II. Weeks 5-8 - Apostle's Creed Devotional

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FALL SERMON SERIES AT HIGHROCK CHURCH

PART TWOOCT 09 - NOV 05

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all pencil drawings by NoNo Go

cover graphic by Lyh Rhen Lam

layout & design by Paul W. Kahn

PART TWOOCT 09 - NOV 05

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DAILY SCRIPTURE

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1 CHRONICLES 16:23-30BUT THE LORD MADE THE HEAVENS. SPLENDOR AND MAJESTY ARE BEFORE HIM; STRENGTH AND JOY ARE IN HIS DWELLING PLACE.

COLOSSIANS 3:1-11SET YOUR MINDS ON THINGS ABOVE, NOT ON EARTHLY THINGS...

PSALM 8LORD, OUR LORD, HOW MAJESTIC IS YOUR NAME IN ALL THE EARTH! YOU HAVE SET YOUR GLORY IN THE HEAVENS.

HEBREWS 4:14-16THEREFORE, SINCE WE HAVE A GREAT HIGH PRIEST WHOHAS ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN, JESUS THE SON OF GOD...

COLOSSIANS 1:15-23FOR IN HIM ALL THINGS WERE CREATED: THINGS IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH, VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE...

1 PETER 1:3-9THIS INHERITANCE IS KEPT IN HEAVEN FOR YOU...

REVELATION 5THEN I SAW A LAMB, LOOKING AS IF IT HAD BEEN SLAIN...

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OPENING PRAYER:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9-13) A

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I have always been struck by C.S. Lewis’s image of an endless winter in his beloved children’s classic The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Can you imagine an endless winter? Even for lifelong New Englanders the idea of a winter that lasts past April 1st would be a hard pill to swallow. But in the mythical land of Narnia endless winter had become the reality for the creatures that called it home. Narnia was broken, evil reigned, and hope was dim. The perfect set up for a great story!

I love stories, and The Chronicles of Narnia is among my favorites. But it wasn’t until recently that I was struck with the reality that God Him-self has a story as well. It’s an epic story that is going on all around us, even though we are rarely aware of His presence and movement. But whether I choose to acknowledge it or not, God is indeed “on the move.” Those same words are used to described Aslan, the great lion in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. He is on the move! And as he moves into Narnia the snow and ice begins to melt, evil is destroyed, and spring comes to life again.

In the same way that Aslan is “on the move” in Narnia, in Scripture I see a story of a God who is moving on the Earth and bringing heaven with Him. I love the way that Jesus taught His disci-ples to pray because the prayer itself includes in it the epic Story of God that is being played out in the world today. In that prayer He speaks of the two distinct realities of God’s creation, heaven and earth. When I was growing up, I just thought that Earth is the bad place that I would get to leave, and heaven is the good place that I would get to go whenever I died. But the prayer suggests otherwise…

Jesus prayed, “Your kingdom come your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” For me this has become a beautiful picture of what will be.

Earth is broken but God wants to restore it. The Lord’s prayer itself alludes to the earthly realities of hunger, debts, temptation, and evil, but into that wintry reality, God is “on the move.” Even now His story is not a static book sitting on the shelf, it is alive and actively reshaping the world in which we live. So I can do away with that old notion of escaping earth to get to heaven. Heaven isn’t a place that we will go, heaven is coming to us!

Heaven is coming to Earth. God is on the move. I love that story! But loving the story is different from living the story. As it turns out, God wants me (and you!) to be a part of His epic story. He actually invites us into the story to be a part of this movement to bring the realities of heaven here on earth. It sounds great, but there’s one problem… I’m not the star of the story – God is. Now this is a problem because I happen to love being the star of my own story. It’s no epic mas-terpiece - in fact it may be a bit lame - but it’s my story and I get to call the shots.

