Men in Black... a fresh start

This Sunday, we continued our AT THE MOVIES series with Men in Black III.  There were some GREAT quotes that come from the movie that I had thought about using to "preach" on...  Listen to some of these

"the most destructive force in the universe... regret"
"the sky's the limit, the future is in our hands"
"the bitterest truth is sweeter than the sweetest lies"
"the truth is the only path" (hmmm, could that be taken from the Bible?)
"to understand the future, we have to go back in time"

Each one of those would have made a great sermon (and may make a sermon someday soon) but this weekend, I went with the idea of using the "flashy thing" mind neuralyzer to wipe out the junk we've accumulated and start over with just the Bible...

Take a listen at www.paragonchurch.com (Men In Black on 7/1/12)

It's almost July!

It seems like yesterday that school was letting out... but it has already been a month!  Summer is flying by and we've been busy at Paragon Church.  It has been an amazing June thanks to some great volunteers and a team from First Baptist Church of DeRidder!  Check out our VBS video below to see just a glimpse of what we did last week!

Paragon VBS 2012

Paragon VBS 2012 from Paragon Church on Vimeo.

We're Alive!

(A big thank you to Pastor Rick Warren for the majority of this content... I made some changes to fit Paragon, but the man is amazing and I am thankful for his leadership and his constant desire to see people saved.)

I don’t want to lead a stale or dying church and I would assume that you don’t want to be a part of one either.  So what does it take for a church to remain vibrant, exciting—and alive? It takes the blessing of God. Whenever God blesses a church, it grows, lives are changed and miracles happen. Churches that God blesses bless people, bless families and bless communities.

That’s what the early church had. God’s blessing was all over that church. If we want to have the blessing of God on our churches, we need to do what the early church did in Acts 1-2.

1.    Pray for God’s power. (Acts 1:3-4, 14) It’s God’s power that makes the Church different from any other organization or group. We have the Holy Spirit. Microsoft, General Motors, and Apple do not have the Holy Spirit. We do. He has also given the church an enormous assignment—to get as many people into Heaven as possible. Like the early Church, we need God’s power to do this.

2.    Use everyone’s language. (Acts 2:5-8) One of the great miracles of the Day of Pentecost was that, as the disciples preached, everyone heard them in their own language.  It was a complete reversal of what God did at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. But we don’t need this miracle today. Today’s Church speaks every language in the world. The Church speaks more languages than the United Nations.

But I believe the people in our church speak more languages than we realize. We all speak dozens of languages. If you involved in IT or a baseball fan or a doctor or a salesperson or a soccer mom, you understand a language others don’t know. Please realize that God has placed you in our congregation for a reason. You have a language that God wants you to use to share the Good News in our community.

3.    Employ every member’s talents. (Acts 2:1-18, 21) The early Church used all of its people in ministry. No one sat on the sideline! Everyone needs to be involved in the ministry of the church. To be the kind of church that God blesses, our church needs to be the kind of church that won’t let people just sit and as long as I am here, that is the kind of church we will strive to be.

4.    Be devoted to God’s Word. (Acts 2:14-40, 42) We should hear it, read it, meditate on it, and memorize it. But most of all, if we want our church to be one that God blesses, we need to do it—whatever the Bible says. When Peter preached the gospel message during Pentecost Sunday, he continually went back to God’s Word in sharing the gospel. No other message—other than the gospel—has the power to change lives.

5.    Love each other deeply. (Acts 2:42). The early church practiced koinonia (which we call fellowship). It means they were as committed to one another as they were to Jesus Christ. The truth is, loving churches grow. Cold churches don’t. The early church was a loving church. The Roman government hated Christians and persecuted them, but even the Romans acknowledged that early Christians loved each other. They protected one another, cared for one another, and helped one another like no one else.

6.    Worship with joy. (Acts 2:46-47) God blesses a church that celebrates Him. People want to be where there is joy! There’s enough bad news in the world.  I think the church should be a place where good news is preached—the gospel. Honestly, I think it should be fun to go to church. God wired us to express emotion. But too many people have been taught not to express it in church. When we let go and worship joyfully though, people are drawn to our church.

7.    Be willing to sacrifice. (Acts 2:44-45) The first church was famous for its generosity. Acts 2 says that the early church shared everything with one another. The early church didn’t just share money. Their generosity was much more radical than that. They shared everything! I wonder how many people the 21^st century church would reach if we sacrificed like the early church did.

