We enjoyed the week off and it was good to see everyone again.  We were gone last Sunday to be with Kelly’s parents as they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  Great week with them and the rest of Kelly’ family.

Yesterday we looked at the tension that exists between being prophetic and pastoral.  Confront versus comfort.  Both need to be done, but when we confront when comfort is best, then we do a lot of damage.  We looked at Luke 7 where Jesus was at dinner with Simon the Pharisee and a sinful woman came in and washed Jesus feet with her tears.  You see both actions by Jesus on this text.  Jesus is prophetic and pastoral.  The interesting thing is that he does it in the opposite way we would expect.  He comforts and forgives the woman who has worked at being a sinner and he confronts the man who has worked at being righteous.  You can hear the rest below.

Prophetic versus Pastoral  7-15-12 Prophetic versus Pastoral

Lake Travis Church of Christ bulletin  7-15-12

We looked at 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 Sunday.  I grew up hearing verse 16 quoted more than I did 16 and 17 together.  This left me with the idea that 16 was the important point.  The older I get I realize that 17 is the real point.  That we should be prepared to do all good works is what is really important.  Scripture is not an end it is a means.  Just to know Scripture is not enough.  We must live it.  You can hear the rest below.

Sermon 7-1-12 All Scripture is Inspired

Lake Travis Church of Christ Bulletin  7-01-12

Strange title I know, but it was the point of the sermon Sunday.  I am not going to post the sermon this week.  It was a long series of pictures that made a simple point.  If you are in Christ, the worst things this life hands us are not the final things.  And the best that this life has to hand us is not the best.  God has something greater for those in Christ.

Lake Travis Church of Christ bulletin  6-24-12

We looked at the advice given by the father in Proverbs 1 Sunday.  Three main points:  1)  Be careful who you let influence you and this may be tougher than you think, 2)  Just because someone else does something stupid and it works for them, does not mean it should be done, 3)  A life lived well when young makes old age and honor.  You can hear the expanded version below.

Sermon:  Father’s Wisdom  6-17-12 Father’s Day

Lake Travis Church of Christ bulletin  6-17-12

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”  Proverbs 16:3

This verse is a bit hard to take for me.  I committed plans to the Lord that I thought were godly and would honor Him.  They failed.  Why?  Maybe the answer, or at least one answer is found in the verses surrounding this verse.  This is what we explored Sunday in the sermon and if you want to hear more, you can listen below.

Commit Your Plans  6-10-12

Lake Travis Church of Christ bulletin  6-10-12

We have explored John’s baptism, Jesus baptism and yesterday we looked at our baptism.  Much like Jesus our baptism is our decision point about whether or not he will be our Lord.  Acts 2 presented those present then with a choice.  They had killed Jesus who God had made Lord and messiah.  Would they now respond by being baptized in his name.  In that setting that was clearly an act that would put them against the leadership of that day.  It was a daring thing to do.  To accept Jesus that day was to be baptized into his name.  It’s still the same for us.  You can hear the rest below.

Sunday’s sermon  6-3-12 Acts 2

Lake Travis Church of Christ Bulletin  6-3-12

Ticks and Chiggers

This coming Sunday we will be going to the Lakeway Park for burgers and hotdogs and we will play our first annual game of Ticks and Chiggers.  Don’t ask me why this game was named this.  I don’t know.  This is like a scavenger hunt in that items worth certain point values will be found and brought to help your team win.  Here is how we will play.

We will divide everyone into two teams.  The catch is that you do not go looking for the items the judge will ask for, you have to bring it with you.  When a team finds the item the judge has asked for, they will give it to their designated runner who will bring it to the judge’s table for verification and points.  The first runner to get the item to the table is the one who will receive the points.  If the item does not meet, according to the judge’s decision, the criteria for the item asked for, then the other team’s item will be considered.

There will not be a list of items given out before the game.  Try to bring things that you think might be asked for.  This is the fun of the game.  Trying to outguess what the judge will call for.  Don’t worry, there will be items that are common and everyone should have.  There will be others that are not as common and they will obviously be given higher point values.

An example list might be:

A coin of a particular year, pocketknife, lipstick, comb etc.  You get the idea.

Your judge for this event will be creative and come up with some interesting items to ask for.  So bring some things from home that you might not normally have with you.

You cannot leave your designated group area to go and get an item.  For example:  if the judge asks for a leaf you cannot run to a tree and get one.  However, if you were clever enough to pick up a leaf before the game started and you had it with you that would be accepted.  So, no running to cars or home or anywhere else to get an item.  You must have it with you.

Following the game Ben Valdez will speak to us.

See you Sunday, Barry

Sunday we resumed our series we started on May 6.  I apologize for the long delay in restarting.  With Mother’s day and David Willis speaking to us I should have waited to start this series, but if you want to listen below, there  is a review at the beginning of the sermon to remind us where we went on May 6.  The main question we explored is why would Jesus be baptized.  He didn’t need the forgiveness of sins.  He didn’t need to repent.  What was going on?  Maybe this was Jesus accepting his ministry from God.   Jesus knew where this ministry would lead him:  it would lead to the cross.  Yet he took it on.  At his baptism he was given the Holy Spirit to empower his ministry and so it began.  The cross lies at the end of his baptism.  What lies at the end for us?  Is it really any different?  You can hear the rest below.

Sermon  5-27-12

Lake Travis Church of Christ Bulletin  5-27-12

Hello Everyone,

We had a great Sunday yesterday.  David Willis was with us and preached Sunday morning.  David is doing a great work in American Samoa.  I know because I was able to be in American Samoa last year and spend a couple of weeks there with David.  it was great to see him again and hear about how the church is doing there.  One piece of exciting news is that they are working on their building and hope to be finished by December.  I do not have a recording to share with you this week of David’s sermon.

It was also a good Sunday because we were able to honor our three seniors.  Hannah and Ruby are graduating from Lake Travis High School and Lauren is graduating from Dripping Springs High School.  Sam Heffington made the trip from Tulsa to speak to the graduates and it was good to see him again.  Our prayers are with these young ladies as they start this new chapter of their lives.

Our sumer youth intern Justin Ellison was also with us yesterday.  We look forward to having him here this summer and the great things he will do.

Enjoy your week, Barry

Lake Travis Church of Christ bulletin

5-20-12

Mothers have dreams for their children.  Sometimes they come true, often they do not.  We don’t want to forget that God has a way of taking what we see as failure and showing us a new dream.  You can hear the rest below.

Mother’s Day

Lake Travis Church of Christ Bulletin

5-13-12

Yesterday we looked at John the Baptist’s message about repentance.  More specifically, John offered a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  There is power in John’s message.  Forgiveness looks back and says let the bad stuff go.  This allows us to focus on repentance and move forward with whatever it is that God wants today or tomorrow.  Forgiveness looks back, repentance looks forward.  John even told those who came to him what repentance should look like.  The main two points are this:  Repentance is not a feeling, it is changing how we do things and repentance is not something we do one time but is really a lifetime commitment to changing into what God wants us to be.  You can hear the rest below.

Lake Travis Church of Christ Bulletin

5-6-12