about how the idea of submission has been used for a long time in such a way as to oppress or control others but God’s plan for submission is that we defer to one another in order to obtain fullness by His Spirit. Churches, relationships, marriages, etc. that submit to one another in humility will find God’s presence at work among them.
Sacraments, means of grace, are a means of getting the method and mission of the church to connect people to the Source of life itself. They’re the Gospel in tangible form. If sacraments are a means of getting what God is about to the people who need to receive it, then what avenues does the local church have available to accomplish the same mission in our contemporary culture?
It’s a temptation of many church cultures to be wowed by big name celebrity type leaders or flashy ministries but the call of Jesus is to a live long obedience. Our fruitfulness isn’t based on producing but on living the life the Holy Spirit calls us to which is one of discipleship and faithfulness. To ensure that we have long lives of consistent ministry, we must judge our efforts not according to worldly standards but to how closely we follow the leading of the Lord.
The Body of Christ is full of disciples that have been given Holy Spirit gifts to use for God’s glory in edifying the church and advancing the Kingdom. We are living stones that God is building into a structure fit for his presence, but everyone is needed to be activated in their gifts and serving for it to be complete. Discipleship is critical so that we are always being poured into but also pouring into someone else.
As believers, we have some degree of spiritual responsibility for other believers. Our faith or lack thereof affects other disciples. Pastor Josh unpacks this idea of being our brother’s keeper and announces an upcoming mission trip to support Vineyard churches in Russia.
Jesus was a person of hospitality. As a sojourner to this earth, born in an inn, a refugee from Israel and immigrant to Egypt, and a homeless adult who “had no place to lay his head”, he understood what it feels like to be on the outside. And yet he offers us the most sacrificial, radical welcome. The scriptures tell us to “welcome other as Christ has welcomed us”, which means we must consider the hospitality of Jesus and work to ensure that our actions mirror his and embrace this Kingdom value as we love those on the outside into our homes, our social circles, and our church.
As God’s people, we actually have a call to die. Galatians tells us that because we’ve been crucified with Christ, it’s no longer us living but Jesus living through us. The life of a disciple is marked by death - by laying down one’s life for the sake of following Christ.
There is this amazing aspect of the Kingdom of God that, for some reason, God chose to use people to reach people. It certainly seems that there were better, more effective ways of doing things but God involves us in His plans. And as we put our hands to these tasks, it’s not His intention for us to go it alone. His design is for us to do it together, and our church gatherings are no exception. Worship is one of the core ways we engage together.
Having unity is one of the key qualities intended for God’s people. Jesus prayed for it, Paul preached and wrote about it, and the early church strived for it. But in our modern culture, having the kind of unity in our churches that truly puts others before self and reflects the nature and character of God is hard to come by. In this sermon, Leah Pavel talks about the things necessary for modern local churches to experience this kind of supernatural unity and the incredible effects when we do.
Introducing a new sermon series, Ecclesia, Josh Pavel talks about how as the gathering of Jesus’ disciples, we are called and expected to be a peculiar people, not following the ways and patterns of the world, but that of the Kingdom of God.
Paul greeted Phoebe as a deaconess of the church. Paul recognized her not to make a point about women in leadership or anything political but because she was a faithful servant in the Body of Christ who had an impact in her community. Paul’s letters were written to real people that filled the local church. These people were the application of the Gospel, the intended recipients of the epistles. These words were not intended for only the heroes or celebrities or household names, but people serving and loving their local communities.
Continuing in our No Small Parts series, the story of Abigail shows that God’s Kingdom is revealed, propelled, and instrumented by the variety of God’s people, not the isolated, random, heroic or famous individual. Her story takes place during the time when David is on the run from King Saul. The Lord uses Abigail’s intelligence, cunning, and boldness to redirect the future King David’s actions, remind him of God’s promise and calling. The result is that her own household is spared from ruin and David is spared from having unnecessary bloodshed on his hands.
Through looking at Korah and The Sons of Korah as mentioned in Numbers, the Psalms, and Jude, we see the long story of God’s redemption, correcting pride, and teaching us to “be still and know that I am God”. Knowing their story, the Psalms written by the Sons of Korah speak in new ways.
Eutychus is mentioned in only a few verses of one story in the book of Acts but was the subject of a substantial miracle of resurrection. Pastor Josh discusses this passage of scripture along with a debrief of the Vineyard National Conference to encourage repentance for our unbelief in the healing miracles of the Holy Spirit and to encourage waiting on God and blessing His work in ministry.
VCHS elder Brant Cannon looks at the role of Simeon and Anna in recognizing and announcing the arrival of the Messiah when Jesus was presented at the temple and the lessons we can learn about hearing God from these two devout servants who patiently awaited God’s promise.
Elishama was a secretary in the temple. He heard the words of God given to Jeremiah, and read out loud in the temple by Baruk, and recognized them as from the Lord so he honored and preserved it even though the king wanted to destroy the scroll. God’s word will be revealed and it will accomplish its purpose. Elishama shows us an example of faithfulness in our charge and a diligence in following God.
