G3 Insider

I started reading through the Bible this year in chronological order and I’ve finally hit the book many dread, Leviticus. In all honesty it’s a tough book to get through because it’s a book of laws and rituals. But as I read this book two thoughts keep coming to my mind.

1. God cares about details- God cares about even the smallest of details in our worship of Him. If He didn’t the book wouldn’t be nearly as detailed and organized like it is. Every ceremony was important. How it was done, who did it, what it was done for, what type of animal was used, on what day it was done all of those details mattered to God. It reminds me that God cares about our worship, how we worship, why we worship. He also cares about the details of salvation. Just like there is only one way God would accept an offering for forgiveness there is today only one way to have an acceptable offering to give that has a pleasing aroma and that is through Jesus. Now, rather than sacrificing an animal for forgiveness, we receive Jesus and give ourselves as the offering to Him.

2. Cost is high- As I read through the Law it just continue to remind me that it is impossible for any human no matter how holy or spiritual to obey all of these laws. You would have to be perfect. Really that’s the point of the Law. The Law is there to convict us and help us realize that none of us are perfect and the only way to atone for our sins is through a perfect sacrifice. In the OT it was through an animal that was without defect and for us it’s through the perfect Lamb who was without sin. In the OT the animal only covered over our sin but in Jesus our sins are wiped away forever. Also I notice that sin cost something. It cost one of your best animals, it cost money that went to the temple or went towards paying restitution to those who you wronged. Sin could get expensive and it still cost us today.

So when you read look for parallels between the OT view of atonement and what Jesus did on the cross. Really that’s the key to the whole OT. Look for Jesus in all of it and you will be amazed at how God was working and weaving all through history.

Momentum is over for the most part and in all honesty I am glad because preaching like this is exhausting.

I’s been incredible to receive the emails I have and hear stories of sacrifice that people are making and stories about how God has really challenged them spiritually during this series. If you want to share your story with us so that we can share it anonymously next week then please email me or the office.

Attendance was down today from what its been. Not sure if that’s because it’s Super Bowl Sunday or because people were scared to come on the day we turned in our pledge cards. At any rate I loved the spirit of the services as people stepped forward to give.

Praise team did a new song in 2nd service called Something Big by John Waller. Absolutely PERFECT song to end this series with. It was awesome to see person after person come forward and lay their pledge card at the altar.

Speaking of pledges I have been asked if I’ll be disappointed if we don’t hit the goal. In all honesty I won’t be. I am so proud of our church for stepping up that I would have been thrilled with $500 let alone the $100,000 plus that has been pledged. This has never been about money. Well, it has in the sense that getting our church out of debt will go a long ways in freeing up funds to really do some awesome stuff with our ministries. But more important than that was that I wanted to really challenge people to no just sit on the sidelines of their faith but to surrender everything to God. I don’t want to just be like any other church where we get complacent and settle for what we have. I want us to always be challenging each other and always looking out there for God has for us next. Instilling that kind of mindset into 200+people takes time, most likely years. but Momentum, for me, was a HUGE starting point in unifying the church and getting us refocused on what we are here for and why we exist. I have no doubt that in the coming months and years we are going to see major reward for the sacrifice and commitment made by this group of people today and through out this series.

The message today was called From Talking to Doing. It was a challenge for us to quit talking about Jesus and how great Jesus is and start actually living our lives showing how much we love Jesus.

We looked at Exodus 3 and 4 where Moses is called by God and how he gave God all these excuses as to why he couldn’t do what God wanted. In the same way we too give God all of these excuses like fear, rejection and not gifted that helps us justify why we can’t do what God wants to in our lives.

The whole point is that no matter what our excuse God gives us a response that you can’t argue with. He tells Moses, “I am with you, I created you and I will work in you.” He says that the great I AM is with us always so why should we fear. He does miracles through Moses and his staff to prove his power. So we too can act faithfully because we have the Word and the Spirit that does the same. And He reminds us that He has created us and gifted us so we have no reason to not believe God won’t work in us to spread the Gospel and change lives and overcome the challenges of life.

I thank God for this series as it has challenged my own faith tremendously. It has taught me what it means to quit doubting and start believing. It reminds me that I am nothing and God is everything. That He is King and capable of anything and I am not. I hope its been just as challenging for you all as well.