I’m so grateful that Jesus taught us to pray as He did, “…your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” I often find myself praying that those words might be a present reality in my life, but that’s not easy. It’s far easier for me to hope for the big-picture, world-changing realization of that prayer. It’s much harder for me to pray “Hour will be done in ME, as it is in Heaven.” For me, choosing to be a part of God’s story isn’t just a daily struggle; it’s a moment-by-moment struggle. It’s a continual commitment to give up the starring role in my story for any role in God’s story. I fail at that a lot, but I hope that together we can commit to joining the Story of God so that we might be a part of bringing the realities of heaven into the earth He loves so much.

Stephen, his wife Kathleen, and their two boys Tyler (3) and David (10m) live in Quincy, MA. Kathleen grew up on the South Shore and Stephen hails from Chicago, IL. In January Stephen joined the Highrock staff as a Church Planter in Residence. He and Kathleen are working toward planting a new Highrock Church in Quincy next summer.

DEVOTION

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STEPHEN SHARKEY ([email protected])

PRAYER FOR HIGHROCK:Heavenly Father, as we wait for the return of your Son Jesus, we pray that we might be Your agents here on this earth. Thank You for the gift of Your Holy Spirit who allows us to live out Your will on earth as it is done in heaven. Spirit, correct us when we stray and equip us for the task of joining Your story here on the earth. Amen.

BENEDICTION:To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24-25)

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STEPHEN SHARKEY ([email protected])

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:

What is something (or someone) which you seen on earth that seems irreversibly broken? What would it mean to you to see it healed, restored, or redeemed?

What hope do you find in the truth that the realities of heaven (God’s will, God’s reign) are coming to earth? How might that change how you live now?

God invites us to be players in His great story? Does that excite you? Scare you? How does it make you feel?

What reasons do you have to say “no” to God’s invitation to be a part of His story? What reasons do you have to say “yes” to His invitation?

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DEEP ENOUGH TO DREAMChris Rice DID YOU FEEL THE

MOUNTAINS TREMBLE?Deliriou5

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DAILY SCRIPTURE

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PSALM 2ASK ME, AND I WILL MAKE THE NATIONS YOUR INHERITANCE,THE ENDS OF THE EARTH YOUR POSSESSION.

MATTHEW 17:1-8“THIS IS MY SON, WHOM I LOVE; WITH HIM I AM WELL PLEASED.”

JOHN 10:25-39...THE FATHER IS IN ME, AND I IN THE FATHER.

MATTHEW 26:57-65“FROM NOW ON YOU WILL SEE THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE MIGHTY ONE AND COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”

JOHN 14:6-14AND I WILL DO WHATEVER YOU ASK IN MY NAME, SO THAT THE FATHER MAY BE GLORIFIED IN THE SON.

HEBREWS 1:1-4THE SON IS THE RADIANCE OF GOD’S GLORY AND THE EXACT REPRESENTATION OF HIS BEING, SUSTAINING ALL THINGS BY HIS POWERFUL WORD.

1 JOHN 4:14-18AND WE HAVE SEEN AND TESTIFY THAT THE FATHER HAS SENT HIS SONTO BE THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

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OPENING PRAYER:

Father, Thank you for sending us your only Son, through whom you have loved the whole world. Amen.

When I was four years old, my dad asked me if I knew how much he loved me. I knew he loved me a lot and since the biggest thing my four-year-old brain could imagine was the number four, I answered: “You love me…four.”

I thought it was a pretty good guess.

My dad looked at me. And smiled.

“Brynnie, I love you all the numbers.”

I didn’t get it then but I get it now. What my dad was telling me was that his love for me could not be quan-tified. It was immeasurable, bigger than the biggest thing I could imagine.

To be loved like that...well, there’s nothing like it. I’m not a parent yet so I’ve only experienced that kind of love as a child. I only know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of that unconditional, unfathomable largesse of my parents’ love.

Elizabeth Stone once said that to be a parent is to “have your heart go walking around outside your body.” And from what I can tell on the receiving end of things, that sounds about right.

But for whatever reason I don’t always act like I’m loved like that. Sometimes - or if I’m being hon-est, most of the time - I act like I have to prove I’m worth loving. While I know in my mind that I can’t do anything to make my parents or my husband or the church or God value me any more or any less, so often my heart whispers, “Prove it. Show them you’re worth it.” And it’s a constant surprise to hear differently, a constant struggle to believe that maybe someone would take delight in me, just because.

