http://www.petalumabaptist.com 580 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, Petaluma, California, U.S.A. 94954 - Tel: 707.763.2277 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:03:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 ©Tom Marcum darryl@darrylsmith.us (Tom Marcum) darryl@darrylsmith.us(Tom Marcum) Christianity 1440 bible, christian, sermons, faith, study Sermons from the Senior Pastor Podcast are weekly recordings from Sunday sermons by Pastor Tom Marcum. PVBC is located at 580 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, Petaluma, California, USA 94954 and can be reached at (707) 763-2277. Tom Marcum Tom Marcum darryl@darrylsmith.us No no http://www.petalumabaptist.com/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/tom_marcum_144x144.jpg http://www.petalumabaptist.com 144 144 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1036 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1036#comments Sun, 09 May 2010 20:12:47 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1036 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=1036 0 34:33 She was a funny, gregarious, smart, hard working, impossible to ignore, delightful force to be reckoned with. She was the woman who shaped and ... She was a funny, gregarious, smart, hard working, impossible to ignore, delightful force to be reckoned with. She was the woman who shaped and influenced my life more than any other. She was my mom and she died 4 years ago, today. Just saying that brings tears to my eyes because I still miss her. And while everything Irsquo;ve just told you about her is true itrsquo;s also incomplete in one very important way: more than anything else, my mom loved the Lord with her whole heart, served Him with her whole life and she used the full force of her immense influence to lead her children to follow her example. And thatrsquo;s why, one of the most satisfying moments of my life came during my momrsquo;s funeral service when after reading these words from the 90th Psalm: ldquo;Teach us to number our days rightlyhellip; May the beauty of the Lord our God rest upon ushellip;,rdquo; I was then able to share this testimony: ldquo;My mom got it right. She listened as God guided her in how to use her days. And she got it right. I know she did because when I looked into her face I didnrsquo;t just see my momhellip;what I saw was nothing less than the beauty of the Lord resting on her.rdquo; Now, let me quickly add that that wasnrsquo;t always so in the moment. We went toe to toe more times than I can even begin to count. I still shudder when I close my eyes and hear her voice saying, --ldquo;Donrsquo;t you use that tone of voice with me young man.rdquo; --Or, ldquo;You just wait till your dad gets home.rdquo; I always hated that one. But I have long since come to realize that mom was smarter than I thought. And every few years I like to re-visit with you some of the words of wisdom that she impressed upon me. So, if this sounds familiar to some of you, I hope yoursquo;ll indulge me because the wonderful thing about wisdom is that stays true from generation to generation and it needs to be passed along. I canrsquo;t think very long about growing up under my momrsquo;s influence without hearing these dreaded words: ldquo;As long as you live in this househellip;rdquo; Does that ring a bell with anyone? I canrsquo;t even begin to tell you how much I hated those words. But I can tell you why. 3 Reasons: Number Onemdash;I hated them because they immediately ended whatever argument we were having. Number Twomdash;I hated them because they ended the argument in her favor. Number Threemdash;(and this was the worst) I hated them because I knew she was right. The bottom line here was real clear: Her househellip;her rules. I didnrsquo;t have to like them and I didnrsquo;t have to agree with them. Her househellip;her rules. And my options were equally clear: adapt or relocate. Folks, you just canrsquo;t get much clearer than that. What wasnrsquo;t clear to me at the time was the deeper lesson that she was teaching me. A lesson rooted in the word and the wisdom of God. It was a lesson designed to teach me the value of submission. Jesusrsquo; version of the lesson is found in Matthew 16:24, ldquo;If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.rdquo; Folks, thatrsquo;s a tough lesson. In fact, it just might be the toughest lesson of all. The very notion of self-denial, humility and submission are totally contrary to our human nature. Everything in us naturally compels us to always seek whatever it is that we want. And I, for one, resisted learning the ldquo;submission lessonrdquo; with all of my might. But I finally got it. Not perfectly and not completely, because this is a lesson that we have to confront over and over again every day. Nonetheless, I did finally get it and I want you to know that this lesson has yielded blessings in my life that I could never have imagined. --How incredibly liberating it has been to be freed of the burden of always having to get my own way. --What a delight it has been to discover that my happiness does not dep... Audio,Messages,,Psalms,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1032 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1032#comments Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:14:56 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1032 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=1032 0 45:10 If you were at our Good Friday service, you may remember that I shared with you a quote from C.S. Lewis. Writing about our tendency ... If you were at our Good Friday service, you may remember that I shared with you a quote from C.S. Lewis. Writing about our tendency to think smaller thoughts about ourselves than God thinks of us, he wrote, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." --Does that have the ring of truth to you? --Do you suppose that many people are settling for far less in life than God intended for them? --Do you suppose itrsquo;s possible that even good Christian folk like most of us could be settling for making mud pies in a slum when God is offering us a holiday at the sea? Is it possible that Godrsquo;s plans and purposes for our life are far bigger than wersquo;ve imagined? All of which leads me to the question that I want us to consider this morningmdash;How big is Godrsquo;s purpose for Your life? About 8 years ago I was blessed to be part of a team that we sent out from Petaluma Valley on a mission trip to El Salvador. El Salvador is an absolutely beautiful country blessed with an astonishing wealth of natural resources yet a staggering percentage of their people live at levels of poverty that most of us cannot imagine. One of the powerful memories that I will always carry from that trip occurred during a visit to a womenrsquo;s prison. The prison conditions were pretty much what you would expect of a prison in a third world country, what was unexpected were the children. Lacking any kind of a social safety net, girls who are abused or abandoned by their parents are put into womenrsquo;s prisons where they stay until they turn 18. So these young girls whorsquo;ve already been beaten up by life now find themselves incarcerated. Not surprisingly, there was a whole lot of sadness in that place. Our team had the opportunity to lead the girls in a time of worship and as I was sharing my simple sermon with them, my attention was drawn particularly to one young girl who seemed completely broken. She sat off to the side all by herself. I didnrsquo;t see her have any contact at all with any of the other girls. She was completely withdrawn and the sense of sadness in her eyes was all consuming. I learned later that she was brand new to the prison environment. When worship was over, I made my way directly to her. As I spoke to this precious but terribly damaged child my heart was breaking for her. All the while I was talking to her, I was also asking God to tell me what He wanted me to say to her. After several minutes I finally reached out and she let me take hold of her hands. As I did so, I drew her in close and looked into her beautiful but sad eyes and said, ldquo;Irsquo;m so sorry that I canrsquo;t fix everything thatrsquo;s broken in your life right now but I want you to know that God has not forgotten you. In fact, He brought me here all the way from California so that I could meet you and tell you that He loves you, that He will be with you every day that yoursquo;re here and you can absolutely trust Him to get you through this. Donrsquo;t ever forget that He made you, He thinks yoursquo;re beautiful and He will always love you.rdquo; PLANS AND PURPOSES FOR THE WHOLE WORLD I donrsquo;t know how things turned out for her but I can tell you how theyrsquo;ve turned out for me. I left that prison believing with all my hearthellip;and I still believe todayhellip;that Godrsquo;s plan and purpose for my life is bigger than I can possibly imagine. I am absolutely confident that God has called me to Petaluma Valley but because Godrsquo;s heart is for the whole world, I also believe that Godrsquo;s plan and purpose for me, for you and for us together includes the whole world. Last week we studied 1 John 4:14 which says that God, ldquo;sent his Son to ... 1,John,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1030 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1030#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:01:45 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1030 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=1030 0 30:25 I want you to imagine for a moment that yoursquo;re in the middle of a routine day when you suddenly begin to experience a very ... I want you to imagine for a moment that yoursquo;re in the middle of a routine day when you suddenly begin to experience a very pronounced pain on the left side of your chest.nbsp; As the pain lingers you begin to get a little bit worried but because it dissipates after a few moments yoursquo;re not overly concerned about it. But the next day it happens again.nbsp; In fact, this time the pain is much more severe--it radiates down your arm and is accompanied by a severe tightness in your chest and the symptoms last twice as long as they did the previous day.nbsp; So, even though yoursquo;ve got no history of heart problems, yoursquo;re now concerned enough to call your doctor and schedule an appointment to get things checked out. But when you call your doctor and tell him what happened he says, ldquo;You know what, therersquo;s no need to come inhellip;itrsquo;s probably nothing.nbsp; Itrsquo;s probably no big deal.nbsp; Yoursquo;re probably just fine.rdquo; Questionmdash;How many of you would be satisfied with that response?nbsp; That would be all that you needed to put your mind at ease?nbsp; Irsquo;m guessing that most of us in that situation would likely want a degree of assurance somewhat greater than, ldquo;Yoursquo;re probably going to be just fine.rdquo;nbsp; Irsquo;m guessing that if the very real possibility of a heart attack were hanging over our heads, most of us would probably push for some kind of a test that could validate whether or not wersquo;re actually OK. And thanks to the wonders of modern medicine, all kinds of those tests are now available. Wouldnrsquo;t it be great if there were similar kinds of tests that could measure our spiritual health and well-being? --I think Irsquo;m OK with God. --I certainly hope Irsquo;m OK with God. --You know, Irsquo;m probably OK with God. But because wersquo;re talking about my eternal destiny, here, it sure would be nice to move beyond just thinking, hoping and probably.nbsp; Wouldnrsquo;t it be great if there was some way to actually know that Irsquo;m OK with God? That Irsquo;m right where He wants me to be and even now Hersquo;s working out His purposes in my life. Wow, thatrsquo;s a test Irsquo;d take in a heartbeathellip;no pun intendedhellip;and Irsquo;m guessing you would, too. CHRIST IN YOU Over the past several weeks, Irsquo;ve spoken frequently about a spiritual reality that, on the one hand, absolutely defies our ability to completely comprehendhellip;itrsquo;s just too big a notion for these finite minds of ours to fully grasp and understandhellip; and yet, on the other hand, this same mind boggling spiritual reality is the indispensible key to experiencing the full, dynamic, abundant, eternal life that God desires for each and every one of His children.nbsp; Irsquo;m talking about Jesus actually living in us.nbsp; The Spirit of the risen Jesus living inside of us. Folks, I freely acknowledge that I canrsquo;t explain it completely but I also canrsquo;t deny that the Bible is absolutely clear about this.nbsp;nbsp; When we place our faith in Jesushellip;trusting that our sins have been completely forgiven because God accepted Jesusrsquo; death on the cross as payment for the penalty of our sinhellip;and we trust that Jesusrsquo; resurrection to eternal life guarantees our eternal lifehellip;when we trust Jesus in that wayhellip;the Bible says that the Spirit of the risen Christ comes to live in us. Not just near ushellip;but in us.nbsp; Through our faith in Christ, we are genuinely and substantively changed, not by a doctrine but by the spirit of the living, risen Christ who now lives in us. Thatrsquo;s the truth beneath that great scripture we read on Easter Sunday.nbsp; Galatians 2:20, which says, ldquo;I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.nbsp; The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.rdquo; Christ lives in me.nbsp; ... 1,John,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1028 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1028#comments Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:50:32 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1028 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=1028 0 29:02 One of the many fascinating stories in our nationsrsquo; history is found in a remarkable venture that beganhellip;as I was reminded a few days agohellip;150 ... One of the many fascinating stories in our nationsrsquo; history is found in a remarkable venture that beganhellip;as I was reminded a few days agohellip;150 years ago yesterday. On April 3, 1860, the Pony Express began delivering mail from St. Joseph, Mo., to San Francisco. The service charged $5 to carry a half-ounce letter across the continent, a price that was later reduced to $1. The logistics were nothing short of amazing. Relay stationsmdash;190 in allmdash;were established at an average distance of 10 miles. Ten miles is the most a horse can gallop without pause. Riders, who could not weigh more than 125 pounds, were permitted 20 pounds of personal gear (most of it water, plus a rifle and pistol) and carried 20 pounds of mail. The riders raced all-out to the next station, changed mounts on the run, and continued on for nine more stations, or another 90 miles. It took nearly 100 horses and a dozen riders to cover the 1,966 miles from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. But with the advent of the Pony Express, mail delivery that previously took 25 days by stagecoach (and prior to that, nearly six months by ship) took just 10 days. Even so, a mere 19 months after the Pony Express began it ceased to exist, in spite of the fact that in those 19 months it had lost only one mail pouch.nbsp; (I could easily insert a joke here about our current mail service but Irsquo;ll resist the temptation.) Still, the Pony Express was forced out of business when telegraph wires linked California with the East. As a result, messages could be transmitted for pennies instead of dollars and arrive in minutes instead of days. The Pony Express name and facilities were sold to Wells Fargo, and the bank used their symbol for most of the next century. What an amazing story.nbsp; And to think that it all began 150 years ago, yesterday.nbsp; I was captivated by the story when I read it a couple of days ago.nbsp; I was fascinated by the thought of those men galloping across all kinds of terrain in all kinds of weather, a hundred miles at a time.nbsp; The historical perspective momentarily enriched my appreciation for my life today.nbsp; And then I moved on. For a few moments, I reveled in the wonder of the story but then I went on with life unchanged in any lasting or significant way. And I share that story because wersquo;re all here today, obviously, on the anniversary of another amazing story.nbsp; The story of Easter.nbsp; Itrsquo;s a story thatrsquo;s captivated the hearts of people since it was first told some 2000 years ago.nbsp; And itrsquo;s easy to understand why because it truly is an amazing story. bull;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, was put to death on a cross and God accepted Jesusrsquo; death as payment in full for everyonersquo;s sin. bull;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; And three days later the crucified Jesus was resurrected, never to die again. bull;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; And everyone who believes in Jesushellip;that means everyone who acknowledges their sin and acknowledges their sincere desire to turn from their sin and trusts that their sins have been forgiven through Jesusrsquo; sacrificehellip;everyone who believes like that, will be saved. bull;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; And that means that their sins will be forgiven.nbsp; That God will fill them with His Spirit so they donrsquo;t have to keep on sinning.nbsp; They can live a genuinely new kind of life.nbsp; And they will live with Christ forever. Folks, thatrsquo;s an amazing story. But unlike the amazing story of the Pony Express, this one can change your life forever. And I want you to know that Irsquo;m not here, this morning, to revel momentarily in the wonder of the Easter story. Irsquo;m here to give praise and honor and glory to the risen Savior who has saved me; the risen Savior who has poured His life into mine; the risen Savior who has already and continues to change my life from the inside out; the risen Savior who lives in me! Irsquo;m here t... Audio,Messages,,John,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1015 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1015#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:32:07 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1015 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=1015 0 13:58 As far back as I can remember, Irsquo;ve always been fascinated with words. --I love the sound of words. --I love to learn new words. --I love to ... As far back as I can remember, Irsquo;ve always been fascinated with words. --I love the sound of words. --I love to learn new words. --I love to discover the ways in which a single word can be used to convey a variety of meanings. --I have great admiration for the wordsmiths among us; those folk who can put words together to form a sentence or phrase to perfectly and powerfully communicate their message. In fact, I spend hours every week working through that very process in preparing the messages that I share with you each Sunday. --And I also love to discover the ways in which the meaning of a particular word has changed with the passage of time. bull; For instance, the word, ldquo;awful.rdquo; If someone calls you this afternoon and asks, ldquo;So, tell me about Pastor Tomrsquo;s message, today?rdquo; and you respond, ldquo;It was awful,rdquo; that would not be heard as a compliment. But, in fact, the root upon which the word ldquo;awfulrdquo; is built is the word, ldquo;awe.rdquo; The word, ldquo;awfulrdquo; used to mean wonderful, delightful and amazing. It described something that was full of ldquo;awe.rdquo; With the passage of time, itrsquo;s now come to mean exactly the opposite. (So, from now on when you tell me my sermon was ldquo;awful,rdquo; Irsquo;ll just assume that you mean it in the original way.) bull; Another example is found in the word, ldquo;nice.rdquo; Today, most of us would be pleased to know that we are generally regarded as a ldquo;nicerdquo; person. But the word, ldquo;nice,rdquo; actually derives from a Latin word which means, ldquo;not to know,rdquo; and in the 13th century it was used to describe a person who was foolish or ignorant. It didnrsquo;t take on its current meaning until the 18th century. bull; And, one more example of meaning morph is found in the word, ldquo;buxom.rdquo; In the middle ages, if you described a person as ldquo;buxomrdquo; it meant that they were obedient and compliant. Describe a person as buxom today andhellip;wellhellip; we all know what that means. And itrsquo;s not compliant. The Palm Sunday Story So, the meaning of words can change as time goes by and sometimes understanding that change can give us greater appreciation for the word as we know and use it, today. And thatrsquo;s the case with a word that is central to the event upon which we are focusing this morning: Palm Sunday. While Palm Sunday is described in all four of the gospels it remains one of the least understood of all the major events during this momentous week in Jesusrsquo; life. So, letrsquo;s take a moment to read the story and then wersquo;ll go back and zoom in for a closer look at one particular word. Today, wersquo;ll read the story from Markrsquo;s gospel. In Mark 11:1-11 we read: 1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, 'Why are you doing this?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.' " 4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" 6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, nbsp;"Hosanna!" 
nbsp;"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!rdquo;
nbsp; 10"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!" 
nbsp;"Hosanna in the highest!" nbsp;11Jesus entered Jerusalemhellip; So, therersquo;s the Palm Sunday story in a nutshell. On Friday Hersquo;ll be crucified, but on ... Audio,Messages,,Mark,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1013 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1013#comments Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:27:19 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1013 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=1013 0 16:43 I want to do something, this morning, that I very rarely domdash;I want to encourage any of you who were not with us last Sunday, ... I want to do something, this morning, that I very rarely domdash;I want to encourage any of you who were not with us last Sunday, to visit our website and read or listen to the message from last Sunday. And I want you to do that because everything that we are going to be doing for the rest of the year will be growing out of the story that I shared last Sunday. I went back 3 frac12; years and traced the specific ways that God has been moving among us, one step at a time, to weave us into His unfolding story at Petaluma Valley. Thatrsquo;s why itrsquo;s so important for us to know this story and know it well, because itrsquo;s NOT the story of what wersquo;re doing for God. Itrsquo;s the story of what God is doing with, in, among and through us right here, right now at Petaluma Valley. Proverbs 29:18 says, ldquo;Where there is no vision, the people perish.rdquo; Thatrsquo;s the King James translation of the verse. But, as I said last week, I think, for our ears, the clearest expression of the verse is found in Eugene Petersenrsquo;s paraphrase, The Message, which says: ldquo;If people canrsquo;t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.rdquo; --When people see what God is doing, they can unite as one people to participate in Godrsquo;s work to His glory. --But when the people canrsquo;t see what God is doing, they end up going their own way, pursuing their own agendas and stumbling all over themselves. But therersquo;s no need for any of us to be stumbling all over ourselves because we know what God is doing among us and Hersquo;s inviting us to do it with Him. And herersquo;s the shortened version of what God is doing among usmdash;again, you can read the full version in last weekrsquo;s message: --For 3 frac12; years God has been growing us into A House of Prayer. Wersquo;ve always been a church that prays but God is taking us deeper in our prayer lives. Prayer is becoming the lifeline that weaves its way through everything that we do. God is in the process of transforming us from ldquo;a church that praysrdquo; into ldquo;A House of Prayer.rdquo; In fact, many of those who were with us in prayer this past Friday night sensed that we took another significant step in that direction as God led us through the process of asking, seeking and knocking in agreement that Rick Astle had taught us in our recent prayer conference. --And as wersquo;ve been growing in our prayer lives, wersquo;ve been growing in our ability to discern Godrsquo;s voice. So, responding to Godrsquo;s call we are pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God. God is stirring within us a passion to want more of Him and His guiding, empowering, transforming presence in our lives more than we want anything else. --Then, with our eyes clearly focused on God, we are also responding to Godrsquo;s call by pressing on with the work that Hersquo;s given us to do. bull; Teaching people to rightly understand and apply the scriptures to their lives. bull; Leading people in dynamic and vibrant worship experiences. bull; Providing opportunities and equipping people to serve God with the gifts that Hersquo;s given them for that very purpose. bull; Connecting people in the kinds of relationships that encourage each other to keep growing spiritually. bull; And on and on it goes. --And while some of that work happens right here, last year, we heard God sending us out to the people in our community. We canrsquo;t wait for them to come to us, God is calling us to go out to them. So, wersquo;re going out. Wersquo;re going out with the specific intent of being the loving presence of Jesus wherever we go and wersquo;re starting with our neighbors. The people closest to us. bull; Wersquo;re praying for them. bull; Wersquo;re caring for them; asking God to give us opportunities to demonstrate the love, the kindness, the compassion of Christ to them. bull; And wersquo;re watching for God-given opportunities ... Audio,Messages,,Hebrews,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1001 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1001#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:16:34 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1001 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=1001 0 35:38 You may remember that I shared a message with you a couple of weeks ago that was rooted in this observation: that everyone has a ... You may remember that I shared a message with you a couple of weeks ago that was rooted in this observation: that everyone has a story. What we see on the surface of the person with whom wersquo;re speaking is just thatmdash;the surface. Beneath that surface, therersquo;s always a story. Everyone has a story. And we talked, in that message, about some of the reasons that knowing those stories is important. And whatrsquo;s true of individuals is also true of families. Every family also has a story. And those family stories are important becausehellip; --Our family stories give each family a unique identity. --Our family stories add layers of depth and significance to our sense of belonging to our family. --Sometimes our family stories even help protect and hold the family together. If yoursquo;re going to fully realize the blessing of belonging to a family itrsquo;s important to know the family story. And whatrsquo;s true of each of us individuallyhellip;and each of our familieshellip;is also true of the church. Every church has a story. And those stories are incredibly important becausehellip; --They help us understand why a church functions the way it functions and values the things it values. --They give each church its own unique identity --And letrsquo;s make it real personal now: Knowing the story of Petaluma Valley fills the ministry, the mission and the relationships that wersquo;re engaged in today with a heightened sense of excitement and significance because it helps us recognize that God has woven us into His unfolding story at Petaluma Valley. Thatrsquo;s ultimately why we need to know this story. Itrsquo;s not so much the story of our church. Itrsquo;s the story of what God is doing in His church at Petaluma Valley. Proverbs 29:18 is among the most quoted of all the verses in the Old Testament. Itrsquo;s usually quoted in the King James Version which says, ldquo;Where there is no vision, the people perish.rdquo; The NIV translates the same verse like this: ldquo;Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.rdquo; But I think, for our ears, the clearest expression of the verse is found in The Message, which says: ldquo;If people canrsquo;t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.rdquo; If people canrsquo;t see what God is doing, they donrsquo;t sit around and do nothing. Lacking a vision of what God is doing they get really, really busy doing their own thing, following their own vision, stumbling all over themselves in a desperate attempt to build their own kingdom and then as an afterthought they will oftentimes pray, ldquo;Dear God, please bless what Irsquo;ve done.rdquo; --Folks, we donrsquo;t want to stumble all over ourselves. --We donrsquo;t want to substitute our business, our agendas or our vision for what God is doing. --We donrsquo;t want to simply to be busy for God. We want to be actively involved in what God is doing among us. We want to be written in to Godrsquo;s story at Petaluma Valley. And itrsquo;s an awesome story because it speaks to Godrsquo;s greatness and it gives God glory. So, on this first Sunday after last weekendsrsquo; Prayer Conference, I want to tell the Petaluma Valley story once again because prayer has been at the very heart of this story. Now, while the Petaluma Valley story actually began well over 50 years ago, the current chapter of our story begins about 3 frac12; years ago when I sensed God calling us to become A House of Prayer. Thatrsquo;s the first page of the Petaluma Valley story. As Rick Astle reminded us just last weekend, Jesus didnrsquo;t say that His house would be a house of committee meetings, a house of music or even a house of preaching. What he said, in Matthew 21:13 is this: ldquo;My house will be called a house of prayerhellip;rdquo; And when God spoke that word into my heart, I knew immediately that if Petaluma Valley was going to beco... Audio,Messages,,Proverbs,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=999 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=999#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:50:24 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=999 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=999 0 25:16 After 33 years of home ownership, Irsquo;ve just had my very first experience with an aspect of home ownership that is fraught with the potential ... After 33 years of home ownership, Irsquo;ve just had my very first experience with an aspect of home ownership that is fraught with the potential for headaches and nightmares: replacing the backyard fence. And the reason itrsquo;s a potentially explosive experience is because backyard fences are typically built directly on the property line which means that they are jointly owned by multiple neighbors. And that means that