This past Sunday I was away celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the first Aletheia Church that we started in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It was a joy to be at the original location that Jesus began this church planting movement. When we left over 2 years ago to plant the church in Tampa, we left an incredible community of believers and some of our nearest and dearest friends. We praise Jesus for the many wonderful friendships that were developed over the years there. The church is doing great and it was amazing to see how Jesus continues to change lives in that tiny community.
Being away is always hard though, and I really don’t enjoy leaving my church family in Tampa for any period of time, much less for two weeks. In fact, this was the first time since we started the church that I was away for more than one Sunday. My pops taught the first week for me but this past weekend he was teaching in Harrisonburg for the anniversary celebration so I didn’t have my usual back-up in place. I prayed about who to get and explored various options but God led me to ask my good buddy Emilio to preach for me. And let me tell you, the guy did a great job. For those of you who don’t know, Emilio has been chosen by God to start an Aletheia Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, right across the bay from where we are in Tampa (about 45 minutes away). He and his wife Hannah are cultivating relationships, forming Bible studies, and serving Jesus in a very needy area. They’ve seen people come to Christ and have even had some baptisms in the short time they’ve been on location. I am blessed to serve with my boy and love how God is using him.
And I love how God spoke through him this past Sunday. Watch the sermon here and see for yourself. And please, if you have a spare moment, pray for Emilio and Hannah (and they’re baby who is due May 28th).
So Ashlee and I have noticed something lately when it’s time to pray (whether for a meal or when we’re tucking the boys in bed). Asher really loves to pray and he is so close to God that he has his own special prayer language. I’ve got a spirit-filled 20 month old who is charismatic. Guess I’ve got two Pentecostals in the home now haha. Enjoy!
So this past week, I was at a rural baptist church in Riner, Virginia, about 700 miles from Aletheia, and let me tell you, I missed my home church. But, it is nice when I go away to have a back up that has more teaching experience than I have years. So, with that being said, the sermon from this past Sunday was pretty money. You will definitely want to watch it.
Romans chapter 7 continues to emphasize spiritual maturity (sanctification), as chapter 6 did. But the emphasis is a bit different. In chapter 6, we saw that we have a new identity in Christ because our old self has been crucified with Christ and the result is that sin and death no longer enslave us, rather we are slaves of righteousness, leading to sanctification, and ultimately eternal life. That is our new identification. Chapter 7 emphasizes how the law no longer enslaves us either because once again, we have been crucified with Christ which has released us from the bondage of sin, death, and now, the law. The analogy that Paul uses in the first few verses is marriage. Kind of interesting that he chooses that to explain his point but it makes perfect sense. Because we have now died to the law, we are able to bear true fruit of God. The power that God used to raise himself from the dead is the power that we have to live lives of obedience. The law came to expose our sin, and that it did (in a pretty significant way – just read the 10 commandments and then think about your daily life apart from Jesus). But now, we are freed from that and what we serve now (what we are enslaved to) is something new (the new way as verse 6 tells us), which includes the indwelling Spirit, causing us to bear fruit that leads to life, not death. This is now spiritual growth is accomplished. The same gospel that had the power to save us, is the gospel that will continue to transform our lives…push us towards obedience. And it isn’t done through following rules. it’s done through submitting to a power that is way beyond our imagination or capability.
Watch Pastor Dave’s sermon from this past week and look forward to 2 weeks when I pick back up in Romans. This next week, we will have a special guest speaker, Emilio Marrero. Emilio is my good friend who helped us plant Aletheia Tampa, and who is now in St. Petersburg, Florida, planting the next Aletheia Church. He is a man of God, married to a godly woman, and a servant of Jesus who is super gifted and who I am privileged to serve with. Don’t miss this next Sunday if you are in Tampa.
This past Thursday afternoon, we packed up the car with lots of toys, snacks, clothes for 10 days, and of course our little dudes, and hit the road. Our goal was to make the 12 hour drive from Tampa to Riner, Virginia. We knew it could potentially be a disaster of a trip since Asher is at that age where nothing can keep his attention for more than a few minutes, let alone many hours sitting in a car. We only stopped twice, once for dinner dinner and another for a potty break (of course we filled up the car those two times as well). The boys were champs and the trip was actually a lot of fun.
