Preached by Chris Broom, 3/8/2009

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Cornell Buckner (front w/ towel) Gets Baptized!

15 of us took a roadtrip to Milwaukee yesterday for a basketball game between Marquette and Syracuse! Many of us planted this church from Syracuse, New York, and so you can imagine who we were chearing for. Syracuse won in overtime, and we were automatically “best of friends” with anyone wearing “Syracuse wear” on the way out of the arena. All the regional tournaments are going to happen this next week throughout the country, and it’s being promoted as the Mayhem before the Madness. Last month (from February 1 to March 1) 10 people were baptized in the Chicago International Christian Church (with only 100 disciples)! That’s twice as many as any previous month! But that wasn’t the madness… that was just the Mayhem before the Madness!

Mark 6:30-44 … The Mayhem before the Madness.

• They came back to report to Jesus all they had done and taught.
• Then it was Mayhem (so crazy that they couldn’t even eat). So Jesus invited them to go away with him and get some quiet time.
• When they arrived (at the quiet place) it was Madness (a large crowd had come to hear Jesus)!
• Jesus did not tell the crowd to leave because they were having “alone” time.
• He looked at them and saw that they were like “sheep without a shepherd.” 
• So he began teaching them many things (He acted as their shepherd) because he had compassion on them!
• When the disciples suggested to send everyone away so that they could eat, Jesus told the disciples to feed them!
• The disciples questioned whether that much money should be spent on bread and given to them to eat.
• Is that how we feel about mission’s contribution?
• We are doing mission’s devotionals by house church to help everyone understand what we are trying to accomplish and why!
• It’s not about what we don’t have, but what we do have!
• Jesus takes the few loaves and fish and multiplies it to meet everyones need so that they are all satisfied (5000 men ate plus women and children).

John 4:34-38

1. Open Your Eyes!

• Jesus saw that the crowd had no shepherd (leadership)!
• Do we see that the people need God’s / our help?
• Newspaper article about the violence of teen dating (1 in 10 teens suffer abuse in dating relationships and many think it is justified)! (You have to listen to this!)
• We are in a community where we are not sheep without a shepherd. We have the help of the church of Jesus Christ, and with many advisors victory is sure (Proverbs 11:14)!
• Jesus will do things in your life to try to open your eyes.
• Roger Parlour wrote an article about having your eyes opened (see article by clicking here)!
• Once we baptize people, we have to take great care of them or Satan will devour them (1 Peter 5:8)!

Acts 26:16-24

• Here, Jesus opens Paul’s eyes and sends him to open the eyes of others!
• We have to teach others many things and help them no longer be sheep without a shepherd, and Satan will no longer be able to decieve them so easily!
• The Apostles wanted to send others away to get their own food, and so Jesus continued to try to open their eyes and put his heart in them!
• We had the harvest we had last month because of the staff we are building (see harvest article)! Our staff is not totally there yet on a heart level (nor am I and neither are you)! But we are still trying to get the heart of Jesus and put it into others!
• We don’t ever want to go back to a day in the church where we don’t have paid staff focussed on the teens, campus, singles, spanish and women’s ministries! So let’s blow out our mission’s contribution!
• Are you being obedient or disobedient to the vision you have recieved from heaven.
• Jesus’ message was to “repent!” (Is that your message?)
• If that is your message, people will want to kill you the way they did Jesus, John the baptist and Paul (they called him insane)!
• We cannot walk around on eggshells and play not to lose! We need to play to win! 

Colossians 4:2-5

2. Make the Most of Every Opportunity!

• When the Syracuse game went into overtime, they had to make the most of every opportunity!
• We have to make the most of every opportunity in our lives and bible talks because we don’t know if people like Cornell have another week to wait!
• We are going to have a day of “progressive evangelism” on the 21rst for our House Church Services on the 22nd.
• Challenge: The First Opportunity Challenge! Share your faith the first opportunity you get everyday for the rest of March! To do that, you have to open your eyes!
• If you’re gonna share your faith all day, you gotta start in the morning!

3. Jesus will Multiply Your Efforts!

• Good news from the movement! (You gotta listen to this.)
• Jesus will multiply our efforts when we share our faith. Today our brother Will, who was baptized in January, is baptizing his childhood friend Cornell.
• Jesus will multiply our efforts when we give to mission’s contribution.

February was a great month … Let’s get even crazier in March!

Chris Broom

Categories: Mark Series, Sermons
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