you canrsquo;t just make a unilateral decision about replacing your fence. You have to negotiate this decision with your neighbors. --Can we all agree on the need for a new fence? --Can we all agree that this is the right time to build the new fence? --Can we all agree on which contractor we should use? --Can we all agree on what materials we should use? --Can we all agree on the percentage of the total cost that will be borne by each neighbor? Every one of those decisionshellip;and many othershellip;hold the potential for disagreement and strife between neighbors. So I couldnrsquo;t help but smile when I realized that after 33 years of home ownership I was finally facing this particular challenge for the very first time at the exact moment when God had gripped my heart with a compelling call for ushellip;the Petaluma Valley Familyhellip;to intentionally be the loving presence of Christ to our neighbors. I just hate it when God makes me practice what I preach. But I think I must have done OK because the contractor, after watching me work through a couple of potentially dicey issues with two different neighbors, later came to me and said, ldquo;I want to be your neighbor.rdquo; I first shared this vision with you back in December and for the last two Sundays Irsquo;ve been speaking to it again. Irsquo;m convinced that God is calling us right now to live in the neighborhoods in which He has planted us with the specific intent of sharing the love of Jesus with the people closest to us, our neighbors. You focusing on your neighbors and me focusing on mine. And Irsquo;m also convinced that Hersquo;s shown us how to do it through 3 simple steps captured in the 3 words: PRAYER. CARE. And SHARE. --First, wersquo;re going to pray for our neighbors. Wersquo;re going to come regularly into Godrsquo;s presence on behalf of our neighbors. Wersquo;re going to ask God to bless our neighbors. Wersquo;re going to seek Godrsquo;s heart and will for our neighbors. In short, wersquo;re going to talk to God about our neighbors before we talk to our neighbors about God. Praying for our neighbors is really that simple. --Wersquo;re also going to care for our neighbors. Wersquo;re going to care for our neighbors by looking for opportunities to demonstrate Jesusrsquo; love for them in some simple and tangible ways. We want to live the kind of life that invites our neighbors to be touched by the love of Jesus flowing through us. Last week, we noted that Jesus lived a very inviting, attractive kind of life. People were attracted to Jesus because everything he did or said flowed from a heart of love. People were attracted to Jesus by his kindness and compassion. They were attracted to him by his humility and his servant spirit. They were attracted to him because they sensed that if they approached him, he would welcome them. And our neighbors will be attracted to Jesus when they experience his love flowing through us. --So, wersquo;re going to pray for our neighbors and wersquo;re going to care for our neighbors. Finally, wersquo;re going to be alert for God-given opportunities to share the gospel with them. God-given opportunities to tell our neighbors something about our experience with God. Something about Godrsquo;s heart for them. Thatrsquo;s the vision that wersquo;re going to be following throughout the year. Two weeks ago, we focused on the prayer component of our action plan. Last week, we focused on the care component of our action plan. This morning, I want us... 1,Peter,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1008 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1008#comments Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:57:12 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=1008 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=1008 0 36:28 Four weeks ago the pastorrsquo;s of the City Ministries churches gathered in Inverness for our annual Pastorrsquo;s Retreat. Itrsquo;s a time for us to ... Four weeks ago the pastorrsquo;s of the City Ministries churches gathered in Inverness for our annual Pastorrsquo;s Retreat. Itrsquo;s a time for us to worship, fellowship and review the previous yearsrsquo; events and prayerfully seek Godrsquo;s heart for the new year. This year, for the first time, we invited an outside guest to come and speak to us. His presence turned out to be one of the highlights of the event. Mel Grams is bumping up against 80 years but yoursquo;d never know it. Mel is vibrant and engaging and still fully engaged in ministry as a volunteer in the church he attends. And Mel is no stranger to Petaluma. Mel was the pastor at Adobe Christian Center when Bob Carroll was the pastor here at Petaluma Valley and it was in the hearts and minds of Bob and Mel that God birthed the vision of Petalumarsquo;s pastors, across denominational lines, gathering together every week for prayer and worship. So, in a sense, Mel was coming home as he met with us at our retreat but, even more significantly, God was blessing this faithful servant with the opportunity to see and experience firsthand the fruit of both his and Bobrsquo;s labor all those years ago. And along the way, God also blessed us with the message that Mel shared. He told us that after 20 years in the ministryhellip;20 years of pastoring, counseling and teachinghellip;20 years of hard work and tireless effort to succeed at the highest levels of ministry, God completely upended his world with a single question. It was the question raised by Jesus in Luke 6:46: ldquo;Why do you call me, lsquo;Lord, Lord,rsquo; and not do what I say.rdquo; Mel said that he was completely broken by that question as he realized that so much of his striving and so much of his effort and so much of his labor and so much of his energy over the previous 20 years of ministry had been directed toward goals and pursuits of his own choosing. He was always busy. He was always doing good things. And people were applauding his efforts. But somewhere in the midst of all of his striving and busyness hersquo;d stopped listening to the Lord. And God broke him with that realization. So, he stepped back from all the busyness that was his life and he invited Jesus to come and truly be the Lord of his lifehellip;and not just the Lord of some of his life but the Lord of all of his life. And as he waited and listened, he said, the Lord not only told him what to do but gave him a new passion to do it. A passion that is alive and well today. From that point on, Mel said that the consuming passion of his life has been this: ldquo;To touch lives with the presence of God in what I am, what I do and what I say.rdquo; No more striving for place and position. No more concern about bigger and grander. No more interest in being busy for God. He said, ldquo;I just want to live the kind of life that invites people to be changed by the presence of God.rdquo; And he said all these years later, hersquo;s happier, more at peace and more fulfilled than hersquo;s ever been at any other time in his life. And as I listened to the wisdom of this grand old man, I found myself quietly saying, ldquo;Oh, God, thank you, thank you, thank you. You are so very, very good to me.rdquo; Because I realized that through Mel, God was confirming the vision that He had spoken to me weeks earlier. The vision that I first shared with you back in December and then readdressed last Sunday. A vision that is calling us out of the church and out of our homes and in to our neighborhoods to be Godrsquo;s presence to the people closest to us, our neighbors. I am absolutely convinced that God is calling us to live in the neighborhoods in which He has planted us with the specific intent of sharing the love of Jesus with our neighbors. Me focusing on my neighbors and you focusing on yours. Last week we reminded ourselves that when Jesus was asked to identify the greatest of all the com... Audio,Messages,,Luke,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=993 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=993#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:40:23 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=993 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=993 0 25:45 One of the experiences that is seared indelibly into my memory from all of those years ago when I was a young seminary student occurred ... One of the experiences that is seared indelibly into my memory from all of those years ago when I was a young seminary student occurred in the middle of what was typically a rather forgettable class. The class met at 8:00 a.m., which meant that many of the students were not yet fully awake and to top it all off, the professorrsquo;s favorite teaching technique was to deliver an hour longhellip;generally boringhellip;lecture. All of which meant that the challenge of simply staying awake could be daunting. And from time to time, one of the students lost the challenge. Usually, the dozing student was able to rouse himself back to consciousness before getting caught. But itrsquo;s really hard to avoid detection when yoursquo;re dozing off on the front row. Itrsquo;s even harder to avoid detection when you move from dozing off to being sound asleep on the front row. And thatrsquo;s what happened to a fellow student one morning. He wasnrsquo;t just nodding off. He was sawing logs. He was out cold. And he was on the front row. And when the professor saw him, he went ballistic. He slammed his hand down on the studentrsquo;s desk. The student was immediately jolted into full consciousness and into the middle of a vicious professorial tirade the likes of which I had never seen. --The professor questioned the studentrsquo;s commitment to the ministry. --He reminded him that attending seminary was a high calling and honor and that giving anything less than our very best effort was an offense against God. In short, he chewed him up and spit him out. And when he was finished, he told the student to pick up his belongings and go home. And with that the demoralized student stood and slowly left the roomhellip;a room which had become very, very quiet and very, very still. And then something completely unexpected happened. While the professor was still taking a few moments to compose himself, one of the students raised his hand. The rest of us were all thinking, ldquo;Have you lost your mind?rdquo; But there he was with his hand up in the air. When the professor noticed him he asked, ldquo;What is it?rdquo; The student said, ldquo;Well, I feel like I should tell you that Jim (that was the name of the sleeping student) and his wife have just had a baby and the baby is not doing well. In fact, it looks like hersquo;s not going to make it. Either Jim or his wife have been with the baby in ICU all the time and the one whorsquo;s not there is home taking care of their two other young children. Theyrsquo;re both worried sick and totally exhausted. In fact, Jim came directly to class, this morning, after spending all night at the hospital.rdquo; Now, let me ask you a question. Do you suppose that professor would have handled that situation differently if hersquo;d been aware of Jimrsquo;s story? Of course, he wouldrsquo;ve. --I can imagine him pulling Jim aside before the class even started and saying, ldquo;Irsquo;m so sorry for what yoursquo;re going through. Would you mind if the class prayed for you, this morning?rdquo; --I can imagine him gently waking Jim up and saying, ldquo;Why donrsquo;t you go home and get some sleep. Irsquo;ll have one of your classmates bring his notes to you this afternoon.rdquo; I can imagine a dozen other scenarios. What I cannot in my wildest dreams imagine is the professor responding the way that he did, if he had known Jimrsquo;s story. Because the truth is that all of us interact with and relate to people differently when we know their story. So, do you suppose therersquo;s a lesson somewhere in there for us? I think there are probably several but herersquo;s the big one that God forever drove home to me through that experience all of those years ago: EVERYONE HAS A STORY. No exceptions. Beneath the exterior that we can see with our eyes, there is always a story. As you look around the room, right now, one of the things yoursquo;l... Audio,Messages,,John,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=991 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=991#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:36:45 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=991 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=991 0 31:07 I want to begin this morning by asking you what I think would have to be the most fundamental of all the questions that we ... I want to begin this morning by asking you what I think would have to be the most fundamental of all the questions that we could possibly ask at this particular time and in this particular place, namely, ldquo;What are we doing here?rdquo; Why have we gathered together in this place, this morning? If we had the time for an open discussion, Irsquo;m sure that we would discover that a broad array of factors contributed to our presence here: --I wanted to see my friends. --I wanted to hear the sermon. --I enjoy singing the songs. --I sense Godrsquo;s presence in this place. --I like the free coffee. --Or maybe it was as simple as: itrsquo;s Sunday morning and I always go to church on Sunday morning. Irsquo;m sure that each of those and many other factors contributed to our being here this morning. So, now that wersquo;re here what is it primarily and most essentially that we do here? The answer ishellip;WORSHIP. Lots of things will happen here over the course of this morning and hopefully most of them will be good things. But only one of those things is the most important thing. The most important thing that we do here this morning is worship. We have gathered together, first and foremost, to worship our God. Wersquo;ve come together to declare Godrsquo;s worth. Thatrsquo;s the bare bones, stripped down to its essence meaning of ldquo;worship.rdquo; When Christians gather together for worship, we do so for the purpose of affirming and declaring the supreme worth of our God. Christian worship is both a personal and a corporate affirmation of our unwavering conviction that God Himself is the greatest treasure of life and that we have reserved and secured for Him the unrivaled first place in our life. In worship we declare that every other value in our life is at best second to the incomparable treasure that we have found in God. If that declaration is not made in the ldquo;worship service,rdquo; then we have not worshiped. --We may have sung some songs but worship is not singing songs. --We may have enjoyed some time with our friends but worship is not getting together with our friends. --We may have heard a good sermon but worship is not listening to a good sermon. Worship is the affirmation and declaration of the unrivaled treasure that we have found in God. The songs, the fellowship and the sermons are only valuable in worship if they help us recognize and declare the supreme worth of God. If they stop doing that then we should stop doing them! Everything in the worship service is there for one primary purpose: to help us recognize and declare that God is higher, greater, more valuable and above all else. All of which leads me to the primary question that I want us to consider, this morning, namely, Why do we include the Lordrsquo;s Supper within our time of worship? And the answer is: Because it helps us affirm and declare the unrivaled treasure that we have found in God. And I want us to spend the rest of our time together, this morning, talking about how it does that. Letrsquo;s begin, by reading a very familiar passage of scripture from Paulrsquo;s letter to the Corinthians. A passage that speaks directly to the meaning of The Lordrsquo;s Supper. In 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Paul writes this: (23) For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, (24) and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ldquo;This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.rdquo; (25) In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ldquo;This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.rdquo; (26) For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lordrsquo;s death until he comes. Now, the first thing that I want us to notice, here, is that while The Lordrsquo;s Supper is incredibly significant, the supper itself is incredib... 1,Corinthians,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=981 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=981#comments Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:59:21 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=981 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=981 0 40:57 I donrsquo;t know how many of you saw this as it happened but an extraordinary exchange took place on a couple of very prominent news ... I donrsquo;t know how many of you saw this as it happened but an extraordinary exchange took place on a couple of very prominent news shows this past week. I call them extraordinary because you donrsquo;t often hear the Christian faith discussed in such forums in such a clear, passionate and genuine way. Veteran news reporter, Britt Hume, was at the center of both of the exchanges. The first took place last Sunday morning in a roundtable discussion on one of the weekly news shows as the topic turned to Tiger Woodsrsquo; recent and very public downfall and the follow up exchange took place the very next night on The Orsquo;Reilly Factor as Bill Orsquo;Reilly asked Brit Hume to explain more fully the point of his comments. Herersquo;s what happened. Brit Hume Tells O'Reilly: Tiger Woods Needs Something Christianity Provides - 01/04/10 Now, I showed that extended segment from the show because I thought you would find it interesting on a lot of different levels and in the hope that it might spark some good conversations over your lunch but I want to focus your attention specifically, this morning, on what Brit Hume was saying about the blessing that comes from knowing that yoursquo;ve been truly and completely forgiven. One of the most beloved public figures of our days has crashed and burned morally before our eyes. And he is, as Brit Hume said, ldquo;paying a frightful price for these revelationsrdquo; about his behavior. Hersquo;s already lost a number of his endorsementshellip;which means future earningshellip;but far more significantly, as Hume also pointed out, he may also have lost his family. And unless hersquo;s just been completely faking his love for his wife and his children, hersquo;s got to be in tremendous pain. So, against the backdrop of all of that Hume offers what he believes to be a message of hope and restoration, saying, ldquo;If Tiger Woods were to make a true conversion we would know ithellip;it would show through in his beinghellip;and he would know it above allhellip;(then, herersquo;s the line that really jumped out and grabbed my attention)hellip; and he would feel the extraordinary blessing that that would behellip;and it would be a magnificent thing to witness.rdquo; I love the way that Brit Hume said that. He captures in that line what I have personally experiencedhellip;the extraordinary blessing of knowing that yoursquo;ve been forgiven. Fully and completely forgiven. Have any of you experienced the blessing of forgiveness? If so, can you relate with Brit Humersquo;s description of, ldquo;the extraordinary blessing of forgiveness.rdquo; Last week, we gathered around the Lordrsquo;s Table and took a very serious look at the seriousness of our sinfulness and the extraordinary price that Jesus paid to secure the forgiveness of our sin. I want to continue that discussion, this morning, by looking at the path that we must walk in order to receive that forgiveness and the extraordinary blessing that Godrsquo;s forgiveness brings. And let me just go ahead and tell you up front that the path that leads to the extraordinary blessing of forgiveness is called, ldquo;confession.rdquo; Let me also tell you that wersquo;re going to be guided, this morning, by the example David. Wersquo;ve been studying the life of David with the men on Tuesday nights for several weeks now. For those of you who havenrsquo;t been with us, let me refresh your memory with a very condensed version of his story. As our story begins, God is searching for a successor to Israelrsquo;s King Saul. His search ends in the most unlikely of places. David is a shepherd, a musician and the youngest son of Jessersquo;s 8 boys. Once selected, however, the spirit of God came upon David in a mighty way. David would rise to become a national hero as a great military commander and, after Saulrsquo;s death, David was anointed as Israelrsquo;s king. Itrsquo;s an incredible story of success. Sadly, David... Audio,Messages,,Mark,,Philippians,,Psalms,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=904 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=904#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:32:16 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=904 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=904 0 39:02 Over the last couple of weeks, Irsquo;ve been telling you of the passion that God has recently ignited in my heart to faithfully and fully ... Over the last couple of weeks, Irsquo;ve been telling you of the passion that God has recently ignited in my heart to faithfully and fully engage in the work of protecting the sweet spirit of fellowship that God has created among us within the Petaluma Valley Family and also among our extended family through the fellowship we share with the 14 churches of City Ministries and also to urge and equip you to join me in this grand cause.nbsp; And, to that end, wersquo;ve now identified 5 very specific action steps that each of us can do to nurture and protect and strengthen our fellowship. We looked, first, at 1 Thessalonians 2 where we identified four actions steps: The first is to be gentle in all our dealings with one another because a gentle spirit nurtures fellowship. The second is to share our lives with one another.nbsp; That means letting each other in not only on the wonderful things that are going on in our lives but also on our struggles.nbsp; When we share our hardships and heartbreaks with one another wersquo;re not burdening each other, wersquo;re functioning the way that God designed the church to function.nbsp; Wersquo;re making it possible to experience real fellowship. The third action step is to pay serious attention to the purity of our lives.nbsp; When we invite sin into our lives, we inevitably bring that sin with us into the corporate life of the church.nbsp; And thatrsquo;s never a good thing because sin is a fellowship breaker.nbsp; Holiness is a fellowship builder. The fourth action step that we identified is to encourage each other to live the lives to which God has called us.nbsp; Practically speaking, that means that every time we come to churchhellip;whether itrsquo;s for a large group experience like this or a small group experiencehellip;we come with the specific intent not only of getting a blessing out of the time we have together, but of being a blessing to someone else. It means that we come to church looking for opportunities to encourage someone else to keep pressing in and keep pressing on.nbsp; And it also means that when we leave church and reflect on the experience the primary question that we need to ask is not, ldquo;How did Pastor Tom do, today,rdquo; or ldquo;How did the worship team do, today,rdquo; but rather, ldquo;How did I do, today?rdquo;nbsp; ldquo;Did I encourage someone, today?rdquo; Then, last week, we focused on 2 different passages of scripture: Ephesians 4:29 and 1 Peter 2:9.nbsp; And in weaving those two passages together we identified a fifth action step that we can take to protect and strengthen our fellowship.nbsp; Itrsquo;s an action step that is rooted in the recognition that because our relationships are greatly influenced by the way we talk to one another, we need to carefully monitor our conversations. To that end, we identified this standard as the goal toward which we want to strive in every conversation that we have with each other: I want to speak only those things that give grace to Godrsquo;s people and glory to God.nbsp;nbsp; I want people to receive my words as gifts of grace and I want God to receive my words as gifts of praise to His glory.nbsp; What a blessing to be a part of a church family filled with that kind of conversation! Now, obviously, giving this level of attention to our church family relationships is going to take some effort.nbsp; This does not come easily or naturally.nbsp; Itrsquo;s going to take discipline.nbsp; In fact, itrsquo;s going to take the kind of discipline that is sustained by focus and genuine passion.nbsp; And, as Irsquo;ve recently told you, the spark that ignited in me this passionate focus on protecting our fellowship occurred while I was attending a Prayer Conference hosted by my friend Rick Astle in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago. As we moved around Myrtle Beach he pointed repeatedly to churches that had recently experienced a fellowship shattering split.nbsp; As a result friends that had b... 1,John,,Audio,Messages,,General,,Mark,,Matthew,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=839 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=839#comments Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:26:14 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=839 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=839 0 51:26 A couple of years ago, I read a remarkable little book called, The Priority of Kingdom-Focused Prayer. I was so impacted by that book ... A couple of years ago, I read a remarkable little book called, The Priority of Kingdom-Focused Prayer. I was so impacted by that book that I invited the author, Rick Astle, to lead our 2nd Annual Prayer Conference this past spring. While Rick was with us, I asked him over breakfast one morning for a list of prayer-minded authors and speakers with whom I should be acquainted. He quickly identified several people and I was well acquainted with all but one of themmdash;Richard Owen Roberts. So, when our Prayer Conference ended, I decided to find out what I could about Richard Owen Roberts. I discovered that Richard Owen Roberts has traveled the world for the last 50 years preaching a message of spiritual awakening and revival born of repentance, holiness and prayer. I found recordings of a handful of his sermons and quickly decided that I wanted to hear him in person and that I should do so quickly because he wasnrsquo;t getting any younger. It took some doing but I eventually discovered that he was going to be leading a prayer conference in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You can imagine my delight when I discovered shortly thereafter that the prayer conference was going to be hosted by my good friend, Rick Astle. So, thatrsquo;s why I was gone last week. My buddy Bob Hope and I attended that prayer conference and it was awesome. What an amazing experience to hear Richard Owen Roberts preach. This slight, frail, elderly man who spoke so quietly in casual conversations in the car and over meals that we had to strain to hear what he was saying was absolutely transformed into an unstoppable force when he preached. And when he preachedhellip;he preached. An hour and a half at a time, stopping not so much because he was finished but because it was getting so latehellip;and because he had already preached through the scheduled breakhellip;and, because we were coming back after the break to hear the second half of his sermon. It was truly a remarkable experience. And, as if meeting and listening to Richard Owen Roberts wasnrsquo;t blessing enough, we were doubly blessed to reconnect with and stay in the home of Rick and Donna Astle. It was our first chance to meet Rickrsquo;s wonderful wife, as well as his son, John, and I cannot imagine a sweeter time. I came home excited, uplifted and refreshed. I also came home rejoicing that Petaluma Valley is my home. I am so glad that God has called me here because in the midst of all of this outpouring of blessings, there were also some genuinely sad moments. --As Rick drove us around Myrtle Beach, I was not surprised to see one grand church after another everywhere we wenthellip;after all, we were in the buckle of the Bible Belt. What did surprise me was Rickrsquo;s commentary about so many of those churches, namely, ldquo;This church split 5 years ago. This church split 3 years ago. This church split 2 years ago. This church is in the middle of a split, right now.rdquo; On and on it went. One church fellowship after another torn apart by all manner of in fighting. It just broke my heart. --Whatrsquo;s more, as I talked about the wonderful spirit of unity that God has grown and continues to grow among the churches of Petalumahellip;specifically the 14 of us who are the churches of City Ministrieshellip;Rick told me that there was nothing even mildly approaching that spirit of unity between the churches in his area. In fact, he said that on those occasions when hersquo;s able to get several of the local pastors into the same place for some function, they immediately break up into little clusters and have nothing to do with the pastors outside of their little clusters. Again, it just broke my heart. --And as for the place of prayer in all of this? Rick is directly connected in a vital working relationship with 70 churches in Myrtle Beach. All 70 of the pastors of those churches were encouraged to attend the Prayer Conference this last weekend and to bri... 1,Thessalonians,,Audio,Messages,,General,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=825 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=825#comments Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:40:44 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=825 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=825 0 31:05 From 1969-1973 Charles Colson held one of the most powerful positions in the world of American politics: Special Counsel to the President and he was ... From 1969-1973 Charles Colson held one of the most powerful positions in the world of American politics: Special Counsel to the President and he was absolutely ruthless in wielding that power. Known widely as the White House ldquo;hatchet man,rdquo; Colson was feared by even the most powerful of politicians. A prominent member of the media once described Colson as a man ldquo;incapable of humanitarian thought.rdquo; In 1974 Colson pleaded guilty to Watergate-related charges and became the first member of the Nixon administration incarcerated for crimes committed in the Watergate debacle. Interestingly, when Colson entered Alabamarsquo;s Maxwell Prison in 1974 he did so as a brand new Christian. Colsonrsquo;s conversion so shocked those who knew him that the Boston Globe wrote, ldquo;If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for anybody.rdquo; Those whorsquo;ve watched him since have no doubt that his conversion was genuine. This tough as nails hatchet man has been totally transformed by the love of Jesus Christ. Since his conversion he has dedicated his life to sharing that love with others. And he has a special love for those in prisons and the family members of those prisoners. After his release from prison he founded, in 1976, Prison