The purpose for our trip to Virginia was two-fold. Ashlee’s brother got married this past Saturday and then this next weekend marks the 10 year anniversary of the original Aletheia Church. We have had a lot of fun seeing Ashlee’s family and being in this beautiful state (you should come to Va during the fall, there is nothing quite like it). I definitely missed my church family back in Tampa yesterday but it was great to hear about how God moved at Aletheia yesterday in my absence. We had our third largest crowd ever and lots of new visitors. I was reminded once again that the health and vitality of the church has nothing to do with me. I am just pumped about the momentum and can’t wait to get back. It was also great to have Cameron (and Meghan) Gwaltney at church yesterday even though I am a bit disappointed that they came into town the weekend I was gone. (Thanks for the pic Meghan)…
In the meantime I am looking forward to being at the mother-ship this coming Sunday. I can’t believe that it’s really been 10 years. A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into that church plant and to hear (and see this coming Sunday) about all that God is doing at His church in Harrisonburg. I am so blessed to have been a small part of it.
Here are a couple pics of my little guy (Asher) from our trip to the pumpkin festival yesterday evening…
This week can definitely be classified as an atypical week for the Proffitt family but it seems as though these weeks are becoming more and more frequent as our lives go on. For those of you who don’t know, Ashlee and I found out we were pregnant (for the 5th time) two weeks ago. Yep, that’s right, 5 times Ashlee has conceived. Our first we miscarried at 8 weeks. Our second was Drew. Our third was Aaden who we lost to SIDS at 5.5 weeks. Our fourth was Asher (who is a complete nut job, but the cutest little guy in the whole world). (This is him after getting into the markers on Wednesday). And now we are on round 5. What a joy it was (well, Ashlee was a bit disappointed in me at first but I told her “babe, it takes two to Tango”) and what a roller coaster it has been this week. I think many just don’t quite understand what goes into the miracle of child birth. Read up on it sometime, it will give you a greater perspective of God.
Every pregnancy we’ve had has been full of its unique challenges. For obvious reasons, Ashlee struggles with a lot of fear and uncertainty throughout the process. On Tuesday afternoon, she found some blood. That was accompanied by a lower back pain, one that she hadn’t felt since our first pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage. After all of the tragedy that we’ve been through, it’s hard not to in that moment fear and believe the worst was happening (it’s at this point where many would quote a Bible verse to us, and tell us that God is in control, and say “yeah, what’s that one verse…you know? Oh, I remember, Romans 8:28!” – Ahh yes, the obligatory Rom828 reference. And we would respond, “YEP! That’s right!” And trust me, we believe that verse wholeheartedly (ironically enough, I was studying that passage out on Tuesday morning because I’m going to be teaching it at Aletheia sometime mid December) but in that moment, our flesh takes over.
We both sat down on our bed in shock, disbelief; our eyes welled up with tears. Going through my head in that moment was “How in the world are we going to get through this again?” and “How am I going to get Ashlee through this one?” (Because after all we had been through, my counsel was getting a little tired and worn out – I had already pulled all the stops out in the past – what else did I have left to say?). We just sat in silence. God gave me a sense of peace (and Ashlee too) even though I really did expect the worst.
After a few moments to get past the shock, I called the doctor to get Ashlee in ASAP because if you’ve gone through a miscarriage before, you know that sitting on the possibility of a miscarriage not knowing for more than an hour is not really my idea of fun. They got my hopes up by saying they could probably get us in that day, but 15 minutes went by and the receptionist called me back and said “Sorry, we’re going to extend the torture for you and get you in tomorrow at 9am” (She might have not said that but that’s all I heard). Meanwhile, Ashlee didn’t have any more bleeding the rest of the night even though every time she went to pee our hearts stopped beating until we’d find out that everything looked normal.
To try and take our mind off of things, I got the whole family out of the house and I tried to think about what Ashlee would like to do the most. She loves getting new things for the house and we have needed a new trash can for our kitchen for about a year now. So guess what? We were going to get a new trash can. And you know how much that stainless steel – no finger print – trash can cost? 50 bucks. 50 buck! For a trash can? Yep! That’s right. I bought my wife a 50 dollar trash can because that’s what she wanted. Best 50 bucks I have spent in a long time. Ashlee was smiling. We were all smiling. Then, I thought of my wife’s favorite place to eat: Texas Road House! She loves the rolls that they bring you before you even get comfortable in your seats. Have you ever tried those rolls? They are exquisite. Expensive meal? Kind of. Worth it? Better believe it. Best 30 bucks I spent on a meal in a long time. Ashlee was smiling. We were all smiling and hopeful and praying.
