• What film always makes you cry? Watch it again this week and reflect on the emotions inside of you. God loves you more than any movie can depict love.
• God expressed His love to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus. How about expressing your love to someone by sacrificing some time and energy and writing them a letter explaining how you fell about them.
• Read The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman and begin figuring out how best to show love to your family in the way they understand it.
• Take your spouse out on a date and “lavish love” on them.

Text Questions

When you hear the words “The Cross,” do you think of Jesus’ death or a piece of jewelry? Be honest!
With 40 answers, 35 people said Jesus’ death, and 5 replied with jewelry.

Does realizing just how much your Heavenly Father loves you actually impact the way you live your life?
With 67 responses, 2 said Always, 24 said Often, 36 said Sometimes, 5 said Seldom, and 0 said Never.

Video

Music

Let God Arise, Chris Tomlin
Everyday, Lincoln Brewster
Hosanna
Revelation Song

1. Do people follow you? If so, who?
2. Who are you following?

Think about those questions for a moment. Really. Stop reading right now and answer those questions.

Answering one can answer the other. Show me the kind of people who follow you and I can make a pretty good guess as to who you’re following.

Last Sunday, Jimmy talked about being like our Father, a.k.a. God. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul wrote, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”

If you’ve been having a hard time in your spiritual life, seek out a mentor. Find someone you respect and admire for their knowledge, their heart, and the way they live their lives. Then ask if they’ll invest in your life. As you begin to see change in your life, you’ll begin to follow Christ more on your own accord than having to be prodded. (Although we all need motivation from time to time from our trusted friends).

It’s important to truly think about who you’re following because, no matter who you are, someone is following you, whether you know it or not. As Kelly said here, you might be the only Bible some people read. And I’d like to think they’d get a better impression of the life of a Christian from you than from something like this:

I mean, their hearts are in the right place (I guess), but…

• Take a dry erase marker and write “Do people see Jesus when they see me?” on your bathroom mirror. If you have kids, you might write, “Do my kids see Jesus when they see me?”
• Ask your spouse or child to identify a characteristic of your life that needs to conform to the image of Jesus (warning: this is not for the sensitve person. It will hurt)
• Sometime this week, tell your spouse or your children what you see in them that resembles Jesus
• Identify some of the good characteristics in your life and write a letter to your parents telling them what qualities you are thankful that they gave you.
• If you are a country music fan, download Rodney Atkins “Watching You” and give it several listens this week.
• Hopefully you took notes on this week’s message. Go back through your notes and spend some time this week meditating on the verses used.
• Invite someone to come with you this week to TXT3

Text Questions

What percentage of Christians do you know that really “look like” Christ?
Out of 65 total responses, 77% said a quarter, 22% said a half, 1% said three-quarters, and no one said most (more than three-quarters).

How often do you look like Christ in your everyday life?
Out of 84 total responses, 4% said never, 23% said seldom, 43% said sometimes, 31% said often, and 0% said always.

Video

Clean Slate

Music

Now
Love the Lord, Lincoln Brewster
All Because of Jesus
Jesus Messiah, Chris Tomlin
Shine Your Light on Us, Robbie Seay Band

• Carve out 15 minutes this week to be in a quiet place and to ask God to show you what sin is holding you back from real freedom
• If God has revealed some deep hurts, sin, or addictions to you, then make an appointment to talk with a minister or a professional Christian counselor
• God is love . . . think creatively and find a way to show love and God to someone that you see every week (no strings attached)
• Get up early one time this week and spend some time praying while the daylight is coming (i.e. a sunrise prayer time)

Text Question

How do you define love?

