It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted. Sorry. Does life seem to be moving at warp speed for anyone else? I wanted to give you a recap on several things going on.

First, church was great this past Sunday! God did some great things. At Encounter, the worship team did a great job. Volunteers, as always, you knocked it out. Thanks for your time and effort! I taught at the 8:30 service on Sunday. My message was named REDEEM and it was based on Luke 23:32-43.

The main take away was this: redemption is found in repentance. As Jesus was hanging on the cross, he offered us the most valuable gift He could ever offer: forgiveness. But it’s like a gift card. A gift card in no good unless you redeem it. Jesus’ forgiveness, as priceless of a treasure as it is, does you no good unless you redeem, or accept that gift. The only way to redeem the forgiveness of Jesus is through repentance. I’m not going to re-type my sermon, but here’s the cliff’s notes version. Here’s some signs that you HAVE NOT redeemed the gift of Jesus’ forgiveness: #1. You’re more interested in the things of Jesus rather than Jesus Himself. Knowing a lot of information about Jesus or attending church does not mean that you KNOW Jesus. The crowds at the cross knew a ton of information about Jesus, but did not believe they needed his forgiveness. #2. The word IF is a big part of your spiritual vocabulary. Check out the crowds in Luke 23. Their acceptance of Jesus’ gift was conditional on Him doing what they wanted. In essence, they were playing God. They said,
“If you’re really the Messiah, come down!”  If Jesus had listened to them and come down, we would not have salvation. If you find yourself placing conditions on God, it’s a good sign you haven’t accepted His gift of forgiveness. #3. You find yourself consistently changing the words of Jesus. The crowd rationalized that surely Jesus didn’t mean he was truly the son of God. Therefore, surely He didn’t mean they needed His forgiveness. Therefore surely….Do you see how that ball of yarn unravels? Jesus said what He said. Even the tough stuff. Rather than explain it way, ask Jesus to help you understand it, apply it, and live it out! The question then becomes, “How do I make sure I redeem this free gift of forgiveness?” The answer is repentance. There’s 2 major components to repentance that I want to make you aware of, and you see both of these evidenced in the words of the thief on the right of Jesus: #1. We need to repent of our sins not because we messed up our life, but because we broke the heart of God. Even when we “repent” of our sins, it can still be “us” focused. We’re sometimes more focused on how our sin inconvenienced our life instead of how it impacted God’s heart. #2. Remember that Jesus’ offer of forgiveness is based solely on His grace, not our goodness. Many Christians accept this gift by grace, not works, then spend the rest of their lives trying to be “good enough” for God. The thief on the cross didn’t have that opportunity. He didn’t have the chance to promise to “do better,” not hang out with criminals anymore, not rob anymore, and lead a rec group at VBS. He was about to die. He entered heaven that day not based on his goodness, but by the grace of a loving God.

Second, here’s a quick life re:cap:

Life is great in the Cottle household! Katie’s doing great…our third baby is due in late August/early September, and Katie is wonder woman! Despite being pregnant in the hottest time of the year, she manages to teach kids Sunday School, teach kids at a women’s Bible study, take care of our kids, and me, which is a hard job. Molly Kate turned one this past weekend. How did that happen? Where did a year go? She is a such a sweet little girl. The poor thing had a virus earlier in the week, and had a residual rash on her birthday. Life just isn’t fair sometimes! Charlie is being Charlie- one hilarious saying after another! I’ve had the chance to go fishing a couple of times lately. Two weeks ago a buddy and I went out on West Point Lake and the striper were surface feeding. It was a blast- here’s one I caught:

Last week, I got a chance to do my favorite thing: go out on a private lake and catch largemouth bass. We caught them- there were three guys in the boat and we caught 60 bass! But that experience had its consequences. I got EATEN UP by chiggers. Check out how bad my legs were. I itched for days!

Here’s a quick church construction re:cap:

If you attend First Baptist, you know that’s there’s a lot of dust flying. Our church is about to start construction on a new building that will provide room for our contemporary worship service (Encounter), fellowship, and outreach. But before a new building could go up, there was an existing building that had to come down.  Last week, the demolition job began on that existing building. It was incredible to watch it go down.  Here’s some pictures from my cell phone that show the progression, and a You Tube clip (also from my cell phone) that shows a few seconds of the backhoe taking the building down. The guy that was driving that thing was an artist! Pray for the ministry that will take place here!

Here’s the clip of the backhoe taking down the roof: