God's Great Love

God’s Great Love

The Prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 9:6-7,

⁶ For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the greatness of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

God’s grace in the flesh. As we pondered at the Christmas Eve Service, out of His deep love for you and me, Jesus was willing to leave His majestic realms of glory to enter the realm of humanity. Shedding all His visible attributes that were too much for man's flesh to endure, He dressed Himself in the clothing of a human being and was manifested in the flesh. That little baby in Bethlehem was the eternal, ever-existent God Almighty, who dressed Himself in human flesh so that He could dwell among men and purchase our salvation. Christ did all of this conquer the darkness. He is the Light of life. What a Savior!

As we come to the final days of 2013, I think of the many new faces that have come to be a part of our church. We are so blessed to be having so many new babies added to our families. We are so blessed to see new members come into the church. I also think of the ones who have gone home to be with the Lord and the ones who have been diagnosed with cancer. The enemy will not discourage God’s anointed. We are overcomers! God has many good days in store for us.

Thank you for being an awesome church. My family and I are overwhelmed at the love of Jesus present in our fellowship.

May you be found seeking Him in the days ahead…

Joy in Jesus!

Pastor Mike

Four Essential Ingredients: Mission

Mission

We continue to look at the four essential ingredients for a thriving Christian life represented in Acts 2. This is where we see the very first church focused on the four ingredients necessary to grow together – nurture, worship, community, and mission. In order to grow as vibrant Christians, we need to make sure we place these as a priority in our faith journeys.

In Acts 2:42-47, it says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Have you ever heard of Christmas caroling after Christmas? That is what a particular small group did one time. Since the retail stores are jumping the gun by getting ready for Christmas shopping in October, a small group decided to extend the message of the Christ child a few days after Christmas. Their witness sparked curiosity and they were able to share the love of Christ. Another small group adopted a missionary together. They took turns writing notes of encouragement and sending small gifts on special days. The people in these small groups took serious the fourth component of a thriving Christian life — they were involved in mission together. Everyone doesn’t have to do the same thing in order to be involved in missions. It is probably impossible for that to take place since we have different spheres of influence.

All through the book of Acts we see where groups came together to serve and minister to the needs of people around them. It looks like sometimes it was the whole church and then other times it was a smaller group of people. The point is, we all need to be serving. Let’s look in Acts at different examples where this took place.

Acts 1 – Having been promised the Holy Spirit and commanded to be Christ’s witnesses locally and worldwide, the Twelve gathered with several women and Jesus’ brothers to pray. After they prayed they began to preach. An incredible revival broke out and 3,000 were added to their number.

Acts 4 – As the believers began to mature, they became one in heart and soul, and all they possessed belonged to each other. There was no one who had need. The Apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and grace was upon them all. They began to experience authentic community and all the material needs of each other were met. The word spread and God was glorified.

Acts 6 – A group of people started complaining because a small group of widows were being overlooked. People were extended so the Twelve decided to create a small group of seven to help with the issue. It was a simple task but it met a big need and oversight. This let them focus of the most important task – prayer and the ministry of the word.

You can continue to see this thread of mission throughout the book of Acts (Acts 13, 15, 16-17, 24).

Mission is sharing the good news of Christ’s love in word and deed. We must individually and together, reach beyond ourselves. Starting this January, we are going to give people an opportunity to be a part of a group that will mature together in the faith and minister in word and deed. Are you a part of a group that is mission oriented for Christ’s sake?

In order to follow the first Church's example, we are going to encourage people to be a part of a Discipleship Class and then breaking it down smaller into a Disciple Group. Each class could have several Disciple Groups in them. This will allow our classes to get larger while still keeping the smaller feel. It is going to be amazing to see these groups ignite with the passion of Christ.

This past Sunday was tremendous as we saw the church choir sing in the service. Unfortunately there were several who were not able to come because of the snow storm. This Sunday will be a great day. It is our Christmas Sunday Celebration. A special quartet will open up the service. You may remember this quartet from last year. Come and see the new song they will perform. Also, I keep forgetting to mention that I have done a tradition for 26 years in each church I have been in. All the men are encouraged to wear red socks. I will be wearing mine so join me as we bring in the Christmas Sunday with our red socks.

Come out tonight and enjoy a Christmas Concert at 7:00 p.m. It has become part of our celebration each year.

Joy in Jesus!

Pastor Mike

Four Essential Ingredients: Community

Community

We continue to look at the four essential ingredients for a thriving Christian life represented in Acts 2. This is where we see the very first church focused on the four ingredients necessary to grow together – nurture, worship, community, and mission. In order to grow as vibrant Christians, we need to make sure we place these as a priority in our faith journeys.