Fellowship Ministries. Still leading that organization today, it has become the worldrsquo;s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners, crime victims and their families. Prison Fellowship Ministries now includes a network of more than 50,000 prison ministry volunteers. Angel Tree, one of Prison Fellowshiprsquo;s many ministries gives Christmas presents to more than 500,000 children of incarcerated parents and offers a summer camping ministry, in partnership with local churches, to those same children. And, amazingly, all of this is being done under the direction of a man once described as ldquo;incapable of humanitarian thought.rdquo; In addition to his work with Prison Fellowship Ministry, Colson has also authored more than 20 books, which have sold millions of copies. He also hosts a daily radio commentary called, ldquo;BreakPoint.rdquo; Airing on more than 1,000 radio stations nationwide, Colson uses the commentary to help people engage the world from a biblical perspective. Colson has also become one of the most sought after public speakers in the country. In 1993 he received the prestigious Templeton Prize for progress in religion. A prize, which includes a cash gift of $1 million. Yet, this man ldquo;incapable of humanitarian thought,rdquo; refuses to profit from any of his success. Every dollar he earns through his book sales, his speaking engagementshellip;even the $1 million Templeton prizehellip;every dollar is donated to his Prison Fellowship Ministry. Colson allows the ministry to pay him the modest salary of a mid-range ministry executive. I absolutely love the story of the complete transformation of Charles Colsonrsquo;s life because of the many lessons that it teaches us about the heart of God, about His power to change us and about the kind of relationship that He longs to have with us. This morning, as we prepare to come to The Lordrsquo;s Table, I want to call your attention to 3 of those lessons... hellip;the first of which is this: Nothing you have done in your past can keep God from loving you. Folks, burn that truth into your mind. Write it into your permanent memory. Settle this one, once and for all, because this is a life-changer: Nothing you have done in your pasthellip;absolutely nothinghellip;can keep God from loving you. Folks, itrsquo;s an astounding insight into the heart and character of God that cannot help but profoundly impact for the good everyone who gets it. One who clearly got it was the Apostle Paul. Listen to what he writes in 1 Timothy 1, beginning at verse 12: ldquo;I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to hi... 1,Timothy,,General,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=823 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=823#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:28:23 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=823 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=823 0 42:53 Under the category of ldquo;Things Irsquo;ve Learned about Human Nature,rdquo; Irsquo;ve added this observation: I see things differently as my focus changes. I can ... Under the category of ldquo;Things Irsquo;ve Learned about Human Nature,rdquo; Irsquo;ve added this observation: I see things differently as my focus changes. I can see the same thing today that I saw yesterday and it will look differently to me if my focus has changed. Let me give you a simple example of what Irsquo;m talking about. After years of home ownership I found myself, a few years ago, facing for the very first time the challenge of having a new roof put on our house. As I did so, I quickly discovered that even though I had lived my entire life surrounded by houses covered by roofs, Irsquo;d never really noticed them. Irsquo;d never considered the fact that roofing materials come in a dazzling array of compositions and color combinations. Up until then, a roof was just a roof. But now that mine had to be replaced and our contractor left us with brochures of a seemingly endless choice of color combinations, I started noticing roofs. Irsquo;m driving through the very same neighborhoods Irsquo;ve driven through a hundred times before but now Irsquo;m looking at roofs. Irsquo;m actually slowing down to focus my attention on roofs. --ldquo;Oh, I like that color combination.rdquo; --ldquo;Ah, that doesnrsquo;t really work for me.rdquo; --ldquo;Nice roof color but it clashes with the color of the house.rdquo; Suddenly, I had gone from being ldquo;roof-obliviousrdquo; to ldquo;roof-centric.rdquo; The houses were just as they had always been but because my focus had changed I saw them differently. Irsquo;ve noticed a similar change in me as a result of our extended focus on Godrsquo;s glory these last few months. Irsquo;ve become a more ldquo;glory-focusedrdquo; person. Irsquo;ve become ldquo;glory-centric.rdquo; And I love the change. And Irsquo;m hoping that yoursquo;re beginning to notice a similar change in yourself. Irsquo;m hoping that yoursquo;re becoming a more ldquo;glory-focusedrdquo; person, as well. Because, as wersquo;ve seen over these past months, as Godrsquo;s children, thatrsquo;s why wersquo;re here. Wersquo;re here to protect and declare the glory of God. Wersquo;re here to live the kinds of lives that help the people around us see the greatness of our God. And thatrsquo;s really the essence of what wersquo;re talking about when we talk about Godrsquo;s glory. Everything that accurately reveals any aspect of Godrsquo;s heart and character is an expression of Godrsquo;s glory. If it helps people to see that God is good, loving, kind, pure, holy, powerful and creativehellip;it if helps people get a glimpse of who God really is then itrsquo;s an expression of His glory. And thatrsquo;s why Irsquo;m hoping that wersquo;re all becoming glory-focused people and that we are all beginning to see some tangible and positive ways, that this focus on Godrsquo;s glory is impacting our lives. Let me give you an example of what Irsquo;m talking about. I had breakfast this week with a guy who is clearly becoming a more glory-focused person. And he said to me, ldquo;Every few days my wife looks at me with a big smile on her face and says, lsquo;You are a changed man!rsquo; And, Pastor Tom, shersquo;s right. And it just keeps getting better every day.rdquo; Folks, thatrsquo;s what happens as we become glory-focused people. God gets the glory that He deserves through the changes that Hersquo;s accomplishing in us. And those same changes that Hersquo;s accomplishing in us that give Him glory ALSO make our lives better every day. We end up being blessed through the very changes that are giving Him glory. And that brings us to the text wersquo;re going to examine this morning. It gives us a beautiful example of the process that I just described: God accomplishing a change in our lives that leads to Him receiving glory and us being greatly blessed. Our text is Romans 16:25-27; the closing verses of Paulrsquo;s amazing letter to the Romans. Paul has taken 16 ch... Audio,Messages,,General,,Romans Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=808 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=808#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:32:48 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=808 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=808 0 42:53 What a blessing, today, to finally see with our eyes what we have previously seen only with the eyes of faithmdash;the rising of our new ... What a blessing, today, to finally see with our eyes what we have previously seen only with the eyes of faithmdash;the rising of our new Pavilion to claim our courtyard as a new venue for all kinds of ministry. To this point in time wersquo;ve been praying about it, planning for it and giving toward it and now that we can actually see it happening we just canrsquo;t help but be filled with gratitude to God for His goodness and faithfulness. I feel the same sense of gratitude to God as I see the wonderful way that He continues to answer the prayers that we have been lifting for the last 3 years, to grow our church into A House of Prayer. We can now look back across that period of time and mark specific steps that God has led us to take in answer to that prayer requestmdash; forming a Prayer Action Team, hosting an annual Prayer Conference, creating a Prayer Room, establishing first a monthly then a weekly prayer meeting on Friday nights, and soon the creation of a beautiful Prayer Garden. God has been so faithful to answer our prayers throughout this process and wersquo;re so, so grateful. And in the midst of growing us into A House of Prayer, Hersquo;s also been revealing to us a new vision and a new assignment. It started a couple of years ago with a vision of Pressing in and Pressing on. Pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God and Pressing on with the work that Hersquo;s given us to do. Then, as an outgrowth of our most recent Prayer Conference we sensed God giving us a new, outwardly focused assignment. And He gave us a new daily prayer to guide us into that new assignmentmdash;God, lead me, today, to someone whose heart has been opened by you and let the Good News of Jesus shine through me. And with that new assignment our vision expanded from Pressing in and Pressing on to Pressing in, Pressing on and Going out! And now, over the last few months, God has called us to focus on His glory. Wersquo;ve talked about declaring Godrsquo;s glory and protecting Godrsquo;s glory. Wersquo;ve seen that, in fact, we were saved for the purpose of making Godrsquo;s glory known. And I sense that God has now given us the final component of His vision for usmdash;Pressing in, Pressing On and Going out to the glory of God! Now, this morning, I want to talk with you about why I believe that these Prayer Walks that we have recently begun to take through our surrounding neighborhoods are an important next step for us as God continues to grow Petaluma Valley into A House of Prayer and as we continue to follow the vision that God has given us. The text wersquo;re going to examine, today, is one we last studied a little over a year and a half ago. So, if some of this sounds familiar, it means that yoursquo;ve got a very good memory. But itrsquo;s worth revisiting this text because the lessons here are profound and because I want, today, to help you see an additional lesson that we didnrsquo;t even mention on our previous journey. The text is 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 and as wersquo;ll soon see, Paul is writing, here, to the Christians in Corinth specifically to ask them to pray for him. Beginning in verse 8, Paul writes: (8) ldquo;We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. (9) Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.rdquo; So, Paul is somewhere within the province of Asia doing the work that God had called him to do, in a thoroughly hostile environment. In fact, the suffering and the pressure were so intense that he realized that there was simply no way that he could endure it on his own. So, here is Godrsquo;s faithful servant suffering to the extreme because of his faithful service. Now, folks, why would God allow one of His most faithful servants to go through such extreme hardship and suffering? Where... 2,Corinthians,,Audio,Messages,,General,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=765 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=765#comments Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:28:15 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=765 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=765 0 40:14 In the weeks leading up to last weekendrsquo;s Bible Conference, we had been talking at some length about the glory of God because it is ... In the weeks leading up to last weekendrsquo;s Bible Conference, we had been talking at some length about the glory of God because it is critically important for us, as Godrsquo;s children, to get this right. Why? Because, as wersquo;ve discovered, God is very serious about His glory and He expects us to be serious about His glory as well. ldquo;GLORYrdquo; DEFINEDmdash;Now, just to make sure that wersquo;re all starting on the same page this morning, letrsquo;s briefly remind ourselves that the word, ldquo;gloryrdquo; speaks of all of the many ways by which God makes Himself known to us. --Jesus revealed Godrsquo;s glory because He helped us see that God is good, loving, kind and gracious. --The Bible reveals Godrsquo;s glory because it helps us see that God is pure, righteous, eternal and holy. --Godrsquo;s creation reveals Godrsquo;s glory because it helps us see that God is awesome, mighty, powerful and creative. In short, everything that accurately reveals any aspect of Godrsquo;s heart and character is an expression of His glory. So, it shouldnrsquo;t surprise us to learn that God is very serious about His glory because it speaks of Him. OUR MANDATEmdash;So, with all of that providing us a foundation upon which to stand as we consider Godrsquo;s glory, we canrsquo;t help but be both greatly encouraged and greatly sobered as we discover, in the Scriptures, that God has given to every one of His children the mandate to live our lives in such a way that we make His glory known. 1 Peter 2:9 says it like this, ldquo;You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to Godhellip;(for this reason)hellip; that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.rdquo; And what that means for us as children of God, is thismdash;first, God called us out of the darkness of this world and set us apart to be His distinct, holy people and claimed us as His own and then immediately sent us right back into that same sin-darkened world so that we could spend the rest of our lives here declaring His praises or making His glory known. That is our God-given mandate. Itrsquo;s why wersquo;re here. Itrsquo;s why He saved us. We exist to make Godrsquo;s glory known. And, as I said a couple of weeks ago, this mandate conveys to us a two-fold obligation. --Our first obligation is to declare His glory. To intentionally live our lives in such a way that the people who are watching us get accurate glimpses of Godrsquo;s heart and charactermdash;His kindness, His compassion, His mercy, His love, His generosity, His goodness, and so forth. We are to declare Godrsquo;s glory through both our spoken testimonies to Godrsquo;s greatness and also the unspoken testimony of a daily life that consistently, intentionally and accurately reflects that heart and character of God. So, our first obligation in making Godrsquo;s glory known calls us to declare His glory. --Our second obligation is to protect Godrsquo;s glory. God does not expect non-believers to protect His glory, but He most certainly expects that His own children will protect His glory. How do we do that? Well, that was the focus of my message 2 weeks ago but, in short, we protect Godrsquo;s glory by treating every expression of His glory as the holy, precious, priceless treasure that it is. Folks, we donrsquo;t ever want to be guiltyhellip;whether itrsquo;s through willful disobedience or casual carelessnesshellip;of doing anything that would in any way diminish, tarnish or obscure Godrsquo;s glory. Wersquo;re here to magnify His glory. So, we come back, now, to where we started, namely, that God is very serious about His glory and we need to be serious about His glory, as well. Now, I told you a few weeks ago that, as you grow in the discipline of being a ldquo;glory focused person,rdquo; you will discover that the number of situations that you deal with every day th... 1,Corinthians,,Audio,Messages,,General,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=750 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=750#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:29:34 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=750 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=750 0 44:00 We have been talking for several weeks and from several different angles about the glory of God. Along the way I have said that ... We have been talking for several weeks and from several different angles about the glory of God. Along the way I have said that there is no greater matter about which we could be talking. Why? Because, from Godrsquo;s perspective, the single most important matter of all is His glory. God is very serious about His glory and as the children of God we must also take the matter of Godrsquo;s glory very seriously. And wersquo;ve been trying to do just that over the last several weeks. And because we will be turning our attention next weekend to our First Annual Conference on Biblical Authority under the most able leadership of Dr. Rick Melick, I want, today, to close the loop on our discussion of Godrsquo;s glory by summarizing just a few of the most salient points from our previous messages and then introducing one final thought about Godrsquo;s glory for our focus today. GLORY DEFINEDmdash;And letrsquo;s start with the most fundamental of those points, namely, what exactly are we talking about when we talk about ldquo;Godrsquo;s glory.rdquo; Essentially, the word, ldquo;gloryrdquo; speaks of all of the many, many ways by which God makes Himself known to us. Everything that reveals any aspect of Godrsquo;s perfect character and being is an expression of His glory. So, even though we canrsquo;t see God Himself with our eyes because God is invisible God has, nonetheless, made it possible for us to get to know Him by revealing to us glimpses of His glory. For instance, --Jesus revealed Godrsquo;s glory because He helped us see that God is good, loving, kind and gracious. --The Bible reveals Godrsquo;s glory because it helps us see that God is pure, righteous, eternal and holy. --And, as we recently saw in our study of Psalm 19, Godrsquo;s creation also reveals Godrsquo;s glory because it helps us see that God is awesome, mighty, powerful and creative. So, when we talk about Godrsquo;s glory we are talking about everything that accurately reveals God as He really is. GLORY IN CREATIONmdash;A second major point that we made about Godrsquo;s glory is that since God is constantly revealing His glory to us through His creation (and we know thatrsquo;s true because PSALM 19 tells us that, ldquo;day after dayrdquo; and ldquo;night after nightrdquo; Godrsquo;s creation is constantly talking to us) we should pay attention. It is inconceivable to think that God would give a voice to His creationhellip;empower it to cover the world with that voice and then NOT give it a message that was worth hearing. No, God is speaking to us through His creation because He wants to bless us through that message. Bless us with joy, hope, encouragement and an ever-increasing knowledge of God. And all of that simply means that we need to grow in our ability to hear the message of Godrsquo;s glory that is constantly being spoken to us through His creation. DECLARING GODrsquo;S GLORYmdash;A third major point that we made about Godrsquo;s glory is that we were saved for the purpose of declaring Godrsquo;s glory. 1 Peter 2:9 says that we were saved to, ldquo;hellip;declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.rdquo; Ephesians 1:14 says that God chose us, adopted us, redeemed us, forgave us and saved us to this end: that we would be, ldquo;to the praise of His glory.rdquo; Now, folks, what all of that means is that God moved to accomplish our salvation so that our entire lives would be living testimonies of praise to the beauty, the majesty and the wonder of Godrsquo;s glory. Itrsquo;s why He saved us. GODrsquo;S GLORY PROGRESSIVE SALVATIONmdash;Now, I want to expand on that point by asking you a question and I want to set it up like this: The scriptures make it clear that the salvation that God is accomplishing in us is a progressive salvation. It works like this. --The moment we place our faith and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and making right our... Audio,Messages,,Numbers,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=711 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=711#comments Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:01:47 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=711 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=711 0 31:14 Six years ago I walked through one of the major transition periods of my life as I turned 50 years old.nbsp; Intellectual honesty forced me ... Six years ago I walked through one of the major transition periods of my life as I turned 50 years old.nbsp; Intellectual honesty forced me to finally let go of the illusion of youth.nbsp; By any reasonable definition, I was now middle-aged and wrapping my mind around that reality was a bit of a struggle.nbsp; And at one point my struggle led me to have this conversation with my wife.nbsp; I said, ldquo;Sweetie, I realized a couple of days ago that if I donrsquo;t have my mid-life crisis soonhellip;itrsquo;s going to be too late.rdquo; Irsquo;ll never forget Stirlingrsquo;s response.nbsp; She asked, ldquo;Does this crisis involve a blonde?rdquo;nbsp; I said, ldquo;No.rdquo;nbsp; She said, ldquo;Great. Have a good time.rdquo;nbsp; And a short time later I was the proud owner of my very first ldquo;rigrdquo;: a big diesel truck and an even bigger 5th wheel trailer to pull behind it. When I called my trucker buddy Kevin to tell him what Irsquo;d done, he invited me to lunch.nbsp; And once I got there, I quickly discovered that this was a lunch with a purpose.nbsp; Kevin wanted to give me a quick tutorial in RV trucker 101.nbsp; He walked me through a whole series of RV trucker rules to keep me safe and happy.nbsp; And this was one of the rules: He said, ldquo;Remember that the 1st word in RV is lsquo;recreational.rsquo; If it stops being a source of pleasure and just becomes another source of stress, yoursquo;re doing something wrong.nbsp; So, before you ever pull out onto the highway, remind yourself:nbsp; lsquo;Irsquo;m in my RV.nbsp; Irsquo;m not in a hurry.nbsp; This is all about pleasure, relaxation and recreation.rsquo;rdquo; I tell you what, if Irsquo;d have known then how valuable his counsel would prove to be, Irsquo;d have bought his lunch.nbsp; Folks, virtually every time I go camping, two things happen: #1mdash;I have a great time.nbsp; Things may break.nbsp; Things may not work out like Irsquo;d planned.nbsp; But I have a great time. #2mdash;I seehellip;or hearhellip;a fellow RVrsquo;er who has clearly lost sight of the ldquo;Rrdquo; in ldquo;RV.rdquo; Their campsite is filled with all kinds of anger, arguing and fighting.nbsp; The one thing missing is the recreating and thatrsquo;s the main thing. And as I look and listen in to the sorry condition of their campsite, I canrsquo;t help but say a quiet ldquo;thank yourdquo; to Kevin for his wise counsel encouraging me to stay focused on the main thing. I spent some time earlier this week reflecting on the counsel that God has been speaking to us over the past several weeks and months, I couldnrsquo;t help but notice His repeated call to stay focused on the main thing.nbsp; And for us, the children of God, there is no doubt that the glory of God is the main thing. God has recently reminded us repeatedly and powerfully, that we exist for His glory. A couple of months back, we looked at 1 Peter 2:9 which describes us, Godrsquo;s children, like this: ldquo;You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to Godhellip;rdquo; --God took the initiative to choose you and in so doing instantaneously filled your life with meaning, significance and value. Godhellip;chosehellip;youhellip;and made you one of His people. --He also made you one of His priests.nbsp; You are a part of a royal priesthood.nbsp; Through Christ, you have immediate access to God, 24/7, without having to go through any other human mediator because you are a priest. --And as a priest you not only have immediate access to God, you also have the incredible honor of serving God in both worship and ministry. --He chose you.nbsp; He made you a priest.nbsp; He also made you holy.nbsp; That words means, ldquo;set apart.rdquo; He called you out of the sinful darkness of the world and set you apart to be distinctly His.nbsp; Yes, we still live in the world but we are no longer of the world. --We belong to God.nbsp; And as we saw in our study a ... 1,Peter,,Audio,Messages Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=709 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=709#comments Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:55:33 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=709 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=709 0 37:47 So, I was thinking, a few days ago, about a trait or a tendency that seems to be hard-wired into our human nature, namely, our ... So, I was thinking, a few days ago, about a trait or a tendency that seems to be hard-wired into our human nature, namely, our ability to miss the obvious.nbsp; I can speak from personal experience, here, and say that this tendency is certainly hard-wired in me.nbsp; And, Irsquo;m guessing, that most of you could give the same testimony. I think thatrsquo;s why, for instance, there are so many clicheacute;s or proverbial statements that speak to this human tendency. ldquo;Sometimes we donrsquo;t see the forest for the trees.rdquo;nbsp; Translationmdash;sometimes, we miss the obvious. ldquo;I looked all over the house and there it was hiding in plain sight.rdquo;nbsp; Translationmdash;sometimes, we miss the obvious. ldquo;If it had been a snake, it would have bit me.rdquo;nbsp; Translationmdash;sometimes, we miss the obvious. I mean, am I the only one here whorsquo;s ever wandered around the house looking for my glasses only to discover that theyrsquo;rehellip;where?nbsp; Right there on my face?nbsp; Therersquo;s a reason that old sayings hang around long enough to get old.nbsp; And the reason is, theyrsquo;re rooted in the truth.nbsp; And, the truth is, that oftentimes we are completely oblivious to the obvious. And that brings me to the scripture that I want us to consider, todayhellip;Psalm 19 and its unequivocal assertion that the heavens declare the glory of God.nbsp; Folks, we live every day of our lives underneath the heavens.nbsp; And Godrsquo;s word says that the heavens are declare Godrsquo;s glory. Question: How long has it been since you heard what the heavens are saying? Question: How long has it been since you looked up into the sky and heard the wonders of Godrsquo;s glory? Psalm 19, as wersquo;ll see in just a moment, says that God is constantly speaking to us and ministering to us through these heavenly declarations of His glory. Isaiah 55 says that God never speaks in vain.nbsp; Godrsquo;s word always accomplishes the purpose for which God sends it.nbsp; So, if God is speaking we know itrsquo;s for a purpose. And the whole record of the scripture tells us that God is 100% for us.nbsp; He is totally committed to and constantly working for our good. So, when we put all of that together, I have to believe that if God is constantly revealing His glory to us from the skies, it must be for our good.nbsp; He must want us to get the message because He knows that it will bless us and minister to us.nbsp; Hersquo;s speaking a message of hope, joy, encouragement and comfort. What a tragedy it would be to be a child of God and to miss the obvious. My hope, today, is that God will open our eyes, our ears, our hearts and our minds to the heavenly declarations of His glory? Now, before I go any further, I want to take just a moment to define that word, ldquo;glory.rdquo;nbsp; Essentially, the word, ldquo;gloryrdquo; speaks of all of the many, many ways by which God makes Himself known to us.nbsp; Everything that reveals any aspect of the perfection of Godrsquo;s character and being is an expression of His glory.nbsp; So, God is good, powerful, loving, kind, gracious, holy and righteoushellip;just to name of few of His attributeshellip;and everything that helps us to see and understand those things about God reveal His glory. --So, Jesus declared Godrsquo;s glory because He helped us to see that God is good, loving, kind and gracious. --The scriptures declare Godrsquo;s glory because they help us to see that God is pure, righteous, powerful and holy. --And, according to Psalm 19, the heavens also declare Godrsquo;s glory; we can learn a lot about the wonders of God by listening to the heavens. So, letrsquo;s jump into the Psalm, now, and see what it has to teach us.nbsp; Psalm 19:1-4, says, 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.nbsp;2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is ... Audio,Messages,,Psalms Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=706 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=706#comments Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:49:29 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=706 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=706 0 18:48 A few years ago a reporter from Channel 7 news in San Francisco called me to see if I would be willing to be interviewed ... A few years ago a reporter from Channel 7 news in San Francisco called me to see if I would be willing to be interviewed concerning my thoughts on a breaking national news story.nbsp; I agreed and a couple of hours later the news crew showed up and suddenly it was ldquo;lights, camera, action.rdquo;nbsp; As we sat down in the auditorium, I thought I was pretty well ready for whatever he might ask me but, in fact, his very first question caught me completely off guard. As the camera began to roll, he turned to me asked, ldquo;Pastor, what do you believe?rdquo; I hesitated for a brief moment as I attempted to formulate a cogent response and finally said, ldquo;Thatrsquo;s a pretty broad question, Jim, could you be just a little more specific?rdquo; He said, ldquo;Sure.nbsp; Yoursquo;re a Christian.nbsp; Summarize your basic beliefs for me in two sentences.rdquo; I donrsquo;t remember exactly what I said but I do remember being very glad that we werenrsquo;t broadcasting live.nbsp; ldquo;Summarize your basic beliefs in two sentences.rdquo; What kind of a question is that?nbsp; Irsquo;ll tell you what I thought at the time. I thought it was an unfair question.nbsp; But upon further reflection, Irsquo;ve changed my opinion.nbsp; Given the opportunity by an interested non-believer, it seems to me that every Christian ought to be ready on a moments notice to give a concise, summary statement of their most basic beliefs.nbsp; Whether itrsquo;s a 5 minute answerhellip;a 2 minute answerhellip;or a 2 sentence answer, as was my challenge, it seems to me that every Christian ought to be prepared to offer some kind of meaningful answer to such an inquiry. So, herersquo;s my question or you: could you do so?nbsp; If a non-believer were to stop you without warning this afternoon and say, ldquo;Hey, yoursquo;re a Christian, arenrsquo;t you? In 2, tell me what do you believe?rdquo;nbsp; Could you give them a clear and cogent response?nbsp; Or would you do like I did a few years ago and just kind of stumble and bumble your way around for a while. I think there are actually a wide variety of perfectly acceptable ways to answer a question like that.nbsp; This morning, I just want to give you one.nbsp; And the foundation for my response is found in the Romans 10:9-13.nbsp; Follow along as I read it. 9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentilemdash;the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." So, what