That’s about it for today. Time to go home, eat lunch and get ready to have a little football with my commercials. Seriously, I don’t care about the NFL. I am college football all the way. But I always watch the Super Bowl because I love the commercials.

Have a great week!

We just got back from our Wisconsin District pastors and wives retreat. We had a great time. Because we were gone I am getting back into the office late. That means the blog will be lite this week meaning I may not have any updates till the Sunday Afterthoughts. I will be locked in my room tomorrow writing my sermon and praying for God to keep the momentum going at Sand Lake. The leaders stepped up BIG TIME in their pledge commitments and now it’s everyone else’s turn. I know you have been praying and are ready to put tithing to the test. I am still on cloud 9 after hearing what the leaders were giving to pay off our debt in the next 2 years. When we are faithful and trust the Lord to provide He can do anything. Thank you everyone who calls Sand Lake your church home. Let’s keep that momentum going and risk something that only God could make a reality.

I am exhausted but I am also SO EXCITED right now. For 6 weeks we have been looking at how to build spiritual momentum in our lives and in the church. We’ve challenged everyone to step out and give a sacrifice that will lead our church being debt free over the next 2 years. I challenged our leaders to give sacrificially and show everyone that we don’t just want to say we want to do this we are going to do this at whatever the cost.

So what did the leaders pledge? Well you should know when I say “leaders” I am speaking about those who are hired or elected to their position. In this case the leaders are the staff, board, trustees and finance committee. All together that comes out to about 20 people. I heard the final number this morning and it blew me away. $100,000! Are you kidding me!?

When my treasurer came up and told me I just started shaking and crying. God is so amazingly, abundantly good and generous. I am SO PROUD of ALL our leaders. They didn’t just grab hold of the challenge to sacrifice they put it in a choke hold, punched it in the face and went after its momma just because they could! Unbelievable. Thank you leaders for your generous sacrifice for Jesus and the church. God will bless you for the step of faith you’ve taken today.

Next week is everyone else’s turn. We handed out pledge cards and are hoping and praying for the rest of the church to come together and make another BIG sacrifice for the lord. Can we do it? Yes, with God’s help we can. And after today how can you not believe it’s possible? The Lord will give us whatever He wants us to have and I am beyond excited to see what He has in store for us next. It was funny when I announced the number just how silent it was in both services. I think everyone was in shock. I’m not sure anyone thought we could get that kind of a start. Never doubt God. If He wants it done it gets done.

We also announced today our new partnership with a ministry in La Crosse called Peace and Coffee. Peace and Coffee serves free lunches everyday to those who are homeless or struggling families. What I love is that they offer it to anyone. the founder of the ministry got sick and was unable to come and speak today in the beginning of the service about the ministry but nonetheless we still got a good start on sign ups and I am hoping to have him still come next week so everyone can hear about just how awesome this ministry is. Check out their website HERE.

Well that’s all I have time for today. I am about to hit the road to suffer for Jesus at the Chula Vista Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. We are looking forward to meeting the pastors in the district as well as just hanging out with the kids for a few days away from home. Having a giant indoor water park at the resort helps too.

Sand Lake, no words can express how much I love being your pastor. Thank you for letting me serve you. There is nothing else I want to do.

Building Momentum,

Pastor Ryan

Part 6 of our Momentum series is THIS SUNDAY! We will be looking at what it means to live a generous life.

Also on Sunday we will be interviewing a surprise guest. Our vision at Sand Lake is to make such an impact on our community that if we closed our doors tomorrow we would be missed. To accomplish this goal we must partner with already existing ministries and help them become better through financial support and man power. This Sunday we’ll be revealing the second ministry that we are partnering with in a small but impactful way. The TLC Center was our first ministry and we are helping them by donating as much peanut butter to them as we can each week.

This whole series has been leading up to our Surrender Sunday pledge that we will be taking on February 7th. This Sunday we will be handing out the pledge cards and we will be announcing what the leaders of the church are pledging. Please be praying this next week about what sacrifice you can make to help Sand Lake get out of debt and move forward doing God’s work.

The February newsletter is out! If you didn’t get it in your email then download it from the web HERE or pick up a copy at the Welcome Center. Please read my newest article about Momentum entitled This I Believe.