In Acts 2:42-47, it says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

You have probably heard the phrase, “We need each other.” From the very beginning of creation, God has put in all of us the need for others. To go a little deeper, we need people with whom we can feel close, with whom we can share, and we need it on a regular basis. Not just anyone. We need people who are followers of Jesus Christ to be in our inner circle. We cannot live out our relationship with Jesus Christ in isolation. There are times when we need pushed and times we need to push. There are times when we need challenged in our routine of going to corporate worship and kept accountable in our time of digging deep in the Word of God. We need others with whom to share personally and struggle over issues that are facing us in real time.

Building community takes more than a shared faith and common beliefs. It takes more than just coming to church weekly and sitting beside each other in worship. Community is devotion to another person or set of persons based on our joint experience of God at work in us. It is being intentional at placing others in our lives to process life in general. We are encouraged to spur one another on in the faith. If we just rely on seeing others on Sunday morning, then our spiritual journey will be lacking depth.

Christ has forgiven us. We are new creations in Christ when we are redeemed by His love and living in His fullness. Our identity is in Jesus and our relationships should be rooted in Him. Many have said that this Christian journey is learning how to get along with each other. None of us are perfect. We have simply believed in Christ’s forgiveness and lean on Him for our daily bread. By belonging to God’s Kingdom, we are free to risk ourselves in involvement with each other. This is where so many people miss out on God’s best.

If we are going to spend eternity in heaven together, why not begin to work on these relationships now? Being a part of God’s kingdom is about working through life’s trials and temptations together. I simply cannot go on my own path and expect to find wholeness. Part of wholeness is finding where I fit in the family of God. It is working through my fears and failures. It is learning to make conflicts a stepping stone and not an obstacle. Being open for the holiness of God to shine in all areas of my life is opening myself up to others, trusting God to protect my inner most being.

As our church continues working on providing tools for us to not be a Sunday-Morning-only church, ask the Lord to prepare you to go deeper and grow more in love with Him and His body. We are growing wider as a congregation. I am not talking about our weight. I am talking about the number of people who are attending our church. As we get bigger, we need to work on getting smaller so we do not lose the ability to grow deeper.

I really enjoyed the preschool and family Christmas musical on Sunday. They did an outstanding job. I will have to admit that some of the angels scared me a little. But after a few nightmares, I finally got over it (LOL). It was good to see so many people involved in the program. We are so blessed as a church. There are so many wonderful things going on. I always look forward to hearing the many stories of God’s hand at work in so many lives. God is on the move… We are continuing to get testimonies of how God used the seed money to bless someone. Keep the reports coming.

Our choir will be singing on Sunday and we will be bringing new members into the church. The Theme forSunday is, “Be Blessed.” We truly are…

Joy in Jesus!

Pastor Mike

Four Essential Ingredients: Worship

Worship

We continue to look at the four essential ingredients for a thriving Christian life represented in Acts 2. This is where we see the very first church focused on the four ingredients necessary to grow together – nurture, worship, community, and mission. In order to grow as vibrant Christians, we need to make sure we place these as a priority in our faith journeys.

In Acts 2:42-47, it says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

From the outside looking in, one could surmise that there are a lot of “oughts” in Christianity. We ought to love one another, we ought to be a community, we ought to witness, we ought to obey God. But the things that motivate a follower of Jesus Christ to be obedient, live in community with other believers, and witness is not a sense of “I ought” but rather a sense of “I want.” When we are motivated from the heart and not out of duty, we are enthusiastic in our approach.

When you read the New Testament, a natural result of worship is to "do church." In the book of Acts we see the experience of the resurrection bringing about worship and an enthusiastic zeal for God. The disciples devoted themselves to prayer after Jesus ascended to the Father. They were filled to completeness and could not hold in their worship.

In John 4 Jesus speaks to a Samaritan woman about worship. She seems eager for an abstract talk about theology, but Jesus brings the discussion down to a personal level. He emphasizes two things about worship. First, God is looking for worshipers (John 4:23). He has taken the initiative. He wants us to know Him more so He seeks us out. Second, God wants us to worship Him in spirit and truth. God is more concerned about our heart than He is how we do it. He sees the spirit with which we approach Him.

As a church, we want worship to permeate through all we do. If people are getting together as Disciple Groups, we want worship to be the central theme. If a Discipleship Class gathers, worshipping the Lord by bringing Him honor and glory ought to be the flavor of our time together. Experiencing the presence of God as we live a life of worship is the key.

I always enjoy coming together as a church on Sunday morning as we worship. Each Sunday is unique and I always come away encouraged and blessed. I am excited to see what God does through the seed money given out this past Sunday. We have been praying as to how God wants to meet a need through our faithfulness.

Don’t forget to come for Worship this Sunday at 9:15 a.m. We will not have Discipleship Classes. Following that service we will go to the Family Life Center (10:45 a.m.) for our Kinder Choir presentation, "The Best Gift of All," followed by the Family Musical “Bethlehem Bound.”

May you be like the Wiseman who sought Jesus out to worship Him. He is worthy of all of our praise and worship…

Joy in Jesus!

Pastor Mike