does that mean?nbsp; In a nutshell what it means is simply this, Jesus saves.nbsp; Those verses tell us that Jesus saves everyone who can truthfully and wholeheartedly make the following two statements: I believe that Jesus is Lord. I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. Folks, this is the heart, the soul and the substance of our confidencehellip;our faithhellip;as Christians.nbsp; We believe, based on the clear teaching of Godrsquo;s word, that if you can truthfully and wholeheartedly make those two statements then you, in fact, are saved. --Saved from hellmdash;which is to spend all of eternity aware of the fact that you are separated from Godrsquo;s presence forever. --And saved to experience eternal life with God in heaven. According to Godrsquo;s word, your position on those two issues will determine your eternal destiny.nbsp; So, letrsquo;s be real clear about exactly what you are saying when you can make those statements. First, when you say, ldquo;I believe that Jesus is Lord,rdquo; you are making a statement about the nature of Jesusrsquo; relationship wit... Audio,Messages,,Romans,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=701 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=701#comments Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:03:43 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=701 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=701 0 31:41 My buddy Dan just returned from a week at Boy Scout Camp with his son and I had the opportunity to talk with him about ... My buddy Dan just returned from a week at Boy Scout Camp with his son and I had the opportunity to talk with him about it a few days ago. Beyond the bug bites and dust and endless hikinghellip;most of it up hill he shared a story that touched me deeply. Dan was talking to a young camper when the boy launched into a lengthy litany of his momrsquo;s shortcomings. One complaint after another. When the boy finished his complaining, Dan said, ldquo;So, tell me something good about your mom.rdquo; The boy said, ldquo;What?rdquo; Dan said, ldquo;Well, there must be something about your mom that you like.rdquo; And the boy said, ldquo;Oh, yeah. Shersquo;s a good cook and shehellip;rdquo; and on and on it went. When the boy finished, Dan asked him how things were going for him at camp. Immediately, the boy launched into a laundry list of all the things he didnrsquo;t like about camp. When he finally finished Dan said, ldquo;So, tell me something you like about camp.rdquo; The boy said, ldquo;What?rdquo; Dan said, ldquo;Well, surely therersquo;s something about camp that yoursquo;re enjoying?rdquo; And the boy said, ldquo;Oh, yeah. I love my shooting class and I lovehellip;rdquo; And on and on it went. They talked a while longer and then Dan said, ldquo;Listen, never forget that you get to choose the way you tell your story. You can focus on the bad stuff or you can focus on the good stuff. Both sides are true. But remember, you get to decide how you tell your story.rdquo; Folks, thatrsquo;s a great lesson. If the only thing that boy remembers from camp is that lesson, camp was well worth the price of admission. Thatrsquo;s a life changer. Get that lesson settled as a young person and it will literally change the course of your life. And while that lesson is true at all times, I think itrsquo;s especially valuable during these times. And by, ldquo;these times,rdquo; Irsquo;m talking about the genuinely shaky economic times in which we are living. --Home foreclosures and jobless rates are at record-breaking levels. --Many of those who still have jobs are keenly aware of the tenuous nature of those jobs. --People are selling homes and cars just to make ends meet. --California is dead broke, the national debt is sky-rocketing and many are predicting that United States is now sprinting towards bankruptcy. And itrsquo;s now become painfully clear that the so-called economic experts are not. These are tough, tough times. Most of us have never seen anything like this. People are worried. You can hear it their words. You can sense it in their attitudes. You can see it in their faces. Uncertainty. Fear. Worry. Itrsquo;s palpable. And, itrsquo;s also real. We know itrsquo;s real because wersquo;re living it. --Some of you have lost your jobs. --All of us have friends and loved ones whorsquo;ve lost their jobs. --Most of us have recently watched yearshellip;even decadeshellip;of investments disappear almost over-night. Make no mistake about itmdash;the challenges that we are facing are real. But I want say something to youhellip;my dearly loved church familyhellip;this morning. And that is that therersquo;s something else that also real and we need to remember it. And that is that you and you and you andhellip;ldquo;You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.rdquo; (1 Peter 2:9) Questionmdash;Are we going through tough times? Absolutely. Questionmdash;Are we a people belonging to God? Absolutely. Questionmdash;How do you want to tell your story? Itrsquo;s your choice. --If you want to tell a story that rings of despair and hopelessness and how unfair life has been to you, you can do it. --If you want to tell a story that is indistinguishable from the woeful tales told by those whorsquo;ve lived their... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Psalms,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=757 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=757#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 04:14:10 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=757 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=757 0 39:42 Sermon Text to Come. Sermon Text to Come. Audio,Messages,,Luke Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=694 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=694#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:02:02 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=694 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=694 0 52:16 As many of you know, I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home under the guidance of wonderful Christian parents who intentionally nurtured ... As many of you know, I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home under the guidance of wonderful Christian parents who intentionally nurtured me toward faith in Christ through the testimony of their daily lives and our active involvement in all phases of the life of our church. And their effort was rewarded when, at the age of 11, I asked Jesus to forgive my sins, come into my life and be my Savior. And I absolutely believe that I was saved through that experience.nbsp; But the truth is, my day-to-day life as an 11 year old growing up in a thoroughly Christian home did not go through a dramatic change as a result of my new relationship with Jesus. --I got up the next morning and went to school. --I continued to do my best to keep my classmates entertained. --I continued to spend quality time in the principalsrsquo; office, doing my best to keep him entertained. --I continued to go to be actively involved in church. --I continued to live in the knowledge that I was safe and secure in the love of both my parents and my God. My childhood salvation experience did not produce dramatic changes in the way I lived my daily life.nbsp; And my experience has been that that is often the case in the lives of young children who come to know Jesus. But I had another significant encounter with God when I was 16.nbsp; And it was in that encounter with God that I first began to move beyond the point of simply believing in God to the point of yielding my life to God.nbsp; I began to recognize, for the first time, that my life was not primarily about me.nbsp; My life was about God.nbsp; God had plans and purposes that He was working out in the world that were bigger than my life buthellip;and this was what was really exciting to mehellip;the plans and purposes that God was working out in the worldhellip;included me.nbsp; I was a part of Godrsquo;s strategic plan to accomplish His purposes in the world.nbsp; That revelation absolutely blew me away.nbsp; And from that point forward, my life changed dramatically. And the scripture that God used to open my eyes to the wonder of my place in Godrsquo;s purposes was 1 Peter 2:9, ldquo;You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.rdquo;nbsp; Godrsquo;s plans included me.nbsp; I could hardly believe it.nbsp; God chose me.nbsp; I belonged to God.nbsp; And He had a plan for memdash;I was to live my life declaring His praises. I was pumped.nbsp; I couldnrsquo;t wait to get started.nbsp; So herersquo;s the way a fired up, 16-year-old ldquo;declarer of Godrsquo;s praisesrdquo; got started. One of the most popular television shows of the dayhellip;and a personal favorite of minehellip;was: ldquo;The Mod Squad.rdquo;nbsp; Do you remember Linc, Julie, Pete and Captain Greer?nbsp; I loved that show and watched it faithfully.nbsp; And the first thing that I did to jump into my newly discovered purpose as a ldquo;declarer of Godrsquo;s praises,rdquo; was to put a bumper sticker on my car that boldly said, ldquo;The God Squad.rdquo;nbsp; I began to live each day with an abiding and exciting sense that I was on an assignment from God. Now, that was nearly 40 years ago.nbsp; And my life has changed significantly in those 40 years.nbsp; But do you know what hasnrsquo;t changed?nbsp; I still belong to God.nbsp; His plans still include me.nbsp; And I am still working each day on the same assignmentmdash;to declare the praises of Him who called me out of darkness and into his wonderful light. And, folks, if you belong to Godhellip;if God has set you apart from the world and set you apart for Himselfhellip;His plans also include you.nbsp; Herersquo;s your assignmentmdash;You are here to declare the praises of the God who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. As people belonging to God, Godrsquo;s desire for each of us is that the peop... 1,Peter,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=677 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=677#comments Sun, 31 May 2009 22:23:46 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=677 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=677 0 00:01:01 If yoursquo;ve been with us these past couple of weeks, you know that God has taken us on a wonderful journey into the book of ... If yoursquo;ve been with us these past couple of weeks, you know that God has taken us on a wonderful journey into the book of 1 Peter. Two weeks ago, we focused our attention on our purpose as Godrsquo;s children. Moving verse by verse through all of chapter 1 and the first third of chapter 2, we identified 12 things that Christ has accomplished for every Christian.nbsp; These are 12 specific things that Jesus has already accomplished, not for some, but for every Christian. Herersquo;s what we discovered. Our precious Lord Jesus has
hellip;filled us with a living hope;
hellip;Hersquo;s secured our eternal inheritance in heaven;
hellip;Hersquo;s filled us with a new life that is protected by God; hellip;Hersquo;s filled us with joy that is too grand for words to adequately express; hellip;Hersquo;s filled us with love for a Savior that wersquo;ve never seen; hellip;Hersquo;s filled us with the absolute certainty that the salvation that God has now begun in us will one day be completed; hellip;Hersquo;s revealed the Gospel that makes salvation possible; hellip;He gave up His life so that we could live eternally; hellip;He committed Himself to our salvation before we were even born; hellip;He ignited in us the faith that made it possible for us to believe in God; hellip;Hersquo;s cleansed us so that we can love each other with a pure love; hellip;and Hersquo;s made us a holy priesthood to serve God and serve one another. And, again, Jesus has not done all of that for some of Godrsquo;s childrenhellip;hersquo;s done it for all of Godrsquo;s children.nbsp; If you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus as your Savior, then every single one of those statements is absolutely true of you.nbsp; Christ has already accomplished all of that for you. Which brings us to this critically important question:nbsp; Why?nbsp; Why did Jesus do all of that for every one of Godrsquo;s children?nbsp; And the answer is found in verse 9 of chapter 2.nbsp; He did it so, ldquo;that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.rdquo;nbsp; He did it so you can walk through doors that God has opened to let the Good News of Jesus shine through you.nbsp; He did it so that you would shout Godrsquo;s praises from the mountaintops and the sidewalks.nbsp; And that becomes an easy, joyful assignment when we remember everything that God has done for us. So, thatrsquo;s our purpose.nbsp; Wersquo;re here to declare Godrsquo;s praise. Then, last week, we shifted our attention from our purpose to our identity.nbsp; Focusing on just 2 verses, 1 Peter 2:9-10, we identified 5 key attributes that should help every Christian rightly answer the question: ldquo;Who are you?rdquo; Herersquo;s what we found: #1 You are chosen.nbsp; The fact that God chose you means that your life is significant.nbsp; And that you are a part of Godrsquo;s chosen people means that you belong. #2nbsp; You are also a priest. Every child of God is a priest and that, primarily, means 2 things:nbsp; 1st, it means that you have direct access to God and, 2nd, it means that you are a minister. #3 You are also holy.nbsp; You have been called out of the world and set apart for God. Your life is to be focused on and lived for God. #4 You belong to God.nbsp; God not only owns you but as we learned last week, He also cherishes you. And, finally, you are the recipient of Godrsquo;s mercy.nbsp; Your place in Godrsquo;s family is not secured by your worth but by Godrsquo;s mercy. So, as the children of God, who are we?nbsp; How about this for an answer: We are chosen. We are priests. We are holy. We belong to and are cherished by God. And we are extravagantly mercied by God. What an amazing time wersquo;ve had in just the first section of this little book called 1 Peter.nbsp; Now, today, wersquo;re going to move into the second section of the book which begins at verse 11.nbsp; And, once again, wersquo;re ... 1,Peter,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=671 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=671#comments Sun, 24 May 2009 16:00:44 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=671 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=671 0 00:01:01 I had one of the stranger experiences of my life a few months ago right here in little old Petaluma.nbsp; Herersquo;s what happened.nbsp; In the ... I had one of the stranger experiences of my life a few months ago right here in little old Petaluma.nbsp; Herersquo;s what happened.nbsp; In the middle of a hot day I ran into a convenience store to grab a cold drink and as I was pulling out of the parking lot I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, a woman waving her hands at me, indicating that she wanted me to stop.nbsp; I hesitated for just a moment trying to figure out what was going on and, based largely on the womanrsquo;s appearancehellip;forgive me for judging her but it appeared to me that she might be a working girlhellip;I decided that the wisest choice of action was to keep right on going.nbsp; So, I did.nbsp; I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street and proceeded to make a quick left turn at the corner to go on about my business. But as I was heading up the street, I looked into my rear view mirror and noticed that the woman had stepped out into the street and was continuing to try and flag me down. I continued on toward my next appointment but also continued to try and make sense of what had just happened and as I did so another scenario emerged in my head.nbsp; Maybe Irsquo;d been hasty in my judgment.nbsp; Maybe something of value had fallen out of my truck as I headed into the convenience store and this woman, trying to be a Good Samaritan, had picked it up and was simply trying to return it to me. Well, these various scenarios continued to swirl in my mind for the next few moments and I finally decided to go back and try to find out what was going on.nbsp; So, I turned the truck around and drove back to the convenience store but the woman was gone.nbsp; I thought, ldquo;Well, thatrsquo;s the end of that.rdquo;nbsp; But then I saw her walking through the parking lot across the street.nbsp; So, I took a deep breath and drove over to that parking lot and parked my truck about 100rsquo; in front of her in the direction toward which she was walking. For a few moments, she didnrsquo;t notice me but then she looked up, saw that Irsquo;d come back and broke in to a dead run toward me.nbsp; As she got closer I could see that she was grinning from ear to ear and as she reached the truck, rather than stopping, she dove through my open window and attempted to throw her arms around me. Now, fortunately, I get that kind of reaction from women all the time so I was ready.nbsp; I gave her her a stiff-arm into the forehead and said, in my most pastoral voice, ldquo;Whoa, lady, are you out of your mind?rdquo; And she said, ldquo;Arenrsquo;t you glad to see me?rdquo; I said, ldquo;Lady, I donrsquo;t even know who you are.rdquo; At which point a look of complete bewilderment came over her and she said, ldquo;What are you talking about, Dave?nbsp; Yoursquo;re my ex-husband.rdquo; I said, ldquo;Mrsquo;am, Irsquo;m sorry, but Irsquo;m fairly confident Irsquo;d remember being married to you.rdquo;nbsp; At which point I drove away. It was, hands down, the most bizarre moment of mistaken identity that Irsquo;ve experienced. Now, I tell you that story for two reasonsmdash;first, because itrsquo;s just a great story and therersquo;s just no way that I can pass up an opportunity to tell it.nbsp; But second and more importantly I told you that story because I want us to focus our thoughts for the next few moments on this matter of our identity.nbsp; How would you answer this most basic of questions: ldquo;Who are you?rdquo;nbsp; What are some of the key statements that you would want to make in answer to that question? To help all of us formulate our answers that question, wersquo;re going to revisit a small portion of the text that we examined last week.nbsp; Last week, as yoursquo;ll recall, we walked through an extended passage of scripture in 1 Peter 1 and 2 and as we did so, we identified 12 incredibly important things that Christ has accomplished for us so that we can accomplish our God given purpose of declaring Godrsquo;s praises.nbs... 1,Peter,,Audio,Messages Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=665 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=665#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 04:33:36 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=665 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=665 0 00:01:01 Some of you know that Irsquo;ve been teaching a class at our seminary in Mill Valley this spring.nbsp; Each Thursday evening, I have 3 hours ... Some of you know that Irsquo;ve been teaching a class at our seminary in Mill Valley this spring.nbsp; Each Thursday evening, I have 3 hours to influence 15 pastors-in-process in a class called, ldquo;Pastoral Ministry.rdquo; The class is designed to help the students prepare for the real life challenges of the day-to-day pastoral experience. Wersquo;re currently in the midst of a 3-week examination of what the scriptures say about the pastorrsquo;s role as peacemaker in the church.nbsp; After a recent lecture were moving into a time of discussion and the first student to speak said, ldquo;This really means a lot to you, doesnrsquo;t it?rdquo;nbsp; I said, ldquo;Yeah.nbsp; It does.nbsp; How did you know?rdquo;nbsp; He said, ldquo;Therersquo;s no way to hide passion.rdquo; And he was absolutely right.nbsp; There is no way to hide passion.nbsp; It might be a passion for movies, for hunting, for travel, for books, for food, for grandchildren, or for prayer.nbsp; The point is, that when we talk about the things in life that matter most to us, our passion inevitably shows itself. Which leads me to ask this questionmdash;Do you show passion when you talk about Jesus? When God leads you through one of those open doors that wersquo;ve been talking about in recent weekshellip;one of those doors that God has opened so you can step through and let Jesus shine through you, does the person yoursquo;re speaking to see and hear and feel your passion for Jesus? Herersquo;s a related questionmdash;Do you think we (and by, ldquo;we,rdquo; I mean, Christians)hellip;do you think we should be passionate when we talk about Jesus? Herersquo;s another related questionmdash;If wersquo;re not passionate when we talk about Jesus, why do you think that is? One final questionmdash;Is there anything that we could do to nurture an irrepressible passion for Jesus?nbsp; The kind of passion that would just spill out of us whenever we had the chance to talk about Him? Before I jump into the message I want to share with you, today, I want to tell you a little bit about how this message was born in me this week. I was reading through a very familiar passage of scripture when one verse just kind of captured my heart in a way it never had before.nbsp; It was 1 Peter 2:7.nbsp; Herersquo;s what it says, ldquo;Now to you who believe, this stone is precious.rdquo; And the ldquo;stonerdquo; that Peterrsquo;s talking about there is Jesus.nbsp; So, what Peter is saying is, ldquo;Now to you who believe, Jesus is precious.rdquo;nbsp; Hersquo;s not precious to those who donrsquo;t believe, but to those who do believe, Jesus is precious to them.nbsp; As I began to soak on that I realized that there is a direct connection between our passions and those things that are precious to us.nbsp; And herersquo;s the connection: We are most passionate about those things that are most precious to us. We cannot manufacture passion for something that is of little or no value to us.nbsp; But we also cannot repress our passion for something that is absolutely precious to us.nbsp; So, if our desire is to be more impassioned when we talk about Jesus, Jesus needs to become more precious to us.nbsp; And the way to make Jesus more precious to us is to become keenly aware of all that He has done for us.nbsp; And to that end, everything that Peter wrote leading up to the verse we just read is extremely helpful. So, herersquo;s the road map for the rest of this message.nbsp; Wersquo;re going read a whole chapter and then a little bit more, stopping along the way, to identify a whole boat load of things that Jesus has done for us, and, taken together, they ought surely to be far more than enough reasons to make Jesus absolutely precious to every Christian here today. Wersquo;ll start in chapter 1 at verse 3 where Peter says, 3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurre... 1,Peter,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=662 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=662#comments Mon, 11 May 2009 03:27:15 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=662 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=662 0 00:01:01 Good morning, folks.nbsp; How are you doing?nbsp; You know, Irsquo;ve never actually counted how many times I get asked that question in any given week, ... Good morning, folks.nbsp; How are you doing?nbsp; You know, Irsquo;ve never actually counted how many times I get asked that question in any given week, but I realized this week that itrsquo;s a big number.nbsp; I hear that question multiple times, every day.nbsp; And I noticed it this week because every time that question was asked, it gave me another opportunity to praise God for the wonderful way that Hersquo;s working, these days, both in my heart individually and in the collective heart of the Petaluma Valley Family.nbsp; And itrsquo;s been a kick watching the way that people have reacted to the enthusiasm that theyrsquo;ve seen in my response to this mundane social greeting. ldquo;Hey, Tom, how are you doing?rdquo; ldquo;Man, if I was doing any better therersquo;d have to be 2 of me?rdquo; ldquo;Really?nbsp; Whatrsquo;s going on?rdquo; And then Irsquo;d tell lsquo;em. And I did it over and over again all week long. Because people just kept asking me, ldquo;How are you doing?rdquo; And if you were here last week, then you know the source of my enthusiasm.nbsp; I believe that one of the mountaintop experiences in life occurs when God gives you a new assignment.nbsp; And herersquo;s what I mean by that: yoursquo;ve been following Godrsquo;s will in this direction for this period of time.nbsp; You know that yoursquo;re doing the work that God called you to do and prepared you for.nbsp;nbsp; And then God moveshellip;God speakshellip;God acts in such a way that you realize that He has given you a new assignment. Folks, when that happens that is nothing less than one of the mountaintop experiences of life.nbsp; And that is exactly what has happened to us in just the past few weeks. For the last year and a half we have been faithfully following the vision that God laid on my heart back in October of 2007.nbsp; A vision of Pressing in and Pressing on.nbsp; Pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God and Pressing on with the work that God has given us to do.nbsp; And prayer has been at the very heart of our journey. Then, in the midst of our Prayer Conference a few weeks ago God gave us a new assignment leading us into the next phase of His vision for us.nbsp; A new assignment that is rooted in the recognition that in our personal relationships with Jesus each of us has something that the people around us who donrsquo;t yet know Him desperately need and God is calling us, right now, to share it with them.nbsp; Hersquo;s calling us, right now, to move through our communities with the compassion of Christ, being constantly alert for that ldquo;divine appointmentrdquo; by which God draws us into a situation where He is already actively working and now invites us to join Him in that work.nbsp; So, last week I shared that Godrsquo;s expanded vision for us, now is: Pressing in!nbsp; Pressing on!nbsp; Going out! And God has confirmed His new assignment to us, by giving us a new daily prayer to guide us to success.nbsp; Herersquo;s the prayer: ldquo;God, lead me, today, to someone whose heart has been opened by you and let the Good News of Jesus shine through me.rdquo; So, let all of that be a warning to you.nbsp; If you ask me how Irsquo;m doing, these days, yoursquo;re likely to get an earful.nbsp; And I know that Irsquo;m not the only one who is excited about the new assignment that God has given us.nbsp; I continue to hear wonderful stories about the experiences that many of you are having as you move through your days actively and intentionally looking for opportunities to let Jesus shine through you. Let me give you just a couple of examples.nbsp; During our Prayer Conference, Rick Astle introduced us to the idea of offering to pray for the waiters and waitresses who serve us when we eat out.nbsp; He suggested that after we place our orders and before the server leaves our tableside we could say something like this, ldquo;Wersquo;re going to be praying for our food in just a few m... 1,Samuel,,Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=656 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=656#comments Sun, 03 May 2009 14:34:46 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=656 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=656 0 00:01:01 If I were to ask you to stand and share, this morning, some of the experiences that you would identify as the most memorable, noteworthy, ... If I were to ask you to stand and share, this morning, some of the experiences that you would identify as the most memorable, noteworthy, highlight kind of moments in your life Irsquo;m guessing that we would hear stories of the day I got married, the birth of a child, graduation from high school or college, the day I got saved, the time God answered one of my prayers in a dramatic, even miraculous way and, no doubt, countless other kinds of stand out, mountaintop life experiences.nbsp; I want to suggest, today, that another life experience that ought rightly to be placed into that same category of standout life experiences is thismdash;the day that God gave me a brand new assignment. I had been following Godrsquo;s will in this direction for this period of time.nbsp; There was no doubt that I was doing the work that God had called me to and prepared me for.nbsp;nbsp; And then God movedhellip;God spokehellip;God acted in such a way that I realized that He had given me a new assignment.nbsp; Folks, when that happens that is nothing less than one of the most exciting, memorable, mountaintop experiences of life. I will never forget the day that God spoke a new assignment into my life that brought me to Petaluma.nbsp; I had been faithfully serving God at a church in Lafayette for 10 years, with absolutely no doubt that God had called me there.nbsp; And one day, I noticed a change, deep in my spirit.nbsp; I didnrsquo;t know exactly what it was, but I knew that something was going on and I knew God was doing it. I came home from work that evening and after dinner I said to Stirling, ldquo;God is stirring my spirit.nbsp; I donrsquo;t yet know what it means but He has unsettled me.rdquo;nbsp; And without hesitating, Stirling said, ldquo;Then we better start praying because it looks like God may be getting us ready for a move.rdquo;nbsp; And 7 days later the chairman of the pastor search committee from a church Irsquo;d never heard of in a city Irsquo;d never visited says, ldquo;I want your resume.rdquo;nbsp; And 10 years later, Irsquo;m still thanking God for my new assignment. Irsquo;m also thanking God, today, for the new assignment that God has given, in the last few weeks, to Petaluma Valley.nbsp; For the last 18 months we have been following a vision that God laid on my heart in October of 2007.nbsp; A vision of Pressing in and Pressing on.nbsp; Pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God and Pressing on with the work that God has given us to do.nbsp; And prayer has been at the very heart of our journey. I suppose then that it should not surprise us that God chose our Prayer Conference, 6 weeks ago, to give us a new assignment that would lead us into the next phase of His vision for us.nbsp; The new assignment that we received from God in the midst of our Prayer Conference is rooted in the recognition that in our personal relationships with Jesus we have something that the people around us who donrsquo;t yet know Him desperately need and God is calling us, right now, to share it with them.nbsp; Hersquo;s calling us to get out of the pews and into the streets.nbsp; Hersquo;s calling us to move through our communities with the compassion of Christ, being constantly alert for that ldquo;divine appointmentrdquo; by which God draws us into a situation where He is actively working for Kingdom purposes and then invites us to be actively involved in the work that Hersquo;s doing. Thatrsquo;s what I mean by a divine appointment. Here we are in the midst of an otherwise routine day, when we suddenly find ourselves in a place where God is actively working and wersquo;re presented with an opportunity to pray for a