Speaking of websites we have been redesigning our website for some time and are happy to report that the front page and connect pages are done. The only thing left to do is update content on various pages as well as add a couple videos but all I can say is that we LOVE the new look. Go to www.sandlakechurch.org to see the new site. We hope you love it and find it easier to navigate.

We have also been working on a new logo for the church and are really happy with the final product. That will be up in a few weeks.

If you are looking for a good web designer I highly recommend ours. His name is John Kruger. Check out his company site HERE.

Mark February 28th on your calendars. We will be starting a brand new series called Simply Jesus. This series is absolutely PERFECT for those who don’t know Jesus but are curious, skeptics who need proof and believers who are hungry to learn everything they can about the man we call our Savior.

The band is getting ready to learn a TON of new songs and some of the worship we will be singing this year is AMAZING. If you can’t worship to what they’re about to bring then you can’t worship.

That’s all for me. Hope everyone has a great weekend and we’ll see you on Sunday!

Growing up in the church I always thought my pastor preached too long. Normally it was 45 minutes and as a kid that can get long. When I was in college I never thought I would ever be able to preach that long or write a new sermon every week for that matter but now I have a hard time keeping it to 45 minutes and there is so much to preach that it gets overwhelming at times trying to decide what to talk about next. And yes from time to time someone ask me to shorten it up but I never do because I can’t help it. As pastors we do worry about making our services to long because we don’t want to bore people so we get through stuff quick but is that really right? I’m not saying we should have 3 hour services or anything like that but do you think that by worrying about the boredom of people that we are limiting the Holy Spirit’s ability to move? I mean we only meet once a week. Would it be so bad for our services to be 90 minutes rather than 60? When I think of church I think of it as that time where the body of Christ can come together and release that weeks stress, give it to God and worship with everything they have. It’s the time where we should expect God to move, the spirit to move. It’s the time we should look forward to and crave because God is going to teach us something new and challenge us in a new way that makes us more like him.

Why do we want that to end in 60 minutes or less? Shouldn’t that time be the highlight of the week? Something we look forward to so much that when the service is over we are already anticipating the next week? Man that would be fun wouldn’t it?

If you go to Sand Lake don’t panic. This is just a completely random question and thought. Nobody said anything to me or wrote me an email or anything like that. The thought stems from just being a part of the church for the last 16 years and observing how people value and treat their time on Sundays. But I do think about this. We are always in such a hurry to get in, get out and get on with our day. I wonder how that makes God feel when we spend half our time in church checking our watches rather than worshipping our Savior. Any thoughts on this from the audience? What do you guys think?

Do you wish church was longer or shorter?

Do you think 60 minutes or less is not enough time for the spirit to really move? Not that God is limited by time by any means.

Here’s a good one that I will probably regret asking: Do you think pastors preach to long or not long enough?

Do you think Christians are missing the point of church today and because of that it has no real impact in their lives?

Is how we do church boring? Is our structure wrong? Not Sand Lake necessarily but the church as a whole. Although you may think Sand Lake is boring and can feel free to speak on that to me privately rather than in a public forum.

Lots of questions to ponder that I think about all the time as I am tasked to created an environment for the believers to gather and the spirit to move in such a way that lives are eternally changed.

Are you nervous yet? The opportunity for us to come together and do something amazing that will give us momentum for years to come is right around the corner. Right now it’s impossible to know what the heart of the church is. It’s impossible to know if those who attend are buying into what we are trying to begin which is to be a church that makes a real difference in our community not just be another church taking up space.  I know the leaders are excited and making faith filled pledges that they will be turning in this week. I say again to them, I love serving with you guys, time to step up and take that first BIG step for the future of Sand Lake. Momentum starts with us, the leaders. We must be willing to walk the talk and put our money where our mouth is before we ask anyone else to follow.

Preached a hard message today. Luke 14:25 Jesus calls out everyone who thinks they want to follow him and hits hard with the truth that you can’t be a disciple if you aren’t willing to give up everything. It was about moving from complacency to committed.