• a warm embrace
• a commitment that requires action
• commitment, sacrifice, selflessness, and not what the world would lead you to believe it is
  unconditional
• my husband’s patience with me
• family and friends; fellowship and meeting other people
• 1 Cor 13 1-13 Ty Burcham Rocks!
• Something that god shows all of us everyday.
• when my wife forgives me after I make another bonehead mistake!!!
• selfless
• consuming
• knowing god can love even me
• sacrifice
• jesus
• a deep attraction for something
• …”Honey, I was wrong!!!”
• faith
• trust

Video

Alive

Music

Sweetly Broken
Love is Here
To Know Your Name
Daylight
Marvelous Light
Happy Day

• Spend some time this week reflecting on the horror of the crucifixion; journal your thoughts
• Have a Lord’s Supper for your family on Friday night (Good Friday)
• Read through one of the Gospel accounts of the final week of Jesus life: Matthew 21-28; Mark 11-16; Luke 19:28-24:53; John 12:12-21:25
• Watch “The Passion of the Christ”

Image

During TXT3, attenders were asked to think about the things in their life they’d like to get rid of, or the things they needed to give up and get out of their lives, or the things they needed forgiveness for. At any time during the night, someone would get up, go to the cross, and nail their sin to it. 106 pieces of significant paper later, they were ready to remember Christ’s suffering in a manner free from guilt. Freedom comes at the price of the cross.

Music

Today is the Day, Lincoln Brewster
Song of Hope, Robbie Seay Band
Love is Here, Tenth Avenue North
Never let Go, David Crowder Band
How Marvelous, Chris Tomlin
Surrender, Lincoln Brewster

• Plan a year long ministry in our community with your Cell Group
• Plan a way to be involved globally with your Cell Group
• Plan a family mission trip. Invite other families along. You could plug into some easy ministries like Mission Arlington in the metroplex or stay closer to home at the Austin Soup Kitchen
• Invite your Cell Group or some friend from work over for a movie party – Watch “The Mission” or “End of the Spear”
• Make several paper sacks full of non-perishable food items that you could deliver to a homeless person
• Adopt a child through World Vision or Compassion International
• Commit to giving 10% of what God has given you back to Him

Music

We Shine, Fee
Every Day, Lincoln Brewster
Everything Glorious, David Crowder Band
Overcome, New Life Worship

Video

I Am Second – Blake Mankin – Mums to Africa

There are a thousand ways per day that I subtly say “I hate you.” I don’t intend it. I probably don’t even really mean it. But it’s there. Sometimes you might pick up on it. Most likely not. But if I were completely honest with myself, I’d have to admit that it’s there.

And the thing is, I don’t really hate you. In fact, I don’t even think about you all that much. I’m far too important to myself to think about you, really.

When I’d rather berate you with how right my beliefs are and how wrong your thinking is – that’s a form of hate. When I’d rather show you the door  than ask you over for dinner – that’s a form of hate. When I choose myself over you – that’s a form of hate. And, really, it’s not that I hate you. I just like myself more.

Don’t we all?

I justify my hate. After this many years, I’m pretty good at it. If I just live my life right, surely other people will see how much Jesus means to me. If I copy enough spiritual quotes to Twitter or Facebook, then, of course, people will know that there’s a God who desperately desires them. I justify my silence with my actions, but my actions, often, hardly whisper. And in that justification is a form of hate.

I don’t want to hate you. I want you to know that there is a God. And that this God is far greater than you can imagine. And that this God, from His very depths, longs for you. It’s not just that He loves you, but He likes you. He appreciates you. He wants to help you, and guide you, and transform you into something wholly better, for the benefit of both yourself and the people around you.

And I can’t understand why, when I’m so convinced of this over-powering, over-whelming, over-sacrificing God, I wouldn’t want everyone to know about it? If my relationship with Jesus is the most important relationship in my life, why don’t I speak about it more often? Have I become that complacent and selfish?

Have you?

• Invite someone to TXT3 next week (promise to buy their coffee).
• Write out your story.  Do it in three paragraphs.  First, what was your life like before you met Jesus?  Second, how did you meet Jesus?  Third, what is Jesus doing in your life now?
• Tell your story to someone this week.
• Bake cookies and take them to work with some TXT3 cards (you can pick cards up from the office)
• Put a TXT3 screen as your computer background and pray for conversations to start because of it.
• Talk to a few of your neighbors and ask them how you can pray for them this week.
• If you go out to eat, ask your waiter how you can pray for him/her.
• Make a list of seven people that you know need Jesus.  Pray for one of them a day.