Jeremy Geelen discusses Hannah’s passion in pursuing the Lord for a son and offers encouragement to us to be as free in our love and pursuit of God as she was.
Jael is a woman found in the book of Judges in the time of Deborah. She was chosen by God to play a very important part in a battle the Israelites were facing and she is a perfect example of God equipping the called instead of calling the equipped.
The Demoniac was a man possessed with many demons and he lived among the tombs alone. Once Jesus delivers him, instead of allowing the man to travel with him, Jesus sent him back to his own family and community to share the gospel. And the effects of this man’s obedience is seen in later parts of scripture where the gospel is advancing. As N.T. Wright put it, this man was the first apostle to the Gentiles!
Several of Jesus’ own disciples were mentioned just a few times in scripture, yet they were dearly loved by the Lord and the impact they had for the gospel was widespread. These three men were faithful, patient and consistent and were certainly no less important or effective.
Today we begin a new sermon series: No Small Parts. This series is about lesser known Bible characters that you may not be familiar with. It’s not a celebration of mediocrity but instead a look at how there are no minor characters in the Kingdom of God. We must be faithful in our sphere of influence to bring the love of Jesus to the people and situations that God has placed in our paths. The midwives of Israel feared God and not Pharaoh so they didn’t follow the Egyptian King’s instruction to kill any baby boys that were born.
The Vineyard Association as a whole will be engaging in 40 days of prayer and fasting from Memorial Day through 4th of July leading up to the National Conference this summer. In this sermon, Administrative Pastor Leah Pavel shares the heart and motive for this corporate fast and discusses what true fasting that pleases the Lord looks like.
Revival isn’t about recreating the past or trying to be like the early church, but about being the people of God that humble ourselves to pray and seek the Lord for his intervention in our community. A heavenly minded church brings about actual, real earthly good in their walking out of their mission. God has a plan for this world and His people have a central role to play in seeing it come about.
Guest speaker and VCHS member, William Simkiss, takes us through a detailed and fresh look at the story of the woman (or women!) that anointed Jesus’ before his crucifixion and all the rich meaning that can be seen in this story.
On Easter, those who follow Jesus found everything they’d lost and more. Death lost control and power, yet those who continue to use and follow the world’s ways are still subject to it. But those who follow the way of the cross gain life and freedom.
Going beyond the typical Palm Sunday story, Pastor Josh looks at the incidents of Jesus cursing the fig tree and driving the merchants out of the temple and how Jesus confronted the loss and disappointment of Israel not living up to their calling.
In the intertestamental period, a span of about 400 years, God was silent. There were no prophets speaking to God’s people and nothing being written that would later be canonized into scripture. This time was even prophesied about in the book of Amos. But we would not have had John 1:1, where the Word became flesh, without that period of silence. The Word of God is life to those who need it.
Continuing in our Lost & Found series leading up to Easter, Pastor Josh reflects on the nature of exile as seen through the story of the Israelites and examines how we can find ourselves in exile-like situations having lost a home, job, place, time etc, that is important to us.
At one point or another through our sin and rebellion, we have rejected God as our Father and King. We have lost our heritage and lineage. Jesus came as our King to establish a Kingdom not of this world. He refused to allow His followers to make Him king by force but instead retreated to be by Himself and spend time with the Father. Jesus regathers the lineage and the people that had been scattered and calls them back to follow Him in discipleship. When our lineage is restored, our authority to minister is also restored.
In this life, each of us has experienced loss: loss of relationship, innocence, loved ones, time, etc. In this first sermon of our new series “Lost & Found” which will lead up to Easter, we’ll be looking at how what we’ve lost in this life is recovered in the Kingdom of God. This week, Pastor Josh examines the first loss that people experienced when they were exiled from the Garden of Eden after allowing sin to enter in. But when we really sit with the scriptures in Genesis, what we discover is not just how much we lost, but how much God the Father lost.
The First Fruits Festival celebrated in ancient Israel is a beautiful foreshadowing of the resurrected life of Jesus. Jesus, the first fruit of humankind, is the model of who we are created and destined to be. Like Jesus, we can rely on the Holy Spirit, and see God do amazing things through the gifts and abilities He gives us. Our responsibility is to take up those things the Father is doing in us and be obedient to get started on the work before us and offer the first of our blessings to him with thanks for the rest of the harvest we know He will bring to completion in His time.
Both as a church and as individuals and families, we need to set our values and priorities in regard to giving and have those be what informs our practices instead of having our giving ebb and flow as a reaction to our current financial situation. It’s important to our discipleship that we have hearts of gratitude, love and justice from which generosity flows instead of giving out of legalism, obligation or guilt. Hearts with a healthy attitude toward finances and giving will be able to be wise and purposeful even in times of abundance and generous even in times of scarcity. This teaching ends with a review of the current financial picture of the church.
When the author of Genesis writes that we are made in God’s image, he is referring not to a physical likeless but one of function and purpose. This same idea is found in Romans and we see that the work of God over time conforms us. There are things in our lives that do not conform to the pattern of Jesus and those things must be left behind.
People who spend time in God’s presence have evidence of that experience manifest in their lives. The fruit of spending time in God’s presence is humility, change, mission, diligence and blessing.