I keep saying it but this whole series has been about us taking a serious look at where we are spiritually and begging God to do something new in us that moves us from just sitting on the sidelines to getting in the game and getting our Kingdom work on this earth done. The stakes are just too high to do nothing. 30,000 people in our community alone are unchurched. They don’t know Jesus. We must refuse to sit by and do nothing while people go to hell everyday. If we expect someone else to do it then we have failed.

In many ways I feel like Sand Lake is getting a fresh start. It’s a chance for us to start over and do something that everyone believes is impossible. Maybe it is and maybe it’s not. What it’s really about is being faithful. Over the coming months and next few years there are going to be adjustments, tweaks and probably big changes to how we do ministry. I have no doubt some will be loved and some will be hated but it’s about putting ourselves in the best position to be the most effective and efficient as possible so that we can make the biggest impact possible in our community for Jesus. It’s an incredibly exciting and scary time in our history. Getting our church out of debt is that first BIG step to accomplishing our long term ministry goals which I will be attempting to outline on February 7th.

That’s enough for the rant. I also want to make sure to add a HUGE thanks to all our volunteers. I think we figured awhile back that it takes about 40 volunteers every Sunday working in various ministries to make Sunday morning work. You guys are awesome. When I don’t have to solve a problem or wonder where someone is that means that someone else is being faithful and committed to what they are doing. Couldn’t ask for a better group of volunteers.

I have never heard the song we closed 2nd service with before but it was absolutely perfect as the closing song for today’s message.

I was blessed to be able to do my 2nd infant baptism in 2nd service. I enjoy doing those and today the mom asked if she could pray in front of the church. She did an awesome job.

Well as you can tell I have a one track mind right now. I am crazy excited about how God has been challenging people in this series as well as excited about our opportunity to make a big sacrifice together on February 7th. I keep saying it but I mean it that our best days are ahead. This is only the beginning. 2 weeks to go. Are you nervous? Don’t be. God is in control. Just be faithful and he’ll handle the rest.

So I started a new class three weeks ago called Starting Point. It’s a class that teaches on the foundational beliefs of Christianity such as the Trinity, sin, holiness, Satan etc. I’ve really enjoyed teaching it and I’ve learned just as much preparing for it as the people in the group hopefully are learning attending it. Something I have learned while studying and teaching it is that the Word of God is the most amazing and yet at the same time the most frustrating book. It’s amazing because everything works together, weaves together in ways that make sense and forms a perfect picture of sin, evil, redemption, and eternal hope. What’s frustrating are the things that it doesn’t tell you. My group has asked some tremendous questions that has caused me to scratch my head and say, “I’ve never thought of that before.” I am definitely not one to answer a question even if I don’t know the answer just because I’m the pastor and supposed to know the answer. I will do my best but if I don’t know I try to go back and get the best answer I can.

Some of the questions my group has asked are…

1. Did Adam and Eve go to heaven or hell?

2. What did people follow before the law of Moses?

3. Did Jesus go to hell or paradise when he died?

4. If hades and paradise existed does that mean that OT followers weren’t in heaven when they died?

5. Did people in Hades have a second chance? Did Christ reach out to them when he died?

6. If God created free will and free will means choosing good or evil then didn’t God create evil?

Good questions right? Well over the next week I will do my best to answer these questions. But in all reality what I have learned about the Bible is that God has told us what we need to know. And a lot of what we think we know is probably wrong, theory, or just good old educated guessing. A lot of the questions we have are legitimate and good questions. But many times I think we focus so much on trying to find the answers we don’t have that we lose sight of all the answers we do have. The fact is, no, the Bible doesn’t answer every question you could possibly have about  every subject or scenario in scripture but what it does do is give us the exact answers that we need. What we need to know more than anything is that the bible is about Jesus. It’s about the Gospel and what Christ did on the cross to save mankind from our sins so that all people would have the opportunity to trust Christ and be with him for all eternity in Heaven.

In the end the Gospel is all that matters and there is no confusion on that. When you read the bible, yes you’ll have random questions, but when you read it front to back, beginning to end, read it with Jesus and the Gospel in mind.  When you do you will begin to see just how perfectly the entire book works and weaves together into a masterpiece that could have ONLY been supernaturally inspired. It’s both amazing and frustrating. Breathtaking and head scratching. But I am so thankful God makes clear what’s most important and keeps us in the know only on the things that we really need to know. Honestly I’m not so sure we could handle all the answers anyways.

