Alliance Christian Church
July 6 2025

      • 2 Corinthians 9:7GS-NETBIBLE

      • Matthew 19:13–15GS-NETBIBLE

  • That's Who I Praise
  • I Thank God
  • Goodness of God

  • Splattered

    Introduction:
    I know not everyone can relate to this, but we aren’t doing any summer events. no outreaches, and no vbs. I’m 8 weeks ahead on sermons, and am struggling to find ways to fill my work day. I work full time but with no events or outreaches to plan I don’t know what to do with my time.
    I am struggling and really trying to just pray and listen to what God is telling me to do. Has anyone dealt with a non supportive pastor who is truly not engaged and makes you feel like children’s ministry is just an inconvenience and not important? It’s so frustrating to work so hard and not have support and engagement from the pastor on anything. I guess i just needed to vent but any advice would be appreciated.

    Splattered

    There was another one that I read last week, but when I went to go find it, I think the person must have deleted it, because it wasn’t up anymore.
    But the jist of it was: I’m a children’s director, and I want the elders and pastors of our church to be present for our kids. They said, I don’t need them to volunteer, I don’t need them to help, but I know they have a lot on their plate, but I have been asking them to just show up and say hi to the kids, because the kids don’t even know who the pastors and elders of the church are. She said she’s brought it up several times, and every time they have a kids event, or a VBS, the pastors just don’t show up, and won’t even make an effort to meet the kids, and introduce themselves to the families.
    I’m not sharing these with you to bash on other churches. That’s not my M O, that’s not the kind of person I am.
    I’m sharing these with you for two reasons. 1) I need you to know that this is a thing that is happening in the big C church. where churches and leadership have just decided for what ever reason that .
    2) I want to share this with you as an encouragement for everyone who is going to be signing up to help out with VBS this year.
    25 percent of the US population are under the age of 18. And there’s this mentality that exists in a lot of places that basically says, you know, we don’t really need to invest in kids in the church. Because statistically, it used to be the case that children of christian parents would automatically come to faith. Just from being around it all the time.
    and in the year 2025, that’s just not the case.
    And imagine what it would be like, if a church was just like, hey, I am not going to invest any time or effort into preaching the gospel to a quarter of my community. And it’s the quarter of the community that is most likely not to know Jesus
    And so what I want to do today, in the spirit of VBS starting tomorrow, is take our scattered series in a slightly different direction.
    You might have noticed the slide here, today the series is called “Splattered”
    I’m going to preach the VBS curiculum.
    I’m going to preach to you the exact same message that we’re going to be preaching to our kids next week. All five days, we’re going to squish it all together
    Because if we’re going to be the scattered church, with the purpose of bringing people to christ, and living as God’s people in exile, then what better way to do that then being all on the same page with the message that we bring to our kids?
    Big Idea this week is how does god handle our messes.
    Even a child can understand that the world is messy
    This week we’re going to be doing a lot of fun messy activities, but the root of what we’re going to be teaching about is the messiness that each and everyone of us has on the inside.
    The spiritual messiness, the yuck, the sin, the junk that we carry around with us.
    Why we hurt people we don’t mean to, why we experience pain and suffering.
    DAY 1
    On day 1 We’re going to answer the question “Who made this mess?”:
    Because God made a perfect world. He made everything in the universe and he said, and I quote “It is Good”
    Like a lot of times.
    And he made mankind, he made adam and eve, and his intention was for them to choose to live with him forever in paradise.
    And he said all you have to do is not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. If you do that, you can stay.
    And we know how the story goes.
    But I want to point out two very important things that happen at the end of the story.
    the first comes from Genesis 3 8.
    Genesis 3:8–13 NET 2nd ed.
    Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” And the Lord God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.” So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”
    Like the very instant they ate from the tree, the very instant they chose to disobey God, and separate themselves from him, they start making messes of their relationships.
    They hide from God.
    They start blaming each other. Adam, when you look at what he says, kind of blames Eve, but he also in a way is blaming God.
    He says the woman you gave me gave it to me. So really, it’s your fault God. He just throws eve right under the bus.
    And eve says, it wasn’t my fault, the serpent tricked me.
    Both adam and eve were guilty of their own sin, but their first instinct was to make a giant mess between each other and between them and god, and start pointing fingers of blame all over the place.
