Paul Stewart

A Sacred Place

My friend, mentor, and former pastor, Rod Carlson, just sent me some excellent photos of Oak Hills Church. Such a beautiful place and these photos really bring back some great memories. 

Jessica and I spent our first seven years of ministry at Oak Hills, so for us this is really a sacred place. If you're ever in the Twin Cities, you need to stop in. It's "the best church you've never heard of!" 

For more photos go Here or Here.

So Lonely

We continued our series The Gospel According to the Police this weekend and I spoke on their song So Lonely. We are surrounded by people everywhere we go – in airports, at work, and even in church – and yet so many of us feel So Lonely. What is the answer?

You can listen to my thoughts HERE.

Also, we’re experimenting with sermon discussion groups this semester. This week eleven groups will be discussing my message. Reed Carlson listened to my message during the first service and then created a discussion guide for our small group leaders during the second.

You can download his thoughts HERE.

September Series

We just finished planning for our September series, "The Gospel According to the Police." When designing our services it's always a delicate balance between reaching people outside the church and encouraging growth within. After a lot of prayer and discussion, I think our team really found that balance with this series!

Each week we'll explore the music of the band The Police and the questions they raise about life. Each message title is taken from a song title of the band and we'll perform it during the service. The big idea of the series is to show people what it means to be on the path to full devotion to Jesus Christ.

Hole in my Life - Everyone has to make the Decision to follow Christ and stay on the path to full devotion.

Spirits in a Material World - We have to Plug-In to God and others at our weekend services.

So Lonely - We have to Charge-Up to become like Christ in Small Group gatherings.

Driven to Tears - We have to Live-Out our faith by serving at Oak Hills or in our community.

Message in a Bottle - Live a Missional life.

The Power of Stories

When I was about thirteen years old my dad told me to read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. He said it was one of his favorite books growing up. Based on the cover it looked like an old and very dull book meant to entertain people without TV’s or video games, but for some reason I gave it a try. The first chapter started slow, but I’ll never forget my amazement as the story quickly sucked me in and took me on an adventure with pirates, tropical islands, and buried treasure. The story expanded my imagination in ways nothing else ever could (I know I sound like a librarian right now).

Have you ever thought about the power of stories? Stories have the power to take us on a journey. They show us new places and introduce us to new people. They draw us in and we become a part of their adventure.

The best stories give us a glimpse of ourselves; they show us who we are and who we could be.

God’s story is like this. In fact the overwhelming majority of the Bible is story.

For thousands of years, stories were the key means for Jewish and Christian people to learn and experience God. The Biblical texts were recorded with the intent that they would be read aloud and passed down to each family.

Right and wrong were not taught in bullet points but through the tools of story.

That’s why the Bible not just a set of doctrines, self-help tips, or instructions for living… it is primarily the beautiful narrative of God loving, pursuing, and ultimately redeeming his people. It stretches from the beginning of time, across our lives and into the future.

Christianity was hurt badly by the Modern Era, the age we just passed through, where truth was thought to be found best in principles and propositions. The mind became central, not the heart, and we lost the God’s great story for a handful of rules and regulations.

While these can be helpful, they are not real life. Life is a story, after all. That’s how it comes to us. But like a movie we’ve arrived at forty minutes late, life doesn’t make sense until we understand the rest of the Story.

At Oak Hills we’re starting a new summer-long series called “Tales of Old.” Each week we'll take a look at a few "true tales" in God's Story and how God used some very ordinary and even messed up people in his grand narrative. These are stories filled with heroes and villains, love and betrayal, compassion and war. They have the power to show us things about ourselves, about God, and about His story.

Chesterton wrote that if we experience life as a story, there must be a story-teller.

God, the great story-teller, continues to write His story and desires us to find ourselves in it, discovering who we are and why we are here. "What is my role in this story?" This is one of the most important questions we could ever ask. Finding that is finding the secret to your life.

