4.18.2011
New site: jeffskeens.com
Hey guys there will be no more posts on this site. Everything is being run through wordpress now. Go check it out at jeffskeens.com.
4.14.2011
Switching over to wordpress
Ok, so after having our new Kineo site being built from wordpress templates, I've learned how to navigate a little bit better on the back end of wordpress and I love it. It does a whole lot more and than blogger (shhh....don't tell them that). Any ways, I would love it if you guys would go and check it out and subscribe by email to the new site. I pray that it blesses you and that many would be able to hear the Good News of the gospel because of it.
Here is the new site: http://pastorjeffskeens.wordpress.com/
Here is the new site: http://pastorjeffskeens.wordpress.com/
4.12.2011
Kineod by God (sermon notes on 4/10/11)
Acts 17:28: “In Him we live and move and have our being.”
What does Kineo mean?
kinéō (ki-ne-oh): to be moved or set in motion; speaking of that motion which is evident to others in life.
Strong’s # 2795. kinéō; to go; to move, put in motion…. be moved…. to move, agitate. Metaphorically meaning to move, excite to sedition. In the aorist pass. (past tense verb) ekinḗthē, to be moved, put into commotion or an uproar. Synonyms: to shake, to stir up. Metaphorically meaning to disturb.
A great picture of a man being moved by God is Gideon Judges 6. Here’s what’s going on in this passage:
- Israel is doing what’s evil in the sight of the Lord.
- So God gave them into the hands of Midian for 7 years.
- Midian oppressed Israel so severely, that Israel made for themselves dens that
are in the mountains and caves and strongholds.
- Whenever Israel planted crops, the Midianites and Amalekites and the people from the East would come against them.
- They devoured all they could with a vast multitude of livestock and camels (beyond counting) and lay waste the land and brought Israel very low.
- So here is Gideon beating out wheat in the winepress (down low at the bottom
of a hill where grape juice would flow down to gather to make wine…he’s
hiding out to survive).
Now let’s look at the process of how God moved Gideon:
1) God reveals Himself: Judges 6:10-16
2) God calls Gideon to destroy idols: Judges 6:25
3) God calls Gideon to sacrifice to and worship Him: Judges 6:26
4) Gideon obeys: 6:27
5) God destroys Gideon’s plan: Judges 7:1-8
6) God sends him into battle with His resources: Judges 7:9
If you want to know the outcome, look at v. 20: When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” Then the vast army became confused an dGod had them all pull swords on each other and they hunted down the leaders of Midian and cut their heads off. I’m smelling a good movie here?
This is our lot as believers: God has revealed Himself to us. He has empowered us and called us to destroy our idols. He calls us to sacrifice to and worship Him alone. He wrecks our plans and then sends us out to do His will. He confuses the enemy when we’re attacked. He is our God and we are His people. Whom shall we fear!! We also have the promise of Scripture that God will make His name great among His people so we should go forth with boldness whether we shut the mouths of lions or get eaten by them. God will win. Look at this passage is Malachi:
Malachi 1:11: For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
So, I say all this to get to my MAIN FOCUS:
That at the end of this night, we care more deeply for lost people than we did when we came. That our hearts would break for the sheep without a shepherd and that God would move us to accomplish His will…Make His name great.
Now, even with these promises from God, we still don’t testify to the Gospel of the grace of God nearly like we should. Here’s some stats from a couple years ago:
20 years ago 20% of believers were said to have had the gift of evangelism, 5 years ago, there were only 4%. Today, only 1%. (Barna 2009)
We are talking ourselves out of sharing the Gospel. It’s not a gift, it’s a call. It’s an ambition (Rom. 15) Nobody wants the gift of evangelism, but God has called us all to the work of an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5).
Some would say: “Well…evangelism has a bad reputation!” “ Guess what? Jesus had a bad reputation!” “The cross has a bad reputation.”C.H. Spurgeon says this about the Christians duty: Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. Our churches and society have produced more imposters than missionaries.
Look at how Jesus ties the proclamation of the Gospel to the nature of the Gospel:
Luke 24:45-48: 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
If you love the Gospel, you have to love evangelism. We want to be known as a church where people meet Jesus, because they meet people who know and obey Jesus. When you lead with Jesus, and you plant the Gospel in word and deed, it shapes a Gospel-centered, cross-focused, spirit-empowered community, that leads a whole body of people on mission for Jesus! We want people to die for Jesus, not our agenda.
Application: Okay, so how does this apply to us today? How do we get moving? What if I’m terrible at the whole sharing the Gospel thing? What if I’m too scared to share my faith? Ok, maybe that’s true. So let’s walk through what it looks like at the most basic level to live a life that proclaim’s the Gospel.
First, we need to understand the essence of God’s movement is sacrificial. Serve and be sacrificial in your service. If it doesn’t hurt or cost something, it’s not called service.
Second, here’s a model that Kineo has adopted from Darrin Patrick (The Journey Church) to teach people what it looks like to be moved by God:
1) Live Gospel-centered lives: People who really get their sin (actions, beliefs, motives, etc…) Repentance of our sin is real and often. We get that God looks at Jesus to see us and our identify is firmly rooted in Jesus’ work and Jesus’ reputation, not ours. Thus, we are sinners, but accepted. Completely a mess, but extravagantly loved (1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 3:21-26; Eph. 2:1-10).
2) Live sacrificially with sinners in community: People who go out into the world without a shred of self-righteousness. We have no superiority complex. We are gentle, humble and loving. We are willing to wait for people to get it and hang with them without condemning them, shaming them or watering down the Gospel. We make sacrifices for people and build into our lives, room or margin, to be with unbelievers as we seek to pay their relational rent. Jesus paid the ultimate “relational rent” in that while we were still sinners, enemies of Him, He died for us! This is the mantra of Gospel-centered living.
When the church comes together and lives on mission with passion, there will be rich community that points to the Gospel. Just look at Acts 2! A Christian who says they don’t need church or community is a Christian who doesn’t get God’s mission or they’re a pretender.
In Acts, people saw for themselves what was causing all the movement. Why were they all loving so well? Why are there no needs among them? Why do you have joy and happiness in the midst of this sick world? Look at the way you do life together. Is your life or community exemplary? Are people looking in and seeing something that’s attractive? Are they seeing the cross of Jesus? Or are they seeing an impersonation of what salvation looks life? Are they repulsed and turned off by the way your life or your community looks (or lack of community)?
3) Clearly communicate the Gospel: Because of what Jesus has done, we must speak:
- The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin – Conviction
- Man responds to God’s grace – Confession
- Then they turn from their sin and run towards Jesus – Repentance
- Then God makes us right through the finished work of Jesus – Redemption
- And when the end of days come, we, with the creation of our Lord, will be reconciled perfectly to God once and for all – Reconciliation
Our desire at Kineo is to raise up people who can not only live out the Gospel, but who can clearly communicate the Gospel in 60 seconds, 60 minutes or 60 days. People who are loving and Spirit-led in this communication. We want the Gospel to come out naturally, not forced. We desire to raise up people who’s lives don’t contradict the message they share. Don’t sit back and miss what God is doing. We are living on the brink of eternity and this life matters. Your life matters. Your decisions matter. They effect you, your friends, your family and others who need the gospel of Jesus to free them from their bondage. Be kineod by God!
What does Kineo mean?
kinéō (ki-ne-oh): to be moved or set in motion; speaking of that motion which is evident to others in life.
Strong’s # 2795. kinéō; to go; to move, put in motion…. be moved…. to move, agitate. Metaphorically meaning to move, excite to sedition. In the aorist pass. (past tense verb) ekinḗthē, to be moved, put into commotion or an uproar. Synonyms: to shake, to stir up. Metaphorically meaning to disturb.
A great picture of a man being moved by God is Gideon Judges 6. Here’s what’s going on in this passage:
- Israel is doing what’s evil in the sight of the Lord.
- So God gave them into the hands of Midian for 7 years.
- Midian oppressed Israel so severely, that Israel made for themselves dens that
are in the mountains and caves and strongholds.
- Whenever Israel planted crops, the Midianites and Amalekites and the people from the East would come against them.
- They devoured all they could with a vast multitude of livestock and camels (beyond counting) and lay waste the land and brought Israel very low.