    But the other thing that’s incredible is in verse 21
    Genesis 3:21 NET 2nd ed.
    The Lord God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
    God was under zero obligation to do this for them.
    They broke the rules, they willingly chose to leave paradise, God had every right to say
    Hey, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
    But instead, he chooses to make clothes for them, to provide for them,.
    And it just gives us a little bit of the Character of god. While we’re pointing fingers, and messing up relationships, God is quietly in the background providing for our every need, even when we treat him the way we do.
    Question 1, then, who made this mess.
    Question 2, day two, we have to ask is, How does god feel about messy people?
    Mark 10:17–27 NET 2nd ed.
    Now as Jesus was starting out on his way, someone ran up to him, fell on his knees, and said, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’ ” The man said to him, “Teacher, I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws since my youth.” As Jesus looked at him, he felt love for him and said, “You lack one thing. Go, sell whatever you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” But at this statement, the man looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were astonished at these words. But again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but not for God; all things are possible for God.”
    The rich young ruler was just as subject to the messiness of the world that anyone else is.
    The problem was, he absolutely was not willing to admit it.
    Jesus tells him, you want eternal life, you need to keep the commandments of God.
    don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery, honor your father and mother. You know it, there’s an entire book called the Bible that tells you what they all are.
    To which the correct response should have been “uh oh, I’m in big trouble”
    If I need to follow God’s every commandment to inherit eternal life, I am in big trouble.
    And so when the ruler says oh yeah, I’ve kept all the commandments, Jesus points out where he hasn’t
    [Illustration about cleaning room and mom finds spots I missed]
    Because what Jesus wanted to hear was, “I can’t” I can’t keep all the commandments. \
    Because what God excels at is coming to us, in all of our weakness, all of our inability, and doing amazing things in spite of our failings.
    We can’t inherit eternal life, it’s impossible for us to do on our own, but with God, all things are possible.
    And the beautiful thing is, even when the rich young ruler was completely oblivious to this concept, it says Jesus “Felt love for him”
    That’s how god looks at us. No matter how messy we are, God loves us.
    Day 3
    So what’s our response then? To all the love that god is willing to show us.
    Day 3 says we ought to “confess our mess”
    1 John 1:9 NET 2nd ed.
    But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
    In Luke 18:9-14
    Luke 18:9–14 NET 2nd ed.
    Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.’ The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!’ I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
    The story about the rich young ruler was about admiting that we need Jesus, admiting that we need a savior
    The story about the tax collector and the pharisee is about confessing our mess. Admiting that we made a spiritual mess in the first place.
    And in a lot of ways, that needs to come first.
    And it’s not about feeling sorry for ourselves. It’s not about moping around and saying, look at me, look at how bad a sinner I am, boo hoo.
    It’s about recognizing our shortcomings. Recognizing the fact that we are, just generally, messy broken people. And our prayer as we go to god shouldn’t be like the pharisee who says, God thank you that I’m not like them. Thank you that I’m so wonderful.
    It’s “Have mercy on me, the sinner that I am.”
    And that, Jesus says, is how we go home Justified before God.
    1, who made this mess.
    2) How does god feel about messy people
    3) How do we confess our mess.
    Day 4 How does God address our mess.
    Because the logic follows that we made the mess, we are unable to clean it up, and God requires of us that we go before him and confess it to him, and ask him to clean it up for us, what does that look like?
    Luke 15:11–22 NET 2nd ed.
    Then Jesus said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that will belong to me.’ So he divided his assets between them. After a few days, the younger son gathered together all he had and left on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his wealth with a wild lifestyle. Then after he had spent everything, a severe famine took place in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and worked for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He was longing to eat the carob pods the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have food enough to spare, but here I am dying from hunger! I will get up and go to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired workers.” ’ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him. Then his son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Hurry! Bring the best robe, and put it on him! Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet!