That same love that my dad proclaimed to me that day, God proclaimed to Jesus at the time of His bap-tism - the love of a Father to a Son.

I practically know the story of Jesus’ baptism by heart. I grew up hearing it. But the last time I read it, some-thing struck a new chord.

In the story, Jesus asks John to baptize Him...and though reluctant, John agrees. Just as Jesus emerges from the water, the heavens open up and a voice declares:

“This is My beloved Son; with Him, I am well-pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

It’s amazing, really. It’s a proclamation, a coronation, an ordination, but more than anything else, a declara-tion of a Father’s love to an only Son. Jesus, God’s very heart walking around. Incredible.

But there’s a nuance here that I never noticed before.

At this point in the story, as far as we know, Jesus hasn’t preached any outstanding sermons or turned any water into wine. He hasn’t healed any lepers or walked on water. He hasn’t calmed any storms or died on the cross. At this point in the story, Jesus hasn’t done anything to make God so delighted with Him.

God simply is delighted with Him - just because.

Jesus was declared God’s only begotten, beloved Son. No one else can make that claim or share God’s very nature in that same way. In Jesus alone, we see in finite form the spitting image of super and natural.

And yet through Jesus, we share that identity as God’s children too. Through Jesus, God sees us not in and of ourselves but as beloved children.

John 1:12 says, “Yet to all who did receive (Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God…”

God sent His only Son so that we might become His many children. Through the life, death, and life again of this one Son, God acquired many more. And He loves us fully as He loves His own.

Me, God’s heart walking around.

While all around and deep within me, I hear those whispers, “Prove it. Show that you’re worth it,” I’m growing to learn that there’s nothing I can do to make God so delighted with me. God takes delight in me just because He takes delight in an only Son who shared His identity with me.

Truly, God’s love for me cannot be quantified. It’s immeasurable, bigger than the biggest thing I can imagine, and regardless of what I have done or will do or can do, God loves me all the numbers.

Brynn Harrington is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton. She and her husband, Aaron, have been attending Highrock for ten months and are excited to be involved with the new church plant on the North Shore.

DEVOTION

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BRYNN HARRINGTON ([email protected])

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What does it mean to you to be a son or a daughter? What does it mean to you that God sent his only Son so that you might become his child too? Is that ever hard for you to believe? Why or why not?

What does it mean to you to hear that you have become God’s child? What in the way you live reflects that identity? Is there anything in your life that does not reflect that identity? What is it?

Can you think of someone in your life who needs to hear God’s message that they are loved unconditionally, rather than because of the things they do? How might you communicate that message to them today?

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PRAYER FOR HIGHROCK:Thank You for sending Your only Son so that we also, might inherit the infinite, matchless love reserved for Your children. We know we can never earn that love and ask that You might remove in our hearts every temptation to try. We love You too, because You first loved us.

Amen

BENEDICTION:“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)


SON OF GODHillsong IN CHRIST ALONE

Keith & Kristyn Getty

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PSALM 110SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET

PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11GOD EXALTED HIM TO THE HIGHEST PLACE AND GAVE HIM THE NAME THAT IS ABOVE EVERY NAME

MATTHEW 2:1-12ON COMING TO THE HOUSE, THEY SAW THE CHILD WITH HIS MOTHER MARY,AND THEY BOWED DOWN AND WORSHIPED HIM.

ROMANS 10:9-15EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.

JOHN 20:24-29THOMAS SAID TO HIM, “MY LORD AND MY GOD!”

1 PETER 3:8-22BUT IN YOUR HEARTS REVERE CHRIST AS LORD.

REVELATION 19:11-16I SAW HEAVEN STANDING OPEN AND THERE BEFORE ME WAS A WHITE HORSE,WHOSE RIDER IS CALLED FAITHFUL AND TRUE.