To have the fullness of God that Paul talks about in Ephesians, we cannot remain on the surface. We have to understand what makes us Kingdom people and let those truths soak deep into us, not trivial devotions that change daily.
When we want to practice the presence of God, we have to understand that the practice is much more about seeing, hearing and understanding, rather than earning or achieving. Developing these ways of perceiving the Presence of God may seem simple yet prove to be challenging to our normal ways of perceiving the world.
This week in our Pursuing the Presence of God series, Pastor Josh discusses the passage, or the path to the presence of God. In contrast to the process, ritual, and restrictions associated with entering the temple in ancient Israel, the curtain was torn at Jesus’ death and the way in to God’s presence has been made clear and accessible to all who come through Jesus. However, it is not a path to be taken lightly. As explained in Hebrews, we must not trample the sacrifice of Christ but must honor Him and pursue holiness. We don’t “trample the Son of God underfoot” by continuing in our sin because grace and holiness go hand in hand.
Pastor Josh begins a new sermon series this week, Pursuing the Presence of God, by looking at what it is that we’re actually pursuing about God. In truly pursuing His presence, we must long for the essence of God, not the peripheral things.
Eric Geelen, of Amadeo Vineyard Church in Phoenix, Arizona joins us to teach about the power and reality of The Kingdom of God.
Part of the miracle of Christmas is that Love, God’s perfect Divine Love, came to the earth in human form. This week after our Everyone Gets To Nativity Play, we wrapped up Advent with a brief sermon about the power of the presence of Love itself at Christmas, in community, and through us.
You’ve probably heard the phrase “happiness depends on circumstances, joy does not”. Joy accentuates the pleasurable, good things of life. Joy shared in community brings something of the Kingdom of God. Joy with God is not one directional or transactional. The joy of the Lord is reciprocal in its nature - we give and He gives. In Advent, there is joy in God’s coming and closeness. The key to lasting joy isn’t in seeking joy itself, but in pursuing the joy bringer.
Advent places the church, every year, in longing for the fullness of the throne of God to be realized. We need Advent, even if we never reach Christmas morning. What we long for is not a nostalgic look back or presents, what we’re longing for is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Hope is what grounds us now in the expectation and preparation for God’s future. In order to get from our past to God’s future, we must go through some pivot point, something that will connect those two disjointed realities: Jesus is the connection.
Pastor Josh wraps up this Identity In Christ Royal Priesthood by looking at the calling on God’s people to be a Royal Priesthood that has both authority and responsibility to serve as kingly priests and to spend ourselves serving those on the outside who do not yet know Jesus.
The description of a “free bondservant” is seemingly a contradiction, but scripture tells us that we are freed as slaves to sin to become slaves of righteousness and that the yolk of God is easy and His burden is light. So what does it look like to be set free to serve another Master?
Most of us probably don’t feel like we qualify to be called saints, but Paul wrote to the Corinthians, a church that had all sorts of problems, and told them that they were God’s saints. By the power of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we are indeed, made righteous - saints. And this type of sainthood isn’t something reserved as a posthumous honor, it’s meant to describe our lives on this earth as we reflect God’s glory and do the works He created for us to do.
This week, Pastor Josh begins a new series, The Names God Calls Us, by looking at how we are referred to as God’s handiwork in Ephesians. We often find ways to identify ourselves by so many factors that aren’t who we really are. Our identity comes from who God says we are. We have a specific identity and purpose in Christ that matter.
Guest speaker Jeremy Geelen discusses the significance of Jehovah Tsidqenu, God Our Righteousness.
This week, one of our teen group youth, Jennifer Bruton, shares her perspective on relating to God as Abba while looking at the various roles of fathers in our lives.
Guest speaker Emanuel Williams preaches on the power, might and abundance of the Lord revealed in the name El Shaddai.
In Genesis, Hagar is the Egyptian slave of Abraham and Sarah that encounters in the desert a loving God that both sees and hears her. In John, Jesus convinces Nathaniel that He is the Son of God by how clearly He sees Nathaniel. In both cases, God sees these people beyond their present circumstances, meets them in their pain and doubt, and then gives them guidance and walks them through their confusion and trouble. We learn from this how God will absolutely meet us where we are, but He will not wallow there with us. He meets us in our pain, our sorrow, our lack and he leads us through and out of it, if we will obey and walk with Him.
We learn from the story of King Saul that God does not shift or change His mind. His glory, unlike the fading glory of an earthly king, stands forever, does not diminish and only God’s glory is heavy enough to remain after death takes it’s toll. In Jesus, all the Glory of Israel dwells in bodily form.
Many of us are crying out that we're the light of the world, but we're unwilling to walk out the process of sanctification. Sanctification is a walking out of the righteousness we've been given and it doesn't happen all at once. The book of James tells us that through persevering we are made complete. Being sanctified means that we listen and obey every day - it's the interchange between God and us. We can't "manage" our sinful nature or minimize it - it will lay dormant and catch up to us eventually. We have to kill it with sanctification.
*The video shared at the beginning of the sermon can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mcXtontujA
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