8.    Reach our communities for Christ! (Acts 2:40-41) The first church reached people for Christ from its very first day. In fact, with 3,000 people coming to Christ, the first church was megachurch from day one! In Acts 1:8 Jesus commands us to be His witness throughout the world. Evangelism is not an option. As long as there is one person within driving range of Paragon who doesn’t have a relationship with God, we’re going to keep trying to grow.

Have a great week!

Pastor Matt

Easter was awesome!

Easter is coming...

My friend, Stephen Bonner, sent this to me on Monday and I was very encouraged by it.  Easter is going to be exactly what God wants it to be… but yet I still have small “freak-out” moments as we are preparing for it… This short devotional helped me remember… God’s got it under control and will use us to glorify himself.

FROM “Today’s Turning Point” with Dr. David Jeremiah.

Jesus lived a Spartan life--at least during His three years of ministry. Yes, He came from a home in Nazareth, but His ministry years are best characterized by Matthew 8:20: ". . . the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." His was a life of dependence on His Father--we never see Him packing a bag when He left to journey from one place to another. In the human realm, an example of dependence we might more easily identify with is Gideon.

Gideon was a simple farmer who God called to drive the Midianites out of Israel. When Gideon rallied an army of 32,000 men, God first reduced it down to 10,000, then to 300--and equipped them only with torches and trumpets. Marching against the innumerable Midiantes, ("as numerous as locusts"; Judges 6:5) with 300 men would have seemed like madness to Gideon--and to us. But Gideon learned that victory comes from the Lord, not from human strength or resources.

As the saying goes, God plus one equals a majority. If you are facing a formidable challenge, don't be discouraged by a lack of resources. Be encouraged by the presence and promises of God.



“We never test the resources of God until we attempt the impossible.” 
F. B. Meyer

The revival starts with me...

adapted from a blog from Jimmy Proulx...

Have you ever been to a revival service?  From what I have seen they are a great way to fire up a community but I must say this… I do not thing that true revival can be scheduled on a calendar. To me, a revival is not a series of church services that take place in a church building over a period of four or five days. Revival can come out of the meetings but are not the meetings themselves.

God tells Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37 to prophesy to the dry bones. Verse 5 says, “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live.”

Revival has everything to do with life.

There are hearts in every church that are cold, hard, callous, resentful, bitter, guilt ridden, dry, and lifeless. Outside a move of Jesus upon those people, those people will not come to a state of conviction and repentance. This is a problem that can only be fixed by the prayers of intercession and supplication.

To pray for revival, means praying for change. The change has to start with the person doing the praying. For revival to take place in my community, that person should be me. For revival to take place in a church, community, city, state, etc., it has to start with prayer. I mean real prayer. Not your average minute and a half blanket prayer that you pray to cover your whole life for the day. This goes way deeper.

Prayer changes the person praying. Deep prayer causes you to understand that outside God doing work in your church or community, change will never come.

When true revival comes, it comes with the force of a tsunami. It brings with it the thunder and lightening of conviction and repentance. People will fall on their faces before God to confess and repent of sin in their lives. Lost people will come to know Jesus. People will have a hunger for the Word of God. People will want to become passionate, devoted disciples of Jesus.

The change that revival brings is uncomfortable. Real revival will reach inside you and destroy everything. You will be wrecked with a deeper understanding of the gospel and a more passionate relationship with Jesus. You will be purged of known sin. Your life, as you know it, will change to become more conformed to the image of Christ. The very act of this change is gut wrenching. When revival punches a person in their soul, it begins to remove layers of pain, baggage, guilt, sin and whatever else it needs to bulldoze to get that person in right standing with God.

Many people pray for revival. Many people pray for change. They want things to change as long as it is them that does not have to change. You cannot have one apart from the other.

Jeremiah says that the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately sick. I know that the closer I come to being conformed to Christ’s image, the more He reveals to me that is in me that needs redeeming.

Do you see? It is my thoughts, my heart, my plans, my desires, my actions, my relationships, my passions, my life that needs to be changed. I need more of God’s redeeming love, grace, and mercy to wreck me. I need to pray Romans 12:1-2 constantly that I may be both a living sacrifice and have my mind transformed by the infallible, inerrant, powerful, purging sword; God’s Holy Word.

When I change, my family changes.  When I change, the church changes.

For a country to be revived, a state has to be revived.
For a state to be revived, a city has to be revived.
For a city to be revived, a church has to be revived.
For my church to be revived, I must be revived.

Revival starts with me.