- So here is Gideon beating out wheat in the winepress (down low at the bottom
of a hill where grape juice would flow down to gather to make wine…he’s
hiding out to survive).
Now let’s look at the process of how God moved Gideon:
1) God reveals Himself: Judges 6:10-16
2) God calls Gideon to destroy idols: Judges 6:25
3) God calls Gideon to sacrifice to and worship Him: Judges 6:26
4) Gideon obeys: 6:27
5) God destroys Gideon’s plan: Judges 7:1-8
6) God sends him into battle with His resources: Judges 7:9
If you want to know the outcome, look at v. 20: When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” Then the vast army became confused an dGod had them all pull swords on each other and they hunted down the leaders of Midian and cut their heads off. I’m smelling a good movie here?
This is our lot as believers: God has revealed Himself to us. He has empowered us and called us to destroy our idols. He calls us to sacrifice to and worship Him alone. He wrecks our plans and then sends us out to do His will. He confuses the enemy when we’re attacked. He is our God and we are His people. Whom shall we fear!! We also have the promise of Scripture that God will make His name great among His people so we should go forth with boldness whether we shut the mouths of lions or get eaten by them. God will win. Look at this passage is Malachi:
Malachi 1:11: For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
So, I say all this to get to my MAIN FOCUS:
That at the end of this night, we care more deeply for lost people than we did when we came. That our hearts would break for the sheep without a shepherd and that God would move us to accomplish His will…Make His name great.
Now, even with these promises from God, we still don’t testify to the Gospel of the grace of God nearly like we should. Here’s some stats from a couple years ago:
20 years ago 20% of believers were said to have had the gift of evangelism, 5 years ago, there were only 4%. Today, only 1%. (Barna 2009)
We are talking ourselves out of sharing the Gospel. It’s not a gift, it’s a call. It’s an ambition (Rom. 15) Nobody wants the gift of evangelism, but God has called us all to the work of an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5).
Some would say: “Well…evangelism has a bad reputation!” “ Guess what? Jesus had a bad reputation!” “The cross has a bad reputation.”C.H. Spurgeon says this about the Christians duty: Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. Our churches and society have produced more imposters than missionaries.
Look at how Jesus ties the proclamation of the Gospel to the nature of the Gospel:
Luke 24:45-48: 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.
If you love the Gospel, you have to love evangelism. We want to be known as a church where people meet Jesus, because they meet people who know and obey Jesus. When you lead with Jesus, and you plant the Gospel in word and deed, it shapes a Gospel-centered, cross-focused, spirit-empowered community, that leads a whole body of people on mission for Jesus! We want people to die for Jesus, not our agenda.
Application: Okay, so how does this apply to us today? How do we get moving? What if I’m terrible at the whole sharing the Gospel thing? What if I’m too scared to share my faith? Ok, maybe that’s true. So let’s walk through what it looks like at the most basic level to live a life that proclaim’s the Gospel.
First, we need to understand the essence of God’s movement is sacrificial. Serve and be sacrificial in your service. If it doesn’t hurt or cost something, it’s not called service.
Second, here’s a model that Kineo has adopted from Darrin Patrick (The Journey Church) to teach people what it looks like to be moved by God:
1) Live Gospel-centered lives: People who really get their sin (actions, beliefs, motives, etc…) Repentance of our sin is real and often. We get that God looks at Jesus to see us and our identify is firmly rooted in Jesus’ work and Jesus’ reputation, not ours. Thus, we are sinners, but accepted. Completely a mess, but extravagantly loved (1 Cor. 15:1-4; Rom. 3:21-26; Eph. 2:1-10).
2) Live sacrificially with sinners in community: People who go out into the world without a shred of self-righteousness. We have no superiority complex. We are gentle, humble and loving. We are willing to wait for people to get it and hang with them without condemning them, shaming them or watering down the Gospel. We make sacrifices for people and build into our lives, room or margin, to be with unbelievers as we seek to pay their relational rent. Jesus paid the ultimate “relational rent” in that while we were still sinners, enemies of Him, He died for us! This is the mantra of Gospel-centered living.
When the church comes together and lives on mission with passion, there will be rich community that points to the Gospel. Just look at Acts 2! A Christian who says they don’t need church or community is a Christian who doesn’t get God’s mission or they’re a pretender.