complete stranger in the parking lot at Kaiser; or to pray for the principal of our local elementary school or lead an 80-year-old woman to Christ in the middle of Starbuckrsquo;s.nbsp; If yoursquo;ve missed any of recent worship services then you may not know that each of those things happened to ... Audio,Messages,,Colossians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=596 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=596#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:31:25 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=596 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=596 0 33:42 Shortly after my dadrsquo;s death this past October, my brother and I took on the arduous process of emptying our childhood home; the house in ... Shortly after my dadrsquo;s death this past October, my brother and I took on the arduous process of emptying our childhood home; the house in which my mom and dad had lived for 50 years. When the task was finished, my brother headed off in his van for his home in Houston, he was carrying, among other things, every family photograph taken through some sixty years of our family life together. The reason I wasnrsquo;t with you last Sunday is because I was in Houston with my brother going through those pictures. For three days we sat at his dining room table sorting through pictures, deciding which onersquo;s he would keep, which ones I would keep and which onersquo;s would be digitized so we could both have them. As you can imagine, we were also reliving a wealth of shared memories, most of which were very good. It was a sweet time for both of us as we took an extended walk down memory lane. As I came back from Houston last Sunday evening and began to shift my focus off the past and back onto the present, I was quickly drawn to our recently concluded Prayer Conference. More specifically, I was drawn to the new assignment that we received from God in the midst of the Prayer Conference, namely, that in our relationships with Jesus we have something that the people around us desperately need and God is calling us, right now, to share it with them. Hersquo;s calling us to get out of the pews and into the streets. Hersquo;s calling us to move through our communities with the compassion of Christ, being constantly alert for the next ldquo;divine appointmentrdquo; that Hersquo;s planning for us. Before I go any further, let me take a moment to tell you what I mean when I talk about a ldquo;divine appointment.rdquo; Here we are moving along through the normal course of our day doing the routine stuff of life when suddenly wersquo;re drawn by God into a situation where He is actively working for Kingdom purposes, and instantaneously our day becomes anything but routine. Thatrsquo;s what I call a ldquo;divine appointment.rdquo; God moves to include us in the work that He is already doing to build His Kingdom and as a consequence of Godrsquo;s activity we suddenly find ourselves presented with an opportunity to pray for a complete stranger in the parking lot at Kaiser; or to pray for the principal at our childrsquo;s school or to lead an 80 year old woman to Christ in the middle of Starbuckrsquo;s. If yoursquo;ve missed any of recent worship services then you may not know that each of those things happened to members of our church family in the days immediately following the Prayer Conference. And thatrsquo;s just the tip of the iceberg. Now, herersquo;s the burden that God has placed on my heart as I come to you this morning, 5 weeks after the conclusion of our Prayer Conference: I donrsquo;t want those kinds of wonderful experiences of Godrsquo;s activity among us to become distant memories. I donrsquo;t mind looking back at childhood memories. Irsquo;m not a child anymore. Irsquo;ve grown out of that phase of my life. But, folks, I donrsquo;t ever want to be looking back at the memory of the wonderful things that God used to do in my life. I want to continue to have those experiences with God. And I want you to continue to have those experiences with God. And I want us to continue sharing with each other the testimonies of the ways that we are seeing God work among us, today. So, herersquo;s where Irsquo;m going with the message, this morning: Irsquo;m going to give you an outline for a prayer that invites God to continue drawing us into new divine appointments every day and encourages us to anticipate, every day, that theyrsquo;re going to happen. I want to encourage you to take some notes today because, if you do, I believe that yoursquo;re going to end up with a very clear, very practical, thoroughly biblical outline for the kind of daily prayer that can have a profoundly positively impact your ... Audio,Messages,,Colossians Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=594 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=594#comments Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:26:12 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=594 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=594 0 21:05 This very dayhellip;all around the worldhellip;in settings very similar to thishellip;and in settings completely unlike this in almost every wayhellip;people of every age, race, culture ... This very dayhellip;all around the worldhellip;in settings very similar to thishellip;and in settings completely unlike this in almost every wayhellip;people of every age, race, culture and language have gathered and still are gathering to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. And wersquo;ve gathered for the same reason. More specifically, this morning, I want to invite you to celebrate the fulfillment of the single most outlandish promise ever made, namely, ldquo;Irsquo;m going to be dead for a while but donrsquo;t worry because Irsquo;m coming back.rdquo; By my count, Jesus predicted his resurrection no fewer than 8 times in the Bible. One of those examples is found in Mark 9:31 where Jesus says to his disciples, ldquo;The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.rdquo; It was quite simply the most incredible promise that anyone could possibly have imagined. And rather than backing away from it, He repeated it over and over and over again. And every time he did so, it was received with confusion, dismay and out right disbelief. In other words, they reacted the same way that you and I would react if someone said something similarly outrageous to us. And then an amazing thing happened. Jesusrsquo; kept His promise. God raised Him back to life. And thatrsquo;s why people all over the world are celebrating Easter, today. Because, folks, if God kept a promise as outrageous as the resurrection of Jesus from the dead then therersquo;s just no doubt that we can absolutely trust Him to keep all of his promises. If there was ever a promise which any right thinking, rationale individual should dismiss as nonsense, it was the promise of seeing a dead man walk out of a tomb 3 days after he was buried. And yet God kept his promise. And I submit to you, today, that if God kept even that promise, we can absolutely trust him to keep all of his promises. Easter is nothing less than a rock solid guarantee that our God is a promise keeping God. All of which tells me that we would be really wise to get familiar with Godrsquo;s promises. Itrsquo;s great to know that He keeps His promises, but if we donrsquo;t know what those promises are theyrsquo;re probably not going to have much affect on us. So, letrsquo;s take just a few moments, this morning, to identify a handful of the promises that God has made to us. Letrsquo;s start with Godrsquo;s promise to give us wisdom sufficient to guide us safely through even the toughest of lifersquo;s challenges. James 1:5 says it like this: ldquo;If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.rdquo; So, herersquo;s the scenario: Yoursquo;re facing some kind of significant decisionhellip;a decision about your marriage, your children, your education, your finances, your career, or any of a thousand other thingshellip;but the bottom line is that therersquo;s a lot riding on the decision yoursquo;re about to make and you just donrsquo;t have a clear sense of which way to go. --If any of you lacks wisdomhellip;(itrsquo;s a good thing none of us fall in that categoryhellip;) --If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask Godhellip; ldquo;Are you saying that God cares about my family, my finances, my future; are you saying that God actually cares about me?rdquo; Thatrsquo;s exactly what Irsquo;m saying. More importantly, itrsquo;s what Godrsquo;s word says. --If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to allhellip; Folks, herersquo;s something you should know about Godmdash;generosity is woven into His very character. He never looks for a way to do the least possible. He is a God of abundance. He delights in doing more than we could ask or imagine. He is a generous God. --ldquo;If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding faulthellip;rdquo; Folks, ... Audio,Messages,,James,,Mark,,Romans,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=588 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=588#comments Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:52:35 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=588 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=588 0 41:10 What a blessing it has been to hear these wonderful testimonies!nbsp; God is clearly moving among us in an amazing way these days.nbsp; The specifics ... What a blessing it has been to hear these wonderful testimonies!nbsp; God is clearly moving among us in an amazing way these days.nbsp; The specifics of the stories are wildly varied, but there is a unifying theme running through them that ultimately makes them all part of the same story.nbsp; And herersquo;s the storymdash;In our relationships with Jesus, we have something that the people around us desperately need and God is calling us, right now, to share it with them.nbsp; God is clearly calling us to begin writing a new chapter in the story of our life with Him and in the story of our life together as a church family.nbsp; And the heart of this new chapter that we are writing is thismdash;itrsquo;s time to get out of the pew and into the streets. And, folks, it is critically important for us to realize that Irsquo;m not talking about some new program that wersquo;re introducing or some new growth strategy that wersquo;re going to implement or some new marketing plan that wersquo;re going to try.nbsp; Folks what Irsquo;m talking about is a new assignment that God has given to us for this time in our life together as a church family.nbsp; Speaking to us through His servant Rick Astle at our Prayer Conference 2 weeks ago, God clearly called us in a genuinely new and outwardly focused direction. Hersquo;s calling us to move through our communities with the compassion of Christ, being constantly alert for that divine appointment that we never saw coming but was part of His plan all along.nbsp; With all my heart, I believe thatrsquo;s what God is doing among us right now. Folks, wersquo;re seeing it in these amazing stories that are being told.nbsp; As our folk are moving into each day with a newly cultivated alertness to the possibility of being drawn into Godrsquo;s activity any time and anywhere, itrsquo;s happening.nbsp; And I believe that itrsquo;s going to be happening more and more frequently as we hear more and more of these stories and more and more of us begin to realize that this is not Godrsquo;s desire for some of us, this is Godrsquo;s desire for all of us.nbsp; I think that in the next days and weeks and months we are going to find ourselves presented, when we least expect it, with opportunities to pray with someone; opportunities to share a verse of scripture with someone; opportunities to demonstrate Jesusrsquo; compassion to someone; and opportunities to share the Good News of salvation through Jesus with someone. So, herersquo;s my question for youmdash;what are you going to do when the moment comes?nbsp; In fact, for our purposes this morning, I want to get very, very specific.nbsp; Wersquo;ve been talking a lot in these last couple of weeks about prayer and looking on the people around us with the compassion of Christ.nbsp; For the next few moments I want to narrow the focus of our thoughts to this specific question--If you suddenly sense that the greatest need of the person to whom you are talking is a real, life-changing encounter with Jesus Christ, what would you do?nbsp; What would you do when that moment comes? Now, I realize that, at this very moment, many of you are beginning to get a bit nervous.nbsp; Experience has taught me that the vast majority of Christians experience some degree of anxietyhellip;from mild to heart-poundinghellip;when they begin to think about actually taking that bold, first step of injecting Jesus into a conversation. Thatrsquo;s why so many Christians go through their entire lives without ever sharing their faith with a non-believer.nbsp; For some, itrsquo;s the fear of rejection for others its the fear of being embarrassed.nbsp; But I think there are also a lot of Christians who are hesitant about telling people about Jesus because theyrsquo;re not sure how to do it.nbsp; Theyrsquo;re just not sure about what theyrsquo;re supposed to say.nbsp; So what I want to do for the next few moments is addresshellip;and hopefully eliminatehellip;that particular fear.nbs... Audio,Messages,,John,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=543 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=543#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 01:06:57 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=543 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=543 0 43:54 So, this is week #3 of a series of messages rooted in one of the great promises that God has given to each of His ... So, this is week #3 of a series of messages rooted in one of the great promises that God has given to each of His children. The promise that God always finishes what He starts. And the biblical text from which this promise grows is Philippians 1:6 which says, ldquo;hellip;being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion...rdquo; The Message paraphrase says it like this, ldquo;There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finishhellip;rdquo; And that means that as a child of God you can be absolutely confident of these 2 things: (1) That God has begun a wonderful work in your life, and (2) That He will keep at it until He finishes what He started! So, as Godrsquo;s children every one of us can wake up every morning knowing that God will be working in us, that very day, to mold and shape and grow us up according to His plans and purposes. He never gets tired. He never gets distracted. He always finishes what He starts. Now, folks, if you can accept that promise from God as true, can you also begin to see how that promise will infuse your daily life with a heightened sense of anticipation and excitement? Think about thismdash;Every morning, as you roll out of bed you are rolling into Godrsquo;s unfolding plan for your life. How exciting is that? Now, imagine that you not only knew that God was working out His plans in your life but you also knew what some of those plans were? Well, that would just intensify your sense of anticipation and excitement about the day before you. So, these last couple of weeks, wersquo;ve been identifying some of the plans that God has revealed to us in His word. --Two weeks ago, in Romans 6 we saw that Godrsquo;s plan is for every one of His children to be freed from the power of sin. God does not want any of us to go through life constantly falling prey to the allure of sin. He wants to give us victory over sin. And He has a plan for doing so. Then, last week, in Psalm 19 we saw that Godrsquo;s plan is for every one of His children to be freed from the burden of despair. God does not want any of His children to be so overwhelmed by the difficult circumstances and the hard times of life that we end up getting trapped in a pit of misery, hopelessness and despair. And He has a plan to keep us out of that trap. This morning, wersquo;re going to look at another of Godrsquo;s plans for our lives, namely, that Godrsquo;s plan is for every one of His children to be freed from the futility of worldly thinking. God does not want any of us to continue to think and reason the same way we did prior to becoming His children. He wants to set us free from the mindsets and patterns of thought that govern the minds of those who donrsquo;t know Him or love Him and build into us completely new mindsets and patterns of thought that draw us closer to Him and increase our love for Him by keeping us focused on Him. Thatrsquo;s part of Godrsquo;s plan for every one of His children. And, while the biblical foundation for this plan is woven throughout the scriptures, itrsquo;s foundation is clearly laid in Romans 12:1-2, which says this: (1) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Godrsquo;s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Godmdash;this is your spiritual act of worship. (2) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. As we dig into this treasure letrsquo;s begin with verse 2, where we have a clear command that is directed at every Christian: ldquo;Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this worldhellip;rdquo; There was a time in your life when your thought processes reflected to a tee the kind of thinking that governs this sinful, self-obsessed, God rejecting world. Your thinking was governed by a thoroughly worldly mindse... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=528 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=528#comments Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:03:57 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=528 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=528 0 41:53 One of the great joys that come to us when we read the Bible on a consistent and regular basis is the discovery that our ... One of the great joys that come to us when we read the Bible on a consistent and regular basis is the discovery that our God is a promise giving God.nbsp; These scriptures are literally filled with promises for us, from God. --Promises that help us understand the heart of God. --Promises that help us understand the ways and purposes of God. --Promises that invite into our lives the power for transformation that God longs for every one of His children to experience. Case in point?nbsp; The wonderful promise we looked at last week in Philippians 1:6 which says,nbsp; ldquo;hellip;being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion...rdquo; That verse is wonderfully paraphrased in The Message like this, ldquo;There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finishhellip;rdquo; And that means that as a child of God you can be absolutely confident of these 2 things:nbsp; (1) That God has begun a wonderful work in your life, and (2) That God always finishes what He starts! Even now, God is molding and shaping and growing you up according to His plans and purposes and God always finishes what He starts.nbsp; Always. Now, folks, I think that knowledge alone ought to be enough to fill us with hope and confidence.nbsp; But, as I said last week, I can think of one thing that would increase the intensity of the hope and confidence that we feel and that would be in knowing what some of Godrsquo;s plans and purposes are.nbsp; It seems to me, that as we are able to specifically identify the plans that God is working out in our lives that we just couldnrsquo;t help but be fired up about it. So, last week, we took a look at one of Godrsquo;s plans for our lives, namely, that Godrsquo;s plan is for every one of His children to be freed from the power of sin.nbsp; God does not want any of us to go through life constantly falling prey to the allure of sin and He has established a plan to make that possible.nbsp; And herersquo;s the heart of the plan as revealed to us in Romans 6. First, He completely paid the penalty of sin for all mankind through Jesusrsquo; death on the cross. Then, He completely defeated the power of death through Jesusrsquo; resurrection. Then, through our faith in Christ, He united us to Christ in such a powerful way that our old sinful nature actually died with Christ on the cross. Then, He placed the Spirit of the Living, Resurrected Christ in us.nbsp; And the Spirit of Christ in us is powerful.nbsp; And that means that there is a real power operative in every child of God that was not present prior to our becoming children of God.nbsp; Folks, letrsquo;s be clear about this.nbsp; Wersquo;re not talking about more of our power.nbsp; Wersquo;re talking about the power of Christ in us. All of that has already been accomplished for us by God through Christ.nbsp; If you are a child of God, all of that is true of you.nbsp; But there is one part of Godrsquo;s plan to set you free from the power of sin that God doesnrsquo;t do for you.nbsp; You have to do this for yourself.nbsp; Romans 6:11 says it like this, ldquo;hellip;count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.rdquo;nbsp; So, the truth is that every child of God IS dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. But that truth will not free you from the power of sin if you continue to see yourselfhellip;(or count yourselfhellip;or consider yourself)hellip;as powerless to resist certain sins. That truth will only have power in your life if you genuinely count ithellip;(or accept it)hellip;as the truth. So, with all of that foundation laid I said, last week, that one of the most important decisions that you will ever make as a Christian is this:nbsp; Will I live my life on the basis of what Godrsquo;s word tells me to be true or will I live my life on the basis of what experience tel... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=448 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=448#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:01:20 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=448 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=448 0 34:31 As most of you know, the Marcum Household was gloriously rocked a couple of weeks ago when our daughter called to tell us that she ... As most of you know, the Marcum Household was gloriously rocked a couple of weeks ago when our daughter called to tell us that she is engaged.nbsp; Wersquo;ve since learned that the wedding date will be the 4th of July so, things have quickly shifted into high gear for all of us.nbsp; Amid the rush of activity, I recently found myself reflecting on that period in our lives when this grand adventure all began. It was just about 23 years ago that Stirling and I embarked upon that amazing adventure called, ldquo;the adoption process.rdquo;nbsp; Living in Austin, Texas at the time we were both familiar with a very well-regarded Christian adoption agency run by the Buckner Foundation so, we contacted them and got the ball rolling. The first part of the process involved filling out a lengthy application form that asked each of us to write out a detailed personal story describing our family background, life shaping experiences and our views and attitudes about adoption.nbsp; Once completed, we mailed in the application documents along with the fee and then we waited. A few days later we received a letter telling us that they had received our application and describing the next phase of the process.nbsp; They said that new groups of adoptive parents were selected 3 times a year and a new group was in the process of being formed.nbsp; They also said that if we were selected to be in the next group that we would receive a certified letter from them on a specified date.nbsp; They said if we found a letter from them in our mailbox on that date that we were in and if the letter was not there that we were not in.nbsp; They told us not to call them in the meantime.nbsp; And they told us not to get our hopes up because they received approximately 100 applications for every 1 available child. So, we waited.nbsp; And we waited.nbsp; And as the specified date grew closer our anxiety level went higher and higher.nbsp; But the big day finally arrivedhellip;and much to our delight, so did the letter. It said, ldquo;Congratulations.nbsp; Yoursquo;ve been chosen to be part of our next group of adoptive parents.nbsp; Your first orientation class will be held on this date.rdquo; So, we went to the orientation class and the director introduced himself and said, ldquo;Let me go ahead and answer the question yoursquo;re all dying to ask.nbsp; I donrsquo;t know when yoursquo;ll get your baby.nbsp; But you can stop worrying, because we will work with you for as long as it takes for you to get your baby.rdquo; And I remember that moment as if it were yesterday.nbsp; Because with that simple statement, all of my worries and anxieties instantaneously disappeared.nbsp; We were going to get a baby.nbsp; I didnrsquo;t know when it would be.nbsp; I didnrsquo;t know who it would be.nbsp; But I knew that it would be.nbsp; And that confidence was enough to remove all trace of anxiety and fill me with hope. Tucked into the pages of the New Testament there is a wonderful promise from God that is offered in the same spirit as the one that Stirling and I heard from the director of our adoption agency all those years ago.nbsp; A promise that, rightly received and understood, can fill us with the kind of confidence that erases anxieties and fills us with certain hope.nbsp; The promise is found in Philippians 1:6 and herersquo;s what it says,nbsp; ldquo;hellip;being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion...rdquo; I like the way the heart of the verse is captured in The Message paraphrase. It says, ldquo;There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finishhellip;rdquo; So, what does that mean?nbsp; Simply this: As a child of God you can be absolutely confident that God has begun a wonderful work in your life and God always finishes what He starts!nbsp; Even now, God is molding and shaping and gro... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=432 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=432#comments Sun, 22 Feb 2009 15:39:09 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=432 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=432 0 37:09 Years ago I heard the story of a tourist who, while visiting a beautiful old church in Europe, observed an unusual worship practice.nbsp; Every person ... Years ago I heard the story of a tourist who, while visiting a beautiful old church in Europe, observed an unusual worship practice.nbsp; Every person who entered the church would walk half way down the aisle, stop, turn to the left and briefly bow their head before moving on to take a seat in one of the pews. When the service concluded the curious tourist asked one of the locals to explain the meaning behind this unusual worship practice and was told, ldquo;I donrsquo;t know why we do it, I just know that wersquo;ve always done it.rdquo; His curiosity now clearly piqued he made similar inquiries of others and each time was given a similar response.nbsp; No one seemed to know the reason behind this unusual religious ritualhellip; including the pastor of the church.nbsp; But the pastor said he would look into the matter and weeks later the tourist received a letter from the pastor explaining what he had discovered. When the church was built some 500 years earlier, a large picture of Jesus was hung at the mid-point of the left wall of the church.nbsp; As a sign of respect worshipers, at some point in time, began turning toward the picture and bowing before they walked past the picture.nbsp; After a while everyone embraced the simple ritual and it passed on from one generation to the next. Some 200 years after it was originally hung, the picture was removed to keep it safe while the church underwent some renovations.nbsp; Throughout the years long period of renovation, the people continued to stop, turn and bow remembering the picture that once hung there. Then, an interesting thing happened.nbsp; The renovations were completed, but they forgot to put the picture back up on the wall.nbsp; As the years went by the older generation of church membershellip;the last ones to have actually seen the picturehellip;died off, but their children continued the ritual, some of whom had at least heard about the picture. Then that generation died off, but not before their children had also come to practice the strange ritual, in spite of the fact that none of them had even heard about the picture, let alone seen it. And on and on it had continued right up to the present day.nbsp; Consequently, for the past couple of hundred years people had been turning and bowing to a completely blank wall with absolutely no clue about why they were doing so. Now, while that example is admittedly extreme, it illustrates a challenge that every church must come to grips with if wersquo;re serious about helping people to have real, meaningful and growing relationships with God.nbsp; Herersquo;s the challengemdash;we need to make sure that the people coming to our church have a clear understanding of the things that we do at church and the language that we use in church. --People need to know why we sing when we worship; why we study the Bible; why we pray, and so forth.nbsp; When people donrsquo;t understand why we do these things, they become meaningless religious rituals and instead of building and enhancing our relationships with God they actually get in the way of having a meaningful with God. --And the same thing is true of the language that we use in church. We need to be very careful to explain the meaning of the religious or biblical words and phrases that we use, rather than simply assume that everyone understands them as we do because people frequently use identical words and phrases to mean significantly different things. Case in pointhellip;and the reason for this sermonhellip;the phrase, ldquo;children of God.rdquo;nbsp; This past week, I looked back at a few of my recent sermons and realized that I had used the phrase, ldquo;children of God,rdquo; several times.nbsp; And, almost immediately, I recognized a problem that I needed to correct. Herersquo;s the problemmdash;I had assumed, in those sermons, that all of us understood that phrase to mean the same thing. But I bet we donrsquo;t.nbsp; In fact, if you were to take th... Audio,Messages,,John,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=420 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=420#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:50:09 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=420 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=420 0 54:45 In his book, Learning to Trust, Bernie May tells the story of a father who took his young son outside and stood him on the ... In his book, Learning to Trust, Bernie May tells the story of a father who took his young son outside and stood him on the railing of their back porch. The father then went down, stood on the lawn and encouraged the little fellow to jump into his arms reassuring him with a confident, "Donrsquo;t worry.nbsp; I'll catch you." After a lot of coaxing, the frightened boy finally set his fear aside and took the great leap. When he did, his father stepped back and let the little guy crash with a thud into the ground.nbsp; His son, confused and in