Brad Wilkerson // COC Metro

Happy New Year!

Well what can I say, God blew me away again!  We had an incredible Christmas Eve service with 203 in attendance and His presence was all over the place.  I never cease to be amazed at what God does through the willing and serving hearts of His people.  I can’t wait for next year when we do a minimum of two services on Christmas Eve!  I hope and pray all of you have a great Christmas and God’s richest blessings on you and your families for 2009.  Don’t forget we will have no services at COC on Dec. 28th.  Enjoy the day off with your families.  I will see you on January 4th for worship at 10 a.m.  Start 09 off on the right foot by having your entire family in church to praise and worship the great God we serve.  Don’t forget as well, set up crew starts at 8 a.m.  Many hands make light work.

Love you guys and see you next year!

Between The Trees

Every year at this time, our focus is drawn to CHRISTMAS!  What a great time of the year…shopping, crowds, traffic, credit cards – WOOHOO!  I’m in the spirit, how about you?  I know that there are many things associated with Christmas that are quite nice …vacation, gifts, family, and FOOD!  Balancing the great things with the not so great things during this season can be hectic.  And then, just about the time you think your gaining control, it’s over.  Another Christmas in the books, gone as quick as it came.

A lot of focus is drawn onto many subjects at Christmas as well, and most of us would agree that its main focus is on the birth of Jesus Christ.  It’s a time where we celebrate the birth of God’s son.  I really find it fascinating where that all took place.  I mean the supposed ‘Savior of the World’ being born in a wooden manger.  A feeding trough for animals, not what we’d think of for a future king!?  And yet, that’s similar to where His life ended as well, on a wooden cross.  Two wooden structures, made from ‘Trees’.  Each with significant importance for history and eternity sake as well.  

What I’d like to do is actually look at what did take place ‘Between the Trees.’  That’s really the message of Christmas.  See, if you track to the beginning of time, God promised man the opportunity to live however they’d like to live, or they could live how God created them to live.  Regardless, it was man’s choice.  Let me suggest something here to think about, maybe the Genesis account of the creation of man didn’t just happen, maybe it’s still happening. Maybe the truth of the Adam and Eve story is not what happened, but what IS happening.  Nonetheless, the choice was made, living according to how we would like to live as opposed to how we were created to live.  A choice was made, separation took place.  Life apart from perfection was now the charted course.  I know that could sound a bit unfair, that we were destined to this separation from God because of a choice made that we had nothing to do with.  However, I draw my point back to the above possible suggestion…maybe that didn’t just happen, it’s still happening.  That is, the choice to live our way, or the way God created us to live.

I once heard someone say…“I need a God who’s now. I need a God who teaches me how to live now.  I need a faith that’s about today, that helps me understand the world that we live in today.”  Well, that’s the message of ‘Between the Trees.’  Because of our choices to live the way we want to live, we lost the perfect relationship God designed for us to have with Him.  The only way this relationship can be restored is what we see in the Life of Jesus. Where He became man, like you and me, in the flesh, born in a wooden manger.  He lived the ‘other way’, according to how God created Him to live.  Where He fulfilled the opportunity of a way back to perfection with God, laying down His life, sacrificially, on a wooden cross.  Perfection offered – yes, Perfection restored - yes, Perfection received…is what still remains to be seen.  What took place ‘Between the Trees’ offers something that no one else could or can provide, a restored relationship with God.  Real ‘Followers of Jesus’ are people who are committed to making the world a better place.  They understand that they cannot do it alone, they must partner with God in accomplishing this mission.  Restoring creation to the place that God originally intended it to be.  Now that we discovered what God’s son Jesus accomplished ‘Between the Trees,’ what’s your life look like ‘Between the Trees?’

Winter Wonderland

Sunday afternoon I commented to Sarah that it was crazy seeing kids playing outdoors on December 14th with shorts and t shirts on.  I mean come on, 11 days away from Christmas and it is 79 degrees…this is crazy.  Well the good Lord must have heard my cry because when I awoke on Monday morning to take the kids to school man did it change.  Now I can honestly say, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!”  The countdown is on just over a week and the big day will be here!  I love Christmas day.  I love being with my kids and Sarah and watching their eyes light up as they open their gifts from under the tree.  This year is a very special one for us.  This will be the first year in many that we will be at our house on Christmas morning.  Usually we spend Christmas morning in Missouri with extended family but we have decided to spend Christmas Eve with COC and head to see family sometime Christmas afternoon.  We are really looking forward to opening our gifts in our home and around our tree.  As you prepare your plans for Christmas don’t forget about COC’s Christmas Eve Candlelight Celebration.  It is going to be a great time with family and friends celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We will start at 6 p.m. and we will be dismissed by 7:15 p.m. to allow many of you to make other family commitments that evening.  It is going to be a special evening as we participate in communion as well.  Have a wonderful week and oh yea, bundle up…it is actually winter out there!

Catch The Vision!

