FaithEngineer

With all the snow and ice we have gotten over the past few weeks, we were expecting a lower than normal turnout this past Sunday. God had other plans, and we had two great services this past Sunday. We did experiment a little by recording our evening service on video, so I uploaded the sermon so it can be viewed online.  If you did miss church Sunday, then here is your second chance to view the sermon. We wrapped up our series on 20/20 Vision by discussing our response to the Gospel.

As always, we will post the audio of the sermon on the church website and on the iTunes podcast. Let me know what you think. Is this something you would like Cornerstone to do each week?

The Gospel Response from Cornerstone on Vimeo.

Are you living your life in response to the Gospel? As Christians we have strong feelings about the gospel. We might not be able to express fully its meaning, but we understand that it is “the power of God for salvation” and that it changes everything. We will learn that the gospel is not just a message to those outside the faith who need Jesus. It also contains the resources we need to make a difference in the world by being different from the world.

This is the sermon from the evening service on February 7th, 2010

We’re starting a new series at Cornerstone this week on Vision. We all need fresh revelation from God. Vision gives us focus, endurance, and peace. Proverbs 29:18 NIV reminds us that “where there is no revelation, we cast off restraint….” In other words, we end up imitating culture rather than influencing it (read 1 Samuel 8 as an example of what happens when we seek imitation over revelation).

Our minds alone can’t even conceive what God has prepared for us. The Spirit, however, searches all things, even the deep things of God, and reveals them (1 Corinthians 2:9-16). This is a great way to start the new year, so invite your friends. My prayer is that we will develop our spiritual vision to clearly see God’s plan for our lives. Here is the video intro for the series.

20/20 Vision: Video Intro for Sermon Series from Mike Morris on Vimeo.

Using Keynote to Create Videos

If you’re interested on how I created the video, I’ll let you in on a secret. I didn’t use any high powered software to create it. I didn’t have much time to spend on this project so I cheated on this one. I did a little work in Photoshop Elements to create the logo, and then I used Apple’s Keynote to create a slideshow for the movie. I used the built-in transitions and effects to handle all the text and images. I setup timings and delays and then set each slide to automatically advance so that it was one continuos slideshow with no clicking. Since most video editing software is pretty tough to use, I have a feeling that more people know how to use presentation software.

Keynote gives you the ability to export a slideshow as a quicktime movie, so I used that to create a high res version. The quicktime file is not a true movie, but it is a slideshow playable on both macs and windows. I loaded it up in Quicktime Player 7 on the mac and exported it as a quicktime movie.  I then loaded the movie into Garageband and added the audio. All together, it took just a couple of hours start to finish. If you are dealing with mostly text, then Keynote may be a better option than a full-blown video editing package.

Holy Spirit Intro Video from Mike Morris on Vimeo.

We started our new series on the Holy Spirit this week at Cornerstone. I’m excited about our church learning together how the Holy Spirit moves and works in us and through us.  We ended the service with a powerful prayer by Francis Chan from his book Forgotten God.  This is our prayer as we start this series. Will you join us on this journey to discover the Holy Spirit’s role in our lives.  The sermon audio will be up on our sermon website later today.

Spirit, we know that we have done wrong by You. Please forgive us for grieving, resisting, and quenching You. We have resisted You through sin, through our rebellion, and through our hardness of heart. At times, we have been spiritually blind. At other times, we knew what You wanted us to do, but we chose to ignore Your promptings. Yet this is not how we want to live now.

We need you to change us. Only through You can we truly worship. Spirit of the Lord, You are the one who brings us to a place where we can worship. You are the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of holiness, the Spirit of Life. Thank You for the truth, the holiness, and the life You give us.

We need Your wisdom and understanding as we seek to live this life. Keep us from disbelief, from fear. We need Your strength to help us do what you are asking us to do and to live how You are asking us to live. Speak loudly and drown out the other voices calling us to conform to the patterns of this world.

You are the Spirit of self-control and love. Give us the self control needed to deny our flesh and follow you. Give us a love strong enough to motivate courageous action. Manifest Yourself through us that we may serve and love Your bride, the church, as You do.

Come, Holy Spirit come. We don’t know exactly what that means and looks like for each of us yet, in the particular places You’ve called us to inhabit. But, nonetheless, whatever it means, we ask for Your presence. Come, Holy Spirit, come.

I’m always on the lookout for new websites that share high-quality graphic files.  Here are two places you can find

First, I’ll share the free stuff.  Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina is offering their high quality graphic files for absolutely FREE.  Check out http://resources.elevationchurch.org/ I love their Kingdom focus of helping other churches.

Second, Floodgate Productions has launched a new site offering sermon graphics for sale.  Sermolicious has some great print and video media for sale.  These are great for youth or adults.  Here is a video that shows more about their website.