(Drew finally overcame his fear of the dreaded saddle at Texas Road House. This has brought forth many tears in the past)
That night we came home and put the boys to bed. Ashlee was exhausted after the emotionally draining day. She laid down on the couch and took a nap while I tried to get the new iMac that my church family at Aletheia got me for “Pastor Appreciation” month. The computer is so amazing but I am so technologically illiterate, and my patience was wearing thin that night, so I got up, threw on some work out clothes and went for a 7.5 mile bike ride around my neighborhood in the brisk Florida fall night. It was close to 10pm. I knew I wasn’t going to sleep that night anyways and I needed to get away and pray and wrestle with God. And that’s exactly what I did. I prayed that God would give me a sign (sometimes that is how God has spoken to me in the past). But this time, he didn’t give me a sign, just peace. He didn’t assure me by letting me know that our baby was still alive. No, he just gave me peace. So I went back home, got Ashlee in bed and we prayed together. Ashlee fell right to sleep. I, on the other hand, laid in bed, preparing myself for a long night.
Morning came a little slower than I would have liked. Ashlee woke up to a little more bleeding. The anxiety quickly came again. I kept begging God for a miracle. We got dressed and headed to the doctor’s office. I used social media to ask everybody to pray for a miracle with me. That’s what many of you prayed for. The sonogram technician was ready for us. She laid Ashlee down and got to work. I sat down next to Ashlee, put my face in my hands and pleaded with Jesus one last time. I still didn’t have a good feeling that our baby was alive. And then this is what we heard and saw:
When I saw our baby move and heard that heart beat pumping loudly and quickly (is it a girl?) I pumped my fist as hard as I could (it was like I just won the big game) and I think I might have clapped as well. Ashlee sat there quietly with a smile on her face. She later told me that she felt like everything would be okay. I was hesitant to ask her because I didn’t want her to think that I didn’t think it was looking too good. Here is my hero with our peanut:
It was a miracle. Our baby was alive. We rejoiced. I made some calls, put some posts on twitter and facebook, and we breathed a sigh of relief. Tragedy was averted this time around. Our baby was alive, healthy, and coming to us on May 30th. Thanks to all of you who prayed on our behalf. We feel like God performed a miracle. After all was said and done, we still believe that whatever the outcome was, God would have still been faithful. But let me tell you, we are pretty overjoyed that outcome was a living baby, who is developing properly in his/her mama’s belly. Praise Jesus!
It was a crazy week. Even our drier was possessed at one point…
Seeing as though the past 30 hours or so have been an absolute circus (I will discus that in detail in a future post), that left me with little time to be able to put together a decent recap of my sermon from this past week: “A Strange Dichotomy”. As I made reference to a dichotomy is the splitting of a whole into two parts. The whole (or idea) was the concept of slavery (that Paul used 6 times in this passage alone). The two jointly exhaustive and mutually exclusive parts were 1. slavery to sin; and 2. slavery to righteousness. Paul left no room for any other enslavement. We are either one or the other. This is tough to take especially for we Americans, who don’t like anyone telling us what to do. We are the epitome of independence. But what we fail to realize is that sin has brought man to the inability to do anything else and the result is that we have become slaves to it.
Where as the early part of Romans chapter 6 deals with the idea of how can we continue to live in something (sin) if we are already dead to it, the latter part of the chapter deals with the idea of how can we be continue to be enslaved by something that we are no longer enslaved to. The answer to these questions is the same but with a slightly different emphasis. Our identity and our status has shifted. Therefore, our lives should look different. There should be an automatic progression taking place in our lives now that resembles obedience to something else…truth…this is what we have been committed to. Our hearts have been molded out of a different blue print and we have beens et free from sin as a result. Now we can present those hearts (along with our other body parts – i.e. tongues, hands, feet, eyes) as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification which ultimately leads to eternal life. This means that our bodies are to be used for God’s glory, not ours, and for His mission, not our pursuits.
Awesome stuff! Enjoy the sermon. Would love your feedback.
My Monday posts from here on out will consist of a funny story/picture/video from my 2 sons that I capture the previous week. This week’s video happens to come from a few weeks back. Kids go through stages and these stages are often comical. Asher right now is going through a stage where he shakes his head no when he doesn’t want something or doesn’t want to do something. What makes it so funny are his long golden locks swinging back and forth. And for a time, he was shaking his head “no” for everything…even when he wanted something. I captured some video of it which I’m glad about because this stage is passing quickly.
What helps to make this video even funnier is that the day before, Asher had woken up with his (right) eye completely swollen (almost) shut. Evidently, he had been bit by one of those ferocious Florida fire ants. These ants are no joke and our house was literally beginning to be infested by them (not kidding). We had to have an exterminator come and fumigate our house because this wasn’t the first time Asher would be bit in the eye…nope, it happened last week again!
Here’s the footage. Enjoy my crazy, awesome, cute, and hilarious 1 year old.