Before and After

Everybody loves “Before and After” photos. Photos that show what something or someone looked like before an event.

Unfortunately advertisers know of our love for "before and after" pictures. It’s hard to think of a product where they are not at least subtly working in a before and after theme. (The woman is frowning with her old vacuum, surrounded by filth and dust, then smiling with her new vacuum). The most obvious example is with weight loss products, diet programs and JERED from Subway.

Another product that relies heavily on ‘before and after’ photos, one that I have been looking into recently, are hair regrowth products. Rogain would go out of business without the pictures of a bald guy who re-grew three or four of his hairs.

Home Improvement shows are super popular and everybody loves to look at ‘before and after’ shots of a remodeling project. My favorite are the shows that are based on some form of contest where they can take a kitchen like this and within 24hours and a $50 budget turn it into a kitchen of your dreams. It’s really amazing what they can do.

But actually the BIBLE gives us one of the best ‘before and after’ depictions with the disciples. Throughout the gospels (Matt, Mark, Luke, John) we see these guys questioning, doubting, misrepresenting and ultimately betraying Jesus. In fact, it wasn’t until Jesus left this earth after his death and resurrection, that we really begin to see the remarkable change occur in these men.

In Acts 2 we read about the day of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit came with power upon these men and radically transformed their lives. This ‘rag tag’ group of fishermen and tax collectors became the leaders of the first century church. They healed the sick, took care of the poor, cast out demons, and spoke with so much authority that the only way people could explain it was to say, “Those are the guys who were with Jesus.”

In the Gospels Jesus completely redefined God… In the Book of Acts the Holy Spirit completely redefined what it meant to be the people of God.

In Peter’s sermon he tells everyone that the kingdom of God has finally arrived and that this Holy Spirit led living is no longer just for a select few but that now the Lord will pour out his Spirit on all flesh. Young and old, rich and poor. Everyone now has access to this supernatural power to live by.

This weekend we concluded our series, Holy Spirit Led Living, with a message from Romans 8:9-17 where Paul explains how Holy Spirit led followers of Jesus can expect to have supernatural power in their lives to overcome temptation and live victoriously.

I think it’s helpful for us to take a snapshot of our own lives. What was my life like before I encountered the Holy Spirit? What would it look like after I really learned to follow the leading of the Spirit? Is my life, right now, today, truly Holy Spirit Led Living?

Roadmap to Easter

This month at Oak Hills Church we are in a series called “Preparing to Leave” where we are highlighting some of the most important lessons of Jesus’ life and ministry as he is preparing to go to the cross, be resurrected and leave this earth.

There is evidence in all the Gospels of a particular turning point being reached for Jesus at Ceasarea Philipi (a predominantly Gentile territory far removed from Jerusalem), where Jesus questioned his disciples about their faith, and where Peter affirmed the disciple’s faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

The Gospel of Mark says that upon Peter’s confession, Jesus “began to teach them” that he must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

This marks a major turning point in Jesus’ travels as well as his teaching. After Peter recognizes Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus begins a sustained journey to Jerusalem and to his execution. The Gospels describe him as then setting his face to go to Jerusalem and journeying there with striking deliberation (Mark 10:32; Luke 9:51).

Before Caesarea Philippi Jesus’ focus seems to have been on teaching and healing, but from now on his focus is on a vocation of suffering (Mark 8:27-38; John 6:69).

Essentially, Jesus had two things to accomplish before he got to the cross 1) Convince people that he was the true Messiah and 2) Convince his followers that as the Messiah he must undergo great suffering, rejection, and death, and after three days rise again.

Both were difficult tasks… However, convincing people he was the Messiah was the easier of the two.

Even his closest disciples couldn’t grasp the idea of the Messiah suffering. They had been waiting for generations for the Messiah to arrive and to overthrow their captors, in this case the Romans, and re-establish the throne of David.