One day a few years back I was driving from Pilot Point to Frisco and as I passed by Providence, Paloma Creek and Savannah I had this incredible thought, vision and passion.  It went a little something like this:

Just imagine in the midst of all these homes and families a church that thrives on being unique, creative, and innovative while meeting the spiritual and physical needs of this community.  That day was the day that COC was birthed in my mind, heart and soul.  Now it wasn’t called COC and it really had no form but that vision and dream was as real as the keyboard that my hands are currently resting on.  Someone once said, “If you tell someone your dreams and they do not laugh you didn’t dream big enough.”  Well, some folks did laugh at me for having this crazy idea to plant a church in the belt buckle of the Bible belt.  Why does North Texas need another church?  Why do you need to plant a church just 20 miles south of the church you are currently on staff at?  Why not go out west where there are fewer churches in relation to the population?  Those were all good questions, but the answer was really simple.  We weren’t planting a church that most people in this area think of when they think church.  We were planting a church that set out from day one to never focus inward but to always focus outward.  If that meant meeting in a school for several years then we were willing to do that.  If it meant getting our hands and knees dirty with service projects then we were up to the task.  If it meant just simply helping families in need, yep, we were ready for that as well.

I report to you today….it has happened.  We are seeing vision come to full fruition.  I am amazed at what COC, just a 3 month old church, has already been able to do for the Kingdom of God.  Souls are being saved, lives are being changed, families are being healed, and Christ is being exalted.  I am overwhelmed with amazement at what God is doing through the lives of His people.  Thanks to all of you who work so hard each and every week to make COC a great place to find God.  I am so proud to be the Pastor of this church.  You see the vision might have been mine, but vision is never vision until it is caught.  You have caught it and there is no looking back from here.

This weekend’s outreach events at Providence and Savannah’s Christmas tree lighting celebrations were awesome.  I know all our hard work will pay off in the weeks to come as we continue to see new families walk through the doors.

Angel Food Ministries is going great.  I learned last night that our order in December has exceeded $2,500.  Great job Angel Food volunteers.

Have a great week and we’ll see you at the COC!

Priorities

When it comes to PRIORITIES, have you ever found yourself immediately after making a commitment saying…“WHY DO I ALWAYS SAY YES!?”  The first question one must ask about PRIORITIES in their life is – WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH YOUR SCHEDULE?  Usually if you look close enough you’ll discover that you have TOO MANY COMMITMENTS!  Family, Kids, Spouse, Boyfriend/Girlfriend, Extended Family, Job, Money, Bills – this list goes on and on.  What is it exactly for you?  Maybe it’s UNBALANCED LIVING.  The Culture you and I exist in screams…“Money is important but TIME is actually the king!”  Everywhere you go in our Culture, everything indicates SPEED.

Think about it…

-You want to mail something you go to Federal EXPRESS.

-You may have the phone service called SPRINT. 

-You may wash your clothes in DASH.

-Anyone who is daring enough (or insane enough) might swim in what we know as a SPEEDO. (that’s actually intended to be humorous.)

Everything in our Culture is SPEED-ORIENTED. Today, we have more affluence and education and entertainment and technology than every before.  Why is it then, with ALL these luxuries and technology and time-saving gadgets, ARE WE STILL SO TIRED?

We actually have fooled ourselves into believing that everything in our lives actually DEPENDS on us!  We think it’s ALL up to us!  This concept has developed an enormous amount of STRESS, and if there’s one thing that I’ve learned about STRESS in my life it’s this…STRESS IS AN ATTITUDE!  ATTITUDES ARE CHOSEN – not inherited!  I think we say YES too often because everyone wants to be loved.  Everyone wants to be valued.  Everyone wants to be appreciated.  Every time we say YES, we fall for the MYTH that others just might love us more and value us more or appreciate us more.  This thinking is actually a LIE!  Saying “YES” to everything and everyone does nothing but limit your time, and lose what you can’t get back!  Listen folks, the stakes are too high if you don’t do something about your PRIORITIES if they’re out of whack!  If you don’t do something about it, then you’ll eventually begin to believe the LIE that BUSYNESS ACTUALLY IS NORMAL!

The best way I’ve discovered in REPRIORTIZING my life is evaluating the important things in life.  The Bible tells me pretty explicitly in Mark 8:36 “How do you benefit in life if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process?”  Determine quickly what’s important to you in your life.  Life is TOO SHORT if you don’t!  God never intended His most precious creation (Mankind) to live life at FULL THROTTLE!  He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 that His plans for us are for good not disaster, to give us a future full of hope!  The correct PRIORITIES in life deal with RELATIONSHIPS, and you know what’s most interesting?  That’s exactly WHY you and I were created.  For a RELATIONSHIP with God. Start here in your REPRIORITIZING!  Search for and find that REAL-ationship with God!  All your other PRIORTIES will be easier to rearrange after that.

What about you?  Do you take life too seriously sometimes?  I came across some pretty funny things the other day for ‘those who take life too seriously’ to think upon…

-Remember…He who laughs last thinks slowest.

-The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

-Always borrow money from a pessimist – they don’t expect it back.

-The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes.

-When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane and going the wrong way.

-A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.

-If you don’t think anybody cares about you, try missing a couple Credit Card payments.

-The sooner you fall behind the more time you’ll have to catch up.

-If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving is not for you.

See you Sunday as we discuss Priorities!