Sermolicious Promo from Floodgate & Sermolicious on Vimeo.

And finally, don’t forget about Lifechurch.tv Open Resources. I’ve talked about them before, but they are another great source for free graphic files and sermon ideas.

Lifechurch.tv has started yet another online service called videoteaching.com. This time, they are pulling together great video sermons from many different pastors and offering them as free downloads.  What for?  Here are some of the reasons they suggest:

• Expand your teaching team: Introduce your church to additional perspectives by bringing in top teachers from around the world via video. Who would you like to come speak at your church?
• Make a smooth transition: For churches who are without a pastor during a leadership transition, video messages can help with interim teaching. Line up your message calendar with ease so you can focus on finding the right leader for your church.
• Develop your ministry: You might be bi-vocational or maybe you’re planting a church. Either way, video teaching allows you put more energy into reaching your community by freeing you from weekly message preparation.
• Take a break: Regular rest is essential for pastors who want to maintain a healthy ministry. Whether it’s a sabbatical or just a short vacation, video messages are an excellent way to bring quality teaching to your church during a pastor’s time off.

I think it’s a great idea, although I could see some churches not using it wisely.   I know there are video venues of many churches, but what happens when you are watching a pastor every week that is not even connected to your fellowship?  We have used video teaching during the One Prayer series for the last two years and it has been warmly received.  But again, I don’t think it would be wise to use it every week, unless your church was personally connected to the pastor and leadership of the video teaching.

Lifechurch has really just made it easier to use videos like these.  Many churches have provided video podcasts for the last several years that could be downloaded and shown in church, but now Lifechurch has provided the framework and licensing to make it possible for any church to use.  I think the biggest benefactor of this service is smaller churches without pastors.  What do you think?  Good idea or bad?

Yesterday, we kicked off the One Prayer Series at Cornerstone.  We are excited to be part of this Global movement to fulfill the prayer of Jesus found in John 17, that we would be ONE.  We took part in this series last year, and it was a great experience. The theme this year is “God Is …..”

Just stop and think for a moment.  How would you feel in the blank?  How do you describe the character and nature of God in just one sentence?  The truth is that we could spend years just on this simple theme describing the Glory of God.

My sermon yesterday was God Is Enough and the audio will be up later today at our website and on iTunes.  God is enough for every circumstance, and we need to keep our eyes focused on following Christ through everything.  Through our success and our failure, through the good and the bad, we must continually seek Him.  I am excited about what we will learn together through this series. We will be continuing this series through the months of June and July.

I want to encourage you to visit the One Prayer website each day to find out how you can pray with other believers around the world.  You can also follow One Prayer on twitter,on facebook, and on YouTube.

One Prayer 2009: One Prayer began in 2008 with a simple idea: We pray to Jesus asking Him to answer our prayers – what if we became the answer to His? He prayed that we would be one, and One Prayer is an opportunity to see what can be accomplished when the Church works together.

Last June, thousands of churches formed unprecedented partnerships across cities, continents, denominations, and cultures. More than two million believers stood together to learn, pray, fast, and love others. This year, we’ll be joining forces once again as we go out into the world to share, serve and give during One Prayer 2009.

When I read through the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan, one quote really stood out to me. Chan actually quoted a paragraph from John Piper’s Book, God is the Gospel. That one quote was the inspiration for my sermon this week.  I’ll give you a sneak preview.  Read this slowly, and really think about it.

The critical question for our generation, and for every generation is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

After reading this quote, I had to go and read the entire book by Piper. It dives deep into God’s Glory.  But the question that kept ringing through my mind was simply this, “Is God enough?”

I’ll be sharing more about the One Prayer Series that we are starting this week, but the theme is God Is …

Strip away all the stuff in life:  the good, the bad, the sickness, the success, the failure, the poverty, and the wealth, and simply look at your life. Can you honestly say that God is enough?

At Cornerstone, we have been talking about overcoming fear. Our fears can paralyze us and prevent us from moving forward or following God.  At youth last night, we talked about the story of Benaiah, from 2 Samuel 23:20-21. Benaiah chased a lion into a pit on a snowy day and killed it. While it is definitely one of the more obscure stories from the Old Testament, this story has captivated me and motivated me to not live a safe and comfortable life.

Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in D.C., wrote a book called In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day. Guess what it was about? The entire book was based on the life of Benaiah. How he conquered his fears and became one of King David’s mighty men and David’s chief bodyguard. I read this book when I was facing a tough decision in my personal life. I felt God leading me into full-time ministry, but I still had doubts.  This book, along with God continuing to speak to my heart, gave me the courage to quit my engineering job and jump head-first into pastoring a church. Since that time, I have seen God move in incredible ways, and I have no doubt that I made the right decision.

What if the life you really want, and the future God wants for you, is hiding right now in your biggest problem, your worst failure … your greatest fear?