pain, laid there in the dirt and began to cry.nbsp; After a few moments his father reached down and picked him up, dusted him off, wiped the tears from his face and said, ldquo;Let that be a lesson to you, son.nbsp; Donrsquo;t ever trust anyone.rdquo; We hear that story and gasp at the thought of a father actually doing something like that to his son.nbsp; Itrsquo;s hard for us to imagine that anyone, especially a father, could be so cold and so cruel.nbsp; Yet, the truth is, that every one of us have had similarly brutal life experiences that seemed to point us to the same conclusion:nbsp; Donrsquo;t trust anyone. --The love of your life finds someone new and breaks your heart.nbsp; Lesson?nbsp; Donrsquo;t trust anyone. --The friend to whom you confided your most intimate secrets shares them with others behind your back.nbsp; Lesson?nbsp; Donrsquo;t trust anyone. --The boss promises you a significant raise if yoursquo;ll just hang in there for one more year.nbsp; So you do and when the year is up your boss decides to give your raise to someone else.nbsp; Lesson?nbsp; Donrsquo;t trust anyone. Wersquo;ve all had those experiences.nbsp; Theyrsquo;re just part of life.nbsp; And when the accumulated pain from those experiences finally reaches critical mass itrsquo;s very tempting to conclude that the wisest and safest course of action is to simply stop trusting anyone because sooner or later everyone lets you down.nbsp; So, given our extensive experience with being disappointed with and let down by others itrsquo;s really not surprising to discover that we sometimes struggle with this whole notion of putting our trust in God. --Who knows?nbsp; Maybe Hersquo;ll turn out to be just like the people He created and let us down, as well. --Maybe the wisest course of action in our relationship with God is to trust Him but only within certain limits; trust Him but only up to that point where His counsel begins to conflict with our common sense; trust Him but only up to that point where His ways begin to diverge significantly from our ways.nbsp; In other words, once we reach the limit that wersquo;ve placed on our trust in God, now we take matters back into our own hands. So, now that Irsquo;ve actually said ithellip;nbsp;nbsp; Now that Irsquo;ve just laid it out there in the open for all of us to seehellip;nbsp; Is there anyone here who actually believes that thatrsquo;s the kind of trust that God desires from His children?nbsp; Anyone who imagines that this kind of self-limited trust in God defines the kind of relationship with God that invites the full measure of Godrsquo;s blessing into our lives?nbsp; Anyone actually believe that? I donrsquo;t think so.nbsp; Herersquo;s what I think was happening in the heart of every Christian here just a few moments ago.nbsp;nbsp; I think that as I was describing a relationship with God in which we get to set limits on how far wersquo;re going to trust Him; I think that in that moment the Holy Spirit was opening the eyes of every Christian here so that you could clearly see that that could not possibly be what God desires in our relationship with Him.nbsp; I donrsquo;t think that the Holy Spirit allowed even a single Christian here to think, ldquo;Yes, now thatrsquo;s the kind of trust that really pleases God.rdquo;nbsp;nbsp; The very notion that we should place limits on our trust in God immediately resonates in our spirit as false.... Audio,Messages,,Proverbs,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=416 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=416#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2009 16:59:52 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=416 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=416 0 36:50 I was reading one of my favorite philosophers a while back.nbsp; Her name is Lucy and shersquo;s got a good friend named, Charlie Brown.nbsp; In ... I was reading one of my favorite philosophers a while back.nbsp; Her name is Lucy and shersquo;s got a good friend named, Charlie Brown.nbsp; In this particular episode, Lucy, worn out and weary at the end of a very trying day, turns to her friend and says, Charlie Brown, Irsquo;ve made a decision.nbsp; I donrsquo;t want any more ups and downs.nbsp; From now on all I want is ups and ups. Anybody here share that sentiment?nbsp; Anybody feel like yoursquo;ve already had enough downs to last a lifetime?nbsp; My guess is that most of us would be perfectly content to relinquish our remaining allotment of downs and just live out the rest of our lives on a never ending up.nbsp; So, how many of you think thatrsquo;s likely to happen? Good.nbsp; You just saved yourself years of expensive therapy. Because, the truth is, that every life is comprised of itrsquo;s own unique mixture of both ups and downs.nbsp; No exceptions.nbsp; Consequently, one of the most important challenges of life for every child of God is to learn how to walk in faith through both experiences. This morning, wersquo;re going to try to answer to this question: How do people of faith walk through the ups and downs of life? Last week, we found some wonderful lessons on giving in the example of Israelrsquo;s King David.nbsp; This morning, our lessons, will be drawn from the example of Davidrsquo;s son, Solomon.nbsp; Solomon, you may remember, succeeded his father David to become the king of Israel. And in that role he enjoyed great success. It was Solomon who led the Israelites to build a massive, defensive wall around Jerusalem.nbsp; It was Solomon who supervised the building of a magnificent royal palace as well as the greatest temple that would ever stand in Jerusalem.nbsp; Under Solomonrsquo;s leadership Israel enjoyed a time of unparalleled prosperity.nbsp; Solomon succeeded, in many ways, as few ever do. And in the midst of all this success God spoke to Solomon in a dream. He told him that He would grant to Solomon whatever he wanted.nbsp; Solomon could ask for anything and God promised to give it to him.nbsp; What would you ask for if God made such an offer to you?nbsp; Solomonrsquo;s request is recorded in 1 Kings 3:5-15. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, ldquo;Ask for whatever you want me to give you.rdquo;nbsp; Solomon answered, ldquo;You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart.nbsp; You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. ldquo;Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David.nbsp; But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.nbsp; Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.nbsp; So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.nbsp; For who is able to govern this great people of yours?rdquo; The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.nbsp; So God said to him, ldquo;Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked.nbsp; I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.nbsp; Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked formdash;both riches and honormdash;so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.nbsp; And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.rdquo;nbsp; Then Solomon awokemdash;and he realized it had been a dream. FIRST LESSON God lays a world of possibilities at Solomonrsquo;s feet and what does he ask for?nbsp; Wisdom.nbsp; He asks for a dis... Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=413 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=413#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:51:29 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=413 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=413 0 62:56 One of the challenges that we face at Petaluma Valley every single week is the challenge of stretching the dollars that you contribute to fund ... One of the challenges that we face at Petaluma Valley every single week is the challenge of stretching the dollars that you contribute to fund the work that God has given us to do. Given the nature of the economic times in which we are living, Irsquo;m guessing that this is a challenge that is likely to increase rather than decrease.nbsp; The information that I discovered this week about charitable giving trends and statistics in the U.S. only reinforces my concern.nbsp; Herersquo;s a little of what my research uncovered this past week: --As a whole, total charitable giving by Americans is trending downward and itrsquo;s decreasing in two ways. --First, fewer people are giving.nbsp; When I researched this issue 4 years ago, 84% of adults gave something to some charity each year.nbsp; Now, itrsquo;s down to 78%. --Second, the people who do give are giving less.nbsp; The percentage of our income that we give to charity each year is decreasing.nbsp; When I checked 4 years ago, the average household was giving about 2% of their income to charity.nbsp; Today, thatrsquo;s down to about 1.75%. --Adults who never go to church are among those who are least likely to give anything.nbsp; Charitable giving for this group is a paltry 1.1%. --The group with the highest giving percentage is church going, born again Christians.nbsp; Giving among this grouphellip;otherwise known as ldquo;usrdquo;hellip;is a whopping 3.3%. --And, while the biblical standard of tithing (that is, giving 10% of your income to God) is universally recognized by Christians, only 6% of us actually tithe.nbsp; 94% of Christians give less than a tithe. --And, perhaps the most interesting statistic of all is this:nbsp; among Christians, the income groups most likely to tithehellip;are the lower class and the upper class.nbsp; The Christians least likely to tithe are those in the middle class.nbsp; Does anybody want to take a guess about the income group into which the vast majority of Christians fall? George Barna, the pollster who gathered all of this data concludes, "On the one handhellip;(by) givinghellip;double the national average of their income to non-profits and churches (Christians) have set a great example for others to follow. At the same time, howeverhellip;the fact that fewer than one out of every ten (Christians tithes)hellip;suggests that financial stewardship is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges facing the Christian Church in America today." So, this morning, as we continue following the vision of Pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God and Pressing on with the work that Hersquo;s given us to do, I want us to consider how ldquo;the great challengerdquo; of financial stewardship fits into that vision.nbsp; Wersquo;re going to do so by looking at a biblical example of generous giving that I find incredibly inspiring and I hope you do, too.nbsp; The giver, in this case, is David and the story of his generous giving is found in 1 Chronicles 29. As we join the story, David is the king of Israel and God has revealed to him plans for the building of a spectacular temple in Jerusalem.nbsp; Whatrsquo;s more, God has also told David that the oversight of this monumental building project is to be entrusted to Davidrsquo;s son, Solomon who will follow him as king. But before David steps down from the throne, he steps up to provide his people and us an inspiring example of generous giving. Beginning 1 Chronicles 29:1-5 we read, ldquo;Then King David said to the whole assembly: lsquo;My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced.nbsp; The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God.nbsp; With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my Godmdash;gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kin... 1,Chronicles,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=411 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=411#comments Sun, 11 Jan 2009 20:00:28 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=411 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=411 0 36:19 So, if you were with us last Sunday yoursquo;ll know that this is week 2 of stage 2 of the journey that we began and ... So, if you were with us last Sunday yoursquo;ll know that this is week 2 of stage 2 of the journey that we began and continued throughout last yearmdash;a journey following a vision of Pressing In and Pressing On.nbsp; Pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God and Pressing on with the work that Hersquo;s given us to do.nbsp; And Irsquo;m calling this stage 2 of that journey because God has confirmed in my heart His invitation to continue that journey in 2009. And itrsquo;s a journey that needs to be continued because none of us have yet completed it.nbsp; The moment that each of us met Jesus as our Saviorhellip;whether it was 1 year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 50 years agohellip;whenever it was, in that moment God began to work in us to this endmdash;that we would become progressively more and more like Jesus.nbsp; Godrsquo;s desire for each of us is that the heart and the character of Jesus would be more and more evident in us. And while some of us have made great progress toward that goal and others of us have made some progress toward that goal, this much is absolutely certainmdash;none of us has yet reached the goal.nbsp; As we saw last week, all of us can say of our spiritual progress exactly what Paul said of his in Philippians 3:12, ldquo;Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press onhellip;rdquo; So, as long as we live on this side of heaven, we can be certain that Godrsquo;s desire is to continue that work of molding and shaping us to be more and more like Jesus. And the calling that God has placed on our hearts is to meet Him in that desire.nbsp; We want to fully cooperate with God and make ourselves intentionally available to God for that purpose.nbsp; And the vision that He has given us to pull all of that together is this vision of Pressing in and pressing on.nbsp; It guided us in 2008 and now itrsquo;s going to guide us in 2009. And one of the things that wersquo;re going to be able to do in 2009 that we couldnrsquo;t yet do in 2008 is to reflect upon the progress wersquo;ve made so far.nbsp; Wersquo;re going to spend some time, sharing with each other through testimonies, lessons wersquo;ve learned and experiences that wersquo;ve had along the way. If yoursquo;ve got a testimony that yoursquo;d like to share, please contact me so we can talk about it.nbsp; And my hope and confidence is that those times of sharing will be really helpful and encouraging to all of us as we continue this great adventure. We actually started that process of reflection last Sunday when we acknowledged to each other that this is not an easy journey.nbsp; An important journey?nbsp; Absolutely.nbsp; A rewarding journey?nbsp; Absolutely.nbsp; But not an easy journey, because pressing in to God takes discipline, commitment, effort and even sacrifice.nbsp; It turns out that itrsquo;s a whole lot easier to make a commitment to press in to God on Sunday than it is to sustain that commitment in our actions and choices Monday through Saturday. Consequently, our personal spiritual growth charts are probably not going to look like slowly ascending, unwavering, perfectly straight lines leading us from spiritual infancy to complete maturity in Christ.nbsp; Itrsquo;s far more likely that our personal spiritual growth charts will be dotted with periods of laziness and coasting and even the occasional stumblehellip;but as long as those episodes of coasting and stumbling are followed by a renewed commitment to keep pressing in we will, over the long haul, keep making progress.nbsp; We will continue to get to know God better and better and better.nbsp; And thatrsquo;s our goal.nbsp; We donrsquo;t want give up and we donrsquo;t want to become spiritually complacent.nbsp; We want to keep making progress over our entire lifetime.nbsp; So, we keep pressing in and pressing on. And one of the areas where many of us have discovered that sustained, continuing spiritual prog... Audio,Messages,,Mark,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=409 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=409#comments Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:16:09 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=409 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=409 0 34:10 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss ... 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christmdash;the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.nbsp; 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Those were the words that launched us last January into 2008.nbsp; That was the Biblical text that God used to sear into our minds a Vision that fueled our journey together as a church family throughout 2008.nbsp; A compelling vision of Pressing in and Pressing on.nbsp; Pressing in to a relationship with God that is constantly growing closer and closer and Pressing on with the work that God has given us to do. --How could we not be compelled by a Vision of getting to know God better and better and better with each passing day? --Knowing that we can choose to live our lives in such a way that the end result will be a more intimate, more dynamic relationship with God, how could we choose otherwise? --Why in the world would we settle for some lesser pursuit once wersquo;ve been given a glimpse of the greatest of all pursuits?nbsp; And thatrsquo;s exactly what we have in this passagemdash;a glimpse of the greatest of all possible lifelong pursuits.nbsp; As we sang just a few moments ago, ldquo;Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you.nbsp; There is no greater thing.rdquo; Thatrsquo;s the Vision that captured our hearts at the beginning of 2008 and has now carried us all the way into 2009.nbsp; Many of you were here for the whole journey.nbsp; Some of you joined us mid-stream.nbsp; Before we journey any further, I want to take a few moments to reconnect with this amazing text that launched us on our way. Letrsquo;s start by looking again at verses 7-8.nbsp; Paul says, 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lordhellip; Notice that in each of these verses Paul is ldquo;consideringrdquo; something.nbsp; And the ldquo;somethingrdquo; that hersquo;s ldquo;consideringrdquo; is the same in each verse.nbsp;nbsp; What hersquo;s ldquo;consideringrdquo; is the value of ldquo;knowing Christ.rdquo;nbsp; Hersquo;s holding up one thing and comparing it to the value of having a personal relationship with Christ. In verse 7 he takes a look back to compare his old life without Christ to his new life with Christ and his conclusion is that, ldquo;whatever was to my profitrdquo;hellip;all of those things that used to be of supreme importance to mehellip;my heritage, my education, my reputation, and so forthhellip;all of those things that once seemed like the most important things in life, ldquo;I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.rdquo;nbsp; Those things just donrsquo;t compare to the value of knowing Christ. In other words, Paul is saying that there was a time in his life when he was perfectly content to live for lesser ... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=234 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=234#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 21:47:23 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=234 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=234 0 21:29 Every life is filled with a certain number of events of such magnitude that they divide that life into pre and post event life chapters.nbsp; ... Every life is filled with a certain number of events of such magnitude that they divide that life into pre and post event life chapters.nbsp; Events of such great consequence that life, from that point on is viewed as being substantively different than life prior to that event. --Getting married is one of those events.nbsp; That event divides our life in a substantive way into pre-marriage and post-marriage chapters. --Having children is another of those events.nbsp; It clearly divides our life into pre-child and post-child chapters. And whatrsquo;s true of our lives individually is also true of our national life together as Americans. --If you were at least 10 years oldhellip;as I washellip;on November 22, 1963 you know that the assassination of President Kennedy divided our national life into pre-assassination and post-assassination chapters. --This past week, we marked the 7th anniversary of another event that divided our national life, this time into pre-9/11 and post-9/11 chapters. And whatrsquo;s true of our personal life histories and is true of our American history is also true of what theologians sometimes call, ldquo;redemptive historyrdquo;mdash;which is just kind of a fancy way of referring to the way that God has worked throughout history to bring people into relationship with Him and into His Kingdom so that His people can spend all of eternity giving Him the glory that He deserves.nbsp; Thatrsquo;s the big work that God is up to in our world and as we look back through the ages at Godrsquo;s activity as recorded in the Bible we can clearly see certain events that divide Redemptive History into distinct chapters. --For instance, the fall of man in the Garden of Eden marked the beginning of a new chapter of Godrsquo;s unfolding plan of redemption.nbsp; From that day forward, humanity was forever changed by sin. --Fast-forwarding through the millennia, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus marked the beginning of another new chapter in Godrsquo;s unfolding plan of redemption.nbsp; In Jesus we see the hope and promise of salvation for everyone who believes. And, this morning, as we return to our series, Getting to Know the Holy Spirit, wersquo;re going to take a look at another event that marked the beginning of a whole new chapter in Godrsquo;s unfolding plan of redemption.nbsp; The event is called, ldquo;PENTECOST.rdquo;nbsp; What happened that day radically impacts every one of us who know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, so we need to understand what Pentecost is all about.nbsp; So, beginning today and continuing on at least through next Sunday wersquo;re going to talk about the meaning of Pentecost. The story is told in Acts 2:1-21. 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.nbsp; 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. So, herersquo;s the scene.nbsp; As they had been doing for centuries, Jews from all over Palestine and beyond had come to Jerusalem for the annual religious observance called, ldquo;The Feast of Pentecost.rdquo;nbsp; And on the day of Pentecost the Christians among them, a group that according to chapter 1 now included about 120 peoplehellip;including the discipleshellip;were gathered together ldquo;in one place.rdquo;nbsp; We donrsquo;t know for certain exactly where they were gatheredhellip;verse 2 refers simply to a ldquo;houserdquo;hellip;but we do know that as they were gathered there some extraordinary phenomena occurred. Verse 2 says that all of a sudden the whole house was filled with ldquo;a sound like the blowing of violent wind.rdquo;nbsp; All of us have heard that sound before.nbsp; It was heard along the Gulf Coast just yesterday as Hurricane Ike... 1,Corinthians,,1,John,,2,Corinthians,,Acts,,Audio,Messages,,Ephesians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=241 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=241#comments Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:59:53 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=241 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=241 0 39:44 I told you last week about the difficult journey that Irsquo;m walking through with my dad as a result of the recent and sudden decline ... I told you last week about the difficult journey that Irsquo;m walking through with my dad as a result of the recent and sudden decline in his health and the necessity of moving him out of his house and into a nursing home.nbsp; Since the distance between us makes it impossible for me to be there with him as much as I would like, Irsquo;m taking great comfort in knowing that a small circle of friends are visiting him regularly. One of those visitors is Eddie. Eddie is about 40 years old, he lives about 5 houses up the street from my dadrsquo;s house and hersquo;s been my dadrsquo;s ldquo;lawn manrdquo; as long as I can remember.nbsp; But as the years have gone by hersquo;s also become much more than just his ldquo;lawn man.rdquo;nbsp; He checks in on my dad regularly to see how hersquo;s doing, he calls me if he senses a problem, hersquo;s been taking my dad grocery shopping for the last couple of years and not too long ago began to do his the grocery shopping for him. So I wasnrsquo;t surprised this past Wednesday evening when my dad told me that Eddie had come by to see him earlier that today.nbsp; I said, ldquo;Eddie sure has turned out to be a great friend, hasnrsquo;t he?rdquo;nbsp; My dad said, ldquo;He sure has.nbsp; You never really know about a friend until you really need them.rdquo; And thatrsquo;s true, isnrsquo;t it?nbsp; Itrsquo;s relatively easy to accumulate what we call, ldquo;Fair weather friends.rdquo;nbsp; Those ldquo;friendsrdquo; who are glad to be your friend when itrsquo;s easy to do so but quickly disappear when life gets tough.nbsp; But a friend who sticks with you through the tough times is a real treasurehellip;and it takes going through a tough time to figure out what kind of friends you have. And a similar kind of observation can be made about our relationship with God.nbsp; If our relationship with God is such that itrsquo;s meaningful when life is easy but crumbles when life turns hard then thatrsquo;s really not much of a relationship at all.nbsp; And since life eventually turns hard for every one of us, itrsquo;s really important for us, as Christians, to know how to maintain a real and vital relationship with God through the hard times of life. So, last Sunday, I shared with you some of the lessons that God has recently been teaching me about that very thing as I go through this very hard time in my own life, trying to be a good son to a dad whose not doing so good.nbsp; I called that message, ldquo;Real Life, Real Hard, Done Wellrdquo; and since I didnrsquo;t quite get it finished last week, this is part two. The text beneath the message is psalm 42. Letrsquo;s begin by reading it. 1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.nbsp; When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng. 5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and 6 my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermonmdash;from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. 8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with memdash;a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" 10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?" 11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. So, the author of this psalm is writing at a ti... Audio,Messages,,Psalms,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=292 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=292#comments Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:46:57 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=292 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=292 0 39:03 Real Life, Real Hard, Done Well, Part One Psalm 42 Podcast are weekly recordings from Sunday sermons by Pastor Tom Marcum. PVBC is located at 580 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, Petaluma, California, USA 94954 and can be reached at (707) 763-2277. Audio,Messages,,Psalms,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=299 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=299#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:08:27 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=299 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=299 0 39:02 August 17, 2008 Podcast are weekly recordings from Sunday sermons by Pastor Tom Marcum. PVBC is located at 580 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, Petaluma, California, USA 94954 and can be reached at (707) 763-2277. Audio,Messages Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=296 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=296#comments Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:03:22 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=296 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=296 0 22:06 August 3, 2008 Podcast are weekly recordings from Sunday sermons by Pastor Tom Marcum. PVBC is located at 580 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, Petaluma, California, USA 94954 and can be reached at (707) 763-2277. Audio,Messages Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=217 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=217#comments Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:27:25 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=217 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=217 0 42:04 Getting to Know the Holy Spirit, Part Eight (Recap) Podcast are weekly recordings from Sunday sermons by Pastor Tom Marcum. PVBC is located at 580 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, Petaluma, California, USA 94954 and can be reached at (707) 763-2277. Audio,Messages,,Romans Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=338 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=338#comments Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:27:10 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=338 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=338 0 49:44 When I graduated from college all those many years ago, I packed up my Volkswagen Beetle, left the familiar environs of the beaches of Southern ... When I graduated from college all those many years ago, I packed up my Volkswagen Beetle, left the familiar environs of the beaches of Southern California and headed off to seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas, affectionately known by locals as, ldquo;Cow Town.rdquo; Suddenly I had gone from sand and surf to cowboys and boots. To describe my experience as ldquo;culture shockrdquo; would be an understatement. My destination was Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; a historic institution with 5,000 pastors-in-process that proudly bore the title of the largest theological seminary in the world. It was like nothing I had ever seen. And I quickly realized that they felt the same about me. The first day of school began with the Presidentrsquo;s Chapel. The faculty of the seminary was assembled in full academic regalia on the stage, the auditorium was packed with 5000 eager seminarians, including memdash;front row, centermdash;directly in front of the pulpit, wearing the same thing I had worn every day through 4 years of college at Long Beach Statemdash;a beach themed t-shirt, cut off jeans and sandals. The chapel service unfolded along familiar linesmdash;we read scripture, we sang some hymns, the choir sang a lofty anthem and then the president of the seminary, Dr. Robert Naylor, made his way to the pulpit. It was an electric moment for me. The first day of my seminary education. The first taste of the next five years of my life. I could hardly wait to get started. And what a way to startmdash;the president of the seminary was standing on the stage no more than 15 feet away. It was almost like having a private meeting with him. And then he began to speak. ldquo;Before I deliver my prepared remarks, I want to say a few words about this sacred institution. An institution fulfilling a divine purpose ordained