Don't Waste Your Life

Jimmy's sermon this week was entitled "Unchained From Distractions". But as I listened to him preach, I couldn't help but hear one message over and over: "Don't Waste Your Life".

So while I will share the usual good stuff from the message, we will also be using this follow up post every week to share anything we can think of to help you dig deeper into the big idea from the message each Sunday.

To listen to Jimmy's message, click here. Below are some of the more tweetable moments. Feel free to share the following on your social media and please use this link to link back to this post: http://ow.ly/mkUqm

• If you waste enough of your time, you risk wasting your life.
• I go to Wal-Mart to share Jesus, and while I'm there I buy milk.
• Our highest purpose is to love God and others. Enjoy life on purpose.
• Paul's finish line was about Jesus—Jesus was Paul's prize.
•  Stop waiting until you or your situations are better and start moving towards Christ today. 
• We enjoy things in life not just to have fun, but, firstly, to honor Christ.  

John Piper has also written an excellent book called Don't Waste Your Life.  You can actually download the PDF for free if you have an eReader or would like to read it from your computer. If you'd rather have it in print form, you can get it for $6.99 from WTSbooks.com (best price I could find on the web). Here's a few quotes as well as cool video if you need more convincing:

• It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself.
• Desire that your life count for something great! Long for your life to have eternal significance. Want this! Don’t coast through life without a passion.
• America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.
• You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing.

Don't Waste Your Life from Andrew Laparra on Vimeo.

And finally, a few wallpapers for your desktop if you'd like to download them and have a reminder throughout the week:

My Chains Are Gone: Unchained from Discontentment

Week 2 in a 4 week series

To listen to the message, click here

To subscribe to our sermon podcast, click here

“[Paul] never once suggests that we should be satisfied with what we have because others have less. He did not say, 'In any circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things because I have it better than Peter or James or John.' His comparisons were never horizontal; they were always vertical. Christ was his source, his secret, of contentment.”
– Lydia Brownback, Contentment: A Godly Woman's Adornment

It Is Well With My Soul - The Song and Story of Horatio Spafford


Sara Groves - Painting Pictures Of Egypt (Music Video)

God Exists. What Next?

OK, so you believe in God or some sort of higher power, what next? There are lots of different options and opinions out there, lots of different views about God. Where should you start?

 In this video, we offer 6 reasons why a spiritual seeker, someone who's open to the existence of God but still checking out the different religions, should start their spiritual quest with Christianity.

This material is loosely based on the intellectual and apologetic work of Craig Hazen in his book, Five Sacred Crossings: A Novel. These videos are a ministry of Redeemer Church in Omaha, NE. If you're ready to check out Christianity, why not join us this Sunday morning! 

6 Reasons a Spiritual Seeker Should Start With Christianity

For further reading:
Five Reasons Why A Thoughtful Person Would Start Their Religious Quest With Christianity
This is based on the same material, but aren't you glad we shortened the title?

My Chains Are Gone: Unchained From Discouragement

This week Jimmy started a new mini-series (don't worry, we'll finish The Body: We Are Better Together) entitled My Chains Are Gone. If you missed it, you can listen to it here.

However, there was some great, tweetable content in there, so I figured I'd share some of the stuff I caught so you could share it on your social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Here's the ones I heard, if you've got any others you'd like to share, feel free to comment below!

• Paul's key to joy: he focused on what God was doing instead of what God wasn't doing. 
• It's impossible to be discouraged when our highest aim is to make Jesus look as great as he really is.
• We like to think Jesus is part of our story, when in reality we are part of his. 
• God may not always change the situation, but he will always change us. 

If you share any of these on social media, you can tag it at the end with this link: http://ow.ly/lSYEj

New Worship Songs at Redeemer

Well, it's been a while since I've made one of these posts, so I figured it was overdue. We've added quite a few new songs to our worship library since Easter so I thought I'd share some links with everyone in case you wanted to purchase the songs for your own collection. Enjoy! (I have a strong personal preference for Amazon over iTunes, if you want an earful you can ask me why.)

From the Inside Out (Amazon || iTunes)

How He Loves (Amazon || iTunes)

One Thing Remains (Amazon || iTunes)

Scandal of Grace (Amazon || iTunes)

Thank You God For Saving Me (Amazon || iTunes)

This Is Amazing Grace (Amazon || iTunes)

You Alone Can Rescue (Amazon || iTunes)

You Have Won Me (Amazon || iTunes)