So my blog has officially been resurrected from the dead this week. My goal is to write 3 posts (minimum) a week. The content will revolve around (but not be limited to) the following: Monday’s post will be a video and/or story of my crazy kids (Drew – 4; Asher – almost 20 months old); Wednesday’s post will be a sermon recap from my previous week’s sermon to keep it fresh in your heads; and Friday’s post will be a funny ministry story/family story from the past (because you don’t grow up in a pastor’s home and not have some hilarious stories).
Today, I will share with you a recent development in the Proffitt home.
We are having another baby. Yep, our 4th kid is on his/her way. We’ve had 3 boys up to this point. What do you think it’s going to be? I am 90% sure that it’s going to be a girl. But I was 100% sure that Asher was going to be a girl and well, I was wrong. Comment back what you think it’s going to be and let’s see if you’re right. You have a 50/50 shot…pretty decent odds.
I am teaching through the book of Romans presently at Aletheia Church and it has been amazing to see how Jesus has shaped the theology of our church here in Tampa through our verse-by-verse study in this doctrinally rich text. We are in chapter 6 right now and this past week we looked at how our identity has been shifted and re-shaped as a result of the work of Jesus…through His death, burial & resurrection. Essentially, our lives positionally and practically are (and should look) radically different. Our old sinful self has been crucified with Christ and we are no longer under the authority of sin. This is all a result of the work of Christ and His grace that He has given us. We are now as verse 11 states “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. There has been a death to life shifting that has literally taken place in our lives. Then we see a transition in verses 12-14. This is a call to action, meaning, we must take responsibility in making sure sin does not own us because as we learned from this passage already, we are under new ownership. Paul strikes a very good balance between the two ideas because he ends v14 by saying that grace is the fuel to our action.
This passage presents 2 misconceptions that people have about grace. The first misconception has to do with using and abusing grace. Paul asks the question in v1 “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” Most Christians don’t feel that it is a good idea to sin as much as we can all day every day because it makes God look that much better. Rather, we take our so-called “Christian Liberties” to the extreme. I had a very thorough discussion with my city group guys on Monday night about knowing how, when and where to draw the line with alcohol, movies, cursing, television shows etc… I would love to get your input on this. How can we discern the things that aren’t as clear in Scripture…the so-called gray areas (if they even exist)?
The second misconception comes from verses 12-14 (“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”). Christians sometimes forget about the action part. If we are thinking about it, most of the time it takes the form of religious obligation or duty rather than acting out of love and devotion. We act because we feel as though we have to (and that if we don’t God will be mad at us). In relation to our sin, we filter it through feelings of guilt rather than the gospel. We say “man, that sin made me feel really bad (which, let’s be honest, it should)”, instead of saying, “man, Jesus had to go to the cross for that sin”. The final analysis is that we are not viewing our sin properly. We are viewing it more from an anthropocentric perspective rather than a gospel-centric one. We have to remember that it is our (my) sin that put Christ on the cross.
The question that must be asked then is how many of us are using grace as our crutch rather than our catalyst? The tendency might be to relax in our faith, thinking “I don’t have to put forth any effort because God is handling it all”. We get lazy and use grace as an excuse to get out of living our faith out in specific ways. Paul is speaking directly to how we (out of obedience) avoid allowing our flesh to fall into unrighteousness. There is another way we use grace as a crutch. It has to do with living on mission (translation: are we being missionaries in our life contexts?). Seriously, we get a little lazy in this area, don’t we? The grace that we have been given is not only supposed to be the fuel behind our being made holy in relation to not living in sin, but also carrying out the mission that God has called us all to be a part of.
How do these misconceptions impact the way you live out your life day by day? I’d be interested to get your feedback on all of this. Please leave a comment with your thoughts, or dm me on twitter, or facebook message me on…well, facebook.
Here is my sermon from this past Sunday on these very issues in case you have a few extra minutes to spare. Thanks for watching!
Alright, I’m back to blogging. Why haven’t I been blogging for the past 5 months you may ask? Because I’ve been up to a whole lot of following Jesus, husbandry, child rearing, church planting, traveling, getting pregnant again (well, not me but my wife…you know what I mean), preaching, evangelizing, equipping young men, training future church planters, leading city groups, reaching out to the city of Tampa and, well, I think you get the idea. It’s not that I am going to stop doing those things so that I can insure that I can keep the blog thing going…No… rather I am going to once again muster up a few posts here and there to hopefully provide some entertainment/ministry training/biblical-theological insight/church planting strategy/Funny ministry stories…oh and the occasional video of my 19 month old who honestly, is one of the craziest people I have ever been around…but he is the cutest little guy ever and he always provides so much entertainment. Here are a couple videos to help you understand what I’m talking about. Grace and Peace!