by God. An institution that God is using in a unique way to build His kingdom. This institution deserves our full commitment, our best efforts and our greatest respect.rdquo; And then, an amazing thing happened. As I nodded a silent, ldquo;Amen,rdquo; to the presidentrsquo;s remarks, he turned his head and made eye contact with me and said, ldquo;And that begins in dressing appropriately when we come onto this great and noble campus.rdquo; And as he elaborated on his remarks and I sank lower and lower in my seat, I decided that front row, center may not have been the best choice. As I later reflected upon that experience, I decided that the presidentrsquo;s message to me basically came down to thismdash;ldquo;You made it in to the Seminary Familyhellip;now you need to live like a member of the Seminary Family.rdquo; This is week #7 in this series of messages Irsquo;ve titled, ldquo;Getting to know the Holy Spirit.rdquo; Each week wersquo;ve been digging into Godrsquo;s word and asking Him to teach us about the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. Who is He, what He does and what it all means to us? This morning, wersquo;re going to look at the role of the Holy Spirit in helping those of us who get into Godrsquo;s Family begin to live like members of Godrsquo;s Family. Itrsquo;s a process, described in the Bible, by the word, ldquo;sanctifiedrdquo; or ldquo;sanctification.rdquo; Itrsquo;s an arcane sounding theological word that is totally foreign to most and misunderstood by many. But it describes a process that is absolutely vital to every healthy Christian life and, once we understand it, I hope yoursquo;ll see that itrsquo;s also incredibly exciting. Letrsquo;s begin by reading our text, Romans 15:14-16. (14) I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. (15) I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me (16) to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, ... Audio,Messages,,Romans,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=157 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=157#comments Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:37:08 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=176 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=157 0 41:06 If I were creating a job description that I could put into the hands of every husband and every wifehellip;a job description that would help ... If I were creating a job description that I could put into the hands of every husband and every wifehellip;a job description that would help them to create and maintain strong and healthy marriageshellip;way up near the top of that job description I would say something like this: do everything you can to help your spouse feel secure in the marriage relationship. No spouse should ever have to wonder about the security of their marriage. So, if yoursquo;re doing something that is causing your spouse to feel insecure in the marriage relationship, stop doing it. And, if therersquo;s something you could be doing to help them feel more secure in the marriage relationship, do it. Insecurity is an intimacy destroyer. And because intimacy is key to a healthy marriage relationship, one of the greatest gifts you can give your spouse and one of the most important of all the ways by which you can express your love for your spouse is to do whatever you can to help them feel secure in the marriage relationship. And, the truth is, that the marriage relationship is not the only relationship that benefits greatly from a sense of security. Children benefit greatly when they feel secure within their family. Friendships benefit greatly when each friend feels secure within the friendship. And Christians benefit greatly when we feel secure in our relationship with God. In fact, this is the greatest security that we can have in life because even if we feel insecure in virtually every other aspect of our livesmdash;our marriages, our families, our friendships, our employment, and so forthmdash;even if the rest of our life is clouded over with insecurity, we can still survive, even thrive, provided that we are absolutely secure in our relationship with God. And thatrsquo;s what I want to talk about this morning. Being secure in our relationship with God. Secure in His love for us. Secure in His provision for us. Secure in His purposes for us. Secure in His power in and over us. One of Godrsquo;s great desires for each and every one of His children is that we would know that we are absolutely secure in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. This is week #6 in our series of sermons called, ldquo;Getting to Know the Holy Spirit.rdquo; This morning, wersquo;re going to look at the unique role of the Holy Spirit in helping us to feel secure and guaranteeing that we are secure in our relationship with God. But before we look at what the Holy Spirit does to provide and protect our sense of security in God, I think we would be wise to recognize that being secure in God does not mean that we are going to escape lifersquo;s struggles and hardships. In other words, the Holy Spirit does not keep us secure in our relationship with God by insulating us from the trials and tribulations that are an inevitable part of life. We can be secure in our relationship with God even though life can be very tough. Listen to the way Paul talks about this in Romans 8:35-36. He says, ldquo;Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (In other words, who can shake the security of the abiding love that is ours in Christ?) Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: lsquo;For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.rsquo; No, in all these things we are more than conquerorshellip;(In other words, ldquo;Even in the midst of these terribly difficult circumstancesmdash;trouble, persecution, hunger, danger and painmdash;even while wersquo;re experiencing these things, we remain absolutely secure in God.rdquo; How is that possible? Itrsquo;s possible becausehellip;) through him who loved us.rdquo; Our experience of and our confidence in Godrsquo;s love for us doesnrsquo;t change just because our circumstances change. And because our confidence in God doesnrsquo;t waver our obedience of God doesnrsquo;t waver either. Even in hard times, we p... 1,Corinthians,,Audio,Messages,,Ephesians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=219 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=219#comments Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:44:14 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=219 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=219 0 43:58 From the moment that this current series of sermons, ldquo;Getting to Know the Holy Spirit,rdquo; began to take shape in my mind several weeks ago, ... From the moment that this current series of sermons, ldquo;Getting to Know the Holy Spirit,rdquo; began to take shape in my mind several weeks ago, the sermon Irsquo;m about to preach today has made me uncomfortable. This is a tough text. This is a text about which there are a wide variety of interpretations. Itrsquo;s a text that does not get preached on very often. In fact, Irsquo;m guessing that many of you will be hearing the first sermon you can remember on this particular passage. So, why go there at all? Because itrsquo;s in the Book and that means that God wants us to go there even if the message is hard to figure out and difficult to hear. And why go there now? Because we are currently in the process of searching the scriptures to see what Godrsquo;s word teaches us about the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is at the very heart of this difficult passage. So, within the context of that broader study we need to hear Jesusrsquo; stark words of warning in Mark 3:29, where He says, ldquo;But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.rdquo; So, the big issue that wersquo;re dealing with here is generally referred to as, ldquo;The unpardonable sin.rdquo; Even if yoursquo;ve never heard a sermon about this subject, yoursquo;ve probably heard about, ldquo;The unpardonable sin.rdquo; What Irsquo;d like to do, this morning, is to see if we unpack the meaning of this verse by asking and then answering some key questions. Beginning with this one: Is there really a sin that God will not forgive? Is the idea of an unpardonable sin a religious tradition thatrsquo;s been passed down from generation to generation without any solid biblical foundation or is it real? Is there really a sin that God will not forgive? I think this is a massively significant questionhellip;I know it is for mehellip;because I am totally convinced of the truth of the Gospel. And what is the Gospel? Itrsquo;s the Good News that, in Christ, God has provided a way for all of us to have all of our sins completely forgiven so that we can be brought into a right relationship with God now and continue in that right relationship with God throughout eternity. The Gospel is the Good News that God has accepted the death of Jesus on the cross as payment in full for all of our sin with this resultmdash;that through our faith in Jesus, we can be saved from eternal death in Hell and saved to eternal life with God. Thatrsquo;s the Gospel. Thatrsquo;s the Good News. And itrsquo;s all possible because as, we read in John 1:29, Jesus is, ldquo;the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!rdquo; And I believe that. And I think most of you do, too. And because I believe that Jesusrsquo; death on the cross was sufficient to cover the sin of the entire world, I cringe at the suggestion of a sin that God will not forgive because it seems to suggest that Jesusrsquo; death was in some way deficient. That somehow Jesusrsquo; provision on the cross came up one sin short of being completely sufficient. So, as one who believes in the complete sufficiency of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, this is not an academic question for me. Therersquo;s a lot a stake here. So, I want to know if there really is such a thing as a sin that God will not forgive? So, letrsquo;s go back to our text and take a really close look at exactly what it says. Mark 3:29 says, ldquo;But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.rdquo; I want you to circle four key words in that verse beginning with the word, ldquo;sin.rdquo; By definition, ldquo;sin,rdquo; is always an offense against God. So, wersquo;re not talking merely about a conflict betweens peers or equals. Wersquo;re talking about an offense against a holy, sovereign, just, righteous, all-powerful God. And that means that once God has rendered His judgment on our sin there is no appealing His verdict. And it... Audio,Messages,,Mark,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=341 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=341#comments Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:34:20 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=341 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=341 0 36:33 Four weeks ago we began a new series of sermons that Irsquo;m calling, ldquo;Getting to Know the Holy Spirit.rdquo; And the goal of this series ... Four weeks ago we began a new series of sermons that Irsquo;m calling, ldquo;Getting to Know the Holy Spirit.rdquo; And the goal of this series is to do exactly what the title indicatesmdash;to really get to know and appreciate and experience and love the Holy Spirit. So, for the next several weeks wersquo;re going to be searching the scriptures to see what they teach us about the Holy Spirit. And herersquo;s what wersquo;ve learned so far. In week #1 of this series, we learned that the Holy Spirit is not a gas or a vapor or a concept, Hersquo;s a person. And persons have identities. So, who is the Holy Spirit? Hersquo;s God. Hersquo;s distinct from God the Father and Hersquo;s distinct from God the Son, but Hersquo;s still God. Then, in week #2, we looked at John 3 and the dramatic encounter that took place between Jesus and Nicodemus and we learned from that text that no one gets into the Kingdom of God unless theyrsquo;ve been ldquo;born again.rdquo; And in John 3:6, Jesus tells us why thatrsquo;s necessary, saying, ldquo;Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.rdquo; In other words, physical birth gives birth to physical life, which equips you to enter and enjoy the physical world. But the Kingdom of God is a spiritual reality and you canrsquo;t get there by physical means. Consequently, the only people who will see and enjoy the Kingdom of God are those people who have not only been born physically (and that includes all of us) but they have also been born again spiritually (and that may not include all of us.) And itrsquo;s really important to know whether or not yoursquo;ve been born again because when Jesus says that you must be born again to see or enter the Kingdom of God, Hersquo;s saying that those people who are not born again will spend all of eternity in a place that is totally separated from all trace of the presence of God. And the Bible calls that place, Hell. Then, last week, we came back to that same text in John 3, to ask this question: What exactly does the Holy Spirit do in us when we are born again? In verse 6 Jesus is very clear in telling us that the Holy Spirit is vitally important in the born again process, saying, ldquo;hellip;the Spirit (that is, the Holy Spirit) gives birth to spirit.rdquo; So, we wanted to know how the Holy Spirit does that. Herersquo;s what we learned. 1 John 5:11-12 says, ldquo;God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.rdquo; So, Jesus is the source of the new spiritual life that we need in us in order to get into the Kingdom of God. And if that new spiritual life is going to be born inside this physical life then, somehow, we need to get connected to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is that connection. The Holy Spirit is the conduit that connects us to Jesus so that Jesusrsquo; life can be poured into us. And that means that when we are born again a brand new spiritual life is created in us that did not previously existhellip;and the new life that is in us is the life of Jesus. Now, I want to wrap up our study of John 3 by looking at one verse that Irsquo;ve not yet commented on. Wersquo;ve read it twice, but Irsquo;ve not yet said anything about it yet. So, letrsquo;s read through the passage and see if you can identify the verse Irsquo;ve not yet addressed. The text, John 3:1-10 says this: (1) Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. (2) He came to Jesus at night and said, ldquo;Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.rdquo; (3) In reply Jesus declared, ldquo;I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.rdquo; (4) ldquo;How can a man be born when he is old?rdquo; Nicodemus asked. ldquo;Surely he cannot enter a second time into his motherrsquo;s womb to... Audio,Messages,,John,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=140 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=140#comments Sun, 25 May 2008 22:56:57 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=158 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=140 0 36:02 Three weeks ago we started a new series of sermons that Irsquo;m calling, ldquo;Getting to Know the Holy Spirit.rdquo; I sense that this series ... Three weeks ago we started a new series of sermons that Irsquo;m calling, ldquo;Getting to Know the Holy Spirit.rdquo; I sense that this series is going to lead us through the next phase of the year-long journey that we are sharing together as a church family in 2008mdash;a journey that is leading us toward this destination: we want to know God better, at the end of this year, than wersquo;ve ever known Him before. And herersquo;s how this series of sermons is connected to that overall journey: while most of us would probably say that we know God, the Father, pretty well and His Son, Jesus, pretty well, I sense most of us would also say that we are not nearly as secure in our knowledge of the Holy Spirit. So, wersquo;re going to take the next several weekshellip;probably all the way through the summer and into the fallhellip;to get to know the Holy Spirit. And herersquo;s what wersquo;ve learned so far. In week #1 of this series, we learned 2 things about the Holy Spirit. The first thing we learned is that the Holy Spirit is not a gas or a vapor or a concept or a force. The Holy Spirit is a ________? A person. The Holy Spirit is a person. And persons have identities. You can refer to them. You can describe them. Given the opportunity you can even get to know them. So, letrsquo;s identify the Holy Spirit. Who is He? Well, thatrsquo;s the second thing we learned. The Holy Spirit is ___________? God. The Holy Spirit is God. In His sovereignty, God has chosen to make Himself known to us in three distinct persons. Each is distinct, but they all share in the same essential nature. --God, the Father is distinct from the Son and the Holy Spirit, but Hersquo;s still God. --God, the Son is distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit, but Hersquo;s still God. --And God, the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son but Hersquo;s still God. So, those were the two big lessons that we learned in week #1mdash;that the Holy Spirit is a person and the Holy Spirit is God. Then, last week, we looked at John 3 and the dramatic encounter that took place between Jesus and a super-religious man by the name of Nicodemus and we learned from that text that no one gets into the Kingdom of God unless theyrsquo;ve been ldquo;born againrdquo; and no one gets ldquo;born againrdquo; apart from the working of the Holy Spirit in their life. Now, this morning, I want us to revisit that text so that we can talk, in greater detail, about exactly what happens when we are ldquo;born again.rdquo; I want identify, this morning, 3 specific things that the Holy Spirit accomplishes in each and every one of us when we are ldquo;born again.rdquo; Letrsquo;s get started by reading the text. John 3:1-8 says this: (1) Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. (2) He came to Jesus at night and said, ldquo;Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.rdquo; (3) In reply Jesus declared, ldquo;I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.rdquo; (4) ldquo;How can a man be born when he is old?rdquo; Nicodemus asked. ldquo;Surely he cannot enter a second time into his motherrsquo;s womb to be born!rdquo; (5) Jesus answered, ldquo;I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. (6) Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. (7) You should not be surprised at my saying, lsquo;You must be born again.rsquo; (8) The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.rdquo; So, letrsquo;s walk back through the text and see if we can answer this question concerning what, specifically, the Holy Spirit does when we are born again. And the first thing we ne... Audio,Messages,,John,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=139 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=139#comments Sun, 18 May 2008 22:11:26 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=157 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=139 0 39:39 So, if I look just a little bit different to you today itrsquo;s because I am just a little bit different today. I am, ... So, if I look just a little bit different to you today itrsquo;s because I am just a little bit different today. I am, officially, the proud father of a college graduatehellip;a college graduate with a B.A. in psychologyhellip;a college graduate with a B.A. in psychology who will be utilizing all of that recently acquired knowledge in her new, full-time job! Last weekend we were in Southern California to celebrate Jordanrsquo;s graduation from Vanguard University. It was a weekend filled with healthy doses of pride, joy, satisfaction and most importantly, a profound sense of gratitude to God for His abundant blessing. As we sat through the baccalaureate and graduation services last weekend, Stirling and I were profoundly grateful to God for leading Jordan there. She not only got a world-class education but she also sat, for four years, under the instruction of professors who are not only outstanding educators, but are also outstanding men and women of God. So, because I am feeling so blessed today, I want to bless you this morning with not onehellip;but three sermons. Donrsquo;t get nervous, the first two will be very brief. The speaker for the baccalaureate service was chosen by the graduates from among Vanguardrsquo;s facultyHe was funny. He was engaging. And he had a great message for the graduateshellip;and for everyone else listening. And, now, that includes you. He built his message to the graduates around a single question. He told them that if they would ask this question of themselves every day for the rest of their lives they would never drift off course, but if they failed to ask this question they would soon be headed for trouble. Herersquo;s the questionmdash;Whorsquo;s my audience? He said that money will try to become your audience. Career advancement will try to become your audience. Friends, popularity, success, relationships and material things will all try to become your audience. And theyrsquo;ll all lead you astray. Therersquo;s only one audience who will never lead you astraymdash;your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, ask yourself every day for the rest of your lifemdash;Whorsquo;s my audience, today? What a great word for a graduating class. Itrsquo;s also a great word for us. Thatrsquo;s the first sermon. The commencement speaker for the graduation ceremony was Dr. Dick Foth. For 15 years he has served in our nationsrsquo; capital as a spiritual advisor to our political leaders. He also built his message to the graduates around a single question. But instead of giving the graduates a question to ask themselves, he gave them a question to ask of others. In fact, he encouraged them to find some way to ask this question of everyone they would meet each day for the rest of their lives. He described it as a Jesus question. Herersquo;s the question: What can I do to help? He told them that there were a limitless number of ways to ask that question, there would always be some way to ask it in every situation and that every time you ask that question you invite Jesus to work through you in that situation. He told them that his favorite way to ask the, ldquo;What can I do to help?rdquo; question is like thismdash;ldquo;How can I pray for you?rdquo; He told them that for the last 15 years he has asked that question a dozen times every dayhellip;hersquo;s asked it of Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists and agnosticshellip;people of every conceivable backgroundhellip;and in 15 years on Capitol Hill hersquo;s never had a single person say, ldquo;No, thanks. I donrsquo;t want you to pray for me.rdquo; And then he gave them a promise. He told them that if they would get in the habit of finding some way to ask everyone they meet, ldquo;What can I do to help?rdquo;, he said, I can promise you three things: --Yoursquo;ll always have friends. --Yoursquo;ll always have work. --Yoursquo;ll always have a life filled with meaning and purpose. What a great ... Audio,Messages,,John,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=135 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=135#comments Sun, 04 May 2008 21:23:20 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=156 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=135 0 30:48 Reflections on our Prayer Conference Irsquo;m guessing that every one of us knows what itrsquo;s like to look forward to some grand event with great anticipation ... Reflections on our Prayer Conference Irsquo;m guessing that every one of us knows what itrsquo;s like to look forward to some grand event with great anticipation for a really long time only to be greatly disappointed when the big day finally arrives and the big event fails to live up to our expectations. Whether it was a birthday, an anniversary, a vacation, a new job or something else altogether, we all know what that giant let down feels like. Thankfully, we also know what that wonderful sense of joy and fulfillment feels like when a long anticipated big event not only lives up to, but actually exceeds our expectations. And thatrsquo;s where Irsquo;ve been living this past week in the aftermath of our long anticipated Prayer Conference last weekend. What a wonderful, Spirit-blessed weekend we shared with one another. For those who may not have been herehellip;and, by way of review for the rest of youhellip;Irsquo;d like to spend a few moments reflecting on the weekend and try to very briefly encapsulate the heart and a few of the high points of the weekend of teachings shared with us by our conference leader, Dr. Gregory Frizzell. The weekend was built on the foundational premise that Godrsquo;s passionate desire is that each of us, His children, would experience His presence in our daily life as both real and powerful. And both of those words are key. God wants to be real to us. God wants to be powerful in us. --God wants to be so real to us, that when He speaks to us, we hear it; and when Hersquo;s leading us, we know it; and when Hersquo;s working in and around us, we recognize it. God wants to be that real to us. --God also wants to be powerful in us. God wants to be so powerful to us that we can pray confidently today because we are praying on the foundation of a catalogue of prayers wersquo;ve seen Him answer previously; so powerful in us that we are set completely free from patterns of worldly thought and behavior, that may have bound us up for years; so powerful in us that we begin to have mountain-moving encounters with His Spirit. Thatrsquo;s how powerful God wants to be in us. And not just in some of us, but in every one of His children. Unfortunately, many Christians have come to accept as normal a Christian life that bears very little resemblance to the life that Irsquo;ve just described. For many Christians, God is real in their beliefshellip;they believe that He exists, they believe that Hersquo;s saved them, they believe that He listens when they prayhellip;God is real in their beliefsmdash;but the truth is, Hersquo;s not very real in their experience. Hersquo;s certainly not a powerful presence in their life. --They donrsquo;t recognize Godrsquo;s voice when He speaks. --They donrsquo;t recognize when God is leading them. --They donrsquo;t see Him working in and around them. --They donrsquo;t see Him answering their prayers. --Theyrsquo;re not being set free from worldly attitudes and patterns of behavior. In short, while they continue to believe in God, Hersquo;s not a real, powerful presence in their daily lives. So, herersquo;s the million dollar questionmdash;How do we move from that place where God is merely real in our beliefs to that place where God becomes real and powerful in our daily lives? Well, thatrsquo;s what our Prayer Conference was all about. The key to this life-transforming process was described by Dr. Frizzell with two words: ldquo;personal cleansing.rdquo; Personal cleansing begins with the recognition that God is a holy God. And that means that even though God desires to be real and powerful and very present in our lives, He cannot be so if our lives continue to be filled with the muck and dirt of this world. Before a holy God will fill us with His presence and power, we have to be cleansed. Perfect? No. Cleansed? Yes. And while that sounds difficult and scary, in fact, itrsquo;s neither. Let me tell you why itrsquo;s not a dif... Audio,Messages,,James,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=128 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=128#comments Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:34:32 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=142 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=128 0 40:20 2008 has been a really exciting year for us as a church family as God has united us around a vision of pressing in to ... 