So, despite their understanding of Jesus as Messiah their understanding of what that meant was seriously flawed. In their thinking there was no place for the suffering and death of which Jesus spoke. If the disciples were confused how much more must the crowds have been.

During this time we see Jesus withdraw more from the crowds and spend more time with his close disciples, instructing them on the expectations and the cost of following. As readers we are led to struggle with the disciples on this journey toward greater understanding.

Discipleship is not easy; Jesus taught, we must all count the cost.

The Deeper Things

I introduced a new series we’re doing at OHC this weekend called “The Deeper Things.” Here are some of the thoughts I shared in our services…

When I was about ten years old my parents encouraged me to get involved with an extracurricular activity we had at our church called Junior Bible Quiz. This was a real simple activity where the goal was to memorize about 5,000 flash cards of Bible verses and biblical facts and then go to competitions and try to answer the questions the fastest.

I was never very good at JBQ and quit after just one competition (too much pressure). But there was one question that I got right in my illustrious JBQ career…

Q: What is the shortest verse in the Bible?

A: John 11:35 -- “Jesus Wept.”

I never really understood the significance of this verse until I went back and looked at the story as an adult.

Jesus had a few very close intimate friends. Lazarus, Mary and Martha were among them. Lazarus became ill. The sisters sent word to Jesus. Come, they said. We need you desperately. It’s urgent. When Jesus heard of their request, he had a remarkable insight. He said, “God will be glorified and honored in all of this.”

But when Jesus arrived several days later, it appeared he was too late. Many were weeping with the sisters.

Both Martha and Mary ask Jesus the same question… “Where were you… if you had been here, our brother would not have died"

What a brutally honest question to ask one who you acknowledge as Lord.

But haven’t we asked the same thing? How many times have we waited just like they did? "Why isn’t Jesus here when we need him?" "Why doesn’t God hurry up and do something?" "Where were you, Jesus, when my mom died…when I lost my job…when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center?"

Martha reaches Jesus with her question first. "Your brother will rise again." He said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me will live, even though they die; whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

This is the answer you would expect from the Savior. Words full of faith and hope. Many preachers have offered these words at funerals or hospital beds.

But it is Jesus’ response to the second sister, Mary that is so incredible to me.

Martha went to her sister and told her to go see Jesus. Mary went quickly, weeping. She saw Jesus and threw herself at his feet and her grief was profound.

When Jesus saw her grief, along with the others, he "was deeply moved in spirit and troubled." He asked to go to the grave.

Jesus wept.

But why did he weep? If he knew he would raise Lazurus from the dead in just a few moments? If he knew that he would be the one to ultimately conquer death… why did Jesus weep?

When Jesus saw Mary weeping, as well as the people around her, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. He cried for the same reason we all cry at funerals. He grieved with Mary and Martha. Jesus loved them and Lazarus. He grieved that Lazarus had died. He identified with their pain and he understood their tears. That’s what friends do. They cry when you cry.

The Bible says that Christ was "familiar with our suffering".

In his book Jesus Wept, Bruce Marchiano writes, “Throughout scripture we see Jesus in the streets day after day, offering people His kingdom in exchange for their pain. We see Jesus feeding the hungry masses, reaching His carpeter-callused hands into the filth of a leper’s sores, washing people’s feet, starving in the wilderness, lifting cripples out of the sand, pulling prostitutes into His embrace. We see dirt and fatigue, struggle and striving. We see a Man on a mission like no man has ever been on a mission before or since.”

When Jesus wept he was saying to us “I know what grief is all about. I know this is not the way it was meant to be. I know that death is awful. I know that separation from those you love is horrible. I have felt your pain.”

This series will explore some of Jesus’ teaching on dealing with some of the deeper and potentially hurtful areas of our lives. Things we all experience such as Rejection, Doubt, Sorrow, and Pain.

As we begin this series, it’s one thing to know that God has some helpful things to say about our pain… it’s quite another to know that he experienced our pain first hand, so much so that GOD WEPT.