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OPENING PRAYER:

Jesus, even when you walked among us, people have always wondered who you really are. And now you are asking us: “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:13-20). You are Lord. Help us believe and not doubt. Amen.



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Growing up, I wanted people to like Jesus. He was a cool guy. I mean, He healed and did mira-cles and put hypocrites in their place. But there were also things that Jesus said that just didn’t sync up well with the Jesus I wanted my friends to see. He said controversial things like “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).” Is Jesus’ love for all? I would have said yes, unequivocally, irrefutably. But confessing Jesus as Lord, as the only Way? Well, I would have said that I believed, but …

Wasn’t it just enough to like Jesus without the Lord stuff?

In Matthew 16, Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do people say I am?” and they, of course, have a lot of answers. Then He asks, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” (Matt 16:15) and I can imagine the silence until Peter speaks. I realized that Jesus was asking me (and you!) this ques-tion, and the answer reflects and affects how we live our lives. Jesus as “Liked” and Jesus as “Lord” would make a difference, and I only saw that distinction when a friend challenged me on who Jesus was.

I grew up thinking that “confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (Rom 10:9)” was a momentous and momentary occa-sion – and ta-da! SAVED… now I can go back to Jesus as Liked. But then I got hit with the question, “So… saying ‘I believe Jesus is Lord’ is basically just fire insurance?” I knew deep in my heart that there was more and there should be more to “Jesus as Lord” than just a get-out-of-hell-free card, and my world (and my theology!) started to flip upside down as I discovered more and more about it.

To say someone is Lord of something means that he is an authority of it. What if… believing in Jesus as Lord meant surrendering to Him the authority over every part of our lives? To let Him restore and renew our lives? It got personal for me, as Jesus as Lord started to affect (and still does) how I love my family, my school, the world and those living around me. Last year, I met up regularly with a Jewish atheist acquaintance who was curious about Jesus. As we dug into the gospels, he grew excited and amazed at what Jesus said and did. He was definitely a fan. But I’ve come to realize that Jesus wants fol-lowers, not fans. He wants it to become personal. He wants people to be with Him, walk with Him, become more and more like Him and not just watch Him. Even after I became a Christian, Jesus kept opening my eyes to places in my life where I was only a “fan” and not a “follower.”

Right now, I work as a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Wellesley College. My favorite thing in the world is seeing someone come to know Jesus as Lord. It could be someone making a decision to surrendering their lives to Jesus for the first time. Or sometimes it could look like a Christian student giving an area of sexual struggle up to Jesus, allowing Him to be Lord over this area. Other times, this could mean a student letting Jesus as Lord define and transform the ways she thinks about social justice issues. For me, I know that believing in Jesus as Lord is not a one-time thing, but it’s a lifetime process as I surrender each minute, each step, each struggle, and each yearning to Him. Follow-ing Him might take a moment to publicly com-mit to, but a lifetime to learn.

And it’s so much cooler to follow Him than to just to be a fan, right?

Kat Hampson is a minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Wellesley College. She and her husband Ben were recently married at Highrock last year after graduating from Tufts University.

DEVOTION

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KAT HAMPSON ([email protected])

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What does Jesus as LORD mean to you? Who do you say Jesus is? Who is Jesus showing Himself to be?

Are you more of a fan or a follower? Fans say, “That Jesus is amazing.” Followers confess, “This Jesus is LORD.” In what ways might Jesus be calling you to step out of just being a fan but a follower and participant in His mission?

What would does it take for Him to be Lord of our lives? Is there anything stop-ping you from following Him completely?

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PRAYER FOR HIGHROCK:Jesus, Lord, we praise You, for You alone have the words of real life, eternal life – the kind of life that we were always meant to live! Trans-form our lives to become more like You. Help us be more than just fans, but true followers that love You with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We surrender ourselves – everything we are, everything we have and everything we do – for the joy of following You and living out Your Kingdom on earth. You proclaim You to be LORD of our lives, of this church, of this city, and of this world. Amen.

