Iowa City Church Podcast Tom Steele

Evan Osgood, the student ministry pastor from Antioch Christian Church continues our sermon series in part five of The Big Picture.

In middle school there was a very sophisticated way to determine if someone wanted to be boyfriend/girlfriend: We sent a note. Not just any old note mind you. The note was usually discreetly carried by an entrusted friend who would deliver the precious cargo while avoiding the scanning eyes of the teacher.

The note simply read: Do you like me? Below were a series of boxes. One box indicated YES. Another box was NO. A third box was, MAYBE. Your job was to mark the appropriate box, get the message back to the trusted carrier, and depending on the box you marked, either make someone's day or break their heart.

Millions of pre-teen relationships were formed in this somewhat risky, yet safer way of asking the universal question: Do you want a relationship with me?
God's design for all of creation was for it to live in perfect community. We were made for relationship with God and with every other human. However, because of the rebellion against God's design, humans now live in this broken world where they were made for relationship, yet so uncertain if God or other people will even accept them. 

Therapist, Edie Weinstein puts it this way:
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“I have sat with clients of all ages who have expressed feeling like an outsider who doesn’t quite fit in, a square peg in a round hole, so different from others that they may have come from another planet. Some are adults, some children and teens and what they have in common is a longing to belong.”

We all have a longing to belong and the good news of the Bible is that God wants you to belong in his human family! In part four of The Big Picture we will discover how we can know that God "marked the YES box" and the impact that invitation can have on our lives and our relationships with others. To learn more, give a listen to part four of The Big Picture!

There’s a well-known story about a famous violinist who took his $3.5 million Stradivarius onto a platform of a Washington DC subway and started playing music. He was dressed in a T-shirt and a ball cap. Joshua Bell was accustomed to playing for packed concert halls and getting paid $1,000 a minute. During his 43-minute solo concert in the subway a total of 1097 people passed by. But only seven people stopped to listen. He earned $32 in change.
J.T. Tillman, a computer specialist, was one of the people who walked by. He said, “I didn’t think nothing of it, just a guy trying to make a couple of bucks.” Tillman would’ve given him some cash, but he spent all his money on the lotto. When he was told that he stiffed one of the best musicians in the world, he asked, “Is he ever going to play around here again?” The reporter said, “Yeah, but you’re going to have to pay a lot to hear him.”
Exactly one person recognized Joshua Bell. Her name was Stacy. She positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She had a huge grin on her face. She said, “It was the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen in Washington. Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush-hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some more flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?’”
In Genesis chapter three we read about this event often referred to as The Fall. A perfect garden paradise called Eden, two humans made in the image of God caring for the beautiful space and living in a everyday relationship with God. Everything is running according to design until a spiritual being, taking on the appearance of a snake, tempts the couple with a crafty half truth, and in a moments notice everything is thrown into disarray!

The story of the Bible is about how God works to bring goodness back to from chaos. The good news of Scripture tells us that God invades the fallen world as Jesus of Nazareth. His job is to atone for the sin, but there's also another very important job as well: show people what it means to be human. Jesus is the perfect human and he models for us what it looks like to live as imagers of God here on earth. 

What does any of this have to do with one of the greatest violin players in the world going unnoticed in a subway? Every day, Christians ignore the beautiful transformation that King Jesus gives us. The apostle Paul writes:
"take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God's likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth." ~ Ephesians 422-24 CSB

Everyday we go about our busy lives, looking like everyone else...all the while ignoring the beautiful example King Jesus provides us about how to live as God's people. To learn more give a listen to part three of The Big Picture.

My wife Suzi loves puzzles and is a master at putting them together. Me on the other hand, when I look at a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces, immediately thinks, "Chaos!" This is why I'm so amazed at how Suzi opens a puzzle box, and immediately employs her meticulous strategy, and within a handful of hours, has assembled a beautiful picture...with every piece in it's place!

The Bible opens with these words:

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." ~ Genesis 1:1-2

Two important truths we discover from these verses. 1) God created. There is an author, creator, architect, and designer. This is an important truth and must not be dismissed. To not be able to assign origin and design to someone or something can cause a person to feel untethered, anxious. To know where we come from and why we are here is essential in living a live of clarity and purpose. The good news of the Bible tells us that God is the Creator.

2) Chaos. The words, "formless and empty" convey the idea of chaos; just like a heaping pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Yet, God takes the chaos and begins to bring order, structure, meaning and purpose to all of creation. All of us have had moments in our lives where it felt like we were living in complete chaos; be it our finances, relationships, emotions, or our thinking. The good news of the Bible tells us that the Creator can bring something good from our chaos. 
To learn how these truths apply to your life, make sure and listen to part two of The Big Picture. 

So many of us do it: You get into bed, turn off the lights, and look at your phone to check social media one more time. Before you know it, you've spent hours incessantly scrolling through X, Tik-tok or Reels...a bottomless doom-and-gloom of negative information, thoughtless antics and cheap entertainment. 
 
This habit has become known as doomscrolling--the act of consuming an endless procession of negative or meaningless online content. According to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, 66% of Americans feel worn out by the amount of news available. Other articles have found connections between doomscrolling and mental health issues like depression and anxiety, not to mention the impact on quality sleep. 
Recently, Dictionary.com named doomscrolling one of its “New Words We Created Because of Coronavirus.” There’s something else in the etymology, though. Particularly in the word doom. The act of doomscrolling, then, is to roll toward annihilation. Kind of an eerie word if you look at it that way. The bigger point in all of this lies in the simple truth: You become what you consume.

The result of doomscrolling over time is a hunger for good news. News that satisfies, brings hope, give life, provides joy, and is true.

In this new sermon series, we begin a journey of good news. In The Big Picture series, we will discover the singular good news message of the Bible and how we can track it every part of scripture. This series is going to provide us with a great opportunity to better grasp the grand narrative of the Bible. Give a listen to part one of the Big Picture, and join the conversation! 

We've all had those moments when we've been misunderstood. Maybe because of appearance, language barrier or simply using the wrong word, there can be confusion about what is really going on.

When it comes to Christianity, I have found that there is a huge misunderstanding about what it's all about. Over the years I've had people say, "Well, I could never be a Christian because I find parts of the Bible offensive."

In my ministry I've had people be offended about what the Bible says about money, women, creation, marriage, sexual ethics and many other things. My response typically goes something like this:

I think every part of the Bible is important, one of the jobs of the Bible is to be offensive, to challenge us to be different. However just for a moment, put the ethical teaching aside: If Jesus was raised from the dead, you're going to have to deal with everything in the Bible. If Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, you are free to ignore the Bible completely. 

To understand Christianity one must start with the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Everything about the Christian faith is built upon this historical event...and if it is true you must change the way you live.

Check out the conclusion of our journey through the Gospel of Mark and discover how Mark's unique ending is an open ended challenge to respond to King Jesus!