Category Archives: MERGE Rewind

You can listen to this week’s entire message by clicking here and listening to the Merge podcast.

Current Series: Tornado

Message Title: Why do bad things happen to good people?

Speaker: Cody Hale

Sermon in a Sentence: What hurts in the beginning can help in the end.

Scale of Depth: 6 out of 10

Understandable Message: One of the universal questions of life is: why do bad things happen to good people?  As we look around at the devastation left by the recent tornadoes in our area, why are uncomfortably confronted with this universal question.  Acknowledging that we can only skim the surface of this age-old question, we looked at the life of Job as he pondered this same question.  We discovered that even though you can’t hear God doesn’t mean He isn’t working, and just because you can’t see him doesn’t mean that he isn’t there.  After losing his family, livelihood, and health, Job has a transformational experience with God after which he says, “How wonderful are your ways.”  We learned that often what hurts in the beginning, helps in the end.

Scripture Reference: Job

Music Playlist: Healer, Praise You in This Storm, Our God, and Beautiful Jesus

Favorite Moment: The slideshow while the Merge band played “Praise You in This Storm.”

Needs Improvement: More visitors

Listen to the message: “Sin Over Promises But Under Delivers” by clicking here.

Current Series: Sin: Relaxing, Tempting, Deadly

Message Title: Sin Over Promises But Under Delivers

Speaker: Cody Hale

Sermon in a Sentence: Sin over promises but under delivers.

Scale of Depth: 4 out of 10

Understandable Message:  So often, we find ourselves wanting to do what we know we shouldn’t do and not wanting to do the things that we should do.  Just like in the Garden of Eden, sin looks good, and sin sounds good.  However, even though sin looks good and sounds good, it always destroys those who are involved.  Sin makes big promises, but it always under delivers.  Sin shows us what we want to see, but it leaves out the reality of consequences.  We tend to think that God and our parents are trying to keep us from a good time, but the reality is that God and our parents are trying to keep us from the potential destruction that lies ahead.

Scripture Reference: Genesis 3:1-6

Music Playlist: Marvelous Light, Lead Me to the Cross, Sweetly Broken, and Running

Favorite Moment: A student surrendering to Christ.

Needs Improvement: Assimilation

Current Series: To Love or Not to Love

Message Title: The Sex Talk

Speaker: Cody Hale

Sermon in a Sentence: Everything that is permissible may not be beneficial.

Scale of Depth: 5 out of 10

Understandable Message: We get a lot of mixed signals regarding sex.  Our bodies are telling us to go for it, our minds are telling us to go for it, our boyfriend/girlfriend is telling us to go for it, but the Bible says no.  Why would God create us to want something that is sinful.  Sex is God’s wedding gift to us.  It is not for in love people; it is for married people.  While we have the freedom to do with His gift as we want, we do not have freedom from the consequences.  Just because we are allowed to do something doesn’t mean that we should do something.  Not everything that is permissible is beneficial.  Just like eating rat poison.  You have the freedom to eat rat poison, but, once you’ve eaten it, the consequences are beyond your control.  Eating rat poison is permissible, but it isn’t beneficial.

Just like the Corinthian society, science and Hollywood want you to believe that sex is simply biological and inconsequential.  However, Paul would argue that there is something different about sex.  Sex is connected to the soul.  Because of this, the consequences of sexual sin are especially devastating.  What is a simple filter we can use to determine whether or not something is beneficial?  We can ask the simple question that Paul introduces to us in Romans 6: If you have to ask the question, then don’t!  We should never ask the question of how close can we get to breaking God’s heart without actually breaking it.

Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 6:12-13; 18b

Music Playlist: Marvelous Light, Running, and Rescue

Favorite Moment: Seeing students praying over students at the alter.

Needs Improvement: Beginning of the service.

We have had many requests for last week’s and this week’s service.  Follow this link to view last week’s entire service: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4003226.  Hopefully, we will have this week’s service up at some point.

Current Series: Scarred

Message Title: Hurt People, Hurt People

Speaker: Kenny Nix

Sermon in a Sentence: Often times, scarred people scar other people.

Scale of Depth: 4 out of 10

Understandable Message:  All of us have scars–both physical and emotional.  A lot of the time, people with deep emotional scars are the same people that create those scars in other people.  They try to pretend the scar doesn’t exist until eventually they erupt on the people that are closest to them.  It is impossible do what God created you to do until you deal with your scars.  Just like the purest blood plasma brings healing to our physical scars, the purest blood of all, the blood of Christ, is the only thing that brings healing to our emotional scars.

Scripture Reference: Genesis 37-42

Music Playlist: Blessed Be Your Name, Inside Out, The More I Seek You, and Worth It All.

Favorite Moment: The alter filling during our time of worship.

Needs Improvement: Fluidity at the beginning of the service.

Current Series: Scarred

Message Title: Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Speaker: Cody Hale

Sermon in a Sentence: Sometimes what hurts in the beginning helps in the end.

Scale of Depth: 4 out of 10

Understandable Message:  All of us have scars–both physical and emotional.  Scars are usually the result of when our lives cross paths with pain and hurt.  Sometimes pain and hurt come without explanation and without apology.  We feel like we are being faithful in our walks with Christ, and we feel like we are doing everything right.  However, it feels like everything bad keeps finding us.  We don’t want cheap bandaids and empty advice; we want answers!

There is no clean, cliche’ answer.  However, throughout Scripture and life, we find that often God takes what hurts unimaginably bad in the beginning to ultimately bring healing in the end.  Just like surgery.  Surgery hurts really bad at first, but it helps you to avoid bigger issues and bigger pain later on.  Sometimes what hurts in the beginning helps in the end.

Scripture Reference: Job

Music Playlist: Sing Sing Sing, Dessert Song, Stay Amazed, and By His Wounds

Favorite Moment: Brokeness at the alter.  Healing happening.

Needs Improvement: I need to have my points in the computer.

Current Series: From the Heart

Message Title: “Revolutionary”

Speaker: Cody Hale

Sermon in a Sentence: God isn’t looking for more church people; He is looking for Revolutionaries.

Scale of Depth: 10 out of 10

Understandable Message:  This week’s MERGE was very different and difficult for some.  We took a break from all of our series and shared straight from what God has been stirring in our hearts.  Our greatest fear is that we build another generation of people that knows how to sing well, raise their hands at the right time, come to the altar at the right time, and say all the right answers.  Church people have destroyed the church.  The call to follow Christ is not a call to be another church person; the call to follow Christ is to be a revolutionary.  A revolutionary is okay with being hated (Matthew 10:22).  A revolutionary abandons EVERYTHING (Luke 14:33).  A revolutionary feeds the hungry, brings hope to the hopeless, inspires the disheartened, and loves the unlovable.  A revolutionary always swims upstream, even when they believe they are the only one.  The challenge was for this generation to become a generation of revolutionaries.

Scripture Reference: Luke 14:25-35

Music Playlist: The More I Seek You, Give Us Clean Hands, and Here Us from Heaven

Favorite Moment: Having students stand even when it wasn’t everybody to answer the call to be a revolutionary.  Those students staying almost 45 minutes late to worship Christ, pray with each other, and share what had penetrated their hearts.

Needs Improvement: Follow-up