TXT3

Application

• 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

[It's helpful to watch this 5 minute video of Penn Gillette that we used last Sunday before reading this post.]

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?

Application Ideas

• 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

On the right side of the txt3.tv website, there’s a spot where anyone can suggest a topic for a blog post. Today’s post tackles the first suggestion we ever received: Texting has nothing to do with the Bible, so don’t do it.

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.

Watch the Message

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