Text Answers

We asked three succesive questions. Taken all together, the answers were very telling:

How many names of your neighbors do you know? (69 responses)

How many neighbors do you know that go to church? (74 responses)

How many neighbors have you shared your story with? (78 responses)

Music

Let Your Glory Shine, Lincoln Brewster
Everlasting God, Chris Tomlin
Jesus Messiah, Chris Tomlin
How to Save a Life, The Fray
Here I Go Again, Casting Crowns

Video

Savin’ Me, Nickelback Music Video

Penn (of Penn & Teller): A Gift of a Bible

At TXT3, texting allows us to communicate to a large group of people and also allows TXT3ers to interact with the night’s speaker, to close the gap, so to speak, between the platform and the pews. Passive listening becomes active involvement.

Texting is a technololgy of communication, just like email, television, the internet, cellphones, telephones, radio, magazines, newspapers, and books, all of which have been used, both for good and for ill, to amplify the message of Christ.

Whether this suggestion was made as a lark or not, I believe there is a readily apparent similarity between texting and the Bible. Both are means of personal communication. God chose words, of all things, to communicate His love for us. We have a book, called the Bible, composed of smaller books. These books point to Jesus, whom John calls “The Word.” It’s hard to imagine Christianity minus the written Word, God’s text message to us.

Texting is simply another technological innovation springing from Gutenberg’s doorstep. The church has typically adopted new communications technologies to amplify Christ. At TXT3, we’re trying to do the same.

Can someone come to know Christ through 140 characters or less?
Probably not.
But can that 140 characters begin a relationship with another person that leads to following Christ?
Definitely.

Each week after the TXT3 Experience, we’re going to give you a recap of the night. While we’ll provide information about what we used, from the videos to the songs to anything else, the main thing we want you to read is the first thing we’ll list:

How do I take what I heard and apply it to my life?

We’ll provide at least a few examples each week. Consider leaving a comment about how you’re incorporating these things into your life.

The Series: Blurry: Our perceptions of what the church is about have become blurry.
The Main Idea:  Worship is my response to the most important thing in my life.
The Text: Romans 12:1-2
The Message: Listen to it

Apply It

• Have Christian music in the background of your home all day long for a week. Allow God to use the music to focus you on worshiping Him.
• Place a bowl on your dining room table. Make it an “altar” in your home that you can lay down anything that God calls you to give as a holy sacrifice.
• Set your watch to “beep” on the hour and ask yourself “What is the most important thing in my life and how am I responding?”
• Memorize Romans 12:1
• Sacrifice some time this week to get away from the noise and take time to talk to God.
• Take a walk this week and pay special attention to God’s creation (Psalm 19:1). Spend that time talking with God.

Text Answers

We asked “What is worship?” These were the answers texted in:

• Between God and me.
• worship is when I connect with god through different means…music, reading, or staring at the amazing sky
• worship to me is spending time with god, communing with him
• Worship is praising God for the provisions he’s provided us with.
• Jesus
• Worship is expressing my love for God and opening my heart to his eternal LOVE for me.
• what is worship?????prayer
• enjoying Gods presence.
• praise!
• worship is praising god go EVERY way
• worship is an attitude that should go to God but mostly goes to movie stars, sports teams and cats
• I think worship is ANYTHING that draws you or others to focus on God.
• a group of 2 more gathered together to prais the Lord.
• praise to the lord
• praising god
• Worship is having an intimate relationship with God
• Praising jesus with others no matter what else is going on in your life
• worship is people acknowledging who God is and what He has done for us

Music

We Shine, Fee
Let God Arise, Chris Tomlin
From the Inside Out
Your Love Oh Lord, Third Day
Offering, Third Day

Other Video

The Gift of Worship

Used during countdown