    I can not think of a more beautiful parable than this one to describe the love that God has for us.
    The father didn’t even finish his sentence when he went to his father to confess his sin.
    He was like father I’ve sinned against heaven and you, and the father was like, “Great, good enough for me.” We’re having a party.
    that’s what it’s like when we come to God. When we come to God and we say, Father, I am a sinner, I need your help.
    Before we can even finish the thought, God has already made plans to celebrate with us in his kingdom.
    God pours out his love and forgiveness on us so much.
    He cleans up every mess we could ever make, and every mess we could even think of making. He makes it clean because of his great love for us.
    Day 5, The natural question to ask, is, well then how do we handle other people’s messes?
    Colossians 3:12–13 NET 2nd ed.
    Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.
    Because once we have been forgiven, our goal is to forgive others in the same way, to the same level that God forgives us.
    That’s how we go about cleaning up the messes that we make in our relationships.
    Remember all the way back in the garden, Adam and eve were pointing fingers, It wasn’t my fault, the woman you gave me did it, and eve is like “it wasn’t my fault, the serpent tricked me”
    Pointing fingers and pointing blame doesn’t clean up the mess. Only forgiveness does.
    Matthew 7:1–5 NET 2nd ed.
    “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye,’ while there is a beam in your own? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
    When we realize just how much we’ve been forgiven. That beam of wood in our eye, that huge sin problem that God just wiped away,
    now all of the sudden when we look at other people’s messes our first instinct shouldn’t be to point fingers of blame, to accuse, any of that.
    It’s to forgive them. to show Christ’s forgiveness.
    Now, between now and tomorrow evening, and all next week I have homework for you.
    Every day the kids are going to get a verse of the day that addresses the five questions we’re asking.
    I’m going to put these verses up on the screen here in a minute, so if you want to write them down, or something.
    I want you to spend tonight, and tomorrow morning, and the next week meditating on these verses that answer these questions.
    and i want you to reflect on the messsage of the Gospel, the good news that God has cleansed us from our mess once and for all, and how amazing of a gift it is.
    Because kids are smart. Kids can pick up when our hearts aren’t really in it.
    When we sing songs, and we’re not excited about worshipping God, they aren’t going to be excited about it.
    When we teach about the love and forgiveness of God and we don’t take it seriously, they notice that. And they won’t take it seriously.
    That’s partiallly why I did this. Because this isnt’ just something kids need to hear. it’s something we all need to hear.
    1 Who made this mess?
    Romans 3:23 NET 2nd ed.
    for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
    And the story that goes along with this question is Genesis chapter 3
    2 How does god feel about messy people
    Romans 5:8 NET 2nd ed.
    But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
    and the story that Goes along with it is Mark 10:17-27.
    3 How do we confess our mess?
    1 John 1:9 NET 2nd ed.
    But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
    Luke 18:9-14
    4 How does God address our mess?
    1 John 3:1 NET 2nd ed.
    (See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children—and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him.
    Luke 15:11-22 the story of the prodigal son.
    5 How do we handle other people’s messes
    Colossians 3:13 NET 2nd ed.
    bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.
    Matthew 7:1-5.
    ——
    I want us to read these verses, these stories, throughout the week.
    Even if you’re not helping with VBS, I want you to take these home, and study them this week.
    I know we have the fun little splatters everywhere, we’re calling today’s sermons splattered, but this is very much part and parcel of what it means for us to be the scattered Church.
    Scattered Geographically, meaning we are strategically placed to show people christ. And having these questions and these stories at the ready is a prime example to be able to walk someone through the gospel.
    And scattered spiritually. Meaning, we are living in a world not our own, and we are meant to look different.
    And the way that happens is by being transformed by God’s word. We allow God’s word to change us, and grow us, and shape and mold us.
    That’s my goal for us through this vbs, through this sermon series, and moving forward into the future.
    pray.

      • Genesis 3:8–13NIRV2014

      • Genesis 3:21NIRV2014

      • Mark 10:17–27NIRV2014

      • 1 John 1:9NIRV2014

      • Luke 18:9–14NIRV2014

      • Luke 15:11–22NIRV2014

      • Colossians 3:12–13NIRV2014

      • Matthew 7:1–5NIRV2014

      • Romans 3:23NIRV2014

      • Romans 5:8NIRV2014

      • 1 John 1:9NIRV2014

      • 1 John 3:1NIRV2014

      • Colossians 3:13NIRV2014

  • Jesus Paid It All
  • This is Amazing Grace
Alliance Christian Church
churchinalliance@gmail.com
9707657196
https://www.alliancechristian.church
4 members