Words

Image Source

It's been almost exactly 4 weeks since I gave my last message during our last service at the church my wife and I served for the past 5 and a half years.  Since then I've had several people ask for the lyrics to the spoken word piece I shared at the end of it.  I'm providing it here for anyone who's interested.

There is also a link at the bottom of this post that includes the spoken word piece with the music I made that inspired it.  Enjoy!

So many of us here are not present

Presently appearing, but incapable of hearing because we spend so much time trapped in our own heads … in our own thoughts … in our own little worlds and realities that it’s difficult to retain the truth and receive the Holy Spirit who breathes life into our spiritually dead bodies and is the power that sustains … Let me explain. 

Sin’s stain had us marked for death, but our eyes are so blind that we don’t realize it.  We search for happiness in, people, places, and things, but never seem to find it.

We live our lives following our own path, passionately pursuing death

trying to make a name for ourselves all the while denying the God who knew our name before we even took our first breath.

See, there’s life for us to be livin’

But won’t know it ‘til we know the Love that has been given

And when we give up our life and receive Christ inside of us

We can stand before our Heavenly Father forgiven.

We’re so busy fighting the failures and fighting to forget the failures that keep finding us.

And they continually creep in reminding us of where we’ve gone wrong.

And while the past shows its face to remind us

We can punch that face with the truth that the past no longer defines us.

‘Cause we’ve been purchased and the price was the spilled blood of the sinless and spotless lamb

So at the end of the only life we’ve known we can stand eternally justified in the presence of the Great I AM

See, we fight not FOR victory, but FROM the victory that Christ conquered death to obtain

And those who remain in Christ are victorious

'Cause He gave His life for those who know their past is notorious

Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to set us free …

Free from the past that would like to tie us to a tree and beat us til we bleed.

But that blood - was already shed - That body - already tied to a tree

That body - belonged to Jesus and He willingly laid it down so we could see

How great is His Love … Grace … and Mercy

So those who love God and are called according to His purpose

should never feel worthless.

Instead be confident that in all things He is working for our good.  Do you believe it?

If you answered, yes, then stop trying to so hard to achieve it and live like you believe it because Jesus Christ suffered so His children could receive it. 

Jesus said on the cross that it’s finished

Live in the victory provided to us by the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is sinless.

He died and took up His life again and then ascended to the right hand of the father

His rightful place of praise, glory, and honor

Where every accusation of the enemy is defeated once and forever

So that no past failure will ever define our future ‘cause we know the author of creation

And He knows our name

And any of us who are called His children will never be put to shame

We once stood guilty, but Jesus Christ took the blame

So we can stand forgiven and our lives never the same

LINK: Words Sermon Jam by Kory Kimbrell

Heading Home

In just a couple of weeks I will be moving with my family back to my hometown.  I never believed I would be moving back to where I’m from; especially for the reason we are moving there.  I have been examining my life in an effort to better understand just how we have ended up where we are.

One thing I’ve discovered is that I had failed to appreciate where I grew up.  Many moments, places, people, and experiences that have shaped who I am have roots firmly planted in Collinsville, Illinois.  But, while I lived there, I carried a lot of feelings of bitterness toward the place.  I realize there are a lot of people who have similar feelings toward the town they grew up in; people who blame their misery on where they live, and desire to leave because they feel like they could be better and do better somewhere else.  Time has taught me, though, that my feelings were wrong.

I always treated Collinsville as a place to escape from, as if I had been sentenced to live within its boundaries for a certain number of years, and to leave would be like being paroled - finally having the chance to do something with myself.  It was always about the next step, and the next step was always "outta there".  I always looked at what I could gain while I was there, without even a hint of consideration for what I could give back.  Maybe I didn’t think I had anything to offer; but the reality is I was just too selfish to consider it. The familiarity with every street, and knowing how to get everywhere from anywhere in town, made me feel like I was suffocating.  I blamed my town for the way I partied every weekend in high school because I thought  “There is nothing else to do in this stinkin’ town.”  It’s ironic how I continued to live that way even after I was gone.  Clearly, I was the problem.

I never appreciated the people either.  Somehow I lived there among them, but didn’t consider myself one of them.  It was like, “I’m only here for a little while so there is no reason to invest in anyone besides myself.”  I never consciously had those thoughts, but the way I lived showed that is what I believed.  The differences that exist in the people that call Collinsville home went unnoticed and unappreciated while I lived there.

I believe that we all do the best we can, based on what we know; but when we know better, we have a responsibility to do better.  That’s what I want to do.  I serve a God of second chances and I believe He is giving me a second chance to do better; to be a better son, brother, grandson, nephew, uncle, and friend than I was when I lived there before.  He’s put in me a desire to love those streets I grew up on and the people who live on those streets.  I have a desire to see people, families, and neighborhoods transformed by the love of Jesus.

 

These desires are evidence that I have been made new.  They weren’t there before and I sure wouldn’t have come up with them on my own.  My motivation has changed from living to make my name great to living to make great the name of Jesus.  It may sound crazy to those who don’t understand, but that’s okay.  Once upon a time, I thought it was crazy too.  I am not coming back home as someone who knows it all and has life figured out.  I am coming back home as someone who believes “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” | Galatians 2:20.  This is a truth that has shifted my motivation and desires and I cannot wait for my wife and children to get to Collinsville and fall in love with it the way I have.

Blessings y’all…

Kory