2008 has been a really exciting year for us as a church family as God has united us around a vision of pressing in to God. What that means, is that while God has saved each of us, God has not yet completed His work in any of us. Rather, He has drawn us together as a church family so that He can work through each of us to help each other grow deeper and stronger in the Lord. And, in light of all of that, two weeks ago we asked this question, ldquo;What is the currency of the church? What is the currency that we trade in as we pursue this God-given goal of helping each other grow deeper and stronger in the Lord?rdquo; And the answer is, gracemdash;the unmerited favor of God which He pours out on every one of His children, first, to get us saved and then continues to pour out on us to lead us into the fullness of our salvation. And to keep us from bottling up all of that grace and hoarding it all to ourselves He gives us spiritual giftshellip;things like serving, helping, giving, encouraging and hospitality, just to name a fewhellip;that equip us to become channels through which the grace of God can flow to others for the purpose of building them up and strengthening them in their faith. Then, we continued our conversation about grace last week by asking another question, ldquo;If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?rdquo; I answered that question by saying that I would want to live exactly where I am living todaymdash;in grace! We walked through 26 different scripture passages dealing with grace and, as we did so, this became abundantly clear: there is simply no way to maintain the life that God desires for us in Christ apart from the abiding, experiential reality of Godrsquo;s grace. As children of God, we live by, feed on and breathe the grace of God. First, God pours out His grace on us to get us saved. Then He continues to pour out His grace on us to lead us into the fullness of our salvation. This morning, I want to wrap up our conversation about grace with a practical demonstration of Godrsquo;s grace at work in our lives. And since each of the first two grace sermons was launched with a question, I think itrsquo;s only appropriate to launch this final grace sermon in the same way. So, herersquo;s the question that I asked myself earlier this week and the one that I want to ask you this morning: Whatrsquo;s the hardest thing God ever asked you to do? As I asked myself that question, I looked back across 30 years of ministry experiencehellip;30 years of people coming to me with all kinds of God questionshellip;I finally decided that it may be the hardest thing that God asks any of His children to dohellip;and the truth is that He asks all of His children to do ithellip;is to forgive each other. I canrsquo;t even begin to estimate the number of times Irsquo;ve heard someone say to me, ldquo;I know Irsquo;m supposed to forgive him/herhellip;I just donrsquo;t know that I can.rdquo; So, this morning, I hope to show you how Godrsquo;s gracehellip;the grace that gets us saved and the grace that gets us fully savedhellip;enables us to do what just may be the hardest thing that God asks us to domdash;which is to forgive each other. Now, let me quickly say that if you donrsquo;t think that forgiveness is all that hard, it may be because you havenrsquo;t fully appreciated what God means by forgiveness. In other words, you may have a faulty understanding of Godrsquo;s definition of forgiveness. So, let me see if I can help you with that by giving you a list of 5 very specific actions that God includes in His definition of forgiveness. I think theyrsquo;ll help us see the enormity of the forgiveness challenge. #1 Forgiveness means, donrsquo;t even think about trying to getting even. Keep all thoughts of revenge out of your head. Romans 12:19 says, ldquo;Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for Godrsquo;s wrathhellip;rdquo; If God decides to settle the sc... Audio,Messages,,Ephesians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=126 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=126#comments Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:21:17 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=140 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=126 0 39:19 I want to continue, this morning, the conversation about ldquo;grace,rdquo; that we began last week, so let me briefly review last weekrsquo;s message to get ... I want to continue, this morning, the conversation about ldquo;grace,rdquo; that we began last week, so let me briefly review last weekrsquo;s message to get us all starting at the same point. God has given the Petaluma Valley Family a very clear vision for 2008mdash;we are pressing in to God. What that means, in essence, is that we recognize that while God has saved each of us, Hersquo;s not yet completed His work in any of us. We are all works in progress. And God has drawn us together as a church family, in part, for the specific purpose of working through each of us to help each other grow deeper and stronger in the Lord. And, in light of all of that, the question we asked last week was, ldquo;What is the currency of the church? What is the currency that we trade in as we pursue this God-given goal of helping each other grow deeper and stronger in the Lord?rdquo; And how did we answer that question, last week? The currency of the church is grace. The unmerited favor of God which He pours out on every one of His children, first, to get us saved and then continues to pour out on us to grow us into the fullness of our salvation. And God doesnrsquo;t pour His grace out on each of us, just to bless us individuallyhellip;though it certainly does thathellip;rather, He pours His grace out on each of us with the intent that we would then become channels of blessings to each other, freely sharing with one another the grace that God has so freely shared with us. And God is so determined to see us share His grace with one another, that He has given us the perfect means by which to do so, namely, through our spiritual gifts. Gifts like teaching, serving, helping, leading, giving; encouraging and hospitality, just to name a few. So, every child of God has been given a spiritual gift by God that equips them in some way to be a channel though whom the grace of God can flow to others for the purpose of building them up and strengthening them in their faith. And thatrsquo;s just incredibly exciting because it means that every single member of the church family is incredibly important to the church family. We are all equipped by God to be channels of Godrsquo;s grace to one another. Now, to launch us into this morningrsquo;s conversation about grace I want to ask this question: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? Paris? London? Hawaii? Needles? Where would you live IF you could live anywhere in the world? Herersquo;s my answer: If I could live anywhere in the world, I would want to live exactly where Irsquo;m living todayhellip;but Irsquo;m not talking about Petaluma. OK. Thatrsquo;s a teaser. Irsquo;ll give you my complete answer at the end of the sermon. So, let me tell you where the idea for todayrsquo;s sermon came from. I was so excited about our conversation, last Sunday, about ldquo;grace being the currency of the church,rdquo; that I just couldnrsquo;t get ldquo;gracerdquo; out of my mind. So, I began to bring to mind some of the great ldquo;gracerdquo; statements that I could remember from Godrsquo;s word and I was drawn fairly quickly to Paulrsquo;s letters. The Apostle Paul is the author of 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament, each of which were written in the form of letters. 9 of those letters were addressed to churches and 4 were addressed to individualsmdash;Christian friends and ministry colleagues. Now, the reason I was drawn to those letters is because it seemed to me that ldquo;gracerdquo; figured prominently in either the greeting or the closing of each of those 13 letters. So, I grabbed my Bible and read each of the greetings that Paul issued in those 13 letters. Herersquo;s what I found: Romansmdash;ldquo;Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.rdquo; 1 Corinthiansmdash;ldquo;Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.rdquo; 2 Corinthiansmdash;ldquo;Grace and peace to you from G... Audio,Messages,,Romans,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=121 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=121#comments Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:31:22 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=135 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=121 0 26:39 So itrsquo;s the week before Easter and your neighbor asks you if you have any plans for the weekend and you tell him, ldquo;Oh, yeah, ... So itrsquo;s the week before Easter and your neighbor asks you if you have any plans for the weekend and you tell him, ldquo;Oh, yeah, wersquo;ve got big plans. Wersquo;ll be joining people from 12 different churches on Friday night for a Good Friday service; then, wersquo;re going to get together with that same group at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday morning for our Easter Sunrise Service; then, wersquo;re going to get together with our own church family at 9 a.m. for our Easter Service.rdquo; And he looks back at you in bewilderment and says, ldquo;So, Easterrsquo;s basically going to consume your entire weekend.rdquo; And you say, ldquo;Well, I hadnrsquo;t exactly thought of it like that but I suppose, yes, it is.rdquo; And he asks, ldquo;So whatrsquo;s the big deal about Easter?rdquo; What would you say in response? I couldnrsquo;t help but think about that this week as I was meeting with this group and then this group and then this group to attend to all of the final details relating to all of our Easter events. I wonder if the folk in the non-Christian community ever wonder, ldquo;Whatrsquo;s the big deal, here? Religious celebrations are a dime a dozen. Why does Easter really even matter?rdquo; Thatrsquo;s the question I want to try to answer this morning. Letrsquo;s begin with a quick review of the event as presented in Mark 16:1-8: When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesusrsquo; body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, ldquo;Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?rdquo; But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. ldquo;Donrsquo;t be alarmed,rdquo; he said. ldquo;You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, lsquo;He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.rsquo; rdquo; Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. Jesus was crucified until he was dead. His body was laid in a tomb. A huge stone was rolled in front of the tomb. Three days later some women came to anoint his body with spices according to their custom. And when they got to the tomb they were met by an angel, who told them that the spices wouldnrsquo;t be necessary because Jesus had walked out of the tomb alive and well. And the other gospels confirm Markrsquo;s account, noting that Jesus was later seen not only by his disciples, but also by all sorts of people. So, what does Jesusrsquo; resurrection mean to us, today? Why does it matter? I want to briefly identify four reasons that it matters greatly. First, it matters because it means that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be. And who did he claim to be? He claimed to be God. Shortly before his death Jesus was put on trial. Matthew 26 says, The high priest said to him, ldquo;I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.rdquo; Jesus replied, ldquo;Yes, it is as you say.rdquo; Folks, no other great religious leader ever made such a claim. Not Buddha. Not Mohammed. Not Abraham. No one. And those lesser religious leaders, the Jim Jonesrsquo;s of the world, that have come along claiming to be God, have all been proven to be frauds. Because once they were dead, they stayed dead. And nobody ever looks back at those guys and says, ldquo;Well, at least he was a great teacher.rdquo; What they say is, ldquo;That guy was whacked. That guy was deranged.rdquo; And thatrsquo;s why itrsquo;s absurd to call Jesus a great... Audio,Messages,,Mark,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=120 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=120#comments Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:30:32 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=134 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=120 0 37:11 This morning, we are just one week away from Easter; our annual celebration of the central reality of our faithmdash;the bodily resurrection from the dead ... This morning, we are just one week away from Easter; our annual celebration of the central reality of our faithmdash;the bodily resurrection from the dead of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why is this the central reality of our faith? The Apostle Paul said it like this in 1 Corinthians 15, ldquo;If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.rdquo; And all Godrsquo;s people said, ldquo;Amen!rdquo; Christ the Lord is risen, indeed. So thatrsquo;s where wersquo;re heading this next week. --On Friday night wersquo;ll gather at 7:00 p.m. at Calvary Chapel for our Citywide Good Friday service, where our focus will be the cross on which Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins and secure the gift of eternal salvation for all who believe. --Then, early Sunday morning, wersquo;ll gather at 6:30 a.m. at Adobe Christian Center for our first ever Citywide Easter Sunrise Service, where our focus will be the empty tombhellip;proof of Jesusrsquo; triumphant victory over death. --Then wersquo;ll gather here at both 9 and 11:00 a.m. to celebrate Easter with our church family and the family and friends that you bring with you. And I hope yoursquo;ll bring a lot of them because theyrsquo;re going to hear the gospel. So, thatrsquo;s where wersquo;re heading this next week and, for the most part, I think we understand fairly well what both Good Friday and Easter are all about. But, today, is Palm Sunday, the day on which the church throughout the centuries has come together to remember and reflect upon Jesusrsquo; triumphal entry into Jerusalem to begin the last week of his life. And Palm Sunday has always been a day characterized by both understanding and misunderstanding; people tend to get some things right and some things very, very wrong. So, letrsquo;s read the biblical account of the events of this amazing day and invite God to help us ldquo;get it right.rdquo; Letrsquo;s begin with Luke 19:28-40. 28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 30 "Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31 If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' tell him, 'The Lord needs it.' " 32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, "Why are you untying the colt?" 34 They replied, "The Lord needs it." 35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. 37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 38 "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!" 40 "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." So, I said a few moments ago that even back at the very first Palm Sunday the people got some things right and got some other things wrongs. Letrsquo;s take a couple of moments to identify some of those things, beginning with what they got right. And, without any doubt, the big thing that they got right was recognizing that Jesus was coming to... Audio,Messages,,Luke,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=117 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=117#comments Sun, 09 Mar 2008 22:51:56 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=132 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=117 0 41:59 It was about 17 months ago that I began to sense that God was inviting me to follow Him on a pilgrimage of prayer. ... It was about 17 months ago that I began to sense that God was inviting me to follow Him on a pilgrimage of prayer. At the time, I had literally no idea what that pilgrimage would ultimately look like, where it was going to lead me personally or how it would impact our church family. The only thing that was clear to me was Godrsquo;s invitation and my response. I knew that it was critically important for me to say, ldquo;Yes.rdquo; And the moment I said, ldquo;Yes,rdquo; God began to lead. And one of the first things that I felt led to do was to visit some churches that in some way evidenced a passion for prayer. So, I jumped up onto the Web and began visiting church websites, paying careful attention to what they said about the priority of prayer in the life of their church. And it didnrsquo;t take long for a sense of dismay to begin to set in. On website after website after website I found virtually no mention of prayer. It was true of small churches, medium sized churches, large churches, even mega-churches with multiple thousands of weekly attenders. No mention of any kind of prayer ministry. Now, mine was not a scientific survey so I donrsquo;t want to overstate my perception of what appeared to be a dearth of praying in so many churches. But, folks, people tend to put on their websites the information that they most want others to know about them. And I was a bit dismayed to discover that so many churches seemed to be so disinterested in displaying a passion for prayer. Now, thankfully, there were exceptions. And, eventually, I put together a personal prayer pilgrimage that took me to several churches whose passion for prayer was palpable. And God used my experiences at those churches to open my eyes to some new prayer possibilities for our church. And one of the prayer possibilities that has been burning in my heart for months now has been a vision of A Prayer Room. A room on our church campus that would be set aside for the sole purpose of prayer. And I am just absolutely delighted, today, to tell you that that space has been identified, itrsquo;s been set aside, itrsquo;s in the process of being remodeled and our brand new Prayer Room will be formally dedicated during our Praise Service on March 30. In your bulletin, this morning, you have an insert introducing you to our new Prayer Room in the space formerly called, C-4. The insert identifies the hours during which The Prayer Room will initially be open, it identifies ways that you can participate in making the dream a reality through designated financial contributions and, most importantly, at the top of the insert, yoursquo;ll find the purpose statement for The Prayer Room. Irsquo;d like to take just a couple of moments for us to read through that purpose statement. It says, The Prayer Room is available for anyone desiring to spend time with the Lord in prayer. It is a quiet place for private, personal prayer. It is a welcoming place to gather for prayer with and for friends and family. It is an encouraging place for sharing prayer requests, answered prayers and praise reports. It is a loving place for bathing the ministries, missions, pastors and people of PVBC in believing intercessory prayer. It is a holy place to rest in the presence of God. This morning, I want to tell you why I believe the creation of The Prayer Room is such an important next step for us as God continues to grow Petaluma Valley into A House of Prayer and as we continue to pursue the vision that God has given us for 2008mdash;a vision of pressing in and pressing on. Pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God and pressing on with the work that He has given us to do. Our primary text, today, is found in Paulrsquo;s 2nd letter to the Corinthians. If you were with us last week, I think yoursquo;ll find this text particularly interesting in light of the text we looked at last week. Last week, in 1 Corinthians 11, we listened as Paul ch... 2,Corinthians,,Audio,Messages,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=113 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=113#comments Sun, 24 Feb 2008 20:52:32 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=128 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=113 0 29:36 This is a significant day for us. A milestone in the life of our church. Do you know why? Itrsquo;s because ... This is a significant day for us. A milestone in the life of our church. Do you know why? Itrsquo;s because this is the first day of the last week of February, 2008. And that means that two of the twelve months that God has given us to follow His Vision for us in 2008hellip;a vision of pressing in every day to a closer and closer relationship with Godhellip;2 of those 12 months are behind us and we only have 10 more months in which to strain forward toward the goal that we set for ourselves at the beginning of this year. And this is our goalmdash;that on January 1, 2009, we will each wake up on that 1st morning of the new year and be able to say, ldquo;Because of the way that I pressed in to God last year, my relationship with God today is closer than itrsquo;s ever been. The love of Jesus is burning more brightly in my heart today than ever before.rdquo; Folks, I cannot imagine a better way to spend the year and thatrsquo;s the vision that God has given us for this year. And we are not letting go of the vision. --Day after day after day, we are pressing in to God because therersquo;s just so much of Him to get to know that we donrsquo;t want to waste even a single day. --Day after day after day, we are pressing in to God because no matter how far wersquo;ve come so far, wersquo;ve still got so much further to go. --Day after day after day, we are pressing in to God because of everything that God has already done to press in to usmdash;sending Jesus to die for our sins while we were still sinners and then opening our eyes so that we could see the amazing gift of salvation available to us through Christ. --Day after day after day, we are pressing in to God because God is at work in us even now moving us to do so. --And because we know that God does not reward aimlessness, day after day after day, we are pressing in to God, with the discipline, the focus and hard work of an athlete who is training to run and win the most important race of his life. Because we know that this is the most important race of our life. --And because God not only wants to draw each of us into a closer relationship with Him but also wants to use each of us to encourage others to grow closer to Him, we are beginning each day with this prayer, ldquo;God, open my eyes and help me to see, today, someone that I could encourage to grow closer to You.rdquo; Thatrsquo;s a quick summary of the journey that wersquo;ve shared these past 2 months as we have been pursuing this vision of pressing in to God. And the commitment that I made to you at the beginning of that journey was thismdash;that I would ask God everyday to show me what I could do to help you get there. And Irsquo;ve been doing that. Over and over again Irsquo;ve asked God to show me what I can do to offer real help to you as you pursue this supremely worthy goal of getting to know God better and better and better. And as I brought that question to God, once again, this past week, I was drawn to a single verse in the Psalms. Psalm 119:18 is a very succinct verse that teaches us about the connection that exists between two of the most important of all the Christian disciplinesmdash;prayer and the study of Godrsquo;s word, the Bible. --Prayer is an absolutely indispensable practice in our quest to get to know God better this year. Wersquo;ll never reach our goal apart from prayer. --Bible Study is also an absolutely indispensable practice in our quest to get to know God better this year. Wersquo;ll never reach our goal apart from the disciplined study of Godrsquo;s word. What Irsquo;m hoping and praying that wersquo;ll see in our text, this morning, is the vitally important way in which these two vitally important Christian disciplines are connected. So, letrsquo;s read our text. Psalm 119:18 says, ldquo;Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.rdquo; I want to call your attention, today, to three lessons that are very clearly tau... Audio,Messages,,Psalms,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=106 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=106#comments Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:28:42 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=120 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=106 0 45:43 Four weeks ago I shared with you the vision that God has given me for the Petaluma Valley Family in 2008. Itrsquo;s a vision ... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=105 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=105#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:19:46 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=119 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=105 0 34:19 Three weeks ago I shared with you the vision that God has given me for the Petaluma Valley Family in 2008. Itrsquo;s a vision ... Three weeks ago I shared with you the vision that God has given me for the Petaluma Valley Family in 2008. Itrsquo;s a vision captured in the words, ldquo;Pressing inhellip; Pressing onhellip;rdquo; Pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God and pressing on with the work that God has given us to do. And the order of those two parts of our vision statement is very important. The pressing in to God must always precede the pressing on with the work that we do, because thatrsquo;s how we make sure that wersquo;re busy with the things that God wants us to do rather than just being busy. Herersquo;s the point, if we simply get really busy doing a whole bunch of really good things and neglect to nurture a close walk with God we may very well end up being really busy with really good things that God never intended for us to be doing, while completely missing the best things that God had prepared us for and prepared for us. And we donrsquo;t want that to happen. We donrsquo;t want to settle for the good that our minds can conjure up. Wersquo;re pursuing the best that only God can conceive. So, wersquo;re going to work without growing weary at everything that God gives us to dohellip; hellip;wersquo;re pressing on into China; hellip;wersquo;re pressing on to becoming a House of Prayer; hellip;wersquo;re pressing on in growing our menrsquo;s ministry; hellip;wersquo;re pressing on to encourage everyone to get involved in one of our small groups; hellip;wersquo;re pressing on in our ministries to our children and youth; hellip;wersquo;re pressing on with the building of a new pavilion to cover our courtyard; hellip;wersquo;re pressing on in everything that God has given us to do. And to help us be very clear about what Hersquo;s given us to do, all of our working is going to grow out of our unwavering passion to be constantly pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God. To the end, wersquo;ve spent the last 2 weeks studying Philippians 3 to see what it tells us about why itrsquo;s so important for us to always be pressing in to God. So, letrsquo;s take a few moments to read Philippians 3:7-16. It says, 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christmdash;the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. So, the question is, why is it so important for us to always be pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God? And, two weeks ago, we saw that the first reason is this: so that we can truly know God. The only way that any of us can move from merely knowing about God to truly knowing God is to be continually pressing in to Him because therersquo;s just so much of Him to know. Even if pressing in to God becomes our lifelong pursuit, we will still be learning new things about God up to the very last day of... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=98 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=98#comments Sun, 27 Jan 2008 05:29:23 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=110 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=98 0 44:53 Last Sunday I shared with you the vision that God has given me for the Petaluma Valley Family in 2008. Itrsquo;s a vision captured ... Last Sunday I shared with you the vision that God has given me for the Petaluma Valley Family in 2008. Itrsquo;s a vision captured in these words: ldquo;Pressing inhellip; Pressing onhellip;rdquo; Itrsquo;s a vision born out of the recognition that even though God moved mightily among us in 2007, pouring out blessing after blessing after blessing, it would be an absolute spiritual disaster to try and live this year off of the encounters that we had with God last year. As I was praying about all of this recently and seeking Godrsquo;s vision for us in 2008, I was deeply impressed with Godrsquo;s call to keep moving forward. In other words, to ldquo;press on.rdquo; --To press on in our mission to China. --To press on to becoming a house of prayer. --To press on in growing our menrsquo;s ministry. --To press on in encouraging everyone to get involved in a small group. --To press on in ministering to our children and youth. --To press on with the building of our new pavilion to cover the courtyard. To press on and on and on, without growing weary. To keep pressing on. But because all of our busyness as a church family is ultimately meaningful only to the extent that we are busy with the things that God has given us to do, ldquo;pressing onrdquo; is not enough. All of our pressing on has to grow out of on an unwavering passion for ldquo;pressing inhellip;to God.rdquo; Which means that before we even think about doing anything for God we want to be sure that we are walking very closely with God. And thatrsquo;s what I mean by ldquo;pressing in.rdquo; Walking ever more closely with God. Thatrsquo;s the vision that God has given me for the Petaluma Valley Family in 2008. Pressing inhellip; Pressing onhellip; Pressing in to God and pressing on with the work that Hersquo;s given us to do. Last week, I began a series of sermons focusing on the first part that vision, ldquo;Pressing inhellip;rdquo; and we looked at Philippians 3:7-16 in the hope of answering this question: WHY it is so very important for us to always be pressing in to God. Wersquo;re going to return to that text and continue to ask that question, this morning. So, with that in mind, letrsquo;s begin by reading the text. Philippians 3:7-16. 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christmdash;the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. So, the question wersquo;re asking today is: Why is it so important for us to keep pressing in to a closer and closer relationship with God? Last week we saw, from the text, that the first reason is this: So that we can truly know God. The only way that any of us can move from merely knowing about God to truly knowing God is to be continually pressing in to Him because therersquo;s just so much of Him to know. We saw that in Paulr... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=97 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?p=97#comments Sun, 20 Jan 2008 05:20:22 +0000 Pastor Tom http://www.darryljsmith.com/pastortom/wordpress/?p=109 http://www.petalumabaptist.com/?feed=rss2&p=97 0 36:10 Every Sunday when I step up here to speak with you, Irsquo;m always filled with a sense of excitement and expectation. I look forward ... Every Sunday when I step up here to speak with you, Irsquo;m always filled with a sense of excitement and expectation. I look forward to these times that we share together on Sunday mornings, all week long. But Irsquo;m especially excited this morning because I get to share with you, today, the vision that God has given me for the Petaluma Valley Family in 2008. Itrsquo;s a vision captured in these words: ldquo;Pressing inhellip; Pressing onhellip;rdquo; If I do my job right, those words will not only become an important part of my life this year, but theyrsquo;ll also become an important part of your life, as well. ldquo;Pressing inhellip; Pressing onhellip;rdquo; So, what does that mean? 2007 was a great year for the Petaluma Valley Family. A few weeks ago I began a sermon by sharing with you an extensive but by no means exhaustive list of the blessings that God poured out on us in superabundance in 2007. Financial blessings. Spiritual blessings. An incredible array of answered prayers right up to and including the miraculous. God moved mightily among us in 2007. And whenever that happenshellip;whenever we go through a time of great blessinghellip;the natural temptation is to rest on what was. To try and live today off of previous encounters with God. And that, my friends, is a recipe for spiritual disaster. And as I was recently praying and seeking Godrsquo;s vision for us in 2008, I was deeply impressed with Godrsquo;s call to keep moving forward. In other words, to ldquo;press on.rdquo; --To press on in our mission to China. --To press on to becoming a house of prayer. --To press on in growing our menrsquo;s ministry. --To press on in encouraging everyone to get involved in a small group. --To press on in ministering to our children and youth. --To press on with the building of our new pavilion to cover the courtyard. To press on and on and on, without growing weary. To keep pressing on. But even as I was embracing the call to ldquo;press on,rdquo; I realized that that was only part of Godrsquo;s vision for us because there is no virtue in busyness for busynessrsquo; sake. All of our busyness as a church family is meaningful only to the extent that we are busy with the things that God has given us to do. And that means that ldquo;pressing onrdquo; is not enough, even if wersquo;re pressing on to good things. All of our pressing on has to grow out of on an unwavering, passionate commitment to ldquo;press inhellip;to God.rdquo; Before we even think about doing anything for God we want to be sure that we are walking very closely with God. And thatrsquo;s what I mean by ldquo;pressing in.rdquo; Walking ever more closely with God. Thatrsquo;s the vision that God has given me for our church family in 2008. Pressing inhellip; Pressing onhellip; Pressing in to God and pressing on with the work that Hersquo;s given us to do. And I think therersquo;s enough meat there that wersquo;ll easily be able to chew on it for the rest of the year. And I want us to start our feasting, today, with those words, ldquo;Pressing inhellip;rdquo; And our feast will be served at the table found in the third chapter of Paulrsquo;s letter to the Philippians. So, pull up a chairhellip;or a pewhellip;and letrsquo;s chew for a while on Philippians 3:7-16. 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christmdash;the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection ... Audio,Messages,,Philippians,,Text Tom Marcum no No