Mark has shared several video and graphic resources for a sermon or teaching series on the book at the Chase the Lion website. Lifeway has even developed it into a great small group study. If you haven’t read this, then go get it. It is a great book.  Mark’s second book, Wild Goose Chase is equally good. It’s about following the Holy Spirit.

Here’s a poster that I printed out and gave all of our youth last night.  You can find more resources like this on the Chase the Lion website.

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!

We’re starting a new series at Cornerstone this weekend called Paralyzed, Frozen by Fear. I got the idea from a series at Crosspoint.tv in Nashville.

I had some great ideas for an opening video, but I didn’t have time to get everything together. So I created a quick Keynote presentation with some cool background videos, added some music and sound effects in Garageband, and came up with the following video. Invite your friends and join us this weekend. If you are a Cornerstone regular, then you may want to consider coming to the Saturday night service this weekend, since we will be packed out on Sunday morning. I’m excited to open up this series talking about Peter at the cross, and why he had a fear of being found out for who he really was.

We started a new series at Cornerstone this past week called illuminate.  We are doing a book study of 1 John for the next six weeks.  We will be talking about what it means to “walk in the light”   Coming up with a theme for a sermon series is important.  I have noticed that our sermons with strong titles get downloaded much more frequently.  Good graphics and videos tie the messages together and create a desire to come back each week to hear more.  It simply helps connect the truth of God’s Word to your congregation.   When you pick something out of culture or a metaphor that people can relate to, it helps them to remember what you teach and preach.

It’s also following the example of Jesus.  When He shared with farmers, He used parables and examples from agriculture.  When Jesus talked to fisherman, He used their language.   The language of our culture today is multimedia.  So when you can use a strong image as a basis for teaching, it makes a difference.  But I typically find myself in the position where I don’t have the time to create the graphics.   Now I know larger churches have staff dedicated for this, but let’s be honest.  In most churches, this responsibility falls on the pastor or an individual with strong graphic design skills.   I love working in photoshop, but I can’t justify the time that is required to create new graphic sets.   That’s why I am glad that many churches have a kingdom mindset when it comes to sharing graphical resources.

In planning for 1 John, I wanted to go with either a counterfeit theme or a light theme.  So I started looking through some sites that have free graphical resources.   Lifechurch.tv, Newsping, and Vine Resources all have excellent material to choose from.  I found the series illuminate on Newspring’s site.  It immediately reminded me of David Crowder’s CD, and the light bulb is a strong symbol of light.  I loaded up photoshop, made a few adjustments and changes and came up with graphics for print and videos to use in church, all in a matter of minutes.   Now I can focus my time on studying God’s Word and preparing the message, both of which are far more important tasks in my role as pastor.  Don’t feel like everything you do has to be original when it comes to graphics.   Your job is to be effective, not original. Don’t lose sight of the fact that every image and video you use should bring attention to God’s truth.   Start with the truth, and then illustrate it using every possible way.

This is an inspiring video that we showed at Cornerstone this past Sunday to highlight the importance of taking care of our bodies. Josh Farmer is a young man who has been through some very tough problems and has lost over 120 pounds. Remember, every BODY ends up somewhere, but not every BODY ends up somewhere on purpose. Let’s take care of our bodies so that we can serve God faithfully with all of our strength.

Bringing Your Physical Life Into Focus from Mike Morris on Vimeo.

I’m sitting at my computer tonight preparing for a funeral service tomorrow for my uncle who passed away this week. Death has a way of making you slow down and re-evaluate your life, especially when it is unexpected.

Tony Morgan from Newspring Church in Anderson, South Carolina posted some quotes from Perry Noble in their service this morning. His quotes go perfectly with the message I shared at Cornerstone this morning about remembering our “Ebenezer” stones in life.

• “One of the reasons we stress out about the future is because we forget about God’s faithfulness in the past.”
• “The reason you are so stressed with the things on your calendar is because Jesus is not there.”
• “Go back to where he called you.
• “We’re not called to fight the world. We’re called to reach the world.”
• “He gives us what we do not deserve.”
• “We cannot know God’s will apart from God’s Word.”
• “I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next.”
• “God called you to be someone special and to do something special for him.”

Don’t we all want a place where everyone knows our name? When we think back to Cheers, we remember a show where people were involved in each others lives. They truly cared about each other. It’s sad that most bars do a better job than churches at building community. I used this opener to my sermon this past about the importance of life groups. Listen to the sermon online or on iTunes.

Unwrapping ‘09 Opener – Week 2 from Mike Morris on Vimeo.

I’ve been listening to a sermon series for ladies at Newspring Church in Anderson, SC. It has been awesome and I encourage all the ladies and the men who pursue them to check it out. Our society puts so much pressure on women to be perfect, and you need to realize that God has made you beautiful. Check it out below.

NewSpring Church | Series