BENEDICTION:Jesus, You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). To whom else would we ever go? You alone have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God. (John 6:68)


COME TO JESUSChris Rice WE LOVE YOU JESUS

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GENESIS 3:13-15HE WILL CRUSH YOUR HEAD, AND YOU WILL STRIKE HIS HEEL.

LUKE 1:26-38DO NOT BE AFRAID, MARY; YOU HAVE FOUND FAVOR WITH GOD.

ISAIAH 7:13-17THEREFORE THE LORD HIMSELF WILL GIVE YOU A SIGN: THE VIRGINWILL CONCEIVE AND GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND WILL CALL HIM IMMANUEL.

LUKE 2:41-52DIDN’T YOU KNOW I HAD TO BE IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE?

MATTHEW 1:18-25SHE WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS...

MATTHEW 3:13-17THIS IS MY SON, WHOM I LOVE; WITH HIM I AM WELL PLEASED.

JOHN 3:1-8NO ONE CAN ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD UNLESS THEY ARE BORN OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT

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OPENING PRAYER:

Father, Guide us as we try to fathom the miraculous way you entered into our world to redeem your children. Amen.



DAILY SCRIPTURE

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One of the blessings of being raised in the church is that miracles that can sometimes act as obsta-cles to embracing the Christian faith were easily accepted as facts in my childhood mind. I sang Christmas carols about the virgin Mary long be-fore I had any idea what the word virgin meant. In fact, until a popular song ironically by Madon-na led me to ask more questions, I thought the word virgin was just part of Mary’s name!

Now, as an adult, if I am troubled or possibly embarrassed by some of the claims of the Bible, I go back to the resurrection. I can truly find no better explanation to the birth, spread, and per-severance of Christianity than the fact that Jesus actually came back to life. Obviously all those early martyrs at least thought they saw some-thing and the millions of martyrs that have come after have been willing to give their lives for this claim. I can also find no better explanation for the forgiveness of my sins, change in my own life, or the hope that I have.

So, if I can believe that God sent His son to earth to live and then die and rise again, I guess I shouldn’t be stumped by any other miraculous assertion—including the virgin birth. But, it should still inspire my awe. Other religions have stories of gods and goddesses who have come to earth as men and women, but Christianity alone makes the audacious claim that God would humble Himself to the point of coming to earth as a fetus, living and growing inside a peasant girl. The same almighty God who created the universe willingly entered into our world through

the birth canal of a teenager, His tiny earthly body bound to hers by an umbilical cord! Surely “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15).

In a society that viewed women as little more than property, He gave Mary the matchless honor of carrying His Son. From Mary’s biography I see that God was willing to go to tremendous lengths to redeem humanity and that He reveals himself in unexpected ways. I am struck that His values are wildly different that the world’s values, as Mary sings in Luke 2:52, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” This is good news—if we seek humility. I am challenged to realize I won’t always encoun-ter Him in the neat, theologically tested, germ-free package that I desire, but perhaps in the neighborhoods I would rather not frequent.

Though I accept this miracle as true, I don’t want to take it lightly. I want to remember this special calling given to Mary was part of a larger blessing for all who believe. When my mouth declares, “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the vir-gin Mary,” I pray my soul will echo the words of Mary’s song, “for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is His name” (Luke 2:49).

Erika and her husband, Danny, along with their three children, have been attending Highrock for three years. She is currently serving as a Shepherding Overseer and Covenant Group leader.

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DEVOTION ERIKA CASTIGLIONE([email protected])

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PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:Take a few moments to contemplate the events surrounding the birth of Christ. Why do you think God chose this way for Jesus to enter the world? What does this tell us about God?

Why do you think it is important for us to believe that Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary”?

In what ways do you see God “lifting up the humble” today?

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PRAYER FOR HIGHROCK:

Father,

Help us to grasp even a little more the great lengths to which You have gone to save us.

Amen.

BENEDICTION:In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Him-self nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in ap-pearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:5-8)


ADORATIONNewsboys MARY DID YOU KNOW

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ERIKA CASTIGLIONE([email protected])

www.highrock.org

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II. Weeks 5-8 - Apostle's Creed Devotional