In Acts, people saw for themselves what was causing all the movement. Why were they all loving so well? Why are there no needs among them? Why do you have joy and happiness in the midst of this sick world? Look at the way you do life together. Is your life or community exemplary? Are people looking in and seeing something that’s attractive? Are they seeing the cross of Jesus? Or are they seeing an impersonation of what salvation looks life? Are they repulsed and turned off by the way your life or your community looks (or lack of community)?
3) Clearly communicate the Gospel: Because of what Jesus has done, we must speak:
- The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin – Conviction
- Man responds to God’s grace – Confession
- Then they turn from their sin and run towards Jesus – Repentance
- Then God makes us right through the finished work of Jesus – Redemption
- And when the end of days come, we, with the creation of our Lord, will be reconciled perfectly to God once and for all – Reconciliation
Our desire at Kineo is to raise up people who can not only live out the Gospel, but who can clearly communicate the Gospel in 60 seconds, 60 minutes or 60 days. People who are loving and Spirit-led in this communication. We want the Gospel to come out naturally, not forced. We desire to raise up people who’s lives don’t contradict the message they share. Don’t sit back and miss what God is doing. We are living on the brink of eternity and this life matters. Your life matters. Your decisions matter. They effect you, your friends, your family and others who need the gospel of Jesus to free them from their bondage. Be kineod by God!
4.06.2011
The Move
This past Sunday was the big move for us at Kineo. We have been praying about where the Lord wanted us to be as we grow. The former building we met at has been a blessing to us as it was paid off and owned by our sending church. The problem is, it only help around 100 people and was limited in the area of children's rooms. So we have been planning on expanding onto that building, but realized the amount of money it would cost to build it out was more than we could raise in the calendar year. That being said, we knew God wanted to make room for us to grow in this season and we kept praying for an opening at another building or church.
Over a month ago, I met with the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church (now former pastor) on the corner of Grand Canyon University's campus to inquire about the option of renting from them on a Sunday evening. To my surprise, First Southern quickly welcomed us in and was glad to let us rent from them on Sunday evening's. Since that day, we have been planning to move on April 3rd and prepare our hearts for this season of growth.
During our first service, we had over 120 adults in the service and 46 kids in Sunday school. We are grateful to all who came and to all who have joined us at Kineo in advancing God's kingdom and being apart of transforming lives by the power of the Gospel. We took an offering at this service and 100% of what was given is being sent to Japan for relief to ministries there that are laboring to love and care for the afflicted. Our church gathered together to give over $3000! Praise God for the gifts of God's people. We pray that the Lord will multiply that dollar amount as it travels over seas and that many men and women will come to know Jesus by fruit of this gift.
My prayer is that many will come and join us at Kineo as we desire to grow God's church not with transfer growth from other churches, but with new growth from new believers in our Lord Jesus. Please pray for myself and our leadership team as we continue to faithfully preach and live out the beautiful Gospel of Jesus so that lives are redeemed.
Soli deo gloria.
Over a month ago, I met with the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church (now former pastor) on the corner of Grand Canyon University's campus to inquire about the option of renting from them on a Sunday evening. To my surprise, First Southern quickly welcomed us in and was glad to let us rent from them on Sunday evening's. Since that day, we have been planning to move on April 3rd and prepare our hearts for this season of growth.
During our first service, we had over 120 adults in the service and 46 kids in Sunday school. We are grateful to all who came and to all who have joined us at Kineo in advancing God's kingdom and being apart of transforming lives by the power of the Gospel. We took an offering at this service and 100% of what was given is being sent to Japan for relief to ministries there that are laboring to love and care for the afflicted. Our church gathered together to give over $3000! Praise God for the gifts of God's people. We pray that the Lord will multiply that dollar amount as it travels over seas and that many men and women will come to know Jesus by fruit of this gift.
My prayer is that many will come and join us at Kineo as we desire to grow God's church not with transfer growth from other churches, but with new growth from new believers in our Lord Jesus. Please pray for myself and our leadership team as we continue to faithfully preach and live out the beautiful Gospel of Jesus so that lives are redeemed.
Soli deo gloria.
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