But all the other stuff sure is fun to talk about too even if we have no clue what the answers are sometimes.

Last week I didn’t do doing my  afterthoughts or much blogging at all and right now I’m not feeling very inspired to blog but definitely wanted to get some afterthoughts out there about yesterday’s services.

Overall we had some really great services.. Praise teams in both services did great jobs and I always think it’s fun when we can joke back and forth with each other when we make mistakes. Mistakes will always happen and the way I see it is you can get all negative and upset about it or you can find the humor in it and move on. Since I can’t do anything after it happens I choose to find the humor in it.

I never get tired of singing, “Mighty to Save.” Yes He is!

I am really proud of how everyone has stepped up the last few weeks as we’ve started collecting peanut butter for the TLC center. We had a full grocery cart and it looks like it’s already halfway full again. Keep it up Sand Lake! It might seem like something small but it goes a long way in blessing other families that we will probably never meet.

On the 31st we are going to be announcing a new ministry in La Crosse we will be partnering with. They have begun something really cool that will let us help feed the homeless. We’re excited to start helping them and hope you’ll come on the 31st to hear all about it.

We continued our Momentum series yesterday by talking about how to move from a purposeless life to a purposeful one. Here are some excerpts…

• When I have no purpose in life, life seems tiresome, unfulfilling, useless and insignificant.
• To know that I finished my life by being as faithful to God as I possibly could be to me is the essence of a great life.
• The only real and true purpose for us in life is to know God, love God and be with God for all eternity.
• If you don’t start with knowing Christ as Lord and Savior then everything else we attempt in life is just good works and means nothing.
• Our works must be the result of our faith in Jesus.
• When I know Christ then I no longer belong to myself. My time, talents and treasures all become His and are to be used for His glory not for my greeds and wants.
• We should always be asking ourselves what impact the things we see as valuable and high priority will have in eternity.
• We should work hard to get out of debt both individually and as the church so that we can become a blessing and generous to others. The less we owe to man the more generous we can be to others and the greater of an impact we can make in the Kingdom for the glory of God.
• All that matters in life is that we know Jesus, use our time for Jesus, talents for Jesus and treasure for Jesus. The rest is just details.

It is no secret that we are leading up to our big Surrender Sunday on February 7th. We are looking for us as the church to come together and make a sacrifice that will lead our church out of debt in 2 years.

I hope everyone is praying hard about what you could give to help make this goal a reality.

Definitely getting great feedback from the series. I see how it’s challenging many people deeply. Glad to hear and see that.

Someone asked me, “What happens if we don’t get all the money we hope to get?” To that I say, “We will rejoice in whatever we get!” We have a goal of $500,000 but that doesn’t mean that is what God wants to give. Maybe he wants to give more and maybe he wants to give less. That’s why I say that whatever comes in is exactly what God wanted us to have and we will rejoice in that. Whatever comes in is more than what we have now so I don’t think it would make sense to complain or be disappointed.

If you think about it please be in prayer for me. There are situations weighing on my heart and mind right now that have put me in a little bit of a funk. I am trusting Christ through them but I know that the coming days and weeks could be tough. Vague I know, but I appreciate any prayers you would be willing to offer on my behalf especially prayers asking for wisdom and discernment.

That’s all for now! I hope everyone has a blessed and God filled week.

Below is a blog post from my buddy Eric Ebbinghaus. If you can help the people in Haiti please do so. Every little bit helps at this point. I’m hoping Sand Lake can do something to help. We will be keeping our eyes and ears open for any opportunities out there.

Please set aside all opinions and racial stereotypes and read below…

If you’re like me chomping at the bit trying to figure out what you can do RIGHT NOW to help with Disaster Relief in Haiti, there is something you can do. Click on the link below which will take you to the World Hope contribution page. Click on the drop down menu on the right hand side, then choose “Disaster Relief – Haiti” to give. It may not seem like much off the bat, but it will definitely help get the ball rolling and get the wheels up on this…

Remember, EVERY little bit helps!

Here’s a link to World Hope to start contributing to the Haiti Relief. Just go to the drop down menu on the right hand side and choose “Disaster Relief – Haiti” to give.

https://www.worldhope.org/donor/donate/default.aspx